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March 03, 2008
Whidbey Island Writers Conference Wrap Up
Even though the weather wasn't a good match for her Mediterranean blood, my friend, Mary Nethery, couldn't get over the warmth radiating from the conference itself. This was my ninth conference (I think!) so the supportive and nurturing environment wasn't a surprise to me, but Mary's reactions were a good reminder that not all conferences have the same personality.
Mary, Ann Whitford Paul and I team-taught a pre-conference workshop and loved the energy of the writers in attendance. We saw some major break-throughs as the drafts that'd been brought to the workshop were worked over, I mean, revised a la techniques taught in the workshop. The three of us are sweethearts, but we did show some tough love -- I even confiscated one woman's manuscript and commanded her to rewrite her opening without looking at the draft. She was smaller than me so I prevailed but her work ultimately was the winner in our tussle. The rewrite brought a round of spontaneous applause.
On Friday, Mary and I co-presented a fireside chat on narrative non-fiction, which inspired several writers to explore this as possible genre for their own work. Saturday, the three of us donned our pretend editors' hats and led a first pages workshop. We heard that it was illuminating for attendees to hear our reactions to their work. One common problem was using those precious opening words to provide backstory, certain death to any hook.
We were kept awfully busy but I did sit in on a session led by Stephanie Kallos, author of Broken for You. One of my favorite bits of wisdom from her was the observation that not every day of rewriting is one in which you can go deep. Sometimes, all you can do is change a word or two. . .but that's still writing! That was so freeing and affirming to me, a person who is oft overtaken by latent Puritanical principles.
The session that had the biggest impact on me, however, was attended by the fewest folks, once again proving that it's quality, not quantity. I was invited to be part of a panel discussing how awards had changed our work. Fellow panelists included Bill Dietrich, Rhonda Pollero (aka Kelsey Roberts), Greg Atkinson, Lewis Carlino and Elizabeth George. What hit me after each person shared their story is that most of them -- myself included -- received an honor at a particularly low, tough time in their writing life.
So why was that important to me? It confirmed that no matter how many trophies might sit on a writer's shelf, they still struggle with getting words on paper, they still struggle with what it means to tell a story true. As my friend, Derek Munson, once said about writers: "It can't be Easy Street for our characters, so why should we expect it to be Easy Street for us?"
The lesson here? Keep the faith and keep writing.
Posted by kirby at March 3, 2008 11:12 AM