Kenya

Kenya
My reading companion of 17 years, Kenya

Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Writers' Digest Conference - August 2019

The Writers' Digest Conference held in New York City was a blast.
I'm a city person so I enjoyed walking around the city and seeing the sites. However, the fast pace of the conference was right in line with the pace of the city so there was little time to play in the city.

The conference offered an array of programs within the scope of the industry's realm.  There were sessions on Fiction and Non Fiction, Crafting, Publishing, Screenwriting and Platform Building.  When not attending a session there were also plenty of vendors on hand to answer questions regarding publishing, social media etc.

I enjoy writing short stories.  Editing Your  Short Stuff presented by Windy Lynn Harris was a must for me to attend.  She beautifully crafted a session explaining the hat you wear as a creative writer vs the hat you wear as an editor.  Her suggestion to "imagine that this piece was written by someone else." is good advice but harder that it appears.  I needed this session.  Thank you Windy Lynn Harris: https://windylynnharris.com/

Each session at the conference was timed for an hour and took place on the second floor of the Hilton Hotel in Midtown.  The hotel is close to Radio City Hall and not far from the Rockefeller Center  to give people an idea of where it was held in the city.  Lunch was on your own but there were several eating places close by that offered healthy as well as quick lunches.  My first choice was CafĂ© 53 which was across the street from the hotel.

After lunch on Friday my first session was How To Evoke Emotion in Every Scene given by Jordan Rosenfeld.  Under the category of fiction, this session was very helpful regarding crafting scenes that  hooks the reader into identifying/liking/understanding your character.  Her handout, The Character Cues, is helpful for building and revealing your character to the reader.

 The Panel of Debut Authors was a delight to attend.  The high energy and enthusiasm of the authors was fun to be around.  They gave me a better understanding of what to expect from the publishing world whether I'd go with a large publishing house, small press or e-book
publishing. 

Later I also attended a session with Keah Brown and her agent, Alex Slater.  At that session they talked more about the relationship between author and agent and the market for the memoir.  Excellent session.



There were so many intriguing sessions offered that it was hard to decide for some time slots which one to choose.  I wanted so much to listen to Jane Cleland's Openings That Kill It but I also wanted to do more character crafting.  I decided on Crafting Dynamic Characters by Heather Webb and it was a wise choice for me.   Her advise about bringing characters to life using secrets, contradictions, emotional triggers or defining moments was appreciated.  She talked quite a bit about the character arc and the different types of arcs.  It was all very beneficial.  Thank you Heather Webb: http://www.heatherwebbauthor.com/author/.

There were so many good presentations, but I need to talk about just one more before I wrap this up.

Using Prose Poetry & Flash Fiction to Improve Your Novel presented by Ran Walker was an amazing workshop.  It blew me away.  I chosed it on a whim mainly because I never thought about the connection before so I knew it would be new info.  The session was a delight.  Plus I learned of a new poetic structure that I had never run into before: Kwansaba.  Many of us in the class had not heard of that but we all participated in an exercise that turned out to be incredible.  I was surprised at what I did and then I listened to other's endeavors and I was amazed. Utterly amazed.  There were other give aways at this conference but that structure for me was the best.  Thank you Ran Walker: http://www.ranwalker.com/

Thanks to all for reading my post.


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