Friday Links

Happy Friday! Another busy week, though mostly busy in good ways, for which I’m grateful. It was also a good week for gathering links; I feel like I have some particular goodies in this Friday’s batch, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. It’s a nice balance of readerly to writerly, and there should be a little something for everyone.

I’m looking at a working weekend, but with a little luck I’ll be able to squeeze in a bit of personal reading time. What are your weekend plans? Enjoying spring weather? An outing with friends or family? Regardless of your schedule, I wish you some reading time as well, not to mention a bit of quality time with your writing. Happy weekend, and enjoy!

A New ‘Wrinkle in Time’ – A look at the recently discovered passage that was cut from the original manuscript of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel.

Six Tips for Improving Your Dialogue – Great advice from author Eileen Cook.

Publication Opportunities for Writers: May and June, 2015 – A list of places to submit your work in the next couple of months.

The Radical Vision of Toni Morrison – Wonderful profile of the award-winning author.

At the Biggest Writers Conference in the World – One writer’s experiences at the recent AWP conference.

Conference Bound

I’m off to San Antonio, Texas this week for the RWA National Conference, which means I’m writing this on the fly between loads of laundry and last minute tweaks to my meeting schedule. But I thought I’d leave you all with a few words of wisdom regarding conference attendance. Even if you’re not heading out to Texas, you might have some other conference on your radar, so here are a few quick, down-and-dirty tips to help you get the most of it.

Don’t over-schedule yourself. It’s tempting, when you see the array of offerings, to fill every time slot and set yourself running from room to room the entire length of the conference, but resist that temptation. Leave yourself a few small breaks to catch your breath, chat with a new acquaintance, or for an impromptu meeting with an agent or editor you might meet in a panel.

Do speak up and introduce yourself. Everyone at a conference is there to meet people and learn things, so get to know the person sitting next to you at lunch or in a workshop. And this includes agents and editors. Don’t interrupt them if they’re in the middle of speaking to someone, obviously, but do smile and chat and treat them like a fellow human being, whether or not you plan to pitch them something.

Pack layers. No matter what time of year you attend a conference, the chances are excellent that the weather outside and the temperature inside will differ, and indoor temperatures at conference facilities tend to vary greatly. Pack a sweater or light jacket to ward against aggressive air conditioning, and some lighter-weight shirts to combat excessive heating.

Watch your alcohol intake. Yes, writers spend time at the bar during conferences, but keep in mind you still want to maintain a somewhat professional demeanor. Plus, on the off chance the agent of your dreams asks you to pitch them, you’d hate to start slurring your words.

Have fun. It’s not all business, all the time. Conferences are a great opportunity to learn and network, but also to catch up with friends and make new ones. So enjoy!

Friday Links

Happy Friday! I am currently at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Canada, officially my last writers’ conference for the year (though not my last conference overall). This is a fabulous conference, and one I’ve been lucky enough to participate in several times. Not only do they have a wonderful schedule of programming for writers of all shapes and sizes and levels of experience, but they have a wonderful team of organizers who I always look forward to seeing again. If you’re attending, be sure to say hello. If not, you should consider attending next year or some time soon.

But you’re all here for links, and so without further ado… ways to procrastinate this weekend. Don’t forget to work a bit of writing into your days!

Johnny Depp to Launch Publishing Imprint After 18 Literary Films – I reserve my opinion on this until I see it in action, but that said, Depp certainly has proven to be interested in a wide range of great stories during his career. Should be interesting.

25 Things Writers Should Know about Conferences and Conventions – Chuck Wendig, so an entertaining read, all else aside. Not sure I agree with him on every point, but there’s a lot of sound advice. Worth a read.

Q&A on Copyright with an Attorney – A good overview. I hear a lot of these questions, so I’m sure there are more people out there not asking but still wondering.

On the Comfort of Bad Books – Looks at the “literary” versus “genre” argument from a slightly different angle. Interesting, regardless of your own position on the topic. Me? If it tells a story, I’ll give it a shot.

A Highbrow Halloween Reading List – Courtesy of Flavorwire. Not sure all of these are that highbrow, but it’s still a fun list, especially given the discussion regarding scary Halloween book recommendations from earlier this week.

Mini Conference Wrap-Up

I have returned from the craziness that is the RWA national conference, unpacked my bags, and sorted through e-mails. And slept. Quite a bit. Even lacking a long flight or jet lag this year, I came back worn out. Five full days of smiling, talking, schmoozing in general, plus high heels and cocktails and late nights, can take it out of you.

It was a good conference. I always enjoy catching up with clients and editors alike, plus seeing all those wonderful writers who are not my clients but have become friends over the years as we bump into each other at event after event. Whatever else they do regarding encouraging writers in their careers, RWA fosters a sense of community, and it’s always fun to submerge oneself in that for a few days.

Right now I have some major work reading on my plate, but I’ll be back later in the week with more on the conference, specifically regarding what seemed to be the main theme, at least for me. In the meantime, go get some writing done! If you’re looking for a little push, a new session of Camp Nanowrimo starts tomorrow.

Conference Bound

Tomorrow I head out for the Romance Writers of America national conference, an annual event that rotates locations. Last year we were in New York City. This year, we’re in Anaheim, CA. This means I do not have to fight with luggage limits or TSA. For once I can just pack my bags, throw them in the trunk of my car, and head on down to meet my fellow agents. I’m less than an hour’s drive from the land of the Mouse, and I’ll admit I’m pretty excited about it. I love traveling, but sometimes, you just want to go, do your thing, and leave.

So what do agents do at conferences? Obviously I have no need to sit in on the various workshops on creating kick-ass heroines or mastering the blog tour. How, precisely, do we fill our days?

One word for you: Meetings. Not just meetings, of course, but sometimes it feels like it. When I attend a conference of this size, I’ll meet with all of my clients who are present, to catch up, chat about business, discuss new story ideas, etc. And then I’ll meet with their editors who are attending the conference. I’ll also meet with other editors, both those I know but have yet to work with, and those I have not previously met.

The rest of the time is filled in with various conference events. I’ll take pitches — in this case for two hours on Friday afternoon. In some cases I present a workshop or two, though that’s not the case at this particular conference. Evenings are filled with client and co-worker dinners, plus cocktail parties thrown by the various publishers that allow you the chance to chat with any editors you didn’t pin down for a one-on-one. The RITA and Golden Heart Awards Ceremony wraps up the conference Saturday night, and I’m thrilled to have clients nominated in several categories.

What do agents do at conferences? We talk. Constantly. But then, we’re talking about books, and what better way to spend a conference?

Wishing you all a wonderful week. If you’re at the conference, be sure to wave.

Finding Your Writing Community

Last week I talked about the importance of finding a strong critique partner to help you in the process of honing your work. But beyond that, I think it’s vital to develop a writing community. By this I mean people with whom you can discuss writing in general and trade recommendations for fabulous books or conferences or writing programs, who will let you complain when your characters are misbehaving and who will cheer you on when you’re close to finishing a book. These folks won’t necessarily read your novel word for word and provide you with feedback, but they will provide you with the water-cooler chat that people find in a more traditional workplace. They can also share their own career experiences if they are ahead of you in the quest to publish.

Let’s face it: Writing can be a solitary, isolating occupation. You might have a day job with co-workers, and a family and friends to keep you sane, but they don’t necessarily get all that excited when you have a breakthrough over a troubling plot point. Nor are they going to commiserate when you hear your arch-nemesis has signed a three-book contract, at least not on the same level as a peer. But the world is full of people who will join you in the sort of discussion that makes you feel like a writer, even before you have your own shiny book deal.

There are plenty of places to find these sorts of partners in crime, both in the real world and online. The obvious choices are writing classes or programs, and organizations geared toward the type of writing you do, such as Sisters in Crime or Romance Writers of America. You can also check your local paper or library to see if there’s a local writers’ group that meets in your town or nearby, and see if they are open to new members. Online, you can find broader versions of the same organizations that hold regional meetings, and many have virtual chapters that meet in cyberspace.

However, don’t discount writers’ conferences. These can cost a bit more than some other options and require advance planning, but they can be well worth the effort. A writers’ conference offers a chance to meet fellow writers at all stages of their careers, including published authors who often present inspiring key note addresses, while also allowing you to attend panels and seminars, perhaps meet with an agent or editor, and puts you smack in the middle of plenty of writerly chat over the course of the conference. The one I attended this past weekend, for example, the San Francisco Writers Conference, was a sold-out event featuring more than 300 attendees and 100 presenters. If that size seems overwhelming, there are certainly smaller gatherings as well.The Shaw Guides website provides a listing of a broad range of conferences available each year.

A writing community helps to keep a writer focused and inspired. Of course, a writing community can also be a distraction if you allow it to swallow all of your free time, including that normally devoted to writing, but that’s true of anything in which you involve yourself. Overall, a community of fellow writers will allow you the support to continue in the face of rejection and the sense of belonging that can help you keep your eye on your goals.