My Journal #2

Writers Conference 8/2-3-Following....

This was an amazing two days. It's the first real writers conference I've ever been to. To see, talk to and meet published, and notable authors was amazing.  To see other authors flagrantly, self-promoting was fun and inspirational.

On a whim, Saturday morning I pitched my novel to a film agent!. Really! with very little prep and just the idea that others thought it would make a great movie, I did it.  I wasn't nervous because the outcome didn't make a difference to my work being published. That was an accomplishment in itself. I was just excited to hear a response. I didn't have any expectations so there was no need to be nervous.

Tai Duncan was a wonderful man who put me at ease and right up front told me that drama movies were usually only made from successful books, but he wanted to hear about my story anyway.  After giving my pitch, he asked a few questions and said the thought the concept was very interesting. He asked me to contact him when the book was released and took my information (I don't have cards yet but will be making that happen pronto!)

Larry Brooks  (www.storyfix.com) was a wonderful teacher of story structure. His Story:101 class fell a bit short as his computer is (10 yrs) old and kept timing out. For someone with his expertise, I would have thought he'd invest in a reliable laptop or tablet and know how to work the projector a little more. His basic premise was familiar to me as its what I've learned here on Wdc. He fumbled a lot but one thing stuck with me. When you ask a person what is their story about, they will ramble on, but what they have is an Biography of a fictional character. In a lot of cases this is true. Let me give you a great example.
Just after I walked out of that class we went to lunch. A woman sat next to me and we talked. She said she was going to pitch her book to an agent. I said, "OK, tell me your pitch."
"Its about a man who has been downsized in his job and buys a fixer-up house on the Columbia River. His wife is upset that he doesn't have any interest in seeking more work and it causes contention. He has interaction with his new tenants and meets an older concrete mason that teaches him about repairing his foundation."  {I held back the Yawn} I asked my basic review questions.
1) What is the man's main goal in this story? None, its just about his journey through this time in his life and fixing the house and his relationships.
2) How does he change from the beginning to the end? Does he learn anything or make any changes in his life? No
I had an epiphany! This was exactly what Larry was talking about. She had no Goal, Motivation or Conflict AT ALL. I made some gentle suggestions that the conflict could be with the wife. That her needs were not being met with his lack of vision. I told her that women need financial security what he was no longer providing. That he wasn't meeting her needs with emotional support and encouragement. She hadn't addressed his needs. Why didn't he want to get a job and provide for his family which is necessary to a man's well being. Did he see his house as his castle and she wasn't fulfilling that need? How did he feel emotionally about his wife?
All these things would certainly make the story more interesting. I think she was married to her story and wasn't going to change it even when she said one Agent told her to make the wife a more prominent Character. I saw her the next day waiting for her turn to pitch. I don' t think anyone would want to read a "Biography of a Fictional Character." Boring!

Story 202: He got the computer synced and it was working fine. He was a great teacher and gave loads of information that was pretty easy to follow.
He broke writing a story down into easy to understand chunks with lots of examples you can go home and watch. He tells you to go watch the Hunger Games, get your stop watch out and test his theory. It works.  He explained that THE HELP was rejected 46 times before it was picked up. She must have edited and changed and what was finally written followed the process that he laid out. Did she read his book? No. She is an instinctive writer and through the editing process ended up doing what he tells new writers to do.
Diana Gabaldon was the Key Note speaker at the Gala dinner. He repeated from an article interview that when she starts she doesn't know how the story will end.  What she doesn't tell you is the first time though is pretty rough and with each draft she instinctively knows where to put the first Plot Point and to increase conflict. Then by the time she's edited it for the final draft which could be 5 or 6 or 10 drafts later she has a complete novel. 
Its a harder way to write a novel. If you follow instruction, much like you would get from the"experts" here on Writing.com, you will get to bypass all that hard work of editing by planning the novel a bit at the beginning so you have a small skeleton to begin to hang your story on.

The other class I almost DIDN'T take was on designing covers. We all have a view of what we want our covers to say to the reader. BUT He said the cover should tell the reader the genre or entice them before they turn to the back. The more I listened the more I knew my cover didn't fit that criteria. Mine was sweet and kitschy not something that would get the reader to turn it over. Maybe a few people but not enough!  I got home and went to the websites he gave us and began to look for a photo I thought would fit what I needed. After getting a few and a few ideas for my publisher I emailed them all to her with an explanation, Saturday night. I've yet to hear from her. 
I think my new idea will be a much better one to grab the browsers interest.  He said he'd even critique or redo free if we sent him what we had.
I picked a Gazebo in a park/ a couple of small town street scenes. I told her I wanted them photo-shopped to have a white and grey look with very little color. Maybe a flag on a beam in color. Then the figure of a women, either in black blurry silhouette or a real figure of a woman fading or ghost like.  I changed the font and title lay out and will have my name Christina and Weaver spaced to fill the area under my first name to make a block like look.  I'm sure this will be a better look.

I sat in a class on writing setting. Hallie Ephron is a wonderful speaker and has a lot of interesting ideas. She picked 4 people to read a setting from their MS. They were great and interesting. One I would love to read as the first line intrigued me.  "The day MC fished the trunk out of the Mississippi river would be......" I can't remember the rest of that sentence but what came after as she began to describe the  archaeological group poking in the muddy banks looking for bits of stuff left from the storm. She went on to include skeletons, metal, glass and what not.  The writer gave the reader a very visual description of what was going on. 

I plan on going again next year and then going to Wordstock Festival. I hope to have a booth selling a stack of my books

Tell us about something you follow.

What can I say I read Writing.com every day(almost) I follow my Facebook account and now and again Twitter (I'm still trying to figure out how to get around it)
On the TV side I have begun to follow GRIMM and I watch CSI and NCIS. That's pretty much it. If I'm not writing I'm just hanging out. My days are pretty busy with things right now.