Building a Solid Weekend – How to Get the Most out of Your Conference Experience Part 4

This is the last entry in my series on Building a Solid Weekend. These blogs have not been meant as a strict curriculum for your conference experience. Rather, I hope I’ve provided you with some guidance on how to structure your time at the conference.

The sessions below are a combination of how to get your manuscript noticed and writing options you may not have considered.

For those of you who are looking for more choices in their writing life, this is for you. We have sessions on how what you already know might turn into a paying writing assignment.

If you’re ready to send your manuscript in to an editor or agent, we have some of the best in the industry to help guide your efforts at query letters as well as sessions on what editors and agents are looking for from new authors.

Above all, we're looking forward to seeing you in Myrtle Beach in October!

Branching Out – Something for every writer

Friday 9:00 –

(1) Know Your Audience: Writing Articles for Magazines, Newspapers and

Websites – Chuck Sambuchino

(2) The Business of Publishing – Jessica Regel

Friday 1:30 –

(1) Being An Expert Pays: Turning Your Expertise Into a Writing

Career – Matthew Frederick

(2) Avoid the Slush: Everything You Need to Know About Agents Before You

Write That Query Letter – Chuck Sambuchino

(3) Nuts and Bolts: Deadlines, Word Counts and Other Things That Drive Us Nuts and Make Us Want to Bolt – David B. Coe

Saturday 9:00 –

(1) Making it to Print (of Sorts): What Does It Take to Get a Review (And Other Media Attention)? – Bill Starr

(2) SLUSH FEST: Literary and Upmarket Fiction – Jon Sternfeld and Stephanie Sun

Saturday 10:30 –

(1) SLUSH FEST: Young Adult & Children’s Titles – Alyssa Henkin and Molly O’Neill

(2) From Employee to Expert: How to Turn Your Job Into a Book – Matthew Frederick

Saturday 1:30 –

(1) Running Away from Home for Profit: Learning the Tricks of Travel Writing – Bill Starr

(2) SLUSH FEST: Science Fiction and Fantasy – Eddie Schneider and James Frenkel

Saturday 3:00 –

(1) Imaginary Worlds: The Differences Agents Consider Between Young Adult and Adult Fiction – Sarah LaPolla

(2) What Editors Want: Professional Writing Practices – Chuck Sambuchino

(3) It’s All in Your Head: How to Get Across High Concepts in a Query – Jon Sterfeld

(4) SLUSH FEST: Mystery and Thriller – Sorche Fairbank and Toni Plummer

(5) I’m Published – Now What? – Bill Starr

Sunday 9:30 –

(1) Out of this World: An Inside Look & Tips of What It Takes to Get a Science Fiction or Fantasy Agent – Eddie Schneider

(2) SLUSH FEST: Romance and Women’s Fiction – Melissa Jeglinski and Jessica Regel

(3) SLUSH FEST: Memoir and Narrative Non-Fiction – Stephen Barr and Bernadette Baker-Baughman

(4) Panel: Agent Vs. Writer (Who’s An Editor) – Sorche Fairbank and Chuck Sambuchino

Building a Solid Weekend - Part 3

Today I spent a few hours rethinking a plot point of my current project. I should confess that I’ve actually been working on things for this manuscript for several months. Come to think of it, I’ve been reconsidering portions of a book I wrote six years ago.

Maybe you have some of the same issues. You’re almost done and yet you aren’t because there’s one more thing you want to fix. That one more thing turns into two, then three, then … Well you get the idea.

What to do? What to do? Rewrite, rewrite and rewrite again. Then? Edit, edit and edit some more.

But you protest, "I was done with it. I even wrote THE END."

That's fine, and you did write it in all caps so we'd know you really were done. There is one point I would make though, it can't hurt to go over your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb.

"No one goes through all of that!" You grumble. "I catch mistakes in printed books all the time."

So do I, but then again, we all make mistakes. That's why pencils have erasers and computers have a DELETE key.

A writer friend told me about a published author she’d recently heard interviewed. The author confessed that she edited her manuscripts more than fifty times before she was satisfied that they were as polished as they could be.

My friend and I chuckled at the thought of going through our manuscripts that many times before we submitted them. Then we both realized that that author had something neither of us had: published books.

I don’t know if a manuscript requires more than fifty edits, but every manuscript could use some rewriting and perhaps a little editing even when you’re convinced it’s finished.

Most of the sessions I highlight here are designed to give you the tools necessary to get your manuscript into its best form. And once it's in tip-top shape, the rest of these sessions are all about submitting your project to an editor or agent for potential representation.

Look these over and plan on showing up to at least one of them, your manuscript and writing career will benefit.

You’re Done (at least with the 1^st draft)! Now What?

Friday 9:00 –

(1) Editing Isn’t for Kids: The Young Adult/Children’s Markets from an Editing Point of View – Molly O’Neill

(2) Am I Done Now?: Editing from the First Paragraph to the Last Period – Carrie McCullough

Friday 1:30 –

(1) That’s Different … Get Positive Attention from Editors and What Will

Hurt! – James Frenkel

Saturday 9:00 –

(1) Courting a Query: Tips to Catch an Agent – Melissa Jeglinski

Saturday 10:30 –

(1) Case Solved: Finding Ways to Grab a Mystery Editor’s Eye – Toni Plummer

Saturday 1:30 –

(1) Not Kids’ Games: Making Your Young Adult and Children’s Manuscripts Editor-Ready Works – Molly O’Neill

(2) A Little Verb, A Little Noun: Creating A Synposis That Sells – Stephanie Sun

Building a Solid Weekend – How to Get the Most out of Your Conference Experience - Part 1

These days I find that I’m often thinking about the conference. And lately I’ve been thinking about what some of our attendees will be doing all weekend. Conference veterans will be reconnecting with old friends, waiting impatiently for their critique or pitch and hoping to find a bit of inspiration along the shore of the Atlantic. You’re also likely to be looking for a bit of wisdom from one or several of our faculty members. This series of articles is for you.

If you’re new to writing and even conferences you may be feeling overwhelmed by all the options in front of you. You’re weekend may be a blur of information and opportunities. It’ll be over before you know it and you’re going to wish you’d planned the time a little better. This series of articles is also for you.

I’m here to help. No, really I am. It can be a bit overwhelming and I would hate for you to miss out on something because you’re not sure what to expect from a particular class. Of course, we want you to have a great time and learn as much as you can.

This is the first blog I’ll post on the topic of how to get the most out of your weekend in Myrtle Beach. The list below is all about the beginning. Facing down that blank screen or blank page may be a little less scary after you’ve sat in on one of the following sessions:

Just Getting Started

Friday 9:00 –

Seeing and Hearing is Creating: Character and Plot Development Using Point of View and Voice – David B. Coe

Saturday 9:00 –

(1) It’s Not Just the Story: Learning Ways to Tell the Backstory to Your Characters – Lisa Tucker

(2) It Really Happened: What Agents Expect in Your Non-Fiction Proposal – Stephen Barr

Saturday 1:30 –

Using Your Head to Touch Hearts: Crafting Gripping Scenes – Lisa Tucker

Saturday 3:00 –

Don’t Forget the Details: Developing Fantasy Settings and Magic Systems – David B. Coe

Sunday 9:30 –

Narrative Strategy: How Important is the Opening of a Manuscript? – James Frenkel