Write Day-in Day-out: Four Inspiring Days at PNWA 2018 Writers Conference - Craft & Business of Writing + Speed Dating with Agents & Editors

Last week I attended the PNWA2018  Conference, four days of intense focus on the craft and business of writing. 

Author R.L. Stine had us in stitches

I didn't know a soul aside from PNWA's director Pam Binder, whom I've met a few times, and was happy to run into Michael Doud. We both attended a November 2017 Writers' Workshop in Pacific Grove, CA. Initially he worked with the workshop's director, but he joined Andrea Hurst's group. Michael was a finalist in the PNWA contest with the memoir he brought to Pacific Grove. On Saturday we learned he didn't win the contest, but going by the look on his face and his energetic pace he had a ball the whole time he was at the conference. Not in the last part because his memoir was finished. He carried the proof around like a pocket book (pun intended).

Donald Maass on Feelings 

A generous friend's donation allowed me to sign up for two master classes not included in the conference fee. Thus the four busy days were bookended by Donald Maass's Techniques of Timeless Storytelling on Thursday and Christopher Vogler's The Story Lives in You on Sunday.

Back at Pacific Grove, Andrea, wearing the hat of developmental editor, introduced me to The Writer's Journey. I wasn't a stranger to author Chris Vogler's source of inspiration, Joseph Cambell's oeuvre, but Vogler's adaption of Campbell's The Hero's Journey specifically for writers was a discovery. Taking his masterclass was a great way to end the conference. Vogler has internalized his material and is an engaging storyteller. Throughout, Vogler paid hommage to many others, of course Campbell, but also screenwriters and filmmakers, including the late Laura "Stand Up to Cancer" Ziskin (beloved, departed wife of screenwriter Alvin Sargent)—repeating her words that the world needs more stories with feeling. Vogler's slides and soundtrack added to the presentation and he wove important pointers for us writers throughout his narrative. 

Writers Speed Dating Agents and Editors

On Friday I pitched three books. Forgiveness, my Post-WWII novel, Stroke Me Like A Guitar, a memoir on electroconvulsive therapy and music, and on a whim Painting for Life, the biography of an early recipient of the Dutch government's Post-WWII utopian program that subsidized artists. After speed dating three different agents I called it a day. On Thursday I participated in a preparatory workshop with Jason "Writing Sensei" Brick. Six writers and the coach around the table listened to and critiqued one another's 60 second pitches. After my second try, Jason suggested I'd pitch with his wife Rachel Letofsky, which I did. She requested a query and 25 pages with the voices of my two main characters. This means I have my work cut out for me the coming months.
Chris Vogler's Master Class

Arriving home, husband, household, and Airbnb needed attention, but today, two days after the conference, I managed to continue working on my novel. The questions Donald Maass suggested we'd raise concerning  our characters' predicaments and convictions, really helped.

On Saturday, a PNWA staf member introduced me in the hotel lobby to an agent I hadn't addressed during the Pitch Block the previous day. The most important thing I took away from our chat is that I need to work on getting stories published in Literary Magazines. An agent I talked to at the Whidbey Island Writers Conference in 2003 told me the same, but I've just not been writing short stories so far. I'm set on sending stuff out though. I've got a plan.