Wiscon Panel Notes Part 2 of 3
Jun. 1st, 2009 10:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abracanabraI don't do a full run-down of everything said during the panels, just the highlights of what seemed most useful to me and thoughts they sparked. Panels in this post: Ask a Pro; Write Here!; The Obligatory Workshop Panel; and The Rules: Use or Abuse Them.
Ask a Pro
Most of the questions answered were ones that have been abundantly covered in writing newsletters or that could have the answers to them found in a short period of time with Google. This is also the panel on which I learned that if you have a question, you should ask it early. If you wait to be polite, they may end up answering enough of that "type" of question that they only take other types.
My brilliant question? I've heard that pitch sessions are a good way to find an agent or a recommendation to an agent that would like the sort of thing you're selling--what conferences offer agent pitch sessions that are friendly to genre writers? Sigh. I guess I'm sticking with Locus.
Technique: Try adding specific questions to define what you're looking for while workshopping--this will probably produce better critiques.
Write Here!
Fun but skippable. Seemed mostly populated by people who have tremendous difficulties finishing a story--the first three chapters of fifteen books, that sort of thing. As I mentioned earlier, I really should have remembered that I, on the other hand, am compulsive about finishing stories I've started.
Sunday I crashed hard. Somehow the alarm got turned off, and I missed all the panels in the morning that I'd wanted to attend. That really pissed me off. I *was* more rested for the rest of the con, though!
The Obligatory Workshop Panel
This was basically the Clarion panel, and it did in fact succeed in persuading me that I should try to go to Clarion if at all possible. It takes about $4,000 and 6 weeks, so the "if at all possible" is tricky, though it seems to be a case of, "If you're accepted, the money will appear." Because of the 6 weeks, people tend to go when they hit liminal states (divorce, job loss, moving). From what they said, it seems that you expend gold pieces and time to gain XP equivalent to the XP you would gain in 5 years as a writer, allowing you to level up to "semi-pro/pro writer" early. It is geared primarily towards short story writers; people who only write novels may not get as much from it.
Myths dispelled: Clarion will not make you write like everybody else at Clarion; you will not be forcibly converted to Scientology at the Writers of the Future Workshop.
When submitting, be sure to submit recent work. It may be critted in the beginning, and will be held as an example of your current writing style.
One of the Clarions may actually give you college credit.
Ways to pay:
* Grants are available for those with sob stories.
* Even just saying on the internet that you got in but are $X short and need help will probably do the trick, especially if you promise to pay it forward.
* There are scholarships.
* Various local organizations (alas, unnamed) will support people going to Clarion.
Recommended workshops: Clarion East/West, Writers of the Future Workshop*, CSSF Workshops, Odyssey (their podcasts are amazing), Master Class (see Master Writing Class comment below), Viable Paradise, Orson Scott Card's Boot Camp for Writers.
General advice for picking a workshop: Don't pick one that's close enough that you'll be tempted to spend time away. It destroys the experience.
The Rules: Use or Abuse Them
I was relieved that this was about breaking style rules, not grammar ones!
Do keep an eye out for -ly adverbs as you revise, but you don't need to kill them all. Think of them like post-it notes reminding you to put in a subtler phrase if you can think of it and the extra explanation/impact is still needed.
When it comes to the mood/tone of a story, start out even, go as low as you can get, and end higher than even. Think of it like a chart with mood as the y-axis and story as the x-axis, with a line that zigs down and then shoots up to plateau at a higher point.
In "Telling vs Showing," "Telling" is actually quite useful, but use it with care. It's good for compressing time, highlighting absurdity, or necessary distancing. It may also be the "sorbet between courses" to give readers a break from emotionally intense scenes.
Rules really boil down to, "Is it an effective technique for communicating what you want to communicate?"
Feeling like you should write only for publication will stalemate and dead-end writing. This is a journeyman pitfall. Do writing exercises, do write scenes from alternate perspectives or in different tenses, etc. to see what works. Do try to find ways to stretch yourself.
Technique: Short paragraphs, shorter sentences, and sentence fragments can work well to reflect the character's state of mind.
Steven King does an excellent job of portraying what he knows--real world--so authentically that readers believe it when reality becomes twisted and awful.
Recommended reading: "Steering the Craft" - Ursula LeGuin
Ask a Pro
Most of the questions answered were ones that have been abundantly covered in writing newsletters or that could have the answers to them found in a short period of time with Google. This is also the panel on which I learned that if you have a question, you should ask it early. If you wait to be polite, they may end up answering enough of that "type" of question that they only take other types.
My brilliant question? I've heard that pitch sessions are a good way to find an agent or a recommendation to an agent that would like the sort of thing you're selling--what conferences offer agent pitch sessions that are friendly to genre writers? Sigh. I guess I'm sticking with Locus.
Technique: Try adding specific questions to define what you're looking for while workshopping--this will probably produce better critiques.
Write Here!
Fun but skippable. Seemed mostly populated by people who have tremendous difficulties finishing a story--the first three chapters of fifteen books, that sort of thing. As I mentioned earlier, I really should have remembered that I, on the other hand, am compulsive about finishing stories I've started.
Sunday I crashed hard. Somehow the alarm got turned off, and I missed all the panels in the morning that I'd wanted to attend. That really pissed me off. I *was* more rested for the rest of the con, though!
The Obligatory Workshop Panel
This was basically the Clarion panel, and it did in fact succeed in persuading me that I should try to go to Clarion if at all possible. It takes about $4,000 and 6 weeks, so the "if at all possible" is tricky, though it seems to be a case of, "If you're accepted, the money will appear." Because of the 6 weeks, people tend to go when they hit liminal states (divorce, job loss, moving). From what they said, it seems that you expend gold pieces and time to gain XP equivalent to the XP you would gain in 5 years as a writer, allowing you to level up to "semi-pro/pro writer" early. It is geared primarily towards short story writers; people who only write novels may not get as much from it.
Myths dispelled: Clarion will not make you write like everybody else at Clarion; you will not be forcibly converted to Scientology at the Writers of the Future Workshop.
When submitting, be sure to submit recent work. It may be critted in the beginning, and will be held as an example of your current writing style.
One of the Clarions may actually give you college credit.
Ways to pay:
* Grants are available for those with sob stories.
* Even just saying on the internet that you got in but are $X short and need help will probably do the trick, especially if you promise to pay it forward.
* There are scholarships.
* Various local organizations (alas, unnamed) will support people going to Clarion.
Recommended workshops: Clarion East/West, Writers of the Future Workshop*, CSSF Workshops, Odyssey (their podcasts are amazing), Master Class (see Master Writing Class comment below), Viable Paradise, Orson Scott Card's Boot Camp for Writers.
General advice for picking a workshop: Don't pick one that's close enough that you'll be tempted to spend time away. It destroys the experience.
The Rules: Use or Abuse Them
I was relieved that this was about breaking style rules, not grammar ones!
Do keep an eye out for -ly adverbs as you revise, but you don't need to kill them all. Think of them like post-it notes reminding you to put in a subtler phrase if you can think of it and the extra explanation/impact is still needed.
When it comes to the mood/tone of a story, start out even, go as low as you can get, and end higher than even. Think of it like a chart with mood as the y-axis and story as the x-axis, with a line that zigs down and then shoots up to plateau at a higher point.
In "Telling vs Showing," "Telling" is actually quite useful, but use it with care. It's good for compressing time, highlighting absurdity, or necessary distancing. It may also be the "sorbet between courses" to give readers a break from emotionally intense scenes.
Rules really boil down to, "Is it an effective technique for communicating what you want to communicate?"
Feeling like you should write only for publication will stalemate and dead-end writing. This is a journeyman pitfall. Do writing exercises, do write scenes from alternate perspectives or in different tenses, etc. to see what works. Do try to find ways to stretch yourself.
Technique: Short paragraphs, shorter sentences, and sentence fragments can work well to reflect the character's state of mind.
Steven King does an excellent job of portraying what he knows--real world--so authentically that readers believe it when reality becomes twisted and awful.
Recommended reading: "Steering the Craft" - Ursula LeGuin
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Re: Master Writing Class
Date: 2009-06-02 07:08 pm (UTC)