Karen Sandler

Tag: writing craft

  • What Should a Writer’s Conference Be?

    NY Street2sHaving just returned from the SCBWI winter conference in NY, I started pondering what the best format for an annual writer’s conference should be. Then it occurred to me that there may not be a “best.” Partly because the attendees are always at different stages in their careers:

    • thinking about becoming an author
    • starting a first book
    • crying out to the gods as they battle with a saggy middle
    • in the middle of revisions with a finished book
    • querying agents/editors with a polished book
    • agents/editors are requesting (yay!)
    • first sale!
    • multi-sales
    • a legend in the business

    There might be some other stages, but this covers a goodly portion. The thing is, each of these authors/writers require something different from a conference. For the first several stages, workshops on craft (plotting, characterization, beginnings, middles, and ends, turning points, dark moments, using compelling language, cutting out the fat, etc) are ideal. The hands-on type are especially useful, where the writers can walk out with something they created during a workshop. They also need inspiration from published authors, whether the old hands or the ones celebrating their first sale.

    As we get into the group with a truly polished manuscript, workshops on query letters would be great, as well as that all important opportunity to meet agents/editors and get an invitation to submit. The chance to find out what editor is looking for what is invaluable for someone with a manuscript ready to go. The craft workshops are probably still valuable for those in this category.

    Those craft workshops might also be useful for those who have made a first sale. From experience, writing one salable book and getting a contract for it does not mean the writer knows everything there is to know about writing. Some tips on how to continually improve are welcome. After all, you have to sell that second and subsequent books.

    For multi-published authors, a view into trends is somewhat useful, although we all know we shouldn’t write to trends. Workshops on the business side of things–contracts, tax issues, avoiding burnout, etc.–are more welcome than how to write a compelling character. It’s not so much that a multi-published author knows everything, but that the most commonly presented material in craft workshops these folks have already heard again and again. In fact, they could present those workshops.

    As to the legends, they would be giving those inspiring keynotes. They might not want to wade into the masses every day of the conference (too exhausting), but sometimes it’s really nice to just be with people who understand you, so I would think that would be a draw for the legendary authors amongst us.

    The organization that I think does the best job of presenting a well-rounded conference, one that covers the most stages of a writer’s career, is Romance Writers of America. They do a real whizbang job of it. It’s fairly expensive, especially if you’re not a member, and some of the workshops will be romance-specific. But there are plenty that are generic enough any genre could get value from them.

    So, what do you think? What would your ideal conference be like?

  • Kill Your Darlings

    When William Faulkner said, “Kill your darlings,” the darlings he referred to were those elegantly composed sections of prose you adore beyond reason. They do nothing for the story, they stick out like garish jewels on an otherwise humble hand, and they must be killed (i.e., deleted). It’s difficult to say goodbye to those intricate metaphors and precious phrasing, but they have no business being in your manuscript. Sorry, gotta go.

    There are other kinds of problem children that we sometimes insert into our prose, that also have a bad influence on our work.  For instance, words we have a compulsion to use often and liberally (redundantly even) in our books. Punctuation we have a special affection for. Turns of phrase we throw in at every opportunity.

    Since confession is good for the soul, I’ll reveal mine here. I love em dashes. You know what they are–those long dashes that break up two clauses. When I do a final edit of my book, I search for all the em dashes and in most cases, I can either replace them with a comma, or separate the two clauses into two sentences. I also have a particular fondness for ellipses (also ruthlessly squelched), and am a recovering semi-colon-aholic. In the word choice department, adverbs are my bad actors. Really.

    In other authors’ work, I’ve seen overuse of the word mumble (a very useful word that loses its power when utilized too often), nervous characters chewing their lips so often it’s surprising their mouth is not in shreds, and the italic overload (IMO, italics are hard on the eyes and should be used sparingly). The exclamation point is also a travesty, although its overuse seems to be limited to newbies.

    The nice thing about all these pecadillos that creep into our writing is that once we recognize the problem, we can fix it on that final edit. I’ve acknowledged to myself that em dashes and ellipses are part of my process, how I get the words down on the page. I know I can take them out later, but in the draft process it works best to just let myself put them in. Same for my adverbosity. I’ll trim those back in a later draft.

    So what are your problem children? Metaphors you overuse, that character action you repeat ten times too many in your manuscript? Feel free to share.