Fall Conference 2004
Fall Conference 2004 was held in Research Triangle Park, NC, at the
Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center. The conference is over, but we have
left this conference information on the site so that you can refer to it as a model
of what our Fall Conference is like.
Session I Classes
Saturday, October 30, 9:00-10:30 am
FICTION - Talk is Cheap, Dialogue is Art, with Darnell Arnoult
What is dialogue? What purposes does it serve in fiction? What are
the common pitfalls of writing dialogue for beginning writers? How do
you create a character's voice? How do you create that all-important
illusion of conversation in a scene? These basic questions will be
answered in this hands-on workshop for beginning fiction writers, or
writers who need to brush up on the principles of having characters
speak.
FICTION - The Single Effect: Writing Short Fiction, with Quinn Dalton
Poe spoke of the need for the short story to result in a "single
effect" created by every word, every phrase of the work. Through
discussion and in-class writing exercises, this class will focus working
with the elements fiction--point of view, setting, scene development and
plot--within the short story form.
FICTION/SCREENWRITING - From Page to Screen: Two Writers' Adventures in Adaptation, with Daniel Wallace (Big Fish) and Sarah Dessen (How to Deal)
We will present scenes from their beginnings-as ideas-and watch them
take their places in books, and finally see them interpreted on the
screen. Exploring and understanding this process illuminates the
creative tasks of not just one but of many people. And it's a lot of fun
to see work go to Hollywood.
POETRY - Finding the Visceral: How to Sharpen Your Poetry, with Pam Bernard
Ever wondered why certain poems you read seem to reach off the page
and touch your arm, or make your stomach jump? For me, these poems seem
to alter the arrangement of my molecules in some inexplicable way, and
they do that every time I read them. The opposite might be a beautiful,
perhaps even well-crafted poem that remains enclosed and silent and far
away -- a jewel we can't touch or feel. In this class we'll look at the
ways to make our poems jump off the page and get under the skin. Bring a
sample poem to class.
NONFICTION - Discovering Authentic Voice in Memoir, with Sebastian Matthews
Annie Dillard, in The Writing Life, urges us not to become the
boorish drunk in the bar who holds the listener hostage with our sob
story. This is particularly important in the writing of memoir, a form
that combines personal histories with necessary fictions. Taking as
examples the openings of a number of contemporary memoirs, we will
discuss the possibilities for creating "authentic voice" and explore a
variety of techniques used in establishing the vantage points from which
the first person narrator can speak. The workshop will include writing
exercises.
CHILDREN'S - Kid Lit 101: Writing the Middle Grade Novel, with Frances O'Roark Dowell
Writing a children's novel isn't much different from writing one for
adults-it takes months, maybe years, of hard work, countless revisions,
and the ability to take loads of rejection. You also need to remember
exactly what your elementary school cafeteria smelled like on rainy days
and how panic gripped your guts whenever you had to get weighed in P.E.
In this session we'll talk about how to create stories about childhood
that kids will read and read again.
PLAYWRITING - Start at the Beginning and Get Your Script Produced, with Ann Marie Oliva
Don't just sit there! Find "out of the box" ways to get your scripts
produced when theatres are not exactly breaking down your door. Writing
the script may be the easiest part. Then comes the marketing and selling
which is what most writers dread. If you take a business-like, organized
approach you can be more objective about where your work can be
produced. Think about the market you are writing for; what venue is best
for your work, how you can explore opportunities you might not have
thought otherwise available to you-and most important, keep your sanity
and sense of humor.
EDITING - The Nuts and Bolts of Literary Editing, with Shannon Ravenel
This class will be a survey of what a publisher's editor does on a
daily basis: dealing with unsolicited manuscripts, soliciting
manuscripts from agents and writers, editing, preparing manuscripts for
press, and selling acquired books first to those who will market them
and then to those who will buy them.
MARKETING - Making the Perfect Pitch, with Katharine Sands
Pitchcraft is a necessary skill for writers who want to succeed. A
writer can have the wisdom of Frank McCourt, the imagination of J.K.
Rowling and the economy of Ernest Hemingway - but still needs to be able
to pitch, query and propose before getting published. This lecture will
tell you how. It offers sage advice and real-world savvy drawn from
Sands's interviews with 35 top agents in the field who have represented
countless best-selling, big-name authors - and turned away many
thousands of writers who didn't know how to pitch. This event is for
every writer who wants to have the best shot at getting through the
well-guarded door to success.
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