Sunday, December 9, 2007

More Impressions on the Conference

I told you about Pat Davis, writer originally from Brevard, who lives in Pennsylvania now. Pat was nice enough to send me her views on the NCWN Fall Writers Conference in Winston-Salem. Pat writes fiction and was there to pitch her novel to an agent or publisher. She attended classes pertaining to her craft. So it is nice to hear her thoughts. This is what Pat Davis said:

I thought "Pitching" was good because it applied to writing queries (which I guess everybody has to do) as well as verbal pitches. I think the most helpful time was "Setting the Scene" since it dealt with the opening paragraphs/pages of writing a manuscript. "Children's..." was interesting (good info and presenters) as was Robert Morgan. I personally liked the ones that were taught like college-level classes.

...The woman who taught the"Setting the Scene" class was well-organized and prepared. She really taught like it was a college class. She had good examples and cited other examplesof good dialogue, POV, making the setting alive and real, etc.The three women who taught the "Children's.." covered the gamut of writing for children, illustrations, publications from the group. Robert Morgan went into depth about the process of research, etc. He's interesting so it was a pleasant hour and half. I like hearing what knowledgeable people have to say. As you know, I didn't like the speed writing class - I much prefer somebody teaching me something I can use.

Pat has been rewriting her first chapter since Bess Reed critiqued her work at the conference.