A Tale of Two Writing Conferences

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Every August I attend When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers here in my home city of Calgary. I don't need to travel far. The weekend festival takes place at a hotel a fifteen walk from my home. In February, I travelled farther, to Lethbridge, a two-hour drive south of Calgary, to take part in Wordbridge, Lethbridge's first writers' conference.

Since the Lethbridge panels were only scheduled for Saturday, I initially planned to make it a day trip. But the conference also included keynote speakers at a snack and chat in the evening. To take full advantage of the event, I decided to stay overnight. My husband Will agreed to go with me and spend the day and evening walking outside if the weather was nice, reading, playing computer games and watching TV. We booked a motel room not far from the downtown venue using our credit card points.        

Me in Lethbridge, Sept 2015 - The coulee park in downtown Lethbridge is a cool place to walk

The weekend turned out to be brutally cold. Will spent most of Saturday inside with his computer, while I stayed warm inside the Lethbridge library. 

At the conference, I sat on an editing panel and shared my experiences of working with editors. One of my tidbits of advice was to suggest that writers early in the process of a writing a book get a manuscript evaluation, which can provide insight into a story's larger issues that will need to be solved before an expensive edit. The Writers' Guild of Alberta offers this service to members for a reasonable price. I might take advantage of it for my next novel. 

Panel on Working With an Editor 

  
Seventy-eight people attended the Lethbridge conference. We met together in a basement room in the central library for panels that took place on the hour. I enjoyed the intimate atmosphere. The organizers were so pleased with Wordbridge's success that they have already scheduled a second conference for Feb 7-8, 2020, adding a day of pre-conference activities and another room for two tracks of panels.

Wordbridge attendees at a panel

Wordbridge still has a long away to go to match the activity of Calgary's When Words Collide, which anticipates 800 attendees this summer and 10 tracks of panels, presentations, blue pencil cafes, pitch sessions and more, over a three day period. I expect to participate in a few panels and spend a lot of time in the Merchants' Room helping with the BWL book sale table.  

Nancy Bell and Jude Pittman at 2017 When Words Collide

But it's not a competition between Lethbridge and Calgary. Wordbridge and When Words Collide complement each other. I'm sure this is why the Lethbridge organizers scheduled their conference for the dead of February, the opposite time of year of August's When Words Collide. A writer friend suggested that we go to Wordbridge next year with a few other writers and make it a girls' getaway weekend. That sounds like fun, especially if next February is a tad warmer than it was this year. 

Downtown Lethbridge in winter

When Has a Series Run Its Course? by Karla Stover

For Details and Purchase Information Visit Karla Stover's BWL Author Page

Let me preface this by saying it's an opinion piece. Others, and I hope they weight in, will have different ideas but as a writer, I'm always evaluating what I read and why I like or weary of something.

Let the comments begin.

I was sad when Sue Grafton died because after 25 books, I never got tired of her protagonist, Kinsey Milhoune. However, the Stephanie Plum books quickly wore thin. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the Flavia de Luce books but no longer care for the Maise Dobbs books. Why, or is it just me?

As I write, I've been puzzling over the issue of "when is it time to retire your protagonist?"

Let's consider the above using the 3-legged stool of writing, allotting 1/3 each to Place, Plot, and Protagonist.

In my humble opinion, Grafton did a good job, creating clever, believable plots, varying the locations enough to be interesting, but keeping Kinsey as an interesting working woman without too many changes to her life, friends, or personality. I'd say her books were, maybe, 40%, 40%, and 20% respectively.

On the other hand, the Evanovich books are weighted heavily toward Stephanie and her cohorts, almost 75%, none of who seem to learn and grow. I rarely have a sense of place, maybe 15%, and that leaves 10% for plot. After all 25 Stephanie Plum books, she should have been able to make up her mind between the Italian cop, Joe Morelli (played in the really awful movie by Irish-American actor Jason O"Mara )  and the bounty hunter, Ranger. Or, maybe she has. After book five, I just couldn't keep reading what was essentially the same story told in different words. To the author's credit, farces are to keep fresh.

I've read nine of the ten Flavia de Luce books and she is a delightful little girl. Yes, that's right, a little girl, 12, I think. She's kind, sensitive, and inquisitive. Flavia's hobby is experimenting in her deceased uncle's laboratory so science plays into the stories. I like the books because she grows just enough, has changes in her circumstances that are appropriate, and is likeable. Also, who doesn't love an
English countryside setting?

Which brings me to Maisie Dobbs. When Maisie, the groom's daughter, married the son of Lord and Lady Crompton and became titled and very rich, my interest in her experiences died. It seemed like a copout. Also, in one of the books, she picked up a clue which wasn't revealed to the reader---total dirty pool.

So, after considering my own words, I think I'm saying that I like Kinsey and Flavia because they feel like real people and don't like Stephanie and Maisie because they don't. I want real people even if the events are extraordinary, Harry Potter and his friends are good examples.

Enough said.

Fun Celebration and Recognition Days

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Part of the setting for writing a novel is choosing a date or time period in which the story takes place. Sometimes it is a pivotal point for the story, where other times it is simply a way of letting your reader know there is a reason the main character is in a phone booth instead of talking on a cell phone.

In my writing, sometimes the climax of the story is a very particular date – the first Kentucky Derby in SPINNING THROUGH TIME; an Independence Day celebration (4^th of July) in PROSPECTING FOR LOVE, or the date a steamboat sank in HOLD ON TO THE PAST. There were very specific reasons for the dates I used.

Yet in other stories, I mentioned a particular event/date simply to enhance the setting. Referring to college basketball’s March Madness needs no explanation, but it was a way of introducing my readers to the time of year in a way other than simply saying “It was March.”

There have even been times when I made up a particular celebration day. After all, why shouldn’t there be a Mermaid Festival on the small island of Lockabee to celebrate the legend of mermaids saving a group of fishermen? (PRELUDE AND PROMISES)

If you want to add an interesting celebration or a fun recognition day, you don’t even have to make them up. Someone already did it for you. A complete list for every day of the year is located at https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/. It is only one of several lists I found in an easy internet search. The first thing I looked for was my birthday, July 13^th.  “Embrace Your Geekness Day”? Why couldn’t it have been National Margarita Day? 

Yesterday was Lost Sock Recognition Day, which reminded me of a conversation with my eight year old grandson. While visiting, I was helping sort socks from the laundry and with three children, there was always a pile of socks with no matches. My grandson suggested writing a story about the lost socks. I looked on line to see if I could find such a book for him and that’s when I came across May 9 as Lost Socks  National recognition Day, but since I couldn’t find an already published book, I wrote a short story which of course, included my grandson and his siblings.

The fun thing about being a writer is that not everything has to be written for publication. This little story was something fun that I put together with Microsoft Publisher and generic clip art, but after reading it, my grandson wanted to write a sequel, which we are working on now.

 For those of you who like writing exercises, pick a day and write a story, a poem or an essay. Why do we recognize this day? How did it come to be? What can be done to celebrate this special day? And if you don’t like the “recognition day” for your birthday, check out these other sites, or make up one of your own!
https://nationaltoday.com/national-day-calendar/
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/calendar-at-a-glance/

By the way, today, May 10^th, is “National Clean Your Room Day”. I can say for certain it’s not going to happen here.

Connecting with the Main Character – by Rita Karnopp

Connecting with the Main Character – Creating a strong connection between your reader and the main character in your book is vital … and must be accomplished as soon as possible.  The first line of your story is the perfect opportunity to achieve this.

 

How can you make you reader care about your characters?

You could draw the reader-in through the character’s point-of-view.  This brings your reader inside the mind of your character.  His thoughts … good and bad.

When you give your characters challenges, predicaments, shortcomings, suspicions, depths, opinions, and even moods and feelings your reader will empathize with him.

Consider making your character moral and even trustworthy ... then make him face a moral dilemma … on that could hurt or threaten someone he loves.

And you must admit, creating a character with charisma, humor, manners, and even an ease about them - that makes you comfortable - well your reader can’t help but root for him – care about him – maybe even envision being in love with him - even if he does something ‘bad’ or ‘wrong.’

Always keep your reader audience in mind when writing your book.  YA should have the emotional and verbal language of a teen.  In an 1800’s historical – your characters must speak and act like men and women in that time-period. Keeping true to your genre is vital in convincing your reader your story’s authentic.

Consider this – begin your story when your character is facing a challenge or making a life-changing decision. When I started writing, the main tag for writers at that time was: “No reader waits for the action to begin.”  That has stayed with me … and it’s something all writers should keep in mind. 

When I finished reading Dean Koontz book Intensity I set it down, my heart still pumping fast, and I realized I wanted to write a book as intense at that book.  That night I started writing Atonement … and the first line is: ‘He bent her finger back – all the way back.’

I believe that is my favorite first line to any of my 19 books.  Why?  Because it got my attention from the very first line.  It set the tone and genre without paragraphs of scene setting.

• Consider this – after you write ‘the end’ … go back to the beginning and skip to chapter three and read … is it gripping?  Is it in the thick-of-things?  If the answer is a resounding YES … you have found the beginning of your book.  I’m serious.  I know you’re thinking … no way will I delete the first two chapters of my book.  But, be honest.  Is chapter three more gripping and more interesting than chapters one and two?  I’m going to bet you’re going to have to answer yes.  I’m sorry … but this does work. 
   
• We have such a tendency to want to feed the reader too much background information.  Too much scene setting.  Too many internal thoughts and the reader is just waiting for chapter three to start.

Keep in mind your story will slow to a crawl if you don’t introduce problems or challenges throughout the story.  There must be incidents even affairs that create conflicts, tensions, or situations that demand your character face his biggest fears … that have consequences.

Don’t start your story with a worn-out cliché.  Agents and editors have read it all.  Your goal is to start your story with a fresh intro … because a worn out beginning gets your book dropped in the slush pile.  We’re all tired of the cliché beginning.

What do I mean?    The phone ringing wakes a character … he groggily answers … then bolts upright – someone has been killed.  Really?

I hate the character who stands looking into a mirror and describes his own attributes and failings internally.   Spare me.

If the first sentence describes the weather … I want to scream.

If your character is introduced by her crying … I’m not sympathetic yet.  You might want me to care enough to ask why – but at the beginning – I don’t care and it’s not effective.

I hate the overused character who wakes up with amnesia or in a strange place – I’ve seen it a hundred times.

Ugh, and we all are annoyed by the writer who is staring at a blank computer screen . . . not much action happening there.

You will bore the reader as much as your character if he often stares out window and years for someone, thinks over his situation, feels betrayed, or loves her but can’t tell her, and just simple … boring reflections.  This goes back to: “No reader waits for the action to begin.” 

 

Special Memories We Use When Creating Our Characters - June Gadsby

Visit June Gadsby's BWL Author page for book description and purchase links

Creating characters for our books can be difficult, but it can also be fun. My main characters tend to create themselves long before I’ve started writing. It’s the secondary characters that give me the most fun and pleasure as I often base them on people I know – or, at least, take the most interesting or amusing characteristics from a number of them and stitch them together to form one appealing member of the cast. One of my favourite secondary characters is my grandfather, who often seems to creep into my books in one way or another. The first time I used him was in ‘When Tomorrow Comes’. He appeared as Hildie’s miner husband, Tommy Thompson. 

In real life he was John Peel Richardson, a hard-working miner who had fought in the First World War, when he was gassed, blown up and shell-shocked. He was sent back to England and expected to die, but he was a survivor [1]. Just a small, quiet, gentle man who liked to read westerns and didn’t go out to the pub every Sunday like the rest of the men who spent their working lives digging for coal underground. He never took a day off work and never got involved in any argument with the females in the house – his wife Polly, his daughters Ruby and Edith – and me. His well-known response to most things was: ‘I’m sayin’ nowt.’

While recuperating in the hospital during the war, having gone through the Battle of the Somme, he was shown how to crochet and I am proud to say that I have his lovely work [2] of a hundred years ago. He tried to enlist for WW2 but was too old and was thus given the job of Special Constable. He died at the age of 79 and still, to this day, my memories of him are strong. Never having known my father, John Peel aka Jack, was a father-figure to me [3]. In the book he, playing the part of Tommy, has an affair with Florrie, the next-door neighbour. I hope he will forgive me for putting a little spice into his life.

If you have interesting people in your life you can never be short of character material, but best not to show them too clearly, which I did with one of my great-aunts in ‘The Glory Girls’…but that’s another story.

Me and my grandfather.