The Way We Are: Writers Conferences

I love writers conferences. I love immersing myself in the writing world and being surrounded by people who love this crazy thing as much as I do. I love the chance to learn from authors who really know their stuff. I love eating, drinking, sleeping my craft. I love the camaraderie.

So what about you? Are you a conference goer?

No?
Have you been dying to go to one, but there's something that's been stopping you? Or have you chosen not to go to conferences?

Yes?
What have been some of your favorite conferences to go to? Which conference are you looking most forward to going to in the next year?

Gosh. I am so very much in the mood to go to a conference RIGHT NOW. Who's with me?

Q&A: Agenty Questions

Thanks for all your kind words yesterday, everyone! You all make me sound so much cooler than I am. It was actually a really hard post to write-- it kind of weirds me out to write all about myself like that. I know how much I love reading book deal posts with the details, though, so I bit the bullet.

But I'm really grateful that today's questions are about other things.

In the comments yesterday, Iain asked, "Is this just a US release date? Are there any international plans yet?" 

To which I answer, Uh...... Um..... I guess I don't really have a clue! They bought World English rights, but I honestly don't know what that means for other English-speaking countries. I don't even know how long it will be before I know that kind of information. I'm sure that's not something I'll hold back on when I do know, though. ;)

Why did you have to write a new query letter after you had representation?

This question came from someone I did NaNoReviMo with, so they knew about my crazy synopsis / query writing day. The reason I had to write it was because Random House wanted to decide whether to offer a one book deal or a two book deal. Since they wanted to make a deal quickly, I ended up sending the query and synopsis to Sara sixteen hours after I started them! (Sleeping time included.) And yes, like I told them, every perfectionist bone in my body was twitching. My advice? Get really good at writing queries. And then convince yourself that you LOOOOVE writing them. I’m pretty sure you have to keep writing them for every single book, whether you are querying for agents, giving them to your publisher, or writing them for them for the back cover of your book, no matter which publication route you take. It really never goes away.

Have I mentioned that I LOOOOVE writing queries? No? Hm... Maybe I better keep working on convincing myself.

Did you meet Sara Crowe at the conference you were at shortly before you were signed up? [This was referring to a conference I went to at the beginning of October.] If yes, was she expecting your MS when you sent it?

No, actually, but I did met her at a conference I attended this past May. I had a pitch session with her then, and she had requested my full manuscript. I wanted it to be as golden as I could get it first, so I worked on it another five months after she requested it, but agents are cool like that. Pitch sessions at conferences definitely help, but if they ask for pages, don’t be in a rush to send them! Get your manuscript in the best shape you can get it first. They’ll wait. I promise. They'll even wait patiently.

Anyway, Sara hadn’t read my manuscript before another agent called and offered, so I told the other agent that I needed to think about it and get in touch with Sara first. I asked Sara if she wanted some time to look at my ms before I committed to the other agent, and she said yes. She read my ms over the weekend (while on vacation(!), because she’s sweet like that), and offered representation on Monday. So yes, pitch sessions help. But I had cold queried the other agent, with no connection to her whatsoever before that point, and she offered, too. So regular querying does the job just fine! Don’t stress out if you can’t go to conferences, or if you can’t get a pitch. Just get that query to shine, get your manuscript to shine, and you’ll be just fine. You can totally do this.

Snow, Conferences, and Rooting for a Character

This may still be the view from my front porch:

But at the conference I went to in Park City this weekend, this was the view from the balcony at the cabin we stayed in:

Can you believe all that snow in OCTOBER? The beginning of October, no less? It was crazy. But chilly or not, the conference itself was amazing, as conferences always are. There is nothing like hanging out with a bunch of other people who love writing every bit as much as you do!

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the first night, when John Brown (of Servant of a Dark God fame) did a fabulous presentation right after dinner. (He put up a link to the .pdf of his presentation "Story Lessons from the Hunger Games" on his website, if you want to check it out.)

We all want our characters to be sympathetic, right? Of course the key to making a character sympathetic is to make them likeable, interesting, good, and to give them hardships and danger. It doesn't have to always be physical danger-- danger can be a threat to any kind of happiness.

He said that rooting for a character is more than just having sympathy for a character. They can't just be likeable and interesting and good and have hardships and danger. They have to also be active and have a chance at winning. Sometimes a character only reacts, or waits for others to tell them what to do. We may like the character just fine, but that's not enough to make us really root for them. Our characters have to be proactive. They have to DO things. They have to make choices and act on those choices. Even if they make a wrong choice, even if they lead others into a wrong choice, we root for them if they are actively trying to solve the problem.

My other favorite quote of the night: Your reader doesn't want to know what WILL happen. They want to know and worry about what MIGHT happen.

And he's right! It's the MIGHT happen that gets us every single time.