James River Writers Report--Day 2

The second day of the James River Writers Conference was just as packed as the first. It began with the "first pages critique" in which writers submit the first pages of novels which are then read aloud to the audience. Three agents on the panel--Michelle Brower, Melissa Sarver, and Lucy Carson--then offered a critique. It's a very instructive exercise--probably horrifying for the "contestants"--but it's a clear demonstration of what works and what doesn't. Mostly what doesn't. Mostly I agreed with the agents, although the insistence of all three agents that the first page be an action-oriented scene doesn't completely resonate. I understand what they're looking for, but I think of Richard Bausch's craft lecture at Sewanee this summer in which he talked about the "art of exposition" and argued that we would do well to look at the beginnings of Dickens and Tolstoy novels to see the beauty of another approach. But overall this was a very informative panel.

Next I attended a panel on the legal and tax issues faced by a professional writer. Mostly what was discussed I knew, although I did pick up a few tips, and it was interesting to hear about the experience of the panelists.

After lunch I went to the panel on literary journals. Again, not much new here for me, but it was fun to hear Silas House talk about the new Appalachian magazine of which he is the fiction editor.

I had planned to attend "Publicity through Social Media" but the room was packed, so I gave myself an hour off before the conference wrapped up with an on-stage interview of Charles Shields by Dean King. He talked about his biography of Harper Lee and his forthcoming biography of Kurt Vonnegut. Fascinating subjects.

And then we came to the end, which was a very nice party at the Kent-Valentine House, a gorgeous home dating from 1845.

A terrific conference, and I am honored to have been part of it!

Report from James River

It's been a busy couple of days. I drove down to Richmond on Thursday morning in order to participate in the first "pre-conference" workshops that James River Writers has offered. I think it was successful--both the query workshop and the short story workshop, which I led, were filled (in fact mine was over-subscribed, somehow) and the feedback I've received has been quite positive. My topic was, ostensibly, how to "create a world" in a short story, but really it was a short course in short story writing. I enjoyed doing it, and I think the participants enjoyed it, too.

Then last night we had a wonderful party for presenters and other invited guests. Good food, great people, beautiful house. A nice "kick off" for the conference (although, of course, I'd gotten a head start in the afternoon).

The conference proper began this morning with some inspirational poetry (Invitation to Write!) followed by lots of panels. I heard one panel talk about the challenges of writing in multiple genres and another about freelance writing. Then, after lunch, it was my turn--I was on two panels. The first was Character 101 and it was so popular we needed to move to a different room. Then I was on Mastering the Short Story, a topic I don't think we could ever do justice to. Both went well, I think. The final session of the day was a plenary session about the relationships among writers, agents, and editors. I thought the panelists did a really good job with that, and I haven't seen the subject presented in quite that way before.

Right now I'm standing by for another party . . . and I'm looking forward to another full day tomorrow!