Just got back from a weekend at Litchfield Beach. No, not that sort of weekend–this was the SC Writer’s Association’s annual writing conference. Friday through Sunday with a great line-up of classes and social events.
It’s a 4 and 1/2 hour drive from my house to the coast, but it went pretty smoothly (other than the dearth of rest stops–had to pull into a gas station at one point) and I found the place without much trouble. Got there 30 minutes before it started, which gave me time to get a Flat White from the Starbucks inside the resort (yippee!) and sign into the conference.
The first class, a “Tailgate” session on “How to Pitch Your Book” was great. Leigh Stein is a terrific speaker and she gave us so many concrete directions that helped make more sense of that mysterious ritual of the Book Pitch! I think I may actually have something worth telling people now. After that, I went back to Starbucks for a little writing time (and to wait until my room was ready). Ended up in a huge line of other people checking in, but eventually got my room (third floor way over in the corner). The Seaside Inn is a misnomer: my only view was of the parking lot and the seaside was at least half a mile away.
Friday night, we had hor d’oeuvres and a Mix and Mingle party, with a cash bar I (obviously) took advantage of. Leigh Stein was our keynote speaker and she inspired all of us to work harder at our writing. Saturday morning was her second class “Plotting Begins With Character,” which was just as good as the pitch class.
I then joined two of my critique chapter buddies for lunch on the deck (and promptly got sunburned, of course) before going to a class called “Setting as Structure.” I’ll admit, I didn’t get the speaker’s point at all. We were talking about dreams and memories and I just didn’t see how it all tied in with setting. Maybe the second session made more sense, but I’d planned to skip that anyhow because they offered a “Queryfest” where you sent in your query letter and got it critiqued in real time by an agent. She didn’t tear mine apart, though she did say it was a bit short. I can fix that.
I had a very nice dinner at The Deck (the place we’d eaten our boxed lunch–turns out it’s actually part of the restaurant in the resort) and the bartender made me something called Pawleys Punch (coconut rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and blue curaçao). After that, we had a Pop-Up Book Sale where we could sell or trade copies of our books, then we did Open Mic Night. I took my three minutes to read part of the latest Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid story, which seemed to go over well.
Sunday morning was a Town Meeting where we had breakfast and talked business for an hour. Then, we had a panel discussion on “Building a Writing Career in the Carolinas,” which was basically a Q&A session with two authors and the local bookstore owner. It was interesting. Our keynote speaker Sunday was Ashley M. Jones, the poet laureate of Alabama (and the first black poet laureate for that state). Wow, she had some powerful poetry.
The last class of the conference was a “Slushfest,” where you submitted your first page and two editors and an agent critiqued it. They did not like my science fiction page at all, so my alter ego will be rewriting that chapter for the umpteenth time (sigh). Then, I took a few minutes to drive over to the actual beach and wade in the surf for a short while (remembering I was already sunburned and hadn’t brought any sunblock). They do have a lovely beach. After that, it was the long drive home and back to the old grind.
Have you ever been to a writing conference or convention? What was yours like?