mdin
05-28-2005, 08:31 AM
Only 99 degrees out today. Much nicer than last time I went when the steering wheel cover for my car melted and became permantly affixed to the steering wheel.
Unfortunately I missed the first three speakers of the morning because it's Friday, and you know how Fridays are. I was lucky enough to make it to the college right after lunch, so I could see the two speakers of the afternoon: Literary Agent Melissa Flashman (http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/melissaflashman.html) and writer Bob Mayer. (http://www.bobmayer.org/)
Ms. Flashman's topic was "24 Hours in the Life of a Literary Agent," and it was easily the most informative workshop lecture I've heard from an agent. And I've heard plenty. She mocked up a diary of her day from getting up in the morning, going through her voice mail and email, fielding phone calls from editors and clients, to going to lunch with an editor, negotiating a deal, and finally going home to read manuscripts.
Most of it was stuff I already knew or heard before, but I really got a great feel for her day-to-day life because of how she framed the lecture. She spends less than 10% of her time reading manuscripts. I always knew real agents spent most of their time doing other stuff, but it's good to know how that time is spent. She gave props to Preditors and Editors, and she confirmed that having a first book that doesn't sell very well is quite a bit worse than not having a previous book at all. But a good story trumps everything, she says.
Bob Mayer reminds me of those motivational speakers you see on TV at two in the morning hawking self-help videos and whatnot. He's a very good speaker, and he has a way of making you believe everything he says. I've read some of his books (though I didn't know it until the conference. He puts out like five books a year, many under different names.), and that confidence really shines in his writing. He was the only genre writer at the conference, so I was really fortunate to get in. His topic was POV and Characterization.
I disagreed with some of his POV contentions, but I really enjoyed his talk about characters. He's a big fan of having full psychological profiles of your characters before you put pen to paper. He makes a case for hardly ever hearing the actual thoughts of the POV character, but learning everything through the character's actions.
So that's it for day 1.
I get off of work at 4:30 am, and the conference continues at 9 am tomorrow. I'll try to get my butt up. Two more days to go.
Unfortunately I missed the first three speakers of the morning because it's Friday, and you know how Fridays are. I was lucky enough to make it to the college right after lunch, so I could see the two speakers of the afternoon: Literary Agent Melissa Flashman (http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/melissaflashman.html) and writer Bob Mayer. (http://www.bobmayer.org/)
Ms. Flashman's topic was "24 Hours in the Life of a Literary Agent," and it was easily the most informative workshop lecture I've heard from an agent. And I've heard plenty. She mocked up a diary of her day from getting up in the morning, going through her voice mail and email, fielding phone calls from editors and clients, to going to lunch with an editor, negotiating a deal, and finally going home to read manuscripts.
Most of it was stuff I already knew or heard before, but I really got a great feel for her day-to-day life because of how she framed the lecture. She spends less than 10% of her time reading manuscripts. I always knew real agents spent most of their time doing other stuff, but it's good to know how that time is spent. She gave props to Preditors and Editors, and she confirmed that having a first book that doesn't sell very well is quite a bit worse than not having a previous book at all. But a good story trumps everything, she says.
Bob Mayer reminds me of those motivational speakers you see on TV at two in the morning hawking self-help videos and whatnot. He's a very good speaker, and he has a way of making you believe everything he says. I've read some of his books (though I didn't know it until the conference. He puts out like five books a year, many under different names.), and that confidence really shines in his writing. He was the only genre writer at the conference, so I was really fortunate to get in. His topic was POV and Characterization.
I disagreed with some of his POV contentions, but I really enjoyed his talk about characters. He's a big fan of having full psychological profiles of your characters before you put pen to paper. He makes a case for hardly ever hearing the actual thoughts of the POV character, but learning everything through the character's actions.
So that's it for day 1.
I get off of work at 4:30 am, and the conference continues at 9 am tomorrow. I'll try to get my butt up. Two more days to go.