Writers, writing, Nora Roberts and general good stuff.
That's it in a nutshell. First full day of RWA Nationals in Orlando kicked off with a luncheon where I hung out with romance authors Renee, Kelly, Jodi and ShaSha (couldn't pronounce her name if I wanted to, but I asked first before giving her a nickname:).
The ballroom was packed. All 2600 attendees decided to drop in on the luncheon, and it was worth it to hear Madame Nora Roberts' keynote address. She has some 165 novels in the can as they might say since she started in romance in 1979 (I think I got the year right). But add to her writing credentials the joy of listening to her presentation. and voila!! She's funny, poignant, honest and just one of the best speakers I've had the pleasure of enjoying inside or outside of the publishing industry. So after getting fully charged I went to a workshop to find out whether I was a plotter, plotster or something else. What I found out is it doesn't matter what you do as long as you finish the book. Yep. That was it. But the three authors who did the presenting were funny, and gave good insights as to how the approach they used worked for them.
Next, I fell in love. Roxanne St. Claire's dynamic, incredibly eye-opening workshop - How to Mend a Broken Scene - was what she hoped it would be (at least for me) life-changing! The room was packed (there was a slight challenge with handouts), but frankly, it didn't matter. This workshop was all about content, dissecting a scene and getting to the heart of conflict, goal, tension and choices. It was info that you just had to be there to 'get' (and that's in more ways than one!).
Big day tomorrow. I have editor and agent appointments. It will make for a good Friday.
Also, found new friend over sushi. I'll tell more in later posts. Except to say, she's been in the TV writing business for more than a decade with a few Emmys to her credit. Delightful conversation. I intend to drop in on her workshop tomorrow.
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