WWC, Day Three

Yes!

Today I finally attended sessions that got the juices flowing. Every conference has good sessions, but there is always one that seems to invigorate me and revives my confidence. Today I attended two.

Laura Whitcomb ("A Certain Slant of Light") gave a presentation on Getting at the Gold in Your YA Novel. She presented her "shortcuts" to getting to the emotion of a scene and the essence of the characters. Her approach turns out to be an expansion of the journaling exercise that I started doing. :-) It appears I was on the right track. Laura is compiling her ideas into her second book on novel writing and I can't wait for it to come out. I'm going to apply her exercises immediately.

Marc Acito is the author of "How I Paid for College," and "Attack of the Theater People." He has a theatrical and operatic background and is therefore an animated speaker and has a sharp wit. His first session was on Writing a Page Turner. This contained information I've heard before but presented in a slightly new way, and also provided a few new ideas. His second session was Making Your Manuscript Sing...applying the structural elements of Broadway musicals to fiction. It was great! A whole new way of assessing the role of the characters in a story and determining pivotal moments of the story. He demonstrated his concept with film clips from classic and more modern Broadway hits. On the drive home I was applying Marc's concept to "Water Tribute." Hmmm.

Attendance may have thinned out today...but I'm glad I attended the final day of the conference.

The agents I pitched to reassured me that my story idea for "Water Tribute" is interesting and has potential. And today's sessions will help me pull it off.

I think we're fortunate to have one of the best writing conferences in the U.S. in our own backyard.