Writing Wednesday

I had a wonderful time at the West Virginia Writer's Conference over the weekend.

I met some wonderful authors, including Cheryl Ware . . . who is the author of Flea Circus Summer,  Catty-Cornered and Venola in Love.

 

and Sarah Dooley. . . who is the author of Livvie Owen Lived Here, published by Feiwel & Friends, and is currently working on her third book.

 

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I attended workshops such as Sandy Tritt's Get your Narrator Out of my Way, Cheryl Ware's Digital Storytelling, Jim Minick's How Creative is Creative NonFiction, Heather Issacs' Freelancing, Crystal Wilkinson's Make a Scene, Belinda Anderson's Oral History, Susanna Holstein's From Ballad to Story and Cheryl Ware's Character Development.

They were very good workshops and I have arrived home with all sorts of ideas and projects I want to work on. If there were only more hours in the day.


There were other workshops I wanted to sit in on, but they took place at the same time as others I also wanted to go to. So, sadly, I had to pick and choose and I never got to go to all the workshops that I wanted to attend. One of the workshops I wanted to go to was  Pam Hanson's Time Management and Organizing for Writers because I really, really do need to get organized.

There were so many talented people there, it made me feel very little in the scheme of things. But, I am happy to report that I didn't come home empty handed.

I received this . . .

 

 Writers attending the conference attach their poems and/or 1 page of prose on the Writer's Wall.

Your name is not on it, only an assigned number and everyone votes on their favorite.

I was surprised to come in 2nd place in the poetry section.

This is special to me, because the people voted on it.

and this. . . 

 

 My MG manuscript, The Family Secret got 3rd HM in the 

West Virginia Writer's Annual Contest

in the Children's Book Section.

I've been sending this manuscript out to publishers this year, 

keeping my fingers crossed that I will find one that likes it.

If you ever get the chance to go to a Writer's Conference, I recommend that you go.

You learn a lot, get to make contacts with writers and have a lot of fun!

It is nice to be in a group of people who are just like you.

Happy Writing!

Writing Wednesday

I'm "plumb tuckered out", as my grandma used to say, so I am doing a re-post today.

I posted this last year after attending our West Virginia Writer's Conference in Cedar Lakes.

I hope you enjoy it and comment, it has some very good advice on writing.

More Writing Workshop Info

I attended a picture book workshop conducted by children's author, Cheryl Ware. But if you are not a picture book writer, please read on, I think the information will help you with any genre of writing you choose to write.

Here is a group picture of the attendees of her workshop. Cheryl is the tall lady in the middle, I am in the pink shirt beside of her.



I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop. She came with a pile of picture books to share with us. She read a few of her favorites.

She told us something that I think is very hard to do. She said to find the holes in the market - find what hasn't been written. I think this applies to all genres of writing, don't you?

She showed us some books that she stated when she first saw them, she didn't think they were the greatest. But when she read them to small children, they loved them!

They shouted out answers when she read the text to them!
They became involved in the reading!
They wanted it read over and over again!

I think that is what we want to accomplish with any of our books. We want our reader to become involved with the story and for them to want to read it over and over again.

One of her favorite books : THE DOT
If you write picture books, but haven't read this one, go to the library and check it out.
It is so simple, yet so good!

Some very good advice from her:

Start your story on a day that something is different in their life.
Ending should be expected, but a surprise.

As you can see, I think you can take this information and apply it to whatever type of writing you do, whether it be for adults or children.

Some of Cheryl's published books are:

Flea Circus Summer,
Catty-Cornered,
Venola in Love, and
Venola the Vegetarian

Her stories introduce you to Venola May Cutright, a spunky 11 year old girl.

I hope you read something from this post that will help you with your writing.

Happy Writing! And, I hope to see some of you at the Writing Conference on June 4 at Cedar  Lakes.

Writing Wednesday

Writing Wednesday is here again. I really enjoyed last week's comments about What a Writer Needs.

I agree with all of you. I couldn't find it when I looked back at the post, so maybe this comment was emailed to me, but she said a writer needs to write! How true that is, many people say they want to write or they are going to write some day, but they never get around to writing - they keep putting it off.

That advice goes with submissions, also. I used to bring my rejection slips to our writing group's meetings.  I was getting praised on my rejection slips. They said, "Well, at least you are submitting."

You never know if your work has a chance unless you submit your manuscripts. You may get rejection letters or never hear from the publisher, but at least you gave your work a chance by submitting. Later on down the road you won't have to say, "Oh, if only I had submitted my stories."

Unlike most of last year, I have been submitting this year. I am giving my stories a fighting chance.

West Virginia Writers are having their annual writer's conference on June 10, 11 and 12 at Cedar Lakes, WV.
I am so lucky - Cedar Lakes is only a few miles down the road from my house. I just sent in my registration form on Saturday. You can go here and check out the schedule, the workshop presenters, and all the details.
Cedar Lakes is a beautiful place to have a conference. It even has a covered bridge!

It is a very popular place in our area for church picnics, family reunions and get togethers of all kinds.

I've been visiting there ever since I was young. 

 Summer of 1972

There is still time to register if anyone is interested in going.

Happy Writing and don't forget to submit your manuscripts!