Write, Rewrite, Repeat Conference

^{February 20, 2016}

Storytelling, in all its forms, is a mysterious unfolding, a whole bag of magician’s tricks. Story offers enduring emotions and shared experiences. But to perfect your story, be it a novel or screen play or memoir, you need to apply the logic that comes with plotting and planning.  For many writers stories come from a kind of dream place, so resist efforts at taming; often don’t want to conform to a 3-act structure or hero’s journey. And stories can often become twisted in the telling. This is why most stories need a truth, grounding in an authentic world, a central dramatic question at its heart, and a cause-and-effect sequence of events. Jessica Morrell

Craft….Inspiration….Direction

9:00  Registration

Intro & Writing Prompt

9:30  Writing, Publishing & Beyond: Every Day is NaNoWrimo, Kari Luna

Finishing a draft? Hooray! Finishing a fifth draft? Hooray again! Because in the writer’s world, every day is NaNoWrimo. And that’s a good thing. From revising to querying to publishing and promotion, you need persistence and heart at every stage – not just that extra-special month of November. This class will give you tips for finishing, revising and sticking with it while loving it, too.

11:00 The Central Dramatic Question, Jessica Morrell

At the center of every good novel or film throbs a single driving force around which all other elements gather. It has the rage of a hurricane, the focus of a cougar, the horsepower of a Lamborghini. It’s not the protagonist. It’s not a rip-roaring climatic scene or heart-revealing dialogue. It is deceptively simple; so sly and stealthy you might not know it exists. It’s a single dramatic question, the beating heart of the story. Now, a good story raises lots of intriguing questions, but there is one question at the white hot center of all the others. This is the Central Dramatic Question, or CDQ. Think of it as the story’s nucleus. It’s a centrifugal force that propels the story along its path of action, accelerating it steadily toward a satisfying conclusion. And once the CDQ is answered the story is over.

12:30 Lunch & Keynote with Fonda Lee:  The Strategic Author

A cursory glance at the number of writing conferences in the country and the number of people who attend them each year will give you an idea of the staggering number of aspiring writers out there. Only a tiny percentage of those people will ever go on to publication. A smaller number will go on to be published multiple times, and an even smaller number yet will ever make a reasonable income as professional writers. Ultimately, the difference lies not in talent, work ethic, or connections, but in mindset, strategies, and habits. Fonda Lee shares observations gleaned and lessons learned in the formative early years of a writing career, leading up and after the publication of a debut novel.

1:30 Tough Love and Tackling Your Second Draft, Jessica Morrell

Like taking revenge or planning a battle, self-editing requires an ability to see your work with a cold, distant eye. This means finding plot holes, questioning if every character and scene belongs, and whether your viewpoint is effective. This workshop will help you achieve editorial distance, and then teach ways to diagnose , improve, and create a strong second draft. We’ll define story arc and character arcs; discuss a practical approach to revision, how to shore up scenes and a weak plotline, and what this draft should deliver.

2:30 An Editor’s Top Ten, Adam O’Connor Rodriguez

Industry insider, Senior Editor for Hawthorne Books and professor in the graduate program in Book Publishing at Portland State University will teach a workshop that covers his top ten pieces of concrete advice for writers on self-editing their work for publication. The advice will cover both copy editing and developmental editing.

4:00 From Soup to Nuts: The Marketing and Publicity Mindset, Mary Bisbee-Beek

Whether you are on the precipice of writing for the first time or having your manuscript published, it’s never too early to envision your writing career. This workshop will cover thinking about marketing as part of that career, and building and blending your writing profile into daily life.  The ultimate Developing their name recognition as they develop their writing craft. Mary Bisbee-Beek will talk about the marketing and publicity mind-set and process from the early days of writing to publication, in whatever form that turns out to be—whether it’s writing for your family and friends or being published by a traditional publisher or embarking on a self-publishing model. This program is for writers of all levels. Mary will engage the audience in an open dialogue so bring your questions!