Writing Conferences - A Must for Any Serious Writer

This past weekend I attended the annual Montana SCBWI Fall Retreat at the 320 Ranch just past Big Sky. It was a sorely needed, much looked forward to experience.

As always, Michele Corriel, did an amazing job of putting together the event along with help from several others, some of which were Nora Martin and Sharon Glick. Presenters at the conference were Ruta Rimas, Abigail Samoun, Kent Davis and Emma D. Dryden through Skype.

Ruta is an Associate Editor for Atheneum Books for Young Readers and Margaret K McElderry Books, both imprints of Simon & Schuster and gave an amazing breakdown of what makes a book great, giving many examples from Antionette Portis's book "It's Not a Box" to Markus Zusak's "The Book Thief". On top of that I had a great time getting to know her and showing her a bit of Montana on a hike we shared with Abigail and Michele. With less than 20 participants at the conference, one on one time with the editors and agents was easily found.

Abigail Samouns, a new mother who managed to leave her adorable baby boy of only 3 months to come join us, is an agent out of California. She's the founder of Red Fox Literary. Her workshop focused on LESSONS FROM THE MASTERS OF PLOT, which were:
*Lesson 1 - Expectation = Tension
Tie a thread around the reader's finger - pull them along through
your story.
*Lesson 2 - Using familiar architecture to frame your story
Organic structures ie, a single day, spring, a school year.
*Lesson 3 - Three up, three down (Rule of Three)
*Lesson 4 - Hero's worst enemy is YOU! (the author)
Take your mc and make them suffer. Don't be too nice or they won't
grow and develop.
*Lesson 5 - Keep 'em waiting.
Suspense is a great thing, use it.

We also had a SKYPE session with Emma Dryden, founder of Drydenbks. The SKYPE sessions was something new, and although hard at times to hear her, I felt the import of her message. For any writers out there confused about whether or not you should have a web presence, you should. Regardless of your published status. Things I took away from her were, 1)The story matters most, 2)It's never too early to get a presence online, 3)it's important to 'brand' yourself. She literally bombarded us with information, but I felt these were the three most important to me at this time.

Kent Davis, one of our own local Montana SCBWI members, entertained and embarrassed us (not really, it was a lot of fun) with his workshop on Set Them Free: Letting the Characters Do the Work for You. Bringing a lot of his past experiences as an actor, writer, teacher and imrpov comedian he got us up and going, thinking outside of the box so to speak. (It's not a box)

Thank you Michele for everything you do to make these conferences happen and all of you out there need to plan to join us next year. Or find a conference in your area.

Links of interest (copy and paste into browser):
SCBWI Montana Website www.scbwimt.org/index.html
Michele Corriel, Author www.michelecorriel.com/
Sharon Glick, Author/Illustrator http://www.sharonglickart.com/bio.html
Abigail Samouns, Literary Agent www.redfoxliterary.com/
Emma D. Dryden, www.drydenbks.com
320 Guest Ranch, www.320ranch.com