"Writers are strange people," said famous author Terry Brooks as spoke at a dessert reception at the SeaTac Hilton,"which means I'm standing in front of a roomfull of 500 really strange people." We all laughed and tittered in our chairs knowingly. Writers are strange people, and I've never felt so connected as I did at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference.
The conversations were anything but normal. I sat next to an author Saturday night as we listened to speaker Jospeh Finder, a master of thrillers.
"Let's try to think of ways we can torture our main character," I said to her.
"Yeah! You have to think of the worst thing that can happen to your character, do it once, do it twice, and just when you think she's recovered, do it again! We play God."
"You guys are sick," another writer said, but smiled. She knew.
Another writer at the conference walked around carrying a giant demon skull. He's Royce Buckinhgham, the author of DemonKeeper, a movie that will soon be filmed in Seattle.
We'd make up characters on the fly, talk about how to write convincing dialogue, try to invent reasons why a pole was hanging down in the middle of a classroom window. Everywhere I went - in the elevator, in the seat beside me, drinking coffee, people would say:
"What are you working on?"
It was at this conference that I got inspired to write every day. I learned how to think about the storyline of my book, the characters, and reaching my goals. Sometimes I think the only reason why some people are published is the fact that they sit down to write every day. I think I could be published.
I have 15,000 words in my book, and I'm going to try to write 700 per day. I've reached my mark both yesterday and today, and surprisingly easily. Oops. Two adverbs. I'm going to throw myself over the deck. My goal is 75 to 80,000 words, and if I reach my writing goal every day, that should take me several months to finish a book. Then it's time for the rewrites. The months and months of rewrites.
Sorry if this post doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm a little bit entranced by my fictional world. Back to San Miguel!
Posts
3 comments:
I'm glad you went and are inspired to continue to write!
chase the dream!
I've always loved writing, but never really felt there was a book inside me.
Its why news reporting and blogging satisfy me so much.
However I am a voracious reader and
I can't wait to read your books!!!
You definitely "have it" and you will definitely "get there" - enjoy the journey. I love to write, but at this time, no fiction is there - but would love to write more non fiction, reflections on life, society and its many aspects, that sort of thing (maybe that's an old gal thing, ha ha). You've always had a gift for all types of writing, but your imagery gets great expression with fiction - and with blogs - and reviews, as we've seen. Hey, it can even take some dryness out of the news.
Post a Comment