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| The Festival of Writing - Wow! |
| Tuesday, 13 April 2010 09:36 |
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I'm now home from the Festival of Writing at York, and boy, was that an incredible weekend. Utterly exhausting and by Sunday night I was feeling completely drained, but so worth it. Absolutely invaluable. Workshops Over the weekend I went to six different workshops. Some of them were more practical than others, some of them weren't quite what I was expecting, but they were all very interesting. Literary agent John Jarrold's workshop on the market for SF and fantasy was very useful and illuminating (despite having to miss the first twenty-five minutes for one of my one-to-ones), and I came away with a much better understanding of that aspect of the industry. Author Veronica Henry's talk on multiple protagonists was very entertaining, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her books in future! More than that, though, it was full of practical advice and gave me a great set of questions to work through on the train home which really helped me understand my character arcs. The other highlight for me was The Business of Publishing, which was run by literary agent Clare Alexander and two of her authors, Emma Darwin and Fiona Shaw. The workshop gave a really fantastic overview of the relationship between an agent and an author, and how that relationship might be different from one author to another. One-to-Ones As a whole, I think the one-to-ones were a great success - I certainly got a lot out of mine. I got some very helpful feedback on what's good about my writing and what probably needs work - my voice seems pretty good, my characters seem nicely grounded, my plot and the details of the world need some work. That's all great to hear. I also discovered that I've been working to the wrong rules - I think my problem is that I've been following too many American agent and author blogs, and it seems that things are a little different in the UK fantasy market. This feels like a really great thing for me - it turns out that my word counts should be much longer, and that selling standalone fantasy novels is actually very rare. This gives me new territory to explore - I can make my plots much more complex, and I can stop thinking that everything needs to be tied up perfectly at the end. I can write trilogies! I'm really excited about this, and for me the weekend was probably worth it just for those two ten-minute meetings alone. Unfortunately I'm not sure everyone could say the same - I was surpriseed to hear that some submissions weren't read by the agents/book doctors before the meetings. I think in the majority of cases this was due to postal problems (although I have to say I would have thought that if there was a chance paper submissions hadn't arrived they should have been emailed through). I don't think there were too many of these overall, and I know lot of the agents and book doctors really did go out of their way to make sure the writers got as much as they could out of the session. One agent sent out feedback before the Festival even started, and then devoted their ten minute sessions to making sure the writers could ask anything they wanted; another who couldn't make it in the end will be holding phone consultations with those writers who had been hoping to meet him. It sounds like some of those agents and book doctors who did have problems getting the material beforehand are making arrangements to deliver feedback in some other way, but I'm not sure if that's true for everyone. I hope it is - for me, the chance to get professional feedback on my work was crucial to my decision to attend the Festival, and I'm sure that's the case for other people as well. Keynote Speeches The opening speech was given by the extremely lovely Katie Fforde, and it was entertaining, amusing and helpful. Katie gave a list of ten top tips to guarantee publication, and it was a great way to kick-start the workshops. Later in the day there was a fascinating panel with publisher Barry Cunningham (of JK Rowling fame) and agent Simon Trewin, which gave some really interesting insights into the industry. The final keynote speech was given by RJ Ellory, who encouraged everyone to keep on writing with a well-blended mix of his own words and some great writing quotes. Catering & Accommodation Huge thumbs up to York Conferences, who provided a superb selection of food throughout the weekend, from the get-up-and-go breakfasts to buffet lunches, the beautifully presented Gala Dinner and the numerous crucial tea and coffee breaks. The accommodation was clean and tidy - it was unmistakeably university accommodation, but more than adequate and very comfortable. The Rest Of It I met some wonderful people over the weekend, from the moment I got on the bus from the railway station right through to the bus back, and there's no doubt that they played a huge part in how inspired I felt as I came away. I've never been surrounded by so many writers before - and not just writers, but writers who are genuinely and completely passionate about what they're doing. It was a real thrill to be able to wander around and literally ask just about anyone, "What do you write?" And if by some chance they did turn out not to be a writer, they were almost certainly an agent or an editor. I'm slightly worried I'll be asking that to random people I meet for a while now! As well as the workshops, there was also the Speed Networking (fun, but hectic, and difficult to really make any proper acquaintances when there was less than five minutes to get round eight people), Authonomy Live (really interesting, with some great entries, but went on a little longer than I would have liked) and the Literary Death Match (which I'm sure was wonderful, but I only managed to sit through three entries, since my eyes were drooping before it even started - not helped, I think, by the wine). The best time to actually meet people though was at meals - a different table, a different group. I met some great people at dinner on Friday and Saturday, and because we were sitting together for a decent stretch of time we were actually able to talk properly. A lot of people seem to be on The Word Cloud, which I've now joined - Facebook for writers, apparently. It looks good. I like it. All In All... A fantastic weekend. Great people, great place, great work. Time to start saving for next year... |
Comments
One thing, though - I would drop the 'aspiring'; you write fantasy, you ARE a fantasy author!
Write on, Davina.