Theme of...Connection: 10 Takeaways from PPWC 2019
The 2019 Pikes Peak Writers Convention came to a close May 5th, and I’ve been “recovering” the days following.
My head is crammed full of new memories & ideas, plus I’m savoring the joy of meeting with other writer-people, and I (of course) came home with a couple of new books to read!
There’s more...ten more. Takeaways coming to mind at this moment...
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash
10 fun moments from this year’s Pikes Peak Writers conference:
1. COMPARISONS One writer during a breakout session who compared the journey of Scarlet O’Hara in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind to that of Tony Stark in Marvel’s Iron Man. He said something like: “Well, she comes up against this obstacle in the midst of war, and she must ensure not only her own survival, but that of others, so she creates a ‘suit’...” (I lost it laughing after this point. What a great guy! I wish I’d written down his name.)
2. Short Story Panel--fun with stretching. The biggest leap outward from their usual genre one of these published authors took as a challenge when writing a short story for a publication? The horror writer said he’d written a story for an anthology of Oz (the children’s stories by L. Frank Baum) geared toward young kids---he wrote it so well, with sensitivity to the age level and in keeping with the original nature of the Oz books, the estate of L. Frank Baum contacted him to inform him they were adding his story to the official “canon” of Oz.
3. WRITERS at lunch puzzling over comparisons to help explain their stories in a single sentence, aided by published authors genuinely trying to help them figure it out. And, you know, eat breakfast!
4. Marketing for all ages. I loved listening to a gaggle of twenty-somethings in line in front of me, and a group of sixty-somethings in line behind me, all strategizing with their own group how best to create an online presence.
Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash
5. Working to understand how to better implement INCLUSION. Just throwing color on a character’s skin isn’t as powerful as infusing one with personality & empowering with agency. Represent all characters with hopes and dreams and gifts and flaws. Research and generate dialogue and do your best to appropriately & accurately include culture, able-ness, adaptations, history, personal identity, and more.
6. Thinking over the possibilities of including relics (things carried), ruins (scars from the past), and monuments (what a culture builds to celebrate or reinforce or make a statement about itself.)
7. VIDEO connections. Videos get more clicks than anything else, but poorly produced/edited videos can backfire. (Videos of Gargoyle would probably cause fires!)
8. Short Stories, everywhere. We are writing stories for: publications, anthologies, web content, sales purposes. Some short stories get optioned for development by the television and film industry because they aren’t as completed and locked-in as fully realized novel-length manuscripts.
9. Persistence and Flexibility. Each New York Times Bestselling Author who spoke or taught emphasized yet again to keep growing, keep learning, keep working!
10. Companionship. If nothing else, it is good to walk among writer-kind. To converse with those whose eyes do not glaze over when you speak in terms of arc, plot points, act structures, and twists---this is delightful.
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash
I’ve lost my way a bit with my Tumblr site over the past two years. I’m not sure which direction I’ll take for it next, but I’ve got a few more notions than I had pre-conference.
If you’re a writer, meet with other writers.
*and be sure to thank those who make conferences and workshops happen!
You need companions on this journey!
