For over fifteen years, I’ve been following the Write on the Sound (WOTS) conference sponsored by the City of Edmonds, Washington. I found WOTS when I searched online for conferences near the Olympic Peninsula where my parents lived at the time. I hoped to plan a trip to visit my parents, then stay an extra weekend for the WOTS conference. But the timing never worked out. And then my parents died, and I had fewer reasons to visit the Pacific Northwest. And then the pandemic.
But now I live here. In fact, I only live a 20-minute drive from the WOTS conference site in downtown Edmonds. The only reason I could think of not to attend this year was that the conference was held on my husband’s birthday weekend. But he didn’t have a milestone birthday this year, so I put our daughter in charge of celebrating with him, and registered for WOTS.
I highly recommend the conference to all writers, whether you’re a beginner or have several books under your belt. WOTS was not focused on my specific area of interest like the Historical Novel Society conference I attended earlier this year (online). But WOTS gave me an opportunity to focus on the craft of writing more broadly and, because I could attend in person, I had a chance to meet other writers in the Seattle area (though presenters and attendees came from a wider area than Seattle).
With four sessions to choose from during each time slot, there was something for everyone. I tried to focus on topics related to the general craft of writing novels at an intermediate or advanced level. That meant I missed some interesting-looking sessions on publishing and marketing, as well as more esoteric (for me) topics on poetry, flash fiction, and travel writing.
After 19 years of writing, I knew most of what what the presenters said during the WOTS sessions. But there were many good reminders, as well as a few things I learned. Here are a few of the most important lessons for me from the conference:
- Use “Uninventable Details” in your writing — details that are so specific in time and place that the reader feels they MUST have happened. The Anton Chekhov quote “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass” is an illustration of this concept. These details make the writing more vivid and put the reader in the scene.
- My takeaway: Historical fiction provides many opportunities for such concrete details, if the writer’s research is deep enough. Using primary sources like diaries of pioneers enables me to pass their specific experiences on to today’s readers.
- Writers explore the human condition. They capture the universal in a specific story. By writing outside your experience, you become a more empathetic person.
- My takeaway: I have found that writing historical fiction that touches on issues of interest to readers today (e.g., emigration, race relations, women’s rights, spousal abuse, and political violence) gives me a better perspective on how what has changed over the last 200 years and what remains the same. I hope to educate readers on these issues and give them a sense of how far we’ve come and what work remains undone.
- Some of the questions developmental editors ask as they evaluate your manuscript include:
- Does the world of the story feel complete and “lived in”?
- Is there an empathetic protagonist and a worthy antagonist, with a well-rounded supporting cast?
- Is there enough at stake to make us care about the characters, and do the stakes rise throughout the novel to place obstacles to the protagonist reaching his or her goal?
- Do the protagonist’s choices and emotions drive the story (things don’t just happen to them)?
- Does each chapter drive the plot forward and/or develop the characters (and preferably both)?
- Is there a question presented at the beginning that is answered by the end?
- Is the outcome of the book what readers of this genre will expect?
- My takeaway: I should be a lot more deliberate as I revise my first draft. It would be best to consider these things as I draft, but I should “make a plan and work the plan” once I have a first draft written. Do the big work first, THEN turn to the line-editing (which is easier for me, so I spend a lot of time at it too early in the process).
Writers, what are some lessons you have learned at writing conferences? Have you incorporated those lessons into your writing process?
