PNWA - Conference

The Pacific Northwest Writer's Association Conference, in Seattle. This was my second time for this conference. There is a temptation to compare to the Writer's Weekend, but the truth is that the audiences are different.

Two presenters, Louise Marley (or on blogspot) and Caitlin Kittredge were at both Writer's Weekend and PNWA. I attended these at Writer's Weekend, but did not repeat at PNWA. I know Louise's was fundamentally the same at both.

Louise focused on point of view (POV) and she has some good examples from literature and film. POV can be troublesome for many of us. I don't have problems with understanding POV, nor with making that transition, but I tend to like multiple POVs and many authors and readers dislike too many POVs. I tend to drift to the Robert Jordan way of writing (not as good, of course, but the multiple POV and complex characters). (Side note, Jordan is, in his own words, Still Kicking. I wish him the best in fighting of his illness).

I digress. Louise has a well done, polished, set of thoughts on POV.

Caitlin looked tired at PNWA. The problem with writing is that it is easily a FTE position on its own. Caitlin is burning the candle at three ends. At Writer's Weekend her presentation was freeform, but a lot of fun. She is up front and honest about her recent (and upcoming) success. It is refreshing to have an author not be coy about some things. She focused on Urban Fantasy and some of the world building aspects.

The PNWA, like all writer's conferences, exists for a number of reasons. One is to allow editors and agents to network. The meetings with editors help boost the writer's feeling of hope, but the editors are pretty up front that the odds of them picking up for publication one of your manuscripts is close to zero. One told me she "almost took one once in seven years" and six conferences a year. Given that each conference leads to probably ten to twenty submissions, that is a "one almost in 360." Another admitted that he has never had a manuscript that was published come out of a conference. All this is to say, editors are there for other reasons, not to get your writing. Reality bites, but knowledge is good.

Last year, as part of my informal poll, almost every agent that heard a pitch would say "send me the first 50 pages" ... this year from informal polling that is not even true anymore. I heard many say that the agent told them no thanks, or you need to change your work. (I am paraphrasing of course).

There are a host of other presentors, many worthwhile. However after four conferences, I think I have reached the saturation point. I think poor Joseph Campbell is rolling, spinning, in his grave. His Hero of a Thousand Faces ... taken to the Hero's Journey ... is beaten to death and yes you can shoehorn every story in that model, if you break a few toes and don't mind that you are walking with a limp. What did the people who taught popular fiction do before Bill Moyers and George Lucas brought this to the masses?

Off to do something productive.