Conference Follow-Up

I'm glad to have had the opportunity to go to the Writers' Guild conference in Cape. Some of the highlights were Christine Taylor-Butler speaking on juvenile fiction, Harvey Stanbrough speaking on how to lose a reader, and Kate Angelella speaking on the publishing process.

The critique sessions were a little nerve-wracking for me. I went in with confidence, but the vast majority of the pages critiqued were absolutely ripped up. I agreed with most of what was being said, but I wasn't ready to hear it about my own work. Lee Goldberg was playing the role of Simon Cowell (honest, accurate, and brutal). He squashed a few dozen dreams over a couple hours and the ground them into the dirt to make sure they were absolutely extinguished. I thought that he at times just looking for things to pick on because he'd linger on some minor problems in the very good submissions. He seemed genuinely offended at some of the worst ones.

When Dreamcatcher was read, he started cracking up at the second line, which had been a bad sign in previous submissions. The reader started laughing, too. Then, when the reading was over, he quickly announced he wouldn't change a thing. And my heart did cartwheels down the hall, while I sat motionless in my chair, waiting for it to return. Just as good, though, Kate also liked Dreamcatcher, but mentioned she'd like more forward action on the first page. Something had been nagging me about the intro, and she really hit on it. I made some very simple changes, and it made a tremendous difference.

This book is in good shape. I can't wait to see how far I can go with it.