Workshops! The conference was opened by Katie Fforde and she was followed by the lovely Jan Jones with a celebration of members achievements. I love this part of the conference. As a unpublished writer I absolutely loved to hear who had made sales, got an agent, won a contest. It gave me hope that my name might be one of those read out one year. We then had a panel of members with one author representing each decade of membership from the sixties onwards. This was fun as we noted what had changed and what had remained the same.
On Saturday the first workshop I attened was Jay Dixon's Adding Colour to your novel. As someone who writes a rather sparse first draft I found this interesting especially when she discussed colour in the Middle Ages and the symbolism of colour.
Then I gave my own workshop on secondary characters.
Then it was the fabulous Kate Walker talking about conflict - a useful reminder to me on internal conflict and upping the stakes.
After lunch I played hooky for an hour and went for a wander around Greenwich so missing one of the workshops I'd planned to attend. I returned in time for Imogen Howson's talk on What Samhain are looking for. As a Samhain author I was interested to know if they were going to be interested in taking more romances at the heat level that I write at. A big factor in why I haven't sent them anything new for a long time. Immi is always a mine of information and I love working with Samhain so that was good.
Then I went to Liz Fenwick and Kate Johnson's Social Media workshop. I am very undecided about Twitter and I'm still undecided about it but at least now I know more information.
Sunday was a fab day - Two brilliant workshops.
Sarah Duncan - Mind the Gap crossing the publishing divide. Very useful tips and good practical advice as always from Sarah.
This was followed by HW Fisher Money Matters - financial advice for writers - very useful!
I wish I could have stayed longer but maybe next year...
5 comments:
Nell, thank you for the reports for those of us who couldn't make it. P x
Yes, thanks Nell :0) Look forward to hearing more at the Coffee Crew's next meet up *g*
It was great to see you again Nell. It was hot at the weekend. I too am still undecided about Twitter and from what I heard it looks a bit complicated. I've put up my report on my blog for Day One.
BTW, I was meant to tell you but Mum liked Crystal and said that the bit that made her titter was the bit at the front about you singing in supermarkets.
Yes, the coffee crew needs a meet up.
Julie, I do get a bit carried away when music is playing and start humming and singing along. As I couldn't carry a tune in a bucket it's not surprising people pretend they aren't with me.
Twitter can be very simple, but the problem is we were trying to appeal to people who wanted to use Twitter more effectively as well as those who has never used it before. We just didn't have enough time to fit it all in!
Remind me, and when I'm done with this weekend's festival I might try and put up an online guide to it.
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