Held at the Old Stone Inn in Niagara Falls for four days in October 2011, the Algonkian-Niagara Conference was a dynamic introduction into marketing your novel. About 30 aspiring writers from across Ontario gathered to learn platform-premise-execution and to practice their best pitch for feedback from instructors and their peers. The key learning experience for me was the one-on-one session with agents and editors where writers gave their best pitch in hopes of getting published. As a writer I need to link to the agent and/or editor who most closely represents my style of mainstream fiction and to focus on my log line.
Workshops were provided by Terry Fallis, a Stephen Leacock prize winner, on the journey to publication and Barbara Kyle, a successful historical fiction writer, on the importance of story structure and the first 30 pages. Chief Editor of Algonkian, Michael Neff provided a session on plot devices and techniques such as point-of view characters, foreshadowing, exposition, flashbacks and how to use conflict and suspense with examples from literary classics.
I enjoyed the free time with fellow writers to listen to their journeys in the practice of creative writing and their personal struggles to gain recognition and publication. I'd recommend this conference to others if the opportunity arises.
No comments:
Post a Comment