For The Thrill of It: From Book to Screen
by Lorenzo Caraterra
Eight Ways to Writing – and Finishing – Your Novel
by William Bernhardt
Who’s Telling the Story and What They Are Saying
by Steve Berry
And The Winner for Best Supporting Actor is…
by Andrew Gross
Keeping a Book Diary: Simple Secrets That Can Keep Your
Book on Track
by David Hewson
Crafting Big Scenes for the Blockbuster Novel
by Al Zuckerman
Creating Authentic, Tough, Smart Female Protagonist
by Alex Kava, JT Ellison (a writer from Nashville) and Erica
Spindler
From Soups to Nuts: Crafting a Thriller From First Notion
to Completion
by Michael Palmer
What Makes a Hero?
by Donald Maass
One of the most inspiring things about conferences like
Thrillerfest/Craftfest is meeting fellow aspiring writers and/or those that are
book lovers like myself. Writing
is a lonely business and its nice to sit in a meeting room surrounded by people
who suffer through the agony of writing like I do. Yes.
Agony. That seems to be one
of the universal “themes” that I took away from both the workshop leaders and
fellow attendees ; as much as we love writing, it is painful. The other repeating issue is self
doubt. It appears that all
writers, even those that are successful, are full of the insecurity, an
insecurity that our interior editor welcomes and builds upon. Fellowship with other writers helps
defray that very loud interior editor.
So here is where’d I like to give a shout out to my new
friends from Thrillerfest:
Gaby O. Lapus, a lawyer and book reviewer. Check out her blog at: www.startingfreshnyc.com
Beth T. Irwin, former military lawyer and writer. Her blog is: www.btibooks.blogspot.com
Jean Osborn, writer
Steven D. Covey, writer and realtor. His blog is:
RamblingsOnTheFutureOfHumanity.blogspot.com
I'd like to leave you with an antidote that was told during one of my seminars regarding Harper Lee and the writing of To Kill A Mockingbird (which just celebrated its 50th anniversary, check out Gaby's blog about it here: starting fresh ny). Apparently Harper Lee was about halfway through writing To Kill A Mockingbird when she became convinced it sucked. She opened her window and threw the manuscript out into the snow. Soon afterward she had a conversation with her agent. Nobody knows what was said but when she hung up, she went outside, gathered the sheets of paper and went on to finish one of the best American novels ever written.
Seems I am in good company.....
Hi Jen,
It was great meeting you at ThrillerFest (and thank you for the kind words about Starting Fresh). I loved ThrillerFest as well -- it's an amazing experience. I hope to see you there again next year!
Gaby
Posted by: Gaby @ Starting Fresh | August 05, 2010 at 09:49 PM