“If you are destined to become a writer, you can’t help it. If you can help it, you aren’t destined to become a writer. The frustrations and disappointments, not even to mention the unspeakable loneliness, are too unbearable for anyone who doesn’t have a deep sense of being unable to avoid writing.” ― Donald Harington
Saturday, I attended Writers’ Day sponsored by the NH Writers’ Project. The purpose of this event held at Southern New Hampshire University was to bring writers from all over the state and beyond together to share ideas, learn something new and network with other writers. This was the fourth time I have attended Writers’ Day and it just keeps getting better. The NH Writers’ Project is to be congratulated for doing a great job.
The keynote speaker was Archer Mayer, the Vermont-based author of a series of books featuring detective Joe Gunther. He is a past winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction—the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. Archer is a death investigator for Vermont’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and a detective for the Windham County Sheriff’s Office. He could also make a living as a stand-up comic because he kept his audience laughing even while warning us that most fiction writers do not end up rich. Maybe we laughed because most of us had already figured that out.
I attended four sessions:
- Your Book Starts Here: Three-Act Structure for Book Writers in All Genres
- Writing Through Our Fears
- Your Characters’ Characteristics
- Networking for Manchester and Nashua Writers
I learned something valuable from each of them.
Your Book Starts Here: Three-Act Structure for Book Writers in All Genres presented by Mary Carroll Moore was most intriguing, providing a new way to look at building plot. The premise behind this is to use a series of questions to plot your story. Ms. Moore did a great job illustrating how to do exactly that with sticky notes. (I love sticky notes because you can move them around.) I immediately downloaded her book (Come on, you knew that I would.)
In Writing Through Your Fears, Mary Johnson presented strategies for overcoming the terror all writers face sooner or later. Usually, this shows up as a snarky voice in your ear saying, “What makes you think anyone will ever want to read this? Huh?” This annoying voice who I picture as coming from an obnoxious mandrill named Simon can bring me to despair.
Your Characters’ Characteristics presented by Ann Joslin Williams offered a series of writing exercises and charts to help you build your characters by defining things like: what they eat, their greatest fears, favorite stuff, etc.
Networking for Manchester and Nashua Writers brought local writers together and gave us a chance to describe what we are writing or planning to write.
I had lunch with a fellow member of my Souhegan Writers Group, Cherie Konyha Greene, whose novel will be one to watch for, and several other writers I had just met. Informal networking at its best.
Writers’ Day provides an opportunity to help writers strengthen their knowledge of the craft of writing but I think its appeal speaks to something deeper. Writing is lonely, the work for the most part being done alone and rejected and criticized far more often than accepted. Writers’ Day provides the opportunity to do something we all try to do from the moment we leave the protection of our mothers’ arms: Make a friend.