And A Good Time Was Had By All

Weekend Update: June 15-16, 2024 And I Chose Writing

And A Good Time Was Had By All

Kate Flora: Yesterday, members of the crime writing community gathered at the Glickman Library at the University of Maine for what I believe was the 10th annual Maine Crime Wave sponsored by Maine Writers and Publishers. Although writers spend most of their time toiling alone at their desks, we love getting together and hearing what everyone else is working on. We love engaging panels. We love celebrating writers who have sold a new book or a new short story or who have found an agent. It’s a very generous community.

I’ve been going to conferences for decades and it’s a rare one where I don’t come home thinking about how to revise my current work in progress. That was definitely the case yesterday listening the keynote speaker, Juliet Grames from SoHo Press, talk about The Genre Writer as Artist, Editor, and Publishing Professional. I had to work to keep my mind on her talk after she had me thinking about how to enhance the scenes I’d just written, but her blunt statement that the publishing industry is dysfunctional and makes no sense, using the delicious phrase “a maelstrom of malfeasance.” She told us we can’t control for luck or nepotism, but you can control your craft.

She reminded us to be mindful of the reader and ask whether your work meet the needs of readers. That craft consists of three overlapping circles: story telling, ideology or interiority or what’s in your character’s head, and language. What is keeping readers turning the pages? Does your story have voice? Use revision to tune up language. Remember that it takes stamina to do the amount of self-editing your book probably needs. Is the book too long or too short? Does it have a baggy middle. Tighten your pacing and your scenes. Suggested a book by Matt Bell on editing: Refuse to Be Dumb. Described a method of editing called “the worse sentence project” where you delete the worst sentence on every page. Work harder to make every sentence more interesting. Use specificity to amp up your atmosphere/sense of place.

Great advice. And great lines were definitely in attendance. I try to scribble things down and usually either only get half phrases or can’t read what I’ve written, but here are some of the other gems I recorded. Crime Master Award winner Michael Koryta (a fabulous writer) reminded us that: Nothing seems as cool as when you were new. A feeling that can be recaptured by trying something new and different in another corner of the big crime writing tent. He also shared something we should always keep in mind: Terror is in the anticipation of the bang.

Approach your writing career with strategic pessimism.

Read outside your chosen genre to open up new neural pathways.

I was honored to receive the Lea Wait Award. Lea was a dear friend and blogged here for many years.

Here are some photos of the event: