Winchester Writers' Festival 2016: Meg Rosoff and Magical Fierceness

Meg Rosoff giving the Keynote Speech
at Winchester Writers' Festival 2016

Rather unbelievably, it’s time for my annual follow-up post on the Winchester Writers’ Festival, where I gave a lecture on self-editing and a day course on building character. There was the usual buzz of creativity and connection as writers milled around, attending readings, talks, courses and one-to-ones with agents, editors and writers like myself.

What do writers talk about at events like this? Well, their writing, of course, their hopes and their struggles, their frustrations and their triumphs. All of this against the backdrop of the annual review of the State of Publishing. We listen to those in the know, those in the trade – but also those in the independent sphere. Both schools of publishing practice have learned to co-exist fairly amicably, really. Perfection doesn’t exist on either side: indie authors sometimes haven’t taken on board the need for professionalism in presentation and content. Trad publishers are often way behind the times in their view of the indie world. But, catching up has been done, on both sides.

Every year the Festival officially opens on Saturday with the Keynote Speech. This year featured Meg Rosoff, with a quirky Powerpoint sequence behind her, discussing the nature of ‘voice’. This it turns out, is your ‘DNA’ as a writer. It’s your individual personality in words. It takes some finding and developing. When found, it creates that state we all seek and sometimes achieve:  the zone, ‘writers’ magic’, the state where you tap into your true self and meaning, where inspiration and expression fuse.

The Stripe Auditorium

In case this all sounds a bit airy-fairy, let me assure you that Meg was sharp as a tack, cynical, acerbic and total fun. She introduced us to the wonderful German word Durchlässigkeit, which means ‘throughness’, for that sense of a perfect flow of energy between conscious and unconscious mind. The term comes from dressage, referring to the harmonius co-operation of rider and horse. She said that a wall exists between the conscious and the unconscious and it’s up to us to establish and encourage connections: ‘If there’s a wall, you won’t get resonance.’

Meg went on to stress that we need to access the ‘dreamy state’ by such practices as morning writing, when ‘the brain hasn’t closed the bridge’. She herself waits for her books to come to her and tell her what their meanings are, what their resonance is. This is a process you can encourage but not force: ‘Sometimes you need to wait for the brain to be ready.’ If you want to home in on what is important to you, storywise, she recommends you to consider the turning points of your life and what they meant to you.

Throughout her speech the audience responded with laughter and murmurs of agreement: she really spoke to us, part-reassuringly, part bracingly. It was clear that writing – which she came to at the age of 46 after a rocky career in advertising – was as frustrating and rewarding to her as it is to the rest of us. She described the months when the book won’t come, the glorious breakthroughs of meaning, the buzz of inspired productivity. She spoke to an audience resonating to her message.

I came away struck in particular by one thing she’d mentioned: early in her career she’d written a pony book, which was no good, she claimed, but which got her an agent. Her agent said, ‘There are no rules. Write as fiercely as you can and I’ll find someone who will read it.’ I loved the idea of fierce writing – and the idea of a champion who would fight for that writing to be read.

During my one-to-one appointments

A couple of hours later I was meeting writers for one-to-ones in a room full of agents and editors, all listening to pitches, all responding to dreams and aspirations in a world that is commercially hard-headed and has always had to be. Yet I know that in that room, a writer or two will have fired up an agent or an editor with enthusiasm and months down the line we’ll hear of the book deal and the dream fulfilled.

Keep crossing that bridge into your inner life and self. Keep writing fiercely. Keep trusting that out there is the agent or editor or reader who will look at your work and ‘get’ it and champion it.

Finally - shout outs to my lovely friends at Winchester: Judith Heneghan, Sara Gangai, Barbara Large, Adrienne Dines, David Simpkin, Judy Waite, Nik Charrett, David Evans - and also to Imogen Cooper, Beverley Birch, Jenny Savill, Eden Sharp and Andrew Weale for fascinating conversations.

After the Festival Dinner

Conference Director Judith Heneghan at the Festival Dinner

With Adrienne Dines

Summer schools, festivals and retreats, Fictionfire by the Spires and new workshops

Fictionfire by the Sea retreat
Saturday dinner at the Porthgwidden Cafe

It's been a while since I posted on Literascribe, mea culpa. So much has happened in the meantime, some of it good, some of it really not! I had joyous times teaching creative writing, first of all at my Fictionfire by the Sea retreat in St Ives in Cornwall, back in April. The best group of writers attended - we shared stories, advice, laughs, gasps at the beauty of the location. I stayed on for a few days after the weekend was over, to get back in touch with my own writing. That was pretty much the last time I felt relaxed! Read on, and you'll find out why.

Giving my talk on self-editing
(thanks to Debbie Young for the photo)

In June I taught for my fifteenth year at the University of Winchester's Writers' Festival - I gave a talk on editing and a day course on character building. It's always lovely to go there and meet again friends and fellow writers again - there's a real reunion feeling about it, but also the chance to make new friends. The plenary speech this year was given by Sebastian Faulkes - a very polished performance.

In the garden of Exeter College -
reception before final dinner

In July and August I taught on two summer school programmes for Oxford University. The first of these is OUSSA, held at Rewley House. I've been teaching on that programme since 2002 and always enjoy it, though it is very intense! Then, over the course of three weeks, I taught advanced fiction writing at the OUDCE creative writing summer school, for the third year. This is held at Exeter College, which is such a beautiful location. I got held up one day because they were filming the new series of Endeavour in the front quad - with the wonderful Roger Allam and Shaun Evans. When I've run Fictionfire day courses at Trinity College, we've coincided with the filming of Lewis - Oxford is always full of film crews!

with fellow tutor Julie Hearn

So, hard work, great company, good fun, fantastic stories being written!

Now for the bad news ...

It was also a summer of delays, distraction, exhaustion and frustration - and I'm still not quite out of the woods yet. I'm not going to go into detail because I can't bear to dwell on it anymore, but since June we've been embroiled in renovation of two rooms in our house after a long-term water leak caused significant damage. The leak had been there for months, perhaps years, so entailed drilling up floors, letting walls and floors dry out, stripping the rooms back, replastering, refitting, decorating etc, etc, etc. Next week, we hope to sign off on the whole process - but believe me my stress levels have been through the roof.

Also raising my blood pressure was my Fictionfire website, which was to be 'migrated' to new software in August. A process which should have taken three weeks took seven and is still ongoing. The site is at least live now and I can take bookings, but for several weeks I could update neither it nor my online shop. I have just discovered I don't have a mailing list sign-up box anymore - argh! So, it's a work in progress ...

Looking ahead, in spite of the website woes, you can now visit the site and book places on the new series of Focus Workshops and Fictionfire by the Spires: Reboot and Troubleshoot, a writers' workshop/retreat weekend here in Oxford from 7-8 November.

The first Focus Workshop will be Breathtaking Thrills on October 24th - if you want to learn how to create tension, excitement and suspense in your fiction, this is the one for you. It's followed by Layers of Meaning on November 21st, Share and Support on November 28th and Does Happiness Write White? on December 5th.

Take a look at the website for full details. There are currently only 5 places left for Fictionfire by the Spires: Reboot and Troubleshoot, so don't wait too long!

Winchester Writers' Conference 2013, Oxford Summer Schools and being published - quite a summer! Part 1

The Stripe and St Alphege buildings
University of Winchester

Summer 2013 has been anything but relaxing - but it's certainly never been boring! it started with the University of Winchester's Writers' Conference where I taught a masters' course on heroes and villains and gave a talk on self-editing which was very well attended. I've been going to Winchester for many years now and I've seen huge changes to the site along the way. This year was no different: new buildings continue to spring up impressively on what is after all a congested hillside. I taught in the new St Alphege Building and stayed in one of the new halls of residence - so new, in fact, that the approach steps hadn't been built! My first en suite year at Winchester, actually, which was great - it's many years since I was a student myself and shared facilities down the corridor were a tolerable option!

The conference, as I've said before, is as much about networking as it is about teaching and being taught. I met up with old friends - Sally Spedding, Adrienne Dines, Sophie King, Denise Watson - and met new ones like Della Galton. Not only did I teach, but I had the opportunity to sell The Chase: I'd just got it out in paperback in time. David Simpson of PG Wells was kind enough to sell it at the conference Book Fair. The rise of self-publishing as a valid means of reaching a readership continues: Amazon had a stand, writers were welcome to show their books and chat about their publishing experience on the 'red sofa', or at the Writer's Shed stand. There was a great atmosphere of curiosity and mutual support and interest - a real buzz.

As the pace was relentless throughout the weekend, I only attended the plenary talk, which took the form of a Q and A session with Julian Fellowes and his wife Emma, called 'We Do Not Know Anything More than You Do'. Julian's answers were full and exuberant, and didn't leave much room for all that many questions, given the very limited time available. His main message was the same as William Goldman's famous aphorism: 'Nobody knows anything'. He reviewed his own passage to mega-success with Downton Abbey - his career a demonstration of the central alchemy of success: a mix of hard work, perseverance, self-belief and good fortune.

His advice to writers was to hold on to your vision. He warned that writing gurus like Robert McKee will end up making you write like everyone else. He remembered an agent telling him to put his script for Snobs in the bin - it sold in 47 countries. He learned that 'the more you try to make the show that everyone will like, the more you make the show that nobody will like', so you should 'make the thing that you will like.'

He is self-disciplined: long ago he made a rule for himself that he would never let 24 hours go by without doing something to advance his cause. He told us 'tenacity is the key factor' and that 'the person for whom your career is super-important is you'. He revealed that writing a screenplay is 'a war of attrition' so you seek an ally, a director or producer 'who wants to make the same film as you do'. He demonstrated the luck-factor, telling us how his Oscar-winning screenplay for Gosford Park came about because Robert Altman couldn't find a writer for the film, then somebody happened to mention his name ...

He quoted actor Albert Finney as saying 'if you've got it, they'll find you', which is enormously reassuring, something for writers to cling to, even if it is perhaps an illusory comfort!

Julian's was a bravura performance, to which his wife made acerbic and witty contributions - especially when describing how she reads his work. Time ran out - plenary speeches at Winchester are always time-challenged! Over the years I've listened to some great writers/entertainers on that platform - Terry Pratchett, Jacqueline Wilson and Michael Morpurgo among them - people with a charismatic combination of industry-knowledge, wit and passionate love of their profession. They come with love of story welded into their DNA. They pronounce from on high, but have experienced the lows. They entertain and inform, sending their audiences away both humbled and elevated.

Barbara Large giving her farewell speech
 at the closing dinner

There was a bittersweet tone to this conference too, because this was the last year to be presided over by Barbara Large, its founder and director for 33 years. Barbara has never lost her enthusiasm for helping what she calls her 'family' of writers. I first met her when, as an unpublished writer seeking the support of a community of writers, I attended the conference back in the 90s. In 2000 she invited me to give a lecture, followed by mini-courses in the years to follow. The closing dinner of the conference was a time for celebration of all she has done, for gratitude and appreciation, for tearfulness - we all wish her happiness in the future and we all know that, whatever else she does, it will involve writing and writers!

I returned to Winchester on the Tuesday after the conference, to run an intensive day workshop called Plot, Polish, Pitch and Promote - the title says it all! (Scroll down for more photos of the conference)

In part 2 of this post, I'll describe the summer schools I taught and how I made it into print three times this season.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The autumn/winter schedule of Fictionfire Workshops is on the website here: titles are Get Inspired, Stay Inspired; Let's Get Spooky; Plotting - What's at Stake?; Share and Support; Spiritual Journeys. In addition, Dr Pauline Kiernan will be guest-tutoring an exciting day course, Screenwriting Techniques for Novelists, on October 19th. I'll also be running my very first Simply Write Retreat on November 9th. The first workshop is on October 5th and booking for that closes on October 2nd. Full details of all of these and how to make your booking are at www.fictionfire.co.uk.

The view from the new hall of residence - steps still under construction!

About to teach my Masters' Course in the St Alphege building

Adrienne Dines saying thank you to Barbara on behalf of us all

With Denise Watson, Sally Spedding and Nik Charrett at the closing dinner

Attracting an agent and agent attractions, Winchester Writers' Conference 2012

Authors come to writers' conferences not only to network with one another and learn writing techniques but to encounter agents and editors. The annual Writers' Conference at the University of Winchester is no exception. Last weekend, hundreds of delegates attended workshops, Masters' Courses, lectures and the conference's famous and hugely popular One-to-One appointments. During my One-to-Ones, where I gave advice on editing and submitting, the fifteen-minute changeovers were signalled by a conference volunteer barking 'Five minutes!', then 'Changeover NOW!' with all the relish of a sergeant-major.

I was there not only to have One-to-Ones but to run my Making Memorable Scenes Masters' Course on Friday and deliver my talk Cracking Openings to a packed room on Saturday. Apart from the usual intense networking, I try to get to a couple of lectures as well. This year, I attended talks given by two agents, Becky Bagnell and David Headley, the latter in conjunction with his client, author Adrian Magson. Both Becky and David were keen to demonstrate the value of an agent to a writer: I don't think that's in doubt when it comes to negotiating contracts, interpreting royalty statements or leaning on publishers who don't play ball with their writers. I also feel that one of the great strengths of an agent - or any agent worth his or her salt - is knowledge of the market and of editors' individual likes and interests at any one time. An agent who can look at your script and envisage the perfect home for it is going to target your submission far more effectively than you can yourself.

Becky was highly-animated, enthusiastic, friendly. She gave the sort of submission package advice - letter/synopsis/three chapters - that every writer should be familiar with. She has come from the world of publishing herself, having been an editor, and it was clear that she feels a lot of passion and will really get behind a book she cares about. However, there were some salutary moments among the glee, so take note. She receives around fifteen scripts a day, so even though you're submitting three chapters, she will probably make a judgement call on the first 1-3 pages. If she's going to reject, she needs 'to reject as quickly as possible'. This is perfectly reasonable: she's an agent looking for a saleable commodity, not an adoring best mate, not an editor who is paid to put in effort to see the gold within the dross and make sure it shines through. She will look, judge, move on. Earlier that day I'd said in my talk how crucial it is to get the opening right because readers in bookshops make quick judgements, as do Kindle readers who've downloaded their free samples. Here too is the stress on the quick return on the reader's investment of attention. Scary, but there it is. Hone that opening!

Becky reads those first three pages and will read on if, and only if 'a world is opening up', because she says 'an agent is looking for any reason to reject' (to hear that sentiment echoed, read Noah Lukeman's The First Five Pages). She wants to believe in the world the writer creates, with its characters and setting and she expects something to intrigue her. She says the sales team at a publishing house will ask 'What's the hook?' What's yours?

When I'm critiquing or editing submissions, I start with the opening chapters and I make it my policy not to look at the synopsis initially, on the grounds that the reader won't have a synopsis sitting there to nudge them towards understanding or make them see the opening in terms of the whole. If they're going to be confused, bored or exasperated, it will happen in the opening - and no wonderful synopsis will ever solve that. Becky also does this, only reading the synopsis to confirm that the engaging opening has the potential to maintain interest as a whole story. She advises your synopsis should be no more than one side long, introducing the main characters, telling a mini-story. If both opening and synopsis have worked for her, she'll return to the covering letter to get a sense of you, the writer, so in your letter remember to include any personal experience that led you to write your book and any writing credentials you have. Don't ever say 'My Mum loves it!'

Even if you are rejected, Becky says you should feel that 'any feedback is an achievement' and reiterates what we all know: that publishers are risk-averse. During both agent talks, members of the audience wanted to know what was going to be hot in the market (apart from hyperventilating unarousing erotica currently riding high in the sales-charts, of course ...) - Becky's view is that it's easier to sell children's books and that historical fiction for the children's market is being requested.

David Headley, on the other hand, feels the children's market is saturated, so he doesn't take on children's writers. So you see, you've got to shop around. Talking of shops, what makes David very interesting as an agent is that, unlike Becky, he has come from the world of bookselling. He runs Goldsboro Books in London - in fact, I blogged about his History in the Court event last autumn and he has Crime in the Court upcoming, on July 3rd, with an amazing roster of authors appearing.

His bookselling background gives David a commercial outlook. His entire talk was sprinkled with the words 'commercial', 'return' and 'market'. Quite right, you may say: this is a business and he clearly sees it as such and is upfront about it. If there is no potential for reward there is no motivation. He didn't mince words about this or about anything else. He thinks self-publishing will burn out because so many are doing it that nobody can stand out, so there will be a return to traditional publishing. He says he works very hard with his client, seeing the novel through as many drafts as it takes before sending it out. His client Adrian Magson was clearly happy with their relationship: there was a lot of laddish joshing going on. However, be warned. He receives around 400 submissions a month and is not interested unless he can see some 'edge' and unless a writer is prepared to trust him and work with him. 'You have to change what the publisher wants changed' and you have to be able to produce two books a year if need be. Woah there! Here's a potential problem both for unknown writers and those who are established, whether traditionally or independently. You as writer strive to create an appetite for your work, but once you've created it you discover it's voracious, an open maw constantly gaping to be filled. Can you do this? I think that with industry and professionalism you can, if you're writing genre fiction where there is a clear model for your work and the elements your reader expects to see in it. But this doesn't apply to all writers, all books. Some stories need a long time to grow and if rushed, they end up pale and leggy like forced plants in a greenhouse.

On a more positive note, David says 'Nothing will stop me reading a good story' - this is the bottom line for all of us. Writing - and reading - damn good stories.

So, what comes out of all this? Yes, there are the usual depressing references to how hard the market is, how cautious the publishers, how genre-oriented the bookshops. As David says, 'You cannot be precious as a writer.' You're entering a world of business, with business-values, not a hobby-group. Agents tell you to write the book that's dear to your heart, then tell you to be market-aware, malleable, commercial, inhumanly productive. They predict upcoming fads in fiction, they spout contradictory messages ...

But in spite of it all, there's hope: key to these talks was my feeling that somewhere, for all of us, is the right agent. One-to-ones and agent-appearances are a kind of speed-dating. They give you the chance to weigh up a potential relationship. Instinct will tell you if you're likely to get along or whether the chemistry isn't there. Write the right book, find the right agent, trust the agent to find the right publisher. Repeat as necessary.

Easy, eh?

Finally, it was a joy, as ever, to meet up with some lovely people at Winchester, to hug old friends, to read new manuscripts, to confirm once again that we writers never quite break free of our dreams, our addiction to writing, no matter what - and that even jaded editors and agents have their dreams too: of THE book, the book that will inspire instant passion - and earn a lot of bucks for its bang.

Four key lessons about writing, editing, publishing and marketing

Trinity College Oxford

Last month I ran four Fictionfire courses here in Oxford, designed to guide writers through all the stages of producing a book, from sourcing first ideas through to marketing. These courses were ambitious in their scope and intense to say the least but all those who attended came away feeling they'd learned a great deal and I learned - or at least reinforced my awareness of - some lessons myself, which I want to share with you.

1   Write the thing! It's easy to get carried away by the notion of selling books and making millions (hollow laugh) but you need to create the story first. This will involve hard graft and commitment - no way round it. You also need to be open to learning and honing your writing skills. Remember, writing is the apprenticeship that never ends.

Oxford's Radcliffe Square, looking stunning on a May morning

2   Once it's written, you have to make it the very best it can be. That first draft is just the start: you must find the self-discipline and dedication to revise it, over and over, bringing in editorial help if need be. If you want to be proud of your work, you need to think like a professional. That means being able to take criticism and suggestions. It means cutting your beloved prose so that the shape of your story can shine through. It means checking every apostrophe. It means going an extra mile. And then another.

3   Don't shut the door to any publishing options. If you're afraid of the digital world, don't be. But don't allow yourself to be herded into the e-publishing corral if you feel it's not the right place for you. Exciting developments have taken place in the past couple of years and they've happened at a dizzying pace. This is wonderful. But it's not for everybody, this e-publishing, self-publishing business. If you're a fan of digital, don't blind yourself to what traditional publishing may still be able to offer you. The key word is options: there are more possibilities open to you than ever before. You choose what's right for you.

4   It's never too early to think about how to market your book. Whether you've chosen traditional publishing or self-publishing, you need to start making contacts and building relationships not just with potential customers but with bloggers, reviewers, fellow writers, reading groups - people who can put the word out about your book. You need also to have a clear sense of what your book is, what it offers the reader and who that reader might be. Think about genre and readership. Think about comparable books/authors. I, for instance, will market The Chase when I republish it, as 'Daphne du Maurier meets Joanne Harris', because it contains mystery and sensory richness, it's set in rural France, it's about people haunted by the past and it's steeped in a sense of place.

Guest speaker Ali Luke

I'd like to thank all the wonderful course attendees for their enthusiasm and stamina! I've loved hearing about the 'Aha!' moments of realisation they experienced and one person has declared that the courses took her 'from desperation to determination'. I also want to give wholehearted thanks to the inspirational Ali Luke of Aliventures and Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn. Their presentations during the second week were fantastic: so well-illustrated, informative, encouraging and exciting!

Guest speaker Joanna Penn

It's summer now (another hollow laugh), so I'm hoping to get down to some of my own writing, making progress with my new novel. I will be running more Focus Workshops at the end of the summer and will post details of these as soon as they are organised. If you're interested in my courses or workshops, please contact me at info@fictionfire.co.uk  - and let me know if there are any particular topics you'd like me to cover. You can also find details of my manuscript appraisal, editing and mentoring services on my website, www.fictionfire.co.uk.

My next teaching gig will be at the Winchester Writers' Conference: I'll be running a Masters' Course, Making Memorable Scenes, on 22nd June and giving a talk on writing Cracking Openings on 23rd June, followed by a day-long workshop on dialogue on 28th June. I may well see you there!

Winchester Conference Write-Up: Barry Cunningham, Barbara Large et al

Well, I'm a bit overdue on my annual review of the Writers' Conference at Winchester, because I'm currently engaged in teaching a summer school for Oxford Uni's Dept for Continuing Education. Here we are, though!

As ever, it was a wild and whirling weekend, fast-paced and exhausting (the vertical hill-location doesn't help). I was delighted to meet up with old friends, especially Sally Spedding, Teri Terry, who was basking in the glory of a book deal with Orchard, and Ali Luke, who's already blogged about my course on character at her site aliventures. Thanks for the kind words, Ali!

I taught that mini-course on the Friday, to an absolutely delightful group of people. We had such fun that it didn't seem like work at all! Apart from the new faces, Ali was there, and so were Paul Budd and Mary Durndell, who've been attending my courses for several years. We had a great time talking about our favourite literary characters and examining all the ways you can bring a character to life, from names to clothes, from habits to catchphrases, from coming at character from the outside to focussing on their internal lives.

On Saturday, this year's Plenary Speaker was publisher Barry Cunningham - a great coincidence given I'd met him in London only the week before at the Times/Chicken House Masterclass (see my previous post). It was also appropriate that he should be speaking because the final Harry Potter film has just come out, with the usual three-ringed circus of publicity going on - and Barry was the publisher at Bloomsbury who first signed her, having been sent Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by her agent Christopher Little. He talked about how J.K. Rowling had been turned down by the world and his wife, and said that 'rejection is part of the process of publishing'. Oh yes. Sadly yes ... (By the way, because I was published by Bloomsbury, I once stood right next to J.K.Rowling at a publisher's party. There you go. My claim to fame. Probably the closest I'll ever come to the megabucks!)

Barry was interested in her but worried about the title including the great big daunting word 'Philosopher'. He invited her to discuss things and although she was extremely nervous, what comes across from Barry's description is her strength: she outlined the plot of the whole 7 book series, and she wanted her hero to grow up during the course of the story, not be locked as most children's series' characters are, into a timeless statis at a certain age. She also refused to change the title. Yay!

What did he do? He told her to get a day job. She wasn't having any. He signed her. The rest, dear readers, is history.

What did he see in her, apart from that single-mindedness and that vision? First of all, a really authentic voice. Then, a story that conveyed the values of friendship and courage. Finally, humour.

He also talked more generally about publishing, about the exciting times ahead: that authors can have a dynamic relationship with their readers through websites and apps, through insights into the process of composition, the alternative endings a book can have. And he feels strongly that kids look to books for their 'anonymous friend' - the friend they can confide in, the friend who shows, by the story they've written, that they still know how it is to be a child, to feel rage and frustration, loneliness, self-questioning, the desire for adventure, the desire to be tested and not found wanting. He said how important it is for children to meet authors and how they rely on 'the still small voice that comes into your head, the author's voice'.

He talked also, very entertainingly, about his early career, where he was in marketing and had to dress up as a Puffin! His first boss, Kay Webb, editor at Puffin, said to him that in a children's book, 'You can get away with one big lie but after that everything has to be true.' I loved that quote: so true that the fictional world you create, whether it's beyond the stars, back in the past or down at the bottom of your garden, must have its own internal consistency, so that your reader, the child you are befriending, can crawl into that world as they would into a den, and feel that it's a special place and that it's their place.

After the Barry Cunningham talk, I had various one-to-one appointments with aspiring writers - and two of them had produced work which I was really impressed by. It won't take much to make them publishable. In the afternoon, I gave my talk, 'Place is Paramount', where I examined the importance of setting in fiction: all the uses you can make of it, all the methods by which you can make it live for the reader. The title of the talk was a phrase Annie Proulx, one of my favourite writers, used in an interview I once saw.

Had a little lie-down after that! On the Saturday evening, it was time for food, drink, speeches and generally making merry. Jane Wenham-Jones bravely battled with a recalcitrant microphone to entertain us with her after-dinner speech and the toastmaster gave us collective heart failure with his over-enthusiastic banging of the gavel. Finally, many thanks were given to Barbara Large, who founded this conference decades ago (this was its 31st year!) and who is unfailingly idealistic in a cynical world and indefatigable when an event of this demands organisational talents of a high order. I've attended the conference both as a delegate and a teacher for so many years now and she is always warm and welcoming: congratulations, Barbara, on another year, and may there be many many more!

Last minute chance to book Winchester Writers' Conference

Just a quick mention before I write my main blog-post of the day: even though booking officially closed last week, I understand the Writers' Conference in Winchester can still take some last-minute phone bookings: call 01962 826367. Check out what's on offer at the conference website.

Writers' Conference Winchester - Last Day to Book!

If you were thinking of attending next week's Writers' Conference in Winchester, today is essentially the last day to make your booking, as tomorrow (22nd June) is the latest date for accepting applications.

The conference offers all sorts of opportunities - you can attend for the full week, the weekend or the day. Workshops, mini-courses and talks galore are available, along with the chance to book one-to-one appointments with writers, agents and editors.

I'll be teaching my course on Character Building next Friday (1st July) and will be giving a talk on the importance of location in your writing on Saturday 2nd July. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and new faces!

Let's hope the weather perks up! Last year was glorious. For my previous posts on the Conference go to 2010, 2009 and 2008, to get a sense of what goes on. Also, get over to the Conference website and enjoy a good browse.