Reno Conference–Day One
I’m going to try and recap the Reno conference as best I can. Unfortunately I didn’t have a digital camera with me, but if I can find some photos from friends, I’ll upload them. I’m not going to worry about Wednesday, as it was mostly just checking in and traveling, so let’s start with Thursday:
Thursday: I attended the Pro Retreat. It was an interesting workshop, and I stayed for most of it since I had submitted the first page and synopsis of my Victorian book, Wedded to the Enemy. The purpose of the retreat was to inspire the unpublished and to encourage us. We listened to a speech by Barbara Samuel which was nice, and then came the agent panel. I wasn’t sure if my stuff would be selected to be read, but it turned out it was. This part was an, er, “educational” experience. The three agents placed an overhead of our work up in front of approximately 500 people and read it aloud and commented on it. Good news and bad news with this–on the one hand, we could get honest feedback of our work. The bad news was, it was a butchery. The first person’s entry was slashed. They didn’t have one nice thing to say about the writing or the synopsis. Same with person #2. And #3. I had a hard time with this because…well, if you’re trying to inspire the unpublished, hacking their work to pieces in front of 500 people isn’t exactly inspiring. While honesty is good, I think it would have been better if the agents had taken an American Idol approach. Someone needed to be the Paula Abdul to salvage the poor writer’s broken ego. Instead, there were pretty much three Simon Cowells.
As for me, I’m pretty thick-skinned. I can take criticism. Also, I knew that my synopsis was awful because I tried to cram a 5 page synopsis into 1 page. I didn’t realize that it would be part of the critique–I thought it was so the agent/editor would have background information. So when my entry came up, I was expecting to be smashed on the synopsis.
To my surprise, they didn’t butcher my writing as much as the other folks. They commented how the heroine’s actions were contradictory to the dialogue (which I did on purpose), but they didn’t say anything truly negative. That made me feel pretty good, such that I didn’t particularly care what they said about the synopsis. You’re not trying to sell a synopsis, after all. Nobody reads those except editors and agents. On the whole, I did get some constructive feedback, so I think it was worth it. Still, I feel badly for the ones who were slammed. They didn’t deserve that. Everyone is a beginner at some point, and I think it’s important to encourage the beginners to keep writing, keep submitting, and overall not to give up. Next year, I hope if they do this again, the agents/editors will try to focus on one strength of the writer and offer some words of hope. Heaven knows there’s enough rejections out there.
Michelle posted in Writing @ 3:26 pm | Viewed 1194 times
Crystal* Says:
Good grief. That is brutal. At least it was anonymous. Of course, I would have been beet red by the time mine appeared on the overhead. Wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to figure out which was mine.
Glad to hear they didn’t rip on yours so much. And maybe someone (who isn’t scared shi*less of them) will mention the fact you can be constructive without being murderous. Who knows? *shrugs*
Crystal*
Michele Says:
For someone who is maybe thinking of trying, you just scared me sh**less.
Maybe I’ll try fanfiction instead..criminy!
Michelle Says:
I just felt awful for those poor first few writers. Too much of what was said wasn’t helpful to them, and it had to hurt.
Mary Says:
Wasn’t the conference fun? I was so glad to meet you. Hugs.
kacey Says:
hi Michelle! Wasn’t it fun???
The pro-retreat…I could see where they were headed and WHY they were going there on the panel at Pro…but I too thought that there is ALWAYS something positive you can say. Yes, it’s a tough business. Yes people need to toughen up. But it was rather brutal.
I also think it might have been better to do the first page and a blurb…like you’d use in a query. A one page synopsis is not used very often. And I sat further back, and you couldn’t read it from the screen anyway. (for those not there, they only read the synopsis from the first entry because of time constraints. The other entries we were just supposed to read from the screen)
The main point made on all the synopsis was…show not only the plot, but the character growth.
I AM grateful to the agents who gave their time to this though. It was very interesting and informative. And to the Pro people who worked so hard to set up the pro retreat.
Rene Says:
An agent came to one of my chapter meetings and ripped on query letters. While she was right, her way of presenting her opinion was hurtful and unnecessarily harsh. This woman is a big name in the business, but I wasn’t all that impressed with her personality. I felt like she was being catty for catty’s sake.
Maybe because it was a Pro retreat, they felt they could be harsher. A Pro isn’t exactly a newbie so maybe they were placing a higher standard on the submissions. I thought there were going to be 4 agents on the panel?
Melissa Says:
I agree with you - there was no need to be so darn harsh, especially if they’re trying to inspire you. Constructive criticism doesn’t have to be mean.
Amy K. Says:
Hey, Michelle! It was so great to meet you!
And you should feel really good about not getting slammed at the panel. It appears if it was bad, they would have told you bluntly. I’d consider yours a success! 
Kelly Says:
Glad to hear you survived it! I heard it was pretty bad. I opted out of the Pro retreat and went to a few educational sessions instead. I’m glad I did. I don’t think I would have found that all that inspiring. From what my traveling companions who did attend told me, it was pretty savage.:fryingpan:
Tori Says:
That’s so mean!
Have these people never heard of CONSTRUCTIVE criticism? Sheesh.
Jill Says:
Enjoyed meeting you Michelle!
Michelle Says:
Jill–it was nice meeting you, too!
Kacey–yes, I do think I learned several things from the panel, and that was great. I learned that a synopsis should be completely character-growth and very little plot. So I was glad I went, even if there were little pools of blood everywhere.
Rene–Evan Fogelman had flight problems. He got in the next day, I believe.
Danica Says:
Oh I remember your entry!! Well, vaguely. Just the contradictory part. And I remember thinking that while they had a good point, it was only the first page, and that you probably were going somewhere cool with it.
I really enjoyed the Pro Retreat, and to be honest, I didn’t have the self confidence to enter anything of mine. And while I thought they were pretty negative with their comments, I got something really valuable from it: I saw how they think about whatever is put in front of them. Which is somewhat depressing, but it was also encouraging because it helped me see what I’m doing wrong with my writing. I honestly could have gone home after that and gotten everything I needed.
It was so good to meet you. I wish I’d had more time to chat with you. (I say that a lot, but I mean it). And I’m really proud of you for submitting to that Pro thing. Like I said, I hadn’t had the guts to do so.
Michelle Says:
Danica–still, it was good to meet you in person. It’s hard sometimes to meet up with everyone. Wish I could have seen your daughter!
I know what you mean about having the guts to put your work up. But overall, I thought they had some good feedback, so I took what I could from that.