Monday, August 20, 2012

WriteOnCon 2012 Recap: Back 2 Basics


Is it Monday?

*Looks at calendar with a picture of lava creeping across a highway*

Yep. It's Monday. A whole week's gone by without so much as a bleep, but I hope you're ready for some awesome information. What happened at WriteOnCon 2012? I said this year was going to be epic, but wow. I mean, WOW! This last week blew me away more than I thought it would. Made lots of new friends, critiqued queries until my eyes fell out, and received the best feedback on my submission. Ever. I was even lucky enough to have a secret ninja agent visit my query. Sadly, no requests this year, but I'm  motivated for our next run.

Someone also brought virtual juice and bagels for a forum event.

Writers. What a generous lot we are, right?

This year's theme? Back 2 Basics! And to save you the trouble of sifting through the sea of nearly 5,000 attendees for a few days, This is what I took home from this year's WriteOnCon:

- Leah Hultenschmidt gives us The Inside Scoop on querying here.

- Clauire Legrand explains The Differences Between YA and MG here.

- Jessica Martinez talks Sexual Tension Through Dialog here.

- Frank Cole stresses Building Characters Into Real People here.

- Lara Perkins knows When Your MS is Ready to Query here.

- Leigh Bardugo helps Choose The Right Critique Partners here.

And lastly ...

- Jennifer A. Nielsen asks What Is "Voice?" here.

All in all, a most excellent week. I tried my best to keep up with as many friends and new friends as I could, so I apologize if I missed you. Did I ever get a chance to look at your query or submission? If not, comment here and I'll log back on and check it out.

The saddest part is I have to wait another year to do this again.

*sad face*

The best part? Having a whole other year to write new stuff!

What do you think? Did you enjoy the CONference? Thinking of going next year? Do you think I talk about crullers too much?

I'm David, and Grammar Check is the spawn of all evil (mostly)!

24 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed WriteOnCon and am still playing catch up on posts and vlogs. Thanks for the recap!

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  2. Hey, David,

    WOW, you really did take full advantage of what had gone on... EXCELLENT. SO glad you received such great feedback.

    I lurked around a bit, but unfortunately didn't have the time to really benefit from it. As with everything in life, you reap what you sow.

    Thanks for all the GREAT links! I will definitely check them out...

    Also if you have a sec and need a good laugh, I posted a comedic piece for the WHAT IF ... blogfest last week. It's a twisted fairytale, and should put a smile on your face on the Monday morning blues...

    Have a great day.

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  3. Thanks for all the great links and putting this all together. I guess I know what I'll be doing this dreary day.

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  4. Never paid much attention to it. Agents are a bunch of hypocrites anyway.

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  5. Hey, David. I did enjoy the con, especially all of the info on revisions. Really looking forward to applying some new practices to my routine. Glad you got some helpful feedback on your submission. Maybe you can bring a revised work to a local conference, or SCBWI LA or NY, and *fingers crossed* get a request. :)

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  6. I was so busy this year and had no clue what WOC was. It seemed too overwhelming. Next year I will take the time to figure it out. I know one agent who has my full was on there requesting other mss. She was super excited about the entries. I feel like I missed the party bus :/

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  7. Glad you had a great time! I did, too! No ninja agent or requests, but I did get compliments on my pitch and premise from one of the editors who did the twitter session. AND I got a ton of help on my query, which is pretty kick-butt now I must say. Everyone was so nice and helpful. I'll definitely be making this an annual thing! Thanks for all the links!

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  8. WOC was wonderful. My week ended up being extremely hectic, so I didn't get as much done on there as I wanted, but it's always a bonus to be part of that event - no matter what!
    I appreciate your critiques David!

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  9. It's so great that we live in a time period where people can do conferencing online and save a whole bunch of money in both time, registration, and commuting expenses.

    Plus, you get all that media uploaded and saved forever so when you forget something, you can go back and watch it.

    Fantastic idea for sure :)

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  10. I had a good time at Write On Con, even though my genre (historical) was yet again in a small minority. It was good to see more than a handful of other writers who do historical, and real historical, not paranormal, fantasy, or contemporary dressed up in period clothes. I did get some good suggestions for both of the queries I submitted. I also had my gut feeling confirmed that my older historical might be able to be queried as adult, not necessarily only upper YA, since it spans more time than most YAs and brings the character to age 20 at the end.

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  11. It really was the perfect event!!!!

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  12. It was awesome! I got great feedback on my work, but no ninja drive-by's. :( Either way, the great feedback has helped a ton and as soon as my CP's are done with my MS, I'm ready to start re-querying. :)

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  13. Wow. Thanks for the recap, David! :)

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  14. I was there for most of the epicness! Unfortunately, I wasn't ahead of the game enough to submit anything but I got so much out of the forums.

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  15. I LURVED this year's WriteOn Con. Being a part of Peter Knapp's live forum event was a huge eye opener. Gettign a chance to actually see the query-division process from a literary agent's spective really gave me a lot of information to walk away with so I can do better with my own work.

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  16. Write On Con was the best! I can't wait until next year. :)

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  17. Thanks so much for linking to these, David. I just watched/read a couple, and they're fabulous! I'm glad you had an awesome WriteOn Con experience!

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  18. Sounds like you had a blast!! One of these days I'll get to a conference or two ;D

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  19. I missed being in the forums this year because I had company. But I learned from what I saw. I loved Jennifer's post on voice. She's such a master at it too.

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  20. Glad it rocked your world. As I'm working on my final book, probably won't need it next year. But one never knows.

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  21. It was great. And congrats on the win. =) Keeping fingers crossed for you.

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  22. I didn't check out WriteOnCon, but I'm seriously thinking about participating next year. It sounds like a great resource.

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  23. I was on the road all week, so no WriteOnCon for me. Hopefully next year. Bookedmarked this post so I can go through EACH and EVERY one of those links!

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  24. So sad to have missed the con this year. It's definitely on my list for next year! Thanks for the recap.

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