Mad
Anthony Writers Conference
Margaret
S. Hamilton
During
the weekend of November fourth and fifth, I commuted from Cincinnati up I-75 to
a wonderful, intimate, writers workshop in the city of Hamilton.
Who was
Mad Anthony Wayne? A Revolutionary War general who briefly served at Fort
Hamilton, positioned at a strategic bend of the Miami River. Why was he mad?
Lots of speculation, most of it pure fiction. Which is why we found ourselves
in Hamilton, to learn how to become better fiction writers.
A statue
of Alexander Hamilton stands in the middle of High Street, the nearby sidewalk
marked with his quotes. Tired of the
current political scene, I found my favorite: “We must make the best of those
ills which cannot be avoided.” Alexander and I share a family name, but my
ancestors lived in Nova Scotia until the late nineteenth century. No relation.
On
Friday, I met with Hallie Ephron for a critique of the first twelve pages of my
debut novel. She ripped it to shreds, with many suggestions how to improve it. We
stood to walk through a scene—Hallie played the villain and I played the
protagonist. I figured out where the police officer should stand in the scene
and what the officer should say.
Agent
Victoria Skurnick answered my many questions about the pitching process. Friday
evening, she gave an overview of the current publishing scene. Conference
founder Victoria Ryan gave a program on revision.
On
Saturday, Hallie Ephron gave a marathon seven-hour workshop on aspects of
writing a page turner, everything from an intriguing premise to deep point of
view. Someone once asked me to diagram my main character’s arc. I drew a target
with the MC in the bull’s eye, encircled by other major characters, each
shooting an arrow at the MC. Hallie discussed a major improvement on that
concept, with arrows flying to and from the MC, from the soon-to-be-released
new edition of her classic Writing and
Selling your Mystery Novel.
Hallie
also used a passage from Night Night Sleep
Tight to demonstrate writing deep POV, eliminating sense words and adding
internalization, personality, and edge.
The
attendees wrote everything from memoir to YA suspense, with some mysteries and
thrillers thrown in the mix. We ended the workshop late Saturday afternoon,
filled with optimism about our own writing projects and how to move forward.
Sounds like a delightful time! I'm envious of your time with Hallie. My current edition of her book is worn out, I've already pre-ordered the revised.
ReplyDeleteThat sounded like the kind of conference I would enjoy. Good for you attending it. Working with Hallie Ephron sounds like a dream come true. Lucky you!
ReplyDeleteA great opportunity!
ReplyDeleteYou show us clearly how being open constructive criticism, rather than falling into a defensive mode (my first inclination each time, but I quickly talk myself out of it, knowing my writing will not benefit from me closing the door to comments)can help us make progress.
Margaret, that sounds like a wonderful conference. I met Hallie Ephron at a writer's retreat Seascape. She also went over the first 50 pages of my first book and had some very constructive comments. It was a good weekend, and I appreciated her comments even though now all these years later, I don't remember exactly what they were although I'm sure I used them for that book. I like your pictures.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a conference I would love to attend with writers who have achieved a great deal.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful opportunity! I think we are all Hallie fans here!
ReplyDeleteThanks all for your comments. I learned about the Mad Anthony Writers Conference from Hallie's JRW blog. It's a gem: thirty minutes from home, and small enough that a classroom environment is possible.
ReplyDelete