“If speaking is silver, then listening is
gold.” Turkish proverb
Wow! Another
great James River Writers conference! This year, I only participated in a
Friday master class and a critique session on Sunday. Those two events were
praise-worthy and if they were any indication, the whole conference was a
winner. Upbeat energy hummed throughout.The new venue was attractive and busy with conference-goers and hotel guests. The coffee was hot, the staff friendly and the lobby was easy to navigate. Can’t do much better than that.
It was wonderful
to catch up with writing friends, some of whom I see only occasionally during
the year.
The
pre-conference workshop presented advice and ideas on how to get your novel
published. Even though I’ve heard a lot of the advice before, there were
several excellent ideas that were worth the price of admission.
My critique
session was especially good because the agent gave me specific ideas on how to
make my novel better and encouraged me to take it to the next level. I have
homework and I intend to do every bit of it.
Back to the
advice I opened with: LISTEN! I overheard one agent/editor saying that some of the
authors she’d met with rejected her advice and didn’t want to change their work.
It’s important to not close your mind to ideas that differ from yours. If you
ask for someone’s advice, take time to consider it carefully. It may be just
what you need to rise to the top.
