New Faculty Bring New Sessions To Rawlings Writing Workshop In Gainesville
The annual Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Writing the Region Workshop July 20-24 in Gainesville, Florida features new presenters and new sessions for new and returning participants.
Gainesville, FL (PRWEB) June 6, 2005 -- Year after year, writers make an
annual pilgrimage to Gainesville, Florida to learn from some of the best in the
business. They count on the organizers of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Writing
the Region workshop to always provide new sessions that update their skills, and
this year's workshop July 20-24 is no exception.
Workshop participants
will be able to update their skills at sessions by some of the publishing
industry's major players, one of whom is keynote speaker Jim Fusilli, author of
the award-winning Terry Orr detective novels. Fusilli's Orr plies the streets of
the author's own hometown of New York City. While Fusilli allows that his
knowledge of New York is important, he says an author needs to know more about
an area then just facts and figures.
"You can learn about the streets,
shops and architecture of any place in a few minutes on-line these days,"
Fusilli said. "But to know the personality of a place, its energy, its
attitudes, you have to know its soul.
"You have to be able to know more
than what you can see," he said. "You need to know why your characters are where
they are. I have a pretty good understanding of why people come to New York
City, why they stay and why they leave. An understanding of those attitudes
helped form my characters and define my series."
The crime novelist will
tell workshop participants that setting alone will not make a story. Writers
need to make sure their characters are fully developed, but setting has an
integral role in that development.
"As you create characters, you have to
create the world in which the characters will live. I can’t see a character
absent setting," Fusilli said. "You have to ask fundamental questions when
developing characters, and many of the answers require an understanding of how
they will interact with setting."
But setting and character development
aside, there is a business side to writing. And The Writing the Region workshop
has sessions lined up to answer those questions as well.
Doris Booth is
editor-in-chief of authorlink.com, one of the major websites for authors that
brings together agents and publishers looking for new material with authors.
Booth will present a new session that will help authors figure out exactly where
the publishing industry is today.
"The publishing industry is constantly
re-inventing itself to better fit the changing moods of readers, Booth said.
"These movements in the marketplace necessarily impact the author. Editorial
content that was hot five years ago might be unsalable today.
"Authors
need to be aware of trends in editorial content, and how to spot important
developments in the market and stay ahead of the curve," she said.
To
help authors determine if their idea is in synch with the realities of today's
market, Booth and fellow agent Ann Hawkins are offering a different kind of
session in which aspiring novelists can discuss their ideas with the two
publishing professionals. Booth said authors need to have a good handle on what
their story is going to be about.
"Authors need to be able to summarize
the story in one or two sentences--similar to the descriptions in the TV section
of the newspaper," Booth said. "Agents also want to know something about the
characters, the central conflict, the resolution."
For more information,
call toll-free: 1-888-917-7001, or visit the workshop's website at http://www.writingtheregion.com/.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb248005.htm