On Tuesday, Sept 24, Ken and I got up at 2:30 am, and left for the airport at 3:45 am. We rarely get up that early anymore. The dog didn't even wake up. Poor Nike, I wonder what he thought later when Ken got him up and I was gone.
My flight to Seattle left about 6:00 am. I had a two-hour layover at Sea-Tac airport, and the flight to Dulles landed at 5:00 pm. By the time I got into the taxi line it was 5:30. I got to Algonkian Regional Park about 6 pm or so, last to arrive. A long day.
The Park has 12 rental cottages along the Potomac river. We took up four of them. #10 was the meeting place. Myself and another woman were in cottage #12. Perfectly nice, our only complaint was the bathroom fan sounded like a jet engine! That evening we went to Lima de Vera's, a Peruvian restaurant. We were a big group, and the food took a long time to arrive. My meal came last, even though they weren't very busy otherwise. It was good food though.
Originally there were 13 of us, plus two leaders, Michael and Joe. But within the first 12 hours two people had to leave unexpectedly, which left 11 participants.
On Wednesday after breakfast we met in a group to read our prepared book "pitches". According to the brief we got beforehand, the pitch should be 150-200 words, and include Protagonist Intro, Inciting Incident, Setting, Stakes, 1st Major Plot Point, and a Cliffhanger. Although they don't have to be in that order.
I should say here that the focus of this particular workshop is to help you write a commercially-viable novel that will (hopefully) get you an agent, and get traditionally published. Agents and publishers are looking for certain qualities in a novel, including a strong active plot with fresh ideas and unique characters that will appeal to readers of your genre. But that is NOT to say you're encouraged to "write to the market". Trad Pub is a long tough road. IF you finish the novel, find an agent, and get a publisher, it could take years for the book to come out in print. Very hard to predict trends that far ahead.
I'm planning to be flexible with this one. I'll try my best to acquire representation and get published, and after that I can, potentially, do things differently. I consider the whole effort a learning experience.
Back to the Pitch. As a former English teacher & recovering rule follower (and retired), I worked on my pitch for days beforehand. It started out long and rambling, but I trimmed and re-worked until it fit the brief. Definitely not perfect!! But it was a place to start.
After each person read their pitch, the leaders spent time asking questions, making suggestions, and helping them think about the pitch components. For example, it can be hard to figure out the required elements if the plot isn't complete, or the "stakes" aren't defined, or the genre isn't clear yet.
A few people at the workshop had already finished their first draft. Others, like me, were some fraction of the way through. But the value of writing a pitch, even at an early stage, is the mental exercise - you have to figure out how to describe the plot and characters in a succinct way, and find a cliffhanger that ties into the plot and leaves the reader wanting to know what happens next. In my case it helped me refine some of my fuzzier plot ideas for the better.
Michael, the organizer, has had a long career in writing, publishing, editing, etc. He didn't like a number of things in my pitch (although at the time it seemed like it was my whole story). He didn't like that I said my Protagonist is middle-aged, and thought dragons, though flying high right now (see what I did there? ;-) are on the way to becoming "over-done". Depending on when I begin submitting this novel, I could run into agent/publishers who say "I don't want any more dragon stories/dragon characters".
The other staff person, Joe, is agented and has published multiple SF/Fantasy novels. He disagreed that dragons are on the way out, so there was discussion about that. Based on experience, Michael said if I want trad pub, there has to be something new/different about the dragon. Fair enough. That's the kind of advice I came for. Homework to do for sure.
The middle-aged thing. Of the 11 attendees, 8 were women in their mid 30's - mid 60's. The others were men. Pretty much all the women said they'd read a fantasy novel with a middle-aged Protagonist. Joe agreed.
OTOH, Michael, having the most experience being in submission meetings with agents and publishers, had a very good point. Publishing house acquisition editors who will hear the pitch are nearly all in their late 20's. They want books that will make money for the company. In that crowd, "older" protagonists are a tough sell. Which brings home to me that I need to keep looking for good comparable books, or "comps". Preferably high fantasy genre with mature protagonists.
In any case, it's not a hill I want to die on, at least not for this particular book. After some thought and discussion, I realized the important thing about my Protagonist is her life experience. She's not a teenage "chosen one". She's raised children, run a farm, and served in her country's military. Her actual age number isn't important. After all, in a fantasy world what does age matter? Humans in fantasy worlds can age at different rates. 51 years old here and 51 years old in my fantasy world are two different things. Different aging rates are something I decided on when I first started writing.
So right on the first day at least two things about my pitch needed fixing. Our pitches took up the whole day, with all the discussion and suggestions. At the end, Joe asked me to send him some material from my novel so he could read it and give feedback. I was very pleased he was there. None of the other people Michael brought in were focused on SF/Fantasy.
I forget where we went for dinner. But afterwards I stayed up until 10-ish, working on the stuff Joe asked for. Not much chance to catch up on missed sleep from traveling, but oh well. I went there to work and I wanted to get as much out of it as possible.
