Friday, August 8, 2008

RWA Conference - Part Two

The RWA conference was a whirlwind of activity. My online chapter, Elements of RWA gathered for breakfast on Friday morning. It was great to see chapter members in person. Elements of RWA is a chapter for writers of novels with romantic elements. This includes mystery/suspense writers, writers of paranormal fiction, and women’s fiction writers (like me).

Friday continued with more workshops, agent and editor pitch appointments, publisher book signings, and the awards luncheon with speaker, Connie Brockway. I attended some great workshops, including one on how to make your own book trailer. I’m hoping that I’ll actually need this skill one day and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to call on DH to help with this.

My favorite workshop of the conference was Save the Cat! by screenwriter and producer, Blake Snyder. Blake taught us the secret to telling great stories. The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (available on his website) outlines the 15 beats of a story. As a musician, I like to think of these as musical beats in the story. This was a fantastic workshop with a great speaker.

The conference wrapped up with the 2008 awards ceremony. Congratulations to Kit Wilkinson for winning the Golden Heart for Best Inspirational Romance! For a complete list of winners, click here.

3 comments:

Shauna Roberts said...

I hope the "Save the Cat" workshop was taped. I bought the book after hearing so much about it, but it always helps to hear about something in a different medium.

Farrah Rochon said...

Thank you so much for letting me know about the "Save the Cat" workshop, Rae Ann. It was awesome!

I want to second your congrats to Kit on winning her Golden Heart.

Rae Ann Parker said...

SHAUNA & FARRAH, the Save The Cat! workshop was amazing. I believe it was taped and I plan to listen to it again. It was great to see you both!