Conference Director DeSmet Highlights Writers’ Institute
I’ve attended the Writers’ Institute, a three-day annual conference run by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies, on several occasions, and found the information really useful. The speakers are informative, and the writers I took classes with were also sources of both information and inspiration. In the first part of our interview, conference director Chris DeSmet shares what writers attending the conference can expect this year. Tomorrow, she gives tips for making the most of conference opportunities. This year’s Writers’ Institute is March 27-29. Registration opens this week.
WB: What’s new at Writers’ Institute this year?
Writers' Institute is held in the Pyle Center, which overlooks Madison's Lake Mendota.
CD: We’re quite excited about having Hollywood’s top script coach with us, Linda Seger. Many novelists love her, too, for her great story and character analysis techniques. She has a wonderful book for all writers called Creating Unforgettable Characters. We were also lucky to get Les Edgerton to join us. He’ll be talking about novel hooks and how to create your writer’s voice. And we have three literary agents with us and a manager from Los Angeles for those interested in selling their book rights to filmmakers and for screenwriters. We like to add a little spice each year in the mix, so this year Patricia Draznin, who writes for the Huffington Post online, will be joining us to teach humor writing. We’re also particularly pleased to offer a session on how any writer can make money writing for the wide range of websites that use short features, essays, reviews, and other items. Peggy Williams writes for Suite 101 and other websites; she’ll deliver the skinny on how to get invited to be a regular writer for those sites.
WB: Which workshops/panel discussions have been the most popular in past years?
CD: Definitely the agent panels and pitch meetings, and the advanced novel-writing workshops. Workshops based on Hollywood script structure techniques have always had a big following among novelists, too. We always try to feature something from the Hollywood scene.
WB: Highlight trends that you expect to be particularly interesting this year.
CD: Beth Bohn, president of Beth Bohn Management, is coming back from Los Angeles to talk about the television and film industry and how novelists and book writers can sell to it. We’ve rarely featured this aspect at this particular conference, so she should be fun. Beth’s going to talk about how you can sell the rights to your novel or true story or nonfiction book, as well as how to market your ideas for TV series and more. Reality TV, scripted series television, and the internet have opened up many opportunities. It’s no longer just a game for LA writers. LA is looking everywhere for new ideas-including here. Beth attended UW-Oshkosh, by the way, and is from Wisconsin.
WB: What kinds of workshops do you recommend for beginning writers? What about writers who are further along in their careers?
CD: While we have some fairly sophisticated workshops for intermediate to advanced writers this year, we’re also introducing two new workshops for people who have never attended a conference. We’ve had many requests for that, so Marshall Cook is going to offer an early-bird workshop on Friday morning of our event on how to attend a conference and get the most out of it. In addition, a little later on that day he’s teaching “What Every Writer Should Know.” That’s really designed for new writers who have that feeling that all the experienced writers know all the secrets about the business. We all remember what it was like when we first started out-we felt lost and had so much to learn. So Marshall’s going to give new writers a wide range of wisdom on everything from the jargon of writing that you need to know, to scams and how to pitch to an agent or anything else writers want to talk about in that session. New writers will get a lot out of most of the sessions presented, but I think they’ll want to be sure to catch the opening sessions taught by Les Edgerton and Linda Seger, on Friday and Saturday, respectively.