RWA Conference 2010

Wow, what a weekend. I've just returned from RWA's annual conference and have to say I've had a ball. Learnt heaps, socialised just a little *wink* and left invigerated and enthused about my writing - what more could you want?

Some things I've learnt:

• I'm not supposed to be able to write my GMC in one sentence. Nuh-uh. If the GMC guru herself, Deb Dixon, can't drill it into me, no-one can. I can write a goal, and a conflict, and a motivation. But I cannot for the life of me write it in that neat little "character wants goal because motivation but can't because conflict" sentence.
• But I also learnt that it's okay if you don't do it that way, and Deb showed us the way she does it, which isn't a little sentence but a detailed table - now that I can do *grin*.
• To write a dominant impression for your character (again Deb Dixon). That is, an adjective + descriptive noun. For example, Hans solo is a cocky smuggler and Princess Leia is a royal rebel.
• That I now view Pretty Woman through very different eyes after Melanie Milburne's From Bin to Bestseller session. Melanie used Robert McKee's five story parts to demonstrate why Pretty Woman works - and in doing so how to apply it to your own ms.
• Denise Rossetti's key to deep pov: you (the author) are in the character's head looking out their eyes, hearing what they hear, feeling what they feel (and that verbs are your friend).
• Any would be muggers need to beware because thanks to Ray Floro I now know how to maim and kill an attacker - and how to turn anything into a weapon. There should probably be a lot of scared husbands around the country right now, lol.

Give it a few more days and I think I'll have to revisit my notes because after such an intensive few days I don't want to let anything slip out of my head.

Thanks for an awesome event, RWA, and I can't wait for the 20th anniversary conference in Melbourne 2011.