“One-eyed PI Dick T. Racy hears that his nemesis Stan Stankowski is in town and decides to keep an eye out for him, because that’s all he had left.”
That was the winning sentence of the Worst Sentence Contest at the 35th Midwest Writers Workshop in Muncie, Indiana (July 2008). But don’t get the impression that the MWW celebrates poor writing—just the opposite! It is the MWW’s goal to “improve writing and enhance marketing potential.”
Participants are offered a Thursday through Saturday schedule (Part I) or a Friday and Saturday schedule (Part II). The Workshop’s website is www.midwestwriters.org if you want to take a look. Part I, Thursday, focused on intensive workshop sessions. Lunch was provided, and there was a social time for chatting and book signings (participants were encouraged to bring their published work to sell). Thursday evening’s speaker advised “How to Get the Most Out of a Writer’s Workshop.”
I attended Part II of the workshop, which began with Thursday evening’s speaker. Friday morning started off with an Agent Panel comprised of agents Anne Hawkins, Josh Getzler, and Amy Tipton. There were back to back one-hour lectures throughout the day with such topics as “Writing a Realistic Crime Scene,” “Writing a Winning Proposal,” “Why Writers Read,” and “The Poetry Project.” There were lectures that focused on mystery writing, and on freelance writing, but no screenwriting topics. Friday’s breakfast, lunch, and a pizza party dinner were included in the conference cost. The film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, was shown, and Tasha Alexander, who wrote a novelization of the film, led a discussion.
Saturday’s buffet breakfast had participants seated at tables of seven with an “expert” (my first expert was Anne Hawkins, an agent with John Hawkins & Associates), and after twenty-minute intervals, participants switched to another expert’s table. (We talked with a total of four experts.) Saturday lunch was on our own.
I had a private ten-minute session with Josh Getzler, of Writers House. He, Anne Hawkins, and Amy Tipton (FinePrint Literary Management) handled ten-minute pitches Friday and Saturday. As instructed, I brought with me a one-page query letter that included a two-sentence pitch of my book, a one-page synopsis, prologue, and first chapter. (Nonfiction writers were to bring a full book proposal, introduction, and first chapter.)
Participants were encouraged to leave a five-page manuscript in the library for informal feedback from their peers at the conference. This was done on an as-you-feel-like-it basis. There was also an option to pay $25 to have a fifteen-minute formal evaluation of a manuscript by MWW faculty. Several took advantage of this opportunity to work with a faculty member.
In addition to the contest for the worst sentence, there was also The Great Midwest Writers Write-Off, whose challenge was to write your best first one hundred words in your genre. I did not participate in that contest, or attend the closing dinner, to hear the prizewinning text.
Hoosier hospitality abounded, the snacks/meals were yummy and plentiful, and all activities took place in the Ball State University Alumni Center, with free parking in an adjacent lot. There are several modestly-priced hotels within a mile of the campus, which is easy to find. I live near Muncie, but stayed in a hotel rather than commute.
I would have preferred to pitch to more than one agent, and as a literary fiction writer, I was in the minority—there were several romance and mystery writers, not to mention freelancers, in attendance. However, the workshop sessions I attended were good enough to make this a worthwhile conference for the price. It seemed to me that a large percentage of participants did pitch a book, and a large percentage had attended the conference before. I’ll keep my eye on their offerings for 2009.
