Lakefly Writers Conference: Saturday

It's worth repeating: A fantastic program awaits you at the Lakefly Writers Conference, Friday and and Saturday, May 6-7 at the Oshkosh Convention Center.

Saturday opens with the Unlikely Secrets of Literary Success with keynote speaker Dean Robbins. Robbins is an award-winning children’s author and journalist whose nonfiction picture books that have been praised in The New York Times, USA Today, and other publications. As a journalist, Dean has written for USA Today, The New York Daily News, The Village Voice, the Grammys, Wisconsin Public Radio, and dozens of other media outlets, along with serving as editor in chief of the alternative newsweekly Isthmus. He has won state and national awards for arts writing, news writing, and multimedia journalism. Dean also draws on his journalism background to interview the subjects of his books, such as Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean and NASA computer whiz Margaret Hamilton. 

Other programs on the schedule include:

Keeping Your Scenes Afloat, Ryan R. Campbell

Sensing some sink on the page? Is a lack of direction threatening to tear your characters asunder? Then batten down the hatches; you might have a case of scene sink! In this seminar, writers will learn how to keep their scenes above water through the use of goal-oriented storytelling. After collecting all five of the fun floaties of scene structure, enrollees will be more ready than ever to send their manuscripts sailing to greatness!

Building Blocks of a Successful Mystery Series, Patricia Skalka 

Planning a mystery series? Often the first book is the easiest to write! You love your characters and plot, and you want your readers to love them as well. Unfortunately, not every good idea lends itself to a series. In this craft session, we’ll consider the advantages and disadvantages of stand-alone versus series books. We’ll analyze the types of protagonists, settings, themes, and scope that can carry the weight of three, four, or even more books. We’ll also consider the challenges you face when you move past the first book.

Romancing The Story: Ratcheting Emotional Tension Through Romantic Conflict, 
Bobbi Dumas 

Whether you’re writing a classic romance novel or dramatic literary fiction, most storylines benefit from some exploration of the romantic journey. The love story is universally appealing and accessible. Including one in a manuscript can automatically make emotional stakes higher and more conflicted. This workshop will include a quick introduction to “the romance novel” and offer practical tips to adding romantic tension to any work-in-progress, as well as powerful take-aways for creating and maintaining deep-seated character conflict that you can use on any project, love story or not. 

Literary Cabarets, Candace Decker & Ryan Cappleman

Join Candace Decker and Ryan Cappleman through story and song as they celebrate writers, literary influences and inspiring authors in this unique cabaret performance.

Well Begun is Half Done: Successful Story Openings, William Gillard

In this workshop, we'll look at successful short story openings from a variety of genres to discover how to craft an opening so that a reader or editor will want to continue reading after the first page, which is our goal, after all!

Subject Matter Specialty: Firefighting, Greg Renz

What’s it like to respond to a raging fire with children trapped inside and have to make split-second life and death decisions on how best to rescue them? How do you get that emotion along with the chaotic scene onto the page for the reader? With twenty-eight years as an urban firefighter in Milwaukee followed by a ten-year journey to publication of his multi-award-winning novel, Renz will offer insight into writing authentic scenes that keep the reader riveted to the page. 

Building Your Author Platform Before You’ve Written a Book, 
Maggie Smith

Many authors start thinking about book marketing the day they sign with a publisher, but that’s too late. If you hope to get strong traction for your novel, you need to start building your author platform long before, both on social media and in the wider writing community. In this fast-paced interactive workshop, you’ll learn a year-long step-by-step process for doing that, from what to put on an author website when you don’t have a book, to building a network of influencers on social media, and how to score blurbs from well-known authors in your genre. Whether you go indie, or sign with a small or hybrid press, or land an agent and a contract with a major house, you’ll leave with a plan to strategically position yourself in today’s crowded book marketplace.

Essayer is French for “to try.” Christy Wopat

What better way to venture into the unknown than by writing a personal essay? Every time we begin an essay, we have no idea where it is going to take us, only that we can use it to explore and improve the craft of writing and use our words to connect with others. In this workshop, Christy will walk you through the steps of writing a personal essay, from idea building through revision and seeking publication. Attendees will leave with an action plan for next steps and some great resources for publication.

All of this in addition to pitches, the Lakefly Marketplace and writing contest awards ceremony! 

The Lakefly Writers Conference will be held May 6-7 at the Oshkosh Convention Center.  $75 advance registration; includes lunch on Saturday. $85.00 walk-in; does not include lunch. Students save $10 through April 30; use code WRITENOW

For more information or to register, please visit https://www.lakeflywriters.org/

The conference is sponsored by the Oshkosh Public Library in partnership with the Oshkosh Area Writers Club.Here