Unanimous

Three one-to-one sessions with agents who had read synopsis and  the beginning of  'Step so Grave' but not very far beyond I suspect.  The message - too much waffle at the beginning and the necessity of beginning a crime novel with a body - made more than a little more palatable for my having realised it myself just a couple of days before I arrived in York
One of the results of improving and learning the more you write.
The lessons further hammered home but, what was more important, potential tools to identify and find a solutions also suggested, by Jeremy Sheldon's workshop on 'Four plot problems you never knew you had';  Emma Darwin's Three and Five act structure; and C.M Taylor's 'Using Fatal Flaw to deepen theme and unite plot and character.'
 Another of Emma's workshops,  simple but highly effective, was her  'Plain and perfect, rich and rare.' demonstrating the benefits of working on sentences to make the best of them.

Festival of Writing - September

Booked my place at the Writer's Workshop Festival of Writing in York in September - my second time so I'll have a better grasp on what is going on;  will meet folks I already know and some of those who were on the Self Edit course with me.

Plus six Workshops, one mini-course (with Nicola Morgan, on The Perfect Submission) and two 1:1 sessions with book agents.

And the following week I'll be at Bloody Scotland.

York day 3

At home I prefer to eat alone, but mealtimes here have been stimulating and the perfect example of how, if you sit yourself alone at a table, within five minutes you've been joined by three more folk and quickly find yourself discussing, for example, daft names for detectives, going blind and (inevitably) What Agents Say.

'Tension' followed yesterday's 'Pacing' - a bandying about of words such as conflict, claustrophobia, deadline and morality and a warning not to skim the surface of interleaving events.  Then, 'How to write a sentence' with some yet-to-be-properly-perused handouts.  Followed by the art of plotting.

Also some mild encouragement to continue with my second wip, utilising lessons learnt from the first, which, since it is a far less weildy plot might be simpler.   I say 'might' now rather than the 'should' I used yesterday, since I have been thinking for an hour on the balance/interweaving of plots and sub-plots and trying to decide which of the three main characters should become the mainest of them

Inevitably, if you choose all workshops on similar themes there is overlap.  Some are more properly called lectures, the giver of them reading from prompt cards, some (the best) get us working so the lessons they impart are better understood, but the hard work, enthusiasm of these and the behind-the-scenes work of the organisers - as well as the staff at York University itself - could not be faulted.

S.J Bolton, whose work I so much admire, said when her book is finished, before final submission, she takes four or five days to read the whole thing aloud.  I've just tried that with a couple of paragraphs of mine and seen where they stumble (although at times I think a case can be made for internal reading to be different from aloud)  She also talked of the desperation to see her books upon bookshelves, to the extend where it hurts to go into a bookshop.   I don't have that, not that burning passion about anything really, but I DO want to write the best book possible so I will write and re-write and by the time I'm done the desperation might be there.

After all Sheila Hancock is writing her first novel at the age of eighty!

Now to absorb all I have learnt.

York day 2

Didn't get back to sleep after 3 a.m. wakening so some of the day was a little blurred at the edges.
But Adele Parks address was so stimulating that I did not suffer for long - as she said herself, a ballsy, go-getting lady who has certainly put the effort in and deserves everything she's achieved.
Then I got waylaid by buying books ... whoops.
But one was by Adam Close, who I belatedly realised was Eve Seymour, who so kindly commented yesterday on my wip and who did an excellent workshop on 'Crime and Pacing' - in an over-WARM room (a rarity).
Second highlight of the day - and sufficient to revive me when I was flagging - was Debi Alper's 'Psychic Distance' - basically the best way to add life to writing and lack of it the reason so many books fall flat.  I'd bought one of her books too ...
And the evening Gala Dinner and much wine and conversation ...
                                                                          ... and so to bed.

York, day 1

Wet, wet and cold - it wasn't meant to be like this - and weird to have folk with unknown faces coming up, addressing me (by an almost unrecognised name, chosen in a hurry) and introducing themselves by unknown names.  As one of the ~50% who have a photo of myself on the WordCloud blog, I've made it too easy.  But friendly, yes indeed.

Both my one-to-ones this afternoon.  Both giving me the same message:  must be either/or.  Romance+crime is not marketable.   Also many, many useful points about too diffuse a start, over-long sentences, unidentified MC.  One was given with a lot more warmth than the other, with sweeteners such as I can write, and I do dialogue well - with humour!  Sweeteners enough to have me awake at 3 a.m. planning how to kill off at least 30% of my darlings so as to improve/rewrite.  For the fourth time.