Kettle CornWell, it’s over.

WOTS has come and gone, again. Another sandwich, another street market, another enchanting weekend reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones.

This year focused heavily on memoir. While I did take a few such workshops, I had the opportunity to take other classes I normally wouldn’t have because typically I’d be sitting in workshops focused more on middle grade, or writing for children, or fantasy – anything along those lines. Instead, I took a mystery writing class one day and a romance writing class the other. Two I wouldn’t have considered in other years. Interestingly, they were both a log of fun and my notebook is splotched with ink during those sessions. So I learned quite a bit.

I think it’s important to be reminded that even though we may not think those classes are for us (in my case mystery or romance), most stories contain almost all elements because in general, our attention spans are waning. Writers need to know how to engage and sometimes that means playing to all our emotions. So in your average story, you may have elements of humor, intrigue (mystery!), relationships/crushes/love/love triangles (hence, the need for well-written romance), adventure, suspense (perhaps mystery again), and so forth. No one story is any one category. There seem to always be multiple forces at work. That’s what makes reading and writing so remarkable – it’s depth.

It was a great reminder and refresher. I had the opportunity to revisit some of my plots and ideas and consider what other twists could I add, or what could I simply develop to give my story more depth – what could I do to have it resonate more with my readers?

What about you? What are you working on where you could tweak it a little to give your characters or story more depth?

Best thing about conferences: new perspective.

Well, and the kettle corn at the Edmond’s Farmers Market.