Last Call: Unbound Book Festival Conversation between Alex George and Eleanor Brown

This is the final installment of my notes and observations from the absolutely fabulous inaugural Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri, last month.

During the last event of the day, Alex George, Unbound Book Festival’s seemingly tireless festival founder and director and author of A Good American, sat down for a conversation with the very personable author of The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown. I found their conversation the most personal, relaxed, and enjoyable activity of the festival.

Alex and Eleanor, self-described “twins,” candidly talked about their writing processes and her soon-to-be-released novel, The Light of Paris, which Eleanor described as a story of “art, passion, and escaping other people’s expectations.”

I felt like I was sitting at a kitchen table with two fascinating and friendly authors chatting about writing; here are a few highlights:

The power of story makes us feel we are not alone; it’s reaching out to people.

The Light of Paris came about after Eleanor discovered letters her grandmother wrote home while she was living in Paris in 1924.

The Light of Paris is set in the Jazz Age in Paris during the 1920s. (Alex is also writing a book set in Paris in the 1920s.)

Eleanor’s latest book is her “never book,” something she said she’d never write -- a parallel narrative with two story lines, including letters and journals.

Parallel narratives have to connect.

Writers must know whose story it is.

First person is tricky because the narrator is unreliable.

Writers cannot control what other people think about their book.

After you’ve written it, the book belongs to the reader.

Research is important to draw forth images of place.

Can’t always be factually true, but must be emotionally true.

Either you plan out on the front end or you’ll have to on the back end.

Eleanor wrote The Weird Sisters “by the seat of my pants” and described her first draft as a “hot mess.”

The Light of Paris was planned out; her first draft took two months.

It’s scary to do something unfamiliar, but think about the “happiness of possibility.”

 

***

After a long, but thoroughly enjoyable, day Diana Graveman and I met up with my Mizzou-student granddaughter. She drove us to Trops, where we stood in a long line behind other thirsty patrons. We each bought a different kind of frozen tropical-flavored drink, which I’d describe as alcoholic snow cones. Yum! It was a delightful way to cap off a wonderful day.

I hope the Unbound Book Festival will become an annual affair. It was an inspiring and educational event for writers and readers alike.

 

And I hope my blog visitors have enjoyed these posts about the festival.

Lessons Learned from My First Page Rodeo

First Page Rodeo Panelists
Margaret, Greg, Eleanor, and George
 

Unbound Book Festival’s First Page Rodeo was one of the most anticipated events of the festival, and not only by me.  Early in the day I overheard several festival-goers remark on how they were looking forward to the event.

The distinguished First Page Rodeo panelists were: Margaret Sutherland Brown, literary agent; Greg Michalson, Publisher of Unbridled Books; Eleanor Brown, NYT best-selling author of The Weird Sisters; and George Hodgman, NYT best-selling author of the memoir Bettyville.

The panel members discussed five “winning” first-pages selected from dozens submitted in advance of the festival. The panel assessed aesthetics, praised, criticized, and commented candidly on the merits of each of the five entries.

 

Confession time: One of the five submissions was mine, but thank goodness the authors’ identities weren’t revealed until the end of the discussion.

Mary, Dianna, and Donna (me)

I was grateful to have some friends with me for moral support. Mary Horner and Dianna Graveman (pictured on the left) sat next to me, while Sarah Kohnle, one of the festival volunteers, cheered me on from inside the auditorium.

By the time the panelists got to my submission, my heart was beating rapidly; I gripped a pen in my sweaty palm as I prepared to document their words of wisdom in my notebook. 

 

When the first word out of an expert panelist’s mouth is “Never!” you know you're in for a rough ride. (The Never! rebuke referred to never submitting a manuscript in single space. Although the FPR submission guidelines called for single-spaced submissions, mine was "singled" out because, in an effort to get as much as I could on my first page, I didn't leave a lot of white space.)

 

Listening to some other issues pointed out with my first page, I became discouraged because I should've known better. My spirits lifted a bit and I hung on to positive feedback about my use of time-centered references, nice description, and turns of phrase.

My First Page Rodeo was a humbling, yet enlightening, experience which I hope to learn from and use to improve my novel.

Here are some FPR lessons learned in the form of Dos and Don’ts. Note: These applied to at least one of the five submissions, but not all applied to mine.

Do:

Bring strength and energy to your work, which is something that can’t be taught

Let the language catch up with emotion

Let the emotional content work its way to the surface

Engage the reader/draw your reader in immediately

Make good use of summary and back story

Answer the question: Why now?

Speed it up!

Know which genre you’re writing in

Develop an engaging voice

Balance your natural strengths

Remember there’s a lot at stake on the first page

Know who your characters are

Let the reader know whose story it is

Be aware of pacing and flow

Create tension

Remember you can only control what is on the page

Write about what you believe in!

Create scenes

Create time-centered references

Begin with the most intriguing aspect right away

Be aware of how your words look on the page

Vary sentence and paragraph lengths

Include nice details and turns of phrase

Take a fresh approach

Create a unique voice

Have an appealing sensibility

Watch syntax and verb tenses

Make dialogue ring true

Avoid using second person

Bring something new

Make the reader want to “get into the boat” with your story

Use a first draft to tell the story to yourself

Start with the thrust of action

Stay in the “now” of the story

Be persistent and courageous

Don’t

Overcook the prose

Push too hard

Create confusion, especially at the beginning

Force the reader to reread to understand

Use too much pedestrian detail, such as "I walked."

Submit in single space

Begin with a year

Start with flashback or a lot of back story

Use too many long paragraphs

Summarize -- scene is better

Have long passages of dialogue

Have too much internalization

Start too early

Every give up!

 
***

I sincerely appreciated the panelists' forthright and generous comments and suggestions, not only of my own first page, but also of the other submissions.

In all honesty, after listening to the panelists' critiques of my work I thought about giving up on my novel and sticking to writing non-fiction. But during the drive back to St. Peters I decided my story is one that needs to be told and I want to tell it.

When I got home I revised my first paragraph and reduced my first page by more than 100 words. To pick up the pace, I varied the paragraph and sentence lengths, which I hope will interject more energy into my story. Taking one panelist's advice, I decided to complete my first draft so I know the story myself before I let anyone else read it.

My larger plan is to restructure my novel to start in the now and weave the back story in later. 

 

It will be a lot of work, but I’m determined to stay in the saddle and ride this story till the end.

 How about you? Are there any items on these lists that caught your attention?