Rachael catches up with fellow Write Romantic’s at the RNA Conference.
Last weekend, some of The Write Romantics were in Horsforth, Leeds for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s annual conference.
As ever, it’s a chance to catch up with other writers, share success and even disappointments. The weekend also offers the opportunity for one to one’s with industry professionals. Ten precious minutes to pitch your work to an editor or agent. Jessica had four such appointments and now has some big decisions to make after each professional showed interest in her work.
This year, the line up of talks was great. We all particularly enjoyed Fiona Harper’s session on Romantic Structure. Fiona presented the session using well-known films which made Jessica hungry to revisit the learnings and double-check she was following the great suggestions. Every book, no matter how short or long, is divided into three acts and within these acts are turning points. The strongest example of this for me, was the film Pretty Woman, which I now have to find time to watch again. And why not!
Other sessions we found useful were Andrew Cornick’s Emotional Resilience for Writers which made us all question the NAT’s (Negative Automatic Thoughts) which creep in when things aren’t going well. Also Alison May’s Self-Editing: How to do it effectively proved very popular and made us all rethink how we approach the task of editing.
Of course the RNA conference wouldn’t be complete without the Gala Dinner and here are Sharon, Jessica, myself and Jackie all ready to head off to the dinner.
And the Gala Dinner
And no dinner would be complete without a food photo!
All in all, the four of us had a good and productive weekend. Sharon and I finally got to meet and we all have food for thought on our up and coming writing projects. So watch this space!
Rachael
xx