What I Learned at the 2018 SCWA Pawley’s Island Conference

By Kasie Whitener

I co-hosted the Open Mic on Saturday night at the Pawley’s Island Conference with my friend Mary Sturgill. What I learned was that people are skeptical of Peter Pan and ready for a new interpretation of him. Also that most writers don’t perform their work, they simply read it. And that an open mic should be fun and treated as such if you want people to stay.

For me, the open mic was the highlight of the conference: a chance for writers to come together and read and perform and listen and appreciate the work others put into the craft.

I’m a fiction writer, so I attended the sessions on character development and point of view. These were led by Dr. John Kessel and Therese Anne Fowler respectively. I enjoyed Kessel’s session although it was more lecture style and instructive than interactive and discussion-based. I like instructive because the session leaders are why I’m there. While amateur attendees’ opinions might be interesting, the session leader has the knowledge to apply to the discussion while many attendees’ have only experience or opinion.

What’s the difference?

 Leader (Kessel for example): lose the driver’s license descriptions – hair, eyes, weight
 Attendee (justifying his/her own work): you need to help the reader picture the character.
 Leader: you mean picture what you think the character looks like.
 Attendee: I created the character.
 Leader: then what role does the reader play in creating the character?

When the attendee doesn’t know how to answer, because the attendee (writer) hasn’t considered the reader’s position in the existence of the work, then I know we’re seeing a gulf between the literary folks (Kessel) and the storytellers-who-want-to-be-writers (attendee).

So I learned I’m still in between those. I’m trained as a literary person, meant to understand the nuance of giving vital stats of character (trust the reader to infer necessary character traits from the details I give) and the reader who enjoys a good tall, dark, and handsome protagonist.

Therese Anne Fowler talked about choosing a point of view as a matter of distance. How close does the reader need to be to understand and appreciate the story? How close is too close?

So I learned that the focus on the reader is a big deal. What is the reader’s experience? Is it the kind of experience people buy?

As a voracious reader, I can separate the experiences I’m willing to pay for from the ones I’d rather borrow from the library. And THAT is how you know you have the kind of book agents and publishers want.

Is this an experience the reader will pay for? Gladly?

In the open mic when I detailed Peter Pan getting aggressive with a mermaid, when I made it clear that he was entitled, selfish, and probably psychotic, I learned some people would pay to read that version of the boy who refused to grow up. So, yeah, let’s pitch that.