Indianapolis WriteStuff Brings Books & Screenplays

Last weekend's WriteStuff Writers' Boot Camp & Conference was two full days of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions in my backyard of Indianapolis, Indiana. It was unique in the fact that all aspects of writing were covered, not just books and manuscripts.

Friday's Boot Camp was a high-touch, one-on-one classroom style workshop with about 44 attendees. Each person sent a sample of their work ahead of time to the WriteStuff faculty to have their work reviewed professionally and get a critique on where they could improve their work. Throughout the day, "Boot Campers" came in to the Hilton Garden Hotel in Fishers and met for :30 minutes to get invaluable feedback on their works. At 1:00 pm, Andy Murphy and Marcia Ellett conducted a joint class covering everything from creative writing, character development, plot lines, and finding your voice to etiquette tips when approaching a publisher. After a quick :15 minute break, everyone split into one of two groups: Internet marketing (taught by myself) and self-editing tips (taught by Heidi Newman).

Our evening mixer was well-attended, approximately 75 people came for food, drinks, and great networking with other authors. Several AuthorHouse authors came up to me and introduced themselves, most donning a copy of their book of course. It was great to see everyone and put a few faces with some names or emails that I've been corresponding with over the last few months.

Saturday's WriteStuff Writers' Conference was a big success with about 150 attendees and another 25 speakers and guest presenters. The kick-off breakfast with Angelo Pizzo and Diane Willis was amazing, both told very inspiring and heart-felt stories. Angelo talked about his debut into screen writing with his Academy Award Winning film "Hoosiers." Surprisingly, after he spent a year writing the screenplay, he was told by a close friend and mentor that it was terrible so he put it in the back of his closet for over a year. "Don't let anyone squash your dreams," Angelo said after a very inspiring personal story. Diane Willis told her story of how she writes professionally for both television and corporate public relations.

Perhaps the surprise of the morning came before Angelo Pizzo took the stage. It seems that a high school in northern Indiana, Oregon-Davis, won both the girls and boys state basketball championships this year. This is the first time this has ever happened in state history. The athletic director, principal and girl's coach all came down to meet Angelo and talk about their real life "Hoosiers" story (shown to the right). One of the audience members asked during Angelo's Q&A "are you going to write the Oregon-Davis basketball story?" Angelo replied simply "I already have."

The rest of the morning was full of panel discussions covering topics like book to film and how to make a living (or at least get some lunch money) for writing. Jonathan Faber gave a great presentation on the legal side of publishing. For a lawyer, he was sure interesting and had some great stories.

After lunch, we awarded the "Young Voices Short Story Competition" winners with their plaques. Over 100 kids ages 8 to 14 years old submitted an entry to the atFishers.com sponsored contest and the three finalists were present with their parents and family to accept their awards. Tara Brugh, Alex Zoumbaris, and Mary O'Leary took home top honors. If you'd like to read their winning entries, visit WriteStuffWriters.com.

By the end of the day, I was admittedly "tired but inspired." The afternoon workshops were a little more lively than the morning panel discussions. Lou Harry did a bang-up job covering book marketing. Both he and Dick Wolfsie gave countless pointers on how to (and how not to) run a book signing. Between the both of them, they have seen it all when it comes to book signings.