Plotting, Pace, Promotion and Pinching

When I first started writing I didn’t know any other writers and I was eager to meet some and learn their secrets. I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard it more than once that Oklahoma has more romance writers than any other state. For the experience of meeting other writers, I signed up for a Saturday romance writer’s conference announced in the Sunday Oklahoman.

The conference was held at a hotel on Meridian Avenue near Will Rogers Airport and I had no idea what to expect when I arrived. Romance writers are mostly females, but not all. Of the two hundred or so attendees, I was one of less than a half dozen males.

My sex didn’t seem to matter and I had a great time listening to the speakers and seeing the displays. Romance writers, I learned, are masters (mistresses?) at self promotion. They all had slick, professionally designed postcards, bookmarks and business cards promoting their latest novel. Promotion is vital in the romance writer’s ranks because the average shelf life (time on a super market’s magazine rack, etc.) is much less than thirty days.

All these women knew each other and they all were extremely supportive, plugging their friends books as well as their own. This is only one reason why romance novels are the most popular genre in writing.

As most of you know, long-haired, bare-chested handsome men grace the covers of many romance novels. Some of the cover models are celebrities, like Fabio, and have a following of their own fans. Five of these professional models had flown in for the conference and the highlight was a male model beauty contest.

I was frankly blown away when the event began. The women writers whooped and hollered like roughnecks or long-haul truckers at the Red Dog, a nearby strip club. I even witnessed a few well timed butt pinches as the men paraded through the crowd of ladies from the back of the auditorium to the little stage in front.

The conference was my first experience meeting actual writers, a few quite famous. I learned a lot about plotting, pace and promotion. That was my first writer’s conference. I’ve attended many others since then but I’ve never met another group that knew as much about the four Ps of writing (with this group I had to include pinching) or that had as much fun while doing it.

Louisiana Mystery Writer