For the past ten years, Ithaca has hosted the Spring Writes! Literary Arts Festival, featuring local and regional writers and artists who give a variety of presentations on themselves and their work. This year, the festival was held from May 2 to May 5. Out of the forty-three presentations, we were lucky enough to attend six of them, ranging from workshops to readings to panels. By the end of the weekend, we both agreed that it was a worthwhile event. All of the presentations were unique, interesting, and packed full of information and inspiring words from successful authors.
Saturday mid-afternoon brought us to the first event of Spring Writes!, a panel discussion on dialogue in literature. Panelists Jackie Swift, Gigi Vernon, E.C. Barrett, and Summer Keown delved into perhaps the most elusive element of any piece of writing. Dialogue may seem like a simple component, but it can often make or break a story. According to the panelists, every line of dialogue in a novel or short story must fulfill three requirements: it must advance the plot, be realistic, and entertain or engage the reader. The authors also discussed the importance of a mix between narrative and dialogue in writing, stressing that attributions or taglines are best kept simple. The workshop closed with a few tips from the panelists on how to write interesting dialogue in specific situations, including eavesdropping on public conversations, writing a scene in which two characters who hate each other are stuck in an elevator, and interviewing a friend.
Thirty minutes later, we attended a reading workshop led by Michael Barakiva. Intrigued by the workshop’s subject matter, we wondered how Barakiva would approach this taboo subject: sex in Young Adult fiction. According to Barakiva, many YA books are guilty of one of the following: ignoring, shaming, or hypersexualizing teenage sex. Looking at the statistics, he said, it is unrealistic to write a book in which none of the teenage characters are sexually active, similar to how unrealistic it is to tell a story without any gay or bisexual characters. Once he got this across to the audience, he pulled out a laptop and began to read an excerpt of a sex scene from his book Hold My Hand; the scene was not pornographic, unrealistic, nor derogatory. After the reading, Michael reiterated the importance of emotional development in sex scenes and expanded upon his strategies and habits as a writer.
One of our favorite events was a workshop called “The Art of Popular Fiction,” which was led by Jeanne Mackin, Nancy Holzner, and Nancy Ohlin. During the presentation, the three authors read and discussed brief examples of their own work, all based on the same writing prompt. Each author took the prompt in different directions based on their own preferred genre, and the end results ranged from wildly entertaining to thought-provoking. Jeanne Mackin wrote a historical fiction piece about a mother living in France during the Second World War. Nancy Holzner crafted a fairytale about an old woman who revives a frozen bird to hear its song, spinning a harrowing story made effective with imagery and connotation. Nancy Ohlin’s main character wakes up in a world similar to ours, complete with Billie Eilish songs and text messages between best friends. While listening about these authors’ writing processes was a valuable experience in itself, the discussion afterwards was full of tips and tricks helpful for anyone writing in the presented genres.
Jeanne Mackin advised anyone writing historical fiction not to overdo the initial research. The challenge of the genre is fitting together the original story with proper nouns and missed details to make the story come alive. Mackin also emphasized that even potentially disturbing historical events should still be written about. This way, readers can come to terms with history and understand that there is some “evil” in the world. At the same time, Mackin likes to resolve the situations present in her books with satisfying endings, strong women, and a little bit of romance.
When it comes to writing fantasy and horror, Nancy Holzner offered a few key words of advice: don’t over-explain, no matter how tempting it may be. Instead, submerge the reader into the atmosphere as quickly as possible and let them figure things out along the way. If the main character is engaging and relatable, then the reader will accept whatever unexplained magic accompanies them.
On the subject of over-explaining, Nancy Ohlin’s advice to young adult writers overlapped with Holzner’s suggestions. Specifically, when writing complex or controversial topics with an intended moral, Ohlin suggested that it is best to let the reader figure out what’s right or wrong instead of simply stating it outright. Otherwise, the reader will most likely dismiss the story and gain nothing from it. Ohlin’s writing style combines humor with a twinge of cynicism in order to create an accurate representation of the life of a teen. But because Ohlin writes from the perspective of an adult, she often asks others to read over her writing to ensure that her references and speech patterns conform to what a real teenager would say and do. Although Ohlin has written many books, she explained that she still finds this a valuable step in the writing process, helping her catch many errors and inaccuracies.
On Sunday afternoon, we attended a workshop led by Brenna Fitzgerald that focused on “writing from the body.” As we walked into the surprisingly crowded room, we weren’t entirely certain what “writing from the body” meant. But by the end of the workshop, we had analyzed the experience of eating a strawberry, listened to examples of famous sensory writing, and written using all the senses and details from a particular moment. These exercises, meant to connect us to our senses, were also a meditation on memory and detail. As a writer, it’s important to be aware of the sights and smells around us to make the writing more vivid. As writing becomes more realistic and detailed, the reader is able to picture the scene and characters to relate to them better. After listening to presentations on writing techniques and tips, Fitzgerald’s presentation was a welcome reminder that the basis of good descriptive writing comes from details, memories, and senses. Just like a store-bought strawberry, the slight bitterness or imperfections of reality are what makes the story come to life.
The most valuable aspect of the festival was that no matter how long we sat and listened, we were just as eager to explore the next event as before. Each workshop, panel, and reading brought a new perspective to storytelling as authors shared their techniques and strategies. We heard some incredible pieces that were shared by presenters, including If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky, Hold My Hand by Michael Barakiva, and Breakage by Mary Oliver. For writers of any experience level, Spring Writes! makes for a vibrant weekend plan, and attending almost any event within the festival will leave you with tips from successful authors as well as inspiration for your own work.