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Feast of words WAILEA, MAUI -- "Madonna" wandered from lectures on how to write a screenplay to panels on how to market children books in hope of getting her unfinished, untitled collection of short stories into print.
fueled lively writers’
conference
The wannabes and the
The winners
already there mixed, mingled
and struck dealsBy Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin"My plan for marketing is self-dynamic," Madonna, of San Diego, tells a new friend.
Nearby, a man named "DB," with a shoulder- length ponytail and trimmed goatee, talks heatedly "about franchising and copywriting plot lines" with a woman wearing a neon-colored sarong and 4-inch platform shoes.
"It's visionary," she interrupted. "It could absolutely cure writer's block!"
Nearly a thousand wannabe and already published writers seeking agents, publishers, encouragement, advice on how to fix their screenplay or unfinished novel, strategies to break into Hollywood, even "Guerrilla Marketing," gathered since Friday at the eighth annual, four-day Maui Writers Conference at the Grand Wailea Resort, Hotel & Spa for insider tips from the experts.
"This is one-stop shopping for any kind of beginning writer," said John Tullius, who founded the conference with his wife Shannon. "There is no writers' event in the world where there are so many successful writers, publishers, agents, or film and television producers who actually want to talk to the unknown writers to help."What attendees learn quickly is that writers come in all ages, sizes, backgrounds and have diverse goals from "just wanting to be heard," "entertain children," to making their fortune "so I can live in Malibu."
But the 910 participants also learned that "writing is a business, a commodity" and to be a professional writer you must treat it like any other job.
"My job," said author John Saul, "is to write one best-seller a year. And I do that by being focused, blocking everything out when I write, concentrating probably even when I'm sleeping on that story."
Saul's first book, "Suffer the Children," within a months of its 1997 publication was on the New York Times' best-seller list. His nearly two dozen subsequent books also have made that list.
"Writing is extremely difficult and exhausting," Saul said. "Any writer who says it isn't, can't be working hard enough. It's the process of giving birth to words."
Princeville, Kauai, resident John Howard, a 70-year-old retired teacher from the San Francisco Bay area, always treated writing as a hobby -- "I'm not in it to make money" -- until he attended his first MWC last year.
"I still consider myself a neophyte," said Howard, who writes detective stories and "thrillers. "But I come here for encouragement to keep writing, get recharged, keep persevering."
Howard also learned, to his surprise, that published and unpublished writers are "very extroverted and good storytellers."
He arrived with bits and pieces of four of his manuscripts in search of an agent. Following a pre-arranged Professional Consultation," Howard said the agent wanted to see his completed work.
"I got tossed a lifeline," he said.
Sitting just outside the consultation room, Linda Boyden, of Pukalani on the Big Island, and Jeanine Kitchel, of Haiku, Maui, talk spiritedly, their expressions switching between laughs and frowns.
Kitchel, 51, writes six months a year when she and her husband are living on Maui; the other six months the couple manage their bookstore in Puerto Morelos, Mexico. She's already learned the "art of the pitch," describing her first book, "Gringo Madness," to a reporter as " 'Travel Under the Tuscan Sun' meets 'The Mosquito Coast' through the voice of Jon Krakauer."
"I believe I have a story to tell," Kitchel said. "And I'm here to sell it."
Boyden, 52, also believes she has stories to tell, but the retired elementary school teacher is writing for children.
"I'll also write for food," Boyden says laughing. She's brought with her a children's novel and two picture books.
"I hope to get representation, but a real contract would be better," Boyden said.
Why does she write?
"Because I have to," she says.
That's the prevailing sentiment here -- at least with the prose writers -- and is illustrated by how attendance has increased at the Maui event since it began in 1992 when there were less than 150 participants. Now participants -- including the six-day Maui Writers Retreat, the conference, including editors, agents, publishers, film directors, producers and screenwriters -- total nearly 1,500.
Although the bulk of those who came to learn hailed from Hawaii and California, there were also participants from South Africa, Germany, England, Hong Kong, Israel, the Netherlands and Tasmania.
Prominent screenwriters like Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander ("The People vs. Larry Flynt," "Ed Wood," and "Man on the Moon"), producer Alison Rosenzweig ("Windtalkers") and producer/director/writer Andy Fickman ("Anaconda") socialized with attendees after lectures to answer even more questions.
When a woman asked Karaszewski about how to get permission from a subject to do a "biopic," the screenwriter simply says, "Call him and ask."
Following a panel discussion, Rosenzweig tells two twentysomething women to "find out what you want to do in this business as soon as possible and specialize.
"I did four years on the technical side and that wasn't what I wanted to do; I wanted to be in creative," the former New Yorker said. "I'm self-taught; if I can do it, you can do it, believe me. I crawled my way through this system but it can be done if you want it badly enough."
During a talk by producer/director/writer Andy Fickman and screenwriter John Rice ("Windtalkers") a few hopefuls ask about the "collaborative process," "pitching an idea," and "how to be honest and not offend producer."
"Some films have a dozen screenwriters attached before it's made," Fickman said. "A producer might buy your concept and give you an assignment to do a couple drafts, then fire you to hire someone he's worked with before.
" 'The Flintstones' had like 15 writers and boy did that turn out well."
The two men emphasized that "the pitch" -- the few precious moments when the writer(s) meet with a producer to tell their story idea -- should never be longer than 10 minutes.
"At about the 9-minute mark the producer will start looking at his watch or take a call while you're still telling your story," he said.
But Rice and his writing partner are an anomaly in the business, taking far longer with their pitches as they act out their characters in what Rice calls "the money lines" and scenes which will be in theater trailers.
Nolan Kim, 55, of Makiki, has been writing his book "Arabesque," a fictionalized account of his living in Saudi Arabia, for nearly a decade. The doctoral candidate in English at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, won a student writing competition at the school in May for the opening chapter of his novel. His prize was a trip to the conference.
He admits that he's putting his education ahead of finishing his novel because "education is very important to my family." His two sisters have graduate degrees.
Asked when his book will be completed, Kim utters, "Oh gosh."
"I have two more years in the (doctorate) program, but I am feeling so encouraged with my writing that I'm thinking of cutting back my classes so I can write more," he said. "But I'm really still learning how to do it. I'm exploring a whole new world here."
Deals between presenters and already successful writers were also made:
Worth, 58, wrote the first draft a decade ago. He didn't know how to market it so he published it himself and sold it through the church, about 400 copies to date.Thomas Baldrick, of Philadelphia, a former TV executive and writer, has a handshake agreement with "Chicken Soup for the Soul" author Jack Canfield and the series' co-creator Mark Victor Hansen to pen their biography. (The authors donated $60,000 to the Maui Writers Foundation.)
"Printing is easy; I know how to do that," he said. "Marketing, promoting and distribution I don't want to do, so I'm here to find someone."
Worth didn't attend any of the "How to write" sessions because after 30 years as a journalist "if I don't know how to do that by now I never will."
Instead, he met with three publishers and an agent whose words were "encouraging." Worth also did a book signing at the Maui Borders store, where he sold a dozen books at $12.95 each.
His next book will be a sequel that uses Kahoolawe as a backdrop and deals in part with the way Hawaiians have been "ripped off."
"That means I'll have to make a lot more trips back to Hawaii," Worth said, smiling.
Here are the winners in the Maui Writers Conference competitions: Writing competition champions
Rupert Hughes Prose Writing Competition1. Christina Lay: "Tien Mu's Mirror"
2. Joyce Osterman: "The Matter Stream"
3. Catherine G. Bruhn: "Lives of the Virgin Cowgirl SaintsYoung Writers Competition
1. Corey Samuels/Maui High School: "Iron Tears"
2. Heather Mehl/Colfax High School: "Dawn to Dusk"
3. Kay Fukunaga/St. Anthony High School: "Past the Farthest Horizon"Screenwriting Award
1. Charles Memminger: "Fly"
2. Rich Figel: "The Doll Killer"
3. Vicki Adams: "Breaking Ice"
For a story about screenwriting winners, including Star-Bulletin columnist Charles Memminger, go online at https://archives.starbulletin.com/2000/09/04/news/story7.html
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