PRO Update by Cheryl Smithby Cheryl Smith Hello Everyone. Unlike last year when the conference had a list of PRO track workshops, this year the only thing PRO specific was the PRO Retreat. Barbara Samuel spoke about setting goals and working toward them using her own goal to climb to the top of a mountain near her home as an analogy. Jayne Ann Krentz spoke of reinventing yourself when you want to change genres. The agent and editor panels did a run through of one page submissions that were sent in early by some very brave writers. And it was brutal. Think American Idol with the entire panel as Simon. They basically ripped apart the submissions. I did find through hearing the pages read aloud that there were errors that stuck out as obvious to many of the submissions, the same mistakes made over and over by several writers. The synopsis' rambled without direction and confused everyone about the storylines and the manuscript pages were over written. Too much "long flowing locks" and "eyes as blue as the sea" type stuff, dull beginnings, and apparently too much violence turns some of the panelists off. It would have been nice to hear what they did like but they gave us no examples of that. The only advice I can give from the retreat is to cut out excess adverbs, chitchat dialogue, and pray as your drop your submission in the mailbox that it will hit the right editor at the right time. If that doesn't work, this fall PRO is supposed to be issuing new booklets that I'm sure will be packed full of helpful information we all can use. All in all, the conference was good. I learned lots of good stuff that I hope will strengthen my writing. No more "long flowing locks" and "heaving white bosoms" for me. I came out of Reno feeling inspired and ready to write, in spite of spending twenty-four hours trying to get home. But that's another story.
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