As
someone new to writing, I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m always looking
for classes and events that will take my craft to the next level.
Earlier
this year I did an online search for “Writing Conferences Los Angeles 2015”,
one of the top five results was “Out of the Binders / Symposium on Women Writer’s
Today”. I
clicked on the link and was happy to see I had not missed it. The
event was taking place at the end of March (last weekend) at UCLA's Carnesales
Commons.
The
description on the website “A symposium to empower women and gender non‑conforming
writers with tools, connections, and strategies to advance their careers” sold
me. The promise of diversity and the affordable price made me sign up right
away. I took advantage of the early bird discount, the best $125 I’ve ever spent.
The program was still being developed.
Every week or so, I received updates on what panels, events and speakers had
been added. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised at the number of women of
color involved. Keynote speakers included conversations with Filmmaker Gina
Prince-Bythewood on day one and with Poet Claudia Rankine on day two. These two
ladies were truly motivating and got things off to a great start.
Every
panel I attended had at least one woman of color representing. My one “complaint”
is that this conference had so many fantastic panels and conversations that
they overlapped with one another. I wish I could have cloned myself but a lot
of the conference was video taped so hopefully that content will be available
soon.
My
favorite panels were:
“Writing the (An) Other: A Workshop on
Writing Other Genders, Races, Sexualities and cultures” taught by Elmaz
Abinader & Faith Adiele both VONA instructors. The main message is don’t
pander, write well-rounded characters and stay away from using food comparisons
when describing them (mocha/chocolate skin, almond eyes, jalapeno lips etc.).
They shared different ways to approach writing the (an) other; reading works by
and about people like your character, going to events where your character
might be present, interact with people like them. Observe how your character
moves in the world, keep a diary from your character’s point of view.
“The
Only Girl in the Writer’s Room” with Cherry Cheva
(writer/producer, Family Guy)
, Jessie Gaskell (writer, Conan)
, Alexa Junge
(writer, Grace and Frankie, Friends, The West Wing) &
Robin Schiff
(writer/producer, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion). Any panel with Robin
Schiff is worth the price of admission, she does not shy away from telling it
like it is. They talked about how f*ck*ed up it can be for female writers in
Hollywood but at the same time, they gave advise on how to fit in, how to deal
with certain situations, how to dress and how to stand up to misogyny in the
work place. Most importantly they stressed the importance of mentors (male or
female) and that when it’s your turn to pay it forward by hiring women.
