Whether you’ve been published for years or want to expand beyond Twitter, the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers’ Guild’s annual conference offers tips and tactics to help you improve your writing.

The conference, The Write Direction: Taking the Next Step, meets 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.  November 10 at the Unity Center, 1600 West Broadway, Columbia.

Award-winning writers will share their special skills and small publishers will tell how and why they select manuscripts. The sessions include

* Novelist Bridget Bufford on creating characters through archetypes,

* Nonfiction children’s author Matthew Murrie on finding your perfect pitch,

* Missouri poet laureate William Trowbridge on humor in serious poetry,

* Short story writer Donna Volkenannt on structuring stories for passion and profit.

Editors from Mozark Press, AKA-Publishing, and High Hill Press will explain their operations and, in a separate session, evaluate the first page of manuscripts submitted anonymously by conference participants.

To read the schedule and session descriptions and to register, visit the Conference page at http://www. ccmwg.org. Warning: Registration fees (members, $40; nonmembers, $45; students, $25) go up November 6.

Full disclosure: I helped organize the conference and will moderate the publishers’ sessions.

New Madrid Earthquakes Remain a Mystery

No one knows what caused a series of major earthquakes centered near New Madrid, Missouri, and felt in much of the eastern United States 200 years ago, according to geologists at the “It’s Your Fault” conference, University of Missouri, February 18, 2012.

I attended to hear whether any new information would affect my Thunder Beneath My Feet manuscript (nothing did) and when to expect the next big ones (no one knows).

Experts can tell big earthquakes occurred in the state’s southeast corner about 1450 and 900 and at similar intervals for 5,000 or so years. They don’t know whether other catastrophic quakes are coming in 300 years, 50 years, or never. Some theorize that the few modest quakes and countless tremors since 1812 are aftershocks that will eventually end.

Professor Eric Sandoval, a member of the Missouri Seismic Safety Commission, called the New Madrid seismic zone one of the most difficult to understand on the planet. Located in the middle of—rather than on the boundary of—a tectonic plate, this zone doesn’t fit the models that apply in most of the world, including California.

New Madrid resembles a seismic zone in northern China, said Professor Mian Liu. Models indicate low hazard, but quakes have killed hundreds of thousands. He emphasized that over a few centuries quakes in such zones may occur in different locations. Why? Nobody knows for sure. Recorded history deals with only a fraction of earthquakes, and much of what happens deep beneath the earth’s surface remains a mystery.

I live about 300 miles from the New Madrid earthquake epicenter, close enough for a 7.+ quake to bring down chimneys and spires. Until geologists find more clues to the mystery, I won’t know whether my quake insurance makes sense.

Near the lake that cools the Summer Palace in Beijing, a tall man with a wet mop wrote something in large Chinese characters.

This mystery writer’s first thought: “What a clever way to write a message that would disappear before authorities could gather evidence.” I scrambled to take out my camera and get a shot.

My second thought: “Can’t be anything subversive. Too risky in such a public place.” I asked our tour guide what the man had written. She glanced at the characters and said, “Something about tourists and peace.”

I could tell she was lying, but since I don’t read Chinese and don’t make scenes in China, I didn’t challenge her.

When I returned to the States, I showed a Taiwan-born friend the photo. She couldn’t read all the characters, but one part said something about birth and another about the coming of autumn breezes. She explained that when the man took water from the lake in his bucket, he also mixed in a little oil.

What the photo shows is a form of performance art. I suspect he’s demonstrating his calligraphic skills by quoting or composing a poem, not a political statement.

I still like the idea of using writing with water in a mystery.

Submit a perfect manuscript, advised a panel of agents and editors at Killer Nashville, a mystery writers’ conference held August 25-28, 2011.

The turmoil in the publishing world has made it even harder to persuade anyone to represent or publish your book. Agents and editors who find imperfections on the first page often dismiss the whole manuscript.

What makes them stop reading? Lots of things, according to agents Jill Marr of Sandra Dijkstra and Jeff Kleinman of Folio and editors Deni Dietz of Five Star and Martin Shepard of Permanent Press. A volunteer read aloud eight first pages submitted by conference participants. Each panelist called “Stop” when the reader reached something unacceptable. The reader finished only one full page.

I’ve grouped the panelists’ stoppers  in two categories: mechanics and content.

Mechanics

1. Incorrect punctuation, usually a misuse of quotation marks
2. Trite phrases, usually similes
3. Overuse of adjectives or adverbs
4. Weak verbs, particularly forms of to be and the passive voice
5. Use of words the panelist regards as markers of poor writing, e.g., shrugged, just, barked (for said)
6. Starting several sentences with the same word
7. Using unfamiliar terms or abbreviations
8. Calling a character by more than one name, e.g., Bill and William
9. Overuse of a character’s name in dialogue, usually to remind the reader who’s talking

Content

1. Beginning with description instead of action
2. Boring
3. Telling, not showing
4. Giving unessential information
5. Interrupting the narrative with backstory
6. Incorrect facts and behavior, usually the character saying or doing something a person in that occupation wouldn’t in real life
7. A lack of emotional engagement in the point-of-view character and subsequently the reader
8. Giving information from the author’s rather than the character’s point of view, often in dialogue

All of the panelists stressed the importance of that last stopper. Oddly enough, the editors showed more tolerance for lapses than the agents.

All agreed an intriguing opening line could push them past minor faults.