{"id":18,"date":"2011-04-13T15:49:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/13\/the-truth-about-harvard-writers\/"},"modified":"2011-04-13T15:49:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T15:49:00","slug":"the-truth-about-harvard-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/13\/the-truth-about-harvard-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Harvard Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the early, misty days of April I was privileged with a chance to attend the Harvard Writer\u2019s Conference<\/a> as a supplement to my editorial internship with book writing coach, Lisa Tener<\/a>. The heavily anticipated weekend lived up to every wild concoction my nerves imagined. As an introduction to the inner-workings of the publishing industry, the flustered, tension-filled meeting room of seductively intimidating insiders offered an essential reality check. The marvelous Fairmont hotel function room had a heartbeat. And it was racing. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/a>Hundreds of names, book pitches and rehearsed jokes bombarded me as I shadowed my inundated supervisor handling the tidal wave of authors like a season pro. I could merely listen and hope I retained every word. But my mental bookshelf only had room for so many volumes. On a whim I decided to brave the waters on my own. Venturing into the nearby workshops, I soaked up as much information as each presenter provided. Chicken-scratch notes recorded the most pertinent points. Finding hope. That stuck. The speaker prompted everyone to quickly describe a peaceful, remote island. Soft white sand washing rhythmically with the surf. A refreshing breeze saturated with salt. The cheerful calls of tropical creatures. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I connected with nearby attendants sporting a familiar, daunted stare. \u201cWhat do you write about?\u201d I was surprised that\u2019s all it took. The knot in my shoulders untied as I found a common ground. Knowing everyone harbored similar dreams and goals made the rest of the conference as comfortable as a blue-sky summer cook-out with family laughing around the smoky charcoal grill. A blur of casual meals, miniaturized think-tank\u2019s and rickety train rides to and from Boston became the patchwork of memories I took from this highly sought after collection of experts and future experts. Of all the workshops I wondered which would improve my writing. A mother from the suburbs I spoke with questioned if she could write her book. Everyone that pitched dwelled on their flights home if the agents would offer a contract. Really, we were all seeking hope. And I believe this conference is where we found it. <\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the early, misty days of April I was privileged with a chance to attend the Harvard Writer\u2019s Conference as a supplement to my editorial internship with book writing coach, Lisa Tener. The heavily anticipated weekend lived up to every wild concoction my nerves imagined. As an introduction to the inner-workings of the publishing industry, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,16,14,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston","category-harvard-writers","category-lisa-tener","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YHlB-i","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rachelhorwitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}