Writing Conferences

This
And/or This

I haven't been to any writers' conferences in about a year or so.  At best, I manage to get to maybe one per year.  I used to love to go to the Ozark Creative Writer's conference, but I haven't been for a couple of years.  They lean heavily toward western writing, and that's something I don't do.

I can remember going to conferences and being in break out sessions with writers and agents who would open the floor for questions.  Now, understand that most of these sessions were general info sessions.  It always annoyed me when some person, who never having published much of anything, would still monopolize the question and answer session with some question on his or her project.  Often it was an older person.  I vowed that I would never be that old person who wasted the time of the speakers.  Well, I am that older person now. Realistically, I know that if I were going to make my fortunes from writing it would have happened before now. In some ways that is depressing until I remember that I long ago realized I was not going to get rich from writing.  Sometimes, I wonder if I would have been more well-adjusted had I not even started trying to become a writer.  That's all in the past, and what I am is what I am.  I don't intend to mope over what could have beens.  Those drive a person insane.

I am thinking about one thing, however.  I wonder if it would make any sense to try doing a screenplay and a novel over the same story and at the same time.  I've always thought I could maybe sell a novel and have it optioned, but that ain't likely to ever happen.  I discovered that writing screenplay versions of some of the novels I was working on helped me to focus better on the story.  If done correctly it can take a lot of flab out of a bloated work.  I don't know if it would be a tactical advantage to approach an agent for instance and say, "I've completed this novel I would like for you to consider.  I've also already done a screenplay version of it."  I don't know about the wisdom of such an approach.

I have been working on this story involved Dean Knight for a long time.  A couple of months ago, I just put the novel aside and started doing a screenplay of it.  Would it be helpful or hurtful to do both?  What do you think?  A while ago I completed a dystopian novel call Tongue Tied -- it was the first book of what I originally thought would be a trilogy; it came out fat and bloated, and I thought about doing a screenplay.  I even wrote about 15 pages of one.  I have done this on occasion at other time, but have had no marketing success with the approach.

So what does my reading public and writing friends think of the write a screenplay and book at the same time approach to writing?  If anyone who has had any experience with this would like to comment, I would be grateful.  Enough about writing for the day.