Cut To The Chase

I've been to some wonderful writers conferences over the years and this year I came to the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop in Dayton, Ohio. Okay, it's not quite as picturesque as the one in Santa Barbara last year, but it's a lot more laughs. There are many people here who think they're funny, and then there are those who really are: Alan Zweibel, Connie Schultz, Bruce Cameron, Adriana Trigiani...

And then there are the people who ask questions of the presenters. Someone puts a mic in their hand and they think it's they're shot for Broadway. Why do they need to tell their life history (or worse, blow their own horn) before they get to the question? Like the guy this afternoon who says, "What if you have a blog where you write witty repartee and you have over a thousand followers and you get great comments on your work and..." Oh shut up. Cut to the chase, for crissakes! Ask your question and sit the hell down.

Wendi Aarons obviously has ADD like I do. (Or is it impatience? Intolerance?)  

She says, "If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people who take forever to tell a story. You sit there and sit there and listen to them rambling on for what feels like hours and then, nine times out of 10, there’s no real pay-off. Like the woman at my gym who breathlessly greets us every morning with, “You’ll never believe what happened to me last night!” and then twenty minutes later, we find out she stubbed her toe on a garden rake. Whoohoo. Thanks for the pot boiler there, Agatha Christie."

Read the rest of Wendi's post.