“Who here has been to a writers conference before?”\u00a0 Matt Burgess asked at the welcome dinner last night.\u00a0 I was one of a very few old veterans.\u00a0 Most of the youngsters at the table were newbies; I envied them their innocence.<\/p>\n
Here I am at the Chesapeake Writers Conference\u00a0<\/a> — as a participant.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been a presenter at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference and the International Historical Novel Conference, so what am I doing sitting around a table with aspiring writers listening to another veteran author\u2019s advice?<\/p>\n Because I have so much to learn.<\/p>\n Writing is a lifelong process, a way of life. It\u2019s essentially a solitary endeavor. So how do we practice? How do we refine? How do we connect with other writers? One way is to attend a writers conference. But conferences can be expensive and time-consuming. Really \u2013 are they worth it?<\/p>\n I\u2019ve attended a number of conferences over the years.\u00a0 In 1996 I entered, and won, the Maui Writers Conference.\u00a0 The following year I signed with my first agent, again at Maui.. I\u00a0 participated in the Napa Writers Conference at a week-long workshop led by Michael Cunningham, who subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for The Hours<\/em>.\u00a0 I’ve attended numerous shorter conferences, such as the Aspen Writers Conference (see my post The Night Editor-in-Chief Myrna Blyth taught me to pitch<\/a>). I’m a decorated veteran — complete with war wounds I don’t like to talk about.\u00a0 Are writers conferences worth it? It depends on what you\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking to “be discovered”, I\u2019d say probably not.\u00a0 A powerful query letter is usually more effective than a pitch session at a crowded conference with a hung-over, jet-lagged literary agent who won’t remember your well-rehearsed pitch nor read anything <\/em>at the conference.\u00a0 Mass meetings of wannabe writers are not<\/em> the best venue for being discovered.\u00a0 Whatever that means.<\/p>\n But If you\u2019re looking for motivation,\u00a0 if you\u2019re seeking a mentor, if you\u2019re looking for tangible ways to write better, write more productively, if you\u2019re looking for critical\u00a0 feedback on your writing (take a breath so you can finish this run-on sentence), if you\u2019re looking to establish new literary connections and to recommit yourself to the writing life, then yes — writers conferences can be worth the cost. \u00a0If<\/em> you do your homework, commit yourself, and follow through when you return to the real world.<\/p>\n Before you sign up, ask yourself: What do I hope to achieve? How much time do I have to commit? How much can I afford? Am I willing to travel? Conferences can last a day, a weekend, a week. The focus can be on craft, or it can be on publishing and marketing. Be aware and chose which one best suits your needs.\u00a0 But how do you know?<\/p>\n You can type \u201cWriters Conferences\u201d into your search engine to discover upcoming ones. I subscribe to New Pages<\/a> —\u00a0 which is how I found out about the Chesapeake Writers Conference I am now attending. Hosted by St. Mary\u2019s College of Maryland and directed by Jerry Gabriel<\/a>, author of Drowned Boy<\/em> (winner of the Mary McCarthy Short Fiction Prize), this year\u2019s week-long event features novelists Patricia Henley<\/a> and Matt Burgess<\/a>, nonfiction author Ana Maria Spagna<\/a> and poet Elizabeth Arnold.<\/a><\/p>\n I chose this particular conference because the emphasis is on the craft of writing rather than publishing and marketing.\u00a0\u00a0 And because of location \u2013 St. Mary’s City, on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, less than a hundred miles south of my birthplace in Anne Arundel County.\u00a0 I felt a primal longing for my roots (forgetting how hot the motherland is in early July…) \u00a0 Although I had never heard of any of the presenters I researched their published works, read a selection of each, and was hopeful I could learn something from them. All are literary authors, not commercial bestsellers.\u00a0 My goal is to get back to the craft of writing, not the business of selling.<\/p>\n The structure of the Chesapeake Writers Conference promises to be intense, with morning and evening lectures, and various optional activities.\u00a0 Afternoons are spent in focused workshops to critique each others writing.\u00a0 These sessions are led by the featured presenters and participants choose which one they’d like to attend.\u00a0 After reading Matt Burgess’s novel Dogfight; A Love Story, <\/em>I chose his workshop, which he describes as \u201cdescriptive rather than proscriptive.\u201d\u00a0 Today is Monday and the first workshop is in a few hours.<\/p>\n After the conference is over I\u2019ll post a wrap-up and let you know Was it worth it?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Who here has been to a writers conference before?”\u00a0 Matt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[277,7],"class_list":["post-2110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-publishing","tag-chesapeake-writers-conference","tag-writing-process"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2110"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2112,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2110\/revisions\/2112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}