I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the Ojai Writers’ Conference at the World University in Ojai, California Saturday. I had a casual lunch with interesting writers. Incredibly, I sat at a table of nonfiction writers—ahhh, my comfort zone.
Oh I like and appreciate those of you who write fiction and I LOVE editing fiction. But I particularly like networking with others who are addicted to “just the facts, maam,” when it comes to writing.
What makes us choose one genre over another? How do we decide what type of writing we want to do? I guess it is something within each of us that causes us to make certain choices. While I wrote stories for my children and poetry (for myself) during the years before beginning my writing career, my dream was to be published in magazines. When I sat down to seriously pursue my writing, I began by writing magazine articles. To this day, I continue to write nonfiction.
Some professional writers fall into technical writing. Most of those I meet, have a desire to break out and write something more from the heart. Some never do live this dream.
There are others who are trying to earn a living through their love of fiction and other more creative writing. And those who are not completely and shamelessly right brain-thinkers, sometimes manage to do it. Some just continue to enjoy the process of writing fiction and struggle to keep their writing dream alive as a part-time pleasure while they work at a job to make financial ends meet.
My role at the conference this weekend was to sit on a self-publishing panel. I rather enjoy being part of a panel discussion. There, you have three (or more) points of view and a variety of experiences to draw from. Generally, each panelist speaks and then the audience is invited to ask questions. It felt as though we brought some good information and resources to this group of writers. Let’s hope that we save them heartache and money in their future decisions. And that their educated choices give them a measure of success.
I sat in on two sessions. One was called the business of writing. When the leader plopped down in front of each student an IRS form, we all groaned. Some asked questions—“Is this class about the business of writing?” “We don’t have to talk about taxes, do we?” I think most of us had in mind what I would teach in a course with this title—how to set up a writing business, how to get writing gigs, dealing with deadbeat editors, etc. But we did talk about taxes and the leader actually made it kind of interesting.
I attended a pitch session. That was interesting. The instructor is involved in the film industry and he spoke about pitching your screen play. He even invited a couple of students up to sit in a chair on the raised platform before all of us and pitch their projects. As a reward for their courage, he gave them some great tips and specific advice. Interesting session.
This is conference season—conferences generally occur all over the US in the spring and fall, with some even being held in the scorching summer months. If you have a book in the works or in your hand, you really ought to check into some of the upcoming local writers’ conferences. You will be amazed at what you can learn in a weekend or even a day-long conference.
Locate conferences in your area or the area you want to visit by doing an Internet search using keywords, “writers conference” and your city/state name.
Visit these online conference directories.
http://www.writing.shawguides.com
http://www.writersconf.org
http://www.allconferences.com
http://www.newpages.com/writing-conferences
And report back to us here about your conference experiences. I’d like to devote a blog post (or more) to your conference stories. PLFry620@yahoo.com