How To Attend a Writing Conference (or Why I Attended the Iowa Summer Writing Festival) Part I

First, you have to pick the one you want to attend.  Your perimeters will probably include cost, location, schedule and availability.  I’ve gone to a couple different writing conferences, the first one was a statewide one, geared towards poets and very disappointing for me since most of the attendees had very little writing experience.  I wanted to network with a more professional grade of writer, so I decided to try a conference held at a university known for its MFA program in Creative Writing.  It cost more, but every cent was worth it.  The Iowa Summer Writing Festival proved to be  a fantastic writing conference for many reasons:

1.  It’s centrally located with on-site lodging.  As a Midwesterner I appreciated the short distance (6 hours driving) and comparatively low travel expenses.  Staying on-site meant I had 24/7 access to the festival’s offerings and to networking with the other writers attending the festival.

2.  It boasts excellent instructors with a range of publishing and writing backgrounds.  Many people return year after year to teach the workshops, but plenty of new faces get mixed in regularly.  The small workshop sizes gave everyone great access to the instructors and the additional daily lecture series allowed for extra exposure to different instructors.  Since this summer writing festival is closely connected to the esteemed University of Iowa MFA program, the instructors get some prestige by association and the university prides itself on the quality of the festival’s offerings.

3.  It offers a huge range of workshops–from novel-writing to historical nonfiction to craft-specific courses in character and plot.  No matter what you write, the Iowa Summer Writing Festival offers a workshop to enrich your work.

4.  It’s very affordable.  My week-long workshop, lodging, meals and transportation cost less than a week on a cruise ship or at an all-inclusive resort.  My fellow writing geeks appreciate the value in that kind of vacation!

5.  The Iowa Summer Writing Festival offers week-long and weekend workshops almost all summer, so scheduling is unbelievably convenient.

6.  People rave about it.  I met several people who attended the Iowa Summer Writing Festival multiple times, a true testament to the excellence and usefulness of their workshop.

Whether searching for a writing conference by host, location, cost, genre or schedule many sites offer excellent databases with links to various workshop and conference home pages.  Check out NewPages.com to find an incredibly inclusive list of writing conferences, retreats, workshops and festivals.

If I were to prioritize, I’d put genre and host at the top of my list.  It doesn’t make sense to waste money on a substandard conference experience, nor does it make sense to invest in a poetry workshop when you only write nonfiction.  The best workshops don’t necessarily boast the most popular writers–success as an author doesn’t always translate into good teaching skills–but the credentials of the instructors are something to consider.  If you tend to write literary pieces, you’d expect to find the instructors have been published in literary magazines like Prairie Schooner and Tin House.    If you write nonfiction, you’d want your instructors to have a solid background in nonfiction writing.

Tell us, readers, what writing conferences do you recommend for a new writer?  For an experienced writer?

How Do I Find My Writing Group?

In our book, Writing in a Changing World, we talk about finding a writing group.  Since they tend to be solitary creatures, writers don’t cluster together.  Unlike football fans or knitters or musicians, writers don’t advertise their interest by emblazoning it on their apparel, nor do they gather together for regular and public group hugs.  It’s tough to find a writing group.

You might be lucky enough to live in an area with an ongoing writing group that advertises itself well through local media.

You might live near a college or university with a writing program.

You might live in a fantastic artsy community where people from all walks of life gather to play music, perform theater, knit, throw pottery and write together.

Or you might live in a place where the only thing people write are checks to pay their bills.

How can you find a writing group?

You can start by searching online.  You can look on the bulletin boards of local bookstores and coffee shops.  You can call your local library or community center.

But all of these resources aren’t terribly helpful until you can define what you want out of a writing group.  If you’re looking for someone who views writing as a hobby, the aforementioned places will help you.  If you’re looking for someone to help you jump to the next level and write professionally, stay tuned for next week’s post:  How to Attend a Writing Conference

Writing a Book Proposal

Writing a nonfiction book means you’ll eventually have to write a book proposal.  Unlike fiction, when you try to sell nonfiction to an agent or publisher, you give them a different type of synopsis.  The book proposal I’m working on includes:

1.  Overview–unlike a synopsis for fiction, an overview explains the story behind your project, how it came to fruition and what makes your project timely and interesting to readers.

2.  Marketing–where you see your book sold and how you’ll position yourself to sell it.  Again, with nonfiction you have a wider range of outlets.  A cookbook, for example, can be sold in places other than book stores.  Kitchen supply stores, restaurants, food markets and boutiques are all potential outlets.  Marketing a nonfiction book presents great opportunities for creative placement.

3.  Promotion–how you’ll help sell your book.  Nonfiction lends itself to teaching and public speaking, so libraries, colleges, community centers, events and specialized groups like knitting clubs or model train clubs offer a broader reach than setting up a book signing at a local book store.  Most nonfiction topics lend themselves so neatly to easy promotion.  Let’s go back to the cookbook example.  An author of a cookbook can talk about their work on the radio, to students at a culinary school or in Family and Consumer Ed. classrooms, to people shopping at a farmer’s market or grocery store, to customers at a restaurant making their recipes.

4.  Competing books–in other words, what sets your book apart from the competition.  I’ve been researching other books in the vein of my current nonfiction project and it’s exciting to see how my work complements other work yet still fills a gap.  I look at this part of the book proposal as the strongest place to pitch your work.

5.  About the author–explaining how you’re qualified to write about your topic.  Again, more personal than a fiction piece’s cover letter.

6.  List of chapters

7.  Chapter-by-chapter summaries

8.  Sample chapters

Writing nonfiction presents different challenges, but writing a book proposal is one that surprised me–it’s far more enjoyable than writing a synopsis for fiction.

BookEnds, LLC posted a great discussion about the different parts of a book proposal with further explanation of each part.  Check it out!

Now, About Those Writing Resolutions

The basic writer’s resolution (besides “get published”) involves some variation of “get my butt in the chair and write on a consistent basis.”  But how do you do that?  Your goal has to be pretty specific, detailed in terms that speak to your nature.  I’ve tried the following:

1.  Write 10 pages a week.  This went pretty well for me at first, except I got on a roll and, like a Weight Watchers client with food points, I began banking my pages for when I hit writers block.  Then I got behind.  And further behind.  And, well, you get the picture.

2.  Write 2 days a week.  You know darn well the minute I made this resolution someone in my house ended up getting the stomach flu, relatives came to visit, the water heater broke down and I had a PTA meeting scheduled.  Some people can commit to writing on scheduled days, kind of like other people schedule time to exercise.  In my life, writing is the first activity to go out the window when my schedule fills up, so I’m terrible at keeping this resolution.

3.  Write one chapter a week.  Predictably my chapters became very short.  This worked fine for a nonfiction project I was working on, but I found my fiction writing habits weren’t accomodated very well.  Sometimes a chapter needs revisiting.  Sometimes I’d skip writing chapters because I still had things to figure out.

4.  Write 1,000 words a week.  A la NaNoWriMo, this works fine except when you hit writers block and begin writing nothing terribly productive just to get your work count in for the week.

5.  Write 4 hours a week.  This worked somewhat better than the “days” resolution, mainly because I’d put the goal in chunks I could bite off and chew.  When I made a more realistic resolution of hours per week, I was able to stick to it with more success.

Tell us, how do you frame your writing resolutions?  In terms of time spent writing?  Pages written?  Words written?  Some other way?

New Year’s Resolutions for Writers

If you’re like me, you make a nice list of New Year’s Resolutions–goals, really, to help you stay focused, stay motivated and stay on the road to somewhere in life.  I make personal resolutions (compete in a karate tournament this year), lifestyle resolutions (start making homemade bread for my family’s health and to reduce our environmental impact) and career resolutions.  Since I’m primarily a SAHM, my career resolutions revolve around my writing life.

Writing Resolutions for 2011

1.  Butt in the chair, hands on the keyboard, manuscript on the screen for a minimum of 4 hours weekly.  (This one is really specific, but I’ll expound more on that next week.)

2.  Send my literary agent one finished, revised, polished manuscript.

3.  Attend at least one writing conference.

4.  Read one book on craft.

5.  Post regularly on this site, my blog, Eco Women and Goodreads.

6.  Sell copies of Writing in a Changing World.

7.  Keep reading other people’s great books so I can learn from their example how to write well.
What are your writing resolutions for 2011?

 

Christmas Wishes for Writers

Dear Santa, I’ve been Mostly Good this year.  Here are some suggestions for what might make this Christmas special–feel free to either stuff them in my stocking or leave them under the tree:

1.  a book deal

2.  with an advance.

3.  a month of uninterrupted writing time in a secluded cabin

4.  with catered meals, of course.

5.  tuition for a week at a writing conference.

6.  faster internet connection.

7.  a new laptop with all the keys in place.

8.  Movie Magic Screenwriter Version 6 by Write Brothers.

9.  a good ending for my current Work-in-Progress.

10.  Oprah featuring my work in her Book Club.

11.  Accolades and glowing reviews.

12.  world peace.

Thank you–and give my best to the Missus.
Love, Melissa

In the Rough

This week’s featured rough draft is The Secret Notes, R. E. Graff’s first Young Adult novel. She lives in Bloomington, MN, where she plays hockey and lacrosse and is a prolific reader. Her favorite genres to read include adventure, horror, and mystery stories, especially when they’re combined in one book!  Favorite authors include J.K. Rowling, Jeanne Birdsall and Margaret Peterson Haddix.  Give this rough draft your feedback in the comment box!

 

THE SECRET NOTES

“Hey, Chatty Kathy!”  said Robin, Mikala’s best friend, on the first day of school. Mikala and Robin had been friends since preschool, and always loved to talk to each other, but just recently, Mikala had started to babble on and about . . . boys.

Robin hated most boys because they were loud, obnoxious, and jerky–you get the picture. There was one boy that was actually cute, and that was Chase Finley. Chase was a hotshot. He played a ton of sports, and was good at all of them. That’s why girls flocked to him.

Mikala was crazy about Chase, and sometimes Robin couldn’t get her to stop talking about him.  “Hey, Birdy! Guess who’s in our class this year?” Mikala asked Robin.

“Let me guess–Chase,” Robin responded glumly, because she knew there would be no time for her now that Chase was in their class.

“We have a winner!” Mikala exclaimed.

Just then, the bell rang and the girls had to hustle into their new seventh grade class.  Their teacher was Mrs. Bandon, and she looked young.

The first thing the class did was talk about their summers. When Chase talked about his, Mikala sat fixed to her chair, staring dreamily into his eyes. All the other girls did that, too, except for Robin, who stared out the window.

The loudspeaker suddenly buzzed, and Mrs. Bandon was called to the office. She excused herself and left the classroom. Mikala immediately walked over to Chase and started to talk to him.

Probably talking with him about her stupid summer, thought Robin. Robin was disgusted; she left to get a drink. When she returned, Ms. Bandon still wasn’t back, but Mikala was waiting at her desk. Robin wondered what she was doing there.

As soon as Robin wondered that, Mrs. Bandon came back, looking grim. She sat down and announced to the class that she was going to be leaving class early because her 9-month-old was sick.  The class gasped, then rushed to help Mrs. Bandon arrange a substitute.

While Mikala and Robin were helping Mrs. B, someone slipped a note onto Mikala’s desk. When Mikala returned, she opened the note, read it, and then almost fainted. Robin rushed over to help Mikala–and read the note.*

As soon as Robin read the note, she knew why tall, well-built Mikala almost fainted. In fact, she almost fainted herself, because this is what she read:

Dear Mikala,

You are very cute in my opinion and I want you on my soccer team.

Love, G. W.

“Who’s G. W.?” Mikala croaked.

“Maybe ‘Guess Who.’ That makes sense, doesn’t it?” Robin replied.