Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tips for a Great Writing Conference Experience

While I am very excited to attend my first conference this month, I am also a little nervous. First of all because I have no writing experience. Writers go to writing conferences. Am I a writer? I would like to be a writer, but I don't even know if I am any good. How's that for confidence?! Well, I figure you have to start somewhere, and the sooner the better. Luckily I started subscribing to a few blogs and recently Robert Lee Brewer posted 25 Ways to Rock Writers Conferences with tips for making the most out of your next writing conference. I printed it out and will be going over each point to make sure I am prepared. Since I am a SAHM and dress VERY casually most of the time, I went out this past weekend and bought a couple outfits that I am hoping will pass for business casual. My best friend is coming over tomorrow for lunch to check them out and I am crossing my fingers she will give me a thumbs-up. I like them, which is a good start.

One of the tips Robert mentioned is to know how to talk about yourself. He says to "think of how to explain yourself as a writer and your current projects in one sentence answers." So here is mine: "I am a stay-at-home mom working on my first manuscript, which is a middle grade, realistic fiction chapter book along the lines of Judy Moody or Clementine." And then ideally if anyone wanted to know more I would throw out my one-sentence pitch... which hopefully I will have ready by the conference. However, since the book is not finished, I am having a hard time figuring out the ending to my pitch, as I am not sure of it myself yet.

One of the conference faculty is Bonnie Becker, whose book A Visitor for Bear, is in my kids' library. I mentioned to them that the author of this book would be there and they right away asked me to bring the book to get autographed. I will have to pick up another in the series while I'm at the conference since they have enjoyed this one so much!

1 comment:

  1. It was great to see you there, Julie! It is such a small world, isn't it?

    I laughed at your comment about clothes. That was my problem, too! I borrowed clothes from my sister-in-law. ha ha!

    And your pitch was great. You acted like a seasoned pro at our lunch with Jenny Bent! :)

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