Nine (only slightly creepy) Reasons to Attend a Writers’ Conference

Published September 28, 2010

Okay, admittedly this post is a tad off my beaten blog path, but I figured I’d do it anyhow since behind every great book is a great writer, and behind every great writer is a universe of hours spent learning the craft. And, really, what better way to get your feet wet with the whole book craft thing than by attending a writers’ conference? Which I did last weekend. And sitting there in my uberly ecstatic “I’m loving every minute of this” emotional state at our local Central Coast Writers’ Conference amongst hundreds of book readers, writers, agents (ahem, Nathan Bransford), and even a few publishers, I began to list off the many, perhaps lesser thought of, reasons an individual—be it a writer OR reader—might want to attend one of these babies.

So here goes. **stretches arms and cracks knuckles over computer keyboard**

Attending a writers’ conference rocks because:

(1) It’s bolstering. And I mean that in a kind of “I’m in Introvert Heaven” sort of way, if you get what I’m sayin’. Mingling around hundreds of other shy, quirky individuals who like books just as much as you, and like to talk books just as much as you, and like to stalk authors just as much as you, but who really don’t want to make eye contact or shake hands just like you, can be bolstering to one’s introverted self. It reminds you that you’re not alone even in your private “I just want to be alone-ness.”

(2) At least 90% of its participants are women. I don’t know if there’s a code that only females should be writers or what, but who cares because either way you win at a writers’ conference. I mean, if you’re a woman, you’ll fit in. And if you’re a guy, well, this could potentially rival Bingo night for your dating life.

(3) It’s like Comic Con without the costumes.

(4) It’s where you can stalk your favorite people without being labeled creepy. Seriously, at  how many other events do you get to sit directly behind a host of your favorite authors and take discreet, awkward side photos of them with your cell phone while you pretend you don’t know who they are? All without having the stalker police called on you. Okay…so maybe they will be called on you, but at least your Twitter hit count will be through the roof while you’re sitting in jail with the wad of used Kleenex you managed to swipe off Jay Asher. (Um…just joking about that, Jay. Ahem. And I meant it when I said your hair looked really good.)

(5) People are genuinely nice to you. Maybe it’s because you’re all in the same boat of waking up before your kids and the sun and the normal rest of the world in order to write, write, write (or read, read, read) your brains out for a few precious hours. This also explains the heavy amounts of coffee provided in each alcove.

(6) It’s humbling in a weird kind of “I might be in Introvert Hell” way, if you get me. I mean, let’s face it, where else can you be voted in as the person to hit the podium and pitch a query letter (which your group of people whom you’ve never met came up with on the spot) in front of a highly favored agent (ahem again, Nathan Bransford) and 100 other people? Also, be sure to have the first 3 pages of your manuscript read aloud and critiqued in front of an acquisitions editing class as you repeat after me: “I am brave. I am brave. I am brave…” Yeah. Whoever said learning was less embarrassing than walking around like you’ve got toilet paper stuck on your shoe? But when it’s over? It’s not nearly as bad as we feared. Or perhaps even better than you hoped (here’s to you, Charlotte Cook. )

(7) The food. Seriously tasty.

(8) You can read in the bathroom and no one bats a lash. They just think you’re an agent who got passed a manuscript beneath the stall.

(9) The reading room bookstore.  Enough said.

Oky-doky artichokies…what’s the last conference (of any kind) YOU attended? Got any tips to add for the rest of us nerds???

What’s the mood noise of the moment?  Weezer

Tags: Charlotte Cook, day job writing, Jay Asher, Nathan Bransford, writers conference