The Writing Conference Blog Hop (Bonnie Way)

For a decade, the last weekend in September was reserved on my calendar for the Inscribe Christian Writer's Fellowship's annual Fall Conference. When I went to my first conference in 2000, I knew I'd found a family of writers, and I went back again every year for the encouragement and inspiration I found there. Every year, I found myself returning home ready to keep writing.

Since then, I've had the chance to attend a few other conferences, including The Word Guild's first two Write! Vancouver conferences. This weekend, I'm actually at BlogHer14 in San Jose, California, networking with bloggers and brands and learning more about that genre of writing.

I thought this would be a fun space to share our blog posts about what conferences we've attended (or would like to attend) or about any tips for going to writing conferences. Feel free to link up your posts (old or new) below.


And don't forget that ICWF's Fall Conference is still happening the last weekend of September - that's exactly two months away! This year, Phil Callaway is coming back as the keynote speaker and I can assure you, from hearing him speak in 2000, that he's a lot of fun! Check out the conference trailer and find out more details on the ICWF website.

Choosing Workshops at a Conference by T. L. Wiens

I’ve been busy trying to help put together the His Imprint Christian Writers Conference. I received an interesting comment from someone looking at the brochure. She told me she didn’t think many of the workshops related to her writing genre.

I don’t know why she would feel this way. We’re covering characters, dialogue, plots, sales, music and writing integrity as well as offering one on one sessions with our own president, Ruth Snyder.

I realize on first glance many of the session would appear to be only for fiction writers but that’s not true. All these parts of writing are important to non-fiction as well.

Plots. I have often read non-fiction pieces that I wish had taken more consideration of the plot. I realize there are limitations when recounting a true story but too often I’ve encountered poor flow in the retelling. Often, a lot of repetition. As with fiction, a non-fiction piece, whether it be a story or even a self-help type of book, needs to flow.

Characters and Dialogue. But non-fiction comes with a set character list. To a degree, yes but too often these characters aren’t as well rounded as they could be. A non-fiction writer would do themselves a favour to look deeply into their characters, fill out a character sketch. Dialogue is another area every writer needs skills.

Sales. This one is obvious. Every writer needs to know about this.

Music. This is one that not every writer may need but many aspects of the music industry reflect that of the writing industry.

Writing Integrity. Every writer needs to look at his/her reason for writing and what goals they wish to accomplish.

So come out and spend a day with some wonderful writers and let yourself explore the possibilities of where your writing journey will take you.