Q&A: Conferences/workshops for beginning writers
By Debbie Ohi | December 18, 2010 |
Debbie Ridpath Ohi writes and illustrates books for young people. Recent illustration projects for Simon & Schuster Children’s include books by Judy Blume and Michael Ian Black. Her blog for children’s book writers & illustrators: Inkygirl.com. On Twitter: @inkyelbows
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Awesomeness! Thanks so much, Debbie. (And I love SCBWI, too. Fantastic organization, with so many satellite conferences and workshops throughout the year.)
HWA = Horror Writers Association
RWA = Romance Writers of America for romance writers
MWA = Mystery Writers of America
Check this link for more thoughts on writers’ orgs.
What about for those of us who are writing for adults?
There is probably a genre specific conference for whatever you write. One that should be mentioned more often is the Historical Novel Society conference – held in the US every two years. This year it will be in San Diego in June. I went to the first one as a very beginning writer and all the workshops, the writers both professional and aspiring, and the thrill of being in a group of 300 people who loved the same things I did gave me courage to start and continue in my own particular dream. Six years later I have a finished ms (titled Spiral) that I hope to find an agent for this June. I doubt I could have forged ahead with out the sense of support, knowledge and community I gained from the conferences.
I’m sooo late on this but for those who are writing for the Christian market, there’s the American Christian Fiction Writers conference, held every September. It’s the biggest Christian writing conference of the year, I’m told, and is jampacked with workshops for writers of all levels. 2011’s conference will be in St. Louis.