Write Now! 2018 Writeup

Write Now! 2018 was an excellent conference.  I came away from it feeling excited about writing, and with some really good actionable tips. I learned not to bore my reader, that I don’t have to register a copyright if I don’t want to, all the many ways a book can be sold and re-packaged to earn income, that it’s ok to let the characters have some very human inconsistencies so long as it makes sense within the story, that I need to be professional and prepared so I can make the best possible impression on potential clients or professional relationships, and that the same things that made the books I read as a kid good could be applied to any nonfiction I wrote. Some of those things I already knew but it was good to revisit them. Some of those things surprised me, and it’s always nice to learn something new in a way that you weren’t expecting.

I really enjoyed the opening keynote presentation by Megan Mayhew Bergman. She spoke about inspiration and writing your passion without limiting yourself. That’s hard to remember sometimes when I start analyzing the market and worrying that what I’m writing won’t appeal. I think it’s important to keep the market in mind – after all, ‘the market’ is really just readers buying books, and I’m going to be selling to those readers. However, it’s a long, hard road to produce a book ready to sell. If I’m not writing something that moves me along the way then it’s not likely to be a very good book. If I’m not excited about it how can I get a reader excited about it?

Mike Sager’s closing keynote was very moving. He spoke about the writing life and loving all the things that came along with it, the most important of which for me was time alone in front of the keyboard letting his imagination run wild. To write in general is to let your imagination run wild, but especially so with Science Fiction. What will the future look like? How will this or that technology affect human life? How will the choices we make now affect our children’s lives? These are questions that go through my mind as I write, and that influence my writing. It was really good to hear from a writer who’s been making a living for decades from writing who still values creativity and producing authentic works.

I think my favorite part was getting to talk to the other conference goers about the things they’re writing and seeing their faces light up with excitement. That type of excitement is contagious, and you don’t get it from chatting online. What I do is digital, remote, and often solitary. I like having that solitude during part of my day, but it’s good to remember that I’m formatting a book that a person wrote, and that I’m writing a book that a person will read. The technology and final product is fun and exciting but at the heart of it all are people, and the people are the point of it all.  The real value of a conference like Write Now! is in the personal connections I can make and the people that I can help.

I’d love to hear how the writing relationships in your life have helped improve your writing!