Wow, was I befuddled when I attended my first writing conference years ago. I didn’t have a book published. I didn’t know anyone. Yet, everyone else seemed to be “someone” or be on a best-seller list somewhere.

I wanted to hide in my room.

The first evening, a woman in the elevator asked me what I wrote. I blushed hot and stammered a lot, realizing for the first time the value of an elevator pitch. Then she invited me to sit with her and her friends at dinner.

I didn’t have a publisher. No one knew me. Yep! These authors’ friendliness confused me. But now I know why they cared. They wanted me to be the best writer I could be.

Why?

“. . . Every time an audience reads a bad book, watches a bad movie, or attends a bad play, it just gets harder for the next writer, because the audience is increasingly reluctant to care again.” Secrets of Story -Matt Bird

We must care, hold nothing back, and help each other.

It’s no surprise I’m honored and excited to have been selected to present at the Joint SWW-MWSA Conference. I’ll be discussing my process of building hardworking scenes readers won’t forget.

As writers, we all have our favorite way of approaching and executing our stories, but we never get tired of picking up tips that make our writing shine. Looking at the list of presenters, I know I’ll come away from this conference with new energy and ideas for my own writing.

Writing conferences have contributed to my success as an author. I’ve made lifelong friends, found a publisher, learned about the “business” of being an author, and added a profound number of writing tools to my story-writing kit.

Tell me your conference experiences and how writing conferences have helped you.