Shelley Widhalm of Shell’s Ink Services attended the Northern Colorado Writers Conference in May 2017 with Abii Franke, a student she mentors about writing.
By Shelley Widhalm
Every industry has its conferences with fancy hotels, nice dinners and lots of networking, but for writers, there’s an added bonus.
The one, two or more days of immersion in writing offer up inspiration and motivation to get back to the craft. Often, I tell myself I’m too busy to write or can only do it after I get my work, chores and other tasks completed.
But if I pay for a conference and sign up to pitch to agents, I have a deadline for my current writing project, because writing novels involves multiple revisions (and, for me, a bit of procrastination).
The NCW Conference
I attended the 13th annual #NorthernColoradoWriters Conference “Much Ado About Writing,” on May 4-5 at the Fort Collins Marriott in Fort Collins, Colo.
Attendees could pitch their novel or nonfiction project in individual agent sessions—you only get five minutes!—and get feedback from agents and writing professionals at the critique round tables on the first page and book concept.
To prepare, I revised my novel “In the Grace of Beautiful Stars” after figuring out, with a few of my writing friends, the missing element to my then 92,000-word novel (now at 88,000 words). My beginning dragged and my protagonist’s core problem needed more tension, so I had to make lots of cuts (which I dumped in my cuts file because of my problems with letting go).
I also revised the first page and logline—a one- to two-sentence description of the project focused on the main characters and core conflict. I cleaned up the synopsis, a one- or multiple-page detailed summary of the project.
And I planned which of the eight sessions I wanted to attend on elements of writing, social media and platform building, publishing options and different genres from flash fiction to romance.
Conference Advice
Here is some of the advice I’ve gathered about making the most of attending a conference (next week, I will blog about what I got out of the conference):
- Plan ahead on which sessions you want to attend; and don’t forget a notebook to take notes.
- Know which genre your work fits in; don’t just say fiction or nonfiction.
- Prep for the pitch session or agent roundtable: research to find the best fit for your work; check the agent or editor’s websites, social media and other material online to identify what kind of books and writers they represent.
- Prepare your pitch with a logline and synopsis. If you get a request, ask when and how you should submit your proposal or sample chapters and how best to contact them.
- If you learn that your work isn’t right for the agent or editor, don’t take it personally.
- Plan to network, which includes bringing business cards (preferably with your photo), and don’t stay tied to your friends, because you might miss out on meeting new connections.
One Last Thing
Don’t forget to take photos and post them. Tweet, blog, Facebook and engage in other types of social media to promote your writing and the conference.