From Edie: Discover how writers conferences can transform your writing life—building confidence, sharpening skills, and connecting you with mentors, friends, and purpose.
How Writers Conferences Change Your Writing Life: Confidence, Community, and Calling for Writers
by Lori Hatcher
How many writers do you know?
Not because you’ve read their names on book covers, but because you know them. Because you’ve sat across the table from them, heard their stories, and learned from their teaching?
Early in my writing journey, I didn’t know anyone who wrote for publication. I’d written since I was a teenager—journals, poems, and short stories. For ten years, I’d penned a column of encouragement for our homeschool newsletter. I’d even submitted a few pieces to a local magazine. But I certainly didn’t consider myself a writer. And I didn’t know anyone else who wrote.
I assumed writing was a solitary endeavor (it is), and writers just stayed in their caves and wrote. By themselves. All alone.
One day a friend said, “I saw an announcement on a bulletin board at Lifeway about a writers conference at Ridgecrest. It’s free. All you have to do is pay for lodging and meals. I’ll go with you if you want to go.”
I have no idea why she offered to go with me. She wasn’t interested in writing for publication. (Remember, I didn’t know any other writers.) But God prompted her, and she obeyed.
I calculated the cost, counted my birthday money stash, and decided that if I ate bagels and blueberries in the room for breakfast, split the cost of the accommodations with my friend, and ate only two meals a day in the dining room, I could afford to go.
I must confess to feeling a twinge selfish. I’d been to dental conferences in college and homeschool conferences with my children, but I’d never done anything just for myself. It seemed extravagant and maybe even silly. I mean, me, going to a writers conference?
But I went anyway.
Walking into a room with forty-six real writers felt very intimidating. These people had written books, and all I’d written were a few columns in a homeschool newsletter. When I heard them using words like POV and Show, don’t tell, I felt like a Spaniard in China.
Then Eddie Jones took the lectern and spoke three sentences that gave me hope.
“Don’t try to be someone else.”
“Write from where you are.”
“Write about what you know.”
His words gave me permission to be who I was: a homeschool mom who loved to write. Where was I? In the homeschooling world. What did I know? How to encourage other homeschool moms.
Then Cindy Sproles stood up and taught the Hook, Book, Look, and Took method of devotional writing. I scribbled down her instructions, and something resonated in my soul. I can do this. I don’t think I can write a novel or a Christian living book, but I can share with others what God is teaching me from the Bible.
Two more pieces of direction stuck in my exuberant but overwhelmed mind:
Start a blog.
Write regularly.
I don’t remember anything else from that one-and-a-half-day conference, but it was enough. I started blogging twice a week. I gathered the courage to tell a few close friends about my blog, and, wonder of wonder, they subscribed. Every week I posted Hook, Book, Look, and Took devotions. My subscriber list grew, and so did my confidence.
I submitted a devotion to Christiandevotions.us, and they accepted it. I partnered with a conferee I’d met in the dining hall on the last day of the conference, and we collaborated on her blog. I compiled my ten-year collection of devotions for homeschool moms into an independently published book.
Today, fourteen years later, I’m still blogging, writing devotions, and attending writers conferences. I’ve even taught at a few—including that very first conference—Asheville Christian Writers Conference. Serving there is always a sweet and serendipitous honor.
And the writers I met at the conference? They’ve become my mentors and friends. They continue to instruct me, challenge me, and encourage me. They understand me like no one else. Together we shine the light of Jesus into our dark world.
How many writers do you know? I mean, really know?
The writing life is solitary, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.
Why not attend a conference this year?
It could change your life.
Upcoming Writing Conferences:
- Carolina Christian Writers Conference (I’ll be there!)
- Florida Christian Writers Conference (I’ll be there!)
TWEETABLE
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