Why Attend a Writers Conference?

Do you want to improve your writing? Need a fresh pair of eyes on your work?

Writers’ conferences are special events. They give participants an opportunity to focus on their writing with like-minded people. Classes, workshops, panel discussions, Q & A sessions, and readings—featuring prominent writers—fully immerse conference participants in the craft, and art, of writing. Learn new tools and strategies. Get valuable feedback. Share reading lists. Make new friends and professional connections.

Value for Writers

Writers of all levels will benefit from an environment in which writing is central. For a nominal cost, the benefit to your writing is enormous. Take time to consider the direction of your novel, stories, poems, or essays. Ask some real questions. Get inspired. Examine your writing process. Figure out what is working and what isn’t. Get a peek into the process of other writers. Explore what motivates you. What frightens you. Listen for that one startling word of advice that unlocks the door. You will find other people on this journey too: fellow travelers, kindred spirits, people who value reading and writing as much as you.

Professional Development

Learn from people who have made writing their life’s work. Find out how teachers and professional writers balance their work and everyday lives. Gain insight into how working writers accomplish what they do. Classes and workshops put you in direct contact with people interested in the same questions. By surrounding yourself with other writers, you learn by osmosis, getting answers to questions you didn’t even know you had. Writers’ conferences will give you original ideas, new goals, a fresh take on your writing process.

Make a Connection

Writers spend a lot of time alone, and writing is an inward-looking process. During the pandemic, many have found it difficult to reach out and make new contacts. Another benefit of a writers’ conference, even a virtual one, is the opportunity to connect with those who share similar interests. New writers will work with experienced writers. Writers of all levels will connect with new readers of their work, who will offer fresh insight and valuable criticism. Writers’ conferences are a gift economy, a generous mode of exchange, and the return on your investment is immense.

Invest in Your Writing

Writers know that they are responsible for their own work. Sentence by sentence. Line by line. Word by word. Writers’ conferences are an occasion to invest in your writing in a new way. Classes will offer writing prompts in all genres, enabling you to begin new work, and explore what it is you are currently working on from a different angle. Invest in yourself by fully engaging in all writers’ conference events.

Conclusion

The best writing advice is to write. Write a lot. But sometimes you need the camaraderie and good company of teachers and interesting peers. A writers’ conference can provide good instruction, valuable feedback, and motivation to keep writing.