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Our fully accessible, free, virtual Writing Conference is this weekend!! Below is some more information about what to expect from each talk on Day 2 (March 16).
Presentations will be available indefinitely on YouTube but presenters are only available this weekend on YouTube and Discord to chat! On average, these videos run 25-35 minutes; you'll have roughly 15 minutes between each video to take care of necessities and chat.
Saturday, March 16
7am Eastern (11am UTC)
Srivalli Rekha — The Hive Publishing
This presentation discusses founding The Hive, a publishing group in India. Srivalli explains the problems related to running an anthology publisher: from the selection process to market saturation, choosing quality vs. quantity, generating sales, and receiving predatory contact from paid review networks. If you've wondered what it's like to run a publisher, this talk is full of the honest truth.
8am Eastern (12pm UTC)
Zac Lindsey — The Ethnography of Our Heroes: Anthropology in SFF
In this presentation, Zac discusses a helpful method for developing fantasy worlds using a variation of the anthropological practice of ethnography. He includes examples of some questions you can "ask" your characters and why those questions are useful in a fantasy or science fiction world, then discusses some failings of traditional worldbuilding and the danger of the copy-paste method of culture development (where you grab elements of real-world cultures wholesale).
9am Eastern (1pm UTC)
CoffeeQuills — Writing on Twitch
CoffeeQuills helps explain the ins and outs of running a video streaming account on Twitch, including the account levels, how to setup your stream, deciding how much to show, protecting your work while you're writing, and the amazingly supportive community they found there.
This talk starts right after Coffee's regularly scheduled (Saturday) livestream.
10am Eastern (2pm UTC)
Stacey Covell — References and Citations
This talk covers the whys, whens, and hows of referencing and citing material in your writing. Using examples, Stacey shows portions of text that need a reference, why, how to do it (including footnotes/endnotes), and formatting. She discusses the different style guides and why it's important to follow them exactly to the best of your ability. She also covers epigraphs (for both fiction and nonfiction), as well as music lyrics and poetry.
11am Eastern (3pm UTC)
Amy Nielsen — Reading for Writers
In this session, Amy discusses why reading is so important to the writing process. She provides actionable tips for how to improve your writing when you read, what to look for as you read, and why reading wide in your genre is the most important part of the pre-querying process.
12pm-1pm Eastern (4pm UTC)
BREAK with optional write-in in Discord
1pm Eastern (5pm UTC)
Kailei Pew — Picture Book Beginnings
Kailei introduces the craft of picture book writing, including how to get started as a picture book author, what it takes to make a great picture book, and how to use layers to stand out in an extremely overcrowded PB market.
2pm Eastern (6pm UTC)
Jessica Klimesh — Understanding Rejection
This presentation shows an overview of submitting to literary journals, including choosing appropriate journals, following guidelines, and (most importantly) understanding the necessary role of rejection. Jessica discusses why a piece gets rejected and how to use rejection to improve as a writer.
This talk lifts the veil on the complex and intimidating world of literary journals and eases the frustration of having work rejected.
3pm Eastern (7pm UTC)
Sarah Bailey — Query Packages & Submissions Guidelines
This class covers the basics of creating a query package for literary agents and publishers, including how to know when your book is ready for querying, where to find agents and publishers accepting unagented queries, the basic structure of a query letter, typical expectations for sample pages and synopses, how to find comp titles, what not to do when querying, how to stay positive when faced with rejections, and how to avoid the querying black hole.
4pm Eastern (8pm UTC)
Anne Marie Stoddard — Chat With a Mystery Author
Anne Marie provides answers to your questions about the mystery genre and writing process, including plotting/outlines, leaving breadcrumbs (clues) for readers, understanding motive, pacing, establishing suspects, the types of mystery, and mystery series vs standalone stories.
5pm Eastern (9pm UTC)
Ginny Myers Sain — Making Setting a Character
Ginny explains the three essential keys to immersive, vivid settings: tiny details, challenging spaces, and the symbolism of space. She covers how to imagine setting wrapping its arms around the entire story to influence the plot, characters, and voice.
6pm-7pm Eastern (10pm UTC)
BREAK with optional write-in in Discord
7pm Eastern (11pm UTC)
S.E. Reed — Tips for Busy People
S.E. shares her ridiculously busy schedule and discusses ways to incorporate writing into your everyday life, what "writing time" really means, and tips that helped her to both develop a schedule and follow it.
8pm Eastern (12am UTC)
Brittany McMunn — Chat With an Editor
This presentation covers types of editing and some genre basics.
9pm Eastern (1am UTC)
Jennifer Della'Zanna — Technical Jargon in Writing
Technical subjects can be difficult to explain without alienating readers when the going gets tough. White papers and procedural handbooks aren't the only publications with technical terms: "medical romance" is a thing, and you better know your CT scan from your echocardiogram to sell books these readers.
No matter what you’re writing, you need to make the writing flow without burying your message, overexplaining, or leaving readers confused. You must work that knowledge into your readers’ minds without losing them.
It’s a fine line to walk—join me in navigating the tightrope!
10pm Eastern (2am UTC)
Deb Lerew — Based on a 'Boo' Story:
turning unexplained experiences into ghost story gold
Ghosts. UFOs. Cryptids. Strange disappearances... Almost everyone has experienced something they can’t explain, or knows someone who has. As a writer, have you ever considered using those eerie encounters as inspiration for your stories? In this short presentation, you will learn a few tips for incorporating real supernatural encounters into an original work of paranormal fiction.
Join us in Discord for virtual write-ins and fun. See you there!
About the author: Theresa is a co-founder of The Writer's Workout, a crime/thriller/horror writer, and a freelance developmental editor at Premier Literary Services. Her works are published in various magazine and journals under a pseudonym.