Why was there no blog post last week? Because I was
at the 2014 Colorado Gold Conference and didn’t pay the hotel for the use of
the internet.
The Colorado Gold Conference is put on every year by
Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. This year, the conference was September 5th
– 7th at The Westin in Westminster, Colorado. As always, the
conference was amazing. The sessions were helpful, and the hotel was very nice.
Maybe I’ve been taking writing classes for too many
years, but I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t find general craft sessions
at conferences very interesting. I did go to sessions on dialogue, tension, and
character development at Colorado Gold, but I liked some of the genre-specific
sessions much better. This conference had genre-specific sessions about the Victorian
era, science, the brain, witchcraft, sex, more sex, even more sex, violence,
and more violence. It was awesome.
Writing conferences are usually overwhelming for me.
I’ve never been very good at taking notes, and I learn so much that everything
jumbles up in my brain. This isn’t a bad thing. I remember what I learned when
I need to remember it. But, it makes it a little difficult to write a review of
the conference.
I learned one fact that clearly stands out in my
mind: Murderers often bite their victims. It’s an animal instinct that takes
over when people kill each other.
Out of all the sessions I attended, that fact is the
only thing that I clearly remember. I learned it in a session called Dying to
be Here: Techniques of Murder and Mayhem. The session was aimed at mystery,
horror, and thriller authors. I have no idea when I’m going to use this
information, but it sure is yucky.
If you go to a writing conference, try to attend
some genre-specific sessions, even if you don’t write that genre. They’re
pretty interesting. And, if you live near Colorado, check out the Colorado Gold
Conference. It’s one of the better conferences that I’ve attended.
The first word that comes to mind is “exhausting.”
The second is “expensive.” The third is “awesome.”
What is a writing conference, and where can I find
one?
A writing conference is an event that is usually put
on by a university, a group of universities, or some kind of organization for
writers. They usually last about three days and consist of classes, lectures, events, readings, and panels about writing and publishing. These things are often referred to as “sessions.”
There are sometimes agents and editors there to hear pitches and do critiques.
The best place to find a conference is probably Google. I found conferences in
my area by Googling “writing conferences in Colorado.”
Where are conferences usually held?
University campuses, convention centers, and hotels
seem to be very common.
I found a conference. How do I know if it’s a good
one?
Look at the schedule. There should be a schedule of
events and sessions on the conference’s website. If there are a bunch of sessions
on the schedule that interest you, then it’s probably a good one. If there are
only a few that interest you, then it’s probably not worth the money to attend.
What happens at a conference?
First, you check in and usually get a goodie bag and
a name tag. Make sure you get there early because you sometimes have to wait in
line to check in. Then, you follow the schedule. There are usually a lot of
sessions happening at once, so before you get to the conference, read the
schedule and pick which ones you want to attend. You most likely won’t be able
to go to everything. Sessions usually last between 30 and 60 minutes each. Be
aware that sessions occasionally run over their allotted time, and you might
have to rush to your next session. If you have time before or during the
conference, it might be helpful to find the rooms where all of your sessions
are held so that you don’t make yourself more late by getting lost.
Most of your time will be spent sitting in sessions.
Be prepared to sit until your butt is numb. It’s surprising how exhausting it
can be to sit and take notes all day. Conferences usually start early in the
morning (between 6 and 8 am) and go until the afternoon (between 4 and 7 pm).
What should I bring to the conference?
The schedule, food, water, comfortable clothes, comfortable
shoes, a jacket, a way to take notes, medication (for headaches and backaches
from uncomfortable chairs), money, and a backpack to carry everything. Bring
business cards or bookmarks if you’re a published author with a book to sell.
How much does it cost?
Some conferences
offer a discount to students with a high school or college ID. You can attend those
conferences for as little as $15. Some conferences offer scholarships so that
you can go for free (if you win the scholarship). You can sometimes save money
if you register early. The price often goes up as you get closer to the
conference date. Some conferences offer discounts if you are a member of the
organization that is sponsoring/hosting the conference. In my experience, most
conferences cost between $100 and $400. There are often books for sale, so if
you’re a book hoarder like me, bring money for books. Some conferences will
feed you, but be prepared to pay extra for it.
Most conferences
offer additional experiences that you can pay for, if you’re interested. You
could pitch your manuscript to an agent, have it critiqued by an editor,
participate in a workshop, attend special classes, enter your writing in a
contest, or have dinner with a well-known author. These things usually cost
extra. The cost varies a lot, so check the conference website. You probably
have to sign up early for these special events because they fill up fast.
Are conferences
worth it?
In my experience,
yes. You meet a lot of interesting people and learn a lot. It’s like a mini
version of going to college for writing, but you don’t have any homework, and
it doesn’t take years.
The Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold
Conference was held on September 20-22, 2013 at the Renaissance Hotel in
Denver.The conference offered sessions
on improving your writing, starting your writing career, writing different
genres, figuring out the publishing industry, and furthering your writing
career after you’ve been published.Conference attendees could follow the “Fast Tracks” and focus on one of
these areas, or they could mix-and-match sessions.The conference also had agent and editor
panels, published writer panels, critique sessions, pitch sessions, pitch coaching,
and master classes.
This was my first time going to this conference.I only went to the sessions, and I didn’t
follow any of the “Fast Tracks,” but I was there for all three days.This was the second-biggest writing
conference I’ve ever been to.There were
a lot of people, but it didn’t feel overcrowded.
Everyone I talked to was nice and helpful.I didn’t stay at the hotel, but the
conference rooms and the hallways seemed clean, and the employees were helpful.Some of the conference rooms were difficult
to find.It would have been nice to have
a map of the hotel in the conference packet so that I didn’t have to go back to
the hotel lobby and look at their map whenever I didn’t know where I was going.
I wish that I could have cloned myself and gone to
more of the sessions.I sometimes had a
hard time deciding which ones I wanted to attend.I thought that I’d like the publishing
industry sessions the most because I’m usually more interested in editing than
writing, but I ended up liking the writing sessions the best.My two favorites were Writing Action and
Fight Scenes and Writing Characters with Psychological Disorders.
It’s odd that I liked Writing Action and Fight
Scenes because I’ve written very few fight scenes; the fight scenes that I have
written are all short and one-sided; and I’ve never written a battle scene like
you’d find in a war or sword-and-sorcery novel.The session was really interesting, though.A lot of the writing advice that was given
seemed to be aimed at beginning writers.It was the type of stuff that you’d learn in an Intro to Fiction Writing
class.For example, the instructors
taught us to use short sentences to speed up the pace of a scene and use long
sentences to slow the pace.They also
taught us to keep things in order: “I punched him, and he fell.”Not: “He fell after I punched him.”For me, the most interesting parts of the session
were the details about what actually happens during fights/battles.Some people feel as if time speeds up; other
people feel as if time slows down.Some
people’s brains get so overwhelmed with sensory information that the brain can’t
process all of it, and they don’t remember parts of the battle after it’s
over.Some people get so scared that
they really do crap their pants (that’s not a myth).And, if you get shot and aren’t killed
instantly, you probably won’t lie down and die gracefully.You’ll scream.And maybe flail around.A lot.
Writing Characters with Psychological Disorders is
another session that I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did.I’ve written some odd characters, but the
session focused almost entirely on schizophrenia, and I’ve never
written a schizophrenic character.For
anyone who doesn’t know, people with schizophrenia have hallucinations and have
a hard time telling the difference between what is real and what is a
hallucination.Writing a schizophrenic
character seems like a challenging thing to do, so I don’t think I ever want to
try it.I did like hearing stories about
real-life people with schizophrenia.Brains are weird.The biggest
thing that I learned from the session is that I’m hugely grateful that I don’t
have schizophrenia.
This post is getting long, so I’m ending it by
saying that I will definitely be going to the Colorado Gold Conference next
year.I enjoyed it.
Writing the Rockies = awesomeness.If you haven’t heard of it, Writing the
Rockies is a conference that’s held on the campus of Western State Colorado
University in Gunnison, Colorado.This
year, it was July 25 – July 28.The
conference offers sessions on popular genre fiction, nonfiction, poetry,
screenwriting, and publishing.Attendees
can go to different sessions or focus on one area.
The college campus is beautiful.I wanted to take more pictures, but every
time I wasn’t busy, it was either dark or raining.It’s raining hard in this picture:
The college has an organic garden, parking spaces reserved
for fuel-efficient vehicles, and wants you to sort your recycling in to a hundred
different categories, but it waters its lawns during a downpour.I found that amusing.
~*~
The conference came at the end of my two-week residency at
the school (I was there working on this.Please submit).I didn’t get much
sleep during the two weeks because my on-campus apartment was loud, hot, and
buggy.By the time I got to the
conference, I was in exhausted zombie-mode.However, the conference was amazing.I loved it.I took about 6 pages
of notes, and some of them are actually coherent.
I went to all of the publishing sessions and all of the
keynotes.Here are a few of the things I
learned:
1.Many
authors don’t understand what a publishing company does.
A publishing company usually doesn’t print
books.They hire book-printing companies
to do that.Publishing companies find
books that will stand out in the marketplace, provide authors with many
different types of editorial advice, design the cover and the interior of the
book, work with retailers and book distributers, help build the author’s brand,
market the book, and handle the legal stuff, such as copyright protection.Random House explains it all better than me. (I'm not sure why the videos aren't working on the mobile version of this blog).
This means that if you want to
self-publish, and you don’t want your book to look self-published, you have to
either learn how to do all of these things yourself, or you have to hire
somebody to do them.On a
slightly-related note, I also learned that the average self-published e-book
sells 75 copies.
2.Social
media is important.
One of the authors at the conference said
that her publishing company required her to have a website, a blog, a LinkedIn
account, a Twitter account, and a Facebook account with at least 5,000 friends
or 5,000 “likes.”All of these social
media sites need to be updated regularly by the author.
3.Press
kits are a thing.
I’d never heard of a press kit before.They can be created by an author or by a
publishing company.The press kit that I
saw was a folder which contained a flier that advertised the book, an author
bio, and author interview questions with answers.The press kit is given to anyone who is
reviewing the book or interviewing the author.
4.Find your
people before you write.
Authors can start promoting their books
before the book is written.If you write
mysteries, go out in real life or on the Internet and find other people who
write mysteries.If you write about
cycling, go find cyclists.Make
friends.Get involved in conversations.Make some real connections.Don’t just try to promote your unwritten
book.That could get annoying.When you do write and publish the book, you’ll
already have an audience.
~*~
My favorite part of the conference was getting to hear
pitches for possible anthology stories and poems.We had an office (okay, it was a classroom)
with our names on the door (okay, the names were on a piece of printer paper
that was taped to the door), but it was still really cool.Authors came and talked to us about their
stories or poems, and we gave them feedback.I enjoyed hearing everybody’s ideas.There are a lot of creative people in the world.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s conference.If you’re in the Gunnison, Colorado area, I
highly recommend coming to Writing the Rockies.
