First of all….SNOW!! Yes, here in UT (at least the part I’m in) we’ve been enjoying our first snow of the season. I love when it paints the mountains white. What do you think?
Pretty awesome, right?
But, what I really want to focus on today is Writer’s conferences. I’m not necessarily organized about too much in my life. However, I’m kind of a psychotic pre-planner with my vacation time. I’ve generally got the whole of it divvied out for the entire year by the end of January. And this year, I’d really like to fit in an awesome writer’s conference. I’ve only been to two….(is that bad?) A brief history:
Algonkian Writer’s workshop in San Francisco. I attended in July 2007 for five days. The group was small – maybe 20 of us. We actually stayed in a place called Point Montara, which is south of SF. It was a hostel (not mentioned in brochure) and I shared a small room and bunk beds with 4 other women. Intimate. :) But, it was on the beach. There was a beautiful lighthouse on the property, and there was a focus on craft and pitching to agents that was really quite good. Agents Elizabeth Pomada and her husband/partner Michael Larsen were there. We group pitched to both of them. I just looked at the website for Algonkian and it looks like they’ve added even more venues. I would say “worth it” for the serious-about-publishing author. I, at the time, fancied myself “serious”. But, honestly - I was so intimidated by the talent of my fellow writers and so unsure about myself and my writing that I didn’t make the best of it. A regret, for sure.
The only other conference I’ve been to is the League of UT Writer’s Fall Roundup, which was in Sept. of this year. What I liked about this one is that it offered several different workshops and lunch/dinner opportunities for networking. It also had a panel of agents, publishers and authors for questions and you could sign up for agent pitches to one or all or none. Your choice! You could be a bit more anonymous here. More my style, but not necessarily better for my writing career.
So – I pose this question to all of you. What’s better? The big, anonymous writer’s conference with 100+ attendees? Or a private, one-on-one intimate conference with limited attendees? Have any of you been to a conference – either private or huge – that you really LOVED?
Have you checked out Shaw Guides list of writer’s conferences? Any good ones for 2011? Maybe, I’ll see you there. :)
