A Writer’s Conference Riff with Aud and Gemma

Writers and good friends Aud and Gemma, are members of the same monthly critique group and have had short stories published in Running Wild Anthology of Stories, Volume 3. Together they attended the virtual PennWriters Conference in mid-May. Aud also attended two other online conferences in late June: The Greater Philly Christian Writer Conference and the Friends General Conference (FGC). Recently, Aud and Gemma came together via Zoom to talk about what they’d learned.

AUD: I’ve got folders full of notes from all my conferences. I went to so many so quickly; I’m almost overwhelmed by all the information.

GEMMA: I don’t blame you. I was overwhelmed by just one conference!

AUD: And it’s hard to keep track of all that information.

GEMMA: What I’ve done, like in past years, is boil down the information to a page or two of really pertinent things for where I am in my writing. And from that, I’d try to keep one or two things in mind when I write. Or three. Then, when I edit a manuscript, I’ll look at those things and go, “Oh right. Yes, let me look for this.” That helped me. And recently, I went back and looked at the nuggets I’d saved from previous conferences. Some of that information still applies. Some of that got my attention: “Yes! This is what I need to do right now.” And the rest of it, I think, well, it may not be in the back of my head, but it will be in my notes for later.

AUD: You took excellent notes.

GEMMA: Thanks! But yours were good, too.

AUD: We attended many of the same workshops at the PennWriters conference. When I compared my notes to yours, you remembered more than I did. I tried to write things down, but then I’d forget what the presenters said two seconds after they said it.

GEMMA: Me, too. One of the advantages of the virtual conference was I could take a lot of screenshots. I remember thinking, “That’s a great slide up there, but I can’t write it down fast enough. Oh! I can do a screenshot!” I used them just for writing my notes, then deleted them because I don’t think they’re mine to keep.

AUD: I used my Print Screen key to grab slides but got so carried away cropping the slide and giving it a name when I saved it that I’d miss the next slide. [Laughter]

GEMMA: What stayed with me after the conference, in general, was what a wealth of information it provided. That’s why it took me a whole month to type and organize my notes! And then extract what I really wanted to take away from it. Another thing I liked was how cool it was to hang out with other writers again. When I’d first join the Zoom room, I’d put it on gallery view so I could see everyone.

AUD: Exactly! What stayed with me, probably because I had attended three, was comparing the different experiences. I liked that the Christian Writer Conference had a dashboard with everything you needed in one place, including handouts. PennWriters had a choice of two live virtual workshops each period, which I liked because it was easy to choose. The Christian Writer Conference only had one, but they also had links to prerecorded workshops during the same period. Attendees have access to the prerecorded workshops until September, so technically, I could watch all of them.

GEMMA: That’s awesome.

AUD: The one at FGC wasn’t exactly a writer’s conference, but they offered a writing workshop, which I took. We wrote short pieces about a different topic each day and read them to each other during the session. On the last day, I said, “Man, I had no idea I could write every day on a different topic at 600 words or less.” It’s getting me ready to write personal essays.

GEMMA: That’s very cool, Aud! You know that is a bit like the flash fiction course I took with Lisa Kastner so many years ago. I didn’t think I could write flash fiction, either. But the whole idea of: sit down, write something short, that’s it, you’re done. Polish later. That’s very empowering in a way.

AUD: I completely agree!

GEMMA: Some of what I wrote, I thought, “This is awful!” [Laughter] And some of it, I thought, “That’s a story with some promise.”

AUD: Yeah!

GEMMA: And three of them got published. Woo hoo!

AUD: Excellent! I want to mention Grammarly because they brought it up a few times at PennWriters. Besides punctuation and grammar, Grammarly also flags sentence groups that are too similar or sound monotonous. Sometimes I’d tell it (because I talk to my computer programs), “No, you’re wrong. I like the rhythm those sentences create.” Other times Grammarly flagged sentences, not so much for being monotonous, but because the sentences didn’t flow.

GEMMA: I can see how that could make a manuscript better.

AUD: I’m already thinking differently about sentence structure, and I’ve only been playing with it for a few weeks. That’s why I want to give a plug for Grammarly, Premium Edition. Signing up for Grammarly was a great takeaway from the PennWriters conference.

GEMMA: Excellent.

AUD: So many presenters said it was a good idea to buy the premium version. It’s not that expensive. I definitely recommend it.

GEMMA: To have a personal recommendation from you means a lot. That’s a great takeaway. One thing that really stuck with me from the conference was from the first workshop, “Is it Your Story to Tell?” which was also very challenging. Abigail Drake, the moderator, defined #ownvoices and marginalized groups. She pointed out that even the most respectful and careful writer will never have the same insights as someone who has lived that experience. This led some of us, and she even acknowledged this, to ask the question, “Should I not even try?” Then in two later workshops presented by Fritze Roberts, she talked about writing the “other.”

AUD: I didn’t see the Fritze Roberts ones.

GEMMA: Fritze said, #ownvoices provide perspective and bring new light to old issues, but we should still write the “other.” That is, someone who is not like us. She said you can, and should, write the story you are passionate about, write what you want to read, and write what’s not on the bookshelf. That rings true. I think you were in “Is it Your Story to Tell?”

AUD: That was when my laptop started running an update in the background and made it so slow, I couldn’t get into Zoom on time. I ended up logging in using my work laptop, but that meant I missed the beginning. I had no idea what was going on when I finally got in. I took a few notes, but not as much as you did.

GEMMA: Another takeaway from “Is it Your Story to Tell?” and Fritze’s workshops was to get a sensitivity reader. Both said to hire a professional. And, in “Is it Your Story to Tell?” someone asked the panel, “Should you describe the race of a secondary character?” The panel kind of all agreed to only bring it out if the character is important. If the character matters, describe them. If it doesn’t, don’t.

AUD: Does it count if you want to show that a fictional school is diverse?

GEMMA: Strangely enough, I wondered the same thing for my novel, Perylan’s Tale. Even though it’s a fantasy world, I want readers to see themselves reflected. It’s a diverse kingdom with a diverse culture. I think that counts as, “yes, it matters.” And it matters for your fictional school in Nickie’s story, too. Just don’t make a big deal of it, is what I got. I think that’s where hiring a professional comes in. It seems only fair to pay somebody for their effort, the same way you pay an editor.

AUD: You’re right.

GEMMA: You mentioned this in your notes, too. During “Is it My Story to Tell?” there was a writer in a wheelchair who wrote a comment that basically asked, “If I write about characters who aren’t in wheelchairs am I writing #ownvoice?” The consensus was no because her personal experience wasn’t the experience of the character. At the time, I thought, “that seems fair, but why does it make me uneasy?” I couldn’t crystalize it. Later I thought, it’s true, her personal experience wasn’t reflected in the character. But marginalized voices, for instance, disabled people, still need to have their voices heard. They still should have their stories amplified and brought out and given every chance to be polished and shine like anybody else’s. They shouldn’t have to write about only their own experience for that to happen. Say you’ve got somebody writing about vampires. And they’re not a vampire!

AUD: Good point.

GEMMA: I write about ancient Greeks and fantasy princesses; I am neither! [Laughter] You shouldn’t be limited to writing about your own personal experiences.

AUD: Exactly. Switching gears … One cool thing at the Christian Writer Conference was continuing sessions. You got to have instruction on the same topic six different times over the three-day conference. I chose the one on personal essays, led by B.J. Taylor. She was excellent. One of the places she suggested to get an essay published was in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. Around 20,000 people usually read them. B.J. had a format to follow, and I’d like to try that. “Chicken Soup” pays a couple hundred bucks to publish the essay.

GEMMA: A lot of people will read Chicken Soup for the Soul. You could add that to your writing credits.

AUD: If I’m accepted, I’ll get to include a bio with my website. Then more people could read my blog. There’s my platform! And that was something I saw, I don’t know if it was in your notes or mine, but somebody said Instagram and Facebook don’t make as much of an impact as websites do now. Platforms started as websites, and then people left the websites for Instagram and Facebook. Now they’re coming back to the websites.

GEMMA: That was in my notes, too. I realize I’m biased because that is what I want to hear. [Laughter]

AUD: [Laughter] Same with me! That note came from an editor.

GEMMA: I figured, well, he’s an editor and the founder of a publishing house with international sales, and he publishes many different kinds of books. He should know. I highlighted that. Because that’s what I want to believe.

AUD: Me too. How can you write anything worthy enough that somebody will want to read it if you’re spending all your time creating a platform?

GEMMA: Ya know, you make a good point, and I don’t have the perfect answer.

AUD: We can use that conundrum as a topic for another blog! In the meantime, please visit Gemma’s blog to see how we’re applying what we learned to our writing.