My favorite descriptions of the writing process are those that liken it to method-acting. When I’m writing a character, I need to get in his head – be where he is, think how he thinks, feel what he feels. And a huge piece of that, for me, is setting the…
This is my last little reflection on my first writer’s conference, and it’s shameful that it’s taken me this many segments to get to the heart of the matter, which is that it’s the people and the community that make a conference worthwhile. I met some really incredible people in…
The scariest thing I did at the Penn Writers conference this year was attend a read and critique session. It was me, five other writers, and a panel of people waiting to rip me to shreds. And it was easily the highlight of the conference. Listening to a panel of…
I did not go to a writer’s conference expecting to have a breakthrough on my novel. So imagine my delight when the clouds parted, the sun came out, and a brilliant ray of light shot through the sky while I was sitting there listening to a presentation on crafting story…
Some of the most useful sessions I went to at Penn Writers were the ones on pitching and querying. Mind you, I do my homework, so I already had a vague idea of how to go about this, but hearing things in person and seeing pitches and query letters dissected…
This past weekend, my friend H. Hunting and I met up at the annual Penn Writers conference in Pittsburgh. Neither of us had ever been to a writer’s conference before, and we were both very nervous going into it. Our choice of conferences was mostly based on geography and timing,…
