Writing Conferences: PNWA and Chuckanut

I spent part of my hiatus going to two writing conferences: Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association and Chuckanut Writer’s Conference in SeaTac and Bellingham respectively. The experience was magical and overwhelming! When I was 16 and I started reading writing magazines and I thought about maybe, possibly, sorta, becoming a writer, I would read the big writing magazines like Writer’s Digest and Poets and Writers and I would see the ads for writing conferences with keynote speakers, agent panels, and desperately want to be there. But by the time I figured in hotel stay, airfare and the cost of the actual conference, it just wasn’t in reach so I patiently waited and went off on other adventures including running some magazines and much more. This summer I finally circled back around to my original dream of being a real writer at a real writing conference and while it was magical and hard I learned so very much.

 Bellingham is a delightful place to have a writer’s conference. Tucked alongside the mountains along a lovely shoreline, Bellingham has a vibrant downtown and a nice secondary historic area called Fairhaven. Chuckanut is a new conference, just 5 years old, but it’s already a good place in terms of networking, workshops, and accessibility to people. I had a chance to meet with the fabulous crime novelist Elizabeth George and get a book signed by her. That was very exciting. I save on cost, I stayed at the local university. It was a bit fun to do the dorm thing again after not having done that for these many years. However, with no air conditioning, it made for stifling sleeping! Overall, Whatcom Community College was very welcoming to the event and their schedule of thursday masterclasses, and friday/saturday workshops and keynotes was really easy and relaxing to get through. I had a bit of an adventure coming back because of a bad accident on the highway. It was a happy detour because I had the chance to be stuck behind none other than Elizabeth George, at least until she pulled off to a rest stop.

My only complaints about Chuckanut was the lack of coordination of the saturday night readings around Fairhaven (signage would have been great) and the fact that they did not use their evening hours productively with additional activities, write-ins or other classes, dinners or keynotes. I would do that different. Most importantly, I realized that I am right where I need to be in life, in location, and in the progress of my work as a writer. It’s amazing to have something so easily and accessible. These kinds of events are just now popping up in Colorado. I was fortunate to find out that Seattle is a publishing hub which puts me right where I need to be.

PNWA was a very different experience. Taking place at the SeaTac Hilton, it is a much larger conference and as of this year is America’s oldest writing conference. At Chuckanut I met with one agent and had  a  very positive response from her. At PNWA I met with quite a few more agents and the responses were mixed from quite impressive to dismissive. I signed up early so I was able to sign up for 2 pitch blocks. That was a bit of a tactical error on my part. Not all the agents available were taking pitches on Friday. In the future I would spread out my sessions to both days so that I had a chance to handle the intensity of the pitch room but also to get all the agents that were available to me. The most important thing I realized after standing in line for 90 minutes and moving forward every 3 minutes for rotation was my own uniqueness and how to bring it out. I was really confronted with the thought about what a writer is. What makes me special? Sometimes, in the vacuum of being the only writer in ones life you never have to compete with others and really figure out what makes you stand out. When you’re in a room of 150 people and trying to make your project stick out above all the others then you are really confronted with that question. I had to make some “on-the-fly” changes to my pitches but overall it was positive even though it took me several days to realize that. In the moment, it was very frustrating and very vulnerable. I had to pull myself together and take control of the situation which was difficult in the moment but I was able to get the response that I really wanted for this. I went into the conference looking for a contract or contract possibilities and I have some strong leads. I also learned about how to sell my projects and how to make some changes that will really get them selling both to agents and publishers and to the public. PNWA is also a great resource for self-publishing and since I’m already looking at being a hybrid author I made sure to educate myself  about the ins and outs of self publishing and I’ve decided to pursue Smashwords with my web series to increase its distribution over the long haul.

Overall, both of these conferences were really positive experiences and I know that my career has improved for going to them. I’m fortunately to live where I can easily drive or road trip to them and I encourage you, if you’re looking at getting published, self-publishing or selling words in any capacity to take the time to check out a writing conference near you and if you’re considering either of these I can’t recommend enough!

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