What the heck is WriteOnCon?
When one of my FB friends asked if anyone was attending WriteOnCon this year, my first thought was… ‘???’. Google!
Google says: WriteOnCon is a totally free, interactive online Writer’s Conference held annually during the summer. (Well, actually, Google doesn’t speak. It gave me a link to their website where I copied and pasted the above information. Thanks Google and WriteOnCon Website 🙂 You can find more info here :
Looked interesting, sounded legit and it was totally free. What harm was there in checking it out?
I signed up and attended Day 1, yesterday.
I’ve attended lots of writers’ conferences before, but never one online. At first I was sceptical about how it might work. Can I just say that I was BLOWN away by this conference! The schedule was packed with amazing writerly goodness, from agent and editor panels, to debut novelists, to platform building and much much more! Awesome!
Check out the full three day schedule for yourself here:
http://writeoncon.com/2011/08/gearing-up-for-writeoncon-2011-%E2%80%93-the-full-schedule/
Here are a few key things that stuck in my head from day 1:
1) Fear is always with you. You can never get rid of it. Put fear in the corner and tell him to be quiet because you have a book to write.-Josh Berk
2) Pacing is important, sometimes you need to slow things down. Have you really told have the story by the time you reach the midpoint of your book? –Sara Zarr
3) Your website is like a business card. If you wouldn’t put it on your business card, don’t put it on your website. –agent Sara Megibow
4) If you like to blog, blog. If you don’t, don’t. –agent Sara Megibow
5) Start your branding now-either website or blog, just be professional.-Sara Megibow
6) If you have writing samples on your website-no more than 1-3 paragraphs –Sara Megibow
Overall, Day 1 gets 5 out of 5 chocolate bars!
All the vlogs, blogs, and live events from yesterday are available to view online on the website. Maybe I’ll see you there! I’ll be back on Friday to report on days 2 and 3! Happy writing everyone!