Wednesday, August 14, 2013

#WriteOnCon & Helpful Links



As many writers know, WriteOnCon started yesterday and continues through today. Holy helpfulness, it's totally awesome and totally free. Agents, editors, and published authors all sharing what they know to help the rest of us improve our writing. There is always something to learn!

No travel expenses (Yay!) and you can watch and learn at home (Yay!). Even if you're busy shuttling kids to and from summer activities (Who, me?), the information is archived and can be absorbed at a later date.

In case you haven't been over there yet, here's what you can find:

  • Schedule of events and archived posts are here.
  • Live chats take place here.
  • Help with opening pages, queries, and critique partner match-ups take place in the forums. New topics in the forums are here.
The founders/organizers and speakers are so generous with their time. Big thanks to them!

Something else awesome in the blogosphere this week. If you don't follow Elizabeth S. Craig, I highly recommend you fix that. Stat! I subscribe to her blog via email. Each of her posts are super helpful, especially since she posts about being a hybrid writer (traditionally and self-published). Each week she compiles a Twitter roundup of the best tweets for writers, and all this information is organized in her Writer's Knowledge Base (also linked in my sidebar).

Anyway, her recent post Using Blog Posts as Resources is a huge help. There were resources packed in this post that I hadn't heard of before. Elizabeth returns to these posts again and again, and that alone made me want to read each one. Check 'em all out. They're great.

Have you been consistently writing during the summer? Have you attended any writer's conferences? Are you hanging out at WriteOnCon? What's your favorite lesson you've learned from a writer's conference? Please share!

17 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, is WriteOnCon every awesome! I think that's where everyone is today--rather than hanging out around the blogosphere.

    The lesson I'm taking away recently is to really build characterization through dialog--not that I didn't do this before, but I mean developing whole dialects, phrases, unique words etc that really reflect a character's personality/background. There's always something to learn in the writing world, eh?

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    1. Crystal, I could definitely do this better with dialog! Thanks for making such a great point.

      I'm still catching up on all the WriteOnCon goodness!

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  2. I've been at WriteOnCon when I can and found it helpful too. I loved the live twitter agent pitches last night with Suzie Townsend and Kathy Oritz(sp). I'm at work so will get there when I can. It is a great resource to connect with lots of different agents and awesome that it's free.

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    1. I heard about the agent Twitter pitches but didn't watch them happen. I'll bet that was a great lesson in how to make a tight pitch.

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  3. Elizabeth was one of my very first followers! She is awesome. Her database is amazing.

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    1. Alex, Elizabeth totally amazes me. She does all this while pumping out books like crazy.

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  4. Cool! Wasn't aware of that but I'll check her out! Thanks!

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    1. Pk, Elizabeth is one of those "must follow" writers. She shares such great information!

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  5. I've been doing well with my writing this summer. Spring and summer are my most productive times. The warmth and sunshine give me tons of energy!

    I haven't been able to check out WriteOnCon much :( But I get the recap emails so I'll be sure to catch up!

    Happy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines

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    1. Laura, I'm so glad you've gotten lots of writing done during spring and summer! I'm still catching up on WriteOnCon :)

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  6. WriteOnCon is so fun! Haven't visited this year, because I've been immersed in my new WIP, but I'm seeing the tweets/etc how awesome it is. Love the post, Julie. :D

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    1. Morgan, that's so exciting about your new WIP! It must be good stuff to keep you so engrossed.

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  7. I have been writing throughout the summer. Although I'm also looking forward to fall and SCBWI's Encore event. I learned so much at this event last year.

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    1. Ruth, I haven't heard about the SCBWI Encore event. Sounds informative AND fun!

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  8. I haven't been consistently doing anything this summer. I've had non-stop company, which is wonderful, but means I do very little else. I'm determined to try WriteOnCon next time around.

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  9. WOC always hits when I am in back-to-school teacher mode. I pour through the transcripts later and always learn A TON.

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  10. Hi, Julie, I didn't have time to visit WOC this year, too much was going on. But I enjoyed your other helpful links. Thanks for such good tips.

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