Lessons from my first (virtual) literary conference

Last updated on July 6, 2020

About half a year ago, a published romance writer, Mary Griggs commented on my story Edge of the World, when it was still up on An Archive of Our Own. She encouraged me to consider seeking publication. We corresponded for a bit and she suggested that I attend the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Annual Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico the next year in July. GCLS puts on one of the largest annual lesbian literature conferences in the united states. Attending would be a chance to meet other writers, attend panels and classes, and hopefully even pitch my books.

It sounded like a good idea but I had to think it over. First I had to figure out if I could afford the missed days of work, the costs of travel, a place to stay, and a ticket to the actual conference. Second, and just as daunting, was overcoming the fear that my social anxiety could potentially make the entire thing miserable. While my social anxiety isn’t paralyzing and I’ve spent years learning to manage it, I still find meeting and interacting with new people, especially in unfamiliar settings, to be overwhelming and exhausting. 

By the time I worked up the nerve to start seriously thinking about going, it was already March and the COVID-19 pandemic had gotten bad enough in the United States that it wasn’t looking like travel, much less attending a conference, would be an option.    

I assumed that the conference had been completely canceled until recently Mary Griggs commented on my blog and told me that the conference had gone virtual and I should still attend. GCLS had set up a series of free weekend webinars and classes during June and July. (GCLS has archived all the author panels, masterclasses, and author readings from the conference and they are worth watching.)

With a few exceptions I watched nearly all the content of the conference and it was very eye-opening. Rather than do something as dull as a recap of the conference, I want to talk about several of my biggest takeaways.

Authors are people too

One of the most amazing things about this conference was getting the chance to see some of my favorites writers speak and interact. It’s funny, you think you know an author because you have read so many of their words, and in a way you do, but that’s just one part of a person. Karin Kallmaker was as sweet-natured as I had always imagined her to be but also incredibly insightful and perceptive. Carsen Taite proved just as funny and charming as I thought she might be. It was cool to see different authors talk or joke together and discuss their lives. There was an adorable moment when Melissa Brayden’s small son snuck into the room and crawled onto her lap to wave at the camera at the end of a panel about the importance of humor. 

I’m not the only writer with anxiety

My favorite panel was called Persistence, Perseverance, Perspiration: How to Finish What You Start and was moderated by MJ Lowe with Jessie Chandler, Kimberly Cooper Griffin, Cheryl Head, Karin Kallmaker, and KG MacGregor as panelists. Along with discussing how to deal with writer’s block and other challenges, the panelists discussed how they dealt with their insecurities and struggles as writings, especially that constant feeling of, to quote part of the panel description You’re Not Good Enough and Nobody Will Read It Anyway

Kallmaker had some pretty solid advice on how to deal with the negative voices writers get in the back of their heads, “I have to tell myself they are just assholes and deserve to go in the trebuchet and you know away with you.” She talked about going back to things she’s written before to reminding herself that she had the same negative voices in the back of her head when she’d written it, and it turned out alright before, so it would again. 

One of my biggest fears as a writer has always been that I’m simply not good enough. That above anything else has been what has kept me from sending off a manuscript. To hear a writer I respect as deeply as Kallmaker both admit to having the same fear and suggest how to cope with it was incredibly encouraging. 

It is possible to make a living as a writer. 

Another panel I liked was called Making a Living From Writing and was moderated with Suzie Carr with Melissa Brayden, Lise Gold, Claire Highton-Stevenson, Jae, and A.E. Radley as panelists. They were all able to support themselves as writers, which kind of blew my mind. I had always told myself that it just wasn’t possible, at least not if you wrote romance. They varied from being signed on with larger publishing houses to being entirely self-published and in their different approaches to self-promotion and marketing. 

The biggest takeaway I found was that to support yourself as a romance writer, you need to put in an incredible amount of hours, be able to handle a fair amount of your promotion, and publish several books a year. I also got the sense they’d all kept their day job until they’d had a few successful books. 

For me, the idea of making any money off my writing, much less supporting myself with it is still pretty far off, but it is something I’m going to keep in mind. I’m currently working two part-time jobs and doing some contracting work on the side, so the idea of eventually phasing out one of the part-time jobs and replacing it with something I love doing is very appealing as a long term goal. 

I’ve got a lot to learn 

One big difference between attending a regular book festival and a writers’ conference is that while book festivals tend to be for a general audience and panels focus more on the social issues of themes of writing, while a conference like GCLS is more focused on the craft of writing itself. 

I had the chance to watch Radclyffe give a master’s class on how to write scenes and it was eye-opening. I’m a huge fan of Radclyffe, her book Above All, Honor, was the first non-YA lesbian romance that I ever read. I learned more about plot arcs, story structure, and the nature of scenes in two hours with her than I did in four years of getting a BA in English literature. (The art of creating stories is very different from analyzing them once they are written). I had never heard of the idea of major scenes in a novel being called beats.

I also watched a recording of another author who was new to me, Isabella, who talked about using mind maps, basically a form of written diagram, to help brainstorm novels and plot them out. I had never heard of that idea either. 

Many of the writing techniques I saw writers discuss and share in this conference were unique to them and often contradicted the approaches of other writers. I suspect that eventually, most authors find the tricks that work for them. After seeing how incredibly organized both Radclyffe and Isabella were with their story planning and outlining has made me finally realize that even if I don’t adopt their systems, I need to start figuring out one of my own. So many of the problems I have been running into in my writing come from not outlining my stories first.

There is a vibrant community of lesbian writers out there

I don’t think I realized how many of my favorite authors knew each other until I watched this conference. I was amazed to see how many authors were friends and read each other’s work. Some even talked through ideas with each other or hung out in the real world just to sit down and write together. 

If there is one thing I want, it is to be part of this writing community. So how do I do that? The first step is one I’ve at least begin to awkwardly shuffle towards, which is to reach out to established authors and asking for advice. Many writers, especially in smaller genres like lesbian romances do seem to be very approachable and willing to help. I also need to start engaging more in social media and see what kind of writing community I can find online. Finally, if this pandemic ever ends, I want to go to this conference in person next year.