This past weekend I attended my very first writers’ conference. Now, over the years I have attended many many SF conventions and often there are writing program tracks and occasionally writing workshops, but this was a weekend dedicated to the craft and business of the writing.

If you have been to small SF conventions a lot of this looks familiar. The registration table, the meandering about in the hallways chatting with like inclined minds, books for sale, and conventions spaces that are over air-conditioned far too often.

However surface looks are deceptive.

The meeting rooms are not laid out with rows and rows of chairs, nor are their generally panels of people prognosticating from their perch. Here the rooms were set up with tables and the workshop facilitators sat or moved among the conferees. There aren’t as many tracks of programming, but the focus is much tighter. The workshops typically lasted 90 minutes with a ten minute separation between them.

In the evening, after the workshops, there are speakers, and after that ‘rogue’ workshops where people gathering informally to read their material and receive feedback. These nighttime read and critique sessions lasted as long as endurance allowed. I never lasted to the end of one and never made into my bed before two in the morning.

I had a grand time. I met loads of great people and made new friends. I received invaluable feedback on my writing from both professionals and my peers. While much more expensive in both money and sleep then what I would normally pay for a conventions, I regret nothing.

If you write, and if you can get to one of these workshops, do it.