Way back in the spring, I went to a writing conference and didn’t tell. I wrote some notes for you, typed them up, and then got too busy with reviews and other things to share what it was like.

North Carolina has a good writing network. I mean, there might be better, but there is definitely worse. I have been more involved in the NC Writers’ Network this year, having finally joined for the discount to the conference (and possibly the fall conference). A friend of mine has been encouraging me to join for years, even if it’s just to support the network. I have taken a workshop from them in the past and gone to some readings and their book club (once). Since the spring conference was an hour’s drive away and was only for one whole day, I decided I would try it out (without having to get a room).

I am glad that I went. It was exhausting for me as an introvert and neurodivergent, but a) it’s always nice to be around a bunch of other people who are as passionate as you are about something and as desirous of talking shop animatedly; b) I met someone who connected me with a local writing group that I am now an active member of; c) I met a bunch of NC authors; d) I learned from the workshops, readings, and even the Slush Pile Live. I guess you could also say it was preparing for the week-long conference that I had coming up (more on that later). Sometimes, too, I generate a lot of stuff from these things, but this time I only had a few paragraphs of ideas when I got home, which is totally fine for me at this point—I actually don’t need any new ideas. I also sat and admired some writing from people I had never heard of before.

Note to the willing-to-be-wise: don’t wait until the last minute to sign up for conference classes and events. It may be the case (as it was with this one) that classes and events fill up and then you won’t get what you want. Actually, for NCWN’s spring conference every year, they offer Master Classes which you have to apply for. I was waiting on funding (which sometimes you have to do) and missed the deadlines for these, completely. But word to the super-wise: sometimes it’s best to miss a deadline and end up with the less-popular events. That way you get more one-on-one time and better access to the teacher, who is also probably an amazing person. Maybe more so. So stay grateful and open to learning, no matter what.

I’m going to give you my notes from the addresses and workshops I ended up in:

Jill McCorkle’s opening address:

“We’ll never be as smart as our subconscious.”“You’ll never be the writer you should be until you’ve dealt with your mother issues.”“If it’s not one thing, it’s the mother.”—when something’s missing in a story. Occasionally it’s the father.Great prompt for anytime: close your eyes and put yourself in a room you haven’t been in in a long time.Ambiguous endings must have specific details to form the emotional resonance.“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt” -different attributesA child can understand with a leap of imagination what an adult cannot due to a dangerous little bit of knowledge. [I saw this play out in technicolor once, when my toddler daughter started catching minnows in a popular park’s pool. People were amazed and no one else could do it. I realized that since she hadn’t learned yet that it was difficult to do or that she “couldn’t” do it, she just did it without thinking.]“Intolerance is an inability to entertain ambiguity.” -someone else, maybe a rephrase from Theodor Adorno.The simplest judgement is the weakest choice.Get in the dark house and stay there until you find something shiny.We write what and what and what, but also how and why.“The more we study, the more we discover our ignorance.” -Percy Bysshe Shelley

Flash fiction workshop with Hananah Zaheer:

Flash has been around longer in other cultures and looks different.Coming to writing from other jobs allows writers to have an open mind about form, process, etc.Some forms of original flash: parables, fables, Jataka stories, Zen Koan, Islamic/Sufi tales, Aesop’s…More modern short stories: Calvino, Sa’adi, Tsuzuki, Kawabata, Hasan, Manto, Borges, Allende, Marquez, Whitman, Chopin, Hemingway, Chekov, KafkaContemporary flash: Cisneros, Lydia Davis, Kathy Fish, Yoko Tawada, Banana Yoshimoto, Shinki Iishi, Venita Blackburn, Amber Sparks. Citizen, Claudia Rankin, Ghazal, Kennings, KoansBoy from Smokelong Quarterly; Girl, Jamaica Kincaid; Dinosaur, Bruce Holland RogersThe novel as a mammal, cow, tiger; the short as fish, bird; flash as insect. -VelenzuelaRules: 1000 words, action, beginning middle and end, often twist ending. Has a whole world under it, like an iceberg. Prompts you to fill the holes and tell the story in your head. Instead of these are the rules, think what can I do?Flash is naturally rebellious.Good anxiety is good fiction.“Yearning is the texture that makes it a story.”Change the lens, source of pressure, disrupt time, rewrite it backwards, change POV, add mystery, use imperative…“Write a short story a week. You can’t write 52 shitty stories in a row.” -Ray Bradbury

Submissions (revise and resubmit) workshop with Lisa Williams Kline:

Think of percentages as batting averages instead of academic grades.Writers can become story-blind when they’ve spent so much time with a book.Not all writers are good re-writers. (Also, take your time.) That’s me on the middle bench.

That’s it. Just a little bit of insight from this particular moment in time. For more general things, I went to the internet and Pinterest and asked and came up with a killer outfit, and knew to have certain things on me like pens and a notebook, water, a granola bar, a short reading, a small m/s just in case, one page for the Slush Pile Live, a few copies of my books for the bookstore, business cards, etc. (For the record, I neither sold any books nor handed out that manuscript, but I could have.) I took the wrong bag though, and bought a sort of purse/briefcase for the next conference when I got home. Sure, I had everything (including a lunch that worked with my allergies), but it was a lot to carry around all day. Personally, I find a laptop unnecessary at these things.