Reflecting on the 2015 PNWA Writers Conference

Last week I attended the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s annual writer’s conference in Bellevue Washington. I’ve been attending this conference since 2009, and have always been impressed with the scale of the event as well as the variety of writers and presenters.

At this year’s conference I presented a new workshop that focused on the various subgenres of fantasy and science fiction. Rather than a lecture on the technical definitions of each offshoot within speculative fiction, I chose to focus on the terms and definitions that are most commonly used by the readers of these genres. It was a lot of fun, and I was happy to help my students understand how to anticipate the expectations that their readers would have based on a story’s label.

Of course, I spent most of my time at the conference as an attendee rather than a presenter, even if I didn’t personally get a whole lot out of the presentations that were offered. This wasn’t necessarily the fault of PNWA, however. As a full-time author and writing coach, I feel like I already have a firm grasp of the basics of both the craft and business of writing. This year’s conference seemed to be focused on introductory-level workshops, and while I found several of them entertaining, I can’t say that I really learned anything new. Of course, there were half a dozen workshops going on simultaneously at all times throughout the conference, so it’s very likely that I simply chose workshops that ultimately weren’t targeted to me.

In addition to workshops on craft and marketing, the conference also offered pitch blocks and panels including a variety of agents and editors. Since I’m interested in being both traditionally and independently published, I did my share of pitching this year, and am happy to say that all the agents I spoke to invited me to query them. This included one agent that I pitched to in an elevator, which means that I can now say that I have successfully given an actual elevator pitch.

As my writing career has progressed, I’ve added more and more organizations and conferences to my growing list of contacts and events. I still have three more writing conferences that I’ll be teaching at this year, not to mention additional Cons and fan-focused events. But the PNWA conference will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first such event I’d ever been to, and I hope to return and teach there again next year.