Monday, June 12, 2017

West Virginia Writer's Conference


This weekend the West Virginia Writer's Conference celebrated their 40th anniversary.

The sun filled the sky the entire weekend (our conference is usually visited by rain).

People from all over the United State attended. If I remember correctly, we had attendees from Washington, Iowa, Ohio, Florida and quite a few other states.

I live within a few miles of the conference.

Every year they give the JUG (Just Uncommonly Good) award to a deserving writer. This year one of the recipients was Dolly Withrow. She is a member of our writing group and very deserving of the award. She is a Grammar Guru and has a fun way of helping you remember all the rules that are so easy to forget. And she was a member when the conference formed 40 years ago.

One of the workshop presenters, Michael Knost (who was the other JUG recipient), had a great workshop about showing vs. telling.

Think of showing as a radio play-by-play sports announcer.
Think of telling as the sports commentator.

The sports announcer describes each play as if you were there. He becomes your eyes.

The commentator tells you background information and statistics.

In writing a story, it would translate to something like this:

showing - Lucy scrunched her nose at the stale peppermint from the bottom of her purse. (The writer is your eyes, showing what Lucy is doing)
telling - Her mother gave her the candy a year ago. (The writer is telling in this sentence)

Don't tell things that aren't essential to the story.
Show emotions.
Show reactions.

I attended the Awards Banquet on Saturday Night.

I won 3rd place and Honorable Mention in the children's category of their annual spring writing contest.

And I received 2nd place ribbons in the People's Prose workshop on Saturday and the Poetry Writer's Wall.

After attending the workshops, I am now sitting at my desk editing my manuscripts.

Using the knowledge I gained, I will try to make them better.

Have you attended a conference or workshop lately?
What tidbit of writing advice can you share with us?


One thing I have learned is that most writers love to help each other out and share helpful information.

"I love my writing friends. I appreciate all of you!"

(I sneaked in an !, though my friend, Dolly, says not to use them.)

One of my writing friends, Beverly Stowe McClure, just posted a review of Duck and Cover on her blog. Thank you, Beverly. She is a very talented author, click here to check out her blog.


11 comments:

  1. I love attending writing conferences when I can. I always learn so much. How wonderful that this conference was near you and you were able to attend. Congrats on your placement in the writing competitions. :)
    ~Jess

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    1. Hi, Jess. Thank you and conferences are fun.I think writers should attend them whenever they can.

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  2. Congratulations on your awards, Janet. That's so exciting. Sounds like a great conference. Thanks for the shout out about my review.

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    1. Hi, Beverly. Thank you. And you are quite welcome for the shout out.

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  3. Congratulations! Conferences are a great way to connect with new people and to get new ideas to write on. They serve as a platform where to share and communicate ideas.

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  4. Congratulations upon winning the award for children's writing. This is fantastic. I'm so glad you got to attend the conference. Sounds like it was great.

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  5. Congratulations on your awards!

    I followed your blog, and I would sincerely appreciate it if you checked out my book reviews blog at https://elsbookreviews.blogspot.ca/ and possibly give it a follow as well! Excited to read more of your posts!

    - El

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    Replies
    1. Hi, El. Thanks for your follow. I did the same over at your blog.

      Delete
  6. I hope you were able to see the solar eclipse in your part of the country. We had a total solar eclipse and it was awesome!

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Thank you for your comments. I love comments!