Motivation from the Southern Christian Writers Conference

This post was written by Kathryn Lang from Successful Freelance Writing. Her reason for her blog is to help others fulfill their passions and dreams as she has been able to do by being a freelance writer. She has written an E-book called "Make Money Writing" to help achieve this goal. She is also a Christian, a wife, and a homeschooling mom of boys.

By Kathryn

This year was a new experience for me. Every year I go down expecting to learn something or meet someone. This year I spent the two hours driving down to Tuscaloosa repeating the speech I was scheduled to give during the first session.

Once my stomach settled down – AFTER I finished speaking – then I was able to settle in and learn some new things, visit with some old friends and make new friends.

A break down of some of the conference sessions I was able to attend:

• Greg Daniels of the Daniel Literary Group discussed “Finding and Working with a Literary Agent.” One of his key points was that all writers need to build a platform. Blogging is one of the aspects of that platform so each of you is well on your way.

• Cec Murphey was a keynote speaker but also presented a session concerning the relationship between writers and editors. He wanted us to understand that editors are in the business of making writers look their best AND that writers need to be in the business of putting forward their best before the editors even get to it.

• Vanessa Davis Griggs was the second keynote speaker and I believe everyone in the room walked away motivated to take on their purpose. She definitely got me energized to pursue those things that I am certain of regardless of circumstances.

• Carol Evans is the Editor of Birmingham Parent and she presented a session on “Writing for Parenting Publications.” She emphasized the importance of grabbing the attention of the editors from the subject line and carrying that through the query and manuscript.

The experiences that I gained at the Southern Christian Writers Conference were not limited to the many sessions that were available. I expand on what I learned in my post about what you can learn at writers conferences. The thing to remember is that conferences, workshops, classes and even other blogs are all tools to help you better your writing skills and expand your writing opportunities.

To read more detail on the Southern Christian Writers Conference, Check out Kathryn's full-length post here.guest