When attending any writers conference, it’s always a question mark whether it’ll be time well spent. Some can go overly long, especially with speakers who get too carried away by the sound of their own voices. Or, worse, those that touch on stuff you already know.
Or, you could pick up great ideas that will season your next bout of writing.
At least that’s how I approach any decision to sign up for a writers’ conference. Especially if it’s a paid event that takes up an entire Saturday weekend.
But, looking out for and attending one every year is to some extent an important appointment to keep on my writers’ calendar. After all, writers are rarely in a room with other writers. There’s a different kind of feeling in the air in such settings. All those creative beings. In one single space. Who knows what wonderments await!
More importantly, it makes me feel less alone. For writing is, ultimately, a very lonesome affair.
And so, with some optimistic anticipation in my pocket, I ventured to attend just such a conference a couple of weeks ago.
The ACWP Practitioners Conference (2 November 2024)
The ACWP or Asia Creative Writers Programme is a joint initiative by my country’s National Arts Council and one of our top universities — the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). This programme advances the creative practice of literary practitioners through specialised development programmes that take place throughout the year.
Eleven months ago, I attended one — a short two-hour programme (and briefly documented it). This time, however, they decided that their first full-day major conference was to be held outside of NTU. So I was curious to know what was in store.
Upon reading the conference agenda, I realized that I simply had to sign up for one simple reason.
Speed “Dating”!
But, more on that later.
First, a quick rundown of the conference’s keynote.
What Happened In That Writers Conference – The Keynote
The theme for this conference was “FACES” and the keynote speaker was none other than American writer & visiting professor J.C. Hallman whom I also made mention of in the same post that documented the two-hour ACWP event I attended last year.
This is how the conference material mapped out the meaning of their theme, “FACES”:
Whatever we face suggests its opposite—what we are unwilling to confront. Either way, a story emerges. The ironic nature of literature, whether dramatic or otherwise, is reflected in words that carry dual meanings or purposes. For this reason, these words often serve to express paradox.
What do I recall of Hallman’s hour-long keynote address, aptly titled Face the Facts (to align of course with the conference theme)?
Writers should aim to be interesting. Always. Why, we should even challenge conventional descriptions of something as commonplace as the parts of our face!
For instance, why are chins only described as ‘cleft’ or ‘weak’? Why call cheekbones ‘high’ or ‘chiseled’? Foreheads ‘receding’ or ‘high’? Maybe it’s time writers reveal what Hallman calls, “infinities”. Time to whip out new descriptors for the commonplace.
Writers don’t need to be told to write.
Just write.
So the next time I’m writing descriptives, maybe I can boldly challenge convention and describe things we see daily in new ways. To add, as it were, to the “infinities” of descriptions Hallman, I believe, exhorts us in his keynote to pursue.
Speed Dating with Writers & Publishers – The “Good”
And now I come to the highlight of this event I alluded to at the start of this post: Speed “dating”.
No, this wasn’t a dating conference, so you must be wondering what am I talking about.
Well, a unique feature of this conference and, going by the overwhelming response, clearly the conference’s highlight, was this round-robin idea that some genius came up with.
As you can see in the above picture, seatings were created where participants were placed in different small clusters. Each cluster would include either a creative/writer or a publisher. Participants like me (up to three or four) would have 15 minutes to chat with them. Then, a swap occurs (the creatives switch clusters), followed by another 15 minutes of chat with a different creative/writer or publisher. Then 15 minutes later, another swap. And so on.
For a total of six times across 1.5 hours.
Sounds awfully like speed dating, doesn’t it?
As someone with several book ideas in my head, I was therefore very eager to bounce off my ideas with these folks in the business. You know, to ‘test’ my passion projects and see if any of them would appeal to any of these luminaries in the creative business.
I ended the 1.5-hour-session meeting with two publishers of children’s books, one of adult fiction, and three creatives who were either writers or someone in the literary art scene (one was a stand-up comedian and poetess I think).
What did I get out of my “speed dating”? Mostly encouragements to write on, especially when I pitched my idea to write about the community of stay-at-home fathers I’m connected to, which got nearly all six creatives I met interested.
All but one.
Speed Dating with Writers & Publishers – The “Not-So” Good
Yes. Unfortunately, of the six I spoke to, there was one who wasn’t particularly supportive.
As someone who started as a rookie reporter, and then later a seasoned news writer and editor, I would think he could show a little more grace and willingness to listen to me, someone still cutting his teeth in the business of writing.
Or maybe that’s just me being naive.
Plus, this publisher has now been a well-known veteran in the local publishing scene for the past two decades or more.
Yet the minute I pitched my book idea about stay-at-home dads, he pooh-poohed it, saying that tons have already been written about this phenomenon elsewhere, especially in America. So how different is it here, and who would bother reading my book were I to publish it?
To add insult to injury, I felt mocked when the second participant in my cluster offered his book idea right after I did my spiel, and this publisher jumped at it, saying loudly “Send me your manuscript”!
To be fair, that participant was pitching a fiction idea that I too would have been keen to read (the inside workings of the civil service told entirely through emails). And this publisher serves mostly fiction writers so my creative non-fiction memoir would hardly interest him.
Nevertheless, the lack of charity here for me was discouraging, to say the least.
Thank goodness I have thicker skin now than when I first started blogging and writing in earnest five years ago! And I have enough proof of folks willing to publish my writings.
So all in all, it was a Saturday that was well spent.
Plus I made a new friend that day (pictured below) who is now writing his first novel! Maybe I can share more about this new writing buddy in a future post.
For, unlike the veteran I met, I believe it’s important to encourage and support other burgeoning writers like me!
