When Life Gets in the Way of Writing Conferences

7/11/2015 I married this awesome guy

Classic novels lined the aisle.

Earlier this month I got married to a great man, but I have to admit that it put a bit of a wrench in my summer plans. Last year, I was attending SCBWI & then Breadloaf writing conferences back to back and churning out a lot of writing. This year I've been wedding planning/ honeymooning/ moving stuff/ etc. and the writing conferences I crave so desperately for classes in craft have had to be sidelined a bit. Triona wrote a great blog this week about why you need to go to conferences (you really should go if you can!), but I'm going to list a few of my recent finds on how to gain access to some of the best writing instruction around that you can listen to while unpacking boxes, running errands, etc., and best of all they're free. Granted, none of these are specifically geared to the YA market, but they do have some of the best living literary writers speaking so it's a great foundational education in craft.

1. Breadloaf: This writing conference is competitive and expensive (totally worth it). Thankfully, though, you can get a lot of the craft classes from each year online via podcast. You do have to download iTunes U if you don't have it first, and sometimes it's buggy. http://www.middlebury.edu/bread-loaf-conferences/bread_loaf_community/listen_to_lectures_and_readings

2. Tin House: Another of the competitive and expensive conference crowd (I haven't been, but hear great things), you can hear their classes/readings as well online and don't need iTunes U. I like the lectures more than the readings, personally, but all are nice to hear. http://www.tinhouse.com/blog/podcasts

So happy that blogmate JP could make it!

3. AWP: This conference is open to everyone, and has a great treasure trove of past recordings from sessions. I really like the ending of many of the panels when the writers discuss how they approach the topic of the session, and the first one on the list on structure is awesome. https://www.awpwriter.org/magazine_media/podcast_series

Please let me know if I'm missing any important ones, I'm always on the lookout for great writing instruction, especially when it's free!

Online Writing Lessons

Confession: I'm a lecture addict. If I had my way, I'd be a full-time student for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, I have bills to pay so I cope by listening to lectures on my drive to and from work and watching lessons online while eating dinner.

Here are a few of my favorite sites for other writers:

• Obviously, there's Ted.com with great lectures by the likes of Elizabeth Gilbert (her talk on "genius" is fantastic), Isabelle Allende, Mac Barnett, and so many others. 
• But, did you know that there's a Ted-Ed site? And it has a whole playlist dedicated to writing. It even includes one by Kate Messner on "How to Build a Fictional World."
• And then of course the fantastic editor Cheryl Klein from Scholastic has a podcast called The Narrative Breakdown dedicated to story that she records paired with a screenwriter (a great twist because screenwriting technique is great for writing engaging plots). 
• Over the summer I was lucky enough to attend Breadloaf Writer's Conference, a place that hauls in some of the best writers in the world to teach lovely little classes and larger lectures. What a treat to know that they have the lectures and readings online for everyone to attend. (FYI they don't have a Young Adult program, but the lectures are still wonderful, and it's fascinating to hear from poets and non-fiction writers as well.)
• On the YA front, John Green analyzes the classics and there's a lot to be learned as he articulates what Fitzgerald, Salinger, and others have managed to pull of with language. Go to Crash Course Literature.
• And then there's the classic Coursera. The classes change around as they start and end at different times so you'll have to check it regularly to see its offerings. My favorite course thus far was a marketing 101 class taught by staff at Wharton. While not a writing course, it did give me a number of ideas for marketing myself and any books I'm lucky enough to publish.