Some of our favorite things from 2023…
The Experience Writing conference 2023 was a writers event like no other! With 44 attendees, 7 of whom were students. We had two power-packed days of amazing instruction, fellowship, and inspiration as God connected the hearts of writers to His vision for them and to one another in absolutely beautiful ways!
Instruction:
We had seven knock-out sessions from top-notch instructors…
- Robin Patchen – USA Today Bestselling author helped us hone our craft with session on Creating Compelling Characters and Crafting Quotable Prose. Best of all, she showed us how to persist when everything in life is set against our writing through her powerful testimony in Writing through Life’s Trials & Difficulties.
- Laurel Thomas—Administrator of WriterCon and coach of Write Your Heart Out! shared the importance of community, how to build yours as a writer, along with an invaluable session on Finding the Right Editor who will make your manuscript sing!
- Lindi Collins—the creator of My Mayberry Lane did a deep dive into the mind to explore What Keeps Us from Writing and to help us think outside the box to get past those creativity blockers.
- Janice Buswell—Co-founder of Experience Writing and author of the Paradoxon series challenged us to go deep into Why We Write so that our why can guard, guide, and grow our voice and story through the tumultuous journey toward publishing.
Connection:
Amidst all this robust teaching and listening we provided extended times of fellowship as all 42 attendees, including our 7 youths (ages 12-18), mixed and mingled together during mealtimes and meet-n-greets—times simply to get to know one another and to connect with fellow authors, and with the speakers. Times to learn and to be encouraged by one another! And some beautiful new relationships began as accountability partner found one another and as authors were connected in fresh friendships and into writing communities.
Inspiration:
In this midst of all this teaching and connection attendees were also challenged to keep an ear open for what the Lord might be speaking to them personally. As they engaged their hearts to listen it seemed each received what they’d needed as—at the end—every attendee lifted up a card with the words they felt He’d been speaking and celebrated the next step of their writing journey!
From first to last, Experience Writing 2023 was an immersion to fully experience writing in a whole new way as attendees spirits, skills, and social circles all received a fresh infusion of God’s creative life! We couldn’t ask for more!
Now for 2024…
Now as we set our sights on 2024, were’ excited to see more. Richer skills being unlocked, deeper connections being formed, stronger roots grown in every single attendees. If you missed it this year, we hope to see you in 2024!
