Write On Con

A year ago, I wasn’t on Twitter. I didn’t know of writing contests and had no writer friends (let alone critique partners). I had only a vague idea of how to write a query and those that I had written were lackluster at best. That isn’t to say I hadn’t tried querying agents, because I had; I just sucked at it. (And didn’t know it.)

Then, at the end of last August (almost a year ago now!), I took a Writer’s Digest class where we students worked one-on-one with an agent to craft a good query and synopsis. The first thing the agent did was ask us to watch a PowerPoint of query, synopsis, and general tips. In that slideshow, one of the things the agent emphasized was that unpublished (and published) writers need an online presence. Blog every day, the agent said, tweet every day.

So, knowing that my ultimate dream is to sign with an agent and have a published book, I followed the agent’s advice. I started a blog. I joined Twitter.

And my writing world expanded. That class was my writing Big Bang. I can’t believe all I’ve learned in the last year and how many writing friends I’ve made. I had no idea what I was missing and how much I needed to improve. I’ve queried two novels since that Writer’s Digest class, each teaching me new things and better ways to write and pitch.

I’d thought I’d learned enough. I thought I was ready to begin querying my third manuscript, THE BUTTERFLY GHOST. But I had something more to learn.

A couple of weeks ago, I submitted my query and first chapter for THE BUTTERFLY GHOST to one of my favorite writing contests, Brenda Drake’s Pitch Wars. While waiting on results of the contest, I’ve been stalking the #PitchWars feed on Twitter (where stalking is not only okay, but encouraged). Recently, writers began talking about this thing called WriteOnCon. I had no idea what it was, but decided to check it out.

Turns out, Write On Con is this amazing online writers conference. It’s not a contest, but a forum for writers to share their work and critique that of others. That means not only have I posted my query, first 250 words, and first five pages on the forum, I can read the same things for dozens (hundreds!) of other writers. They help me, I help them, and together we create the best pitches we can so that, hopefully, all of us can someday sign with agents and publish books.

I’ve only been a Write On Con attendee for four days now, but I’ve already spent hours on the forum, reading what others have written and learning ways to improve my pitch. Rumor has it there’s agent involvement in this thing, but at this point I’m so wrapped up in learning, critiquing, revising that the agent thing seems unimportant. That’s not to say I don’t want to sign with an agent, because I do; what I’m really focused on is perfecting (or as close to it as possible) my pitch so that when I’m ready to query, I’ll hopefully catch the attention of some agents.

And to think that a year ago I knew none of this existed. It’s just amazing. I love the online writers world.

P.S. If you're a writer and would like to exchange critiques, my username is tgoeke.