This was my third year attending the UW Writers’ Institute. Just like in the previous years, the best part of this conference was being around so many people on a similar journey as I am. It’s such a supportive, encouraging, and nice bunch. I can’t help but bristle at the word “networking,” but it’s hard not to connect with these people. I’m excited about the new connections and friends I made, and I’m rooting for all of them.

Last year, I wrote about my favorite part of the conference and highlighted points from the Sunday keynote. And in 2015, I wrote about what I learned at my first writers’ conference.

In the past, I enjoyed attending the sessions on craft, but this year, I focused more on the marketing ones. As always, I kept a list of snippets that resonated with me from each session. And now I’d like to share those with you.

Saturday Keynote: “Of Ice and Men: Writing about Life on the Arctic Frontier” – Blair Braverman (Honestly, I didn’t take many notes because I was mostly captivated by her story.)

• Don’t try to trick the reader. The reader will know.
• Honest vs. superficial writing
• Hire a publicist if you can afford it.
• Make a list of every media outlet you know. Find something to connect with someone about on a personal level. Be genuine.
• Connect with thoughtful reviewers of similar books.
• Don’t expect things in return.

“The Story of a Lifetime: Crafting Biography and Profile” – Shannon Henry Kleiber, Sarah White, and Sara Dahmen

• Talk to experts to learn the lingo. (A good lesson for me as a technical writer as well.)
• You have to be a writer AND doer of something.
• Look for people’s motivation.
• Keep timelines.
• When writing about real life, know what to leave out.
• Look for unusual and quirky things that say something about the character.
• Find what makes your voice unique.
• “How does cookware seduce me?” (Or, substitute whatever topic you’re writing about.)

“Dream Worlds: Creative World-Building” – Matt Forbeck, Silvia Acevedo, Pat Zietlow Miller, and Kathy Steffen

• “Cheat” and use history to find something different about your world.
• Who is in power? That determines the infrastructure of the world.
• Combine it with the familiar.
• Readers will know if you’re lost. Map out your world, but you don’t need to use all the details.
• If you’re concerned about pronunciation, add an appendix with a pronunciation guide or character list.
• Use action to describe the room the characters are in.
• If you want to skip over a part during revision, that’s the part you need to work on to make it more interesting.
• Incorporate an emotional attachment to the setting depending on whose POV you’re in.

“Thinking Outside the Internet” – Sara Dahmen

• Find places related to your book other than bookstores and get on the phone.
• If it’s about another state, call bookstores in that state.
• Use the media rate to mail books out.
• Do events unrelated to books but related to your content.
• Other people’s stuff can be part of your branding.
• Think of products you can make related to your brand, such as tote bags or cookware.
• Remember your ROI and make sure your efforts are measurable. Keep your long game in mind.
• Have engaging conversations and find out how you can help each other.
• Guerrilla marketing – do something out of the box that people will talk about. What’s weird about your book that you can translate to other people?

“Connecting Your Craft to Your Brand” – Melanie Schmidt and Erica Hughes

• Ideally, write more than one book per year.
• You can sell books through bad reviews.
• Now need to buy an ad on Amazon to show up in also boughts.
• The value of color – color has meaning. Find one signature color, then 2 to 4 complimentary colors.
• Have a primary font, and no more than 3 fonts on anything.
• Brand = an emotional response pulled from your audience
• Starts with intent, then action, then impression
• Imagery, both on promo materials and social media
• Promote other people. It’ll come back to you.
• A pithy tagline wouldn’t hurt too.

“More Than Words” – Dasha Kelly

This session was more of a workshop, so I didn’t take notes, but the gist was to use verbs usually related to other things (animals, plants, the weather, kitchen appliances) to describe people. At the end, she had each of us pick a word – love, anger, fear, and envy, and write about how it moves. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of the class picked fear or envy, but I was in the small love boat. Here’s an excerpt from mine:

Love billows inside, choking and clenching my heart sometimes. It can start slowly, whisping like  fine mist until it fogs up my brain, discarding any clarity I once had. Sometimes love smothers, but sometimes love retreats, and I have to try desperately to grasp the rope as the speed of it burns my hands and leaves a mark.

“Creating Wickedly Wonderful Unreliable Narrators” – Silvia Acevedo

I didn’t take notes during this one, but Silvia gave examples of unreliable narrators from literature and films, and then defined each type of unreliable narrator, for example, mad man, liar, embellisher, and braggart. We also played Two Truths and a Lie with a partner.

“Write for Your Life” – Sarah White

• Resolving old trauma frees up working memory.
• Present or ongoing trauma can be helpful to write about, but recent trauma is too soon. Could do more harm than good. Give it at least a year.
• “Letting be” instead of “letting go”
• Play around with perspective. See it from someone else’s POV.
• Make rituals for opening and closing a writing session and find a unique place to write.
• Make a list of happy things or affirmations.
• Do something physical or social that you like to do afterwards.
• This is writing exercise for your eyes only. Come back later and write the scene that people will see if you want to use that content.

“Panel – First Books” – Silvia Acevedo, Pat Zietlow Miller, Renee James, and Dasha Kelly

• “Diversify your hustle.” Use a skill that keeps you connected to your words.
• This is not just an upward trajectory. There are flat steps along the way.
• Surround yourself with a support system made up of people who tell it like it is, and also people who believe in you no matter what.
• The haters are not your people. Be with your people.
• Everything you write has a purpose. It makes way for the next big thing.
• Solicit advice from people, but also keep your author ego. You don’t have to do everything the last person told you to do.

“Create Your Successful Author Career Plan” – Nina Amir

I took two pages worth of notes on this session. I’m going to write separate posts about my career plan as I develop it. Then down the road, I’ll evaluate how much of it actually turned out how I’d planned.