Inspiring Writing Conference

I returned last night from our annual Scottish Association of Writers weekend conference tired and inspired after all the chatting, eating and concentration. What a great weekend in the company of writers from all over Scotland, as well as an agent, a couple of publishers and plenty of professional authors as speakers, workshop leaders, or as some of the general delegates from all the various writing groups.

Westerwood Hotel

I've been attending for many years and never fail to be inspired by at least one of the workshops - daughter Victoria also goes. This year it was even more relaxing not to be adjudicating any of the competitions myself, which allowed me to enter a couple of different competitions from those I have in the past. I'd decided this would be the last time I entered any and was only seeking the written critique that every judge has to provide on all entries. So I was absolutely delighted to win third prize in both the Under 7s (picture book) story and the non-fiction book competition (first 15,000 words)! It lets me now consider whether or not to take these two ideas further.

Misty view form the car park

Two of the workshops I attended provided added inspiration and lots to think about. The first was Picture Books - what makes them different? This was run by well-published author, Linda Strachan, who did an excellent power-point presentation of all the different types of books available for the various ages of childhood. She emphasised how important it was to structure a story suitable for babies, toddlers and read-alone for instance and how the words work together with the illustrator's pictures.

Another workshop I found inspiring was Writing a Dramatic Monologue run by professional writer, Catherine Czerkawska who has written many plays for stage and radio as well as novels and short stories. It was particularly interesting to hear how writing a monologue can be very effective for fiction writers - or using short monologues to get to know your characters' voices. Although I've watched one of Catherine's plays and heard another on radio, I was completely absorbed in her advice and short excerpts, one of which was very powerful and emotional as it was about the Chernobyl disaster. I wasn't surprised to hear some of the audience had been in tears when it was performed on stage!

Coffee Break!

The hotel itself is a few miles north of Glasgow and they do us proud - fabulous rooms, facilities and food. Their pastry chef provided scones with jam and cream one afternoon during our quick coffee break and little chocolate brownies yesterday morning, as well as a variety of non-alcoholic cocktails! We were all surprised on Saturday afternoon to find a wrapped bar of rocky road chocolate in each of the rooms. These little touches enhanced the enjoyment of the whole weekend.

The SAW committee also made a special effort on the Saturday evening by arranging a Gala Dinner for us, complete with Candelabra on each table! Our president, Marc, mentioned Hogwarts in his welcome before dinner was served. We'd been encouraged to glam up that evening, so I did. Any excuse for a little bit of glamour and drama!

Victoria and me at the candlelit dinner

Now it's back to reality and catching up on all the things I left behind, including another competition to judge. But we're all inspired to get on with our writing and each conference encourages new writers to try all the wonderful ways in which to use words. Roll on next year!

Rosemary