There is nothing quite as physically and emotionally draining as writers’ conferences. At the same time, there is nothing quite as exhilarating. In my next few blogs I will be sharing some of the events of this year’s Colorado Christian Writers Conference.

It is Friday night, I have been here since Wednesday and will go home tomorrow evening. The number one best thing about any writers’ conference is the opportunity to talk to other writers, editors, agents, etc. The first question to an author you don’t know is “what do you write.” Personal questions may or may not start after all parties in the conversation have shared what they do in the writing world. Personal questions are less important, not because we don’t care about each other, but because we are all part of one family. It’s about sharing the special gift we all have in common. Each one of us is a unique bow on this present.

For those of you who have not attending a writers’ conference, it is part networking, part pitching, part education, and part just plain fun.

Networking is meeting people in the industry. We meet people we have only heard or read about. Or maybe we have been friends via email, on Facebook, or on Twitter. Here the lines between beginners, published writers, editors, agents, publishers, etc. blur. We are all on equal footing. The goal here is to improve out parts in creating books that teach, inform, entertain, and change people.

Pitching is meeting with the editor or agent we want to buy or promote our books. That means saying I have something I think you would be interested in and that should be published. It is very, very rare for anyone to actually go home with a contract for a book, but many do go home with a request to send proposals or manuscripts to an editor. These have the potential of becoming a contract. Pitching can also be just testing out ideas and finding out it those ideas have sufficient merit to deserve the time to write those proposals and manuscripts.

Education is all the clinics, continuing sessions, workshops and general sessions we attend to learn more about our craft and to hone it.

As to just plain having fun, it is a great time sharing companionship with people who love the same things you do in the beautiful Rocky Mountains surrounding the YMCA of the Rockies outside Estes Park, Colorado. Over the next couple weeks, I will be sharing these aspects in detail. Please keep reading.