Top Ten Reasons to Attend a Writing/Reading Conference

Top Ten Reasons to Attend a Writing/Reading Conference

1. To see your friends!

2. To make new friends. Sometimes this is called "networking," but really, that sounds like something robots do. And there's no point in "networking" if you're not also having a good time with it.

3. To get away from home, which is full of housecleaning and books you haven't read and things you haven't done, so your mind has enough clear space to think.

4. To fill your mind with thoughts about writing, and your mouth with talking about it. See numbers one and two and three.

5. To experience sleep-deprivation, so you can portray it realistically in fiction.

6. To find out if you're an under-packer or an over-packer, and if you're the sort of person who carries things like miniature sewing kits and three kinds of stomach medication.

7. To be appalled by the cost of meals in hotel restaurants.

8. To be so busy listening and talking and interacting that you forget to be self-conscious and can just be.

9. To meet the one person who's read your book and loved it and wants to tell you about it.

10. To remember why you love genre fiction.

Related post: WisCon 2009.