This summer, I spent two weeks at the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference in Tennessee. I came expecting to learn how to become a better fiction writer, but I ended up getting a lot more out of it than I expected.
In workshop, we read each other’s writing and talked about what worked, what didn’t, what confused us, and what stuck with us. It was honestly a little strange at first having other people read my work and talk about it, because I’m so used to being the only person who knows what I meant when I wrote something. But hearing their reactions helped me see my own stories differently.
Reading everyone else’s work was just as helpful. There were so many different writing styles and completely different kinds of stories. It reminded me that there isn’t one right way to write a story. Two people can start with a similar idea and end up with something completely different.
I also started thinking about revision differently. Before Sewanee, I think I mostly thought of revision as fixing sentences and making things sound better. But sometimes revision means realizing that a scene doesn’t need to be there at all. Sometimes a character needs to change, or the story needs to go in a direction you didn’t originally plan. That was probably one of the biggest things I learned.
Some of my favorite parts of the conference weren’t even during workshop. I loved walking around campus, talking about stories with people over meals, and listening to other students read their work. Being around so many people who genuinely cared about writing made it feel easier to talk about it too.
And somehow, ideas were everywhere. A conversation could turn into a story idea. A place could make me think of a character. Even some random little detail could make me want to write something down.
I didn’t leave Sewanee knowing how to write the perfect story. I don’t think there is such a thing anyway.
I left with more confidence in my writing, more things I want to improve, and a much bigger list of questions I want to explore.
Most importantly, I left wanting to keep writing.
And I think that might be the best thing a writing conference could give me.