A love letter to the San Francisco Writers Conference

Mar 2

Mar 2 A love letter to the San Francisco Writers Conference

While attending SFWC 20 in February I submitted this “love letter” to the conference for the Jonathan Maberry Scholarship Award and won. My award is complimentary conference registration for 2021. Here’s the letter:

Dear SFWC 20:

I came as an open book, ready to find my voice, my words, my point of view. I came unwritten, yet with my manuscript in hand and in my head, ready to pitch, or so I thought.

On Day One, I listed like the universe was trying to tell me something – something big, something important. I listened hard. And there it was: Jonathan Maberry and his messages were as as big as his size, his voice, and his journey. His lessons kept being repeated for me to hear, subtly, but firmly:

· When in doubt, go over the top.

· There is no magic to writing; there is a logic.

· Write every day.

Then there was dinner with Harvey, where I heard inspiring stories and learned about Harvey, a true gem in the business, and a great dinner date.

On Day Two, Jonathan’s lessons continued:

· Do your research, but not so much that you get distracted.

· Love to learn and never stop.

· Write every day.

I met with the fiction agents and learned that each one is their own unique store and journey to read. I introduced myself to three of them and thanked them for their words.

I learned about setting high stakes for my protagonist, how to terrify my readers, and more from Jon Maberry, whose monsters are distinctively human.

I learned about integrity in your author platform, which means promoting yourself because you do what you love and love what you do.

I missed so many sessions I would have loved to attend, but you can’t do it all. Thankfully, I can purchase them to listen to later. I missed some because of Harvey, my date for Valentine’s Day, along with 20 others with powerful stories and journeys worth sharing.

I practiced my pitch and thought I did pretty darn well because I listened and applied what I learned. The man next to me told our group he wanted the reader to hate him after reading his book so that they would remember him. The sadness in his eyes and those words kept me from sleeping and I thought about them in the shower today. I decided I needed to love him after reading his book, to love his writing. I sought him out on Day Three and told him that he doesn’t need to be hated to be remembered and that he didn’t need to absorb the hatred and violence and tragedy his characters experience, and that we can love the story and the writing and still hate what happens. We hugged and he thanked me.

I learned about writing for Hollywood and decided that the summit was like the toys that grow to ten times their size when you put water on them. It was a massive amount of information packed into one day.

I met Walter Mosley, Mr. Poetry in Motion, with whom I rode down the elevator. I looked into his eyes and thanked him for reminding me to write every day and to keep writing poetry.

As I sit here writing this, I remind myself that this is my writing for today. I’m about to meet with an author for a coaching session and can’t wait to see the love for the written words in my coach’s eyes.

This conference has been eye-opening in more ways than I can express, but if you look in my eyes, you can see the love for the written word, for learning, and for my fellow writers.

With love,

Nori Jabba

https://www.sfwriters.org/2020-conference/