On Saturday I travelled up to Leeds to attend my first Association of Christian Writers (ACW) Writer’s Day.
It started with tea and coffee and a chance to meet various people and have several chats. It was lovely to meet some who I had been emailing or ‘following’ on social media. It is always good to make personal contact and to meet face-to-face. There was also opportunity to peruse the bookstall that consisted of everyone’s books who were in attendance (I had brought a few of min along too).
The whole day was devoted to looking at the writing of memoir. The first session was given by Jane Clamp (author of ‘Too Soon’). She spoke about ‘connection’ and how as we connect to our memories and tell our story this creates connection points for the reader as they begin to weave their stories in with ours.
Then we had a break which was followed by the second speaker of the day, Emily Owen (author of ‘Still Emily’). She spoke a bit more about the practicalities of memoir writing and answered questions like: What do I need to write a memoir? How do I write a memoir? She also mentioned the importance of planning.
After lunch we then had two workshops that looked at ‘Perspective’ and ‘Focus’ in turn. Then there was a Q&A session where we got to ask four prominent, published authors our questions.
It was a very helpful day and I came away with some good ideas and tips to help my current memoir writing as well as some new friendships.
Many thanks ACW.