Has anyone been to the UW-Madison Writer's Institute? It's a writer's conference April 8-10 in Madison, WI. I just stumbled across it. Even though it's next week, they are still accepting applications, and it looks pretty good. The only thing is it costs $$. Has anyone been to this before? Is it worth it? Thanks
I've had friends who have been to it before and wanted to go last year but couldn't. UWM is a fantastic school, and the writer's conference is supposed to be really great, which is why I wanted to go. I definitely think it's worth it.
Did it, and... It was awesome. Many amazing presentations that basically get me to recreate my whole book from scratch. I learned to make better characters, better prose, better plot, and I learned a ton about the industry from agents and published writers. A couple less-amazing presentations, but I still learned a lot even in those. I met some amazing writers and was offered to join a writer's group, but I rejected because I'm moving soon. New this year was a "Advanced Critique" which is basically you send your first 10 pages to a professional writer/editor and they meet with you one-on-one for a half an hour and tell what worked an what needed improvement. I was skeptical, because it was more money than I would have liked, but after doing it, it was worth it. Anyway, if you live near Madison, this is an amazing conference and you should consider it.
