You may recall my post last March about the 19th Annual Western Reserve Spring Writers Conference. The fall counterpart, the 27th Annual Western Reserve Writers Conference and Workshop, will take place at Lakeland Community College (Kirtland, OH) on September 25 from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM.

I’m pleased to tell you I’ll be a presenter on the Q & A Panel this year. My presentation is called “Jumpstart Your Writing Life”. I’ll discuss how to avoid pitfalls and procrastination, and how to organize and make the most of your writing time.

Erin O’Brien will host a workshop called “Mastering the Memoir” and John Ettorre will talk about “Social Networking? There’s a Better Way.” Conference Coordinator Deanna Adams will hold a workshop titled “About Book Proposals and the Novel Synopsis.”

The cost of the conference is $95 (which includes lunch if you register by September 10th), and for an additional fee of $10, you can sign up for a prearranged editing session with Nancy Piazza, Elizabeth Irwin, or Jo Gibson. For more information, including a complete list of workshops, the bios of all the presenters and editors, and to register, please click here. I’d love to see you there!

If you can’t make it to the conference (or if you can) but would still like to learn some valuable writing advice from Erin O’Brien and/or Deanna Adams, you can download and listen to my interviews with them on The Writing Show. I spoke with Erin about fiction and nonfiction writing, and Deanna about memoir.

The Importance of Detail, with Erin O’Brien

Writing Memoir, with Deanna Adams

The main pitfall I encounter is procrastination, which I have to battle every day in order to get words down. The focus of my talk at Lakeland will be on how to overcome procrastination and organize writing time. I’m curious though, from my fellow writers and bloggers, what other difficulties do you face and what do you do to defeat them so you can write?

Thanks for reading, happy writing, and I do hope to see you at the conference!