Taylor University Professional Writers Conference 2025 Recap

Only a couple days after getting back and crashing after Realm Makers, I set out for Taylor University’s Professional Writers Conference.

While Realm Makers was a brand new experience, I’ve attended the Taylor conference since the very first 2016 one. (My one bragging right.) So yes, I took another trip and attended another conference, but I knew the drill and already felt pretty comfortable.

Thursday

Rather than get a hotel like past years, this year I stayed with my friend, Laurel (because she hadn't had enough of me on that Realm Makers carpool).

This year started out with an advanced track with two sessions. Thursday centered around deep point of view (writing like you’re in the character’s head, which leads to a more immersive story). When I read the schedule, while I knew I could still learn, I thought I had a good handle on deep POV. But I learned SO much. I love that Linda Glaz (our instructor) used hands-on examples and let us practice all the skills she taught us.

The conference provides meals on campus, and it’s always a great time to meet new people. I connected with writers I’ve met at the conference before, writers I know online, and writers new to me.
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I headed back to Laurel’s, but she was making an airport run, so I befriended her cat, unpacked my bags, and settled in with a book. When she did get back, we chatted, messed around with various curiosities (including but not limited to a giant ceramic frog), and generally harassed her cat. 
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Friday                 
                                           
I had breakfast on campus for the first time this year, and I loved the extra time to connect with other writers and attendees before we headed off to our second session.

Saturday’s advanced session was on proposals, and it might be the best class I’ve ever attended on proposals. Linda Glaz laid everything out so clearly. We practiced again, this time with our one sentence pitches. I worked up the courage to share mine, and her response and encouragement made me feel so confident. (That’s when I knew I was going to write this book.)

Her two sessions—where I practiced a pitch and developed my main character’s voice—inspired so much. I came home and immediately began planning and drafting a novel. Because by golly, if Linda Glaz thinks my pitch is good, then I’ll write the book to go with it. (If you give a Rachel a pitch, she will want a novel to go with it.)

That ended the advanced track and we moved on to the general conference. Zena Dell Lowe did all our keynotes, and they centered around why we need more traditional fictional heroes today. I’m not sure I agreed with everything she said—while I DID agree that we need more traditional heroes to balance things out, I’ve got some different opinions particularly on to antiheroes. (I’ll write a blog post, don’t worry.) Still, she made some excellent points and gave me SO MUCH food for thought, and you know me, I love anything that makes me think.

The breakout sessions I attended on the first day centered around platform and marketing. Becca Schriner’s session stood out—in the crazy world of the internet, I always need that reminder that I DO have cool things to post and blog about just because I’m myself. I also loved the evening group where we could ask any platform/marketing question and get it answered.

At the last moment, Taylor announced that Jori Hanna would hold one on one appointments, so I got one with her. I’ve met with her for the past two years at least. She’s the main reason my Instagram looks the way it does now after I attended her class on short form video and discovered it was my jam. It’s like a little platform checkup each year—she looks at my website and Instagram and such, shows me where I’ve grown, and helps me see where I can improve. (She’s the reason you get two blog posts this month, so if you don’t like it, take it up with her.) I loved that she also attended the conference alongside us and that we got a chance to just hang out.

I was brave and signed up for the open mic session, where I shared a few pages of a short story that I hope to share with my newsletter soon (whenever I sit down and edit the darn thing).

Then I headed back to Laurel’s house to hang out with her and Naomi, who joined us for the evening. 

Saturday
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I had an interesting mix of breakout sessions on Saturday—everything from getting an agent to self-publishing to comics!

I had an appointment with Becky Antkowiak discussing how to set good goals. All the resources I’ve found immediately jump to five or ten year goals, which stresses me out. (If you are clutching your five-year planner as we speak, bravo. I’m not that girl.)

While I need to know my “destination,” I struggled to break it into small pieces that I could start now. Becky helped me do that. (Current goal? Draft my latest novel by December 31. And now I’ve got the steps so I can get there.)

I’ve also been considering whether I still want to traditionally publish. Self-publishing has changed a LOT since I started writing. It’s no longer the publishing industry black sheep. You can self-publish at a very high level of quality. After several authors I know self-published and succeeded, I wondered whether I should alter my course and pursue self-publishing instead.

Enter Cindy Lynn Sawyer’s self-publishing session. Based on how I reacted to all the nitty-gritty details I’d have to handle myself (*picture me pointing at the checklist and screaming “what the HECK is that”), self-publishing isn’t my place right now—but I would have never have known that if she hadn’t laid it all out.
And then I attended a comics session. What was I doing there? I don’t know. I can’t even draw. But I have read exactly two graphic novels and wondered how the comic writing process differs from writing a typical novel. I did learn a lot, and even though comics may never be my thing, I think I have acquired good knowledge. 

I finished out with another session on fiction proposals, which complimented the advanced track session nicely. We attended our closing keynote and then it was over. But I hung around and had dinner with Laurel and her friends before making the drive back home.

The Taylor writing conference has always been a safe and happy place. Each year, I spot familiar faces, and each year, I meet someone new. It’s a smaller group and a smaller setting than Realm Makers, and unlike Realm Makers, YA fantasy authors are sometimes the minority. But I always come away inspired. I love that I can meet people who write very different things than I do and we still learn from and encourage each other.