Subjects covered Writer EJ DeBrun has experience in animation, screenwriting, and novels. Asked about the similarities between writing novels and screenplays, EJ replied that the similarities are simple: there are words and there’s a story. Conversely, point of view is the main difference. Whereas with novels the current trend is for a deep point of view,
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The Thing You Think You Cannot Say: Writing a Memoir You Can Live With
by Stuart Horwitz Writing a memoir is like writing a detective story where you get to find out what happened—except, it’s to you. It’s a complicated challenge. In the first place, you have to find your best stories, and tell them in a way that is interesting to other people, with the proper level of
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SFWC Staff updates
SFWC Director Laurie McLean has had a challenging year to be sure. In addition to producing the successful, but labor intensive, virtual 2020 San Francisco Writing for Change: Worldwide during the pandemic, Laurie’s home in LaHonda was in the middle of the horrific CZU Lightning Complex fire this summer. A volunteer firefighter herself, she was
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SFWC Gets a Grant
The San Francisco Writers Conference was the beneficiary of a generous grant from the Literary Arts Emergency Fund last month. We discovered the program thanks to Submittable. The unrestricted $5,000 grant will go a long way in helping the SFWC meet its ongoing expenses financially and let us offer programing for writers during the Covid-19
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The Importance of Perseverance with Best Selling Author, Meredith Jaeger
Subjects covered Meredith Jaeger is the author of two dual-narrative historical fiction novels: The Dressmaker’s Dowry, a USA Today bestseller, and Boardwalk Summer. Asked about her motivation for writing The Dressmaker’s Dowry, Meredith explained that, depressed by the gentrification brought about by the tech boom, she wanted to write about San Francisco’s history to help
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Why Write?
By Grant Faulkner Reposted with permission from the author. You can find the original post, entitled Why Write? A Manifesto to Fortify Your New Year’s Resolutions, here. One day a year or so ago, I was going through some old papers, and I discovered a notecard with my 2003 New Year’s resolutions on it. The depressing
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Paris with Mystery Writer Cara Black
Cara Black is the author of the Aimée Leduc mystery series. Cara was originally inspired to write about Paris when she heard the real-life story of her friend’s mother, a hidden Jewish girl during the Occupation. Cara talked about how the Marais has changed since she set one of her books there in the 80s.
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Annnouncement on SFWC2021
Guess what? The San Francisco Writers Conference has turned 18 years old! But given the current global insanity, we’ve reluctantly decided for everyone’s safety to take a “gap year” in 2021. This means there will be no physical conference at the Hyatt in mid-February next year like we’d all planned. I know this is sad
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Telling Your Fearless Truth
by Martha Alderson The daily sacrifices made by our essential workers inspire you to want to express your support. The members of the Black and Brown communities standing up for justice generate in you the desire to raise your voice. Watching the evening political news, you feel on every level of your being that the
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Producing and Writing Film with Cali Gilbert
Cali Gilbert is a bestselling author and transformational book coach, who coaches women – especially those transitioning out of homelessness – through the entire book-publishing process: writing, marketing, and publishing. Cali is also a screenwriter and director, and head of the conference’s Writing for Hollywood. For writers interested in transitioning from page to film, Cali
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