By Mary Knippel
Pre-Covid every February I’d be getting ready to be immersed once again in the flurry of activity that accompanies the annual
San Francisco Writers Conference. It’s very exciting being caught up in all the energy and enthusiasm generated from all of our stories taking place here. However, that’s not to be the case this year. In order to do all we can to be respectful of everyone’s health and safety, our conference date has shifted from February to July 21-24.
I’ve had the privilege of being a part of this amazing journey since its beginning 18 years ago. What holds true every year is the amount of incredible talent who come together to inspire, inform, encourage, awaken, light a fire and unleash the writing spirit in all of us.
For the past several years, my job has been to coordinate Independent Editors Room. Break-out sessions covering all aspects of the writing process are conducted in other parts of the San Francisco Hyatt, we Independent Editors, spend our time during the conference dispersing our expertise in eight-minute one-on-one sessions with conference attendees. We hear all about the who, what, when, where, how and why of attendees stories. We share advice, goodwill, guidance, instruction, support, wisdom, along with generous amounts of understanding and compassion.
I have great empathy for everyone at the conference from seasoned writers in search of an agent, established writers looking to learn pointers in order to polish their work, and the just starting out writer who is in search of their voice and distinctive style.
I am very familiar with the feelings of vulnerability and raw courage it takes to put your words out there. I’m very proud to be part of the conference and to be able to serve the participants as a speaker, panelist, workshop presenter, and my current title as the Independent Editor Consultation Coordinator.
It hasn’t always been that way. The first year of the conference, the only job I felt qualified for was to babysit the purses in the Volunteer Lounge. I was in awe of all the conference experts who surrounded me. In the Volunteer Lounge, I was like a sponge absorbing all the conversations and shyly asking questions when I worked up the courage to allow myself to be part of the exchanges taking place.
While the official workshops hold enormous value for the conference attendees, what happens outside the workshops is invaluable. I have gone on to contribute to the conference by volunteering in many other positions as a presenter, panelist, workshop facilitator, and Ask-a-Pro.
I’ll always be grateful to my editor, Vicki Weiland (pictured here on the right with Teresa Jade-Ryan and Elizabeth Pomada seated) who invited me to be her assistant “Book Doctor” as part of a new benefit for participants at the conference. My current status as the Independent Editor Coordinator reflects a name change from Book Doctor, however, the original focus of offering conference attendees an individualized resource to bring their writing questions remains the same.
Every story is unique.
Every story is unique to the storyteller.
Every storyteller is the same with a tremendous desire to be heard and seen. My mission is to support the storytellers who hesitate to share their story because 1) they fear no one will want to hear what they have to say, and 2) who would want to listen to them if they were to speak up?
No one except you can tell your story because it is yours alone to tell.
I guarantee that someone is waiting for you to tell your story. They need to hear your story so that they can see themselves reflected there.
Is this the year you attend SFWC? If you go, drop into the Independent Editors Room and say hello. I’d love to hear about your writing journey.
If you’d like to chat with me sooner, schedule a time to talk on my calendar today.
Mary E Knippel, author, speaker, Your Writing Mentor, and founder of YourWritingMentor.com guides Small Business owners to write their book as a powerful driver of business growth. She helps aspiring authors to get their expertise out of their head so that publishers and readers can find them, and they can finally make money.She is a past president of the San Francisco Chapter of the Women’s National Book Assn, and a past board of the Peninsula Branch of the California Writer’s Club.
Leave a Reply