If You Want To Write: Attend Free Lectures

K. Wordbird Bate   The Writer’s Coach

     It is a Saturday morning and I’m off to attend a free lecture by a successful journalist. He is going to talk for two hours about high-tech changes and how they impact the writer. In his early sixties, he sounds to be right on top of those technical changes. He is going to open aspects of my world, and I cannot wait!

     By this afternoon, I’ll have gained much, at no charge. I get the company of other writers; whether we interact or not, there is a great excitement and buzz I find invigorating. I’ll gain the ideas and lessons the presenter shares, and I will feel success and happiness that I got myself there, because I know this is good for me and good for my writing. If I take a friend with me, so much the better! Not bad for a Saturday morning!

     Years ago, I found a style of journal that feels great in my hands, stays flat on my lap or a desk, and is easy to write in fast. The pages are a little slick and high quality, so the ink slides right along, which you need as you take notes. It is rare you can record a lecture, and anyway, it’s against unspoken rules.  Spend more time listening than trying to take home exactly what a person says. Use a journal or even a Notebook but do not try to take down every word. You’ll miss the whole experience.

     I bought thirty of those journals. If you are not sure what kind of journal you like, just buy a few. Mine are all the same, soft cover with a thick binding that has room on the outside to write the year and lecture topics. On the inside covers I keep track of which lecture notes are in that journal. Open up one of these journals and you see a mass of doodling, hopscotch lecture notes, my own free writing, and ideas, and recommended books or sites in the margins. I have come to cherish these lecture buddies.

     As I leave for a lecture, I grab one and take it with me. See here?  It’s recorded that in Nov of 1989 I attended a lecture called “Wild Mind” by a virtually unknown writer named Natalie Goldberg. Heard of her? She is now a globally successful writer with the best seller Writing Down the Bones, about staving off that inner critic and letting your Wild Mind go. It is a fun book for practicing fiction and novel writers, in particular.

     At many free lectures you can purchase a copy of the presenter’s books—but don’t feel obligated. I do on occasion. I keep my signed copies on a special bookshelf, like friends. They remind me of these teachers and guides. I have a signed copy of an early book by August Wilson, who won the Pulitzer Prize many years later. Some of the writers I met are now dead, like Canada’s Mordecai Richler. I also keep a copy of a book by a lecturer who deeply disappointed me by his attitude and approach. Attending his lecture saved me from following his writings down a wrong path. I keep his book to remind me “all that glitters is not gold.” The vital thing is not buying a book, though. It’s what you take away, like a nugget of gold, from the words you hear.    

      At lectures, you learn from brilliant, up-and-coming minds, and they become part of your writing life and history. They keep you current also, on who is writing about what, in what style, and what is changing and growing in the writing world.

     I attend free lectures at malls, libraries, writer’s guilds and clubs, bookstores, colleges, festivals, publishing events and even comic book shops. You can also enjoy free lectures via pod casts, videos, blogs, and web sites, like the free article you are reading right now! You will see ads in coffee shops, college papers, bookstores and on-line.

     Be sure to interact, ask questions, leave comments—jump in there and be a part of it. Utilize lectures to feel a connection, to cease being alone. Expand your writing world and populate it with experienced guides who bless your journey. It’s fun, exciting, and dirt cheap! Invest in yourself today, and far into your future.

Let Yourself Bloom!

© Kimberly Bate                                                                         

Photo by Ryan Brenizer