Guest Post: On Inclusion and Representation by Ariel Kalati

NOTE: Hey everyone! As I buckle down to try to finish final papers, I've got a special guest post for you guise from Ariel Kalati, of the Ch1Con and Ch21Con convention team! It's a great annual convention I absolutely encourage you to consider, and this year they'll have speakers including Karuna Riazi, Amanda Foody, and Christine Herman, which is pretty cool! Hope you enjoy the guest post!

Hi, I’m Ariel Kalati, and I do want to talk to you all about Ch1Con and Ch21Con. First off, though, I’ve promised some insightful publishing thoughts. Over the last few years of being part of publishing Twitter, I have met so many amazing people and seen so many organizations working towards diversifying publishing. What particularly intrigues me is the need for #OwnVoices work- not just representation of marginalized groups, but the presence of marginalized people in all parts of the publishing process.

The need for #OwnVoices is there for many reasons: more accurate representation, providing income for marginalized people, and ideally one day, a shift in the power dynamics of the publishing world. However, I’ve noticed a reason that is more personal and emotional in nature, but not any less important. Being surrounded entirely by people who don’t understand your identity and your struggles can be scary. Even with allies, it can be alienating. And seeing books that are only published by privileged authors can cause that same sense of alienation.

Panels and attendees at publishing conferences can be just as important. To create a truly effective and open publishing community, you need all sorts of voices. Groups like We Need Diverse Books have been calling out whitewashed panels for years now. But smaller organizations and individuals can also work to ensure a diversity of voices. At Chapter One Events, for example, one of our foremost goals is to make sure that every young writer who attends feels safe and feels that their individual voice can be heard. A major way to ensure that is to support all kinds of marginalized identities, in places like our author panels and speaker lists, and by using our online presence to support #OwnVoices books.

I don’t think we’re a perfect organization in this regard yet. But I think that moving towards diversity is about wanting to help alleviate that sense of alienation for marginalized people. And creating a safe space for young writers to congregate and learn about their craft goes hand in hand with that goal. I hope that Chapter One Events follows in the footsteps of other great nonprofits and writing organizations in creating safety and community for all voices.

Make sure you check out Ch1Con and Ch21Con! 

Guest Post: Chapter One Con Mentorship Interview

NOTE: Hey guise! I've got Chapter One Con, a great conference for young writers, sharing an interview today from the mentors of their annual mentorship program! Hope you enjoy, and make sure you check out Chapter One Con!

Chapter One Conference just wrapped up its annual Mentorship program. At Ch1Con, they believe in helping young writers, and through this program they teach young writers about the publishing process, from start to finish. As the 2017 mentorship program wraps up, they are proud to present THIS IS THE END, an anthology of the short stories that our mentees worked on doing the program! 

From familial trauma to mind games, you never know quite what will lead to the end. During the autumn of 2017, the team behind writerly nonprofit organization Chapter One Events mentored two talented young writers through the publishing process, giving them a head start on becoming the successful authors of tomorrow. Now, read the stories on which these up-and-coming writers worked, along with four by the Chapter One Events mentors themselves. Each of these stories leads to a startling conclusion. Are you ready for the end?
The celebrate the release of the anthology, Brett Jonas asked a few of the team members about their experience as mentors this year. These are their responses.

What was the most interesting part of mentoring a young writer? Had you done something like this before?

Julia: The most interesting part of mentoring a young writer always, for me, is the types of questions they ask. Mentees approach each topic from a different angle based on their personal life experience, which leads to unique and really interesting questions that force me as a mentor to look at what I'm teaching them from a new perspective. I always feel like I have a different, more well-rounded understanding of a subject after teaching it. This was my second year directing the Chapter One Events Mentorship Program and I'm really grateful for the experience.

Ariel: I think the most interesting part was seeing how they responded to my advice. I've done editing work for literary agents before, but in that work, I never got to see how the writers responded to my ideas. With this work, I got to see how another person's story transformed. (I also participated in last year's mentoring program, but I worked on mechanical errors, which are a totally different approach from structural edits). 

Katelyn: I have had the opportunity to mentor a young writer before and I think it's really fun, unique experience. I love being able to help young writers explore their own voice, their characters, and their story overall. I think the most interesting part definitely has to be the chance to see the world through the eyes of a writer who is still finding herself. (Or himself, but I worked with a female author this year.) Technically, we never really know ourselves as people or as writers. We are always growing, changing, and figuring out better ways to tell our stories, but I find it particularly special being able to work with someone who is just starting to find and craft her passion. It's definitely a rewarding experience for me, just like I hope it was for her!

Allison: I mentored in short story submissions last year, too, and it's always fascinating what different areas of writing our participants are familiar with. Short stories or novels, genre fiction or contemporary--we always get a wide range in writing backgrounds, thus, we also get a wide range of questions about how the submission process works. Everyone has different priorities, and different points of confusion, so I enjoy seeing questions it never would have occurred to me to ask.

Did you contribute a story to the anthology, and if so, where did you get the inspiration for it?

Julia: I did contribute a story this year! It's an old one, from way back during the Dark Ages (aka 2012), when I was seventeen. Because it's been so long, I don't entirely remember the thought process that went into writing it, but I believe I wrote it based off a prompt about relationships formed through the internet. (It's much sweeter than most of my writing, but I figured the anthology could use a little boost of levity and it fit really well with Brett's ADORABLE contribution.)

Katelyn: Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to submit a story this year. One of the downsides of being a writer as an adult is that you have to start scheduling into your day. Don't get me wrong, this is something you have to do as a young writer too, but when you start mixing in work and all of the responsibilities you now have as an adult, it is easy to look at writing as less of a priority than it should be. And, trust me, I know how much crap kids these days have to go through if they want to simply get by; it's honestly ridiculous. So, if that's you, if your life is busier than you know what to do with but you still want to write, then take it from someone who knows too well: make the time for it. You'll thank yourself later.

Allison: I didn't contribute a story to the anthology this year (didn't have anything short enough that fit the theme), but this feels like a good place to mention that my contribution to last year's anthology has since been sold as a reprint to a YA short fiction podcast, Cast of Wonders. "What You're Missing" will appear in audio there sometime in 2018. I wrote the first draft of this dystopian short in high school and never had much confidence in it, so if it hadn't been for the story's inclusion in a Ch1Con anthology, I might never have dared to buff it up and send it out to the pro-level publication which eventually bought it. I hope all our participants (past, present, and future) will consider submitting their stories to similar markets--thinking of this anthology as not just an "end goal", but the starting point to even greater writing success. Which, really, is what the program is all about!

In your opinion, why is the Ch1Con Mentorship a successful program? Would you have told your past self to sign up for it?

Julia: I'm definitely a little biased here, as the director of the program, but I think what makes the Chapter One Events Mentorship Program so successful is the fact that it truly teaches mentees about each step of the publication process. We cover from query letters to editorial letters (and everything in between), so by the end, mentees really understand what publishing will look like when they're ready to pursue it. I would absolutely tell my past self to sign up for this program. Little Julia would have had a stroke over an opportunity like this. Learning how to read publishing contracts? Getting a behind-the-scenes look at the editorial process? I wish something like this had existed when I was first starting out.

Ariel: I think it's a successful program because a lot of young people, especially high schoolers, don't necessarily have access to serious workshopping for creative writing projects. Their English teachers might have a lower standard for creative work, or might only teach them editing in regards to analytical writing. This is a place where they can work on a story in a serious way, and I think that's great. I would tell my past self to sign up for it, for her own sake, but I'm not sure I would inflict my sensitive high school self on the Ch1Con volunteers. 

Katelyn: Oh my gosh, I love the Chapter One Mentorship program. My past-self would have LOVED this. I will be the first to admit that I was one of those kids with super unrealistic expectations of how the publishing industry works. To me, the idea that I would be a published author by the age of 18 (before I even graduated from high school) was completely realistic. As most people in publishing industry can attest: this is not true. So much work and effort goes into publishing a novel - even shorter works like poems and short stories - that a lot of young writers are completely unaware of. This process is invaluable because it provides young writers a step-by-step introduction to not only the publishing process in general, but also to a lot of the intricate behind the scenes work, like what an editorial letter looks like, how to write a query letter, and what the difference is between copyediting, proofreading, and editorial editing (among a bunch of other things). Instead of having to do a lot of research and crossing your fingers that you are getting the best advice, all of these tips, tricks, and lessons are in one convenient package. I would highly, highly recommend this program to anyone wanting to broaden their understanding of publishing, editing, and/or how to better themselves as a writer in general.

Allison: Speaking mostly about the week I mentor for, my strategy has been to gather up all the information I would've liked to know much earlier. Standard operating procedure, as well as little tips and tricks--learned from my own experience, and from listening to writers further along than I am. When you're a young (and/or new) writer, it's easy to get frustrated by how much you have left to learn, and while this feeling never really goes away (since we will all continue learning until we die) it's nice to get a wealth of information gathered together in one place. To get direct advice from your peers, and ask all your questions somewhere besides a browser search bar. I'd have loved to experience something like this program when I was first learning, as it would have saved me a lot of confusion and anxious Googling.

Guest Post: Finding Your Writerly Community by Brett Jonas

Hey friends! I have one more guest post for you this month, from Chapter One Young Writers' Conference team member Brett Jonas! I had an incredible time at the conference back in 2014, and the very affordable early bird pricing for the 2017 conference is open until June 1st! Make sure you guise check it out if getting to Chicago is feasible for you. :) 

Take it away, Brett!

When you’re first starting out, writing can seem like a solitary hobby. You sit, alone, in the library. You sit, alone, in the coffee shop. You sit, alone, in your bedroom. But there are other writers out there, and there is nothing that writers love doing more than procrastinating on their writing by hanging out with other writers! Whether online or in person, meeting new writers is lots of fun—and it doesn’t have to be hard to do. Here are a few things that might help you find your writerly community.

1. Twitter
   
   Ava has already written several great posts on Twitter for writers, so I’ll just point you to some of her posts about it, but Twitter can be amazing for making friends who are just as passionate about writing as you are! A good way to start is by using some of the well-known writer hashtags and interacting with other people who use them.


2. NaNoWriMo
   
   Every year in November, hundreds of thousands of people participate in NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to write fifty thousand words in a month. If that seems a bit extreme, you can check out Camp NaNoWriMo, which happens in the summer, and has a flexible word count. With NaNoWriMo, you can meet people in the forums, and during the Camps, you get put in a virtual “cabin” with several other writers, which is a great way to meet new friends!
   
   
3. Writing Conferences
   
   Chances are, there’s a great writer’s conference somewhere close to you. And if there isn’t, it’s a good excuse to get out and take a trip! Writing conferences can be absolutely amazing. Not only do you get out of your house, but you get to learn from incredible people in publishing and meet writers in person. And I’ve found that, after you get home from a writer’s conference, you’re pretty excited and inspired and ready to get back to writing.
   
   There are writing conferences all over the country, like Midwest Writers and the Writer’s Digest Conference, but my personal favorite is Chapter One Young Writers Conference (or Ch1Con). It’s a conference for young writers (ages 11 through 23), put on by young writers (including me!). Speakers for the 2017 conference include Kody Keplinger (New York Times Bestselling author of RUN, THE DUFF, and more), literary agent Brent Taylor, and more. Ch1Con has always been an amazing experience for me, and I’d love to meet you there!

Brett Jonas is a writer, reader, Christian, lover of chocolate, and over-user of smiley faces. After being homeschooled her whole life, she’s now taking classes at the local community college and working in her family’s business, Goat Milk Stuff, with her seven younger siblings. In the rare moments when she’s not writing, working, or doing homework, you can find her doing things for the Chapter One Young Writer's Conference or wasting time on Twitter as @BookSquirt, where she loves making friends and using too many exclamation points.

Where have you found your writerly community? 

Twitter-sized bite:

Struggling to find a writer community? @BookSquirt shares some tips for finding those connections. (Click to tweet)

Guest Post: On the Writing Community

Note: Hey all! Today I've got a guest post from Kira Budge, the Associate Online Administrator for Chapter One Young Writer's Conference, which is a conference I'll be speaking at this summer! *confetti* I hope you enjoy (and enter the super awesome giveaway)! :) 



Hi guys! My name’s Kira Budge and I’m the Associate Online Administrator for the Chapter One Young Writer’s Conference (Ch1Con), a writing conference by young writers, for young writers. Today, as part of the Ch1Con 2015 Blog Tour, I’m doing a guest post on the importance of the writing community. There will be a giveaway too, so read to the end for that!

As an arts community, the writing world has a particularly vibrant sense of human connection. Both in real life and online, writers, readers, and industry professionals communicate about the stories they love and the ideas they’d like to see more of. Through these conversations, we all can have an immense effect on both individuals and on the world as a whole. I think this is one of the greatest rewards we get from our art.

As a widespread community and especially through the Internet, our industry has the chance to enact social change, such as in the We Need Diverse Books campaign. Through the expansion of our art to include more and more voices, we give readers the world over a chance to understand different perspectives. Discussions on important topics like these abound throughout our community and help us all to make a greater difference.

On a more personal level, the writing community helps people through the partnerships that writers establish with each other. With the assistance of other writers of all different experience levels, each of us can learn more about the industry, have guidance through the tough times that inevitably come, and gain useful critiques. One of the greatest tangible benefits for me in participating in the writing community has been the critique partners and beta readers I’ve been able to gain. With their help, I’ve improved the quality of my writing bit by little bit.

Our internet community has a way of connecting over funny topics as well as the more serious. Twitter is one of my favorite locales for this. The recent influx of parody accounts, which present real issues in the industry and common cliches in a way that everyone can enjoy, is one example. Another is the hashtags that pop up regularly in regards to the industry, like the #VeryRealisticYA tag created by Ch1Con partner John Hansen at Ava Jae’s serendipitous encouragement. Because we have similar interests, writers on the Internet enjoy a common understanding of what’s being expressed without even having to meet!

When you do meet, however, incredible things can happen. Almost eight years ago, as a young little munchkin with lots of big dreams (not much has changed there), I joined my first writing community, the Scholastic Write It! Boards online. There I met the girls who would eventually become some of my best friends, offering the critique, guidance, and, most especially, support that I’ve needed to make it as far as I have with both writing and regular life struggles. Five years later, after meeting each other on other social media platforms, the incredibly innovative and go-getting Julia Byers decided it was prime time that we all met in person. This experiment of a private writing conference blossomed into the Chapter One Young Writers Conference that I am proud to be a part of today!



Meeting these girls, and all of the other people who have attended and supported our conference thus far, has been one of the best experiences of my life. Something magical happens when you get together with people who have the same interests, shared dreams, and a similar life experience. Last year, while discussing the ins and outs of the industry, talking about high school and college life during lunch, and analyzing Harry Potter and the Hunger Games on the Chicago L, I loved being me so deeply and sincerely I can hardly express it. Through our conference, I’ve made many new friends, learned a hundred new skills, and found a thousand new ways to explore the wonders of storytelling. I wouldn’t give that up for anything.

This year, Ch1Con will take place on Saturday, August 8th in the suburbs of Chicago, IL, Arlington Heights. 2015 registration is currently open on the Ch1Con website for writers from a middle school to undergraduate level and at an early bird discount price of $39.99. Three speakers have been confirmed so far: headliner Kat Zhang, the bestselling author of the Hybrid Chronicles, Taryn Albright, better known as the Girl with the Green Pen, and our very own wonderful Ava Jae! As a special bonus, Ava Jae’s agent, Louise Fury, will open to queries only from conference attendees for up to thirty days after the event. Awesome, right? I am psyched.

Annnnnd I’d love to meet you there! With how great the writing community is, I’m always looking out for more writer friends like those on the Ch1Con team. So if you fall into our age range, take the chance to register ASAP! The early bird discount ends May 31st and there are only thirty slots open. You can sign up this link with adult registration for those 18+ and youth registration (with parental/guardian consent) for under 18s.

Even if you can’t attend in person, we’d love to meet you through the online platforms where our team originally met! Don’t ever let anyone tell you that online friends aren’t as good as real-life friends, because we’re proof of the opposite. We have Twitter chats and other events available for you guys! For more information, check out our website and social media platforms:

Website | Twitter | Tumblr | YouTube | Pinterest | Facebook

In the end, whatever way works best for you to participate in the writing community, with us, with others, online, in person, I promise you’ll find great benefits to the process and, even more importantly, develop friendships that can run soul-deep. I know because I’ve got some of my own.

Now for the promised giveaway! Here on Ava’s blog, we’re giving away a Trish Doller prize pack, which includes hardcovers of Something Like Normal and Where the Stars Still Shine as well as an ARC of The Devil You Know. Enter using the Rafflecopter below! Thanks, guys.

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