As I’m sitting here preparing for the Writer UnBoxed Unconference 2023, I’m realizing that we’re (1) likely taking up several writers from Brooklyn and therefore I’m answering the question (2) How do I prepare for Writer Unboxed?

Here’s how I’m preparing:

• Writer Unboxed Unconference 2023 isn’t a formal con.
• It is intimate.
• It is about work in progress.
• It’s the sort of thing career writers go to for whatever is next.
• So how do I prepare for Writer Unboxed Unconference 2023?
  • Here’s what I’m bringing and why.
    • Let me know if you need anything else or just want to talk through it or send me a manuscript or whatever:

Writer Unboxed Unconference 2023 isn’t a formal con.

If you’re expecting the nerdgasm dorkfest of WorldCon, DragonCon, ComicCon, World Fantasy, or Heliosphere, Unconference 2023 isn’t that. In the same way, it’s not Writer’s Digest with tons of formal panels on introductory issues, pitch slams. Neither is it a bunch of hob knobbing shaking hands and kissing literary babies (kissing in your general direction, Christopher Tolkien). You likely won’t sweat all week out in your best business formal wear.

So if you’re expecting that, don’t. I remember a critic from CNN and Village Voice getting icky feelings from the vulnerability of a roomful of writers. That moment reminds me often of other adjacent careerists learning how their colleagues make sausage — this person was particularly reticent, particularly business formal, so if you’re looking for the Frankfurt Book Fair, this ain’t it.

That’s not to throw that reticent person under the bus, for the record. It’s just a different kind of experience when compared to the conferences they’re used to and built for.

It is, after all, called an un conference. It’s summer camp. In November. Right after witch season in Salem. For authors.

So yeah, it’s not summer pitch slam or Fraunkfurt.

It is intimate.

No, not that kind of intimacy. What I mean is that people are open and honest about their process, their life, their work, their struggles with family or friends or fans or disabilities or even the way parallel success gets in the way of the fiction. I remember a whole late night debrief with four women writers counseling one who had just dealt with her first online fan stalker: it was invaluable information for her and where the hell else would she turn to get it? I remember another one between two writers who share the struggle of aphantasia. It’s in a setting where you can identify with others experiencing the unique, even hyper specific struggles of long-haul, career fiction (and occasionally screenplay and stage play and poetry) writing.

So even if you’re not into that, hopefully seeing others lead the way with vulnerability and openness and honesty will help. Show your own battle scars and garner courage for the journey forwards.

Because of this, you’ll see me recommend bringing your journal or equivalent.

It is about work in progress.

No one there cares about your portfolio or lack thereof. I mean… not really. It might come up once or twice in the entire week. Really and truly, what they care about is what you’re working on now. Everyone there brings something brand new (or on the first revision). So bring what you’re currently making in a red hot heat of passion. Or several things. Bring your outlines yearning to be free. Throw in your tempest-toss’d story ideas. What about the thing your agent or editor doesn’t want you to write, the thing your fans won’t buy, the thing your audience would stone you for if they found out you pseudonymously published it?

Take it all.

It’s the sort of thing career writers go to for whatever is next.

On the bell curve of attendees, you proabably have about 10-15% of attendees who are tenured editors, agents, or authors with 10+ books under their belts. Probably 70–80% are midlist career authors (traditional, hybrid, and self-published) there for their next manuscript. The other 10-15% are early career authors like me with one or less published full length work under their belt.

But the great thing is this: everyone’s there for whatever they’re working on. It’s in November, so I’ve met tons of folks working on NaNoWriMo projects.

That said, here’s what to bring:

So how do I prepare for Writer Unboxed Unconference 2023?

Here’s what I’m bringing and why.

Having experienced Unconference, the fall retreats, the OnCon, etc, I know what’s helped and what’s hurt me.

1. Don’t bring a finished book. At least don’t come motivated by that. Will someone read it? Possibly later, but that’s not what the conference is about.
   
2. Bring your journal or equivalent. This is, in some ways, sort of like a monastic contemplative retreat. It’s just as much about generating new ideas, fixing plot holes, tweaking outlines, teasing out character backstories, finding new collaborators, and digging into the “what you know” portion of your life about which you’ll later write.
   
3. Come ready to sing, play poker, and hear bedtime stories in your PJs. That’s right. It’s a place where you can relax a bit with other writers and talk shop without the pressure of performance, book tours, or competition. It’s art, not MMA, after all. There will be bawdy drinking songs of an Irish variety.
   
4. I’m bringing four completed manuscripts, printed as well as about 100,000 words in short stories — old and new — to revise. If you don’t have a printer and plan to go to Unconference 2023, send me your MS and I’ll print it for you. (I dropped a contact form into this post). We do this for all of our writers.
   
5. I’m bringing a manuscript that’s 30,000 words finished that I can work on or (if I finish before hand) begin revising. Having a manuscript I’ve just finished or almost finished has proved fruitful in the past as I’ve been able to workshop it early before everything derailed.
   
6. I’m bringing three outlines / ideas of longer works that I can flesh out while there. This includes character backstories, plot holes, etc.
   
7. Tools. I’ll bring a journal, a few Twsbi fountain pens, legal pads for scratch, a set of notecards just in case I get inspired to do a full storyboard, my MAC with Scrivener which I refuse to connect to the internet while there, and perhaps my Freewrite (though I doubt it).
   
8. Misc. I’ll also be bringing my guitar and mandolin (for the singalong / jam session), a couple books to sell in case folks get curious about my past work (though I won’t be hawking it), a watercolor notebook with watercolors plus my film camera (the coast is beautiful in Salem), my wax seal (for signings), and various degrees of formal and seriously informal wear. Might also bring a costume if I’m feeling sassy.
   

Let me know if you need anything else or just want to talk through it or send me a manuscript or whatever:

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Photo by Max Tcvetkov on Unsplash