Scottish Association of Writers Conference 2016

View from the hotel

The Scottish Association of Writers (SAW) 47th Annual Conference took place last weekend at the Westerwood Hotel and Conference Centre a few miles from Glasgow. Having attended an excellent SAW Conference there last year, I was looking forward to an experience of a similar high quality. It did not disappoint.

The venue gains full marks on all counts: comfortable bedrooms; superb food; and staff who catered for our every need. I've heard nothing but compliments for the hotel from everyone.

Chocolate brownies and fruit for elevenses

Cream scones for afternoon tea

So how did we spend our time (apart from eating and drinking)?

Competitions: The speeches of the adjudicators of seventeen competitions were excellent. With names like Jenny Brown, Alanna Knight, Linda Strachan and Catherine Czerkawska, this came as no surprise. All the adjudicators made interesting comments on the entries they judged, including suggestions for improvement. In addition, they gave every entrant a personal critique of their submission. With a total of 421 competition entries, this was no mean feat - thank you to all.

Seminars and Workshops: Here (as with the food), we were spoiled for choice. Poetry Workshop, Feature Writing, Representation by an Agent, From Pen to Publisher... the list goes on. I chose Al Guthrie's seminar on Self-Editing for Novelists. This was in two parts, during which he shared many insights, as a novelist, agent and publisher, into how we can improve our self-editing. As a result of one of the short exercises he gave us to do, he identified a plot problem in my WIP, and gave me a suggestion to solve it. Thank you, Al.

The other workshop I attended, on the Sunday, was Chris Longmuir's Nuts and Bolts of Self-Publishing. As a hybrid writer, Chris has a wealth of experience of the publishing world, which she is always happy to share with others. Her talk made it all sound so straightforward, and she gave us hand-outs to back up everything she said.

Two excellent worships/seminars. My only regret was that there was no time to attend any of the others.

Sticky toffee pudding under the
blue lighting at the gala dinner

Our keynote speaker was Caro Ramsay on the Saturday evening. Having enjoyed a gala dinner in a room specially prepared for the Conference, we were treated to an entertaining speech which had the whole room rocking with laughter. Caro also led a workshop (From Pen to Publisher), and she was one of the dragons in the Dragon's Pen competition on Sunday afternoon. She certainly worked over the weekend.

The social aspect of the Conference cannot be overstated. Meeting up with friends old and new, exchanging information and simply enjoying being in the company of writers for a whole weekend was enjoyable and sent us home inspired for the next stage of our writing.

The Council are to be congratulated on running a splendid conference, where, with all our creature comforts royally catered for, we had the opportunity to listen, talk and learn about so many aspects of writing.

Well done to all!