by Katy Kauffman @KatyKauffman28

It’s my home away from home. The mountain. The people. The atmosphere at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. I love going when I can, and I always come away feeling refreshed in my writer’s spirit.

But the week before the conference, and the months preceding it, can be stressful. All kinds of thoughts can flood our minds before a writers conference. Thoughts like:

• Am I picking the right classes?
• Which faculty members should I have private appointments with?
• What if I forget my pitch?
• What if they don’t like my pitch?

Then we struggle for balance at a writers conference.

• Should I fellowship in the hotel lobby or try to get as much sleep as possible?
• Should I try to go to every class when my mind or body is needing a break?
• Should I change my writing according to what people say or keep it as it is?

Every Christian writer has a companion for every adventure in life. God walks with us at each conference, even up the “billy goat” stairs at Ridgecrest, as I like to call them, between the Johnson Spring building and Mountain Laurel. When the path gets steep or the load gets heavy, God can whisper in our ear what we need to do and when.

“Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.” (Isaiah 30:21 NKJV)

So if we are trusting God for direction before and during a writers conference, what can we remember?

4 Tips for Less Conference Stress

Create a list of classes you’d like to take, and spread it out before God in prayer.

I love reading a class listing and making notes about which ones to take. I’ve had friends tell me that they meant to take different classes than the ones they attended. So the next time we plan to go to a conference, let’s make a list of the classes we think we need, and set the list before God in prayer. We can ask Him if this is what He has in mind for this particular conference, and when conference week arrives, we can keep our hearts open to hear Him guide us then, too.

Print the conference schedule, and record on it the additional breaks you know you’ll need.

I had to come to grips with this—it’s legal to take breaks and often necessary. During a three-day conference, I failed to take the break I needed one afternoon because I was afraid of missing out on something good. Sure enough, the next day I had almost zero energy.

A saving grace at most conferences is the class recordings we can purchase. Or a writer friend who’s willing to take notes for us. When I’ve had to take a “detour” and miss some part of a day’s schedule, I’ve found that I run into someone I was supposed to meet or I learned something God showed me, and I might have missed those happy surprises otherwise. Just as writing is a shifting adventure, always changing and evolving, a writers conference can be one too.

Practice your pitch on a writer friend.

This blog will share tips on the pitches we can make to faculty members about our books and ideas. After you’ve written an “elevator pitch” that may take thirty to sixty seconds to share about your book, it’s time for some pre-conference fun. Practice your pitch on a trusted writer friend. A trusted one, meaning that they will let you know if you need to juice up part of the pitch or if it’s ready to go.

Recruit friends to pray with you before the conference and to pray for you during each day of the conference.

Non-writer friends may not understand all the stress that can go into writing, platform building, and preparing for a conference. But our good Christian friends know how to pray! Before the conference, get together at home, at church, or on Zoom, and pray for God’s hand to be over the conference as a whole and for His hand to guide your part of it. Ask Him for open doors that He wants you to walk through and for the grace to accept closed ones.

As writers, we normally like to make lists, so create a prayer request list for your prayer partners, so they can pray for you each day of the conference. Then bless them with news about how it went and a little treat like coffee and donuts at your home if possible.

Which of these tips might help you to have less conference-stress? Share your thoughts in the comments below because it’s likely another writer feels just like you do and we can all encourage each other! And remember—whatever conference God is calling you to, He has good things planned and this conference may be exactly what you need to write with joy and purpose all year long. Happy conference season!

Katy Kauffman is an award-winning author, an editor of Refresh Bible Study Magazine, and a co-founder of Lighthouse Bible Studies. She loves connecting with writers and working alongside them in compilations, such as Feed Your Soul with the Word of God, Collection 1 which is a 2020 Selah Awards finalist. She recently started The Lighthouse Connection, a monthly writers’ newsletter including writing tips, inspiration to write, and news of submission opportunities.

In addition to online magazines, Katy’s writing can be found at CBN.com, thoughts-about-God.com, and three blogs on writing. She loves to spend time with family and friends, take acrylic painting classes online, and do yard work in the morning sun. Connect with her at her blog, Winning the Victory, and on Facebook and Twitter.