We head to 'The Writers' Conference 2025'

Play a game of free association with the word ‘writer’ and see how long it takes you to get to the phrase ‘social butterfly’. No - the writer, at least in the popular imagination, is a solitary animal: neck-deep in blankets in a damp converted shed like Roald Dahl, phone disconnected (possibly due to bills unpaid), pinching the bridge of their nose in minor tragedy as they think about query letters, The Weight of Existence and dangling participles.

But The Writers’ Conference run by Writing East Midlands every year does its level best to convince us that solitude isn’t our only habitat. Below the steep hill on which Lincoln Cathedral is so resolutely perched, the conference can be found bursting into life on the university campus, wide windows looking out onto Brayford Pool, an old Roman port.

As coordinator of the regional writing scene, part of Writing East Midlands’ brief is to prove that you don’t have to haul yourself to London to advance your creative career. Not only does today’s sold-out conference begin to get that message across, but it does make you see the real advantages of starting with a regional outlook. Some events in larger cities can have a transactional feel to them - the writers are the customers, and they’re simply there to pay for information.

Here in Lincoln today the sense though is of community - easy smiles around a square of local stalls, plentiful swishing tote bags, an open-mic session at lunch time. Everything’s been professionally assembled, of course, but it’s not a muted exchange of business cards - this atmosphere makes the dreadful word ‘networking’ approach something like a normal human activity. Any first-day-of-school feeling is quickly nixed by darting volunteers and the several familiar Nottingham faces which pop into your field of vision.

Rebecca Mascull is a strong choice of keynote speaker: taking the topic of building a practical career, she steers us with light humour through her branching journey into new genres, under her pseudonyms Mollie Walton (inspired by her grandparents) and Harper Ford (inspired by Harrison). It’s a stirring opening rally, not least because we’re basically getting three speakers at once.

After this introduction there’s a choose-your-own-adventure feel to proceedings - some of LeftLion’s highlights included a prose-tweaking workshop led by Emma Pass, in which participants get their heads down to practice free writing about minute objects, and Hannah Boursnell’s mysteriously named ‘Synopsis Surgery’, a fascinating breakdown of the best way to pitch your book to an agent, using as exemplar Disney’s Frozen. For this Lincoln-novice, there’s even time for an ill-advised expedition up the hill, and much more pleasant expedition back down again.

Most people understand the feeling of being ‘alone together’ - perhaps when you’re with your partner or a close friend, it’s that sense that you can share your space with someone but each be doing your own thing, so at ease in one another’s presence that you don’t need to speak to understand one another. Think of that connection that Tom Hanks and Wilson had in ‘Castaway’, only nobody’s a volleyball.

Anyway, it seems to me that that sort of shared mission is one of the main benefits of events like The Writers’ Conference, and WEM should be commended for how seamlessly they pull it off - it’s not easy to make people feel within an hour or two that they’ve never been strangers. Connections have been formed today - down here at the bottom of the hill, this is Link-’em Cathedral. And as we all go back home to our lonely writing hovels - perhaps an old broom cupboard, a decommissioned motorhome, or a cosy mineshaft - we’re safe in the knowledge that we’re not going solo alone. 

You can find out more about Writing East Midlands' events by visiting their website.