I don’t know where in South Africa Gerhi lives, but so far, I was able to track down 3 writers’ groups: In Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. I will join the Pretoria Writers’ Circle on the first Saturday in February, where I will also enquire about writing conferences in South Africa. To the best of my knowledge, and after driving the old Google search engin crazy, I couldn’t find any such conferences.

I agree with Carrie. We should organize our own conference. As I will be the rookie at the Circle, I will behave myself like a choir boy during the first couple of meetings, and maybe at the third meeting, gently raise the point of convening our own conference.

I’m in Pietermaritzburg but am intending to move to Stellenbosch in the first half of this year.

What I know about conferences or workshops in South Africa:
UKZN’s Centre for Creativity presents a “Time of the Writer” conference every year in Durban. My sense is that it is more of a rubbing shoulders (Let’s see how many African literature gods can we invite) festival than a nuts and bolts on writing.
I know that University Pretoria does a Creative Writing Workshop and I think Potch still does theirs (I did the one at Potch yonks ago). Both of these are in Afrikaans.
Potch, Pretoria, UNISA, UKZN - these Varsities all offer courses in Creative Writing. Most I think are post-graduate Masters courses. I don’t know about the other Varsities.

I’m not interested in formal studies. I’ve done enough of that thank you. Except for creating on my own the thing I love most is participating in workshops. Sometimes workshops come around but I am loathe to attend. There is a difference between a presenter such as a “successful prize winning author of six novels (such as Randy)” and a “was sort of involved in the editing of one novel” presenter we normally get locally.

What I wrote at the Potch workshop many years ago wasn’t well received (I was into fantasy, they into romance). A couple of years later I read the new debut novel of the then Director of the Writing School. My thoughts were: “And you teach writing, eh…?” Anyway, I’m a bit of a sceptic since.

On the positive, I’m trying to get the internet to work for me. I think I’m beginning to get that right.

I took a look at Margie Lawson’s site and though the design of the site didn’t immediately appeal to me, I browsed around a bit anyway. (Yeah, I do give in to first impressions occasionally, but not always)
I found the Empowering Characters’ Emotions Lecture, but I didn’t see any option to have a peak at it before buying it, or at least reading a sample lesson/chapter/something.

Did I miss it somehow?

Also, can a novella be published as a standalone, and how would that be proposed?

My best friends are people I have met at writer’s conferences. The critique group I’m in was formed because of a writer’s group. I am published because of contacts I made at a writer’s conference.

I look forward to every conference I’m able to attend, knowing I’ll come home tired and inspired.

I hope you will be able to create a conference or attend one. It’s one the best things you can do for your writing career.

I get motivated, find critique partners, make friends, get inspired, learn something new (even if it’s what NOT to do), and build my reputation as a speaker in the fiction world before my novel is complete.

Hey Randy, speaking of conferences and possible ideas, I was able to take a workshop from Donald Maass (Writing the Breakout Novel), and he talked about layers in novels. As I’m struggling with that, do you want to talk about character layers?
Blessings,
Carrie

I feel your frustration over the writers conference dilemma. I’m in the same boat, being the NZer Randy mentioned. Every year around April (Mt. Hermon conference) and September (ACFW conference) I feel a bout of depression. I keep reading posts on the internet about how all my fabulous online friends are going and here I am missing out.

But, on the other hand, the internet is a GREAT tool. I have learned virtually all I know about the craft through the internet and a few online courses. Oh, and books.

There is very little in the way of courses on the craft of writing here in NZ, and those that are available are at the opposite end of the country and impossible for me to get too. However, that said, I do aim to do a correspondence course next year to help in my goal. This year has become out of the question.

Keep tapping into the internet. There is a wealth of information out there.