writermag.com • The Writer | 41attendees – one that concentrates on
the craft of writing and one that
explores the various methods of publi-
cation. In 2019, instructors taught
workshops in scene setting, outlining,
plot development, podcasting, writing
a book proposal, and navigating book
festivals as a published author.
Writers can take workshops on how
to navigate racial and cultural differ-
ences in fiction and how to develop your
voice, create suspense, and built worlds
in a novel. They can learn the art of
interviewing subjects for a book, how to
write humor, and how to craft a series.
The Institute also offers “Pathway to
Publication,” a six-month or yearlong
program that allows participants to
sign up for a mentorship with the goal
of editing and polishing a manuscript
to submit to literary agents and editors.
“We’ve found that when people
leave the Institute, they’re excited, and
they have a goal to keep writing, but
two months later, all that enthusiasm
drops off,” Scheer says. “Pathway to
Publication allows writers to work with
a mentor to set up goals. Maybe they
haven’t written one page yet. Maybe
they have 30,000 words written. Men-
tors work with them wherever they are
to complete a project.”Advice for first-time attendees
Writers return again and again to the
UW-Madison Writers’ Institute, com-
pelled by both educational opportunity
and camaraderie with fellow attendees.
“You work by yourself, and you don’t
think other people are going through
what you are,” Scheer explains. “But then
you attend this event, and you meet all
these other people with the same fears
and hesitations, and you realize every-one’s in the same boat. It’s enlightening
to experience that awareness.”
So enlightening, in fact, that writers
at the institute find themselves form-
ing long-term friendships with one
another. “People become writing bud-
dies,” Scheer says. “It’s a sort of ‘I’ll
check on you, and you check on me’
situation, a camaraderie focused on
writers helping writers.”
Renz says that attending the Insti-
tute each year feels like “going home
where everyone gets you.” He’ll present
a session at the 2020 conference about
his journey to publication. The title: “If
I Can Do It, So Can You.”Contributing editor Melissa Hart is the
author of Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books
to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Accep-
tance in Tweens and Teens (Sasquatch, 2019).
Twit ter/Instagram: @WildMelissaHar tDo you have a book that you would
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