By Laurie McLean

When I took over as director of the San Francisco Writers Conference, the San Francisco Writers Foundation, and the Writing for Change conference a few years ago, little did I realize what challenges awaited me and the rest of the management team in 2020. We barely squeaked by holding the February San Francisco Writers Conference a couple of weeks before everything shut down in the country because of Covid-19. Then everything changed.

We all had to quickly pivot to an online world with zero notice. SFWC’s writing and publishing classes became webinars. Our online materials grew in number and frequency. And our annual fall Writing for Change conference had to be totally re-imagined.

While all this was going on, the world blew up with the George Floyd lynching in Minneapolis and the ensuing racial injustice protests; a worsening pandemic upended the world; and a looming economic depression began to be evidenced.

If there ever was a time for an affordable, inclusive online conference on how to bring about change through your writing, that time is NOW!

So here we are today. And I’m proud to say that we’ve created a week-long celebration of change that we hope you’ll agree is worthy of the historic moment.

We start off on September 7^th with a five-night series of Inspiration Conversations featuring activist-authors on a variety of topics from Latinx voices to Black Lives Matter. From Women’s Rights to Homelessness. And how Memoir can be a Force for Change.

These online conversations are available on a pay-what-you-can basis, and if you can’t pay anything, that’s okay too. We want you to participate anyway. You can see the schedule of those conversations and register on Crowdcast here.

Writing For Change: Worldwide Craft Conference

And once we’ve inspired you, we then want to teach you how to write about your activism. What follows the Inspiration Conversations is a weekend filled with sessions on the craft of writing. And the entire weekend of Crowdcast sessions is just $149. Sign up here.

Here’s the line-up of amazing topics we’ll cover:

Telling Your Fearless Truth

Finding Your Voice

Writing in Scenes

Creating Authentic Characters Different From You

Structuring a Book

Proving Your Point: Believability & Authority in Fiction & Nonfiction

Starting Short: Short Stories & Essays

Pitching the Media

And if that weren’t enough, we’re also adding a fundraiser for the San Francisco Writers Foundation. Since we can’t have any events live, we are running low on funds, so we’re in the process of setting up a Literary Agent Pitch-A-Thon where writers who are ready can give an agent a 10-minute pitch for $49. More details to come about that on our website: SFWritingforChangeWorldwide.org.

The Writing for Change conference is funded by the San Francisco Writers Foundation, part of the 501c3 nonprofit organization, the San Francisco Writers Conference. In its 18th year of operation, the San Francisco Writers Conference is committed to improving literacy and supporting reading and writing throughout the country through online and onsite charity auctions, donations, free and fee classes, workshops, conferences, guest lectures and webinars, and more. sfwriters.org/foundation.

I hope to see you all these. Since we’re online, this conference is open to everyone WORLDWIDE! Invite your friends. Share this invitation with anyone you think might be interested. And discuss how your writing can change the world!

Laurie McLean, Director

San Francisco Writers Conference

San Francisco Writers Foundation

Writing for Change