Sorry for not getting this post up sooner this month, guys! We had our first Twitter chat of the month last night, on the topic of Writing and the Internet. Don’t worry if you missed it, though! We’ve still got two more events coming your way.
Ch1Con Chat (Youtube Edition): Thursday, February 19th, at 8:00 PM EST.
Join us on our Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/chapteroneconference) where members of the Ch1Con team will discuss something writing-related, and ask us questions on Twitter using #Ch1Con.
What exactly will we discuss? That’s up to you. Vote for the February Ch1Con Chat topic below.
Ch1Con Twitter Chat: Wednesday, February 25th, at 9:30 PM EST.
Our last event of the month will be a Twitter chat on the topic of Pursuing Publication. Join us using #Ch1Con to answer our questions and talk with other young writers!
Check back here for conference announcements (speakers and registration opening and event details, oh my), to come as soon as we have time to write them! 🙂
The Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for the 2015 Chapter One Young Writers Conference concluded late last night, and the Ch1Con team wanted to say thank you for all the amazing support. Whether you donated or shared info on the campaign (or, you know, both), you are our hero.
Look for more news on the 2015 conference coming soon. The conference will take place Saturday, August 8th just outside Chicago and we can’t wait to see you there. We’re in the midst of finalizing our schedule and speaker lineup, as we speak. Registration will open in early January!
This month we’ll be having two different live chat opportunities for you to learn about writing from us and for us to learn about writing from you.
First, tomorrow (Thursday, December 4th) at 8 PM EST, we’ll be hosting our monthly video Ch1Con Chat, in which members of the Ch1Con team answer YOUR questions (and also goof off a lot). This month’s topic is Diversity in YA. You can participate by asking us questions on Twitter using #Ch1Con and watch the chat on our Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/chapteroneconference.
Also, I’m conveniently embedding it in the post below:
Second: next Wednesday (December 10th) at 9:30 PM EST, we’ll be hosting a Ch1Con Twitter Chat in which we ask YOU questions, because we’d love to hear your thoughts on all these various writing-related things and also we’re sure you have some good stories to tell. The topic for this chat is balancing school/life with writing. Use #Ch1Con to participate.
Normally we’d have another Ch1Con Twitter Chat for you, but the last two Wednesdays of the month are Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, and we don’t want to steal you away from your family too much.
Happy holidays! We hope to see you on the 4th and the 10th!
It’s time! Tomorrow (Saturday, November 22nd) at 3:00 PM EST the Ch1Con team will have one hour in a Google Doc, visible to your lovely eyes, to attempt to write a story together using the barest of writing prompts.
One story. No communication.
Who will learn to write together? Who will write against the rest of the team? Who will actually manage to stay on task? Only time will tell.
Want to know what we’ll be attempting to write about? The Prompt of Doom: Our protagonist enters Panera and asks for the food s/he ordered online, only for the girl behind the counter to say Protagonist needs to follow her to the backroom… for some reason.
You may now begin taking bets on who will survive ’til the end.
Here they are. The big announcements we’ve been hinting at all over social media for the past month. THEY ARE FINALLY HERE (which is fantastic, because we’re tired of holding back the goods).
Looking at ye olde website, you may have noticed that something is different. This is because our logo and website have gotten a facelift! Check out that shiny new tomato. It’s so fresh we’ve had to resist the urge to eat it.
Okay, not really, but it is pretty snazzy, right? A huge thanks to Julia’s brother Andrew for the adorable redesigned logo, sidebar badges, and banners!
So, why the redesign? (Great question, Random Human!) Besides the fact that we’d had that old (kind of ugly) logo for far too long and the Ch1Con tomato deserves nothing but the prettiest of paintjobs, we also wanted a new logo in conjunction with this new era in the life of the conference.
Which is to say, we are SO CRAZY EXCITED to announce that the Chapter One Young Writers Conference is now partnering with the Teens Can Write, Too blog!
The TCWT logo’s pretty snazzy, too.
The entire Ch1Con team adores John (except for maybe Julia) and the work he’s done on his blog (definitely including Julia), so we can’t wait to work with TCWT.
What does this mean for Ch1Con? (Wow, you’re so great at questions today!)
Ch1Con will continue doing what it’s doing, which means the 2015 conference will still take place Saturday, August 8th outside Chicago and we’ll continue to put on our monthly Ch1Con Chats on Youtube. However, on top of these things, all the Ch1Con team members will also be writing for the TCWT blog (and Julia and Kira will be editing!) and we’ll collaborate between the two blogs to bring you contests, giveaways, and all kinds of helpful new teen writing-oriented content.
TCWT will also be expanding what they’re (we’re?) up to, so make sure to check out the announcement post over on that blog as well to learn about the rest of our new developments! (Theme months? Online write-ins? ONLY BY READING THE OTHER POST WILL YOU KNOW FOR SURE.)
And on top of THIS (we know; it seems impossible for there to be even more excitement), Ch1Con’s got a few other announcements to make.
We’ve got new team members!
Say hello to our new Master of Marketing Patrice, Tumblr Expert Emma, and Creative Consultants Ariel and Aisha! These ladies are amaaazing. Welcome to Ch1Con, ya cool cats! (You can read the updated team bios on our Meet the Team page here.)
#Ch1Con Twitter Chats!
Beginning next week, every other Wednesday at 9:30 PM EST, the Ch1Con team will host a Twitter chat on all things writing and being young writers using #Ch1Con. JOIN US.
Weekly NaNoWriMo Word Sprints!
Every Saturday for the rest of November, we’ll be hosting a one hour word sprint at 1:00 PM EST! Join us on Twitter using #Ch1ConRUN.
Ch1Con team members fight to the death! (Ish.)
The Ch1Con team will be trying a teambuilding (team-destroying?) exercise Saturday, November 22nd at 3:00 PM EST in which we open a Google Doc (visible to your lovely eyes) with the barest of writing prompts and have one hour to write a story. One story. Without communication.
Who will learn to write together? Who will write against the rest of the team? Who will actually manage to stay on task? Only time will tell.
Weekly Writing Prompts & Blog Features!
Beginning next week, every Friday we’ll post a writing prompt, and your mission (should you choose to accept it) will be to send us your responses so we can feature our favorite(s) each week on the blog!
Aaand we’ve got one last big thing coming your way. But we’ll let you wait until tomorrow for that one. 😉
We’re so excited about all these things! Again, make sure to check out John’s announcement post on Teens Can Write, Too, reminder that November’s Ch1Con Chat on NaNoWriMo is TONIGHT (info here), and we’ll talk to you tomorrow!
Love,
The Ch1Con Team
PS. Love the new tomato as much as we do? Here’s a nifty badge you can display on your sidebar or use as a profile picture or basically in absolutely any way you see fit.
I’m so excited to announce that members of the Chapter One Young Writers Conference team and our friends will now hold a monthly video chat to discuss all things writing and young adult literature!
Our first chat will take place this Thursday (October 8th) from 8:00-9:00 PM eastern.
It’s official! The 2015 Chapter One Young Writers Conference will take place Saturday, August 8th at the Courtyard Chicago Arlington Heights/South hotel, just outside Chicago.
Mark your calendars, because we are SO EXCITED to bring the 2015 conference to you! Stay tuned for lots more announcements, coming sooner than you can read the A Song of Fire and Ice series. (Okay, maybe a lot sooner than that.)
Ch1Con 2014 may have just ended a couple days ago, but we’re already planning next year’s conference–and we need your help!
Ch1Con 2015 will take place in the greater Chicago area again. If you’re interested in coming, vote for when will work best for you in the poll below! (If you can make it to multiple options, feel free to vote for all of them; we’ll be taking the options with the most votes into consideration when choosing our official weekend. Also note: All dates listed are the Saturdays of the weekends we’re considering for the conference.)
Ch1Con 2014 finished with a bang yesterday, and we are SO GRATEFUL to everyone who attended, spoke, and volunteered to make this year’s conference such a success! We can’t wait to start planning for next year.
If you missed the live stream of our panel on Saturday (or just want to re-watch all the fun), you can check that out here.
Also: Kira and I did a podcast with Newbie Writers! Listen to us laugh awkwardly and ramble about conference mascot Larry the Man-Eating Hamster here.
We have lots of exciting stuff coming your way, so stay tuned!
![Ch1Con Badge 2014 [Matted]](https://chapteroneconference.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/ch1con-badge-2014-matted.png){kind=icon}
