Love to Write? Discover Your Writing Community at the Rocky Mountain Christian Writers Conference

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Hi, this is Elisa Baranek from Crawford Media speaking with David Rupert, who is helping at the Rocky Mountains Writers Conference. And that’s going to be Saturday, May 17th, correct?

SPEAKER 02 : 0:10

Yeah, it’s coming Saturday, May 17th. It’s an all-day conference and we’re expecting good things.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:19

Awesome. And it’s going to be at Colorado Christian University. Is that correct?

SPEAKER 02 : 0:22

That is correct. At the Loprino Hall.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:24

Awesome. Okay, great. So the first thing I want to ask is just what can we expect? What is going to be at this event? What is at this conference?

SPEAKER 02 : 0:31

It’s a big deal. There’s going to be 28 different workshops. So you’re going to find your niche and your tribe and what speaks to you. We’re going to have some excellent keynotes by fantastic speakers. And it’s going to be really a community of writers, of Christian writers specifically, and a gathering. So it’s an opportunity for you to kind of break out of whatever world you’re in. And typically writers… Tap away late at night. You put the kids away to bed, and then you sneak away to the kitchen table, and you start working on your big idea. Or maybe you catch a little time after work or first thing in the morning. And for Christian writers, we believe that God’s given us a message to share. And it’s a matter of moving that to fruition. So a lot of writers start out in those darkest of moments and darkest of doubts, to be honest, because as any creative knows, you’re not sure what you have is any good and you’re not really sure you want to share it with anybody. And so this gives you that opportunity in a very safe environment to bring those ideas to light and to say, hey, There’s other mushrooms out here. You know, we’ve all been working in the dark, but we didn’t know we were here. And it gives you great encouragement. And you see other people who’ve taken that journey from a great idea to sketching it out to then possibly moving it to publication. And so that’s the biggest thing that we had to offer is that opportunity for community, that opportunity to find others who are just like you. And to know that that dream, even though it may be unique to you, your specific dream, to find other dreamers. And when we find other dreamers, then all of a sudden we’re open to God’s leading.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:38

And I love that, just the iron sharpening iron, Christians working together. Because art is such a difficult thing because it’s very self-conscious. It’s very much taking out parts of yourself and the truth of the word, and you want to make sure you get it right. So having those other Christians there to encourage you and tell you to do this because, again, you’re doing it at night by yourself. Is this really good? And then pushing you. That’s wonderful. So I wanted to ask, though, when you say writers now, is this just for people who write Bible studies or theological books or what kind of writers can we expect at this conference or what needs are going to be met there?

SPEAKER 02 : 3:12

Yeah. When you look at what you consume as a Christian, devotionals, fiction books, nonfiction books, theological books, children’s books, teen books, there’s a lot. The Christian publishing world is robust, it’s broad, it’s large, and we’ve actually designed this to meet every one of those kinds of needs. There are people in our Christian writing community, which is very large along the front range. I have to say that Nashville produces musicians and L.A. produces actors. The front range produces writers. It’s an amazing community of hundreds and hundreds of other Christians who are doing what you do. So whatever reason, God’s bringing writers to the front range. And they’re all stripes. We have somebody who wrote an entire book. on their daily bus trips to work just using their voice texting on their phone. And there’s somebody else who writes daily email encouragement. She has a list around the world and she sends a daily encouragement. We have others who have put books on Amazon and they sell 100,000 copies of those books. So it’s a little bit of everything, and that’s the beauty of the written word, that you don’t have to have a large audience, and sometimes you just need to write. I have a friend who wrote a book for his family, and that’s a beautiful thing, and we want to encourage that. So whatever your dream and whatever your audience is, there’s a place for you at this conference.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:08

That is great. And then my second question would be, so this is obviously for writers who are like, hey, I’m in the middle of writing a book or I’m through another draft or I want to write a book, but I’m scared. But what if somebody who’s just wrote a book, but now they’re looking for publication? Can they get help there with publication and marketing? Because that’s the thing. You can write a book, but it’s the same thing as basically having a podcast. It’s a drop in the bucket. So how do you market that book? And is there going to be classes on doing that?

SPEAKER 02 : 5:36

Yeah, we actually, we’re going to have agents and publishers at this conference and we’re going to offer you free consultations. So you could sit down with somebody who’s in the business and say, look, I got this project. And it kind of depends on where you’re at in the project, but what are the next steps? And you may be signed to a contract or at least get some good guidance. And so that whole part of moving it to the next step is going to be there. And there’s also going to be individual classes on things like marketing and how do you… There’s something called a one sheet, and that’s where you take your… your project you lay it out and you put it so you could put it on a single piece of paper and say this is who I am this is what I’m doing this is what I’m trying to reach and it gives a snap so there’s a class on that and then there’s a class on the marketing angle and how to do all that and it’s just the marketing is a jungle the Christian publishing world doesn’t market books like they used to anymore instead You’re the one that’s doing it. Well, you’re like, I’m a great writer, but I don’t want to talk about my writing. And so you want others to talk about it. And it’s just so we have guidance on all of that. And just to find other people who have gone along that journey and say, hey, have you tried this? And we have just some great ideas on how to move that project along.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:15

That’s great. Yeah, I saw some stuff about just marketing on the website, about classes on just marketing without you marketing or how to be on a podcast and promote your book. So that’s great that it’s not just the encouragement of writing the book, but also leading that person and how to sell it and not for it to stand out because, you know, you can write something, but if people don’t see it, you know, it’s not encouraging other people. Right. So another activity or session that’s going to be at your conference is AI, because that’s becoming a huge thing with chat GPT. And what, you know, how far is too far? When is it helpful to use chat GPT and when it’s not? Can you say anything on that?

SPEAKER 02 : 7:56

Yeah. AI is infecting everything we do, and we want it to affect everything that we do in a positive way that brings glory to God. It’s a little daunting, and especially if you’ve started using it, and there’s multiple – ChatDP is just one of many – of how do you use it that’s ethical? Because there are people who write entire books using – artificial intelligence. And you can kind of, when you’re reading it, it’s like, ah, it’s a little too fluffy. You know, it has a certain cadence, but it’s learning and it’s getting better. Well, publishers know when you’re cheating, doing that, but there’s also a way to use artificial intelligence to help you organize, to help improve your writing, to help, you know, you can give it a block of text and you can say, what are three main points in this text? and I’ll help you organize your thoughts. We’re going to have a roundtable discussion on the use of AI, what publishers are looking for, what’s the right thing to do as a writer to harness it. And if you think about the tools over time, you know, there was the manual typewriter that people would type things out. And then all of a sudden, the electric, IBM’s electric was the typewriter I learned how to type on. And that was such a huge… improvement because you could actually hit a backspace button and erase words, entire words that you didn’t have to use white on. And then the word processor. Those are all tools that we have harnessed over time. So AI is simply another tool to help us improve our communication. And it will actually speed a project along if you learn how to use it. And we have some people who use it on a daily basis. We have a publisher, we have somebody who is writing books for major publications, and somebody who’s self-publishing their books, all putting their collective knowledge together on AI. And then we have a separate breakout. So a lot of AI discussion, we expect that to be very popular just because it’s so new, so intriguing, and the possibilities are so great.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:34

That’s great because you’re not saying, let’s be afraid of this new technology that some people would say is theft of just telling a computer to write a book and I’ll sell it, but saying, let’s use this to help create that blueprint to help form the story, but it’s still written by a human hand. So it’s saying, let’s not be afraid of the new technology, but let’s use it in a way that helps get the writing done and helps frame everything. So that’s great. My next question would be, what are your plans for the future with this? I know we’re going to have this conference. Anything that Rocky Matters writers, Christians have in the future?

SPEAKER 02 : 11:13

Yeah, we, you know, COVID kind of took the wind out of a lot of the sails. There was a large conference, a long running conference in Estes Park for Christian writers. Write His Answer was the name of that conference. Riders on the Rock had a number of conferences and communities. And so it’s kind of all of those people coming together to say, all right, let’s saddle up our horses because we got to ride ahead. And so we have ongoing monthly writing groups. And we tell people, don’t write alone. Don’t write alone. And and that ability to come together and say, this is what I’m working on or how have you, you know, and just to have that encouragement, you know, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 of not forsaking the assembly. And and, you know, because. It helps. Nobody should have to do things alone unless you’re digging a ditch and then all of your friends disappear. But writing should be something that we can all do in community. And you don’t have to be writing the same thing. We have science fiction writers, we have poets, and we have devotional writers, and we have a young adult. But the idea that you’re doing something for the kingdom of God gives you great encouragement, and that’s something that Scripture wants us to do, and that’s something deep in our hearts we know that we need. And so it’s not just going to be a conference, it’s going to be a connection point, which will help you into the future. And we have a number of writers groups along the Front Range we hope to establish even more as a result of this conference.

SPEAKER 01 : 13:04

Creatives for Christ. I love that. So let’s say someone’s listening right now and they are a writer and they are a Christian and they’re like, okay, I will go to this conference. But what makes a Christian’s writer’s conference different from just a regular writer’s conference? Why do I need to fellowship with Christian writers instead of just other writers?

SPEAKER 02 : 13:27

Yeah, and you’ll learn things from both. And I don’t want to dismiss that. I’ve been to other creative and writers’ conferences. But the spirit with a Christian writers’ conference is different. I found other writers’ groups to be a little more self-promoting. Humility. There’s not a lot of humility in the room. And you kind of feel judged. Not everybody has that level of success. And we want to tell you that you’re a success because God’s put that idea on your heart. And and so that’s the difference. And so with us as Christian writers, we are allowed to peer around the corner into the kingdom. And when we we peer around the corner and then we come back and we can say, this is what I saw. And this is what God’s showing me. And you can take the difficult and you can explain it in words. Or you can take the simple. That’s what great writers do. It’s like there’s a bug walking along on a sidewalk. And it’s interesting. Because it’s God’s creation and we can talk about it in those ways. So that’s the difference is that we see eternity. And when you see eternity… that changes your perspective, that changes your output, that changes your life. And as writers, we want to be able to change the lives of the world around us.

SPEAKER 01 : 15:07

It’s beautiful. Just bringing glory to God and doing it together as the body of Christ, getting to praise Him in our own ways. I mean, God created us to be creative beings. I mean, look at Jesus. How did Jesus explain the kingdom of God? How did He do all that? Through parables, through stories. So it’s the same thing for us as creative writers is to explain who God is and just the walk as a Christian. And we can do that creatively. So, Dave, we’re almost out of time, but I did want to ask you if you could give any tip to a new Christian writer, what would it be?

SPEAKER 02 : 15:42

It would be, you know, to move out of that solitude and and you’re going to find a home with other people. And I’m not going to promise you commercial success, but I’m going to promise you contentment. And that is a scriptural imperative. that we find that contentment in the situation we’re at. And so you’re probably frustrated because you can’t find the words, you can’t find the market, you can’t find the direction. And this will be a place to help solve that so then you can rest in what God’s showing you. And so that’s the biggest thing that I want to encourage people to do. And maybe you’ve got a lot of stuff under your belt and you’re going to be there to help provide support for others and encouragement.

SPEAKER 01 : 16:36

That’s great. So, David, I just want to ask someone is just like, OK, you sold me. I want to go to this conference. How do they register?

SPEAKER 02 : 16:44

Yeah. So it’s this coming Saturday. And you might you might think that we have a procrastinator’s rate. You might be penalized because you waited so long. That’s not so. So it’s $99. Wow. And it’s a full day, 28 workshops, consultations. You’re going to have an appointment with an agent or a publisher or somebody else that’s in the industry. So a lot of opportunities. And we’re going to feed you lunch. So great. That’s a pretty good deal for an all-day, $99, rmcw.us, rockymountainchristianwriters.us. And that’s where you can find that. You’ll find a link on how to sign up, and we would encourage you to do it right now. Don’t think about it anymore because it’s really an opportunity. It’s coming up this Saturday, and we want to give some wings to your ideas.

SPEAKER 01 : 17:44

Well, Dave, it was a pleasure talking with you today. I’ll see you on Saturday. I hope to see you there as well at the Rocky Mountain Christian Writers Conference. Take care, everybody. Goodbye.