Today on "Inside the Writer's Life" we take you to one of the best writer's conferences in the country: Mount Hermon Christian Writer's Conference in Mount Hermon, CA. Here, you will have a glimpse of a young teen writer in pursuit of her passion and dream of one day becoming a Christian author.

Mount Hermon Christian Writer's Conference draws people of all ages from around the world. It is an intense five day training program that is designed to equip a person with everything they need to pursue and maintain a career as a Christian writer. They offer world-class training for the hopeful beginner, all the way to seasoned career authors.

The staff is comprised of award winning authors, editors, agents, and industry speakers. They also provide one-on-one advice and prayer, answer questions, and personally review your manuscript or work in progress (Many writers have left the conference with a potential book deal in hand).

This year, hundreds of people arrived at Mount Hermon, all hoping to leave in five days equipped to meet the challenges they would face as a Christian writer. One of these people was Leigh D., a seventeen year old writer. This was her first time attending a writer's conference and we have the privilege today to share a little about who she is and her experience attending the conference.

Thank you Leigh for joining us today here on "Inside the Writer's Life".

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

A: I am 17 years old and a junior in high school.

Currently, I live with my dog, Tip, and my mother.(My parents are divorced). I'm currently working as a hostess at a Restaurant and a floral assistant at a local flower shop.

I've been a Christian for only a year and a half, but the rest of my life belongs to Jesus. I was saved by God who spoke through a family with whom I share an incredible friendship. It was in a youth group that I let God into my heart.

Q: What will you do when you finish high school?
A: I am definitely going to college! I am looking at the Northwest, particularly schools in Washington. Favorites are University of Puget Sound, Seattle Pacific University, and University of Oregon State. I would like to pursue English and perhaps minor in some sort of science.

Q: Are you planning on pursuing a career in writing?
A: I would love to pursue a career in writing! However, I will follow God's plan for my life. If that includes writing, then great! If not, then he obviously has something far better for my life. But yes, I will do all I can to utilize my writing.

Q: What do you see as the biggest roadblock to your success?
A: Low self-esteem and disorganization. These two are killers. I find it very hard to give myself a boost to even finish projects I've started. Since writing is a very self-motivated process, this is something I've been asking Jesus to help me modify.

As for my organizational skills, well, from the look of my desk you can certainly tell I'm artistic. My organizational skills (or lack thereof) sort of bled over into my writing technique as well. Fortunately, my experience at Mount Hermon has helped me to become better organized and put all my ducks in a row.

Q: What brought you to Mount Hermon...how did you decide this would be something worth your time and money?
A: The woman I came with, Nichole, has known that I have a passion for writing. She is also a writer and attended Mount Hermon in 2008. She offered to bring me with her this year and I accepted because I thought it would be a great time to further my abilities as a writer and deepen my knowledge of the publishing and writing world. Not only that, but Jesus was a part of the equation! That's always a plus.

Q: You mentioned to me that Mount Hermon changed your perspective on who you are. Can you tell me how?
A: Mount Hermon revealed me to how little, and how much I know. Inside, I was spiritually shaken...in a good way. Through my exhaustion and discouragement I was forced to turn to Him [Jesus] for my comfort instead of calling a friend for support when I was feeling down.

Don't get me wrong, friends are a great thing that Jesus has given us, but ultimately, He wants to hear about EVERYTHING from how much fun I had at the conference to my discontent feelings! What's even better is that He wants to fix those problems. In this way, Mount Hermon helped to refine my relationship with Christ, and ultimately who I am.

Q: What are three things you would change about the conference and why?
A: The first would be to allow you to have internet in your room, whether available for purchase or simply available. There were many times when I wanted to go back to my room and chill while checking my e-mail but couldn't because we didn't have internet [Wi-Fi is available in the Coffee Shop during business hours]. I'm thinking this might be a conspiracy to get writers to socialize, though...

The second would be to put printers in the coffee shop. There were many things that I wanted to print but couldn't because by the time I actually had the time to do it registration was closed [where printers were available].

Finally, would be to add more bathrooms. This might sound silly, but honestly, there weren't that many peppered around the campus and most of them closed at 11 PM. Again, the night owl dilemma that if you're up late (and if your room is far) then you're out of luck.

Q: When you signed up for the conference, what were the main things you were hoping to have happened? Did they?
A: Well, I was really hoping that someone would publish me. However, I wasn't expecting it. But there was hope! No, it didn't happen.

What DID happen was that I had an amazing experience with God and I made plenty of contacts and friends that I am still in touch with and I hope I will be for years to come! That's even better than a book deal.

Journal:

Each person who attends the conference has their own story and perspective. When you attend a conference for the very first time (and especially as a teen), it can be a little daunting. When I met Leigh, I asked her to keep a journal of her experience at Mount Hermon in order for our readers to get a first-hand view of her day-to-day feelings as a young writer about what she was experiencing.

Here is her journal:

Mount Hermon Writer's Conference Day 1

The first day was interesting. I thought that the first thing I would want to do was take a nap, but it was exactly the opposite. I was energized. The essence of Jesus was in the wind and I couldn’t wait
to get writing! After initial orientation, I was excited to attend Austin Boyd’s workshop. That in itself was interesting.

I started out VERY confident. As the workshop proceeded, I realized that all of the knowledge I had wasn’t squat compared to what Austin Boyd had to teach us. Of course, I was eager to learn, it was just a little disheartening to know that I knew absolutely nothing about the writing/publishing world.

During his workshop, Austin Boyd had us construct elevator speeches to deliver in front of the audience. Of course I participated, but I was NERVOUS! There was only one other teen there and she was the daughter of Bryan Davis [author on staff], meaning she had been immersed in this world for a lot longer than I had.

There were various forms of elevator speeches, both polished and not. I certainly wasn’t proud of my schpeel, but I chalked it up to inexperience and dedicated myself to learning all I
could. The same rang true for the rest of the conference.

Mount Hermon Writer's Conference Day 2

On Friday, I was happy that I had some free time to explore Mount Hermon. In all honesty, I went shopping and bought some souvenirs before heading to the café to work on my elevator speech. My roommate was really trying to encourage me to deliver my speech and try to get something sold. However, at this point, I was already feeling slightly discouraged. I really wanted to feel Mount Hermon out, but my roommate insisted that I at least try. So I did. I didn’t sell anything...but it was great practice.

Later that day was the general orientation. I attended this and found it nice to just be introduced to general materials that would be available during the conference. However, many of these details were repeated multiple times. This is a good thing, but at times it can be overwhelming.

After the general orientation I headed off to my character workshop. Just experiencing it made me realize that I had no sort of handle on which to hold and that before this workshop, my characters were really quite plain and unoriginal. After the workshop, I felt extremely motivated to revamp all of my characters and did so when I got back to my room later that evening.

The rest of the nights I opted to take out my Bible and have one-on-one time with God. The teen get-together that night was interesting, to say the least. Bryan Davis was a very inspirational speaker and I wanted to take his track. However, most of the others teens did not seem incredibly serious to me. I don’t mean to be insulting or demeaning to them, I simply wanted to get my money’s worth out of Mount Hermon, so I decided to go with Angela Hunt.

Mount Hermon Writer's Conference Day 3

I will be the first to admit that I never made it to morning prayer and praise. It. Was. Too. Early. I love God but the conference was exhausting. I made sure to make extra special time for God and me to
be alone. It wasn’t always the easiest thing considering how jam packed the schedule was, but I ensured my Lord and Savior that he was still number one in my life, despite the busy conference.

Sometimes it felt like I was neglecting him, but those were the times when I would skip a session to go and pray in my room and read my Bible.This was also my first morning of my major morning track. I was
certainly excited but a little weary on whether or not this was the right track for me to take. As a teen, I thought it might be too advanced.

Angela Hunt was a superb teacher and I learned so much from her! She truly has experience and she has a passion for sharing it, which was fortunate for her students and those who bought her mp3s.Angela Hunt was incredible and she helped me to learn how to formulate my plot structure and ideas.

I can truly say that she was one of the most helpful resources at Mount Hermon. While I enjoyed my workshops, half the time I will admit that I was watching the clock. While I thoroughly enjoyed the workshops, the whole conference was simply very tiring. As I mentioned before, I often felt as though there was not enough Jesus in my day.

Of course he was there AT Mount Hermon, but sometimes I felt very selfish thinking about all of my plot schemes and character designs and elevator speeches when I felt that I should include him. Only one of my workshop instructors prayed before consummation and that was Rusty Wright. I wish more of the instructors would pray.

Mount Hermon Writer's Conference Day 4

At this point, I was pretty discouraged. I just felt ick. I believe this has a lot to do with my politics at home, but I also was eating weird conference food, staying up late, and having others critique my
work.

Critique in general is hard to swallow. I didn’t honestly come to the conference expecting to anyone to actually buy my work, but I had hoped that it would spark a little bit more interest. Granted, I did have Beth Adams ask me for an appointment, but later she informed me that YA contemporary fiction was not what she was looking for. However, she was very encouraging.

In fact, most of the faculty that I bonded with had no ties whatsoever to any sort of writing that I was interested in. I think that this was a God thing and I’m wondering how he might use it as my life goes on. It’s in his hands.

In addition, Jan Kern sought me down to speak to me about a short story I wrote. This was flattering, but in the end I think she mainly wanted to make sure that I was okay, since the story was about an
at-risk-youth. Well, it was nice to be sought out. Yes, I felt discouraged. I don’t know why exactly, but it may have just been exhaustion.

As I mentioned, it was just plain busy. However, it was a lot of fun! Not only did I learn plenty of skills to hone my abilities, I made lots of friends. One of the best things about the conference was that I could hunker down in the café and start a random conversation with the person next to me about God and
his greatness or about writing and they would completely understand what I was talking about.

Granted writers come in all kinds of flavors, but it was fantastic to know that I was surrounded not only
by Jesus, but by people who loved Jesus with all of their hearts and souls.

Mount Hermon Writer's Conference Day 5

By day 5, my roommate and I were pretty burned out. We fully planned on attending our final track, but we got several phone calls from friends telling us that we better hurry on outta Mount Hermon and get
on the road so we could get over the mountain pass before the big blizzard hit [near home].

So we packed up our belongings and left, happy to be returning home to the ones we loved, but a little estranged by the feeling of leaving Mount Hermon. Getting back to reality was a real shocker. I don’t quite know how to describe it other than saying that Jesus was there at Mount Hermon and Jesus is home.

I can say that Mount Hermon has changed my perspective on who I am, who I am in Christ, and who I am in my writing. I will most certainly be returning next year.

Thank you Leigh for your candid insight and personal thoughts as you begin to pursue your dream of becoming an author. God will most certainly bless your endeavors as you continue to pursue him and the life he has for you.

Subscribe to Laura Wrede's Ministry Column:If you liked this interview and would like to have regular free updates from Laura Wrede as she shares insights and interviews on Christian women's issues and resources, simply select the "subscribe" button above and you will be one of the first to receive each timely article. Please feel free to give us your feedback and comments.

If you would like to know more about the Mount Hermon Writer's Conference:

Mailing Address:
Mount Hermon Association, Inc.
P.O. Box 413,
Mount Hermon, CA 95041

Phone: 831.335.4466

http://mounthermon.org/