On Saturday I attended the inaugural Conflux Writers Day, a professional development day targeted at spec fic writers leading up to the Aurealis Awards ceremony that evening. It was such an overwhelming overload of amazing information, I had to go into my writer’s cave for a while to think about it all.

The lineup of panellists was outstanding, and the plenary speakers particularly so. I took some gem of knowledge away from every session I attended, whether it was a new revelation, or a different perspective on an old truth. Here’s a selection of my faves:

Joanne Anderton (on creating stories from weird ideas): What if…? So what…? Rinse. Repeat.

Kaaron Warren: Inspiration is an indulgence. Your first spark is your inspiration. The rest is hard work.

Kaaron Warren: Time to write and inspiration – don’t wait for them. Write anyway.

Laura E Goodin (on performance writing): Your job is to suggest, not to portray. Your words are only a scaffold for the genius of others.

Cat Sparks: Write about what you want to know.

Cat Sparks: Most stories are boring rather than bad.

Russell Kirkpatrick: The world you build must be relevant to the characters and the story.

Kaaron Warren: Your head is your special place.

And that last from a multi-award winning horror writer…