The RWAus conference is always a blast and this year (22-24 August 2025 in Hobart) was no exception. The keynote speakers—Sarah Maclean, Brenda Novak, Stacey McEwan and Sarra Cannon—were all excellent, Hobart turned on gorgeous weather, and the social functions were sparkly and fun.
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| My writers group at the Hobart conference, together in person for the first time ever. We met doing an online course in 2020 and have been catching up once a month via zoom ever since. Aspiring writers: I cannot emphasise enough the importance of finding your tribe. |
I’ve been going to conference since 2018 and my experience has changed over time. I went originally because I’d been told it was the best place to learn the craft of writing, and my first few conferences were all about craft sessions. There’s still value for me there, but some of those writing 101 sessions are starting to feel a bit repetitive.
This time, the things that hit home were more about the big picture. There were three overall themes that stood out: writing romance being a political statement, perseverance, and taking your chances. Below I’m sharing with you my thoughts on these themes; what I heard and what I’m thinking about now.
Writing romance as a political statement
Sarah Maclean set the tone for the conference with her opening keynote, The Power and Purpose of the Romance Novel in a Fast-Changing World. Sarah is American and it was easy to see in her speech, the impact of all the heteronormative patriarchal atrocities going on there at the moment.
Sarah’s talk moved beyond defending romance as a genre; her pitch was to us as writers, to take pride in what we write and to lean into that. Romance centres women, it says that love is important, it says that it’s okay to have expectations and to look for happiness. That’s really challenging to men, but it’s also absolutely critical to women, to know it’s okay to enjoy life and love and sex and to have expectations of your partner. All of that is particularly relevant in the current environment.
Resilience
Many speakers talked about the writing journey as a marathon, not a sprint. One of them described the whole process as “cake-inducing”— as in, you need to go hide in your room with cake on a regular basis just to cope. Part of me hates that it has to be that way, and another part recognises the hard work and rebuffs are why the good bits are so good.
They were all very clear that dreams don’t happen in a big leap but a lot of very small steps, and that success comes from showing up again and again. The best piece of advice was to remember why you’re doing this. Having a clear vision for why you’re writing in the first place, helps you keep going in the dark times.
Taking your chances
This is about understanding what’s stopping you from taking the next step. It’s easy to believe the biggest barriers are external (ie. the state of the publishing industry) but often what’s stopping us is in our mind. Sarra Cannon talked about fear having many faces:
- Perfectionism
- Comparison
- Judgement
- Control
- Self-doubt
- Resistance
- Shiny object syndrome
I think we’re probably all guilty of some or all of those. But if you recognise that what you’re doing is driven by fear, you can do something to address it.
Conclusion
I haven’t mentioned the only paranormal specific session on the agenda—Jack Bridges talking about Creating Better Monsters—because it didn’t fit with the overarching themes. But it was a terrific session exploring the history and mythology around monsters (did you know the first werewolf appeared in 2000BC in the Epic of Gilgamesh?) and how that’s changed over time, and what it means for our work in the paranormal space today.
Oh, and let’s not forget to celebrate the Darkside Downunder authors who won awards and were nominated this year!
I’m refreshed and inspired after the conference, and would be sitting down to work on my WIP with renewed enthusiasm except I had to write this article first…
Next year the conference is in Darwin and they have an INCREDIBLE line up including Alyssa Cole and Ashley Poston (yay, paranormal on the main agenda!) so I look forward to seeing you there.
Alexandra Almond
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