Fresh from another successful UW Madison Writers’ Institute, my head is spinning!
I try to take it easy the first day back.
Four days of information, socializing, and trying to sleep in a bed other than my own wears me out. I need time to decompress and process.

One of my favorite things to do is to pull quotes from my notes. It’s tricky to listen, learn and scribble at the same time. Hand-outs are a wonderful thing. Hand-outs with blank backsides where I can scribble are the best of both worlds.

Here are some of the comments from presentations that really stuck with me:

This quote came from the Dan Blank keynote address through Skype. Dan runs WeGrowMedia a site that helps writers share their stories and connect with readers.

Hank Phillippi Ryan is a dynamic speaker; behind the mic comes naturally for her. As she described her early struggles, the doubts we all have, she shared a zing of wisdom from her mother.

Hank Phillippi Ryan is a bestselling author of eight mystery novels. She has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: five Agathas, two Anthonys, the Daphne, two Macavitys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award.

Persistence, indeed.

I was really drawn to Kevin Mullen’s visual of the written word leaving the room without the author. Punctuation becomes the inflection, tone, gesture, etc of speaking.

Every writer knows that the literary path is long and challenging. Every little yes is a giant victory but it’s important to keep your purpose in mind.Why do you write? Barbara Belford says you need to adapt your ideas of what success is.

I also thought it was memorable when Nick Chiarkas said he had five kids and eleven grandkids, so his social marketing was covered.

I have pages and pages and hand-out after hand-out of Institute notes to go through. I hope you’ve enjoyed these quotes that resonated with me.

The Writers’ Institute is a wonderful opportunity to learn, grow, and connect with writers of all abilities and levels of success. And laugh. We laugh a lot. We’re fun people.

You can quote me on that.