What I learned from my Hollywood experience was, “Just go for it!”

I’ve been following the blog posts about the adventures of the 2026 winners of the Writers of the Future contest and it reminded me it’s been a year since I had my own once in a lifetime trip to Hollywood. Man, how time flies.

I’m not going to lie, reading the blog posts was kind of a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand, I’m so excited for the winners featuring in Volume 42 and what lies ahead of them, but on the other, I know it’s an experience I can never relive again.

That feeling is important, I think. It serves as motivation and a timely reminder to enjoy the moment, go out and make memories, say ‘yes’ to opportunities, and never self-reject. If you want something, go for it. You never know, it may just happen. I wouldn’t have become a Writers of the Future winner, I wouldn’t have had that awesome trip to Hollywood, I wouldn’t have met such an amazing group of people (my fellow writers, judges and all the people behind Writers of the Future), had I not submitted my story.

Mulling all this over made me realise that while I have posted a few blogs about several highlights from Hollywood, such as the wonderful fellow winners I instantly became friends with and photos from the black-tie gala, I never actually pulled together a wider summary of my week and what I go up to.

So, here is a very long overdue (and probably more for myself than anyone else) link to the blog posts published by Writers of the Future during our workshop week in 2025. There are loads of photos attached to each blog post.

• Unofficial Day One: As a winner from outside the US and Canada, I was flown in a day earlier than the other winners so I could acclimatise to different time zones before the fun began. I met Joni Labaqui, the Contest Director, as well as Andrew Jackson, a fellow UK winner. We thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk in Runyon Canyon, where we had a great view of LA. But…classic Brits abroad, we didn’t wear sunscreen and by the time we met everyone else, we looked like a pair of tomatoes.
• Day One: This was a very exciting day as I finally met the other writer winners. We were taken to the Author Services Inc. building on Hollywood Boulevard, where we were shown around the very lovely L. Ron Hubbard Library and got to see the section which holds books published by former winners of the contest. Very inspiring.
• Day Two: The first day of the writing workshop. We met Jody Lynn Nye and Tim Powers, who were the main tutors during the week. Jody was the editor of Volume 41, and her feedback improved my story so much. It was a bit like the first day of school. Very exciting and I was just so eager to get stuck in (hence me sitting at the front row like a little swot).
• Day Three: ART REVEAL! This was one of the best moments for me, when we were shown for the first time the illustration to accompany our story and got our hands on copies of Volume 41 of Writers of the Future. John Barlow did the most incredible illustration for my story. I’ve been meaning to do a post on this so watch this space. This was also the start of the 24-hour short story challenge. I was given a broken piece of polystyrene as my inspiration.
• Day Four: The morning was a blur as I just about finished my short story. I tell you what, it’s hard writing a short story in 24 hours! Then we had our first guest speakers: Mark Leslie Lefebvre who gave a masterclass about self-publishing, the industry, finance behind publishing, and Todd McCaffrey, who spoke about marketing, the importance of direct access to readers through newsletters, and how to grow a fan base.
• Day Five: We had a long list of incredible guest speakers: Nancy Kress, Katherine Kurtz (who would later introduce me to the stage at the black tie gala), Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Robert J. Sawyer and Larry Niven. Each imparted their advice, anecdotes and wisdom accumulated over their long and successful careers. My jaw was on the floor most of the time, to be honest. Then we had our first book signing on the rooftop of the ASI building (we signed around 250 books each!) before finishing up with a BBQ and watching a stage adaptation of the story “Tough Old Man” by L. Ron Hubbard, which featured in Volume 41.
• Day Six: We had another day of great guest speakers: S.M. Stirling, Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta. It was another day where it felt a bit like trying to drink from a firehose; so much information to take in. I made notes! Also, we had a panel of former winners Martin L. Shoemaker, Eric James Stone, and Leah Ning, who shared their experiences and tips of life post-WOTF.
• Day Seven: The GALA! The climax of the week was the black-tie gala held at the Taglyan Complex. I wrote a blog post about this, which is linked above. The link here has more pictures for you to enjoy. What a day this was. I was very nervous a bout giving a speech but it was just a wonderful event.
• Day Eight: We had a morning off to recover from the gala and then in the afternoon we had our final sessions. We learned about how to get the most from conventions from Bill Fawcett (who also runs DragonCon), and how to break into markets and stay noticed by Lezli Robyn (a writer and also editor at Galaxy’s Edge magazine).
• Day Nine: We all said our goodbyes and caught our flights home.

What isn’t in the blogs was the daily “BarCon”, which involved us writers meeting up for a few drinks at the hotel bar with some of the judges. Tim Powers was a regular (I’ve never met someone who drinks so much Coca Cola!!), and getting to know him and Mark Leslie (another BarCon regular), was a real blast.

It was just such a fun week and I made memories that’ll I’ll cherish forever.