Writing Outside Lived Experiences

Writing Outside Your Lived Experience will help participants explore the potential pitfalls and issues around writing what you have not personally experience when it comes to race, disability and all the rest of those currently highly charged topics. You can grow confidence and your assurance in what you’re writing when you know what the issues are, and what all the hubbub is about. Yes, it’s a touchy subject but if we all wrote in our own genres, what stories would we have missed, what limited purview would we have in our reading options through the years? To write, takes confidence, research and in some areas we lack, a different kind of awareness, maturity and delicate handling to ensure that humans aren’t additionally and unnecessarily hurt and further marginalized and stereotyped by our prose. Diligence in research and knowing where to start are also aspects we will cover as well as what we all can do, going further in your advocacy, and addressing your own biases, plus tips, thoughts and new ideas on actionable steps to take, to help us all step outside of our comfort zone and bring all voices to the forefront. 

Tracee Lydia Garner is a best-selling, award winning Author. She is a dynamic speaker and engaging presenter with a wealth of knowledge, and resources. She has written 20 books and counting in both fiction and nonfiction genres, hoping to uplift, inspire, as well as educate readers through her tales of hope, love, and overcoming adversity. A Northern Virginia native Tracee makes her home in a suburb, just outside the Washington DC metropolitan area, and loves writing, reading, speaking, and teaching all about marketing and publishing. Tracee is the former president of the Washington Romance Writers DC chapter. As a person with a disability, Tracee has been an advocate for over 30 years, and maintains a day job, currently, as a case manager and a DC based nonprofit organization. Tracee Lydia Garner has done workshops for the RWA national conference on disability topics. Visit to learn more about Tracee at www.traceegarner.com.