A book lover’s safety guide to COVID-19.

Writing Conferences…why bother?

Writing Conferences…why should a writer bother attending them?

Good question. But you know my answer already because if it was a no, why would I waste time to write this blog post? I would sleep. I like sleep.

Why should writers bother with writing conferences? Two reasons in no particular order…

First, no one understands what writers go through, except other writers. No matter how much your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, life partner, or small furry animal loves you…they’ll never understand what you’re going through. The moment you complain about how your key scene in act one needs more internal conflict or how you dread rewriting all your third-person narrative into first-person because you’re convinced it’s the right thing to do…your loved one will give you a blank stare.

Or they’ll say…

“You’re a great writer. You’ll think of something.”

You know they mean well, but that’s not helpful.

Writing conferences are awesome because it’s the one place where writers can talk about writing and everyone around you understands. Writing conferences are like that bar on the 80’s TV show Cheers, everyone there knows your name, figuratively. They know what you’ve been through because most of them have worn your writer’s shoes. They know how hard it is. They might have rewritten a book from third-person to first-person and they might have learned a short-cut you can use to take the sting out of your rewrite. They might know how to approach an agent. They might know how to write a query-letter. They might even know a cool new way to introduce internal conflict in a scene you’re struggling with.

Writers understand other writers. And since gathering shy writers together in a public setting is about as hard as herding squirrels…any opportunity to step into your writer’s bar, have a drink, and talk shop is something a writer should jump at.

I guarantee you’ll feel better and get a much-needed boost to your writing brain.

Second reason you should go to a writing conference…networking.

Yuck! Dirty word! No!!!!!!!

Chill out. Networking doesn’t mean being a salesman. It means…listening…to people. That’s all. Get to know everyone you meet. What do they write? Who do they like to read? Find the person under the stranger you’re meeting. Get them to talk and listen. Maybe they’re just another writer like you. Maybe they’re a New York lit agent presenting at the conference. It doesn’t matter who that person is…talk and listen to them.

Next, think about how you can help them, not how they can help you. Is that lit agent looking for a zombie-mermaid paranormal romance? You don’t write that, but this nice lady you met at a session yesterday does have a manuscript like that. Help introduce them.

Is that new writer expressing trouble with writing in first-person? Offer advice or a good book on the subject. Help them.

Why should you network? Because you’ll need help on your writing career. Lots of help. Doesn’t matter if you’re pursuing traditional publishing or indie publishing, the same rule applies. I can’t tell you how many times my friends came to my rescue when I needed their help. A free beta read? No problem. Offering me a free interview on their book blog during my launch without me asking them? No problem. A famous young adult author helps me set up a Q&A session with them and their agent to help my other writer friends? No problem.

It’s a great feeling when friends do that. It makes you want to help them even more.

And then they help you more.

You see where I’m going with this?

Give to others without expectations and the smart ones will reciprocate. That’s networking.

And where’s a great place to network and learn from lots of writers and people in publishing?

You know the answer.

If you would like to network with me and my friends…our chapter of SCBWI is having a children’s writing conference on Saturday, April 16 in Oklahoma City. You can get all the details clicking on the banner below. You don’t have to be a SCBWI member to go. You just have to love writing for kids/teens and you want to get serious about it.

Hope to see you there!

Great Writing Advice from the South Park Guys

This is simple and fantastic advice from Trey Parker and Matt Stone the creators of South Park. Excellent tip for when you are hammering out your book or screenplay outline. Thanks to Max Adams and Mentorless for the clip!

Using Deep Point of View in Your Writing

Published writer Toni Andrews posted a fantastic five-part series on writing in deep point of view. It’s not only worth a read, I would print it out and study it. I’ve noticed my first-person POV writing has improved considerably. Highly recommended. Thanks to Peter Andrews for the recommendation!

Mixing Up The Setting in Your YA Novel

 

Setting is so important for any novel, but especially YA where it’s so easy to just stick your teen characters in a lunch room, hallway, or a gym. It doesn’t hurt to think outside the box in terms of setting. In fact, your teen readers might appreciate the effort.

Cambria Dillon wrote a great piece about this subject that I highly recommend.

Neil Gaiman’s Eight Good Writing Habits

I like simple rules, like Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules of writing for instance. Author Neil Gaiman adds his 8 good writing habits to the mix. My favorite is number five.

Computers Are A Waste Of Time

 

Technology’s promise to the world was — make our lives easier.  To save us time so we can do the things that we want to do.  Play with our kids.  Go to a ball game.  Read.  Computers were supposed to give us the tools necessary to work faster, so we may indulge in the luxury of time. 

Well — we all know that’s crap.

Now my rant for the day.  All I wanted was to download a digital audio book to my I-Pod.  My local library has an online system where one can download free software and use it to transfer an audio book to your computer or other listening device.  Doesn’t sound too difficult right?

I received my answer three hours later.

The library download software was the easy part.  Took me five minutes to install it.  Took longer to download the actual book, but still a reasonable amount of time.   Then I loaded my trusty I-Tunes software as I hooked up my I-Pod to the computer… 

I noticed my I-Tunes software needed to be ‘upgrated’ to the next version to run the audio book.  The download was 92 megs!  My first attempt failed to install after thirty minutes of waiting. 

Tried again.  Thirty minutes pasted.  Another failure. 

Restared the computer.  This time thirty minutes yielded the result I wanted.  Now to transfer the book…

The book download software tells me I must change the I-Tunes input setting before continuing.  I click the help button that tells me how to do all this.  I get the sucker switched.  Now I can download the book into my I-Pod.

No.  Not enough room.  Seriously?  Not enough room?  It’s an audio book not Halo 3.  So I dump my favorite  songs off my I-Pod just so I could fit this sucker in. 

Still not enough room.  Okay.  So I only download half the book.  Nope.  I try loading the three of ten parts.  Nope.  One part?  Yes I can do that.  The download program starts to activate my I-Pod and loads the book in.

Now an error message.  This device isn’t compatable.  What?  What the f*ck?  The book download software spells out every device that’s compatable.  My I-Pod shuffle was listed.  Swear to God.

To heck with this.  I gave up.  If I had just gone to the library and checked out the stupid book, I could have spent the next three hours actually reading the thing.

Yes.  Computers are a waste of time.