Is it worth attending a writer’s conference when you haven't been writing? by Jennifer Spiller
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The Romance Writers of America’s annual national conference is just nine days away in Anaheim, California. Across the country (and the world), folks are shopping their covetous little hearts out for sparkly new shoes, polishing manuscripts they hope to pitch, and generally gearing up for four days of insanity that culminate in the Oscars of the romance writing community, the RITA and Golden Heart Awards.
I look forward to this all year, but this year I seriously considered not going. A couple of months ago I stalled out three quarters of the way through a revision of a manuscript I hoped to have ready to query long before now. Life intervened, and I chose to let it.
But even though this was a conscious choice, I felt enormous writer guilt. I hadn’t made my personal goals. People knew about my goals. So now I felt like I’d let down tons of people who were rooting for me and believing in me. Many of those people would be in Anaheim.
There’s an aspect to these conferences which echoes school reunions. Each year we get together with people we see only rarely, and catch up with one another. “So, what have you been doing? What are you working on? Oh, you’re published? Awesome! Oh, you never queried? Oh.”
This sense of comparing accomplishments looms especially large this year because I’ll be attending my twenty year high school reunion just four days before the conference. The last week of July 2012 is my double whammy of life goal shame. My fellow classmates are MBAs and MDs and JDs galore. Everyone, it seems, has a host of impressive letters after their names and slews of accomplishments.
My paltry BA and my children are my accomplishments--and all those manuscripts in drawers.
Yeah, I so did not want to go to RWA. The reunion didn’t sound too hot, either.
That’s why I’m going to both.
My number one rule in life? Do the thing that scares me.
Shame will not rule me. So many times in my life I’ve let it get its filthy clutches into my throat, cutting off my air. It’s time to beat that sucker back into the ether.
No, I won’t be pitching my manuscript this year. What I will be doing is soaking up knowledge, revitalizing my writer spirit, and energizing myself for the time--just a few weeks away--when my kids are back in school and blessed quiet writing time blossoms in the middle of my day.
I’ve seen people beaten down by despair at writer’s conferences. They see success all around them, authoritative gatekeepers guarding the doors to an elite club of the privileged few, and they lose heart.
There’s another way to see that world. Gaze with wide-eyed wonder at the amazing accomplishments of people just like us. We can feel tremendous gratitude for the community of writers and publishing folks who share their knowledge and experience, so the rest of us can learn.
So why spend the money to attend a writer’s conference when I haven’t been writing? It’s an investment in myself. It’s a way to tell myself I haven’t given up on my dreams. It’s like going to a writer’s cathedral and soaking up the beauty of inspiration.
It’s also a hell of a lot of fun. And I seriously need some sparkly new shoes.
Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.Net[/caption]The Romance Writers of America’s annual national conference is just nine days away in Anaheim, California. Across the country (and the world), folks are shopping their covetous little hearts out for sparkly new shoes, polishing manuscripts they hope to pitch, and generally gearing up for four days of insanity that culminate in the Oscars of the romance writing community, the RITA and Golden Heart Awards.
I look forward to this all year, but this year I seriously considered not going. A couple of months ago I stalled out three quarters of the way through a revision of a manuscript I hoped to have ready to query long before now. Life intervened, and I chose to let it.
But even though this was a conscious choice, I felt enormous writer guilt. I hadn’t made my personal goals. People knew about my goals. So now I felt like I’d let down tons of people who were rooting for me and believing in me. Many of those people would be in Anaheim.
There’s an aspect to these conferences which echoes school reunions. Each year we get together with people we see only rarely, and catch up with one another. “So, what have you been doing? What are you working on? Oh, you’re published? Awesome! Oh, you never queried? Oh.”
This sense of comparing accomplishments looms especially large this year because I’ll be attending my twenty year high school reunion just four days before the conference. The last week of July 2012 is my double whammy of life goal shame. My fellow classmates are MBAs and MDs and JDs galore. Everyone, it seems, has a host of impressive letters after their names and slews of accomplishments.
My paltry BA and my children are my accomplishments--and all those manuscripts in drawers.
Yeah, I so did not want to go to RWA. The reunion didn’t sound too hot, either.
That’s why I’m going to both.
My number one rule in life? Do the thing that scares me.
Shame will not rule me. So many times in my life I’ve let it get its filthy clutches into my throat, cutting off my air. It’s time to beat that sucker back into the ether.
No, I won’t be pitching my manuscript this year. What I will be doing is soaking up knowledge, revitalizing my writer spirit, and energizing myself for the time--just a few weeks away--when my kids are back in school and blessed quiet writing time blossoms in the middle of my day.
I’ve seen people beaten down by despair at writer’s conferences. They see success all around them, authoritative gatekeepers guarding the doors to an elite club of the privileged few, and they lose heart.
There’s another way to see that world. Gaze with wide-eyed wonder at the amazing accomplishments of people just like us. We can feel tremendous gratitude for the community of writers and publishing folks who share their knowledge and experience, so the rest of us can learn.
So why spend the money to attend a writer’s conference when I haven’t been writing? It’s an investment in myself. It’s a way to tell myself I haven’t given up on my dreams. It’s like going to a writer’s cathedral and soaking up the beauty of inspiration.
It’s also a hell of a lot of fun. And I seriously need some sparkly new shoes.
