RWA National Conference is fast approaching. So it’s time to start prepping for it. Of course, getting the conference schedule is a top priority and deciding which sessions to go to, which to avoid. I’m not pitching this year, or I’d be working on that. I suck at elevator pitches and tag/log line type descriptions so creating those is torture. In order to make sure I’m not forgetting anything, I googled to find some internet advise.
PSYCH!!!
Not happening. No conferences are happening. I thought I would repost this so that we can all dream about a future where we can once again gather and talk about writing and publishing.
Most of the advice is the same. The blog post I found on The Write Life, Attending a Writers’ Conference? Here’s How to Prepare has a helpful section at the end with pitching tips from literary agents. I don’t need that this year, but some of you might. Writer’s Relief blog had some interesting ones that you don’t see every day. The tips are from readers of the blog. I liked “have that third drink back in your room” and “don’t eat garlic” for the humor. But “let yourself REST” is critical. I always forget this one and then I get burned out.
I don’t usually like the —— for Dummies books, because I don’t think of myself as a dummy, but the Ten Ways to Make the Most of a Writers’ Conference was very good, quite thorough. A different take on it was on Jennie Nash’s blog – 9 Ways to Ruin a Writing Conference and come out felling “less than.” I’m guilty of comparing myself to other writers.
What is your best advice for attending a writers’ conference? Or this year’s question is what are you doing to find motivation without the ability to gather?
Eight Ladies Writing 
Now that writing conferences are going ‘virtual’ it all feels more intimate and also surreal and the same time. We are all little boxes on the screen in the Zoom session, everyone staring at us as we stare back at them. I liked it better when they were in person, I could sit in the back of the room, escape to my hotel and psych myself up to pitch to an editor, and ultimately have several days to myself 😉
I liked it better the old way, too. It was much more exciting. And I spend a lot of my work-from-home time in Google Classrooms and Microsoft Teams meetings so spending more of that way is not at all an attractive option right now.