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Getting Motivated and Inspired at the RWA 2010 National Conference
 Posted by Michelle Butler Aug 8 2010, 11:05 pm in goals, inspiration, Michelle Butler, Michelle Mondays, motivation, Writing Thanks to fellow healthy writer Tawny Weber’s comment on my post about going to the RWA National Conference, I went to the event with a clear goal to be motivated, inspired and energized on my journey to become and stay a healthy writer. While the many workshops offered at the conference are just one part of the experience, I know that I’m nerdy (or an intellectual life-long learner). I want to take advantage of the educational opportunities at any conference I attend, and I’m often very happy when I’m learning. In the writing world, I don’t know of any other conference that offers more in the variety and depth of its workshops than the national RWA conference. When I was trying to decide which of the many available workshops to attend at any given time, I often asked myself which one would motivate or inspire me the most. The first workshop I attended, other than the one I helped present, was Elizabeth Hoyt’s We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Muse at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning. The appeal is obvious, and I do think I deserve brownie points for attending the first workshop of the day on both Friday and Saturday. I really enjoyed how Hoyt combined a kick-in-the-butt message with heartfelt advice on how to deal with the emotional ups and downs of the writing life. Some of the you-need-to-be-more-disciplined takeaways were that it is more important to write regularly than to write a lot. You should think about writing as your daily job and have your daily time and place to write since the expectation of routine will bring on the right frame of mind. You should also avoid overly negative or positive thoughts. For example, telling yourself that you are going to write 25 pages that day might set yourself up for failure. Hoyt also explored what to do if you have lost your mojo. You might want to distance yourself from negative people, stop talking about your writing, and find ways to refill you well. Ways to get yourself going may include going away to just write, journaling, writing longhand or playing mind games with yourself such as you only need to write 5 or 20 minutes and then you can stop. She also said that there might be times, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, the loss of your house or job, when you can take a break and say I’m not a writer. You will need to mourn and heal, but there will come a time when you will need to create and just write. It may not be publishable material, but the writing itself will be self-affirming and life-affirming. I went for a deep craft session in my next workshop and attended author Suzanne Brockmann and academic Sarah Frantz’s Building Theme. I really enjoyed the format as Frantz would share the academic perspective on theme and Brockmann would provide the author’s view. This even included Frantz saying what theme she got out of Suz’s work and Suz would counter with what theme she thought she included in her books. Theme can make a book feel as a whole, complete, really satisfying reading experience. The best books don’t come at you with the theme shouting at you, and using more than one theme can help you not oversimplify your story. Like voice, theme can be very personal. Suz said her career theme is infinite diversity and infinite combinations – a way to celebrate diversity. Other common themes for her are how lovely to be a woman, shedding or using society’s labels, things are not as they seem, teamwork, love is a gift, you can’t choose who you love, and connection is the ultimate human experience. When your are writing so much about a particular theme, it is coming straight from the heart and that passion gets on the page. Readers connect to it. In her Career Planning workshop, Cherry Adair lightened a lot of tough talk and helpful advice with humor. It took her 17 manuscripts to sell her first book in 1993. It was a Rita finalist, but it took her another 5 years to sell her next book. She said that it took that long to realize it could be about her and not about them. She took a hard look at what people told her she was good at and what she was bad at. She then developed a career plan with goals and strategies for stuff she could control. Some of the advice that resonated the most with me was that you should pick one genre to focus on for awhile. You need to go home and set a weekly page count goal, and it should be at least 5 pages a week. You need to have target agents, editors and houses, but unpublished authors can get in trouble and even traumatize themselves if they pitch before the book is ready. Once you are ready, pitch at conferences and enter contests. Attending classes and reading stuff about writing is positive reinforcement and motivating. You should also continue to develop your writing skills. Like Hoyt there was a message to be Zen in some of her comments. You need to recognize that this too shall pass for both the good and bad stuff in your career, and you need to learn to find the little joys and live in the moment. Brenda Novak tried to restore writers’ faith in the process during her workshop The Climb: from Aspiring Author to Bestseller. She shared the results of a survey sci fi/fantasy author Piers Anthony conducted about how writers broke in. The traditional pathways were still the most successful avenues to publication. Like Adair, Novak recommended developing a business plan and following it. She also addressed the emotional side of writing. You should pace yourself on the journey, and it doesn’t matter who is ahead of you. Don’t get jealous. Enjoy the ride and go at a pace that allows you balance and flexibility so that nothing destroys you. You should also take risks as avoiding failure means failure. Finally, nothing can take the place of persistence as persistence and determination are omnipotent. Linda Howard gave her famous The 12 Steps of Intimacy workshop Friday afternoon. It was a thrill to see that workshop in person and to be there for her last public speech as she is retiring from public speaking (not writing!) after the 2010 RWA conference. The material she covered seemed to have a lot of implications for writing and for real life. I made several of my friends discuss it with me further after the workshop. Another very thought-provoking workshop for both writing and real life was Sandy James’s Freud Knows Romance, which was really a psychology 101 workshop for deeper characterization. Allison Brennan, J.T. Ellison and Shauna Summers’s workshop Breaking Rules to Break In or Break Out was another empowering session. After the three explored the many ways successful authors have broken the rules, Brennan argued that there are really no rules except the ones you create for yourself. While knowing how to position yourself is important, you are never going to please all the readers. Everyone is trashed at one time or other, and the first person you need to please is yourself. Summers, Bantam editor, said that she sees way too much material that has been critiqued to death, and she reads for voice. Not every workshop I went to was a homerun (or even a first base hit) for me, and one that I had anticipated the most surprisingly brought me really down. I even wanted to cry as I left, but I luckily ran into a friend whose pitch session had gone well. Her excitement and happiness lifted me out of my funk. And, later that day I went to a session that brought it all together for me. Editor Beth Adams and author Beth Pattillo explored Writing the High-Concept Inspirational. Now, I have no intention of writing an inspirational romance, but Pattillo is one of the first people I met in RWA. She is super smart, and I always like hearing what she has to say. She is also a minister, and the moments when she “slipped” into preaching in her workshop were the ones that helped me the most. I even made my roommate listen as I reread all my favorite quotes from her session. Pattillo suggested that you take the profit motive off the table and “see where God takes you”. You should accept now that you may or may not make any money out of this. Think of your book as a gift you have been given for the empowerment of others. Romance novels celebrate the way that women empower each other as we believe in relationships and romance novels value relationships. The message that your novels will empower others really moved me. Last year, I went through an exercise in Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles book to try to figure out my true purpose in life. (This is a hard exercise!) My last attempt was: my purpose is to use my creativity and intelligence (and/or communication skills/empathy) to educate and empower others to make the world a better place and recognize their capacity for happiness within and with others. Yes, this is still too long, but I think it can address my writing and career (more than just a day job). I took this as a message that I’m on the right path on my journey and found it very motivating and inspiring. Just what I wanted out of my attendance at the RWA 2010 National Conference. What motivates and inspires you on your journey to becoming and staying a healthy writer? Did you attend RWA 2010? If so, what did you get out of it?
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Michelle,
It was great to meet you, albeit briefly, at Nationals! I had a fabulous time, but I mainly went to book signings and appointments because I’m buying the sessions on CD.
As for being healthy writer, I’ve got to remember to bring my own breakfast next year, to drink more water, and to avoid dessert!
Hmmm. My greatest inspirations? I was heartened by the number of editors and agents looking for stories set in small towns. (Yup, that’s me) I also enjoyed hearing writers like Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Nora Roberts tell aspiring writers to get off their behinds and write.
Oh, and I’m still hung up on the free book thing. Greatest idea ever!
Sally, it was great to meet you in person too! You looked wonderful, and I’m glad that you had a good time at the conference. I’m glad that the market is timing in your favor! Best wishes on your small town stories.
Breakfast was a challenging meal, wasn’t it? I’ve actually worked with hotels to order food for conferences in my day job, and there are often no healthy breakfast options unless it is a plated breakfast. It’s really tough.
Nora’s talk was great. Since I’m a member of the DC chapter, I’m spoiled in that Nora is a local author. I’ve had the joy of seeing her speak several times. She can give a great kick-in-the-butt motivational speech.
Hi Michelle,
You know I didn’t get to go, but I’m really enjoying the post-conference blogging about the workshops. Sounds like you attended some really great ones.
When I go to conference, I always attend the AGM and as many workshops as I can get to.
I love Beth’s message and your true purpose. I’m thinking of what Sally said above about the small town popularity (would love to hear more about that) and I’m wondering if there isn’t a connection. Most of the small town books focus on that sense of community empowering people, supporting them and connecting them. Which also relates to Suzanne Brockmann’s themes.
I always remember a book I read as a young girl – it had a line in it about how people helping each other create a circle – one person helping the next, who then helps the next, etc. until it comes full circle. In the story, it was told by way of an older woman explaining the rules of antebellum society to her young charge, but it stuck with me as a way of making life a better way to live. There’s some insurance company that’s using a similar theme for a commercial that I’ve seen. It always makes me think of the best in us.
You are so good to attend the AGM! I had breakfast with some out-of-town friends instead.
There does seem to be an increased interest in small town settings. The market success I believe they are trying to copy is the romance “light” stuff such as Robyn Carr, Susan Wiggs, Debbie Macomber, etc. I also think that sometimes the single-title editors (at least some) look at the hooks that work well in category and think about how those hooks can translate into single-title contemporary. The three mentioned above are all with Mira, and as a part of harlequin, they understand category hooks. Some of the single-title editors also worked at Harlequin/Silhouette before too.
I love the circle anecdote. In my freshmen high school English class, we spent a period of time thinking about how every encounter you have with a person influences you. It made me think of that impact you have on everyone – from long relationships to passing strangers.
Thanks for the feedback on my purpose.
Wonderful rundown of the workshops and the conference experience, Michelle. I feel like I’m just now coming out of the post-conference fog and getting back to a normal routine. I gave myself permission to just veg over the weekend so I could start the new week fresh and ready to be productive.
I went to more workshops than I normally do this time around, many of them PAN sessions. I gravitate more toward the business-type workshops now or ones that I think will just get me jazzed up about writing. One was for pure fun — the Chat with Meg Cabot. She is a funny woman, and I love her Mediator series. For me, I get the most from conference through business sessions, inspiring talks, chatting with friends I don’t get to see often, and just soaking up the energy of being around that many writers. It always gets me inspired and re-energized to write.
I also got so much motivation, inspiration, information, and just joy from hanging out with friends from all over the country. It’s a great part of conference, and lots of happiness studies say you get more happiness out of what you spend on experiences than what you spend on material possessions. That’s certainly the case with the national conference.
Funny, Trish, I avoided the PAN workshops because I feared they would be doom and gloom about matters I can’t control. I tried for more uplifting workshops.
I purposely went to hear Nora, because I knew I needed her “get butt in chair” attitude. I tried to get into the Freud one but it was SRO by the time I got there. Must get that recording, though, as Michelle’s notes about it (read during a boring workshop) showed it was right up my alley.
One of my conference highlights was eating lunch with you, Michelle, and Jennifer Stewart. And we didn’t even eat dessert!
Lunch with you was a highlight for me as well, Diane!
I hear you on some of the business/number workshops being depressing. And, the folks around you can get so stressed or even angry about stuff you can’t control. That can happen in other workshops, but the business ones can bring that out even more.
I didn’t make the conference this year, Michelle, so thanks for the run-down on some of your favorite sessions! I can’t wait to hear the conference CDs.
I’ve put my writing on hold for most of July and August in an attempt to relieve some of the stress from my day job, and it’s helped. There are times when I simply can’t keep all the balls in the air that are important parts of my life. But I have learned to put limits on those moments when I have to put my writing on hold: come the beginning of September, I plan to be back in my writing chair!
Balance is so tough, isn’t it? I’ve talked with other writers about how we have only so much (creative) energy and sometimes other stuff needs to take priority. I really think you made the right decisions, and your retreat will jump start your writing.
Knowing/recognizing when you do have the time and energy to get back to your writing can be tough for me too. That’s where the discipline/kick-in-the-butt messages help me.
Thanks for the lovely reminders roomie. I loved the quotes from Beth’s workshop and I can’t wait to get the conference MP3′s to hear a few of the talks I missed while I was attending other workshops. It’s always hard to decide what to go to since there are sooo many choices. It’s awesome that we were able to compare notes since there wasn’t much sleeping going on due to that rude woman who kept snoring!
Upon returning home I made a research plan for the next four weeks and also arranged my household schedule to try and meet my needs as wife/mother/writer. TV is my enemy at the moment and it’s so hard because I do love to sit and watch a show or two with a hot cup of tea in the evening. I know that it’s all about self-discipline and I’m the only one who can meet these goals I have set.
My weight loss/exercise plan is the key to my writing success. I need energy to do all that I want to do. That is so important! So each day I re-dedicate myself to living a healthier life. Thanks to you my dear and your lovely friends here at Healthy Writer, when I need a pick me up or some encouragement to keep going, I check in here instead of pigging out.
So thank you for everything you all do. It’s helped me go down one dress size already…many more to go!
I do love how many wonderful workshop options there are at any given hour at RWA. It fills my nerdy heart with joy.
But, it does make it hard to choose.
How exciting that you have a research plan and household schedule to support your writing. Best wishes!
I hear you on how important keeping to a healthy diet and exercise plan is to accomplishing all your goals. I too need that energy I get from living well to do more than just go to work everyday and vedge on the couch at night.
So awesome about going down a dress size!! Doesn’t that feel great? I find the smaller clothes so tangible and just something to cling too when I’m feeling so stressed and some bad food is calling my name. I’m so glad that Healthy Writer is helping you on your journey.
Wow, thanks, Michelle! I felt like I attended RWA.
What keeps me inspired? My audience. Hearing from the sporty girls I write for always keeps me going.
That’s lovely, Keri. Some of my friends in high would have LOVED your books. I knew a lot of sporty girls.
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