Why I blew off the RWA Conference

As some of you know, I had planned to attend the RWA National Conference in DC this year, but at the last minute changed my mind.

Why?

I had to finish writing book #4 Never Tempt Danger.

Why had?

Two reasons. The first is that I had set a goal for myself, and yes, I am very goal oriented. Hey! I'm a Type A personality. What can I say?

Those of you who write will probably understand the second reason. For those of you who do not write, you may think I am a little off my rocker, and you may be right. Then again, most authors probably are at least a tad off center. :-)

This is what happens to me and is reason number two.

When I get about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through a story, the next story idea starts pinging me in the head like a pinball bouncing off the maze of obstacles making all kinds of bells go off.

That's not so bad. Noisy, but not too distracting.

It is when the characters for the next book start popping up all over the place that it gets disturbing. All of the sudden instead of typing my hero's name in my WIP, the hero for my next story decides to intrude and I end up typing in his name.

Worse than that is when you are completely exhausted after working a 10 or 12 hour day and you go to crawl in bed and the characters from your next novel flash through your mind and give you an entire scene. You have two choices at this point: You can ignore them and get the very much desired and required sleep you need or you can get up and type the scene up while the picture is vivid and fresh.

I TRIED to ignore them but it did not help. All night long, the images replayed in my mind. With every toss and turn, and fist in the pillow, the dialog and scene perfected itself. By morning, I had gotten no sleep, and the characters (Garrett and Jane), were still in the back of my mind jumping up and down, waving their hands at me for attention.

Basically, I had no choice but to wrap up Never Tempt Danger with its nanorobots.

Why did I tell you all this?

One, so you can see one example of what writers go through when new story ideas start pummeling at you.

Two, is . . . Instead of taking that vacation week off and attending the RWA Conference, I stayed at home on my deck and wrote and wrote and wrote.

Blowing off the conference was completely worth it because I finished novel#4 and found out late last night via email from my editor (who I think is the greatest)that Never Tempt Danger is being contracted for publication by L&L Dreamspell.

YIPPEE!! YEEHAW!! Doing the publication happy dance!

Writing Groups

What are your thoughts on writing groups/organizations and critique groups?

Personally, I have found most to be very helpful. I joined RWA and NHRWA back in 2003 and from the moment I went to my first meeting I found a great support group. There I was, this wannabe/inspriring writer and there they were, this group of professional, experienced, and new writers all there to help each other out.

What exactly do you get from these groups?

I guess that depends on what you want. My NHRWA group has a monthly meeting where they share the latest information from RWA, talk about/create special events that help us all move forward in our goals, and have a speaker who discusses a topic to help with your writing craft or getting published.

In addition to that, NHRWA has a writing critique session at the end of the meeting so anyone who has a chapter they want to read and share to get feedback/input can do so. The best part of that is if you've actually read something you're inspired to leave there and go write more. Heck, even if you didn't bring anything you'll probably be inspired to go home and write.

I also have a group of people I met in one of my college courses, including the teacher, who we now get together to share our work, critique each other, and brainstorm. Sometimes you just stall, but when you get together with these folks they're there to help.

Most of all, I believe these groups give you encouragement. There could be 5 or more people at a critique session all writing different story ideas, but everyone participates and gives feedback. It's even interesting to see 5 people all writing that same kind of story (mystery for example) but their voices and their styles are completely different.

Let me end this cheering for these groups by saying that I value these people and their opinions, but more than anything I cherish their support and friendship.