Author Pratfalls and Great Social Media Wars

This upcoming Tuesday, July 17th, I'll be giving the luncheon speech at the Idaho Writers Guild in Boise. My talk's all about the various mistakes all writers make. I know I've made every single one, a number of times. Most of the problem is that I'm an author and therefore neurotic and unbalanced--as in swinging from one extreme to the other.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the new world of social media. Every writer I know (including myself) swings from one extreme to the other. Part of the problem is that no one is certain what works the best with social media--is it SEO? Part of the problem is that social media seems to operate as virtual word of mouth, but which mouths and when? Us authors drive ourselves wild figuring that out.

The unbalance comes from not knowing how much is too much and wasted time and effort, or possibly even annoying), how much is enough (we want to sell ourselves and our titles), and how much is too little (my mom always said, "If you don't tell people that you have a book out to buy, they won't know.).

So what's a writer to do? Here's a tip from my talk:

ALWAYS REMEMBER THE WRITING COMES FIRST! Or as my wise mom said too, "You need something to sell, and the more product you have to sell the better." I'd add that having more than one piece of writing published is very useful too, for cross-marketing.

So everyone, keep writing!

Anybody got a secret to sell millions of books? Please share here! Anybody got a rant about the life of a writer nowadays? Share here!

Of Groups and Conferences, Pros and Cons

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the first meeting of the Idaho Writers Guild. Fascinating and fun, but also amazing how much dedicated and professional talent there is in Idaho, the state with the least population of all 50. After a couple of hours, I returned home energized and invigorated about my writing career. On August 6, tomorrow, I head out to the Willamette Writers Conference for four fun-filled days of pitching agents. Or at least fun for me.

There are writers out there who despise attending any event or joining any group. Often true introverts, these authors point out that conferences and groups take away a lot of valuable writing time and energy. This can be true. The last few weeks I have been taking time to prep my manuscript, my pitch, my wardrobe, etc. and probably doing much more than I need--I'm a writer and being neurotic is required.

However, that time, for me has done several useful things. It has re-initiated and reinvigorated my enthusiasm for my craft and w.i.p. I've had myriad epiphanies about my work, both current and future. I've made a large number of wonderful, supportive contacts, fellow authors and other creative people. People who feed my creative spark, sometimes into a roaring blaze. And will meet many more this weekend. I always return from a conference energized to work and work harder, faster and more effectively than before. So for me, some group participation and some conference attendance are useful tools.

One point, don't make the groups and conferences and workshops become the writing. It's easier than you might think to replace the difficult work of writing, just plain writing and writing, with the far easier and entertaining activity of a group or whatever. It feels like you're working, progressing. And to a certain extent, that's true. But nothing replaces write, write, write. I suspect this is true of other creative disciplines as well, hence the "disciplines".

So, dear readers, what do you think about attending conferences? Joining groups? Does it help you? Or the opposite?

And I'll be back on Monday with a report on my experiences.

Happy Mother's Day

Virtual flowers from my garden, real ones have yet to arrive.

Holidays are a time of remembrance, celebration and honoring others. May you do all three this day.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Writing workshops & conferences--which one?

My fellow blogger and good friend Kathy of Well Placed Words mentioned in her last entry about using what she had learned at Maass' Writing the Breakout Novel workshop. Hers is an excellent example of what you can gain from attending workshops and conferences.

Given that it is possible to attend more than one workshop or conference on any given weekend and that the majority of us do not have the money, time or energy to attend year round (and when would you write?) which one to pick?

A few tips:
1. What would you want to get out of anything you attended? Be as specific as possible. Do you want to meet other authors? Agents? Editors? A community? Or are you searching for new tools to improve your writing? If so, in general or one particular problem, or if you are a genre writer, writing for your genre? Or both?
2. When you've narrowed down what you want, now is the time for research. Finding workshops or conferences is easy. Find ones that suit your specific needs then research those. Visit the web pages, the blogs and the MySpace that many of these events have. Talk to other writers about their experiences with a particular conference or workshop. If a workshop has "texts" that go along with it (Donald Maass has Writing the Breakout Novel for example) read those and see how you respond. Google the conference and read the comments (with a grain of salt, of course).
3. And finally, RELAX. The quality of workshops and conferences, perhaps because of the intense competition, is extremely high. Although I haven't attended tons of these, without fail, every one I've attended has been excellent, useful and fun.

So, what has your experience been? Or have you taken the plunge into the vast writing support pool? If not, what would you like to do? Where would you like to go? And why?

Writing workshops and conferences

It's that time of year--no, not for Christmas shopping, but for workshop shopping. The new line of workshops are out, and my, are they lovely fashions.

Okay, enough. The next couple of posts are going to be about workshops.

First: Should you attend a workshop? Any workshop requires 3 things: Time, effort (focus, work) and money--things that are in short supply for most writers. So when to go to a workshop?

Ask yourself these questions:
1. Have you been reading a lot? Of everything? Of books on writing?
2. Have you been writing? A lot?
3. Have you been feeling stuck at a certain level in your writing? Or yearning for some more tools to increase your abilities? Or wanting to try something completely different in writing?

If you answered yes to most of the questions above, you might get a lot out of a workshop. If you have just started writing, or haven't been writing for a while, then it's better to wait. Workshops help with the creative process and it's best to be in the midst of writing.

Readers, other questions that should be asked before spending time, energy and money on a workshop? Experiences with attending a workshop--that were good or bad?

Next up, how to find a good workshop.

When to just say no, thanks

So, after my previous post, you may be wondering, did Conda just change her mind? Not that I don't do that sometimes but there are reasons to NOT workshop. Here are the ones that come to my mind:

First, workshopping replaces whatever creative endeavor you're doing. I've seen this happen with friends who instead of writing, writing, writing and then submitting, submitting, submitting go to workshops. "I'm waiting until I attend 'blank' workshop in June," a good friend used to tell me, "because I know I'll have learned such-and-such and any writing would be a waste of time." I never knew how to point out the fallacy of her thinking because I suspected that there was always another workshop and her novel would never be finished. Unfortunately, because she had a wonderful premise and a great start, I was right.

Second, if for any reason a particular workshop doesn't seem to fit you. If you're not excited by the prospect of taking a particular workshop, either in person, or online, if it doesn't resonate with you for whatever reason, don't take it. Even if it seems like it would be a good idea. Even if your best friend loved, adored, and is now successful from "X" workshop they attended, don't go. It doesn't matter why--maybe that particular workshop is just not you, not your tastes or style, or just not you at this particular time. And workshops do cost time and money.

And that brings us to our last reason for not attending a workshop. If you're on a tight budget of time and/or money like most of us are (after all, we're artists, we're supposed to be starving) then pick and choose what you use those resources for. Perhaps, if you're a writer, a conference might work better for you than a workshop. Or buy a book from a workshop instructor and give yourself an inexpensive version. Or just invest more time in your craft.