A couple of weeks ago I attended the WIFYR writers’ conference. The best part of the conference was the morning workshop with Martine Leavitt, author of Keturah And Lord Death, Tom Finder, and Heck Superhero among other amazing books. I’m still trying to internalize the wealth of knowledge I received during the week, and I plan on posting the things that stood out the most to me. My other favorite thing about the conference is attending the panels where authors and agents talk not only about the industry, but also about the craft. Mary Kole, agent of the Andrea Brown agency, talking about online presence, said, “If you have a blog, update it often. If you don’t post for a year, people are going to wonder if you’re alive.
I laughed and nodded my head because I do just that: I go months before posting sometimes. My excuse is that if I blog, I take my time away from my writing. But if I don’t, I miss out on the interaction with my “online friends.”
I don’t promise to update every day, but I will do it more often than I have done before.
On the workshop, Martine recommended the Artist’s Way, a book many others have recommended before, so I ordered it and brought it to El Paso with me, along with a whole lot of books about writing. This morning, I woke up early and wrote my Three Morning Pages, an exercise Julia Cameron recommends for artists to unblock. I wrote three pages of rambling, and I don’t know if it was that, or the exercise shake I just took, but I’m full of energy and desire to write. And I haven’t felt this way for a long time.
What are you doing this summer? Attending conferences? Taking a break from creating? I’d love to know.