Five Things To Do After a Writers' Conference
By Andrea Merrell
You’ve just
returned from a writers' conference. You’ve invested your time, energy, and
money. Your head is overflowing with information that needs to be
processed. What should you do next?
After attending
conferences for the past ten years, here are five things I’ve found most helpful.
Breathe
The first item on
your agenda should be to stop, take a deep breath, and allow your mind and body
to decompress. Writing conferences can be exhilarating and exhausting,
especially when they’re longer than a couple of days. After attending my very
first conference, my mind was spinning with information overload, and my body
was spent. I had so many notes, handouts, and business cards, I didn’t know
what to do with them. Treat yourself to a nap or a trip to Starbucks. Visit with a
friend or fellow writer and share your experience with them. Taking a break
will allow you time to get your thoughts in order before you tackle the tasks ahead
of you.
Network
Go through the
business cards you collected while names and faces are still fresh in your
mind. Connect with these folks on social media. Visit their website or blog and
leave a comment. Subscribe to their posts. E-mail someone you made a connection
with, and keep in touch. Send a thank-you to those who were helpful and
encouraging. Networking is all about establishing a relationship with others in
the industry.
You never know
when God will give you a kingdom connection, and you never know how it might
come. He may surprise you with those He chooses to pour into your life and help
you move forward. Sometimes our greatest blessing may come from the last
possible place (or person) we expected.
Study Your Notes
Writing is a
lifelong learning process. Go over your notes and put what you learned into
practice. Don’t file those notes away and forget about them. Think of it as
continuing education for writers. If you have questions, brainstorm with other
conferees. If the classes were recorded and you purchased the MP3s or digital
downloads, you have the entire conference to listen to over and over.
Get Back to Work
Whatever you’re
working on—devotion, article, essay, fiction, or nonfiction—get back to work
while you’re still excited and motivated by what you gleaned from the
conference. Once you’ve read through your notes or listened to the recorded
classes, put that new information into action. Maybe you learned how to craft
great dialogue or how to write with deep POV. Perhaps you picked up some unique
marketing techniques or valuable resources. Be sure to take the time to check
those out.
Follow-Up
If you met with an
editor, agent, or publisher and they asked you to send them a proposal or a few
chapters of your work in progress, do it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
asked for writing samples at a conference and never received them. Conferences
are the best way to get your writing foot in the door. If the professional you
met with was not interested in you and your project, they would not have asked
you to send them a sample.
Bottom Line
Writing conferences are vital to your writing career. The best advice I ever received as a newbie was to “join a critique group, attend writers’ conferences, and network, network, network.” I took that advice and have never regretted it for one moment.
Writing conferences are vital to your writing career. The best advice I ever received as a newbie was to “join a critique group, attend writers’ conferences, and network, network, network.” I took that advice and have never regretted it for one moment.
Whatever you
do—before, during, and after the conference—be ready. Whenever you ask God to
bless you and open doors of opportunity, He will. The best way to begin each
day is to pray for divine appointments, divine connections, and divine favor.
What about you?
What have you found helpful after you return from a conference? We would love
to hear from you.
TWEETABLES
For me, follow through was, and still is, the biggest. Going as a newbie a couple of years ago, I didn't really believe my writing was good enough to be published. But I followed through with sending my first devotions out, and when they were accepted, I realized God did have a place for my work. Had I not followed through, I might never have know for sure. I also learned, that if I can't make a conference, their resources that can be purchased are invaluable. I have many CD's that I've purchased that have helped tremendously when it did not work out for me to attend a conference financially. Thanks for sharing Andrea.
ReplyDeleteFollow-through is so important, Sheryl. It saddens me to think about all the good writers who neglected to submit requested material because they didn't think it was good enough. Everyone has to start somewhere, and we never know until we try. When someone asks to see more of your work, that's a good sign, whether they accept it or not ... especially if they give you feedback on how to make it better. Thanks so much for your thoughts. :)
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