Conference Hangover

Spent this weekend (Thursday around noon to Sunday night) with 1300+ of my closest friends. It was the 40th Anniversary of the SCBWI Summer Conference.

Being a (relatively new) Regional Advisor, conference attendance is sort of mandatory. It's a good way to connect with people in the industry and get a feel for who they are, what topics they speak about and if you'd like to bring them to your own region for an event. This conference is in L.A. and I haven't really been to it since I joined SCBWI in 2000.

Though there are numerous exceptions, writers tend to be introverts - the solitary type. Plus I'm a software geek for my day job and it's two, two, two introverts in one. I don't like large crowds, but I do handle them better if I have a job - a purpose for being there other than holding up a wall and trying to look less uncomfortable than I feel. I had a few assigned tasks and added several more to them as I went along. If I was in a room, I was working it somehow. And I'm not talking about the crowd. My soon-to-be Co-RA is the one who's awesome at working a crowd, a room, singing Love Shack.

While large crowds, lots of noise and maybe 3 hours of sleep each night would generally be a recipe for disaster, I was at an SCBWI event. Children's book writers and illustrators are by and large a supportive, generous, wonderful group of people. So yeah, I did wear pajamas to the 40 Winks party. The sandals I had on were hard to walk in, so I didn't get to dance away my stress. I should've kicked them off and gone barefoot. Now I know. And although I like it quiet when I'm writing, that night I sat on my balcony with my laptop and let the music and the creative vibes of the party goers wash over me as I revised the first 6 or so chapters. Hope it still sounds good today. Plus I got a great tip from Libba Bray to help me over a manuscript rough spot that has plagued me for months.

The conference is not quite over yet, but it is for me for this year. I think I started calling people by the wrong name there at the end. I'm not even sure. There's a day of intensives today, which I didn't sign up for, plus a last gasp faculty/staff party tonight. Feeling a little too strung out, too tender to be around yet another group of people. Even this really nice bunch. I did catch up on some sleep last night at least.

Today I freak out every time I look down at my feet and see green toenails. They were part of my pajama party outfit. I'm blaming post conference jitters.


What did I learn? Not a lot of new stuff, but repetition is really, really good for my soul - and my particularly hard head.

1. Writing is hard, lonely work.

2. Your first draft will probably suck. Your second and third might, too.

3. Persistence may be more important than talent.

4. Even published writers get anxious and also write books that don't work.

5. There's definitely not enough diversity in books or in the authors who write them.

6. If you're standing on the figurative cliff, jump.

And one of my new personal favorites:

7. It is the job of a writer to disturb the Universe.