With a new year coming, many aspiring writers will be attending writers conferences. There are numerous writers’ conferences all over the country (check Shawguides for listings). I’ve taught at hundreds over the years. Seven straight years at the Maui Writers Retreat & Conference. Thrillerfest. RWA National—and many others all over the country.
I’ve seen a disturbing trend. Aspiring authors rush through the doors by the hundreds if there is an Agent Panel, while the published author who is teaching, let’s say, Developing Effective Characters, asks the five attendees to pull their chairs in a circle and let’s do a group hug for support.
Attendees sweat over their ten-minute pitches to editors and agents, but don’t focus on craft workshops. They’ll sit in their room in the evening agonizing over their pitch, instead of socializing and networking.
Ever hear of the cart before the horse?
Reality check: the odds of finding an agent who will sign you or an editor who will buy your manuscript at a conference are low. Very low. Despite that, agents would love to find that gem in the rough.
But you have to have a gem FIRST.
Be honest with yourself (a tenet of Warrior Writer). How many of you have spent thousands of dollars going to conferences, pitching, networking, marketing yourself on social media, and still haven’t gotten published? But you haven’t spent that much effort on LEARNING to become a better writer. You keep rewriting the same manuscript, or even write new ones (pretty much a new version of the old one craft-wise), but you’re basically moving deck chairs around on the Titanic.
Heck, there are even people who go to conferences and pitch an IDEA, thinking if the agent is interested they can go home and knock the book out in six weeks. Agents do NOT want to hear that.
Others think that the editor will probably want changes or make suggestions and clean the book up for them so why bother cleaning it up themselves? NOT.
Ever go to a museum and see students sketching the successful painters hanging on the walls? Writers need to do this too. Not only go to craft workshops, but study craft every day. How? Read. Analyze. Watch movies. Analyze. Shows. Analyze. Everything in them is done for a purpose. I’m shocked when I ask audiences how many have read X book or watched Y series or seen Z movie and no one raises their hand. Learn from the experts.
Now, I’m going to be very blunt and honest, a trait those who have attended my workshops can attest to: In Who Dares Wins: The Green Beret Way to Conquer Fear & Succeed, I teach a thing called the 5% rule. 5% of people are willing to achieve internally motivated change. This is statistically born out in a number of different fields from getting published to becoming a Green Beret to getting a black belt in martial arts. If you aren’t where you want to be YOU have to change. I’ve had people pitch the same thing to me ten times, supposing, I guess, that eventually I would change and see the brilliance in it. Teaching writing, I have seen only about 5% of aspiring writers actually truly learn craft and change. But when they do, it’s amazing how much better they get. I’ve had workshop attendees who have gone on to become NY Times bestsellers, multi-published, and very successful as writers. Not because I was a great teacher, but because they were great students who were willing to learn and CHANGE.
Just recently, as you will notice on my #writegoal page under the post about Point of View, I had a major breakthrough in that area. It came after spending a weekend reading several books and analyzing POV. This was after having published 40 books. Yesterday I asked an author friend for advice on craft. I gave my most recent manuscript to Elizabeth George for a thorough critique. And then followed her suggestions.
I could go on about this for a long time. In fact, this is what I do in my Warrior-Writer workshop, which is all about the author. Learning the mindset and habits of a successful author. And learning how to CHANGE. Change is not thinking differently. It’s not just making a decision. It’s SUSTAINED ACTION.
Bottom line for all you writer conferences attendees—focus on craft.
