Top Five Mistakes Writers Make at Conferences

So, I've mentioned before that I'm a conference whore. I think part of it is that I've always loved learning. I have nerd DNA that can't be escaped. But the other part is that I have so much fun being around other writers. It's like finding your home planet after feeling like you were the only weird one all these years. So for the past two years, I've attended about three conferences each year. And over those two years, I've started to notice some patterns and mistakes that some writers make--especially when they are conference virgins.

So I thought I'd put together a list of the pitfalls to avoid...

Five Mistakes Writers Make at Conferences

1. Attending only "industry/career" workshops vs. craft workshops.

This is probably the number one mistake I've seen newbie conference-goers make (because I, of course, have never made this mistake. *cough*) We go to a conference and there are all these agents and editors that we stalk/follow on the internet. And OMG, they are going to be on a panel and tell us all the things they want to see in a query and all the super secret insider stuff to get published. Must. Go. Right?

Well, yes, these are often helpful. And believe me, those workshops run out of seats immediately.  Meanwhile, there's an awesome NYT author in Room B giving a course on deepening characterization or something and it's half-empty.

Hear this: If you aren't actively honing your craft, the "how to query", "what are the current trends", "are you still accepting vampire novels" panels are only going to get you so far. The writing needs to come first. So balance your schedule. Pick a few industry type classes, but make sure at least half of the rest of the workshops you attend can make you a better writer. This should be your goal. Look around in those classes, who's sitting in them? Published authors. And obviously this goal changes once you're multi-published. You always want to focus on craft. We can always learn. But there's only so many workshops you can go to on the same topics. Now you can swing your schedule more heavily to the career/business panels.

2. Focusing too much on the big pitch session with the agent or editor.

Getting a chance to pitch is often the initial draw for a person to attend a conference. Screw the slushpile, you get to sit and babble like a drunken monkey in front of a real live agent/editor! I never pitched in person, as I've accepted I'm better on paper than in person.

But here's the thing--yes, pitching can be a great opportunity, but really, it's only glorified querying. Most agents will ask for a partial (unless the genre is totally off or something) so you may get a chance to get more pages in front of them. BUT it's still about the writing. SO, don't waste your whole conference stressing and focusing on the pitch and go to your workshops in a haze. You're there to learn and network first. Pitching second.

*This also goes for agent-stalking in the elevators and bars. Don't spend all your time trying to corner your favorite agent to elevator pitch them and become BFFs. I'm sure by the end of the conference agents and editors feel like gazelle in the middle of a lion pride. Their eyes are shifting left and right looking for the next writer to pounce. Don't be one of those lions. (Same goes for stalking reviewers/bloggers if you're already published.)

3. Getting caught up in the "FREE STUFF!"

This is more an issue at the national conferences. For instance, at RWA Nationals, each publisher does a book signing where you literally go pick up books for free. Now, offering writers free books is like putting out a donut buffet after you've been on a juice diet. We're drawn to it, our eyes glazed over, mumbling "boooooks, booooookkksss."

I am all about the signings. Reading widely is part of the job. But you don't want to ONLY do that. You have to skip workshops to go to those signings. Balance it out. Make sure you're not missing something really amazing in the process. Believe me, you'll end up with a lot of books no matter what.

4. Keeping to yourself or only socializing with your little group of friends.

The vast majority of writers are introverts. And when we go to a conference (especially our first conference) we have the urge to keep our heads down and stay focused on the task at hand. This can be even more the case when you're pre-published and still wrestling with your own feelings about calling yourself a writer out loud. But a big part of the benefit of a conference is the networking aspect. People are SUPER friendly. And you're all writers, so you automatically have something in common. For you shy people (like me), force yourself to turn to the person next to you in a workshop or at lunch and ask "So what do you write?" You'll be amazed how easy the conversation is and how you can meet some really great new friends. (And sidenote if you see ME at a conference, I have resting bitch face, y'all. Don't be scared. I'm friendly and happy to chat. You just might have to make the first move, lol.) 

5. Not going to conferences at all.

This is the biggest mistake of all. Yes, sometimes it's a location or finance issue. That's understandable. But if you have the means to get to a conference--there are fabulous local ones all over the place--then go! Online conferences are great, but there's something about being present in a room with others who are doing the same as you. It's awesome. I've learned so much at conferences, have met great people, and I never fail to leave them feeling re-energized about my writing. So put yourself out there.

Alright, for those of you who have been to a conference, have you made any of these mistakes? What other tips would you give conference-goers? And if you haven't been to a conference, how come? 

DO Get Fresh With Me: Amping Up Your Writing

Photo by Miheco

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Dallas Area Romance Authors Dreamin' in Dallas conference. The speakers (Richelle Mead and Allison Brennan) were phenomenal and the workshops were SO helpful. Sometimes you go to a conference (after you've been to a few like me) and it feels like same old stuff, nothing new. But I had many an a-ha moment at this one, so yay for that. :)

And one of the big light bulbs for me was while I was taking three classes in a row from Margie Lawson. I'd never seen her speak before, but I had heard fabulous things about her writing and editing workshops. And, believe me, I wasn't disappointed.

She has way more information than I could ever share on here (more on how you can get all that fab stuff at the bottom), but one of the big things that stuck out for me was her focus on FRESH WRITING.

It seems like such a simple concept--a well-duh kind of thing. Write things in a way that is fresh, non-cliched, and doesn't sound like just any old book. Easy-peasy, right? Um, yeah.

How many she smiled, grinned, lifted the corner of her mouth, smirked, lips curved, one side of her lips tilted up, smile that didn't reach her eyes, and on and on do you have in your manuscript?

Using a synonym for smiled or one of the tired cliches is not fresh writing. It's just writing the overused stuff in another overused way.

What Margie suggested you do is look at those boring ways of saying things and amplifying them, making them sing and speak to the reader (instead of inspiring them to skim.)

Here's one example she used from Harlen Coben's HOLD TIGHT (2008)

His eyes were black, lightless glass, like someone had randomly jammed them in, like they held no life in them.

Whoa, right? How much more impactful is that than "He had dead, black eyes" or "He stared at me with lifeless eyes."

Or this one from Brad Meltzer's BOOK OF LIES (2008)

In mid-air his mother was turned toward him, her alligator eyes still burning through him.

Can't you picture that? It's so clear what the eyes of an alligator would look like. And once again a way to say something different than cold or lifeless eyes.

And last one, from Stephen White's DEAD TIME (2008)

"Listen," he said in a voice that cut off the small talk the way a sharp knife takes the top off a banana.

How much better is that than saying "he said, his voice sharp"?

This whole concept is such a basic idea, but it was totally a kick in the butt for me to work harder and do better. To really look at things I may just put on the page--a smile, a laugh, the way a person's eyes look--and really push myself to find a fresh way to say it.

Margie says she reads books and puts sticky notes on the pages where an author really wrote something that impressed her. If someone does that with my books, I want that thing to look like tabs in a packed filing cabinet when they're done.

Now, one little warning. You can't write every single sentence like this because then it will be overwritten and the prose will get mucked up. Sometimes simple is better. But I guarantee you there are many places in your WIP where you can do better, where you chose the easy, cliched way to say something, where you missed an opportunity to be amazing.

So, I only talked about like 1/100 of 1% of what Margie covers. BUT she has these totally kickass lecture packets that you can download and do a self-study course with. Each packet is $22, but OMG, the first one I bought is like 250 pages. So "packet" really means "book". The one I'm referencing today is the Empowering Characters' Emotions. You can get it here along with many others. I can't give it a high enough recommendation. So, so, so helpful. (And no, Margie hasn't paid me to say any of this, lol.) I just have to pass along an amazing resource when I stumble across them.

So, I encourage to check those out and I also encourage you to read through some of your favorite books and mark those passages or phrases or whatever that stand out and impress you. What did those writers do that was fresh?

What do you think? Are you overloaded with boring or tired ways of saying things when you're writing? Are you characters smiling and raising eyebrows and winking all over the place? What writers can you think of off the top of your head that really excel at writing fresh?

Pitch It! Pitch It Good!*

This weekend I get the privilege of going to one of my favorite things--a writer's conference! : ) This will be my third DFW Writer's conference. For those of you anywhere close to this area, you should look into this one each year. I've been the last two years and I always walk away with a great experience and information. And for you guys, I'll be sure to take great notes for blogs and will try to tweet some from the conference  itself. :)

But today, in honor of the conference, I'm re-running Heather Long's guest post on pitching. I'm not pitching this weekend but I know many are, so hope everyone finds this helpful! Have a great weekend!

Photo by Will Folsom

Today, I have the pleasure of introducing you to author Heather Long. She and I "met" as bloggers first (she has a terrific blog right over here), and then found out we were in the same local RWA group. :) Heather also attended RWA nationals and she had a great experience pitching in person.

I am such a huge chicken about in-person pitching that I could sprout feathers just thinking about it, so this is a topic I thought best covered by someone who has had the guts to actually do it. So Heather, take it away...

Pitch it!  Pitch it Good!

Good morning and thank you Roni for allowing me this opportunity to drop by and chat!  Pitching is never fun. For some people, pitching means a racing heartbeat, sweaty palms and the fear that their breath will smell of coffee, garlic and onions even if they haven’t been near any of those items.  For others, pitching isn’t something to sweat or worry about. You just show up, say your piece and go home. You probably aren’t going to get anywhere with the pitch session, but you say you’re doing it so others will consider you as serious about your craft as they are about theirs.

Well, honestly – while I have found attitudes that cover all ranges of the above, the truth is – a good pitch session can really change the direction of your career. It can also be the litmus test for how serious you are and how much you think of your own work.

Professional Litmus Test

Pitching takes practice. I’ve walked into pitch sessions and gibbered like a gibbon before. I’m not proud of it. But it’s happened.  For example, not all that long ago, I went to a writer’s conference where we spent the majority of the day in a workshop. It was a terrific workshop. I learned so much that I thought my head would split open from the details.

But when it came time to pitch, just after lunch, I realized that the story I was pitching was crap.  And yes, that’s exactly how the thought occurred to me. I said, “This is crap. Total crap. I could make it so much better.”  I walked into that pitch session without an ounce of confidence about my own work because the workshop showed me so many ways I could be better.

The agent listened with half an ear, a faintly bemused smile on her face and I could tell that my half-halting descriptions flavored by my own disbelief weren’t selling her on the story anymore than I was.  I walked out of the pitch session feeling like an idiot.

Why had I even bothered?

Don’t Stop Believing

I bothered because I had a good story idea.  I bothered because I had great characters.  I bothered because before that workshop, I really believed in that story.  The problem was, I learned so much that I began to over think the process. Sure that story could be improved, but the heart of it – the meat of the story – that remains essentially the same.

By failing to believe in myself, I failed that pitch. I also ended up shoving the book on the backburner where it sits to this day. I’ve added back into my rotation as a book I will tackle after Christmas. But that’s a tale for another day.

Now that’s the bad side of pitching. The side everyone has experienced at one point in time or another. It’s a miserable feeling, but shake it off. Because good pitches do happen and I want to tell you how you can make it happen for you.

I Do Believe in My Story, I Do! I Do!

Do you remember the Peter Pan movie from a few years ago: the scene where Peter is trying to save Tink and everyone in the film begins chanting “I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!” – this is what you need to remember when it comes to pitching.  In July, I was attending the RWA National Conference in Orlando, Florida. I wasn’t going to pitch because all the sessions with editors and agents were taken in May while I was on a road trip.

Several people encouraged me to go for the walk in, because so many weren’t showing up for their pitch sessions.  I hesitated, because while I had finished a book and I really liked it, I hadn’t “prepared” for pitching.

Saturday morning, I woke up early and decided that after looking at the workshop schedule and not seeing one I absolutely had to get to, that maybe I’d go take a look at the pitch room. I walked in, I talked to the registration folks and I said, I wanted to sign up to wait – when they asked me who I wanted to see, I said anyone would be fine.

I lucked out. One of the Harlequin editors had some cancellations, so I was able to book a very specific time.  I thanked the registrar, darted out of the hall and back up to my room. I changed into a smart skirt, a fun shirt and dressed up my smile with a touch of makeup and then darted back downstairs.

I had just a few minutes before it would be my turn.  I waited patiently as we lined up and when they called time, I walked down to where the editor was waiting. 

Here it was, the crucial moment – would I bomb it? Would I stutter? Would I forget everything I’d written?

I held out my hand, introduced myself and grinned.  My nerves weren’t there.  Maybe it was the combination of a great conference experience where I was meeting new people every hour, discussing writing, love for books, romance and sharing those experiences with other writers who “got it.”  Maybe it was Nora Roberts’ terrifically inspiring bullsh*t keynote address about how hard it was to break into the business 30 years ago and that sweating for the job was part of it.  Maybe it was Jayne Ann Krentz’ highly anecdotal and hilarious tale of blowing up her own career because she wanted to tell her stories her way.

Who knows how much all of that contributed to my sense of inner calm, but I knew that I believed in my book. I loved the story that I told. I loved the characters. I loved the fun, sexy, twisty humor and I loved the fact that it was so utterly different from anything I’d ever written before.

So I pitched it.   Can I remember the words I used, exactly? Nope. But I do know it was conversational, I said “Imagine this…” and I told her what my hero and heroine were doing when they met, how they were drawn together and why they needed each other. I described the misunderstandings and added the element of suspense.  The more I warmed to the topic, the more engaged the editor became.

She asked me two questions.

I answered them without hesitation because I knew how I’d handled it in the book and then she smiled.

She smiled and said it sounded like a great story and that it gave her chills.  I think my heart started playing a drum line in my ears then, but she told me to send in the partial, the synopsis and the query, to pitch it exactly as I hard to her and to mention that she’d told me to do it in the letter.

I thanked her.  Said I would get right on it when I went home and I floated out of the hall.

I wasn’t floating just because she asked for the partial (but that was part of it), I wasn’t floating just because I hadn’t managed to flub the pitch (but that was part of it too), and I was floating because my faith in this story was there. I was confident in it even after all the workshops and all the great writers I met.  I didn’t feel small. I didn’t feel like I had to rewrite it.

Do I think it will need editing? Absolutely.

Am I confident that it will sell? Yes.

Am I happy that I pitched?  Hell yes.

Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself to share your story with the editors and agents out there that want to hear it.  If you are engaged by the book you wrote, by the story you told, then you can bring that level of investment to the editors and agents.

Don’t stop believing and you’ll find them believing right alongside you.

Have you ever pitched a story in person? What was your experience like? If not, what's holding you back from doing so?

About Heather

Heather Long lives in North Texas with her husband, daughter and their menagerie of animals. As a child, Heather skipped picture books and enjoyed the Harlequin romance novels by Penny Jordan and Nora Roberts that her grandmother read to her. Heather believes that laughter is as important to life as breathing and that the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus are very real. In the meanwhile, she is hard at work on her next novel.

Contact Info:

Website: http://www.heatherlong.net

Blog: http://dailydose-fantasyromance.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/HVLong

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HVLong

**Today's Theme Song**

"Hey Man, Nice Shot" - Filter