More Tales from the #RWA14 Conference

I’ve been going through a transitional/unhappy period with my writing. I haven’t been happy with the way  my sales are going. It’s hard to get a royalty check for under $10 for a month’s worth of royalties. In fact, it downright sucks. But that’s the way it is. So for me, this conference was all about attitude adjustment.

I skipped all the workshops about self-publishing and social media. I know, for me, self-publishing isn’t the route I want to go right now. And I really have social medial fatigue. I’ve decided to only focus on the social media sites I really enjoy and ditch the rest. I removed my LinkedIn account. It didn’t work for me and I was uncomfortable with so much personal information out there. Plus, the creeps seems to follow me everywhere. I even had a stalker there. I’ve decided to par down the tweeting and use Facebook only sparingly (conference week was an exception).

Back to the conference… I took a workshop on how to juggle two careers, which really seemed to help me because I work full time and write part time. I wrote notes with reckless abandon and started to feel a little bit better about myself. The next one I took was about “protecting your joy” which really meant how to love writing again. Because I haven’t been able to love it for a while. Something hasn’t been clicking with me and it’s time for me to make a chance. It helped me realize I just want to focus on what is most important–WRITING. Another workshop I took was about reinventing yourself. Because I think it’s time for me to take a hard look at where my writing career is and where I want to go. This workshop really spoke to me and helped me understand where I am as a writer and where I want to go. It was all worthwhile. I have some hard thinking to do and I intend to do that and figure out where I want to go and how to get there.

One of the best things about conference is coming home feeling fueled with creative energy. I do feel better about my writing and my direction now. I have some hard decisions to make about what my next steps will be. But the best thing is it’s all up to me and I know I can do this.