Last year I came home from my first LibertyCon and wrote up my Lessons from LibertyCon. That single conference was so inspiring that over the course of the next year I wrote over 165k words, sent out half a dozen short stories, and finished my first novel. Oh, and I helped kick off something called #TeamAndMore.
So yeah, it kind of had an impact on me.
I came home from LC last year with three commitments: to write, edit, and read daily for the next six months. I didn’t actually manage that every day, but I did extend it into a full year of effort, so I think it all evens out :)
I’m going to make that same commitment again this year. Write, edit, read. I mean, why tinker with what seems to be working for me? So I’m going to keep my daily commitments unchanged.
So what did I learn at LC this year?
Meeting people is awesome!
I met a ton of interesting people. A couple of folks from my writer’s group that I only knew from online. Some authors I had never met before, but whom I shared an anthology with. Some folks that I just plain darn like talking to and got a chance to catch up with. Simply put: you guys are all amazing.
I need to do more of that. We didn't make any room parties this time around. Next year, I want to try and balance learning with networking. One of my "I RILLY RILLY WANT THAT!" things was to chat with Mike Baron, and I completely missed out on that.
That’s because the "ferret on pixie stix" effect is real. I was so busy running around that the only real time I had to talk was the kaffeklatsch, which was noisy as all get out. I should have "hung out" more, played some games, and generally just enjoyed myself & the people I wanted to be around.
Also - you can’t expect social events to just happen. Make 'em happen. I invited some folks out to dinner on Sunday after the con, and it was probably one of THE BEST THINGS EVER. I had a blast! Next year, I’m definitely going to spend more time handing out and enjoying the people I came to see.
Oh - almost forgot - I also handed out 250 business cards for #TeamAndMore. They went to new authors and aspiring authors, of course, but I also had a couple of experienced authors ask for cards as well. Not ever pros sell everything to their first market, it seems, and having a list of anthologies to bounce a story off of seemed to be a popular idea!
Panels are fun!
This was my first time appearing on a couple of panels, and I really enjoyed it. I think I did a decent job, but I’d like to get better at it. I paid attention to the moderators, too. That’s a very different place on a panel, and I could tell that it’s a definite skill set that can be developed. Oh, and I did a reading with Julie Frost, which was one of the highlights of the weekend. I had a blast, and couldn’t have asked for a better person to do a reading with.
Of the panels I attended, the 1:1 presentations were the most useful. Monalisa Foster did her session on Point of View, which I’ve wanted to catch for years; it was wonderfully informative and incredibly useful. Jody Lynn Nye did an amazing presentation on crafting an elevator pitch for your novel. Steve Diamond’s session on the elements of horror have convinced me that he’s correct: every good story has those elements, so horror is a fundamental genre to study & understand.
Something else I noticed was that the "industry" panels were a lot more interesting to me this time around. I wanted to know more about what different publishing houses were doing, what the state of the indie scene is, and the like. I suspect that will remain true going forward into next year.
Be social!
For next year, I need to bring books and sign up for author's alley/signature sessions. I didn’t this year, because I thought, “I’m a new author. I don’t even have a book out! Who would want to talk to me?”
Well, this year, the light bulb finally went off. While I was flitting back and forth, trying to find the people I wanted to talk to? My peers were sitting in author’s alley or at an autograph session. People either came to them, or they could keep an eye on the crowd and give a shout out to people they wanted to talk to as they wandered by in the main hall.
D’oh! So, yeah. Next year, I’m doing author’s alley for sure, because of something else I learned…
Make commitments!
Dedicating myself to writing this past year worked. Who knew?
So - when I said that I’m going to keep my daily commitments unchanged? Absolutely true. However, I am going to layer on some overarching goals for this year that I want to put down so yins guys and all y’all can hold me to it. This year, overall, I am going to:
Work as an editor.
Publish my first novel.
Finish my second novel.
Build out #TeamAndMore.
Keeping track of these is going to be a little more difficult, but I’ve already got things in motion to help with each of them.
Work as an editor: I’ve got a couple of anthology proposals I’ve pitched. Open call, of course! If I get to work with someone on those, that’ll be fantastic. Otherwise - well, there’s always indie, isn’t there?
Publish my first novel: Sigils is already at my editor, so that’s rolling right along. Once I get feedback from her, I’ll combine it with my alpha reader’s input and do another round of edits before I start shopping it around. There’s a couple of houses I would like to send it to. If they don’t like it? Well, there’s always indie, isn’t there?
Finish my second novel: I already have a couple of partial novels, plus a few ideas “in the works”. Those are ideas with enough of an outline that I can see the story that’s there. I’ve learned enough this past year that the idea of sitting down and doing a 5k-10k outline to prep my next novel is not just something I think I can do, it’s something that excites me! My problem isn’t doing the work, it’s deciding which of those stories I want to work on.
Build out #TeamAndMore: I’m going to keep up with the website, of course. I’ve also added a Team “… and More!” Facebook group to help spur more discussion and interaction. I think that actually might work out well - we shall see. If it helps encourage people and/or get them oriented in the world of writing, then I’ll consider it a win.
Have Fun!
Overall? That’s why I’m doing this. I have stories to tell, I like telling them, and I like hanging out with the people who tell them. Oh, and I really like helping people tell their own stories, which is the whole purpose of #TeamAndMore.
So there you have it. Write, edit, and read every day. All of which feeds