Conference High
By Joan Raymond, Writers of Kern (Bakersfield) Branch
If this puts you in the mood,
don’t miss the Writers of Kern Spring Conference on March 17, 2018
(see this month’s News and Conference pages)
Yesterday I attended our annual Spring Conference. Four incredible speakers motivated and encouraged our attendees during the all-day event. There’s something special about being around other writers, especially during a conference. More time to visit. More time to learn. More time to be with like-minded folks. I went home yesterday tired, yet incredibly inspired.
Our first speaker, Jeremy Adams, energized the room by encouraging us not to quit. No matter how hard it gets, keep moving forward. Then Dennis VanderWerff gave us ideas for stories, our own family histories. Next Jennifer Burger took the mystery out of query letters, and last Daniel Stallings give us ideas on promoting our finished work in an interactive way. We were taken from point A (the beginning of writing) to point D (creative marketing).
On the way home, all I could think of were my works in progress. Wondering which point in the A-D I was at in each project. Calculating how long it would take me to go through all the steps. I went to bed early but woke at 3:30 a.m., unable to go back to sleep from mulling over the previous day’s events. At first I was frustrated, but then I recognized I was experiencing “Conference High” – the inability to sleep through the night for the days (and weeks) following a life-changing creative event that wakes you in the middle of the night because excitement keeps running through your veins.
While awake, I journaled the ideas rushing through my mind – ideas for new fiction, non-fiction, and children’s stories. Ideas for markets for my written stories. Ideas for query letters. Ideas for interactive media promotions. After a few hours, I snuggled back up under the covers and managed to sleep a bit before the alarm sounded. But, even though we sprang forward this morning (not my favorite day of the year) I was ready to get up and start the day, still filled with inspiration and ideas to explore.
For those of you who were fortunate to attend the conference, I hope you were as inspired as I was. I hope you are also experiencing a burst of creative energy and a new-found motivation to pursue new ideas. Enjoy the Conference High and take advantage of it for as long as it lasts.
“Conference High” originally appeared as Joan Raymond’s
President’s Message in March 2017’s The Write Way,
the Writers of Kern newsletter