Last weekend I went to the New Hampshire Romance Writers’Association’s 2018 Winter Frolic. It was held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whichis a lovely place to be. I had a fantastic time, seeing some good friends andmeeting some great new friends. I also got some inspiration and great new ideasfor the year ahead.
I also found a new to me brewery with the most incredibleatmosphere, so if you’re ever up that way go check out Earth Eagle Brewings. No,they’re not paying me to say that.
Anyway, whenever I go to these conferences I always come away just bubbling over with inspiration. That might sound a little contradictory. I’m a huge introvert. If you know me in real life, you may be thinking, Going to the grocery store makes you need a nap. How does spending a weekend being social fill you with anything but the desire to hide in a belfry for a week?
And you’d be right. I can get overwhelmed at conferences, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy them or get a lot out of them. Like most medicine, it’s worth the side effects. For one thing, being in the company of a bunch of (mostly) women who are all there with the same sense of purpose, etc, is freeing. There’s a spirit of creativity and of solidarity that fills these places.
For another, the RWA conferences are very much a learning environment for me. And it does fire up my brain in ways other social gatherings usually don’t.
(I mean the grocery store is usually mostly women too, and we’re all there with the same sense of purpose, but it is NOT THE SAME.)
The main purpose of the Winter Frolic was education. It was a full day workshop in two parts. The morning workshop was a character workshop with Kristan Higgins. That alone would have been worth the price of attendance. She writes in a very different subgenre than I do, but at the end of the
And let me tell you, it did not feel like a three-hour lecture. It wasn’t a three-hour lecture. I came away with half of an outline for an upcoming book that had been at besta nebulous idea floating around after an experimental mixology session onenight – an outline built around questions about the main character, whichshould make the whole book stronger.
Then the second half of the event was a workshop with Damon Suede on plot. Suede is an incredibly dynamic speaker – I don’t think introverted,not-a-morning-person me would have survived if he’d been the morning speaker! Seriously, he’s a great speaker and a
I’ll tell you up front. I’m a plotter. Before I can write even a short story, I need an outline. I have ADHD. If I don’t have some kind of a road map of where I’m supposed to be and
So since plotting and outlining were strategies I had to develop in order to be at all effective as a professional author with deadlines and such, I figured that wasn’t something I needed to work on. I was open to hearing more about techniques and such, but it didn’t seem like a high priority.
I am so incredibly glad I paid attention. Suede went through all kinds of plotting techniques used through history, and I’m pretty sure I’ve found a few that will help me organize my books better. The whole process will be better for me, better for my readers, and just better all around.
The main program wasn’t the only part of the conference
I stopped her to thank her for it. It’s beautiful, and there’s also a bag, some books, and some other things that were left on the seats. She was very happy to tell us about the logo, and the series it ties into, and how she uses it to market the series even outside of the “typical” romance audience. I don’t know if I can pull it off quite as well as she did – seriously, she’s incredible – but she sure as heck gave me a thousand ideas!
So yes, I was more or less wrung out by the time I got home, but I loved every minute of that conference. Thanks to the NHRWA for awonderful time, and for all the inspiration.
[1]This is not hyperbole. I have done this. Recently. It’s sad – but hey, my skeins are wound into balls now.