Saturday, September 24, 2011

Pictures from RWA Signing




The NH chapter of the RWA convention was fantastic! I got to meet a fellow Entangled Author, Sarah Gilman (pictured above on the left), and we had a blast. Turns out our personalities work very well together. Being both flutists, we had a lot to talk about!



The guest speaker at the luncheon was NY Times Bestseller Carla Neggers. She had a lot of great advice and I took extensive notes. I'll share what I learned in a bunch of future posts, but here's a sample from her speech at lunch:

Three Things You Need to be a Successful Author:
Focus, Vision, Dedication

Focus:
Clarity of purpose (What you're doing/Why you're doing it) becomes the foundation of a positive focus. To achieve this you must set realistic targets and milestones. You must adopt practices that will make you a more effective creator. Prune everything that doesn't contribute to your creative process. (For example: creative vampires like the internet).

Vision:
Take the time for "Vision work". Give yourself a blank space where you can have inspirational thought and get away from all of the conventions like: synopsis writing, plot arcs, submissions, rejections etc.)
Go with the unpredictability of the creative process.

Dedication:
Dedicate yourself to your own creative journey. A lot of people don't want to do the work if they don't know it will have a positive outcome or if it will sell. You have to embrace the uncertainty and unpredictability of writing.

Lots of great stuff, huh?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Such a fabulous day!

Christine Rains said...

The pictures look fabulous! Sounds like you had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

Lisa Kessler said...

Congratulations on the signing!!!

So cool you guys got to meet up!!!

Lisa ;)

C D Meetens said...

Really useful points, and looks like you enjoyed the signing :).

Mandie Baxter said...

Awesome! Looks like a fun time.

Golden Eagle said...

It sounds like it was a fun signing!

Those are great points.

Cherie Reich said...

Aww! Great pictures! That's awesome you got to meet a fellow Entangled author. :)

Theresa Milstein said...

Yes, lots of great stuff! I love the part about vision.

What are the changes you're both with the same publisher AND play the flute?