DFWCon is Over, Back to Real Life

Whew! What a weekend. I haven’t worked that hard at meeting people in years, and it felt good to be under the gun a bit.

Before I started my writing career, I’d been to many a convention. But these weren’t “craft” conventions per se, they were more of fan conventions, even the one I organized myself. And while those were a chance to relax, enjoy some downtime with people I hadn’t seen in a while and maybe buy something, this past weekend at DFWCon was completely different.

And not a bad different.

But make no mistake. While I had a great time meeting people and attending classes, at DFWCon I had goals. Goals, I am happy to report, that I accomplished. But as a self-described introvert (as many of us writers are) it takes a certain amount of self control to leave my comfort zone for a few days and start interacting with people regularly. Because I own my own business I don’t have co-workers. Because I work from home I don’t interact with many people daily. And because I covet my downtime I don’t socialize much. So pulling myself out of that head-space for a weekend was difficult. It was work.

For my first honest-to-god writer’s convention I had three goals: 1) Meet as many new people as possible, 2) pitch my novels to at least three agents, 3) interact and learn. While only goal number 2 was clearly defined, I feel like I was able to do all of this and more this weekend. I met some wonderful people (it helped that I’d formed a bit of a twitter clique beforehand), and the mixer on Friday made a big difference as well. I think if I had gone in blind on Saturday morning I would have been a lot more reserved. Pitching to three agents was more of a logistical thing, and I was able to squeeze in the very last spot for one of those said agents, so talk about cutting it close.

And finally number three, learn, learn, learn. I’d heard that during conventions like this most of the “action” happens at the bars, and I even had a colleague who said he was staying at the bar the entire time. But I still consider myself a newbie and I knew I needed to attend as many classes and workshops as possible. I am so glad I did. I almost feel like I should have attended this conference before I even began writing, because it really opened my eyes. However I managed to be a participant in one of the Read & Critique Workshop and the response to my piece was overwhelmingly positive. At least I know I’m not completely off-track.

I would like to give a special shout out to two classes: Jenny Martin’s Digging Deeper, and Amanda Arista’s Creating Strong Heroines and Stronger Villains in Your Women’s Fiction. These two classes have completely changed my perspective on writing, and I look forward to applying what I’ve learned in my next novel (currently in the outline phase).

To say the convention was a success for me would be a complete understatement. While none of the Agents ran up excitedly and pleaded to represent me, I feel like the experience and friends I gained make the entire experience priceless. I can’t wait until next year.

 

(Protip: Writers! Get on Twitter, it really makes a difference!)