Wednesday at the OCW conference, I took a look at my schedule and realized I barely had time to breathe, LOL. After the editor panel the day before, my appointment slots not only filled up, they got overbooked (slight confusion due to a change, LOL).
My morning was yet again filled with the coaching session class by Karen Ball, and she had us do a really great experiment. Dividing us into groups, we had to act out an argument and record it. Then play it back and transcribe not only what we said, but what we did while saying it. If you’re a writer and find that your characters do nothing but nod, smile, and pace, this is a great exercise to try! (Waving at Ann Shorey who stepped way outside her sweet self to play the part of a slum-lady, after irresponsible-me to collect my past-due rent. So fun!)
I met with a lot of great authors that afternoon and came home with some precious impressions of some of the nicest folks and their passion for their projects. Wondering about why appointments are important when it’s your writing that should get the focus? That’s why. A project that may have otherwise not caught my attention I will now read through with excitement, because I saw their excitement for it. Don’t underestimate how much your passion means to an editor!
Wednesday afternoon I also taught a class that I called “The Marketing Monster.” There are sooooo many marketing classes out there that I didn’t really want to compete with them. I didn’t want to cover the same thing they did. So rather than focus on the steps you can take when marketing, I dealt with the attitude writers often have toward it, the fears and insecurity, the resentment we often have of this thing that takes away from our writing time. Had I not titled it “The Marketing Monster,” I would have called it “Spirit-Led Marketing.” My whole focus was on crafting the right heart within ourselves so that then we can follow all those steps in the right way. It was a fairly small class, but the ladies who came responded well, and one really summed it up at the end by saying, “The other marketing classes are about our actions. This was great–it was about our heart.” If you’d like my notes and handout from this class, shoot me an email at roseanna at roseannawhite dot com, or you can order the CD for $6 from OCW.
Directly after my class came the autograph party. I had a fabulous time with some of my awesome author friends and also sold a fair number of books, which is always fun. 😉 Overall, my time in Oregon was wonderful and packed full of learning, networking, and meeting with some truly promising authors.
And boy, was I glad to get back to my hubby and kiddos! =)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
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Great pics on your blog, Tammy! And thanks–I actually liked having a small enough class that they could interact. =) And so glad to know it was helpful for you!
I'm so glad I had a chance to meet you too! I've got the best "stalker" around, LOL. (Tammy and I kept running into each other, and she made a comment about how I'd start to think she was stalking me. More like I loved seeing a familiar, so-friendly face so often.)
Thank you so much for coming to the conference. It was wonderful to meet you. And don't give a second thought to the number of attendees in your workshop. I, for one, purchased your CD and am listening to it now for the second time. I'm sure lots of others did that as well. You share lots of great tips and the comment from one attendee is right on the money—it was about our heart. Thanks for understand and sharing our passion.
Blessings!
PS Your picture with Christina turned out great. I just posted it on my blog if you want to make yourself a copy or I can email you one.