Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Pre-conference planning


On Friday, we're driving five hours to Cincinnati for my very first writer's conference! Whoo-hoo.

It's the Writer's Digest Editor's Intensive conference, being held at their headquarters. A handful of names I actually recognize will be there. On Saturday, we'll sit through several workshops on query do's and don't's, whether you should self-publish, e-publish or wade through the slush. There's a lot of stuff on novel writing techniques, common mistakes, pacing, style, structure, etc.

I cannot wait. How cool will it be to actually hang out with other writers for a weekend and talk nothing but writing? Awesome.

But the biggie is on Sunday. We had to submit the first 50 pages of our manuscript a few weeks ago and were then assigned a 30-minute one-on-one critique session with a real live book editor! Gulp. Mine is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Central Time, so if you're religious, say a prayer for me. If you're not, well, wish me luck anyway. Pretty please?

Okay. So. I'm a bit nervous.
I've decided that I will let this weekend guide me when it comes to what I'm going to do with TDYDK. Although I like the new one better (since I know what I'm doing now, kind of), I had to submit the first 50 pages of the old one since I was only at page 44 of the new one at the submission deadline.

But like a couple of people here said, submit the old one and take any criticism and apply it to the new one, too. It's a win-win situation.

Unless, of course, I get crushed.

But hey, I'm told the local Starbucks is hiring. For reals.

6 comments:

  1. That sounds like so much fun! But yeah, I'd be terrified of the critique. :o

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  2. OMG!! I am so excited for you and just a wee-bit jealous too!

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  3. oh hooray! i hope you have a blast and learn bunches!!! and look forward to the critique, because how many get that chance to have a crit by a real editor?? the more "bad" things they say, the more you'll learn!! and being nervous is good, it just shows you care. i'd never heard of this one before.. there are a lot of these conference things, aren't there?

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  4. I hate you Terry Towery, I so want to go to that conference. Chuck is going to be there and I love Chuck.

    Okay, you know I don't really hate you, I'm just so incredibly jealous! I don't know which I'm more jealous of -- you 'going' to the conference and tooling with a whole bunch of writers or - you getting feedback on TDYDK.

    But have fun and stop worrying, you'll do fine.

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  5. What an extraordinary opportunity, Terry.

    Hope all goes well for you. Crossing fingers and toes.

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  6. Your page still hates me, btw.

    Have fun at the conference. I'm sure the feedback won't crush you. TDYDK is really good.

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