One More Time?

Ok, you might remember this post in which I said that it would be really cool to go to the MMB Blogging Conference. Well, it would be cool, but I can tell you what is cooler. (Sorry, MMB. I love you, but this really is cooler.)

I'm going to the LDS Storymakers Writing Conference!!

I thought I'd already blogged about this, but I couldn't find it in my archives, so here I am doing it now. Plus, they have a Show the Love for LDS Storymakers Conference Contest going on which requires that I blog about it:)

I've attended the Conference since, um, I think since just after Megan was born. I've lost count. Last year and this year I was certain I wouldn't get to go, but last year I was able to save up enough babysitting money to go--and trust me, babysitting these kids nearly every day for less than I would pay a teenager to babysit my own kids wasn't easy. But it was completely worth it. Every single hard day of it.

This year I thought I would never get to go because I haven't been babysitting much and finances have been tight. Plus, what to do with the kids? Who wants to take Jeremy to school, watch Megan and Emma, pick Jeremy up, feed the kids lunch, turn right around to take Megan to school, go home with Jeremy and Emma, and pick up Megan three hours later? Really, I mean it's amazing I don't get whiplash.

But, Nathan, the wonderful husband that he is, emailed me a couple weeks ago and said I should go to the conference and take the kids to his parents in SLC for the week. He said if I could pay for the conference, he would pay for everyone's airfare. SWEET, isn't he!

The conference is a place that I have felt accepted as a writer, where I have learned not to hide who I want to be as a writer (or who I am now as a writer), to accept rejections (because they happen), and to look forward to acceptances (because they will come too). I have had opportunities to mingle with literary greats and literary newbies who will be considered great soon. I have grown as a writer, becoming better and developing the love, if not talent, that God has given me for the written word.

I'm excited for another year's conference where I can soak it all in, learn more, make more friends, more connections, gain more inspiration . . .

I hope some of y'all who enjoy writing think about attending. It would be great to see you there!

The Best Writer's Conference Ever!

(This is a small portion of our online writers' group, Authors Incognito)

I got back late last night from the LDSStorymakers Writing Conference. IT WAS AWESOME! (Once again.) This is my fourth time attending and every year it just gets better. I'm still a little tired from traveling yesterday and getting up at 4:30 AM (Utah time) to be with my kiddos today who decided to wake up at 6:30 AM (Ohio time).

While I absolutely loved going, I felt guilty this year. You see, I haven't done a lot of writing in the last year (not counting blogging). Since the last conference I have been really busy with anything but writing. I traveled, I had a baby, I moved across the country, I started babysitting three or four times a week, and I played lots of board games with Nathan and friends from dental school and Church. But my worst excuse is I stopped believing in myself and my abilities. It was pretty easy to say I didn't have time to write. I did a little bit of therapeutic writing shortly after we moved here, but that was it. I didn't work on my books at all. I blamed it on lack of time, but really it was lack of faith in myself. I'm terrified to submit. Thinking about it makes me tear up and get shaky.

Any confidence I had gained in writing from my college professors (because that is where nearly all of it came) was gone. I hadn't been in school for a long time (or at least hadn't taken an English class in a while). I'm not sure what happened to zap my confidence, but it was gone. I had a blog that people told me they enjoyed reading, I had a couple stories accepted for a collection in a book, and recently I was asked to write some articles for our Stake's summer musical, This is Kirtland! and in the past I've had letters to the editor published in USU's paper, The Stateman, a paper that isn't easy to get into if your letter is actually well-written and thought out. But I haven't worked on my stuff for a long, long time.

If there is one thing that I learned at this conference (ok, I'm going to list more than one here, but they all go together) it is this: write anyway. Write, write, write, and stop editing my stuff so much. I never get very far because I stop to edit and try to make those first chapters perfect. Then when I can't, I get discouraged and stop writing altogether. I need to make writing one of my priorities and that scares me. What? I have to have ANOTHER priority? I don't have enough priorities already?

Yeah. I have to make it a priority and make myself do it because, hey, it is what I want to do, it is something I do actually love doing when I believe in myself (and like what I'm writing about--payday loans and injury lawyers are topics I do not enjoy writing about so please do not ask me to write about them as a ghost writer on your nephew's website simply because you don't want to do it yourself. I will say no.).

So, from now on I am not allowed to tell myself that I was stupid when I thought I could write. I WILL write every day and after seeing what is reasonable for me I will make a daily word count goal. I will hold myself responsible to those of you who read my blog (I will try to create something that I can check off daily on my blog to let you know, as if you care, that I reached my word count goal for the day), the wonderful people in my writing group, and to my husband. Oh, and to Jeff Savage because he made me promise I would have one manuscript finished (not polished, just completely written) by the end of the summer.

I'm ready.

So here I go. Ready, Set, Go!

So Long, Farewell, Auf wiedersehen, Adiu

So I'm leaving bright and early on an airplane tomorrow morning. Am I excited?



Oh Yeah!

I'm more than a little excited.

On Thursday I fly to SLC and a writing group friend is picking me up from the airport.

Then we drive to the Marriott Hotel in Provo where we get to hang out, write, do whatever we want.

On Friday and Saturday I get to go to the best writing conference ever--the LDS Storymakers Writers' Conference.

Then Sunday my wonderful in-laws will take me back to the airport so I can fly back home.

I get Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday kid-free.

I haven't had more than three or four hours of kid-free since last year's conference.
And at last year's conference I was pregnant and had contractions through the entire weekend.

Yes, it has been a year since I had anything other than the hours of 1 AM to 6 AM to myself. And sometimes I haven't even had that.

So a BIG THANK YOU to those taking my kids these days so I can go to the conference and Nathan can go to school.
And another HUGE THANK YOU to Nathan for letting me skip off to the conference and being willing to have the kids all to himself after he gets out of school. I know it isn't easy to have someone else's kids all day (believe me I know! That's how I paid for the conference and the plane ticket!) so I really, really, really appreciate it Lori, Mary, and Kristy!

And Nathan, I know it isn't easy to have our own kids sometimes, so I owe you.

I Got My Skills at the Storymakers Conference

It's that time of year when I start thinking about making more time for writing. Most of the time I do my best with the time I have, but once Christmas is over, I make more time. For my books, that is.

You see, registration for the LDSStorymakers Writers' Conference has begun. This year I actually started thinking about it much sooner. As soon as I got the babysitting job back in September I planned on using the money to get me to the conference. I'm still working the kinks out, but I think it might happen. I have to drive my kids across the country, find a babysitter for that weekend, and see if I can afford the hotel reservation or just get up extra early and drive from my in-laws in West Valley or my friends around Provo.

I've been to the Conference for the last three years and I've loved it every time. I know a few of you who read this blog are writers and might be interested in going, so I'll give you a link to their site where you can read more about it. Each Conference I've been to has been great and each one is better than the last. I've learned a lot and I know my writing has improved from attending these Conferences. If any of you Cleveland girls want to go, let me know and you can come with. Maybe we can split a room at the hotel!