Getting Serious About the Voices in my Head

This weekend, I will attend my first writers' conference. I am looking forward to learning more about the craft of writing, networking with other authors, and learning how to market my writing. The conference is the Ozarks Romance Authors' Conference, or ORA Con. The group meets on the first Saturday of each month at the Library Center.  The conference is in its 25th year, and at the encouragement of my friend Jill, I am attending. It is open to writers of all genres, and is a great way to meet and hobnob with both aspiring writers and industry professionals.

I am also very nervous.

For the first time, I will be pitching my work to a literary agent, in the flesh.  I have sent a few query letters and plenty of short-story and poetry submissions in the past. (I'm a terrible poet, by the way, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.) All of this motivation occurred during my youth, when my prose was horridly purple and self-important. I am hoping that I have lived enough, and learned enough that my voice has matured. At the very least, I hope that it won't shake.

I am looking at this as an opportunity to learn - nothing more. It may take me many, many years to get published, and I have no illusions. I appreciate the encouragement of my family and my friends, but I hope they also realize that this is a complicated process, and something which isn't as black and white as the letters on a page. It's a business, and I have a product to sell. There has to be a market for said product, and that is what it's all about, folks.

Writers can get very attached to their creations, just like any artist. It's your baby, and sometimes you've just gotta know when to let it go and look at it objectively. I love Elisabeth Turner, my protagonist in "Relative Truth." She has kept me up many nights, and she is pretty much writing herself at this point. Not everyone is going to love Elisabeth Turner. I have to be OK with that.

So, I bought myself a new green dress(my lucky color), and I'm talking to myself in the mirror to get the words right and not look like a dork.  If I'm going to do this writing thing, I might as well REALLY do it, right? At the very least, I'll meet some new friends, realize that agents and publishers aren't scary minotaurs in a maze, and have some fun with creative writing exercises. For a word nerd like me, this should feel like recess after a day of long division and multiplication tables - my personal purgatory.