Do you have a strategic goal for your writing? And other questions from the RWAus conference.

It’s been a long time coming but the Romance Writers of Australia “From Here to Eternity” conference is here. After last year’s conference in Sydney, I was hanging out for it this year. It’s great to be in such a positive atmosphere and to see so many people from last year.

Now, on to the conference.

Bob Mayer’s Friday workshop provided a useful toolkit for becoming a writer, rather than on the craft. It was an intense day and a lot of content to get through. I found myself getting annoyed by some of it and wondering if that was because of the motivational style of the workshop. But as Bob said, you need to find out why something makes you angry or afraid.

So, I did just that and found what I experienced was due to hearing a lot of what I already tell myself but I haven’t yet implemented. Disappointment in myself more than irritation at what Bob was saying. That was an eye opener, or a “Moment of Enlightenment.” Now I need to make a decision and implement the sustained change. See, I learned something.

Plenty of talk of developing a strategic goal and then tactical goals to go with them. Very useful and I’ll have to spend some time on that. It makes sense if you’re pitching to an agent or editor if you have a goal in mind and everything you do is targetted to that. They’re going to see a lot more potential in you because you have the drive to succeed and are going to do a lot of the work to make sure it happens. Makes sense, so simple. How many of us do it?

I was interested in hearing more about the promotion side of writing and think this is where I’ve got more of an interest. This prompted me to set up a new Twitter account for my name to make it easier to find (@danieldelorne), but of course a Twitter account a social media strategy does not make.

Content is king of course (and marketing is queen) so I need to focus more on the content and finish off the book – as well as develop the marketing side of my brand. Lots to do and that’s why I love this conference. It really lights a rocket under your arse.

Kristin Nelson’s “An Agent Reads from the Slush Pile” was a fantastic session. The basic premise had writers submit the first two pages of their manuscript and if yours was chosen, then it would be read out and Kristin would say stop where she would stop reading. The room was packed and there was a stack of papers to read from. Despite Kristin’s surprise, there were obviously plenty of people willing to hear some tough criticism – and I was definitely willing.

I was stunned to hear Kristin received 36,000 queries last year, requested from 864 and offered representation to three. You can’t blame her for being efficient in going through the first few paragraphs and instantly making a decision to either stop or proceed. Who would have the time? Enormous respect for her.

Sadly, we only got through about 10 or so but the advice she gave back was very useful and showed some of the pitfalls that writers…well…fall into (has anyone ever seen a pitfall?).

These included things like panic cannot crush your lungs, the need to anchor your reader early in the scene, despair can’t spiral and don’t overwrite your opening (too much visceral).

Kristin says she doesn’t read synopses, maybe a teaser blurb in the cover letter, but otherwise she jumps into the chapters as she wants to discover as if she was a reader. It’s a good lesson to never assume an editor or agent reads the query letter, synopsis AND the three chapters you send.

Kristin did an extra fifteen minutes of the session before we reluctantly had to leave. I’m going to her query letter workshop on Sunday which she bills as “showing you how to write a query letter that will absolutely get read” (or something like that).

And the day had gone but the night was still to come.