RWA Conference in San Antonio

Romance Writers of America had their conference in San Antonio this year, and I was lucky enough to attend. It was my first RWA conference (my first writer’s conference!) and my first visit to San Antonio.

Have you ever seen pictures of those wild women at a Chippendale's show?
Yeah, I was doing the happy dance.

This conference was also the first opportunity to meet some of my amazing and talented critique partners—women that I’d only known online before. Honestly, to finally see my writerly sisters in person, and hug them for the first time was profound.

Of course, we attended as many RWA workshops as we could cram into each day. We focused on workshops about craft (alpha heroes, story conflict, high concepts, and deep pov) and about social media (marketing techniques, blogs, Google plus, etc.)  The presenters made the information fun and educational.

Sylvia Day spoke at the Thursday keynote luncheon. The speech that she gave truly motivated and inspired.

During the three day event, there were some elemental themes woven into all the excellent advice. Here’s what I especially took away from it:

1. Write. No matter what, keep writing.
2. Write what you love. If you don’t, you may not keep writing, and really that’s the bottom line. We’re writers and we love to write romance.
3. Read. Whenever your can.
4. Do what works for you. Schedule your writing time and the social media that you’re comfortable with. That way you’ll keep doing both.
5. Write. No matter what, keep writing.
   
   
   I hope you're all creating stories that you love.
   
   'Till next time,
   Marilyn