Post Conference Blues

By Dani Pettrey

I’m excited to be guest posting today. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the blog and I’m really happy to be back. I gain so much insight and wisdom from the posts here and am just thrilled to be taking part.

I hope all of you who were able to attend the ACFW conference had a wonderful time. It was so much fun hearing about it from friends. It sounded like it was wonderful. If you went, I’d love hearing about your experience in the comment section below.

While we’re on the subject of conference’s today, I thought I’d share about the nearly inevitable post conference let down. That feeling of excitement that brewed inside leading up to the conference. The joy you experience while there as you received encouragement, inspiration, instruction on the writing craft, and just get to hang out with like-minded souls. There’s nothing like a writing conference to remind you of your purpose, to let you know you’re not alone, and to give you tangible tips to implement when you get home.

When you get home and the days pass, I don’t know about you, but I feel a letdown. It’s like the excitement and adrenaline surging through me before and during the conference must eventually leave our system and we are once again on our own, so to speak, in our daily writing practice. Even though when we return home many of us have writing friends we’re able to chat with, our lives are filled with many non-writing related things that bring us joy, and being home with our families is amazing. There is still something almost akin to sadness shifting back into everyday writing life.

Everyday writing can be lonely with no one sitting by us cheering us on and no keynote speakers inspiring us to keep at it.  Writing can be hard. There are days when the words creep out so slowly you wonder if you’ll ever make your daily word or page count.

Here are a few ideas to cope with the transition back to your regular writing life:

• If you miss the encouragement and education, consider purchasing the conference mp3s when they become available. Commit to listening to one a week throughout the year. Even if it’s a workshop you attended, there’s always something new you pick up the second time around.
• Commit to continuing to grow in your craft. The above suggestion falls into this, but so do craft books, writer podcasts, and blogs like this one. You’d be amazed at all that’s out there.
• If you miss the camaraderie, consider joining a local writing group or meeting up with local writers for a cup of coffee once a month. Or, better still, consider volunteering with ACFW.
• If you’re pre-published and you received requests from editors or agents, get on them. Don’t wait. Get your proposals or sample chapters in while they still remember you.
• Apply what you learned. Take out your notes and work to implement one thing you learned every week or at whatever pace feels comfortable to you. It’s way too easy to take copious notes and then never use the information to improve our writing or marketing skills.
• Thank those you learned from. If there was an author or presenter who did a great job, shoot them an email via their website. Let them know how much you appreciate them.

Those are just a few ways to deal with the post conference blues. I’d love to hear any other ideas or suggestions you might have.

Praised by New York Times best-selling author Dee Henderson as “a name to look for in romantic suspense,” Dani Pettrey combines the page-turning adrenaline of a thriller with the chemistry and happy-ever-after of a romance. Her novels stand out for their “wicked pace, snappy dialogue, and likable characters” (Publishers Weekly) and “sizzling undercurrent of romance” (USA Today). For more information, visit danipettrey.com