November: A Month of Feasts!

My ACFW live recordings of the Indianapolis Conference 2010 are here! I bought the entire set and am having such fun reliving the experience of conference as I drive in my car and listen to the CDs. I also plan to upload them to my iPod and iPhone so I can listen while cleaning the house and doing other mundane chores. 

What a blessing these CDs are to me, a true feast for my ears, heart and mind. If you haven't invested in them, I highly recommend that you do. Listening to them more than once, I catch things I didn't catch the first time through. I believe the things learned in these sessions are more valuable than a college education. In fact, even when armed with a college education, you'll never learn to write marketable prose without attention to workshops such as these. (Trust me, I'm the perpetual, professional college student. I know these things.)

One of the most enjoyable things about being a writer are the new things we learn. We learn about our craft, how to write better stories, how to market--we're always being stretched. Sometimes I feel like a pretzel from being pulled and turned in so many directions, but it hurts good because it's preparing me for my goal as a full-time writer.

I've decided that if I'm feeling discouraged about the pace of my writing career, I'm going to pull out these CDs and listen to them for inspiration. If I can't be where I can write, I can at least listen to those who do, and learn from them until it's my turn to be the teacher.

Speaking of teachers, one of my favorite teachers on earth, Dr. Dennis Hensley, is speaking at our state meeting on Saturday, Nov. 13 at Hall's Guesthouse Restaurant in the Bridge Room in Fort Wayne at 11 AM. Doc's presentation is entitled "Taking it up a Notch." I can hardly wait to join you in more feasting and pretzel stretching alacrity.

Another feast for writers this month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). How many Hoosiers are up to the challenge? I'm doing it mainly as an exercise in teaching myself how to better write in third person. (My success in publishing so far has been mostly in first person.)

I have NaNoWriMo to blame for writing fiction today. I'd written mostly nonfiction until seven years ago when I stumbled onto Chris Baty's site and he loaned me a laptop so I could enter the contest. I finished a 50,000 word novel in thirty days (a very bad one) and learned the art of pressing through to the other side of a story even when I wasn't inspired. Chris was nice enough to quote me a few times in his book, No Plot No Problem. I've entered the event every year since simply to try my hand at different styles and genres. This year for the first time I'm writing a romance. I'm surprised to find I like it.

I'm thankful for much this Thanksgiving in terms of my writing career. I have great resources offered to me via ACFW, wonderful Christian author friends, and plenty of opportunities to write. There's never been a better time to be a writer and member of ACFW. I feel truly blessed.