Sunday, September 18, 2011

Conference fun and goals wrap-up

by: Joelle Charbonneau

Today is the final day of Bouchercon. I’ve looked forward to the conference all year and will be thrilled, sad and exhausted when I arrive home tonight. Conferences are great for a number of reasons. You get to meet your favorite authors in person, network with other writers and industry professionals and get the buzz up close and personal about what is going on in the publishing industry. And face it – conferences are fun! If you haven’t had a chance to attend a conference – either a regional or national one – you’re missing out.

At some point in the near future, I plan on giving you a rundown of this year’s Bouchercon experience complete with photos. I’m certain the photos of the charity bowling tournament will be worth clicking over and taking a peek. Until then, I want to circle back to something I wrote about earlier this year – summer goals.

The summer is about over. It is time to check in and see who has met their summer goals. I am pleased to say that I finished the project I was working on, sent it off to my agent, did revisions on it and have moved onto the next project. How about you? Did you meet the goals you set for yourself this summer? If not, I’d like for you to share that, too, because we don’t always hit our goals. Life often gets in the way. We’ve all had it happen and all writers have to remember that no matter how much we want to get the job done, sometimes we just can’t make our deadline. That’s when we pick ourselves up, set a new deadline and get to work.

So share your triumphs and disappointments here. I’m looking forwards to reading them once I return home from Bouchercon, St. Louis!

1 comment:

angie Brooksby-Arcangioli said...

I wrote here that my goal was to finish the manuscript I've been trying to complete for several years but keep starting it over. I wanted to reach the end of the first draft at close to 90k words. Well I got to 45k+ and had to stop because I realized the characters needed major adjustments. Then a new story that was banging around in my head finally circled and I started it, am at 15K words in two weeks. This one is so much better so I feel good about my summer work, the goal shifted.