Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

Writeoncon is just about the only writing conference an expat mother of three like myself can attend without major funds and planning.  So OF COURSE I’m going to milk it for all it’s worth.

And it is worth so much. 

Since Monday, I’ve gotten fantastic feedback on my query letter and first pages of KISSING FOR COFFEE.  I’ve also been able to stretch my critiquing muscles and read some really awesome material in so many different genres. 

When twitter tips us off that a Ninja Agent is making an appearance in the forums, it’s a mad rush to recheck your material and keep your eyes peeled.   The vlogs are chuck-full of information and personality- really bringing to whole process down to a human level.

But it’s the vlog by Beth Revis that has touched me the most so far.  Beth’s vlog was on failure.  She showed all the manuscripts she’d written that weren’t ‘the one’.  She shared how every time, she treated each as though it was- revised, edited, worked HARD on every single one and how discouraging and disappointing it was to look at all that hard work and think ‘FAIL’.

She showed us that behind one book that makes it, there are several drafts.  Hours of work.  And three feet of unpublished material that helped her obtain the right level of craft she needed to get there.

In the end, her vlog wasn’t really about failure at all.  It was about never giving up and always moving forward, as difficult as it often is.

Her message couldn’t have come at a better time for me and I could totally relate to everything she said.  Every writer who’s been out there in the query trenches for awhile should definitely see this.

Thanks so much Beth and WriteOnCon!