Sunday, September 29, 2019

A few gems

The 2019 Regional SCBWI Conference in Fargo was a blast! I'm really glad I was able to go. We got to hear from author Claudia Mills, literary agent Tim Travaglini, and editors Sara Sargent and Alexa Pastor.

All the speakers blew my mind with in-depth analyses of story elements like character and voice, but it was Claudia Mills who cracked my jaded writer's heart. Her hilarious and down-to-earth wisdom about juggling a writing career (inking 1 hour a day, every day) with the demands of life was exactly what I needed to hear at this time. As a (lazy) perfectionist, I fall into useless melancholia too easily. Which is why I very much appreciated a quote she shared by Anthony Trollope, essentially that a habit "has the force of a water drop that hollows the stone. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules."

Psstt . . . I also received some marvelous feedback on my Agent Regalia manuscript. Now I just hope I can finish and polish the story to a proper shine by spring! Time to channel the water drop's power.


No comments:

Post a Comment