Writing instead of just dreaming

My writer's block was cured! One day, quite suddenly the words began to freely pour out on to paper again. I actually forgot I was even suffering from a block at all until I visited my blog and was reminded of it in my last post. So maybe writer's block is a thing. Or maybe I was just experiencing a prolonged period of laziness. Or maybe just maybe it was the 2014 Pacific Northwest Writer's Association Conference that kicked me into gear.

Four years ago I finished my first book. It was amazing and brilliant. It was going to take the YA world by storm and change the way people thought about life, the universe and everything. Or, it was going to be met with a little bit of interest, a few polite words of praise and then go on to collect dust and become a perfect reminder that one must walk before they run. I will never regret a) writing that first book and b) attending the 2010 conference because it taught me way more than just sitting around dreaming about being a writer ever could. I learned I'd need an agent, a platform, a query and a synopsis. That I'd need to actually write a few drafts of my novel before flinging it out there and that I'd need to have a good reason to write that book.

Fast forward to present day, a few manuscripts and hours and hours of research later I feel The Sky Empress is in much better shape and ready to see the light of day. Hopefully so will some of the people I met today. Today at the conference it was all about putting the last four years together: all the studying, all the edits, all the books I've written since. Today felt kind of like the test after a four year long class. Hopefully I passed.

Trying to sum it all up into some sort of moral for this blog post and all I can really think about is this warm glowing feeling of success. Going to conferences is about learning the craft and business, meeting new people, making connections, learning how to tell your story in a few lines and presenting yourself about a writer but it is also about gaining confidence. More than anything I think today made me feel like I was a real writer and I needed that. Being surrounded by hundreds of people dedicated to writing felt so wonderful and to simply be able to turn to someone and just begin talking about something I have such a passion for was inspiring. I guess what I'm trying to say is conferences are an amazing learning tool but they're also a way to reaffirm yourself as a writer. Because you are. The minute you stop just dreaming and starting writing is the day you are a writer.