My First Convention

Chicon8 was a great way to break the ice in terms of what goes on at a convention. I've never been to any convention and I need to keep reminding myself of that. The thought continues occurring that much time and many opportunities were wasted. There were a lot of the small format writers groups on all sorts of topics, none of which I attended.

Simply put, I wasn't prepared. Neither physically nor emotionally. Large, college style auditorium classes was what I envisioned and there was no shortage of that. I attended many that were most interesting though I often found myself nodding off a bit (through no fault of the presenters, I haven't been sleeping well lately.)

The most difficult aspect was finding that I have no idea how the industry works. The second most is finding that I have no idea how to go about all of this. I've only had a couple days of writing since and though they've been productive, my manuscript is basically on hold as I've no idea how to proceed. Not so much with the story though I also don't know how to proceed there, but with what I'm doing.

To sum up, I've lost why I'm doing what I'm doing. Am I doing this to tell stories because if so, should I care less about the market? Am I doing this to find a new career because if so, should I crank out standard plots and characters with a focus on what is selling in the market? Am I doing this for fear that I don't have other options to make a living for if so, should I only be looking at the money makers and slavishly emulating them.

I'm wandering. Have been since Chicon8. Probably will continue for a while. Maybe evn quite a while. I'm going to try to get to Windycon in November. That may not help settle things but It'll be smaller and I can be more prepared. Perhaps.

The blog still has no spell checker. How does blog software come without a spell checker? What writer in their right mind uses it? Suddenly this is all coming together...