Focus Stealers

Almost a year ago, Susan Shay invited me to give a talk at the RWI--Romance Writers Ink--meeting. She vaguely mentioned the words, "talk about REJECTION." I take offense at the R word, especially in relationship to the publishing business.

Being rejected makes me sound like I'm a total loser, because, yes, I have gotten a lot of rejections over the years. But dwelling on the negative doesn't do anyone any good. Rejection happens in this business, but that shouldn't be the focus of a talk. Shoot, I've thrown writing craft books away because they talk about nothing else except the negative, "don't do this" or "don't do that".

And besides, what would I say about rejection?

"Get over yourself." That's it. Trust me, I've cried, complained, whined, etc. over each and every rejection that I received. And what has it done for me? NOTHING, except make me want to give up.

But real writers are nothing if we aren't persistant. Learning craft, learning the business, writing and moving forward are what real writers do. We take those rejections, learn from them and move on.

Fast forward to August 2011, Susan wants a bio. So I write a short and long one. She tells me the topic has something about writing through adversity. And I putz around for another 2+ months (Halloween) before I hop over to the RWI site, and find out the topic is really called, WRITING THROUGH THE TOUGH TIMES.

Oh, fizznuts, now the topic is so broad that I don't know where to even start. I knew I needed to organize my thoughts before I settled down to design a talk, but how?

Every Wednesday I eat lunch with the hubby, so I asked him. He suggested I use the term used by managers, called FOCUS STEALERS. I started thinking about this and how it could relate to writing.

I could do this.

What are FOCUS STEALERS and how do we learn to refocus on our writing. Okay, got it.

Now all I need to do is figure out power point. Insert super fast tutoral by my hubby and I'm on my way. I now have some slides with the points I want to make.

Is it perfect?  No.
Is it finished? No.
Is it organized? No.
Have I timed it? No.

But I have the main points down and all I have to do is tweak them.

Shoot, I have plenty of time. I don't have to speak until 1 PM on 11/12/11.

So, if you are interested in meeting me, or listening to me talk, or even be in the same room with a bunch of introverted writers, or if you simply have a Saturday afternoon in Tulsa, OK, please stop by. The talk is free. And no, I'm not even pimping my books.

RWI meets in Room 110, North Hall Conference Center at the OSU-Tulsa Campus at 1:00 p.m.