If you need to stick close to home this year, why not take some online classes instead of attending a conference? Despite what you may think, it’s not the end of your career. There’s always next year and plenty of other options to suit your busy lifestyle. Photo by Israel Sundseth
Attending writing conferences is great when you have the time, money, and inclination to learn a lot of information all at once.
But sometimes life demands more of our time, money, and energy, and we may find ourselves in a situation where we have to sit out a writing conference this year or choose a steady stream of online classes instead of conference attendance for budgeting reasons.
So while I certainly appreciate writing conferences, and enjoy attending them and speaking at them, I am at a point in my parenting process, where attending them is not as practical as it was when my daughter was younger. But the news is not all bad. Considering how much online learning is available these days, if I have described the type of year you are having in any way, shape or form, don’t sweat it. Sitting out a conference this year does not have to cost you your writing career growth.
Go ahead and give yourself permission to learn the way that best suits your lifestyle at this time. This may sound like radical advice, but the fact is that online learning is booming and a greater variety of quality learning experiences have never existed like they do today.
I am a big proponent of writing conferences, or any type of professional conferences, but even when I was regularly speaking and teaching at them over the course of many years, I noticed that there was a high cash outlay for attendees and an awful lot of rah-rah. By this I mean that folks would leave the conference all hyped up only to come quickly crashing back down into their day-to-day reality, which could sometimes feel like a pretty big letdown in comparison.
It was by attending many conferences over many years that I became a bigger advocate of just doing the work, day by day, and building towards gradual success whether you attend conferences or not. This is how I became and how I remain successful and this is how all of my most successful students have done the same.
I am a big fan of stage-relevant learning. Stage-relevant learning simply means taking the next class or level of classes that suits where you are professionally in your writing career. Stage-relevant career growth means you customize your educational choices as you grow your career to take advantage of whatever choices make the most sense for you at this time.
It may mean, instead of attending a conference this year that you spread your learning out throughout the year, and chip away at it seasonally or monthly. So instead of trying to absorb a manufactured sense of rah-rah all in one weekend, your highs come from actual accomplishments in real time. And the lows only come when you don’t stick to your regular productivity.
Call me crazy, but I believe that people who want to write should actually write. I believe that they feel best about themselves when they set goals and reach them and then set higher goals and reach them. Attending conferences won’t get your writing done. But taking charge of your writing career growth will.
Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with attending a writing conference. I can’t wait until my schedule allows me to start attending them again. But if you are forking over a lot of dough in conference fees, travel arrangements, and food, I would weigh this against the kind of success you might be able to achieve taking regular online classes and working with a coach or mentor over the course of a year.
And if you can do both, awesome! But even then, be sure to carefully select the conference that is the best choice for where you are in your career right now and where you want to go next.
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