Writing Conference Split-Personality Disorder: I Am Legion

Creative Commons Split Personality by Alcino

I'm back from the Missouri Writers' Guild Conference 2008, energized, inspired, and infected with half a dozen personalities.

Memoir personality wants to write a book about our childhood.

• Magazine-article personality wants to pitch several ideas to American Profiles.


• Non-fiction author personality wants to send off requested materials to the editor we met.


• Fiction-author personality wants to get our novel's query letter right and send it out to agents.

The conference did what it was supposed to do. Conferencing is for learning, networking, support, and rejuvenation. And it keeps me away from the kitchen knives.

So what do I say to all these new personalities? Lots of people will say, reintegrate! Banish all the voices that compete with your main project! I say, embrace the crazies - just prioritize.

So listening to all my personalities, the most important thing is to get my non-fiction book proposal to the editor who requested it. Then while it's marinating on the darkling plane of editorial purgatory, I can listen to the next most important personality and get out some magazine query letters to prime the pump before I polish the fiction query.

What I don't want to do is forget any of the personalities, or they'll fade away along with their potential. So I'm makin' a list and checkin' it twice. . . sorry, Christmas personality took over for a minute.

So listen to the voices - they have some pretty good ideas. Moohoohahaha