A few years ago, a friend introduced me to a free event for writers and I have been hooked ever since. Although, it does end up costing a pretty penny when you're a book dragon adding to your hoard...

It's funny. Most of my life, people have told me that every artistic industry is cutthroat. Everyone runs over the next guy to get ahead. You have to be the best or you're nothing.

WRITING IS THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE.

The majority of writers out there are incredibly nice and supportive people. Everyone gets excited about each other's work, our new and old projects, and offer a hand to help struggling writers succeed. Much like the online writing community over at DabbleU, we are all there to help each other improve. Writing is not a lonely thing. You just have to find the right group to join so you can all support one another. In fact, if you are new to writing, many authors will jump in to help you get on your way if you let them. We love new people.

This year, I started the day going to a workshop on getting past procrastination. I think every writer should attend a similar workshop if they can. Procrastination is hard. It's hard on your writing and it's hard on your soul. The guilt I feel over stalling and not working on something just compounds until I explode. I hate it. Putting things off always feels easier, but it never ends well.

In this workshop, the speaker, Stephen Kiernan, spoke about the brain. Yep. Science. We were created with an incredible muscle for a brain split into 2 hemispheres, henceforth going to be referred to as a left brain and a right brain. Both, very different, but also necessary. Different roles, but complete purpose.

The left brain is the "practical" center. Math, numbers, fine motor skills, safety, technology, protection, and recognition all are handled by this side. Very helpful for technical things and logic things we have to deal with everyday, or if you are a pilot, surgeon, or engineer.

The issue comes when your Left Brain wants to take over and protect you from uncertainty or failure. (It probably aids in the creation of one's Inner Critic as well, though Kiernan did not touch on that point.) When Protection kicks into overdrive, it finds every reasonable reason not to do the thing and PROCRASTINATION is born!

The right side of the brain goes beyond this into the realm of dreams. Empathy, your senses, spatial awareness, discerning a face, are all things it handles. Music, poetry, non-verbal communication, dreaming, and even planning are born on this side. The side of possibilities. The creative side, as many deem it, is always expanding with new things. New images. New colors. New stories. This is the side that writers must learn to engage when dreaming up stories and when bringing them into existence on paper.

Sometimes I wonder why I need to keep both sides when I really seem to prefer the right side of the brain for my passion. Creative stuff is my life, so why bother with non-essentials, right? Let's make room for the fun stuff.

As perfect as the right side seems to me, it also has it's drawbacks. Evidently, it can cause difficulty speaking, losing track of time, heightened emotionality, and disproportionate pride as well. All of which I have experienced at the least opportune times. I need my left brain to keep me on track so my fun right brain does not lose things or inflate my ego too much. Sounded like a supervisor to me.

We learn as writers that when we create characters we can change a positive trait into a negative one rather quickly by simply giving it a dramatic boost. Adoration becomes obsession. Loyalty can become overbearingly protective. In essence, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

Finding the balance between the right brain and the left brain and how to engage the side you need at the correct time will be helpful to your productivity, not just in writing but in anything you strive to accomplish otherwise as well.

Kiernan went on to say that the best way to learn your way of balancing or engaging is through forgiveness and patience. We did an activity that illustrated this. He brought up an old sketch from a famous artist and asked us to copy one element of it on a paper in only a couple minutes, then grade it. Then, we flipped over the paper and had to draw a different element of it of his choosing with our non-dominant hand in the same amount of time, then grade that one too. (If you wish to try this out yourself, do so before reading on to be unbiased on your reaction.)

Many of us noticed that we gave our non-dominant hand more grace to mess up, since we expected less from it. Our dominant hand sketch typically gained a harsher grade since we expected better.

Forgiveness. Patience. Grace. Good things to keep in mind for yourself.

So, how do we engage the side of our brain that we need in the moment? We find something to bridge the gap. Here's something interesting... music actually bridges both sides most of the time. It has mathematical and rhythm properties for the left, and emotional engagement for the right, among other things.

This did not surprise me, but it was fun to hear it straight from a professional like Kiernan. He told us he keeps his guitar next to his desk so he can get in the mood for writing by playing it for a few minutes beforehand. He found that when he does this, it relaxes him into a writing mood where he can create more and better than before.

Now, music isn't the only way to engage your creative side and beat procrastination. There is no one way to do this. Everyone just needs to find their "guitar" to keep handy for getting in the writing mood and engaging our right brain. So, keep on the lookout for your guitar!

Find your method. Experiment. Change things up. Maybe you need to move your desk to another room. Maybe you need to hang upside down from the tree outside for three minutes. Maybe you need to faceplant in your cat's soft, chubby belly until they wriggle away. Find what works for you.

Kiernan offered his own method for a place to start: Minimize your tools for writing. Find your time to write, be it a specific hour or a specific day or both. Set aside the time. Make a schedule. Get a calendar that is only for your writing. Set reasonable time expectations. Don't expect too much from yourself, nor too little. Find the balance.

But most importantly: WRITE*.

Even if you only have a few minutes free as you wait for the train, WRITE*.

If you have a few minutes before the game starts, WRITE*.

If you go on a jog and have an idea during your water break, WRITE*.

If you have a few minutes between classes, WRITE*.

*also CREATE

Use every second you can squeeze out of the day to jot down that idea, to engage your creative side, to create.

Find your method of connecting to your right brain over your left when it is time to get creative. Let your right brain free of the left brain for a time. That is how you will win your fight against procrastination.

The right brain is where the writer and the reader will meet. It is the side that touches the heart, that adds suspense, that makes that connection with emotion through story that can be better understood through experience rather than my limited words.

The main takeaway from Kiernan's workshop? Find your "guitar" and beat procrastination.

I cannot cram a day of learning into one article, unfortunately, but I will pass on as much as I am able.

Throughout the festival, I got the chance to talk with various authors about their methods of writing, the works they are most proud of, and how they ended up publishing. I always ask about their publishing experience, specifically. So far, every answer has reinforced the wisdom of my decision to self publish years ago. There are pros and cons to everything, but I have found more cons in traditional publishing than anything else so far.

The main drawback that everyone seemed to agree on was the lack of control the author has of their own work. All the children's book authors I heard from said they had no say in choosing an illustrator. The publisher did that. This caused one of the authors' books to be ineligible for many awards because of the nationality of the illustrator she had no control over. She liked the art that ended up in the book, but not having a say in that did still hurt.

Everyone I ran into that published through Amazon warned me never to do so. Not many gave explanations past that, but by the absolute rage in their expressions, I knew better than to press the matter. A few told me that the quality of the covers for their work came out blurry and poor, making their novels look like cheap knockoffs or ratty old draft copies despite contacting the company about it. Lack of communication with Amazon seemed to be a huge anger point as well. I heard no positives to publishing through Amazon while I was there. Point taken: Avoid Amazon publishing.

The only publishing company I did not hear sour things about was Acorn Publishing. I am not well versed in their company, but I do know they do hybrid publishing which allows Self-publishing and Traditional Publishing to overlap somewhat. Now, how that works exactly is still out of my realm of understanding for now, but I hope to have the time to research it later. I also got the chance to speak with a few of their employees and their clients and they all seemed very kind and pleasant, so points there.

Self Publishing has the same pro and con: The author controls everything. This is a good thing because you as the author get to have a say in everything you want to have a say in, but it gets hard when you have to do ALL the detailed things to get a book out. I'm sure I will have a post about the process at some point, so keep an eye out for that. It is a steep learning curve when you are first figuring it out, but I had the fortunate opportunity to find Barnes & Noble Press who walk you through each step and don't hide legal jargon in their policies. They also are pretty decent at communicating, which really helps.

My only gripe is the time it takes to print a test copy and ship it. It seems to take quite a while so I always have to give myself a month window to wait for it. That makes things a bit difficult for me since I am impatient, but it may not bother other people.

All in all, the Festival was a delight to attend and a wealth of learning. I found old friends and new, sold a few copies of my novella, and got to even trade books with a fellow author which was pretty fantastic. I also, for the first time this year, handed out my author business card to anyone I could. That scared the living daylights out of me, but I pushed through and forced myself to do it.

I am an author. I am a writer. And I must allow myself the freedom to advertise my work whether I like it or not. Writing is my business, after all. It is first and foremost my passion and lifestyle too, but if I want others to possibly enjoy it, I have to let them know it exists. This is my struggle. Advertisement is one of the hardest things I have to deal with as an independent author. I spoke with another author about this and she agreed.

Advertising your work feels a lot like saying, "I'd really, really, really like you to read my stuff and like it... but you don't have to... only if you want to... I mean, I want you to, but you're honestly not obligated. I don't want to take up your time..."

IT IS HARD. Much like resumes when you're searching for a job, you have to advertise yourself. BUT you can't sound full of yourself. Again, BALANCE.

Authors fail a thousand times over before they succeed --another tidbit from a workshop that day. Forgiveness. Patience. Grace.... I'm repeating this for myself as well.... Forgiveness, Patience, Grace...

It's okay to mess up. It's okay to fall down. Everyone does it more than once.

Just be sure to stand back up and keep going!