Why do I have fear when trying something new?

Before this writers’ group meeting I had all kinds of horrible “what if’s” pass through my mind:

FEAR:

I’m going to show up and feel like a lame American Idol auditioner, “Well, my mama always said I was good and the people at church like me.”

FEAR:

“Hi, my name is chickendinner. Who’re you? Oh, nice to meet you ___.”  (Insert name of any famous author you haven’t read here and continue clueless. Shoot yourself when you get home for not recognizing their name.)

FEAR:

Showing up geekishly early.

FEAR:

Showing up an hour late. Ha. Ha. Ha. . . . . Ha.

Yes, there’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you arrive at your first event of a new adventure and walk in to discover that it started an hour earlier than was posted on the internet. But hey, it saved me from suffering from any of the first three fears, which will only be postponed until the next meeting, lucky me.

The first hour of this meeting was dedicated to small group reading and critique. Then as segue to the presentation portion, there was a drawing for prizes. I was the first winner and had the privilege of walking past all those people (again), with my neon ‘CLUELESS‘ tattoo on my forehead, to claim my prize – a book by Dee Henderson (she writes adventure romance).

After the drawing-for-prizes, Dan Wells, author of I Am Not A Serial Killer (and series), took over the mike. Oh. My. Goodness. His presentation on using a seven-part plot structure was amazing. He crammed more information in one hour than I thought was humanly possible. AND I have a much better idea now about how to direct the revision work on The Book.  His websites are full of cool and useful stuff too. Click on his name and on the word ‘websites’ to check them out. Thank you, Dan and thank you, Heaven for getting me to that meeting on time for at least that part.

This meeting was the kick-off for a month-long writers’ conference, only $35, which I can’t attend because I already booked my Saturdays this month. Ah well, next year.

Time to eat something and dash to the library. I have a lot of work to do.

winner-winner, chickendinner 🙂