AWC-2023
The AuthorTube Writing Conference has wrapped up for 2023 and I’m beside myself. What an incredible event and accomplishment for my good friends S.D. Huston and Margaret Pinard.
Dozens and Dozens of Authors took to their YouTube channels to premiere videos, conduct livestream presentations, and hold sprint sessions for their fellow authors. It’s a beautiful sight to see so the community come together for this event.
I held a talk on my own channel for the AWC on Saturday, presenting on the topic if making the mental switch from that of an Amateur to a Professional.
This topic is near and dear to my heart as I’ve begun countless projects that are still sitting unfinished and unpublished. So many good story ideas just sitting there collecting dust. Because I couldn’t get out of my own way and finish anything.
I love the art of writing. But doing it as a hobby, or even as a passion, wasn’t going to magically result in my finding my book on a bookstore shelf. I needed to make that transition into treating my beloved hobby as a job.
I was able to finally accomplish this after reading THE WAR OF ART by Steven Pressfield. That book became not only the key to unlocking my ability to finish a project, but also my inspiration for last Saturday’s talk.
Our resistance to finish the creative endeavors we love to do comes from our fear of the results, and my talk focused a lot on the idea of overcoming those fears and not listening to the dishonest voice of resistance.
Ironically, I wrote my talk during the most challenging week for me to battle resistance in a long time as my new favorite game had just released. I received a copy of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM for Father’s Day and to be perfectly honest, I think of little else when I’m not playing it. I’m constantly counting the minutes until I can explore Hyrule again. So to forego that enjoyment to write my speech was THE WAR OF ART in practice.
Ultimately the stream went off without a hitch. No internet issues to speak of and my proactive measure to reboot the router 20 minutes before showtime might’ve been what did it but either way, I’m grateful. In addition to that the chat was hopping in a way my poor channel hadn’t seen in many moons. I’m so thankful to everyone who made it live and all who’ve watched the replay since then.
I wanted to say much more on the subject, but alas, I had to fit it all into one hour. Luckily this amounted to a great preview of what I’ll be offering in my Draft To Publish course, coming… someday. The course has been filmed. It just needs to be edited. But while you wait on that, please feel free to go check out what I was able to share on AWC-2023. I hope you enjoy it, as I put a great deal of work into it.
You can find the replay HERE.
You can also check out the full conference at this PLAYLIST.