Following the business retreat I wrote about in my last post, I traveled to Indianapolis for Gen Con: The Best Four Days in…Writer-Conferencing!

The slogan is actually “The Best Four Days in Gaming,” as Gen Con is a tabletop-and-RPG convention, and my husband and his best friend go and do the roleplaying-game thing all weekend. I, however, go for the Writer’s Symposium that happens alongside Gen Con, which offers over 150 workshops in four days.

It. Is. Paradise.

I put my networking game on and had business cards at the ready. I packed my tickets for the 29 workshops I planned on attending, plus 3 old-fashioned bookbinding craft workshops and 2 roleplaying game specials. The writing workshops were what I was most excited about, of course, especially coming off my business conference where I got re-inspired to work on editing. Now, I was looking to get re-inspired for writing! Something that had been greatly lacking as of late.

Thus, I embarked on my myriad of writing workshops, taking ones on freelancing, blogging, writing in first person, pacing, worldbuilding, first drafting, revision, story structure, and more! It was a BUSY couple of days. I’m not sure I’ve absorbed all the info yet, but I have my notes to a) prove that I attended all those workshops and b) reread them to fully process all the goodies I learned.

While the workshops were great, I came upon a stark realization: I think my craft knowledge has moved beyond the benefit of one-hour sessions. There’s only so much information you can cram into an hour, and much of that time is taken for introducing the topic and basic concepts before getting to more advanced things. And I’m ready for the more advanced learning, the kind that happens over an entire weekend or week of diving deep into one concept (like the Story Grid workshop I have coming up in September). 

OR, and a much better epiphany, I’m ready start GIVING  the workshops instead of ATTENDING them.

That is a huge step for me, and I attribute my growth and confidence to the work I’ve done in my editing business and with the business mentorship program I’ve been doing over the past six months. 

As I said, I had my networking hat ready to wear, so I talked to some awesome people and got on a list of those to be contacted about doing a workshop at next year’s Gen Con. Score! I’m looking forward to developing a talk to give, and hopefully they accept me to present. That would be a huge boon for me and great forward momentum for my growth as both a writer and editor.

It’s also a bit scary, but all new things are scary, right? Stepping outside of our comfort zones is tough, even if it’s what we want to do. But with opportunity comes growth, and with growth comes a new and improved me. I’m looking forward to meeting future-Erica.

What steps have you taken to step out of your comfort zones? What opportunities have you grabbed in the unlikeliest of times and places? Share in the comments below!