Speed Mentoring

Last week our regional writing group met. The program for the day was "speed mentoring" and it went pretty well. The tables were arranged in a circle. The published or nearly published authors in the group sat inside the circle (we were the mentors), and the "waiting to be published" authors (mentees) took chairs on the outside. Our Vice President kept a timer and each pair had five minutes to discuss whatever aspect of writing the mentee wanted to talk about. After five minutes the outside circle rotated to their right and talked to the next mentor. This continued until every mentee had the opportunity to talk to each mentor. 

The exercise was fun. I had the chance to speak with newer members I had seen at meetings but hadn't gotten to know, as well as four guests who had come to check us out. It also got me thinking about the things I'm doing as a writer. What exactly do I do to promote myself? How do I get people to visit my blog? How do I keep myself accountable for writing on a regular basis? How do I decide where to submit my work? All were excellent questions, and they got me looking more closely at myself. Am I doing enough?

My family will cheerfully agree that I'm not the most organized person. I have lots of interests and hobbies as well as two part time jobs, not including my writing. Stuff gets piled up around here. So it's painful for me to think about organizing my time and efforts to promote what I've already spent time writing. Yet, if I want to be sure people are going to read what I write, I have to get over my hesitation and get myself out there. I need to be diligent about promotional opportunities and follow through on them. I may end up being a nuisance, but at least people will know who I am and what I write.

And that reminds me—I have a guest blog to finish...

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I wanted to have some toys around for my youngest granddaughter to play with when she's here. I have no shortage of fabric and when I found instructions for these soft blocks I decided to copy them. They're made from scraps of fleece, so they're nice and soft, and I used more fleece scraps to stuff them. Hope she likes them!