San Francisco ~ Career Stuff & Cocktails with Nora

As part of RWA's Published Author Retreat, I attended a talk by Gail Blanke who spoke about embracing change and making it work for you. She highlighted some points from her new book Between Trapezes: Flying into a New Life with the Greatest of Ease. Although she was focusing on career change, the points apply to most every area in life. She emphasised that growth comes from change and that courage comes from action.

• Tap into the power of vision - personal motivation comes from a vision, not information. Ask yourself, what do you see that is holding you back?


• Let go of negative voices in your head - including regrets, anger and fear. Ask yourself, does being right matte


• Own and acknowledge your achievements - look for patterns of courage in your life. Ask yourself, what defining moments can you find in your life?


• Dust off entrepreneurial spirit - realize you can't grow without change.


• Know who you are, know who you aren't. Ask yourself, what does your personal brand promise?


• Distinguish between fact and interpretation - facts are true, interpretation is your view of the facts.

Her presentation was both inspiring and entertaining, the Trapezes is on my to be read stack right now. FYI, she has a website dedicated to the book.

I also attended Blake Snyder's session on screen writing. He used the plotting structure from his book Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need.

 
It seemed to me that his screen plotting structure was very similar to Vogler's Hero's Journey. IE, the plot point he calls 'fun and games' to me serves the same purpose as Vogler's 'enemies and allies'. I don't think the similarity matters much, except that it gave me something to think about. I imagine his writing style is as accessible as his speaking style, so if you're looking for a book on plot structure I imagine its a good one.

Switching Gears...

Saturday night I was fortunate enough to find myself at Nora Roberts' cocktail party. How awesome is that?! Here I am with the poised and charming Ruth Ryan Langham - too funny that's Nora Roberts behind, zipping off to do the amazing things she does.

Sunday I took the afternoon to see Chinatown, did a post with pics on the Goddesses Blog, then around 9 pm I headed to the airport, flight pillow in hand.