Inspiration....

The Big Kids Clubhouse Secret Handshake…Finally! By Karen Docter

[Reprinted from CRW Romance in the Rockies newsletter, Aug/06]

Wouldn't it be lovely to show up at your next chapter meeting and sit right next to that one author who knows "the secret?" You know she's out there somewhere, willing to share the one tidbit you need to take that all-important step into publication, be invited to write for the romance line that pays "big bucks", and top that Best Seller List that proves you've touched the hearts of a gazillion romance writers.

If only you could find this author and cultivate her cooperation, you'd be there! You'd finally learn the Big Kids Clubhouse Secret Handshake. Senior editors would fly you to New York for cocktails. Famous agents would drop all their other clients so they could grab the tail of your rising star with both hands. Readers would cry when they close your latest book because they know your next novel won't be released for two more months!

Are you salivating yet?

Now, we all know there are no magic formulas, no shortcuts, and no secret handshakes. That does not mean this author is a figment of our all too vivid imaginations. She does exist.

She's that author who taught the last workshop you attended. She's the woman who advises you to send your book to another editor because so-and-so can't stand the kind of hero you've written. She's that wonderful critique partner who gently tells you your story needs to start on page 92.

Is it any wonder our quest for the elusive "secret" is so…elusive? No one person can know everything, which is why we network, why we attend workshops, and why we read prodigiously. It can be a long, arduous process, picking the brains of one or two authors at chapter meetings, attending that one workshop that gives us what we need to clean up our POV, plot, whatever…but it doesn't have to be that difficult.

I make no secret of the fact that much of what I've learned about writing in the past {mumble} years, I've learned from my chapter libraries. Think about it. You have a finite number of days you can set aside to attend workshops, but your chapter library has captured the wisdom of hundreds of individual authors, editors, and agents, all willing to share the industry's "secrets." All you have to do is check them out to explore at your leisure.

You've never attended a national conference? No problem. I know my chapter library includes select workshop tapes since the 1988 conference. Still looking for that definitive "Male Point of View of Romance, Sex and Love" from a man's POV? Check out Alan Chaput's 2000 conference tape. You've heard about Debra Dixon's wonderful two-hour workshop about building the emotional black moment? It's there, too, right next to RWA 's "KEYS to Success" handbook and Lynda Sue Cooper's insider's guide to street cops, "True Blue."

Your chapter library includes a large number of reference books, cassette tapes and videotapes of chapter and national workshops, keynote speeches, inspirational messages, member novels, notes and handouts. Secrets…at your fingertips!

So, next time you go to a meeting network like crazy. Make new friends. By all means, pick the brain of any author you can pin to the chair. But be sure to make one last stop with your chapter librarian. Maybe she's the one holding "the secret" you need.