Dragonsteel Takeaways

Hello Dear Readers!

Even though Dragonsteel was over a month ago, I wanted to take some time to record my biggest takeaways from the whole weekend. I listened to panel talks, met authors, editors, and artists, had a booth for one day and sold books, attended the Worldhopper Ball and so much more.

There there were a few themes that seemed to pop up over and over, no matter what I was doing. Those themes really resonated with me over the weekend and I feel like January is a great time to share them when people are setting goals and intentions for the year. I’ll keep this short and sweet.

  1. Be unabashedly, unapologetically you. No one has lived the life that you’ve lived, and no one can bring to the world what you can bring to it. Do your best to spend less time worrying about what people think of you or if they like your stuff. Just find what you’re passionate about and go for it as your authentic self.

  2. Write what you want to write, do not cater to what you think audiences want to read. Similar to the above, don’t waste time trying to "write to the market” or tailoring your characters to what you think audiences want to read. Write what you want to write, tell the story you want to tell.

  3. Write, write, write, write, and then write some more! I’ve mentioned in a few other posts that last year was a bit of a struggle for me, including a career change, so I did not get much writing done in 2024. I felt a little called out because the one thing I heard over and over is that authors (especially Indie authors) need to build their backlist*. So my #1 goal for 2025 is to get back into my daily writing habit. Not only does this allow you to have more product on the market, but it also helps you improve your skill and speed as a writer.

So there you have it. Perhaps these resonate with you and are ideas you want to take with you as you adventure forth into the unknown that will be 2025. Be you. Don’t let someone else’s ideas or what is currently popular dictate what you create. And do the damn thing.

Till next time dear reader, wherever life takes you this year, I hope you know that you are loved and that you matter. <3 Tiff

*For anyone who does not know what a backlist is, this is the number of books that you already have written and/or published, as opposed to your front list, which are books that you are writing and/or will write and/or have been written and being released soon.

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Mercenary Measures

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2025 Blacksteel State of the Union Address