How to Cope with Post Writing Conference Blues

by Julie Lavender @JLavenderWrites

Definition: Post-Writers’ Conference Blues (noun). The sadness that often occurs immediately following a writers conference. 

Do you experience the “blues” after returning from the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writing Conference or other writing conferences you attend? 

I certainly do! The thrill and excitement of being with a sold-out conference center of comrades who are as passionate about writing as I am for almost a week, that amazing, mountain-top experience, can come crashing down around me if I’m not careful. 

BRMCWC Conference Director Edie Melson wrote two great articles about post conference blues and you’ll find both of those here: Don’t Let Post Conference Blues Derail Your Writing Journey and 8 Ways to Beat Post Conference Blues .

And, in this article, Edie includes a section with suggestions for what to do after attending a conference. Tips to Make Valuable Connections At Your Next Writing Conference.

I’ve followed Edie’s helpful tips and suggestions when returning from a conference. And, I also include a couple of actions I’ve practiced over the years that aren’t specifically writing-related. With these suggestions and a lot of prayer, I get through the post conference blues and start dreaming about the next conference on my calendar!

Here are my 5 Tips to cope with post writing conference blues!

1. Go for a long walk outside. Allow your thoughts to wander back to the conference and give yourself that time to decompress. An additional benefit to a walk outdoors? Soaking in sunshine (safely) increases the body’s serotonin and is often medically recommended to help people with anxiety, depression, and Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

2. Reach out to one or two new friends each day for the couple of weeks that follow the conference. Using the information on the business cards you collected, pick two a day to connect with. Find those new friends on social media, follow their author page, visit their website and subscribe to their newsletter, and reach out in an email, letting the person know how much you enjoyed meeting them at the conference. 

Allowing yourself contact with a couple of conference-goers each day helps you slowly come down from the mountain-top experience of being surrounded by like-minded writers for almost 24-7 for a week. Continuing the conversation with new contacts, albeit through social media and emails, each day keeps you from crashing head-first into the valley when you’re back home and have no writing friends within your sphere of daily life. 

Hopefully, these connections will continue throughout the next weeks and months and carry you until you meet again at next year’s conference.

3. Go out to dinner or coffee with one of your biggest “fans” to tell them all about the conference. That special person may be your spouse, adult child, favorite friend, mom, Sunday School teacher, or if you blessed to have one close by, a fellow writer. The person that celebrates and encourages your writing.

Choose that person who will listen to all the details without nodding off as if they suffer from sleep deprivation and that person who’ll cheer your success and encourage your perseverance. Though you love your mom or spouse dearly, they might not be the best suited person to listen to all the details you want to share. Oversharing with someone who loves you dearly in return but might not appreciate or understand your enthusiasm can often deflate the conference experience unintentionally. 

4. Find a way to serve someone else. It’s hard to have a “woe is me” attitude, an “I’m blue because the conference is over” attitude if you’re busying yourself by serving others. If baking is your thing—and if it is, then I certainly hope we connected at a recent conference, because it is definitely MY thing!—hen bake something sweet to take to a new mom or a casserole to share with an elderly neighbor or some fresh, homemade bread to share with the fostering family down the street. 

Arranging flowers might be your hobby—then pick up a couple of bouquets at the market and make a gorgeous display of God’s creations to share with an exhausted caregiver. 

Handy with tools? You might offer to help the single mom in the neighborhood with tasks that need accomplishing. Take along your spouse and visit at the kitchen table before the repairs begin.

5. Arrange a date night with your spouse or an outing with your kids to give them the opportunity to tell you all about their time while you were away. Oddly enough, part of my “post conference blues” stems from realizing that I “missed out” on something fun that happened back home while I was away. Creating intentional time with those I left behind when I attended the conference and catching up on their lives during that time alleviates the FOMO—fear of missing out—that sometimes pushes my blues’ button.

Post Conference Blues is definitely a thing! But you can alleviate some of the sadness of parting from writing friends after an extended period of time by incorporating writing related tips and non-writing suggestions in the days that follow the conference. And before you know it, conference time will come again for a fresh season of new and renewed friendships and new and reinforced information! 

What post conference tips would you add to the list? I’d love to add more to my list! 

TWEETABLE

How to Cope with Post Writing Conference Blues - tips from @JLavenderWrites on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Julie Lavender loves attending writing conferences and looks forward to several this calendar year. She recognizes and credits most of her writing opportunities with attendance at conferences and the connections made while there. Julie takes part in The Seven, a podcast where she joins six other writing friends to talk about life’s journeys and how we can intentionally ignite our faith each day. She is the author of 365 Ways to Love Your Child: Turning Little Moments into Lasting Memories (Revell) and Children’s Bible Stories for Bedtime (Zeitgeist/Penguin Random House.)