Now that I’ve finally recovered from my exhausting but exhilarating weekend at the SCBWI WWA conference, I’m taking some time to reflect on what I gained there. Because I was on the faculty this year (woo hoo!), I wasn’t able to attend as many breakout sessions as I would have liked. (If you’re interested in summaries of the conference breakouts, scroll through the Chinook Update Blog.) But I did make it to all but one of the keynotes, and those speeches alone provided me with enough inspiration to keep me going until next year. Here are my takeaways from each of the keynotes:

Author Bruce Hale, in his speech “Writer’s Mind, Warrior’s Mind: Toughing it out and Getting Published,” asked us to examine the habits which are standing in the way of our creativity and productivity. I actually have a few habits that aren’t doing me any good, but the one I’ve decided to change after listening to his keynote is the practice of checking my email multiple – and I do mean multiple! – times a day. I know I waste a lot of good writing time that way, so from now on, I pledge to check my email a maximum of three times daily.

Matt de la Pena‘s speech, “Working Class Writer,” reminded me of how lucky I am. I’ve always taken for granted that I was able to attend college, and I forget that not everyone has that luxury. So from now on, I’m going to say a silent “thank you” every day for all the things that have supported my writing life: a college education, parents who encouraged my creativity, and a husband who cheers me on on a daily basis.

Bonny Becker, in her talk “Sometimes it’s Easy,” which served as her acceptance speech for the Crystal Kite Award, talked about a writer’s need for time, space, and quiet. I’m very guilty of leading an overpacked, hyper-crazy life, so I took her advice to heart. Starting now, I’m going to embrace the quiet times and give myself and chance to just “noodle,” as she puts it.

And last of all, Rachel Vail‘s hilarious talk “Building Characters: Creating Believable Kids” made me vow to get to know my characters better, to become the one adult to whom they’d trust all their secrets.

Thank you, keynoters, for inspiring me to take specific, concrete steps to make my writing  life more productive, creative, and satisfying.

Have you ever been inspired by a speech at a writing conference? What did you take away?