I haven't made much progress on Camp Nano this month yet because I'm gearing up for a major push by reading and rereading some books about writing techniques. So here are some tips on writing and improving your poetry. A lot of these tips also apply to other genres, most notably flash fiction.

The book I'm taking these notes from is Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual, a wonderful guide and book about writing with a lot of example texts.

• Think about your audience. Don't pander, but if you're the only person to which the poem makes sense, there's a problem.
• Putting exposition in the title can be a handy way to sidestep grounding your reader within the text.
• Find the true beginning of the piece--it might be buried in the middle after a lot of "clearing the throat"-type writing.
• Make sure that the first line hooks readers (and publicists!)
• Don't make readers wonder why you made the choices you did, because this will take them out of the piece.  While they are reading your work, the experience should be seamless and intuitive within the work's parameters.
• Generalities make for weaker writing in short forms. Be specific.
• Adjectives should be used only when they help you shape the images you want your readers to see.
• Play with content. Try last lines first. Try starting with prose and moving to poetic form, or vice versa, to see what happens.
• Relax and wait (this is the subject of the final chapter). Kooser says he gives his poems a month or so of 'drawer time' before he goes into revisions.
• Revise...a lot. Just because it's a short work doesn't mean that you shouldn't spend adequate time with it. Rather, it means that you can put it under a lot of stress. Kooser says some drafts shift him closer to what he wants, and some carry him away.

I haven't read this book since I started writing more poetry and any flash fiction at all, but the advice within has general applications to all writing, and remains a solid reminder of some good principles. It's easy to lose sight of what you already know when you're revising or working on a piece. I'll certainly be using my notes as reference.

So, a few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the ascended weapons you can get via the specialization collection achievements. I graded them as worth it or not considering that you can only select from three sets of stats per weapon.

However, a guildie did some further research and found that you can change those stats via the Mystic Forge the way you can change a regular (unnamed) piece. Thus, there's nothing preventing you from getting the weapon you want (thanks, Jaberse!).

However, as a reminder, the specialization weapons are:
shield x2 (mesmer, revenant)
staff x2 (thief, ranger)
hammer (engineer)
greatsword (necromancer)
warhorn (elementalist)
longbow (guardian)
torch (warrior)
​
These aren't the most universally-applicable weapons, and because of the overlap (assuming you only want one of each weapon), you can only get seven unique weapons.

The specialization achievements require you to level the character class to 80, fully unlock the advanced specialization, and then complete a bunch of expansion achievements/buy parts with expansion-area currency. However, once you have leveled the mastery in question to get the expansion achievements, you can easily unlock them for each level 80 alt you have.

My biggest problem right now is that I don't have all my alts at 80, and I don't have all the masteries unlocked that I need (currency will come just from getting the experience to unlock the masteries).

Therefore, knowing that you can change stats has not really changed my priorities. I already have an ascended greatsword and staff. I'd like to get the longbow and warhorn. I've decided that because my engineer is low on the list of alts, I'm going to just craft my guardian a hammer anyway, so after Ydalir/the North Wind, my main focus will be on getting a shield for my mesmer. Anything in addition will be for cosmetics/achievement hunting/character enjoyment more than minmaxing purposes.

I don't care if it's a writer's conference, a philosophy conference, or a comicon-type event. Conference-going is overwhelming and scary. Here are some tips, organized by time:

Before:

• Plan, but be flexible. It's frustrating to forget about an event or meetup you wanted to attend, but it's also frustrating to feel as though your time is 100% booked and you need to stick with your original roadmap.
• Be clear on what you want out of the conference. Are you going primarily to spectate and take it all in? Try for a holistic experience. Are you there to network? Make sure you hit all the social events.
• Book accommodations  and event spaces well in advance. If you're booking a restaurant for a lot of people, or looking to try that one restaurant (TM), know that thousands of people are doing the same. Hotels can get pricey in the weeks--sometimes, months--leading up to a conference
• Research good food and activities in the area. Again, you don't necessarily want to spend all of your time in conference mode, as that can be exhausting. Take advantage of the conference location and timing.
• Prepare your materials ahead of time. Remember to take business cards, resumes, writing samples, anything you think you might need. There's nothing worse than arriving at a conference only to find you've forgotten a key component of your networking strategy at home.

During:

• Stay hydrated and nourished. Just because the conference schedule doesn't leave time to eat doesn't mean you shouldn't! A lot of the busier conferences simply have too many activities ongoing to have discrete mealtimes. It's important that you are physically capable of focusing on this conference that you've paid money to attend. 
• Know your limits. Sometimes, your brain just can't take any more. This is why I often bookmark sessions as either "essential" or "interesting," because I know that I can only handle so much, and I don't want to burn out before that essential panel in the final timeslot. If you find your mind starting to wander, it's best to take a break.
• Record interesting or notable things. It could be a person you meet, an inspiring quote you hear, a new book recommendation or even something completely unrelated to the conference. There's a lot going on, and remembering it all afterwards is impossible, so make sure you capture it while it's fresh.

After:

• Follow up quickly, if you didn't follow up during. Sending a quick note to the contacts you meet, connecting with them right away, or, if it's more official, doing what they ask during the conference in a timely manner is important. First, you can't trust that you'll remember everything or that they will, and second, it's a lot less like a cold call if it's in the month after the conference than if it's a year afterwards. I've let a lot of opportunities run dry this way, to my later chagrin. (This also applies to random chance meetings.) 
• Organize your random notes. If you're like me, you might jot down notes in a journal or type small reminders on your phone. Try deciphering what you meant by, "Circle strategy for making outlines" six months after the fact. I dare you. So, it's still your brain, so you might have recorded the exact words your brain needs to remake the connection. Or, as has happened to me more often than I'd like, your brain scrambles to make new connections because your notes look like the scribblings of a madman.
• Plan for next year. No, really! A lot of conferences have early bird discounts and other perks--also, see above with hotel and event planning--that make it worthwhile to register as soon as possible. Also, wouldn't it be fantastic to benchmark your progress by returning the following year?

I got inspired to write this post because of AWP's annual conference. I was supposed to attend last year, but my thesis was due the same weekend, so that didn't work. I'm excited to share more about AWP in the upcoming days. If you're interested in attending, they have will-call and one-day passes for people in the LA area.