I and six other scribbling slugs rolled back home again after attending ScienceWriters2010.

We’ve been basking in the light of the field’s luminaries, gathering advice and business cards and doing what we could to introduce ourselves as up-and-coming colleagues.

It was a meeting of many firsts for me: first visit to New Haven, first time at a writers conference and first time trying to cover a conference via a live Twitter feed.

I found it very challenging. Fellow Tweeters encapsulated and launched bits of the program much faster than I could. While I did my best to contribute to the feed at #sciwri10, I was forever finding myself bashful.

My internal dialog went something like . . .

Oh — what an interesting point! How to distill it? OK, OK, I got it. Shoot, wait, is that in AP style? Lemme think, Lemme think. Now it is. I believe. I’d hate to look dumb in front of all these people and for all time. The Library of Congress will be archiving this for goodness sake! Stop being ridiculous Danielle and press send. [Releases a tweet.] Oh look. Three people made the point before me. And more pithily too. About a minute ago.

After a couple of seconds feeling deflated, the cycle would start again.

In writing, as in running, sprinting is never going to be my strong point. I think next time I would opt to cover a conference with more traditional tools — like a blog.

Speaking of, I was invited to share what attending the conference was like as a student on a blog managed by Nature Education called Student Voices. The editor says it will appear Tuesday, Nov. 9. Update, it’s up!

I’d, of course, recommend reading it, but if you are interested in material from the sessions themselves, check out the slidecasts and summarized in posts.

And now, gentle reader, a few photos from the weekend.