L is for LDS Story Makers and LTUE Writing Conferences

There are only two writing conferences I want to attend this year. Coincidently, both start with the letter L. I was about to pit them against each other cage-match style, but then I decided it was like trying to pick out your favorite child, which I hear you are not supposed to do. (Spoiler alert: I did give an edge to LDS Story Makers)

So, I'm going to focus on what I like about both of them.

1) They both offer excellent classes.

That's right, there seems to be something for everybody no matter which stage of writing you are in. LTUE had a few more classes on drawing, if that is your thing (which mine isn't). For both events, and the LDS Story Makers that is coming up, I've had to spend a lot of time trying to pick out classes.

Each session gives you several choices of classes to take. Not once have I looked at the choices and thought, "Hmmm... nothing here interests me." Instead I've had the opposite problem, which is trying to choose between two or three that would benefit me. With the upcoming Story Makers there is still one class where I can't decide which class to chose.

 Between the two I have over 16,000 words of notes. Of good, quality notes that I still refer to often.

 2) They both offer a great chance to network.

When I went to LDS Story Makers last May (my first writing conference) I only knew one person there, who I didn't get to see because she only showed up for one of the days and I think she even left early. Otherwise, I had to fend for myself.

While there I met a ton of people. A lot of them I now consider friends. I bumped into a group of people from Southern Utah (where I live) and I joined their writing group. Story Makers also have a group of online folks called Authors Incognito, which I joined. I went from having one writing friend to literally dozens.

I also got to rub shoulders with a lot of people I admire. I've been a long-time listener to The Writing Excuses podcast so one highlight was briefly hanging out with Dan Wells and Howard Taylor, who treated me as an equal (WOWZERS!!).

A few months ago, LTUE felt like a family reunion. I got to meet face-to-face all of these people I've got to know through Twitter, Authors Incognito, and Facebook (Story Makers has a Facebook page). Every class I was surrounded by people I know. And, amazingly enough, some of them even knew little ol' ME!!! What an honor it was for published and successful authors like Sarah Eden, Tyler Whitesides, David Farland/Wolverton, Tristi Pinkston and James Owen to know who I am. On top of that, I made even more friends at LTUE.

Side note: I love the writing community, they are such a great bunch of people. LDS Story Makers is only three weeks away where I look forward to another get-together with all my friends and to making even more new friends.

3 ) They both offer excellent Instructors.

These are not people just pulled off the street. These are established writers who know what they are talking about.

Where else can you take classes from people like Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Taylor, Mary Robinette Kowal (all four hosts of Writing Excuses), editor and author extraordinaire Tristi Pinkston, Sarah Eden (who I think is the funniest person alive), David Farland (who I think has one of the greatest pulses on the writing industry), Traci Abramson, Jeff Scott Savage, the inspiring James Owen, action writer Larry Correia, dystopian writer Robison Wells, James Dashner, MG Fantasy writer Brandon Mull, story architect Larry Brooks, and more!?! (Sorry to anybody I missed, or didn't attend)

And these aren't lectures. Most of them are open to questions, stick around after class to answer even more questions, and stick around the conference for, yet, even more questions. If you put yourself out there, you can get a lot of one-on-one instruction with some of these great writers.

4) They both offer great book signings.

Again, another opportunity to hob-nob with your (well, mine anyways) favorite writers. Again, everybody is super-friendly and not afraid to spend time with you and answer your questions while they sign your books. Despite the lines, I did not feel rushed during any of the signings.

5) They both have great keynotes.

Last year I got to listen to Larry Brooks as he talked about writing, the writing industry, and touched on story structure.

This year I was blown away by the LTUE keynote, James Owen. He gave a fantastic and inspiring keynote address. If only all keynotes could be of that caliber.

Now I'm looking forward to Kevin J. Anderson's keynote address. I've read a lot of his writings (all the Dune books and the Saga of Seven Suns) and he has published several books beyond those series. And he just keeps on writing. I met him once when he did a book signing in Las Vegas when Battle of Corrin was released. I'll have to give him a hard time for (inadvertently?) putting a spoiler in there to Hunters and Sandworms of Dune when he signed it.

K is for Keep Your Writings

For those who have paid attention, yes, this is going to sound familiar. But K is for keeping everything you write.

I’ve been told several times that writers should never just cut large sections of their book out, but should instead save them in a file to possibly use another time. Until recently, I thought this was a mediocre idea, at best! However, it costs me virtually nothing to follow this practice so I did it anyways.

A couple of weeks ago I needed an idea for a story. So I opened up my master file of abandoned writings and started to scroll through. And there it was! An idea that I had a year ago that never panned out. This time it jumped out and spoke to me saying, “What if this setting wasn’t an island, but an alternate universe?”

And that was exactly what I needed at the time. Since then, this story has blossomed in ways it never did before. But it never would have come to fruition if I hadn’t stored what I thought was of little to no worth.

So now I drink from the “keep everything” Kool-Aid bowl! You should too!

J is for J.K. Rowling

No sense hiding it, but I'm a huge fan of J.K. Rowling. I have a lot of respect for her for so many reasons:

1) She got the world reading again. Before J.K. Rowling came along an overwhelming number of people had given up reading and it seemed books where losing to other forms of entertainment like movies, television, and video games. Especially in children, which really worried me.

But when the Harry Potter books came out I heard, more times than I can remember, that people were getting into reading. And not only was it cool to read again, it was cool to carry around books larger than 1,000 pages. This went for adults and children. The Harry Potter series is the ONLY series my son has read it its entirety, which is saying a lot.

And with this new-found love of reading, they went on to read other books and series.

2) This also inspired more writing, in my opinion. Not only did it make reading cool again, but the same with writing. I believe this made writing as a career a more viable option for many.

3) She wrote a terrific series. Was it perfect? No, but name one that is. It has it's flaws but I believe it is one of the most well-written works of fiction. Ever.

In the last year I've attended two writing conferences. Nearly EVERY SINGLE CLASS has brought up Harry Potter as an example on how to do something right. Though she does have some criticism of her work, the praise far outweighs them.

4) She finished the series. I'm probably going to get some hate-mail (hate-comments) for this, but I do wish to be honest. Oh, I was so worried. My biggest fear after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was that she was going to get hit by a bus or something, and nobody would be able to finish it the way she had intended. This has happened with some of my favorite series (Dune and The Wheel of Time) and I was afraid it would happen with this. I know I'm coming across as petty and selfish. Sorry.

5) She finished it well. What a powerful ending, one of the best endings ever, in my (humble) opinion! I've invested myself into a lot of television shows (Lost) and book series (The Dark Tower, and to a degree The Hunger Games and Eragon) where they ended unsatisfactory. With those examples I'm left dumbfounded thinking, "That was it?" Not so with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is the most satisfying endings I've ever read in a book.

6) She didn't turn weird. She wrote a (great) story and is happy with that. She isn't on television telling us how to live our lives. She isn't dressing like Lady GaGa. Best I can tell, all of this fame and fortune has not gone to her head like what happens to a lot of other people. She is an actual person first and a writer second. And she isn't resting on her laurels. She just launched Pottermore to help promote more reading and she is writing another book. Good for her!