{"id":149,"date":"2011-09-10T16:54:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-10T16:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/my-dragoncon-wrap-up-a-genre-writers-dream\/"},"modified":"2016-12-29T03:47:41","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T03:47:41","slug":"my-dragoncon-wrap-up-a-genre-writers-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/?p=149","title":{"rendered":"My DragonCon Wrap-up: A Genre Writer’s Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I am finally taking a breath after the long Labor Day weekend and work week to share some thoughts from this year\u2019s DragonCon. \u00a0For the second year, I braved the crowds of avatars, wookies, Klingons and Death Eaters at one of the country\u2019s largest sci-fi conventions to hear from some of the best genre writers in young adult and fantasy. Here\u2019s just a few of the folks who made an impression this year.<\/div>\n
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Carrie Fisher<\/b><\/div>\n
“I was never that great of an actor.”<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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Carrie Fisher and the six Leias.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Carrie shared \u2013 with self-deprecating wit \u2013 what it was really like playing the iconic Princess Leia (\u201cit was cool being the only girl\u201d), being engaged to Dan Akroyd and her at-times strained working relationship with director George Lucas, who she later collaborated with as a co-writer on \u201cThe Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.\u201d<\/div>\n
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In her bestselling memoir and one-woman show, Wishful Drinking<\/i>, Fisher said, “George Lucas ruined my life.” Her disgust with her Star Wars costumes (including having to wrap her breasts) are well documented, with her least-favorite being the infamous metal bikini in Return of the Jedi. “When I laid down, the metal bikini stayed up, so BobaFett could see all the way to Florida.”<\/div>\n
Fisher played off the energy of the standing-room only crowd of fans, who heard her talk candidly about her struggle with bipolar disorder. Many fans thanked her for her openness, sharing that they, too, struggled with the condition.<\/div>\n
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Sherrilyn Kenyon<\/b>
\n<\/b>\u201cI can\u2019t write when it\u2019s quiet \u2013 absolute silence makes me insane.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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So says the Dark-Hunter series author, speaking on a New York Times <\/i>bestselling author tell all panel, fresh from signing a movie and TV series deal earlier this summer (look out, True Blood<\/i> fans). The prolific author has made the #1 spot on the New York Times<\/i>\u00a0bestseller list 16 times in the last three years. She told fans during the \u00a0panel that she writes about 100 pages a day.<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Kenyon says things were always chaotic growing up as a middle child with eight brothers. That\u2019s not changed now that she has three active sons. She told fans how her 16-year-old son has decided to start writing, telling her, “Mom, writing is hard.” Her one guilty pleasure? Helping her boys find ways to kill off their Dungeon and Dragon characters.<\/div>\n
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She says making the the New York Time<\/i>s Bestseller List doesn\u2019t change your life overnight. She had to work all types of jobs on her way to literary fame and found herself homeless with an infant even after writing six bestsellers.<\/div>\n
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In chatting with the author as she signed my copy of her newest book, Retribution,<\/i> I asked her about the cable TV deal for her Dark-Hunter Series. No news yet on the lucky network that will take on the book series; however, fans can rest easy knowing that Kenyon will have a say on the adaptation since she will be a producer.<\/div>\n
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Charlaine Harris<\/b><\/div>\n
\u201cThe most important message is tolerance.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s what the author hopes readers get when they read her SookieStackhouse novels, which are the inspiration for HBO\u2019s True Blood<\/i> series.\u00a0 She deliberately writes about characters with different sexual orientations for this reason.<\/div>\n
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During the True Blood<\/i> Q and A she said how glad she is that fellow southerner Alan Ball got the job directing True Blood<\/i>.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s like they took my book and gave it steroids,\u201d she says of the HBO adaptation.<\/div>\n
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Later, during the New York Times <\/i>Bestselling author panel, Harris opened up about her addiction to Facebook(\u201cit\u2019s a terrible use of a writer\u2019s time\u201d) and her daily routine as a writer, saying she writes every day and doesn\u2019t clean her house anymore but still does her family\u2019s laundry.\u00a0 Her guilty pleasure? Watching Project Runway.<\/i><\/div>\n
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She takes her writing deadlines seriously (\u201cgetting paid is a huge inspiration to me\u201d) and recalls being late once \u2013 after her mother died.<\/div>\n
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You can access the full video of DragonCon’s first True Blood<\/i> panel here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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Michael Stackpole<\/b><\/div>\n
\u201cThink bigger than one story.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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Aaron Alston and Michael Stackpole.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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That was Stackpole\u2019s advice to writers during one of the more popular sessions in his hourly Writer Workshop delivered over 14 hours with fellow New York\u00a0<\/i>Times <\/i>bestselling author Aaron Allston. (Stackpole has said in a recent\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0that he and Aaron are returning in 2012 \u2013 this is GREAT news to writers who want to further their craft).<\/div>\n
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The session I attended, \u201cWriting Careers in the Post-paper Era,\u201d gave attendees an update on the growing E-book market for novelists, noting that the battle between traditional and digital publishers is not about sales, but about \u201ccontrol and access to audiences.\u201d Stackpole urged people to write in packages that are friendly to consumers \u2013 instead of a 120,000-word novel, think in terms of three smaller 50,000-word novels. Instead of focusing on a single story, think about developing \u201ca property\u201d where you can tell more than one story in that world. \u201cSeries sell.\u00a0 They breed loyalty \u2013 we always come back to them,\u201d he says.\u00a0 I will write more about Stackpole\u2019s presentation in a future blog post.<\/div>\n
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Aaron Allston<\/b><\/div>\n
\u201cDie adjective, die!\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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Allston \u2013 not unlike Ernest Hemingway <\/a>\u2013 sees little value in adjectives or adverbs for serious writers, calling them \u201cinsulating layers,\u201d that do anything but give the reader a sense of the experience being described. The phrase used to describe this practice is \u201cpurple prose.\u201d He urges writers on their first editing pass to \u201clook at every adjective and adverb and strike most of them out.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Allston shared other advice during his workshop session — from the role of pacing to balancing exposition with dialogue to tell a story memorably. He advises writers to match the length of description to what their character sees.<\/div>\n
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He also says that you can fill in descriptive passages later after the first draft is crafted. \u00a0\u201cBackfill motivation, description and foreshadowing. Vastly limit adjectives and adverbs. Participles are not good. Use active verbs. Keep it simple. Keep it short. I am for transparency \u2013 don\u2019t be too stylized.”<\/div>\n
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I am finally taking a breath after the long Labor Day weekend and work week to share some thoughts from this year\u2019s DragonCon. \u00a0For the second year, I braved the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334,305,66,7],"tags":[88,498,500,74,502,81,499,501],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films-pop-culture","category-agents-publishing-self-publishing","category-writing-conferences","category-writing-tips","tag-aaron-allston","tag-carrie-fisher","tag-charlaine-harris","tag-dragoncon","tag-michael-stackpole","tag-sherrilyn-kenyon","tag-star-wars","tag-true-blood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2839,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/2839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}