{"id":96,"date":"2012-09-04T15:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T15:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/writing-tips-from-the-masters-part-i-of-my-dragoncon-wrap-up\/"},"modified":"2013-07-25T20:15:24","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T20:15:24","slug":"writing-tips-from-the-masters-part-i-of-my-dragoncon-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/?p=96","title":{"rendered":"Writing Tips from the Masters: Part I of My DragonCon Wrap Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I am still in recovery mode coming off the high of DragonCon 2012, which drew more than 60,000 SF and fantasy fans this weekend to downtown Atlanta.<\/span>While the \u201cpeople watching\u201d at the world\u2019s largest fantasy\/SF convention<\/span> never disappoints, the real highlight for me is hearing from leading storytellers today in these genres.<\/div>\n
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Panels that stood out for me this year were a Young Adult (YA) author panel that discussed The Hunger Games\u2019<\/i> journey from paper to screen, a \u201cCreating Memorable Characters\u201d panel, and a Saturday morning chat with the \u201cFirst Ladies of Fantasy.\u201d The Writing Well <\/i>will be featuring highlights from these sessions in my expanded DragonCon wrap-up coverage starting tomorrow. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Writing wisdom from Richard Hatch<\/h4>\n

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Richard Hatch.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I also met one of my childhood heroes — actor and writer Richard Hatch, who played the character, Apollo, in the original \u201cBattlestar Galactica\u201d TV series and who first brought the story forward 20 years into the future with his novels. \u00a0<\/span>Richard was a fount of information and inspiration for the writers in the room.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cGreat writing is like great drama \u2013 being in situations where you don\u2019t know what the solutions are,\u201d says Richard, who urged us to get out of our heads and \u201ctap into the deeper well of creativity.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo you know how many artists paint, write, and it\u2019s wonderful but nobody gets it. I think the art of the writer is to take something complex \u2013 something profound \u2013 and find a way to translate into a language that is understandable by people on a number of levels.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Case in point: the film, \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d could be enjoyed as an action flick on its own merit, but it also offered something else to others who could delve into the deeper aspects of the movie.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWhen you have the ability to communicate on multiple levels, you really have found that art form that is the art form of life \u2013 it\u2019s really what leverages you into the marketplace,\u201d Richard says. \u201cThe greatest joy you will ever have is sharing your work with someone who gets it. You have to have the courage to step up to the plate, de-cloak, become visible, and share your work.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Aaron Allston and Mike Stackpole.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
My biggest time investment was attending several one-hour writing workshops taught by talented SF novelists, Aaron Allston <\/a>and Michael Stackpole<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Strive for Unattributed Dialogue<\/h4>\n
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In his \u201cTalk to Me\u201d dialogue workshop, Aaron advocates establishing a distinctive voice to your character so that readers will know the character without you having to use attribution. You can accomplish this by repetitive use of language patterns in how the character speaks, and even through unattributed dialogue. You can also do this through punctuation, by having your character end a sentence as a question.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYou want as much unattributed dialogue as possible \u2013 it shows your proficiency as a writer,\u201d Aaron says.<\/div>\n
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A sudden change in how your character speaks lets the reader realize that something has changed or is about to change. \u201cAlways be aware of what your character\u2019s normal vocal mode is and deviate from it to get impact,\u201d he says.<\/div>\n
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If you think your dialogue is going on too long, set their manuscript aside and come back to it with fresh eyes later, advises Aaron. Generally speaking, action scenes should have shorter dialogue while \u201csitting\u201d scenes can be longer.<\/div>\n
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Write — Don’t Rewrite<\/h4>\n

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One pointer from Mike Stackpole\u2019s Writing Rules session that stood out to me was \u201cdon\u2019t rewrite before you finish writing.\u201d How often do you find yourself self-editing mid-chapter or even mid-page? For me, plenty! Mike urges you to avoid that practice and just get your story down first. If you have a question in the area of research, highlight it in yellow \u2013you can always go back and fill in those details later.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cNever take the easy way out \u2013 have characters change or grow due to their experience. Readers have to connect with them,\u201d Mike says.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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I found his session, \u201cWriting a novel in 21 days,\u201d amazing. The session included 21 exercises that address all the major building blocks of your story \u2013 the first 11 days focus on characterization; the next four days deal with world building; and the subsequent days focus on plotting. At the end of the 21 days, you have an outline from which to write your book. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cEvery single word you put down is one word closer to the end,\u201d Mike concludes. He advises you to keep chapters short \u2013 targeting 2,500 words and then \u201cget out.\u201d His reason? It keeps readers turning the page. Novels are approximately 100,000 words, while digital books are 50,000. You should also focus on three viewpoint characters not any more given the target book length.<\/div>\n
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\u201cSpeed is not important \u2013 every writer writes at a different speed. As you write more, you will get faster,\u201d he says.<\/div>\n

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Identify these 13 Plot-clogging ‘Sins’<\/h4>\n

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The final workshop I attended on Sunday was Aaron’s 13 sins that clog your plot.<\/div>\n
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Whether the culprits are issues of preparation, characterization, plotting or writing, the outcome is the same: \u201cyour characters stop interacting with you,\u201d he says. \u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Common culprits that stall a plot include not doing your research, not laying out the rules of your story, or leaving out an essential ingredient, such as writing characters that your readers can\u2019t get behind or villains who aren\u2019t identifiable to readers.<\/div>\n
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\u201cConflict is also important \u2013 a novel without a conflict is kind of like a novel without readers,\u201d he says.<\/div>\n
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Two major plotting sins are setting up a situation that is too simplistic that leads characters to interact in very predictable ways, and plotting with what Aaron calls \u201cStyrofoam peanuts,\u201d or relying on overused plot twists that are cliches.<\/div>\n
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The most memorable of his sins was #13 \u2013 being unwilling to abuse your characters as your plot demands.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cYou have to be willing to inflict pain on your characters.\u201d Growth only comes with pain.<\/div>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am still in recovery mode coming off the high of DragonCon 2012, which drew more than 60,000 SF and fantasy fans this weekend to downtown Atlanta.While the \u201cpeople watching\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,7],"tags":[88,74,87],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-conferences","category-writing-tips","tag-aaron-allston","tag-dragoncon","tag-mike-stackpole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","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=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anne.myupcomingsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}