But, of course, the advice was the most beneficial thing about this symposium. Here are some highlights from my notes:
Action
- Don't not do it because you're scared
- Don't forget about downtime
- Don't be afraid to hurt or kill your characters
- But don't turn a character into a punching bag
- Mix up types of action sequences
- Freemasons are basically grown up boyscouts
- It's not about secrets--it's about whether you can keep one
- There are three types: twisted men, twisted animals, or incomprehensible
- Don't do it just because it's cool---why is it there?
- Sometimes monsters are there to be monsters and sometimes they are there to show that the characters are monsters
- Don't infodump backstory--save it for later
- You need to care about the people being eaten
- Don't take yourself too seriously
- Don't use words you don't know
- Quantum entanglement: "Spooky action at a distance"
- "Quantum mechanics is magic"
- DO NOT EXPLAIN IT!
- "Science is a form of magic for most of us"
- Use technology instead of science
- Cool terms I learned: noetics, brane theory, Hicks particle
- "I like foreshadowing. It is nice."
- 3-Act format
- Scene and Sequel: there's main events and then there's downtime
- Think-Talk-Act cycle
- Make something explode every 40 pages
- Plot hole: characters are out of character or the universe is broken
- Kill your darlings
- [Notes are all visual]
- Podcasts are extremely specific radio shows
- Plan ahead of time
- Sound quality will never be better than the mic
- Entertaining is more important than knowing what you're talking about
- Music helps you get into a frame of mind
- Two varieties: preparation and during writing
- Revising-getting you back into the mindset
- "If you start setting places for your characters for dinner, you're too into them... I've actually done that..."
- CUT! (if you want it to be read and sold)
- People don't want to wade through the stuff where we show off
- 1+1=1/2 : Pick only one way to say it
- Be oriented around the climax (not just plot--character, setting, etc.)
- The notion of motion is critical
- Put info in the right place--when readers want to know
- Do as many layers of richness as you can with as few words as possible
- Every word you write costs $1000--make it worth it
- Don't burn bridges with people
"Would I lie?"
"You write fiction!"
--Tracy Hickman and Howard Tayler- You represent all of the work you've done
- A bookmark is worthless. A signed bookmark is personal and special.
- If there's something you don't want to kill, it's the ability to use your own name
- "Keep your words soft and sweet or someday you may have to eat them"
- Personalities should be diverse but work well together
- GROWTH-you need to TRY to improve
- 6 people is a decent size
- Don't defend your own writing
- Don't beat the dead horse--just say you agree or disagree with someone and maybe why
- Start what you finish
- If a character does something in a book, it doesn't mean the author does...the subject is touchy, though.
- You're never going to make everyone happy
- Individual characters represent a part of the overall argument of the story
- Don't force morals--they'll shine through naturally
- Don't do strawmen
- Writing is uncomfortable
- Don't overlook internal conflict
- Characters are the most important part of the story
- The character="Homo fictus"
- Real characters have flaws
- Write a character biography from their viewpoint
- 3 stories: boy meets girl, the man who learned better, and the little (or clever) tailor
- 1Character in a 2context with a 3conflict that they 4try to solve and 5fail
- As a character goes along, they get farther from their goals
- Strong characters make decisions
- Where is the line between middle grade, YA, and adult?
- Adult narrator looking back on youth, sophistication of language, themes, hopefulness
- As age level increases, scope of the world increases
- YA tends to be less bleak than adult
- Creativity = zing sensors are on + creative Q&A
- Character, setting, problem, and plot
- "Farmer's faith": manure produces gold
- "List and twist"
- Take a dramatic event that happened and ask questions
- "If it sucks, you've gone too far"
- The majority of book-buyers actively avoid far-read authors
- There's crap and then there's not being in the audience
- Write to your passion, not someone else's--even if they are one of the shiny ones
- "Been done" means squat
- Likability+Problem=Rooting
- You can't expect people to be rooting for the characters in two paragraphs, but you can create interest
- Deservingness drives story
- Dilemmas make the reader sweat...deliciously
- Don't fit your story into a strict layout
- Present a possibility, let us worry about it, turn (shift in the story)
- Starfleet: unrealistically disproportionate enlisted/officers; away teams
- Officers think statistically
- When you're not in combat, you're training
- Technology is important to the military
- Beans, bullets, and bandaids
- Never underestimate a determined private
- When danger arrives, some freak out, some pull into a shell, some revel in it, some start making jokes
- Depending on danger levels, some routines may be foregone
- The longer you are in combat, the more native the equipment becomes
- Most of the military time is boring
E-publishing
- New York publishing is dying
- E-publishing is a lot of work
- Many people are writing, not so many are being read
- Word of mouth/personal contact has become the gatekeeper
- Do it correctly, even if it isn't cheap
- The first draft is just trying to find the story
- High level edit: What is broken?
- "I can't save this character, but they'll make a great organ donor"
- Shotgun edit: what is wrong here?
- Leave it alone for a little while
- Check for consistency
- How many revisions? ~6 or so
- Get it away from you and get fresh eyes
- Fans expect action and it needs to be good
- If it sounds like a storyboard, you're doing it wrong
- Action should mean something
- Confusion can flavor the action
- Filter the experience through the viewpoint character
- Emotional payoff, not a filler
- Readers have to like the characters
- The characters need to be likable by the person falling in love
- Love triangles shouldn't be horribly unbalanced
- Characters in a couple need to meet a need in each other
Psychology of the Samurai
- "It was justified" vs. "That was wrong"
- Jedi knight-chivalry and samurai code
- Life is fragile so live it to its fullest
- Guilt is personal. Shame is genealogical.
- Superior by birth, therefore confident
- "We form habits and then habits form us"
- Know yourself, your weaknesses, weapons, surroundings, enemies, etc.
- Shame is the worst thing ever
- Clear the mind
- Misconceptions: fights go on forever, people get hurt and get back up, etc.
- Depending on weapons, armor, style, etc., fights last from 4 seconds to 4 minutes
- Armor prolongs fights, but not indefinitely
- Fights to the death don't have time-outs
- Wearing armor is a skill
- You cannot train yourself!
- Training is the single most important element in combat
- A master will NEVER fall to the untrained
- A good fight scene: develops character, furthers plot, conflict, objective, tactics, events, structure, who's telling the story?
- Count # of pages filled and figure out what needs to go in to fill it
- How long is your story?
- In SF/F, setting is a character
- Create boundaries for yourself
- Know your characters well enough that they can carry the story
- Be open to objective criticism, but be true to yourself
- "Suck less"
- Comic books should do things that other media can't
- A page of a graphic novel is very expensive--don't waste it
- Mutualism
- Mimicry--batesian and mullerian
- Parasites
- Predation
- In Star Trek (movie), arthropod predator should have stayed with the better, already wounded kill. Also, arthropods can only get so big
- In Avatar, there is an ecological context for the thing
- Most intelligent animals are social, predators, or both
- Survival of the adequate
- Variance, selection, inheritance
- Similar features from solving the same environmental problems; maybe human is an inevitable form of the universe?
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