---
title: 'First Conference: Part 2'
date: 2019-02-14
description: Thoughts after my first real writer's conference day!
categories:
  - writing
meta:
  keywords:
    - writing
    - fantasy
    - novel
bannerCloudinaryId: unsplash/photo-1512250591270-0bea37004c99
bannerCredit: Photo by [Neil Rosenstech](https://unsplash.com/photos/OxnhDqLcjU4)
---

Today was awesome. As I've mentioned, I've been to many conferences in my time
as a software engineer, but I wasn't sure what to expect from a writer's
conferences. It was similar in many ways. Lots of people walking around to
different rooms. I met a ton of people. I wasn't afraid to introduce myself to
whoever I ended up sitting next to, or any of the panlists before or after their
panel. **This made the experience especially enjoyable.**

There were a lot of options for panels and classes to attend. Here are the ones
that I chose to attend and some of my thoughts/notes/etc:

## Kill Your Darlings: What Makes a Meaningful Death?

_John M. Olsen (M), Holli Anderson, Howard Tayler, Jessica Day George_

> No one likes to read a long explanation of anything. This will cover the art
> of showing while still getting all of the important information out there.

Killing people is something that I don't do in real life (obviously), and I'm
finding it surprisingly difficult to do things in my novel that I wouldn't
personally do in real life. I think this may also be why I don't have any
drinking in my novel. Oh sure I have an explination for why it's that way, but
I'm not really looking forward to writing about doing the things that I don't
personally do.

That said, the first scene of Shurlan is the death of an 11 year old boy who is
an only child:

https://twitter.com/kent_writes/status/1093182189141774336

Another challenge with my novel is that the people in Shurlan are a docile
people. Totally non-violent. The culture doesn't make any room for violence. But
that presents a problem in an action genre story where our value is life and
death. So if I want the threat from the rebellion to be real, I'll need to do
some killing early on to raise the stakes and tension of the book.

So, look forward to some edits to the manuscript in which the rebellion kills
and there's foreshadowing that our team could pay with their lives for trying to
stop the rebellion. Or even worse, they may have to kill to stop the rebellion.

## Writer Meetup: Epic Fantasy

> Are you looking for a writing group? Beta readers? Come hang out with fellow
> readers and writers of your favorite genres at this low-key networking event.

Met a bunch of people here who were also writing epic fantasy. Hoping to form
relationships with several of them in the form of writing groups or other
things. The room was full of about 50 people and we each spent a little time
introducing ourselves and what we're working on. I made a few new friends that I
saw around the rest of the conference. I'm happy that I went.

## Institutionalized: Writing an Ensemble Cast

_Natasha Ence (M), Aaron Johnston, Brian McClellan, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler_

> How to handle a large cast while keeping everyone distinct with a compelling
> arc. Also, how to handle the main character, their point of view, and their
> relationships with the rest of the main cast.

My book definitely has an ensemble cast. A set of characters all working toward
the same end-goal. But I think something that could make it more interesting is
to call out the fact that they're motives differ and make their motives more
clear.

A good ensamble cast is not necessarily one that has the same motives, same
values, or even the same end goals. A good ensamble cast is dynamic, full of
conflict, but has a reason for sticking with each other. That reason may be
tenuious, but it's strong enough to keep them together and keep things
interesting.

Another interesting insight I got out of this was that characters interact in
your story not to push your plot forward but for their own reasons. You can make
those reasons push your plot forward, but consider their motivations first and
foremost. This will make them feel more real.

## Can You Tell Me How to Show?

_Holli Anderson (M), Emma Hoggan, Kathryn Purdie, Kelly Barnhill, Suzanne
Vincent_

> No one likes to read a long explanation of anything. This will cover the art
> of showing while still getting all of the important information out there.

I loved this panel. It was full of insights from every panelist. I especially
appreciated Emma's observation that showing gives the reader a feeling, and
telling just gives the reader information. There are situations where either is
desireable, but you should consider this when you're writing.

Generally showing is more desireable than telling, but in action scenes for
instance, sometimes you just want the action to happen quickly. So telling works
well there. Just don't forget to take breaks in the action to consider the
characters' feelings and introspective thoughts which make the action scene
worth reading.

Kelly suggested reading
[Several Short Sentences About Writing](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307279413) by
Verlyn Klinkenborg. Sounded like it could really help in this subject.

Suzanne mentioned that often you can get visual queues from the way the words
appear on the page that tell you whether the author is doing a lot of telling.
Varying paragraphs sizes broken up by dialog are typically better at showing
than large paragraphs (she said she'd even read one book which had a 1000 word
paragraph 😱).

"Telling an emotion is telling." So don't say: "She felt sad." Show us what she
looks like and the things she does when she feels sad: "She could hardly breath
as the tears rolled down her face and curled up burying her face in her lap."

They also gave us several words to watch out as "telling words:"

- was
- dialog descriptive words like "snapped" (pretty much avoid anything but
  "said")
- felt
- saw
- heard
- smelled
- "and there was silence"
- realized
- suddenly

There was a lengthy discussion about how silence can be a character. I'll have
to give this one more thought and practice. They mentioned that new writers
often over-write and are afraid of silence. Watch out for adverbs! Most of them
are just telling when showing would be better.

Another thing that was called out during the Q&A by Kelly was that "Draft 1 is a
worry-free zone." I really appreciated that. Since my first novel was written
during [NaNoWriMo](https://nanowrimo.org) 2018, I knew that I'd need to not care
about the words flying off my fingers because I just needed to get stuff down on
the page, then I can clean it up later. I've never published, so take my advice
with a grain of salt, but I think that this is super important:

https://twitter.com/kent_writes/status/1091940555020369920

Another book recommendation was
[American Fantasy Tradition](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0765301520) by Brian
Thomsen.

Finally, one insight I got out of this (specifically from Suzanne of
[FlashFictionOnline.com](http://flashfictiononline.com)) was that writing flash
fiction (very short stories) can be a fantastic way to practice your writing
skills and up your game as a writer quickly. I'm definitely planning on doing
this.

## The Sagging Middle of Novels

_J. Scott Savage (M), Ginny Smith, Kelsy Thompson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Stacy
Whitman_

> You know the beginning and the end, but how do you get from one to the other?
> Authors give their favorite strategies for working up to the midpoint and
> breaking into the third act.

The beginning and ending frame the middle. If you struggle with the middle it's
probably not the fault of the middle, but because the frame isn't great. Often
people have a great start and a great ending, but the start and ending don't
match. They're two different stories! So writing a middle that bridges those two
together is difficult and makes it feel like you're in a slump.

Another bit of advice was just to finish the book! Work through it. Again, it's
much easier to edit words that exist than words that don't!

Finally, something else that can help is to answer the question (specifically):
"Who is your audience."

Between this session and the next, I snagged an opportunity to ask Mary a few
questions about the diversity of my characters. Specifically the fact that in
Shurlan there is no diversity because it's brainwashed out of them by the
Immortal Family and the Religion of the Immortali. She gave me some really great
insights for how I can highlight this fact from the main characters who are
directly acting against this kind of suppression (almost without recognizing
that's what they're doing). I can use this to reveal the real problems with the
society and why it needs to change which is an important theme to the whole
book. Also, after giving her some context to the story, she seemed to approve of
the concept so that was encouraging!

https://twitter.com/kent_writes/status/1096212350808408064

## Narrator: The Invisible Character

_Scott R. Parkin (M), Emma Hoggan, Kelly Barnhill, Mary Robinette Kowal, McKelle
George_

> Your narrator might not have a name, but their voice and style can add another
> dimention to the story. Creating great narrative voice and weaving it
> seemlessly into the story.

There was general agreement that the narrator is the most important character of
the novel. The first chapter is a date with this narrator and if that date
doesn't go well, then people will put your book down and find a more compatible
match.

Mary Robinette gave us this analysis of Narrative voice:

- Mechanical: Omnicient, 3rd person, 1st person, etc.
- Asthetic: What does the voice sound like (serious, playful, etc.)
- Personal: This is what the author personally brings to the narrator's voice.
  You'll find your voice with enough practice.

I love "tight" 3rd person (a.k.a. 3rd person limited). In this mechanical form
of narrative voice, it should sound like the point of view (POV) character. This
means that throughout the novel as your POV changes, the narrator's voice should
also change to match the voice of that charcter.

This is something that Brandon Sanderson does really well. I'm thinking
specifically of the few scenes where the narrator follows Wayne in the Wax and
Wayne Mistborn books. Fantastic example of the narrator's voice sounding like
the POV character and it's fun to read (or listen to in my case). In fact, when
I'm listening to it, the voice actor slightly changes the narrator's voice to
match the POV's voice which draws this out even more.

One thing that I'm trying to do in Shurlan is the use of "free indirect speech"
which was popularized by Jane Austen. This is when the narrative speaks almost
directly from the mind of the POV character. I love the example from wikipedia
that compares this to direct and indirect speech:

> - Quoted or direct speech: _He laid down his bundle and thought of his
>   misfortune. "And just what pleasure have I found, since I came into this
>   world?" he asked._
> - Reported or normal indirect speech: _He laid down his bundle and thought of
>   his misfortune. He asked himself what pleasure he had found since he came
>   into the world._
> - Free indirect speech: _He laid down his bundle and thought of his
>   misfortune. And just what pleasure had he found, since he came into this
>   world?_

I just love that feeling of the narrator being the POV character.

One thing that Mary said that I absolutely loved was this:

> When a reader says they are confused, they're right. When they tell you how to
> fix it, they're wrong.

And a final piece of advice that I thought was interesting was:

> Don't read things you don't enjoy.

If you don't enjoy it, then it's probably not good and you don't want to be
unconciously internalizing those things.

# Conclusion

I loved this day. I met a ton of people, took just as many notes, and was left
feeling motivated to improve my craft and my work in progress.

_This is multi-part of a series of posts about LTUE 2019:_

- [Read Part 0](./first-conference-part-0)
- [Read Part 1](./first-conference-part-1)
- [Read Part 2 (that's this post)](./first-conference-part-2)
- [Read Part 3](./first-conference-part-3)
- [Read Part 4](./first-conference-part-4)
