Here are the materials for the presentations that I’m giving at LTUE this year. Enjoy!
2017 LTUE 3 Things You Must Learn to Write Killer Stories
2017 LTUE 3 Things You Must Learn to Write Killer Stories HANDOUT
2017 LTUE The Secret to a Story Idea that Works
2017 LTUE Banish writer’s fear doubt and block with cognitive therapy
I have found every one of Maya’s practical prescriptions to work for me.
You already know how I feel about writerly rules. So when I read James Maxey’s “The Only Law of Literature,” I had to share it.
I want to quote the whole thing here. But I’ll resist and quote only the conclusion.
[In response to critiquing stories that don’t work for you] All the literary analysis of writing techniques, of style, of world building, of creating characters–it all has it’s place, but it’s almost completely useless as a guide to writing a good book. You are never going to be able to think or study or analyze your way into writing a book that people love.
There is only one law of good literature: Write what you’d love to read.
Not what you have read and loved. What you love, but haven’t yet read.
To quote myself from the Impish Idea thread:
Every thing you write should be a love story. Not a romance. But a story written because you loved it.
Follow your passion. Don’t worry about pleasing everyone. Fill your book with the stuff that makes your heart race and leave out the stuff that bores you. If you don’t make it into print, at least you’ll have a book you can look at with pride as being truly your own.
Once you’ve learned this secret, everything else falls into place.
Go read the whole post.
It’s important to learn craft. You cannot get away from it. But craft is only useful as a tool to tell this cool, wonderful, poignant, amazing thing we’ve invented and discovered.
“When you are really and seriously stuck and you hate everything you’ve written, BINGE READ.”
That’s from super author Maya Lassiter. If you recall, she did a great guest post here on her creative process. I love this technique for getting unstuck. When you binge read (or watch), not only do you see other options that you might take and adapt for your purposes, but those other options also spark whole new ideas.
I just used this with the battle I’m writing for Curse. I wasn’t to the hate stage; I actually liked what I had. But I didn’t quite know how to get it to where I wanted it to be. So I decided to read some books by one of the masters of historical battle.
I binge read and listened.
And enjoyed the heck out of both the reading and the ideas I gleaned for my sequence.
Binge read.
It’s an awesome creative technique.
Where do you get your ideas? How do you turn them into story?
Those are fabulous questions. The answer is a bit longer than I have time for today. But I have posted my list of idea generation methods, structured ways of performing creative Q&A.
These have been collected over the years from a number of sources and are now passed on to you, faithful reader. Use them, cherish them, and, if you wish, start an order of crazed monks to preserve the fabulous secrets.
John Browns’s Idea Generation Method List
Enjoy!
I’m about to put together a brand-new novel writing boot camp, but before I do that I want to know what would be most helpful to YOU.
So if you want to write novels, my question to you is this…
When it comes to writing novels, what’s YOUR single biggest challenge, frustration, or concern?
Please CLICK THE LINK to tell me.
As a thank you, those that answer the question will get a seat at a virtual, 1-hour training session I’m putting on where you discover 3 key principles of keeping your readers hooked.
I look forward to the insights.
You’re awesome 
I don’t have time to watch, but I found myself getting sucked in this week. And here’s something I realized as I watched Simon, Paula, Randy, Ryan, & the contenstants–the show is using story principles.
Duh, I know: of course, it is. But it does it so well. It reminds me of a research article I read about sportscasters and audience enjoyment of sports competitions. They found that if they could inject story elements–suspense, rivalry, etc.–people enjoyed the games more. Next time you watch a college football game, notice what the color commentators say to make it a contest. It’s not just about reporting what #45 did out in the flat.
Anyway, back to Idol. Look at these elements.
What draws us to characters?
Beauty, threats, quirkiness, larger-than-life situation or skills, source of viewer wish-fulfillment.
Humm, let’s look at the cast of performers. Don’t we see all of that? How many of us wouldn’t love to be able to sing like they do? Have a shot at becoming a recording artist? Or just goggle at someone getting this chance?
What factors generate suspense?
Threats to characters we like or marvelous opportunities for them, turns in the situation, a prolonged resolution.
Humm. Our sympathy is engaged because these folks are normal folks, many of them underdogs. Many viewers identify strongly with one or two because of the contestant’s various social groups and because, heck, the auditions are for people like you and me. It could be us up there in front of the world! You’ve got the threat of peformance fright, but also the overriding opportunity to make a dream real. You’ve got a wonderful career, if not millions of dollars, on the line. You’ve got Simon who is honest, but also plays his part. Isn’t that the moment of most suspense with each performance? You’ve even got a little subplot going on between Simon and Seacrest. There’s no villain here. But there are plenty of obstacles. Weekly threats.
What does Idol give us that Survivor never could?
It’s all REAL, even if the producers let their selection of performers be influenced by things other than vocal talent. And because it’s real, we believe it. Which means we can more easily feel sympathy and root for the various performers.
It’s a simple but brilliant concept. And I just wasted 4 hours watching it. And I’m likely to do it again.
Zing, Baby. Zing!
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Thanks for sharing! You always have great stuff!
Thank you so much for sharing these John. Your seminars were the most helpful at LtUE 2017! Now that it’s all over, I’ll do my homework you assigned and keep you posted.
Glad to hear you find it helpful!
Looking forward to receiving it 🙂
I loved your sessions at LTUE 2017, just like LTUE 2016 they were the highlight of LTUE for me! I am going to put THOM R into practice on the two current books I am working on as well as doing the list generation exercise.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Glad to hear it! Please let me know when you’ve done the exercise and report the results.
Thank you for the great sessions and handouts!