Presentation this Saturday in Bountiful, UT

League of Utah Writers Northern Area Spring Conference

I’ll be presenting this Saturday at this conference that will be held at the Bountiful Art Center, 745 S. Main Street, Bountiful, UT 84010. I grew up in Bountiful, and so this is a special treat for me to go back.

COST: Free for League of Utah Writers Members.   $25 for non-members. More info at http://www.luwriters.org/.

  • 8:30     Registration-
  • 9:00     Jennifer Nielsen- Psychology of Characterization- understanding your characters psychologically
  • 10:00   John Brown-   Secrets of Story Structure
  • 11:00   John Brown-   How to Get and Develop Killer Ideas
  • 12:00   Lunch- El Matador
  • 1:00     Margot Hovley- The Nuts and Bolts of Writing
  • 2:00     Marion Jensen- Using Social Media in Every Step of the Writing Process
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  • Calendar updates

    I’ve added a number of entries to the calendar, including three conferences I plan on attending.

    I know I’ll be presenting at the first two. The title and description of the League of Utah Writers presentation are:

    TITLE: The Secret to Getting Story Ideas

    DESCRIPTION: How to stop generating great story ideas by accident and start generating them on purpose, whenever you need them.

    I don’t know what I’ll do for LTUE. I might do a repeat of the “The Secret to Getting Story Ideas,” or I might do something on how to write scenes or how genre is the key to plot. Stay tuned!

    Date & Time Event Location Notes
    Right now Writing Office It’s all for you, Dear Reader
    2015, Summer Release of Awful Intent, a Frank Shaw novel All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
    2015, Aug 28-29 League of Utah Writers Fall Conference Logan, UT League of Utah Writers
    2016, Winter Release of Hard Target, a Frank Shaw novel All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
    2016, Feb 11-13 Life, the Universe & Everything Provo, UT LTUE website
    2016, May LDStorymakers Conference Provo, UT LDStorymakers website
    2016, Summer Release of Glory: The Dark God Book 4 All major online retail venues The date is not firm.
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  • |

    Audio for my presentations

    Folks. I have 2 mp3 files. One for Story Turns. One for Vivid & Clear. They are each about 48mb in size. But I don’t have the time to figure out how to make them available to you.

    But I know someone out there does have the skillz to mash the slides with the audio in a short period of time and make it available. Maybe create something to upload to YouTube.

    So if you have been waiting for this and would like to offer your services, I’d be happy to throw in a free copy of the ebook edition of Bad Penny and Servant for your efforts. It would in no way cover your time, but it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And the project will also give you all sorts of glowy goodness inside knowing that you’ve served a whole bunch of writers.

    That’s my offer: glowy goodness and ebooks.

    If you’re interested, click my picture in the left sidebar and and let me know 🙂

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  • If you liked “From the Clay of His Heart” you can nominate for Hugo

    You may nominate works for the 2009 Hugo award if you either:

    • were an attending or supporting member of Denvention 3 (the 2008 World Science Fiction Convention); OR
    • are an attending or supporting member of Anticipation (the 2009 World Science Fiction Convention) before January 31, 2009

    If you liked “From the Clay of His Heart” and want to nominate it in the novelette category, all you need to do is go here and fill out this form before Saturday, February 28, 2009. You can nominate up to 5 stories in each category.

    If you want to read it, you can do so online if you have an IGMS vol 8 subscription ($2.50). If you don’t plan on subscribing to that issue, post a comment, and I’ll make sure you get a copy.

    Here are nomination numbers for last year’s awards. What this shows is that 40 nominations puts a novel on the final ballot. 17 nominations put a short story there.

    Best Novel (382 nominating ballots cast):
    65 – Brasyl by Ian McDonald
    58 – The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
    58 – Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
    41 – The Last Colony by John Scalzi
    40 – Halting State by Charles Stross

    Best Novella (220 nominating ballots cast):
    52 – “Memorare” by Gene Wolfe
    50 – “Recovering Apollo 8” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
    49 – “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis
    39 – “The Fountain of Age” by Nancy Kress
    34 – “Stars Seen Through Stone” by Lucius Shepard

    Best Novelette (243 nominating ballots cast):
    69 – “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang
    45 – “Dark Integers” by Greg Egan
    24 – “Finisterra” by David Moles
    22 – “The Cambist and Lord Iron” Daniel Abraham

    Best Short Story (270 nominating ballots cast):
    46 – “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear
    29 – “Last Contact” by Stephen Baster
    28 – “Distant Replay” by Mike Resnick
    25 – “A Small Room in Koboldtown” by Michael Swanwick
    17 – “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?” by Ken MacLeod

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  • |

    Lesson 8 finished

    If you write poopy-slow like me, you will finish 500-700 words of your draft in an hour. Let’s see what that means for various novel sizes.

    • 25,000 words: 50 hours
    • 50,000 words: 100 hours
    • 75,000 words: 150 hours
    • 100,000 words: 200 hours
    • 200,000 words: 400 hours

    And those requirements don’t count time you might need to spend re-imagining a piece or researching some gap in your knowledge or figuring out some knotty bit you couldn’t see was problematic when you first set out. A novel can be a big project and stretch over a few weeks, especially when you don’t have eight hours a day to write.

    In this lesson, you will learn that you need to treat the draft like what it is–a project–and use basic project management techniques to help you get the work done.

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3 Comments

  1. Hi John,

    This is Chris. I’m a friend of Kendra’s. I spoke with you briefly at LTUE. I was at today’s workshop, sitting in the back against the pole (goatee and long hair). I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your presentations, not only for the information but you are so entertaining to boot!

    Thank you for coming.

    Chris Miller

  2. Chris,

    So glad to hear that. I had a great time. Wish I could have stayed longer and chatted more with everyone.

  3. John,

    I was there at your workshop and enjoyed it a lot. I’ve had a lot of fun going back through my favorite movies and books to identify the story elements which leave me salivating. You did a fantastic job. I really appreciate your insights and that cult-leader personality of yours.

    Thanks a lot!

    Taylor Finch

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