Attending Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers‘ Colorado Gold conference this past weekend was the best thing my writer self could have done. It was my first writing conference ever, and in my opinion, the best one for breaking into the world of writing conferences. I met lots of great people, learned at the feet of many experts, and left there feeling more pumped than ever to get to work.
I took pages and pages of notes while in the workshops, lectures, and panels, and I wanted to share just some of the nuggets I gathered. Even if they were things I’d heard before, it’s always nice to be reminded. Aside from learning how my characters scored on the Myers-Briggs test (Ian is an ISFJ), I also took in the following:
- There’s a difference to tension and suspense.
- Tension is a conflict or obstacle. It belongs on every page and in every genre. It can be external or internal. Overt or subtle. In action or dialogue. It should be visceral, and drawn out like foreplay.
- Suspense is uncertainty. It creates questions and doesn’t answer them immediately–questions like Why, What, Who, When, Where, and How?
- “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.” -Anton Chekhov
- Showing vs. telling: don’t tell the reader how to feel! Telling:
- is intellectualized rather than visceral (here’s that word again).
- is general or vague, rather than specific.
- is broad rather than granular.
- is abstract rather than visual.
- makes conclusions, rather than leading the reader to them.
- Every single scene and line should move your story forward.
- Point of View is the vehicle on which the reader rides into the story.
- Write beyond the trope of Strong Female Characters. Women don’t have to use weapons to be strong, and they can still kick ass while loving girly things or being girly themselves.
- Torture the ones you love–that is, torture your characters! The greater pressure you put on your character, the greater the true character shows.
- “Good fiction can be defined with five Cs: convincing characters caught in compelling conflict.” -Brandilyn Collins
- Great stories have both a compelling climax and a devastating black moment.
- Plot is what happens, and story is why it matters.
- There’s a difference between an antagonist and a villain.
- An “identity” is the role your character plays, and the “essence” is who they really are. The purpose of the plot is to showcase events in a compelling way that carries a character from “identity” to “essence.”
- External and internal stories can, and should, happen at the same time.
- Convincing characters have fears!
- Convincing characters want something they can’t easily have.
- Make sure your characters extend beyond the page.
- Keep your details relevant.
- Poetic techniques, like kennings, alliterations, rhymes, and meters, can add to your story. Let the rhyme and meter of your sentences reflect on the mood.
- Have a great sense of humor when writing!
- Omit dialogue tags whenever possible.
- Less is more with info dumping (duh!).
- A scene should always develop the plot and/or character.
- Your POV character should always have gained either knowledge, skills, or resources by the end of a scene.
- Conflict and tension are rooted in the character’s struggle to either gain or cede the upper hand.
- Filler and POV filters are the blubber and gristle in your story. Instead develop the muscle and sinew!
- Don’t think of sentences as bricks–walls keep readers out!
- Scenes are vital structures where all the components come together: character, plot, and theme.
And lastly, I’ll leave you with this: “Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can’t use the wrong words. But on the other hand here am I sitting after half the morning, crammed with ideas, and visions, and so on, and can’t dislodge them, for lack of the right rhythm. Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than any words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it.” —Virginia Woolf
Romanticizing Reality 