Writing Workshops

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Last DragonCon, Charley and I spent a lot of time going to writer's workshops. We went to many given by Michael Stackpole, which were fantastic. We went to others as well, though I felt the Stackpole workshops were particularly informative. In this thread, I'll copy over the notes that I took.

Part I
The Rules of Writing
Michael Stackpole

*Don't quit your day job*

1) Show, don't tell.
a) Want to engage the reader
b) Show significant, Tell trivial

*Editers ding on Passive sentences
- Eliminate verb 'to be' and 'was'
- Rule can be broken in dialogue


2) Write before rewrite
a) KEEP GOING

*An imperfect whole is better than a perfect chapter 1*


3) Never settle for easy way out
a) Have to go for the hard stuff
b) TV and movies have low-hanging fruit
c) Tease with obvious, turn around at reveal



4) DOUBLE DUTY
a) Info dump - AVOID
b) Give info in service of characterization
- Able to learn more about characters in this process
c) Use emotional reactions
- Connects and engages reader
- Emotional contrast
d) After action reaction(s)



5) Continuity
a) Sets built with words
b) Why have discussions in 3 places rather than 1?
- Could do multiples by engaging reader with environments
c) Lets reader know there is a world beyond

* Not just about environments, but secondary characters also
- Sense of passing time and a living world



6) HE SAID/SHE SAID
a) Not necessary
b) Dialogue runs much more smoothly
c) Word choice and sentence length help to distinguish who is talking
- 12 words = avg sentence length
- 8 words = avg for action
d) Regional words
e) Occupational jargon
- Addressing in dialogue
f) You can use HS/SS on endings of chapters



7) Do research and choreograph
*Get your shit right*
a) Significant - Get it right
b) Insignificant - Can get away with fudging
c) Choreography
- Get up and move through to see if it can actually be done
- Acting out the action further helps you describe what it's like for the characters

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

In this workshop, Mr. Stackpole let us do a group creation, so the inclusion of magic and fantasy settings are touched on here.

Part II
Worldbuilding
Michael Stackpole

1) CONSEQUENCE TESTING

• Make sure can't be broken
• Once you posit something, make sure it can't be broken
• Be precise
• Geography, environs, people, etc

2) NEVER SAY NEVER

• State all facts as someone coming from your world
• Never state facts as narrator
• Never reveal facts you won't use

3) CYCLICAL DEVELOPMENT

• Always be developing/creating

*Write as you worldbuild*

4) WORLD AESTHETIC

• Color Palette
• Feel (does this fit)
• A few positives/light ELEMENTS OF CONTRAST
• Too much of one thing will make you tire of it
• Where do you start
• Dynamic

*Ability to make a both young and old world*

• Toss out hints the people of your world know but readers don't
• Weight and value of things that happened are invaluable

5) INFLUENCES

• Geography impacts everything, influences everything
• Early maps emphasized rivers, roads, railroad tracks (means of moving goods and trade)
• Ecological/Environmental disasters
• Rivers > Agrizones > Valleys > Mountains
• Peoples moved/raided.etc for resources

6) SPECIES

• Tropes like elves, trolls, dwarves, fairies, etc
• If you use these, change them
• Also create something new - when you do this, it will be memorable
• Multi-dominant species
• Dominant > subservient species
• Sub-species within the main

7) ANIMALS

• Ecological role in the world
• Does the ecological consequence/action make sense

8) CULTURE

• Thrive on Power
• Power focused at top
• If base dies away (famine?) civilization collapses

9) MAGIC

• How prevalent
• How common
• How high/low
• Capacity (handle a lot/not a lot)
• Trained?
• Different types across the different races

10) RELIGION

• Means of social control

11) LITTLE DETAILS

• How many words for 1 thing in our world? (for example, coinage. different pictures on different coins could mean different names for different coins)
• Slang

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Part III
Amazing Worldbuilding
Sharon Ahern and A. J. Hartley

1) What do you think are the fundamental aspects/traits of your world


2) What will create immediacy for reader (believability, etc)

• Items
• Familiar aspects

*Human nature may be generally the same, but you can certainly play with this notion due to its' complexity*

*Culture/familial*

*You can use these to help build up or tear down parts of your world*

3) Parameters that hide in the background


4) Fine line of what we want to put in our story/world and what readers want

• Don't be afraid to put in what you are interested in

*Write what you know and/or can learn*

5) Reach down to the practical

• Details are what make your world rich

6) Don't have to immediately share everything; let it come in organically

• Generally 5% seen, with the rest under your thumb/in metered docket for eventual revealing

7) Intrinsic to plot


8) Characters can tell us where to go/what to do at times


9)You can write in the action immediately to preserve the heat of the moment, then go back and correct locations/etc if need be


TIMELINES AND HISTORIES


10) Series?

• Don't close doors or pin down too many things/details unless you want to expand on those at a later date
• Don't infodump; rather, salt
• Terminology in back

11) If it's not bad enough, make it worse before giving up after painting yourself into a corner.

**BACK YOUR SHIT UP MULTIPLE TIMES**

12) Perspective and points of view can provide ALTS


13) Writers block?

• Go back to worldbuilding
• Kill a character (whether established char or a new one)
• Don't need to write sequentially
• Write cursory bits, then when you get writer's block, go back and fill in the fluff/body
• Power through it, but also step away for a short bit of time
• Work on another part of the story

14) Building a world around the culture


15) Starting a story

• Figure out the climax, then start as close to it as possible
• Get in as late as possible, out as early as possible

16) If you are worldbuilding around another race or culture, tread carefully

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Great notes! I love Stackpole - and the writing track at DragonCon is great.

[Madeleia]

Awesome notes. I've taken a Creative Writing course some time back and the first thing I recall is her telling me to, "show, don't tell". I definitely understand that point as it allows the reader to take that journey along with the characters instead of learning about it after the fact. Keeping the plot moving was another point she stressed instead of getting bogged down with something that really didn't matter in the end. I definitely love writing and wish I could do it for a living, but... lol

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Glad you guys like these I have more to copy over; one more about world building and character development ones

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Part IV
Worldbuilding: Beyond the Basics
This was a multi-person panel, and I can't remember the presenters, sadly


Constructing a world to serve your story and characters

The Basics

• Setting
• Influences
• Research
• Rules need to be established - what can and can't be seen
• Ask 'what if' and 'why'

BEYOND...

Guiding Star

• What are the themes of your story
• How does your world communicate the themes of your story

Creating Your Culture

• What constraints
• What ppl value / establish values
• Cultural expectations
• Customs
• Tropes

Culture is dictated by the constraints of the setting

• What is abundant
• What is scarce

What is the value system of the culture(s)

• What is good
• What is bad
• What is ambiguous

How do cultural expectations affect your char's life

• How do they influence the story?
• The conflict?
• The resolution?

What are the customs in this culture and why

• How do they influence the story?

Remember to identify and research your tropes

• What are the common patterns in your story?
• What can you do different

Build the physical

• What are the conflicts in this world
• What is the geography like
• How does said geography affect story and characters
• What do your char's eat and how do they get it

What is extraordinary vs impossible in this world

• Make rules of the world consistent

Establish shades of grey

• People, cultures, and groups are not 100% good or 100% bad
• Every society thinks they are the good guys against the rest of the world

Common Mistakes

• Overwhelming with infodumps
• Magic/tech with inconsistent rules
• 'Good' and 'Bad' societies
• Not thinking out the consequences of your rules and world
• Not having a sense of place

USE YOUR SENSES
sight
sound
smell
taste
touch

How to organize

• Wiki's
• Tiki-toki (sp?)
• Small notebooks
• Back-ups

Population sizes

• No real set-in-stone guidelines

... and this is when the time for the panel ran out and we were all asked to leave

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

CHARACTERS




Part I:
Advanced Characterization
Michael Stackpole


+Plots come out of characters+



Seven traits of memorable and enduring characters

1) Some mystery; don't know everything about character(s)

• Not telling everything about character at once
• Helps to avoid trapping yourself

2) Worthy of redemption

• Some spark of hope
• Has something that might be salvageable
• Without something salvageable, is an abstract

3) Score high on either loyalty or treachery scale

4) Internally consistent and reliable, but have capability to surprise

• Humans tend to behave this way
• Justifying why we broke our internal 'rules'

5) Score high on self-sacrifice or selfishness scale

6) Have a love story associated with them

• Not just romantic love - sibling, duty, country, child, etc
• Emotionally active

7) Can do something we can't

• Provide us catharsis

++DON'T NEED ALL OF THESE; FOCUS ON A FEW++





Expand emotional content

Where are they going

• Who am I
• Who want to be
• Who need to be

The answers to those questions provides conflict


Need challenges in growth cycle

Who do they...

• ... think I am
• ... want me to be
• ... need me to be

Solutions have blowback for all parties

Imperfections generate conflict and plot

What things in their lives make them happy/sad

• Pick something and break it / fix it

Negative story/growth arc

• Start high, but progressively fail/refuse challenges
• Tearing character apart and pulling them down bit by bit
• Destructive to not just the character, but all around - Going to need to get other (3-5) novels under belt before doing this
• Don't need to hint at redemption necessarily - may not return to former glory, may not return FULLY, only partially

Betray Character

• Unknowingly living a lie
• Been fooled
• Provides and injustice done to character
• Be sure not to overuse

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Part II:
Creative Ways to Kill Characters
Anthony Francis
John D. Ringo




We kill characters because we shouldn't kill people

1) To raise the stakes in our story; if it doesn't further the story it's just gratuitous.


2) Use your readers own chemistry to get them addicted to your story/books.


3) Character Capital

• Build char. up, then kill them
• Secondary (mentor, BFF, etc)

4) Doesn't need to be graphic; let the reader visualize in their heads and imaginations.

• Minimalizations

5) No such thing as limited disposable characters; ALL char's are disposable


6) The fake-out kill

*RESEARCH*

7) Change the lives of the other characters.


8) Catharsis.


9) Evolved to live with constant, unrelenting violence.


10) Do it for the story, not to 'prove' you're a 'badass' writer.


11) Space out the deaths to allow breathing space

• Rollercoaster, not dropping reader down a well.
• Cutting pain with laughter

1 - Soothe
2 - Complication
3 - Humor
4 - Ram hard
5 - Bring down/soothe

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Part III:
Fantasy Assassins
Can't remember



NUANCED

1) We like the clever char's.

• The 'smart play'

2) Just happens to make money by offing people.

• Want to explore the 'heart of gold'

*Is, but doesn't necessarily want to be*
*Stain on the soul*

3) Code

• Own laws
• Unwilling to cross certain lines
• Layers like an onion

4) Fear is an awesome motivator


5) Grey morality

• Writing dark is great, but moving toward light is also very very good and enjoyed by readers.

6) A truth in the farce

• Accepting without question because it's just a part of society.

7) Kills

• Long - sanitary
• Short - messy and personal

8) What is?

• Pay
• Another person's motives

9) Torture can be used to illustrate the abhorrent.


10) Consequences

• Can you exist without killing
• Only game you know

11) Society saying 'you took the risks!'

12) Killing in "X's" name

• Don't mess with "X"
• Motivator

13) Heads of state

• Captured in battle, ransomed back

14) How much is too much

• Rare is cool?

15) Willing or forced upon this life

*Greatest atrocities committed by those following orders*

16) Trap - worrying about doing something wrong


17) POV

• Most important tool in your arsenal.
• You are writing a person

18) Avoid Token-ism


19) Find their passion

*Let char's evolve over the course of your writing*

[Mu Satach]

This is the best thread ever.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Thanks for sharing this good good advice

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

So glad you guys like

I have one more that I need to copy over from the workshop I went to just this last Dragon Con.

[Untaaura Verratoa]

Thanks for sharing these. Glad to be able to review the material from time to time

[Pasquale]

This is just amazing, Loklorien. I'm so looking forward to my first DragonCon. I'm going to do my best to attend as many workshops as I possibly can!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Glad you liked!!

DragonCon is a lot of fun for so many different reasons. Charley and I will be going to this year's DC, so definitely keep in touch because I'll be going to more workshops and we might be able to attend together

[Maggewetok]

It's also nice learning things from those who are already published and have a really good idea on what works.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It really is. That's why I like going to Stackpole's workshops; yeah, they cost money, but they're so worth it. They're the only workshops I put down cash for. There are other writing panels that are free, but if you want the most bang for your buck when it comes to the pay workshops, his are the ones to go to.