12: Q & A with Mary Robinette Kowal

Tonight, we had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America 's current Vice President, Campbell award winner and 2011 Hugo award winner, Mary Robinette Kowal.
Many topics were bandied about this evening in a spirited, free form question and answer session.


Topics of discussion included:

• Novel ideas or short story ideas- How do you know which one you have?
• Expanding a short story into a novel- How is that done?
• Magic systems in Fantasy novels and one way they're developed.
• How much background information readers need and want in a novel or story.
• Professional puppetry and personal space when filming- How close is too close for your human co stars?

For a little over an hour of answers to these and other scintillating questions, give this episode a listen!


You can also download the MP3 here.
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11 Aprilynne Pike: Outlines

You just have to love Aprilynne Pike. Not only is she the #1 NYT Bestselling author of WINGS, SPELLS, and the upcoming ILLUSIONS, but she's down to earth, with a dry wit and an excellent sense of who she is, where she's going, and what she needs to do to get there. She's humble, ever trying to improve, and willing to share what she knows with those of us who haven't "made it" yet. She was my bootcamp instructor at LDStorymakers in 2010 and she completely tore my pitiful chapters to bits. It was awesome. So is she.

Tonight, Aprilynne taught us how to create a simple outline. Here's the basics:

1. Draw a big timeline long enough for 60 ticks.
2. Mark a tick about 5 ticks from the beginning for your inciting incident: 
• This should fall within the first ten pages of your book
• This is where your plot is set in motion
3. Mark a tick about 5 ticks from the end for the climax (where everything goes boom)
4. Around 25% from the start (with 60 ticks that's... carry the 1... 15 ticks) is your first Turning Point
• This is where everything goes in a different direction
• Harry discovers he's a wizard, Bella discovers Edward is a vampire, Marly appears to Ebeneezer
5. Around 75% from the start (calculating... 45 ticks) is your second Turning Point
• Once again, everything changes
• Main suspect is murdered, Darth Vader is Luke's father?, Westley stops being mostly dead
6. Fill in the rest with plot points--one per tick
• Plot points drive the plot--they are interesting and active
• Romeo goes on vacation is NOT a plot point
• Romeo leaves town hours before the letter reaches him IS a plot point
• Baby has green eyes is NOT a plot point
• Detective realizes green-eyed baby can't come from brown eyed parents IS a plot point

Aprilynne also gave us a lot of advice on how to be a discovery writer ("pantser") AND use an outline (plan the main ticks and discovery write the rest), how to make sure your book has enough emotion, and how to deal with love triangles. Plus, we talked a bit about her books. :) (Did I mention ILLUSIONS  is coming out on May 3?)

Listen to it here:


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10: David Farland- How to Sell Your Novel

Tonight, we took time for a word from our Sponsor, David Farland. Dave shared with us five key factors an aspiring author or newly published author must have for a novel that sells. Those five factors are:

1. Make sure your novel is as good as it can be stylistically and grammatically before you try selling it.
2. Research prospective agents and editors for your work.
3. Crafting well written query letters.
4. Where (and how) to best meet agents and editors who will properly market your work.
5. Personal persistance and tenacity, how much is too much?

Dave took ample time to field questions from our Forum members. If you desire to astound the world with the brilliance of your prose, amaze humanity with your heart-rending flights of literary fancy, why haven't you stopped reading and started listening to what Dave had to say?

You can listen to it here on our handy-dandy player:

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09: Dan Wells: Monsters, Sociopaths, and Other Sympathetic Characters

Tonight Dan Wells told us about the secrets of creating sympathetic villains, heroic sociopaths, and many other things he learned as the author of I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, MR. MONSTER, and the soon-to-be-released I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU.

When he's not writing, Dan also co-hosts Writing Excuses, a weekly writing-advice podcast with Brandon Sanderson and Howard Tayler.

Among Dan's advice:

• A humorous sociopath with a lousy life who wants to be good will evoke reader's sympathies
• A good villain will be flashy and/or relatable and/or fascinating
• Villains need a believable goal--if they want to blow up the world, they'll be just as dead as everyone else if they accomplish it, so it might be a tough sell to your readers
• A villain can have a try-fail cycle, too--if you're careful

**Warning, this call contains spoilers for I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER**

As always, you can listen to the call here:


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Thanks to Dan and to everyone who called in!

8: Michaelbrent Collings-- Ten Steps to Overnight Success OR How it Only Took a Decade to Get Paid

Tonight Michaelbrent Collings shared his presentation Ten Steps to Overnight Success OR How it Only Took a Decade to Get Paid. I saw him present this topic in February at BYU's Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium and loved it so much I just had to hear it again. I think you'll agree--this is great advice, and Michaelbrent had lots of great stories to go with it.

Michaelbrent is a novelist, screenwriter, martial artist, and until recently, was a practicing lawyer (he quit when being a writer started to pay better). He has written numerous novels, including RUN, BILLY: MESSENGER OF POWERS, THE LOON, RISING FEARS, and THE MERIDIANS. Michaelbrent has also sold, optioned, and done rewrites for screenplays for major Hollywood production companies, and is currently developing several movies and television shows. He couldn't give us details of his movie deals (yet), but maybe in a few weeks....

March 11 Update: Michaelbrent can finally confirm that his screenplay BARRICADE is being produced by WWE Studios, starring Eric McCormack. See the announcement by The Hollywood Reporter. Congrats, Michaelbrent!

In a nutshell, the ten steps are:

1.      Write.
2.      Involve yourself in marketing.
3.      Plug your book (or script, or whatever)!
4.      Make connections.
5.      Play nice with others.
6.      Constantly improve…but don’t over study.
7.      Be clear.
8.      Be interesting. And interested.
9.      Be prepared to be part of a big game hunt. And you’re not the hunter.
10.    You cannot fail…if you don’t give up.

To get the explanation behind the steps, you can visit Michaelbrent's website and read the PDF of his presentation under the tab "LTUE Papers" or you can download the MP3, or listen to it below:

7.Ken Scholes- Self Awareness: A Writer's First, Best Tool.

Tonight we spoke with Ken Scholes, author of the Psalms of Isaak Fantasy series from Tor books. Ken's topic for the night was an important one for beginning writers: knowing yourself as a person and as a writer. Knowing what methods work for you to not only thrive personally, but to thrive and succeed in your writing aspirations as well!

We were able to hear from Ken's own experiences that :

• Working without an outline can (and does) lead to success.
• Having a strong support network of family, friends and colleagues to encourage, motivate and even pester you can be intergal to your success as an author .
• Triumph can often spring from personal tragedy.
• Whether you're a seasoned professional, or a beginning writer- You're always "in the trenches".

And much much more!

If you missed it, you can listen to it below:


Or, you can download the MP3.

6: Robyn Carr: Developing Strong Characters

Tonight we chatted with Robyn Carr, who has been my friend and mentor for years. Way back when I was putting my first (really bad) stories together, my friend Ian mentioned that he'd practically grown up in her house (he was her son's best friend), and that she was really nice... so I emailed her. Turns out, he was right... and then some! A few thousand emails later, Robyn is one of my favorite people, one of my favorite writers, and as down-to-earth nice as it is possible for a woman to be--especially one with her accomplishments!

New York Times Bestseller Robyn Carr has been writing—and publishing—for almost three decades. In that time, she’s written screenplays, historical romances, a psychological thriller, and even a writing help book called PRACTICAL TIPS FOR WRITING POPULAR FICTION. Eventually, Robyn found her calling writing women’s fiction set in a rugged small town in the mountains of northern California. Her bestselling VIRGIN RIVER series debuted in 2007, and quickly started gathering awards. The series is now in its fifth year and, by the end of March, will have 13 books, 3 novellas, and a legion of fans, with over 5 million copies in print.

Our main topic was Developing Strong Characters, which Robyn does in spades. Her Virgin River series is home to an extensive cast of memorable characters who continue to grow and develop as more and more couples hook up, get married, and have babies amid log cabins, dirt roads, and towering Sequoias. Her books (and therefore her characters) are classified as romantic women's fiction, but her advice can be applied (with some modifications, where noted) to any genre.

Some high points:

• The best writing advice is to write the book you want to read. The worst writing advice is to write what you know--first you have to learn to write, and then you can research whatever you don't know.
• Characters have layers: Dominant, Complimentary, and Contrasting traits. These traits should not conflict with each other in the same moment.
• When writing characters, there is no substitute for good instincts--and you can develop your instincts by practicing and by reading hundreds of books in your genre. You have to think like a real, live human being being before you can write a believable character.

If you missed it, you can listen to the call below:


You can also download the MP3 here.