LTU&E

Just spent the last couple days at BYU's Life the Universe and Everything fantasy/sci-fi symposium. Absolutely outstanding. While there were a lot of people there, the authors presenting did a great job of making themselves available to sign books, answer questions, give advice and just plain mingle.

It was really fun coming back to BYU. I haven't been here since I graduated in 2002. It was really neat walking the campus again, going through the bookstore, and generally just reminiscing about the time I spent here working on my English degree 8-10 years ago.

Brandon Sanderson was the guest of honor and was accompanied by many other great authors. He gave several readings, took pictures with fans and just made everyone feel welcome to be around him. My hat is off to him for his humility and willingness to take time from his extremely busy schedule to visit with everyone.

I got some great tips at the conference. I cannot wait to get back home and get back to work. On my 6 hour drive down here, I spent several hours listening to Sanderson's podcasts called Writing Excuses in which he discusses writing issues with two friends and fellow authors, Dan Wells and Howard Taylor. I'm not sure what it was, but something about listening to them while I drove as well as the anticipation for the conference and meeting them kicked the idea factory into overdrive. I have a notebook in my truck at all times for emergencies, and I pulled it out and wrote pages and pages of ideas as I drove.

Now, I know what you're thinking: not safe. But, I just had the notepad on the large armrest in the center of the front bench and wrote hugely and sloppily as I drove, never taking my eyes off the road. Because I couldn't look at what I was doing, I only got several lines of chicken scratch per page, but I got some good ideas nonetheless. I was afraid of losing any.

One of the things that Brandon Sanderson mentioned is that he doesn't always write his ideas down from day one which is something I have been trying to do so that I won't forget them. The reasoning behind his statement is that sometimes he likes to let them percolate in his head for a few days. If he forgets it, it wasn't that great of an idea to begin with. However, if it sticks around for a few days, it likely begins meshing with other thoughts and turns into an even greater idea. Sort of his process of elimination. He, as well as all the other authors there, talked about the fact that ideas are the easy part. They have so many they'll never be able to use them all. Something, they assured us, comes naturally once you really begin pouring your heart into writing and getting lots of words under your belt. They claim every writer has a million practice words they have to get through before the stuff starts getting really good. If that's the case, I've got a while to go.

Until next time...

outlines

I've never been a fan of outlines. In school, as an English major, I wrote many, many papers, and I never outlined unless it was required as part of the project. I always fancied myself sort of a stream-of-consciousness writer. That is, I would sit down and just chunk out an entire initial draft, in one sitting if possible (even for long papers). Then, over the next few days I would refine what I had written. I found it much easier to edit my papers and tweak what I needed than to outline and then write. Too many steps.

However, that process has caused me a ton of grief when applied to a project the size of a novel. There is just way too much going on to fly by the seat of my pants. For a long time when someone privy to my story would ask what's going to happen, I'd smile and tell them I'm as anxious to find out as them. But, the difficulty with that process is that with so many characters and plot lines, it becomes impossible to really tie them all together and have good interrelationships without good planning. I've hit some walls in knowing how I wanted to take my story, and I don't want to get far into it without a plan, and then find out that something just doesn't work and have to do a TON of rewriting.

So, I'm going to take a middle ground approach. I'm certainly not going to be a hardliner when it comes to outlining. But, I think it's time I figured out just what is happening with my novel. Robert Jordan always said that he knew the last scene of his Wheel of Time epic before he ever started writing. That means he was looking 12 novels ahead. I still don't know how my story is going to end, and without knowing that, its becoming increasingly hard to develop characters to that end.

So, I have finally sat down and forced myself to start outlining. It's more difficult than I thought and it throws upon my mind the enormity of the project. There is so much yet that I don't know about my own story. I need to figure it out. This is true with respect to plots, characters, etc. I'm still trying to even come up with names for items, places, etc.

The other step I took tonight was to sit down and outline out various problems that I saw with my novel. For example, the beginning scene shows the protagonist sitting in the sand outside a small village. I realized, however, that common sense would simply now allow this to be a small village. With what was happening in the scene, it just didn't make sense. So, this small village suddenly became the vast, sprawling capitol city. The sands where the character was sitting have become the rooftop of a citadel. Huge change, but it works. I'll be very happy with it once I wrap my brain around it a little more.

I think authors in general, and particularly myself, have a very hard time parting with our ideas, as though every idea we ever have should just work from the chutes. If only.

beginning approaches

I just finished book 2 of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series, The Well of Asension. It was fabulous. I am astounded to see how well he has done in such a short period of time. It clearly can be done.

I sit here and look at my law practice and see that I'm doing almost everything I ever wanted to do. Almost. I am a writer at heart. I have always wanted to be a writer. Not just a writer but a published author. I want to walk into a bookstore and see my novel on the shelf. Now, I don't expect to be famous. I never saw myself as a Clancy or a Rowling who gets mauled on every street corner. I want to be the guy who writes the books that everyone loves but without the hype. When someone comes up to me and says: "Man, have you read this? It's great." I can say, "yes" and have them be none the wiser.

I leave you today with this question: Then why am I not writing?

Believe me, if I knew the answer to that, I'd post it!!!

procrastination

I cannot believe that the end of the year is here already. With everything I hoped to do, all my grandiose ideas, I sit here flabbergasted that the time is gone (having, of course, taken advantage of none of it).

The most I can say is that I spent a fair amount of time thinking about my story. While that sounds tacitly lame, I must admit that even that was helpful. I've come up with some good ideas about what I want to do. Now, if I could (read would) just sit down and write it.

limits of magic

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is absolutely amazing in its magical limits and rules which are very clearly defined fir the reader and religiously adhered to thus far. Gives me a great example of boundaries, rules and limits.

I'm trying to find a way to create such limits and rules in my own book. Eragon was similar as well. While that magic dis not require a reagant as in Mistborn, the user was limited by his physical capacity to use the magic he possesed. Both are very good examples.

Have decided I'm ready to start writing for real. My work is not as fun for me as it once was. What's a better motivator than that?!? Wish me luck.

MTG

Started playing Magic the Gathering. Have been collecting cards the last couple days. Went down to a gamer shop last night and learned how to play. Watched several games, and some nice members there showed me the basic rules and played some games so I could see it.

Thought it might be a fun way to get some new ideas!