Baycon is still tasty

This is the second long post discussing writing panels that I attended at BayCon this year.

I attended the "Aspiring Writers Toolkit" panel with Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff, BookView Cafe (http://www.mysticfig.com/), Todd McCaffrey (http://pernhome.com/tjm/), Brandon Sanderson (http://www.brandonsanderson.com/) and Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Forward Motion (http://margaretmcgaffeyfisk.com/) as panelists. I 'm not sure what my expectations were for this panel. The con guide said that the panelists were going to discuss writing workshops (I've been considering going to one, although I'm not sure which one). I remember having the feeling that more would be discussed. I was right. I'll attempt to sensibly relay the info dump that ensued. If you have questions please comment and I'll try to clarify. I've been assured that this here interwebs goes two ways so I can answer you back.

Aspiring Writers Toolkit

On Workshops:

The first thing out of the panelists mouths was "go to Clarion". For those not in the know Clarion is a six week writing workshop for writers of science fiction and fantasy - yes, six weeks. If that sounds like boot camp, past attendees have told me that it is. If you google Clarion you will find a wealth of attendees' blogs discussing their experiences at Clarion. I like to read these because I want to know what they recommend to read and hear what they learned. Invariably, I find good stories to read as well.

Clarion West (Seattle): http://www.clarionwest.org/
Clarion (held at UCSD): http://literature.ucsd.edu/affiliated-programs/clarion/index.html
*Clarion South (Australia) - http://www.clarionsouth.org/  
*Unfortunately, Clarion South is on hold due to venue issues right now. I'm including the link to their website so that you can check out writing info on their website.*

Other recommended workshops were Odyssey and Viable Paradise.
Odyssey (Manchester, NH): http://www.sff.net/odyssey/
Viable Paradise (Martha's Vineyard): http://www.sff.net/paradise/

For those who like podcasts, Odyssey has free podcasts of some of their lectures available on iTunes - highly recommended! 

There was a short discussion of online writing resources like Holly Lisle's workshops and Critters (both were recommended).


On Feedback and Critique:


Brandon Sanderson - 

1. When giving critique, say what is working in a piece first.
2. When giving critique on a story avoid being proscriptive, be descriptive - explain how the piece made you feel, don't tell the author to change sentences or point of view, etc. It is up to the author to figure out how to respond to your statements on how the piece made you feel, giving criticism does not mean that you should tell an author how to "fix it".
3. When receiving feedback: don't defend or explain your piece, write descriptions of how the readers reacted during the critique - this can be invaluable when looking over their feedback later.
4. Look at feedback after you finish the draft you're on.

Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff - 

1. Make sure that you know sentence structure, the purpose of the different parts of sentences and understand basic grammar. 
2.  Don't be nice in your criticism, don't be mean. 
3. Telling an author 'I don't like X' doesn't give an author enough information to help them resolve a problem in the piece - be descriptive in your feedback. 

Todd McCaffrey -

1. You can over-workshop a story. Figure out when to stop workshopping a piece. 

Margaret McGaffey Fisk

1. If you over-workshop a story the initial spark will die. 
2. When critiquing, read the piece with the assumption that you will love it - this will affect your critique. 
3. Practice writing synopses - write one as part of your critique of a story. It will tell the author what you thought the story was as opposed to the one the author thinks they wrote.

Writing Groups and Beta Readers

Brandon Sanderson -

1. Writers groups are horrible at finding problems with pacing in books because they often read a chapter at a time. Beta readers are great at finding story issues like poor pacing because they read the whole thing together. He recommends that you use both for book feedback.
2. Don't let the group get stuck or emphasize small problems that can easily be fixed like spelling errors.
3. Don't workshop a piece until it's done - you may end up changing it to fix criticism and loose what made your story good.

Margaret McGaffey Fisk - 

1. Writing groups want a lot of information up front about a book because they are reading chapters separately. They want the information so that they have context for the chapters. This can be problematic because they may miss things like pacing problems or plot holes. 
2. Feedback summary notes from someone else at the critique can be helpful so that you don't miss something while you are listening to the critique comments.
3. Writers groups can get stuck on the "rules". The rules are things like don't start a book with a prologue, don't use flashbacks, etc. Be careful not to let the group get stuck on these - they're not written in stone.
4. Track changes and the different stages of critique on a story. 

Todd McCaffrey -

1. Keep old versions of stories. Don't torment yourself by reading them, but keep them for reference. Come up with a naming system for your files so that you know which ones are old versus latest.

Books/How-to's on writing

Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff -

1. Watch out for "How-to's". If a book lays out dogma, put it back. Everyone's process for writing is different.
2. Read professional writers books on writing (Lawrence Block and Stephen King).

Margaret McGaffey Fisk -

1. If a book on writing doesn't click put it down.
2. Check when the book was written - look for more current books as times change so does writing advice and information.

Brandon Sanderson -

1. Don't just read "How-to's" - write!
2. Try a book, if it doesn't work for you drop it and keep trying.

Book recommendations:

Todd McCaffrey -

• "Self Editing for Fiction Writers" - Renni Browne & Dave King
• "Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need" by Blake Snyder - Todd said it was great for outlining.

Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff -

• "Writing Great Screenplays for Film and TV" by Donna Cooper
• "Danse Macabre" by Stephen King

All panelists recommended "On Writing" by Stephen King.

On Editors/Editing/Publishing

Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff -

1. Edit as well as you can before hiring a professional editor. Get a beta reader before hiring an editor.
2. It breaks Maya's heart when a writer doesn't want to learn craft and how to edit their work. If you hire a profesional editor try to learn from them how to edit.
3. Make sure to check an editors past work and references before you hire them!
4. There are two types of editors, freelance editors and instructional editors. Freelance editors fix the writing, instructional editors fix the writing and show you how to do these fixes yourself.
5. On book doctors: book doctors are often hired by people who just don't want to edit their work.
6. Be careful of what a freelance editor does to your story, it may not be what you want.
7. Don't pay someone to look at or publish your book. You shouldn't have to pay a publisher (self-publishing is different obviously). 
8. You shouldn't have to pay an agent - they take a percentage of sales.

Brandon Sanderson -

1. Watch out for scams involving book doctors who work for fake agencies. Watch out for scams period!
2. A reason to hire a book doctor would be to see what a professional editor would do with the book, other than that there isn't really a good reason to hire one.

General thoughts on writing


Maya Kaathryn Bohnoff -

1. Deadlines are great. If you don't have one, make one up. It will help you write more tightly.

Contests

Brandon Sanderson -

1. Be skeptical of contest fees. Check Writer Beware (http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/) - it has info on scams.
2. Some genres do have contest fees - romance for example. Research a genre to see what is normal before you pay.

Todd McCaffrey -

1. Highly recommends that people enter the "Writers of the Future" contest - winners are well regarded (Todd was a judge this year).

That's the end of the panel comments. That was quite a bit of info for you to digest. I hope this was helpful. Again, if you have any questions please feel free to comment. Happy writing!

Revising Short Stories: Building a Tree Branch by Branch

I used to find myself revising until my initial story had morphed - usually into a completely different story and one that wasn't coherent or well.. good. Frustrated and disappointed I would toss it in a pile and hide it away. I felt like I hadn't remained true to my initial idea for what I was trying to say and I had lost the threads that held the story together in the first place.

Many writers love revising - they think of it as the phase of writing in which the story really comes alive and manifests itself; where the story begins to breathe and interact with the reader. I'm learning to love revision as well although, it's a tempestuous relationship and I don't like her mother (she whines about my punctuation).

I've gotten a lot better at revising - practice creates improvement. I often wonder if I am killing good darlings in revision and I'm still figuring out when and why to axe things that aren't working towards making a strong story.

One of the exercises that I've been working on is one in which I revise a layer of craft at a time. If you consider each aspect of craft as a branch, as you revise and rework each one, you are creating a tree that is your story. Your branches will intertwine supporting each other. This builds a strong tree comprised of the different elements of craft growing together. All elements of craft should work together to make your story. Voice, characterization, setting, etc. are tools that work in service of the story and if one of them is not working you need to cut it off and revise that branch.

Many writers that I respect use this revision method so that they a) don't get confused and b) finish that aspect of craft to their satisfaction. I've done at least 20 drafts of one of the stories I'm working on trying this method out to see if it improves my writing. I did revision passes for voice, dialogue, plot, pacing, setting, characterization, and show vs tell. I feel like I'm forgetting some revisions in that list but hopefully you get what I mean.
I'd say overall this has been a very successful experiment. It allowed me to create a level of consistency that I hadn't experienced before in my stories. While it's been hard trying to control my desire for instant gratification (I want the story done NOW!), I've been really pleased and plan on doing this for every story going forward.

I'd love to hear about other writer's processes. Care to share some tips?