Creating Three Dimensional Characters: Avoiding Cardboard Characters (Christian Klaver, Clarence Young, JD DeLuzio, Sarah Hans, Steven Lake)
- write a resume for your character
- what does your character suck at?
- pair character's strengths and weaknesses
- choices
- the "fish out of water" approach
- read books with other points of view
Subtext: What is the Story Really About? (Janea Schimmel, Clarence Young, Steven Lake, Ericka Kahler, David Erik Nelson)
- you are never telling the story you think you're telling
- readers build in their own personal beliefs and experiences
- sometimes subtext is easier than trying to show a thing
- subtext is how to say the unsayable
- working with the negative space
Sometimes Writer's Block is Really Depression (Mary Robinette Kowal)
- Five types of writer's block: 1) Drowsy, 2) Staring, 3) Restless, 4) Dithering, 5) Depression
- what is the smartest thing your character could do and how can it go spectacularly wrong?
- most of the time writer's block is your brain sending you useful signals
- when a scene is not working you either have to adjust the character or the plot
- "Just because you put words on the page doesn't mean that you have to keep them." MRK
- Creative Injury
- Ink Slinger's Guild - gamifies writing
- The Fabulous app
- Written Kitten
Sensitivity Readers: Who Are We and Why Do You Need Us? (Mark Oshiro, Mari Brighe)
- specific perspective edit = sensitivity reading
- there are very few LGBTQ people who have no LGBTQ friends, remember that when writing
- DON'T use female as a noun. It is an adjective.
- "First drafts should suck or you're not doing creativity right." MB
- avoid white savior stories and stories with all white characters in South Chicago for example
- don't have marginalized characters that have no agency or effect on the plot
- make sure that a reader can tell from context that the attitude of a character is wrong - it has to be on the page
- don't tell the story of a marginalized community without having that community represented in the story (i.e. blacks in Harry Potter)
How to Update and Fix Problematic Archetypes and Tropes in Speculative Fiction (Karen Burnham, Cassandra Morgan, Michael Cieslak, Meghann Pardee, Mari Brighe)
- everyone in Detroit is not white
- when someone calls you out, ask them to educate you on what you did wrong
- do not replace a minority with orcs or some other race we should be afraid of
- Lovecraftian is awesome...Lovecraft was a dick
- diversity on another planet will always be an allegory, that's just how humans think
The Top 10 Grammar Mistakes that You Don't Know Your (sic) Making (Carol Flynt, David Erik Nelson)
- you will be judged on your grammar and dictation
- He was a short man with a mustache weighing 200 lbs. (that's a lot of facial hair!) vs. He was a short, 200-pound man sporting a mustache.
- there are 3 types of pronouns: subjective (replace subject), objective (replace object), and possessive (show ownership)
- Avoid passive voice (ex. Mistakes were made.) except when the agent is unknown (ex. This sword was forged in the 1300s), when the agent is too obvious to mention (ex. Shoplifters will be prosecuted.), or when the agent is too contentious to mention (The last bill was not paid on time.)
- forming plural nouns never uses an apostrophe...never
I Write, I Edit, I Write Again. Witness!
We're Making Better Words, All of Them, Better Words.
I Write to Burn Off the Crazy.
A Good Day Writing is a Day Writing.
It Puts the Words on the Page or it Gets the Hose Again.
Just keep writing...just keep writing...writing, writing, writing!
Writing is Magic.
The First Rule of Write Club is You Talk About Write Club.