Dave Wolverton's Novel Writing Workshop
In May 2008, we had a very successful trip to St. George, Utah, for Dave Wolverton's Writing Workshop. The trip didn't start well, with unexpected flight changes and missing the shuttle bus from Las Vegas to St. George, but eventually we made it to the hotel room and got a little bit of sleep before the first day.
Our class was small -- only eleven students total, some of whom had already written entire series of books and others who were just starting on theirs. B.T. Robertson supplied this image of our class.
Highlights from the week:
On Monday, Dave covered audience analysis in a way I'd never seen done before and encouraged us to think big -- global, if possible -- in terms of potential story ideas. Quote of the day: "When you're a writer, you never know where you're going to be popular."
On Tuesday, we discussed short fiction, screenplays, contract negotiations, and the ups and downs of sales and popular interest (which often involve other things than just what we write). Dave encouraged us to try expanding the conflicts in our stories to make them more dramatic. Quote of the day: "Pull us out of our daily lives, and pull us into your fictive world"
On Wednesday, Dave discussed agents, some of his experiences with Hollywood, and the unpredictability of markets. Quote of the day: "Every year, without fail, SOMETHING becomes popular"
On Thursday, we covered arguments within the story and how they work to increase tension and drive the story. We also discussed techniques to give our characters more depth. No quotes from Thursday.
On Friday, Dave covered more about character depth and the need to stagger the conflicts as the story progresses. Quote of the day: "What ten thousand things could happen, and which ones will make the most interesting story?"
On Saturday, Dave wrapped up with a free-for-all Q&A session that covered a wide range of topics including editing techniques and some of his lessons learned. Quote of the day: "Don't be afraid to make an idiot of yourself ... most people aren't expecting you to dazzle them"
More notable quotes:
- On the need to be flexible: "The kind of fiction that you want to write may not be where your natural gift lies"
- On SF&F as "sense of wonder" stories: "We don't really have genres that we buy, we have emotions that we buy"
- On ideas that have been used before: "A lot of what we do has been done so many times before, but we keep having to do them over again because no one is listening"
- "Shakespeare was a fantasy writer, by the way"
- On developing a thick skin: "No matter what you say, it's going to be offensive" to someone
- On perspective: "No matter what you do, you're never going to reach everybody at once"