Author Writing Advice at Salt Lake Comic Con

One of the best parts of Salt Lake Comic Con is the opportunity to meet and learn from some of the best working writers alive. 

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Salt Lake Comic Con closed tonight, and to all appearances it was a rousing success. Venders and participants were telling me that 50,000 tickets had been sold, and at one point the fire marshal arrived and prevented any more people from entering.

Word is that Salt Lake Comic Con has been so successful that it has signed a contract for the next six years.

Whether you enjoy pressing through the costumed masses and posing for photos with celebrities and superheroes or prefer to attend the panels of artists, writers, directors, and celebrities, it was a great time.

I spent most of my time in a series of panels focused on writing, and while I’d love to share all my notes, I hope you’ll listen to a few recordings of the panels, instead.  I’ve added just a couple of the highlights of each, below, along with the recording. Among the authors on the panels were David Farland, Larry Corriea, Dan Willis, Kevin Anderson, Obert Skye, Brad R. Torgersen, James Dashner, Brandon Mull, Richard Paul Evans and others. They were great, generous in their advice, and it was inspiring to hear the advice and suggestions from veteran writers, some of them best selling writers many times over.

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Writing Fantasy for Middle Graders

• Even a tragedy happens, bring the plot back to a safe place.
• The difference between middle grade and young adult is the body count.
• Fantasy teaches who we are, who we ought to be.
• There is a need for understanding who we are at that age.

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When is genre blending ok?

Genre is mostly useful for labeling, where to find the book on the shelf.  Science-fiction, steam punk, urban fantasy, thriller, mystery, and so on.

When should you not blend genre?

• Know the genres before you mess around…but maybe that’s not necessary.
• If you have to force it, don’t.
• Don’t do it for an anthology if they’re looking for something else.
• Be aware of audience age.
• Condescension is never a good idea. For example, towards kids, towards vampire novels, etc

When should you blend genre?

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Author’s advice on what they had wish they’d known when they first “broke in”

• If you start something, finish something. If you start a story, finish it and move forward.
• Don’t quit your day job.  Kevin Anderson didn’t quit until he had a year of expenses in the bank
• Take care of your body. Exercise every day.
• Treat writing like a job. If you want a writing career, treat it like a job
• Be prolific. You won’t have time to fail. Popcorn theory: keep enough popcorn in the kettle and something will pop
• The first million words you write are practice. Dean koontz.  That’s about 10 novels. So don’t waste time perfecting. Move on to your next novel.
• Find a community of people who are vested in what you write

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Related articles

• At SL Comic Con: Balancing a writing career while keeping your day job (attackofthebooks.com)
• Utah authors at Salt Lake Comic Con Day One (attackofthebooks.com)
• Salt Lake Comic Con – day 1 and 2 (myownlittleshadow.wordpress.com)
• A Comic Con poll for you (crazy4comiccon.wordpress.com)