My Random though for this Month

Are there too many writers?

I read a blog post or something somewhere once that asked if there was such thing as too many writers or too many books. I believe at the core of the question was if the market for books would ever be over saturated with books. If too many authors meant not enough wealth or readers to go around.

My response. Ahem... movies? TV?

Can you imagine if people stopped making new movies or new tv shows? It has all been done on the screen after all. Won't people get board? No. Why? Because although we love to revisit old favorites - we also like to see something new. Even if we have already seen the story before. For example remakes. If people were likely to get board - there would be no such thing as remakes.

We all see the world differently. Each writer has in them an hundred different stories - combine all the stories in all the writers that ever have, are, or will live and no two are exactly the same. They may be similar - but not the same. I would love to read every single story - every single book.

What do you think?

Wisdom from a Writer's Conference: Keynote

Kevin J. Anderson gave the keynote address at the LDStoryMakers conferences was:

What I learned:

Kevin J. Anderson is awesome! Okay - I already knew that since I read his Star Wars books when I was a teenager.

He talked about two ways of making popcorn. One was long and elaborate and involved popping one kernel at a time. The other was put a bunch of oil in the pan and a bunch of popcorn. The point was you never know where your opportunities for success will come from. Do a lot. Do everything. Always answer with: "I can do that!"

How I Plan to Apply it:

I focused for ten years on one project. That was way to long. Now I have decided to try and do either multiple things at once - or only spend a little of time on every project. The important thing is to be doing something.

I Challenge You to Mix up a Story

And the last of my new experiments is going to be:



I Challenge You!

I which I will put forth a challenge designed to get the juices flowing and make you think. Often I will participate in the challenge.

Story Mix Up

1. List three books you have read.
2. List two elements that you enjoyed from each of those books.
3. Write a short piece that incorporates each of those elements.

To make it more fun try mixing up genre's. Make is serious or fun!

Wisdom from a Writer's Conference: Problem

The next class I attending at the LDStoryMakers conferences was:

Problem: The Core of the Story by John Brown

What I learned:

My thoughts: There are like a hundred different ways to structure a story. John Brown's way is just one. I think we all need to find our own system that works and stick too it.

From the class: If there is no problem. There is no story. Problems generate scenes. The structure of a story follows the problem solving structure. Problem -> Reaction -> Action -> Trouble -> Problem. This cycle starts with the inciting incident and ends with the resolution.

How I Plan to Apply it:

I found John Brown's problem based story structure interesting. And I took a way a few nuggets of wisdom to integrate in my writing style. I do plan to make problem more prominent in my stories. I already know that my characters usually don't encounter enough obstacles. But I find that there are other story structures that are more natural for me to use then this one.