I know that I mentioned going to Fyrecon a few weeks ago but I’ve been so busy last couple of weekends I haven’t had time to talk about the convention itself.
First of all an explanation. Fyrecon is a new writing and art convention. This year the event was held at the Weber State University extension campus in Layton and offered several classes on various art mediums, writing technique, and business practices. Master classes were also available for an additional cost.
I did go ahead and pay extra to attend a class taught by David Farlan on the business of writing. David Farlan — for those of you who don’t know — is a best-selling science fiction and fantasy writer who taught many best selling authors over the years including Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mu ll, Dan Wells and Stephanie Meyers — you might not like sparkly vampires but you can’t argue with her profit margin. Yeah, so basically he’s like the Yoda of the writing world. The class was well worth the money. The advice David gave on how the market worked and what options were open to writers was invaluable and — not gonna lie — a touch overwhelming. Seriously by the end of it I was like, “I need to go home and rethink my life.”
All of the other classes and panels I attended were just as good and since this was the first year of the conference there were not nearly as many people which for me was a good thing. The class sizes were small (some even as small as two people) which meant that I actually had the opportunity to interact more with the instructors who are mostly all seasoned professionals who have a lot of knowledge and a lot of personality. I also got to know some of the other local writers some who are traditionally published, some who are successfully self published and some who are still working on breaking in.
The entire experience was incredibly mind opening — I’d say eye opening but it was really my brain that closed– and I am so thankful to my friend M.K. Hutchins — whose book DRIFT you should totally go buy — for telling me about this event. I look forward to going to more of these types of conferences in the future and hope that any of you who are considering making writing your business — it’s definitely more than just a job — would do so too.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION
DRIFT by M.K. Hutchins
Drift is a Young Adult novel about a boy named Tenjat who lives on an island on the back of a giant turtle in a sea filled with monsters called naga beasts. Tenjat joins the Handlers to try and forge a richer marriage free life for himself, but when the turtle must stop and feed even a novice like Tenjat is required to fight of the naga beasts and the possibility of romance throws a wrench into his well laid plans.
THINGS I LEARNED: THE QUICK LIST THAT’S NOT SO QUICK
Pitching a story idea to editors and agents is TERRIFYING! Even if you’d been joking easily with them two minutes earlier and the stuff you’re pitching isn’t even your own.
Use the senses in your writing.
Make your sentences do more than one thing at a time — this is more for the revision stage when it comes to the first draft be like Nike and just do it.
Writing is a BUSINESS and requires you to think like a business man/woman.
Professional Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers are the biggest nerds on the planet which makes them my kind of people.
Networking is a great tool. I might not be ready yet to tap into those contacts I made, but when I am I know people I would possibly want to work with.
