I’ve always agreed that Logan, Utah is beautiful, an eclectic historic city framed by towering green mountains. The Utah State University campus was no exception. It was nothing short of refreshing to spend a day at this lush location learning with other writers how to improve our craft. The 2019 Summer Writers Symposium was a success! I will definitely be marking my calendar for next year’s installment, and I highly recommend it to any writers in the Utah valley area looking to connect with other writers.

There were so many amazing tips given and advice said that I almost couldn’t keep up while taking notes. I am more than happy with what I got though, and I plan on referring to them when the need arises.

Star Coulbrooke, the poet laureate of Logan, gave the keynote speech for the symposium. Her poetry was engaging to say the least. Each piece told a story that had me eagerly waiting to hear what happened next. Her talk focused on the question of “who will care?” Sometimes the merit of writing is questioned; can you, an author, write anything that will be noteworthy when you are gone? The conclusion of Star’s speech confidently answered the question with a yes. Writing matters, and it matters that you are writing. One it matters is because we write about our ghosts, the things that haunt us from our past. Those ghosts need to be written. Her final words to all of us at the symposium were “Go forth and write!”

Surprisingly, the presentation that I liked the most was not one I was planning on going to. Earlier that day, one of the authors mentioned Amanda Luzzader and her presentation on plotting with emotion and desire. I’d seen that class on the schedule, but I’d been planning on going to the panel about creating compelling female characters. But after listening to the panel on three dimensional characters, I decided to go for the presentation instead. I could go on for a while about what was said and share all of my notes, but I’ll refrain and point out a few of my favorite parts.

Although I plan on using a different structure than the three act, I appreciated that Amanda added another layer of understanding to how the major plot points can be used. Instead of the three major events in the book being just events, they should be moments where the character fails (or succeeds) in achieving their goals. Those three acts need to highlight their struggles. Also, instead of those moments being solely outside events, they need to be the culmination of the consequences of the character’s actions. Incident two should be in some way a result of choice one, and so on.

External and internal struggles I felt were the main points of focus during this presentation. Personally, I try to have both of these types of struggles for my characters, but they don’t always stay static. I was comforted by the fact that I wasn’t the only one. Amanda shared with us that sometimes she’ll be through a large portion of a book when she discovered the truth of what a characters internal struggles should be. I’ve had moments where I realized that the work I have been doing is only writing myself into the real story, and I have to remind myself not to be stubborn and listen to my character. Ultimately, the character knows what they want to do, who they are, and what is best for the story.

I’ve discovered there are many subjects that writers don’t agree on. One of those is how to publish novels. The fight between traditional publishing and self-publishing is real. Hybrid and small press publishing are beginning to throw their weight around too, but not to the extent of the main two competitors. My opinion lately has been sliding back and forth between the two, and the jury still isn’t out on which one I will try to take on when my books are finished.

Two things were very clear to me as I listened to the presenter and the questions/comments coming from us. One, that an author’s opinion of which way to publish is better is often colored by their previous experience. Two, publishing, no matter how you do it, is hard and takes a lot of effort on the part of the author to stay afloat. I could tell that the presenter didn’t have the greatest experience with traditional publishing, and that she was in favor of self-publishing. Yet, even she had to admit that it was nice not having to pay for an editor and cover right up front. I liked the presentation, but I didn’t feel any more decided on what kind of publishing path to follow. I suppose that’s a bridge I’ll have to cross when I get there, after I’ve tackled landing an agent.

One of the presentations I attended was a panel of three authors who talked about how to create three dimensional characters. My favorite moment in the panel was when the authors brought up a way to make both the protagonist and the antagonist more interesting. I’ve heard often of tactics to make heroes more active and three dimensional in the story and not have their thunder stolen by the villain, but at the symposium I discovered that there is a way to entangle those characters’ goals and desires. All characters have (or should have) wounds of some sort, whether it be mental, emotional, or physical. Part of the story is how the characters decide to find and use the person, place, or thing that will heal that wound. To amp up the stakes, have the protagonist and the antagonist have the same or similar wound and have them both be working toward the same thing that will heal them. Not only does this make the characters deeper, but it creates more conflict as both sides run for the same goal, just in different ways. I’m not sure exactly how to do this with some of my longer stories, but I think it’ll be an interesting to map it out and see where it could potentially take me.

I love the motivation I feel to write after events like this! The hard part is hanging on to it, but I’m certainly going to try. My chances are even better since I’m turning around and heading off to another conference next weekend. I’ll be writing about my experience at Fyrecon next week!

Once my short story is complete (no later than June 27th), I’ll be giving my full time and attention to The Baronessa Chronicles. I’ve truly missed the characters and the amazing adventures ahead of them.