Just updated my calendar, so all these events that I’m taking part in are included there if you’re interested and want a reminder.

First off, tonight I’ll be talking to Rick Walton’s BYU class on children’s publishing again. The class is about breaking into the business, and having one book out for roughly nine months I’m sure qualifies me. I really enjoyed the last time I visited the class, and expect to do so again tonight.

Next up, I’ll be taking part in a pair of events next week. The first will be a visit to East Sandy Elementary school on Thursday, March 4th. I’ll do an assembly for 3rd-6th grades at 1:30 p.m. Should be fun, as always.

The next day, Friday, March 5th, I’ll be presenting at UELMA’s Spring Conference (the Utah Educational Library Media Association), which is being held at Mountain View High School (665 West Center Street, Orem, UT). I’m slated to present at noon (as is James Dashner, who somehow always seems to follow me around. I will need to think of a particularly biting joke about him to use in my presentation to teach him a lesson). The presentation is called Goosebumps, Great Expectations? Tomato, Tomaeto, Potato, Potaeto…: Why the only poor story is a story not read. I’ve put together what should be a really fun workshop on archetypes in narrative, why they exist, and how they undergird the importance of libraries as a place where children can develop narrative literacy without the impositions on reading that come from other areas of their lives. We’ll talk about archetypal theory and see it in action in a wide variety of texts, learn who fills the Darth Vader role in Pride and Prejudice, and stuff like that. Any school librarians considering me for a visit to their school are encouraged to attend the breakout session. It will give you a good idea of what I have to offer as a teacher and presenter.

Finally, a pair of events on May 15th. In the morning I’ll be conducting a two-hour workshop on characterization and triple-duty writing (come to the workshop to see what that is) for the League of Utah Writers’ Spring Workshop. I’ll be holding the workshop from 9 – 11:00 in the morning. The event is free for League members, though I promise the experience will be worthwhile even if you have to pay. (Joining the League for $24 a year is cheaper, and well worth it for any local writer.) I’ll give more information about venue and other contributors when I learn more.

After the workshop, I’m driving to Provo to take part in the Provo Library’s Annual Provo Children’s Book Festival. I believe that I will be reading from Green Dragon Codex in the afternoon, but I’m not sure when. Of course, I’ll let you know as soon as I do. This is a great—and FREE—event, so anyone interested in children’s literature really should be there. The list of participants is just fantastic. When you start with names like Brandon Mull and Shannon Hale and don’t go down much at all from there, you know it’s going to be a quality experience. Also, those who know me are aware that I don’t do many readings, especially of my work for children. (Though I’m not too shabby at it, if you’re worried about that.) If you want to hear me read from GDC, this may be your only chance in the near future.

Finally, I try to announce other writing events in my local area when I hear about them (and when I remember to pass along the message). I’m not participating in this one this year, but the 2010 Teen Writers Conference is being held on Saturday, June 5th, at Weber State University. This is a really cool conference focused on encouraging teenage writers between the ages of 13 to 19. Josi Kilpack is kind of the driving force behind this conference, and she and other organizers have lined up a fantastic list of presenters and instructors, many of whom are good friends I respect a lot. If you’re a teen who writes or is interested in writing, or if you know such a person, please let them know about this event. It’s really a great opportunity for professional level instruction very early in a person’s development as a writer.

Okay, as promised, some basics on my SCBWI workshop on May 6th from 7:00-9:00 P.M. The SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) holds a local group meeting on the first Wednesday of every month at the Downtown Library in Salt Lake City. Attendance is free for members and non-members alike. (On that note, if you write for children you really should join. The organization has different membership levels for published and unpublished writers, and it’s a great way to network and start traveling in serious writing circles. I believe they even have a mentoring program, where aspiring writers can be paired up with pros to work on their material. Not sure if they’re still doing that, but it’s worth checking. If you’re interested, go here.)

The workshop I’ll be presenting is on Conflict and the Narrative Mechanism. Basically, I cover why conflict IS story, and how different narrative elements (characterization, plot, POV, etc.) work together to form a complex, well-functioning machine. All too often, we storytellers conceptualize our work in partition; we sculpt our compositions element by isolated element. That’s like trying to build a car based solely on knowledge of how a piston works or the function of a spark plug. Specializing on a component can’t create a powerful machine; you have to understand the whole. Most writers, even published writers, don’t understand the whole narrative machine very well. Here are a few questions to help you determine if this workshop will be helpful:

1) What is story? I mean exactly that–what is story and why does it exist?

2) How does a story function? There is a specific blueprint to narrative, so what is it?

3) Why is story conflict–not narrative contains conflict, but narrative IS conflict?

If you know the answer to these questions then there’s no reason for you to come to my workshop (other than to experience my ebullient charm in person). If not, come. Really. Writing stories is, when you get down to the nuts and bolts, very simple. Not easy, but simple. In this two hour session, I can teach you the tools that comprise probably 80% of my own writing methodology. If you master the concepts of this workshop, you can write publishable stories. Period. Anyone looking for an undergraduate-level storytelling foundation will find this workshop useful–at least, I do my best to make sure this is so.

*****

If anyone tried to find Hasting’s on Saturday and discovered (as I did) that they’d moved the store on us, I’m so sorry about the mix up.  It truly wasn’t my fault, though.  Blame Google maps.  Or Hastings.  (Or Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, if you’re a Sachar fan–and you should be.)  The store did not ask my opinion before deciding to move, darned ambitious retailer aspiring to impersonate a Barnes and Noble.  If they’d been satisfied with the hole-in-the-wall original location, I would not now be so put out. 

Despite the confusion, I think we made it (at least most of us).  L.T. Elliot, Scarlet Knight, my friend Sherry, and I enjoyed talking writing and critiquing each others’ work for a few hours after the workshop.  It was a very fun time.  As for the workshop, I think it went well.  Tried a group storytelling exercise or three, and we ended up with the following: a horror story about a demonic icon seeking to hide its own murderous sentience by misleading an investigation; a comedic satire about an arrogant writer who, rather than writing, acts like a total ass to “provide fodder for other ambitious writers who aspire to be like him”; and a paranormal romance about a woman torn between her spectral husband–confined to a particular window in a bed and breakfast–and a new suitor while she endures the matchmaking of her interfering aunt.  It was my first time working with Josi, which was great.  Walt wrote a book about a neighbor’s wife leaving him for a polygamist, which reminded me that I did, indeed, know Walt and it merely took that to remind me.  (So if I meet you some time and later can’t remember you, please understand that it’s because you haven’t written a book on polygamy, or cannibalism, or something else sufficiently jarring.  This is how I differentiate individuals, which may explain why I think there are only about fifty people in the world–though there are billions of models of these fifty people.  In fact, the only person who is a unique person and not a casting of a person is Neil Gaiman.)  

So to anyone who went to the workshop, I hope it was worth your time and effort.  As always, I love to hear from people about my teaching.  If you think the Spring Workshop was the most edifying experience of your life, please comment and tell me so.  Maybe comment twice, or three times.  If you found it vomit- or labor-inducingly painful, tell me that (though once is enough for comments of this variety).  Suggestions and requests for future workshops on similar topics are always welcome, as are follow up questions not answered Saturday.  So bring it on!            

As mentioned in my calendar, on March 21st I will be one of several writers conducting a unique event for the League of Utah Writers Northern Spring Workshop. I’ve just found out the details, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. The event will spend the entire six hours (less lunch) in forum format, meaning a great deal of audience participation. It will involve writing exercises and hands-on interaction between attendees and presenters, including myself. In fact, if you tell me you read about the event on this blog, I promise to look at your work one-on-one during the day, even if I have to take a few minutes afterward to do so. (Pass this promise along to friends, family, pen pals, enemies, pets, etc. Tell them to come here, read this, and demand their due from me.)

Here are the details: The Spring Workshop will be on March 21st at Bella’s Restaurant in Ogden/Farr West, Utah (2651 North 1850 West) from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The event is free for League members, though they will need to purchase a lunch from Bella’s for $12. Non-members can either pay $30 plus buy a lunch, or they can join the League for one year for $24 (plus lunch). I am a member, as are many professional local writers, and for $2 a month I suggest the investment is well worth the workshops, conferences, and society membership can give. There will be three of us guiding and moderating the forum: myself, LDS writer Josi Kilpack, and non-fiction writer and tax specialist Walter Eddy Jr.

The subjects for the day, combined with the forum format, should produce a truly unique event. I’ll never conduct a workshop exactly like this one again, so anyone who is interested, do everything you can to be there. The time will be spent addressing three overarching topics (though in any forum, the audience dictates to a large degree what happens): 1) How to “get in the mood” to write productively; 2) Understanding and dealing with writer’s block; and 3) How to move on to another project when you’ve finished something (frequently that one-and-only-next-great-American novel that’s more precious than all your children, your spouse, and several of your less important limbs, and so moving on is the grossest form of infidelity).

If you want a little taste of what you’ll learn (or, at least, what I’ll endeavor to teach), take a gander at this…

How to train yourself to ALWAYS be in the mood to write well.

How to NEVER suffer writer’s block again. EVER.

How to develop more fantastic ideas for stories than you could use in twelve lifetimes. Maybe in twenty-four.

Sound helpful (and boastful)? Come call my bluff, and see for yourself. Hope to meet you there.

Next time: The Pied Piper of Vulnerable Minds (evil cackle here)