Something New

By C. LaRene Hall

Of course, my post this week is about the fantastic writer’s conference that I attended last week. I’m one of the oldster’s. I’ve been at these particular writing conferences since the beginning of the LDStorymaker’s Writers Conference in Springville.

Every year that I go, I wonder if I will really learn something new. Either I’m a slow learner or they have something new every year because I’m still learning. I like to think that they do have new and different classes each time. There are always so many things to choose from, and the choices are difficult because as a writer I feel I can use all the help I can get.

I signed up for three classes that lasted two hours each, and I was not disappointed with any of them. Today my mind is still so full of new things that I learned – I can’t think of anything else.

Besides creating my own website, and learning how to write a killer query, I went to a class by J. Scott Savage about creating a character bible. I’ve attended many classes over the years about characters, but for some reason this year it clicked in my head. The class was fabulous.

Instead of just tracking the usual things, hair color, eye color, etc. he taught that we should keep track of what motivates our character. We have to make sure that our protagonist, antagonist, and main characters are consistent. We spent two hours getting to know our characters by answering questions about them. As you can guess these were questions I’d never thought to ask before.

Now I will know what each character wants and what stands in their way. I can now figure out how they will overcome their obstacles. I can honestly say that I’m sure glad I attended this workshop.

Thanks LDStorymaker’s.