Thursday, May 10, 2012

9 LESSONS I LEARNED AT STORYMAKERS



By Chad “hopefully a bit smarter now, but not promising anything” Morris

1. Publication primer is awesome. Anytime other great writers will honestly give you feedback on your writing, it is time well spent. Plus, I got to give feedback on some great stuff, including Peggy Eddleman’s future bestseller (right, Peggy?). Oh, and I also learned that if you haven't seen every episode of Firefly, you may be mocked.

2. Sarah Eden makes very funny videos. (Shock to the heart.)

3. Amber Argyle has a lot of energy. . . I mean a lot of energy (Really, she should have to share some with the rest of us). She also taught me the difference between hard magic and soft magic (What exactly is Gandolf's power?), which I thought was very interesting and useful .

After the conference, I was talking about it with Shelly, thinking I was sharing all my new and deep knowledge. Turns out, she knew most of it already. Yeah, I'm the slow one in this marriage.

4. Jennifer Nielsen gave one of the most helpful presentations for me--Five essentials to writing for middle graders. She discussed attributes of middle graders (Moving toward abstract thought, love to discover, inconsistent, egocentric, challenge authority, but want approval, and are ready for moral questions). She gave the great insight that middle graders don’t want to read who they are, but who they wish they were. They want to imagine they are the person in the story, get lost in it. The whole presentation also made me very curious about her book, The False Prince. 



5. Pitching may not be that bad. It also may give you an ulcer.   

6. A bookstore can be a very dangerous place (Yeah, as if I didn't know that before. It's the only shopping that I enjoy.)

7. Kathleen Ortiz shared this awesome video. 


Then she gave a great presentation on using social media. I might even try to master twitter a bit more, and use google analytics and Klout, make a fan page eventually and an author website. But don’t rush me.

Of course, if anyone is struggling with social media, you could do what I did—marry someone who rocks at it. (Maybe I should give that presentation. It would be really short.)

8. Sit at a table with Melanie Fowler at the very end. She empties out her M&M stash.

9. Writers are some of the nicest, most interesting, normal/eccentric, intelligent/nerdy, AWESOME people in the world. I really like hanging out with them.



23 comments:

  1. Where can I find one of those social media savvy people to marry? ;). Yep you have one awesome wife Chad

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  2. I loved Kathleen Ortiz's class! So helpful.
    And yes, your wife rocks the media world. :)

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  3. On #9, yep, I love the writing community. I've wondered if other writing communities are as tight-knit as the ones here in Utah. Such awesome people!

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  4. It was so great to see everyone and learn loads and loads about how to improve my writing. Worth every penny!

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  5. Wish I could have been there.

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  6. LOL! This was awesome! And Mel is great to share. She had me stocked up on M&M's the whole conference! Gotta love that girl! :)

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  7. Loved this conference. I just wish I could have attended more classes.

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  8. hehehehehe. Hopefully Shelly didn't get a tummy ache :)

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    1. You would have thought, right?
      Alas I came away unscathed. My constitution has experienced far more sugar than a few scraps at the end of a conference ;)

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  9. Ha! I love this post and now I'm even MORE jealous that I can never get back to Utah for Storymakers. It's a good thing authors love to write so I can get the highlights. Thanks! :D

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  10. Why didn't Mel share M&Ms with me?!? And don't say it's because you don't want to see me with a sugar rush. Cause you TOTALLY DO!

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  11. Such an awesome conference! I missed both Jennifer's and Kathleen's presentations. :( And I definitely missed sitting by Melanie Fowler. :'(

    Re: the bestseller comment-- you were referring to my version post nano-bots, right? ;)

    And I thought the Firefly thing was understood in general... People get that, right?

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  12. Sounds like you had a ton of fun. I didn't get there this year but I sent someone from my writers group. Thanks for your comment on my blog. I love that you made your goal of not cryinhg. Little goals are the best! LOL

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    1. I didn't throw up either. That was a secondary goal that I accomplished.

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  13. Dang, I didn't get any of Melanie's chocolate. And I know about Peggy, right. And true, anyone who hasn't seen Firefly should be mocked. I'll be posting more pics soon. Of you and your man-hunk.

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  14. Thank you very much Chad. I'm glad the class was helpful and hope it will lead to great things in your writing!

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  15. It was an awesome conference wasn't it? I wish I would've gone to the bootcamp or publication primer. But there's always next year.

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  16. I missed Jennifer's class *slams head into wall* So many classes so little time. But I ditto Mel + M&M = Love

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  17. I feel like I joined THE coolest club in the world by going to that conference for the first time. Now I am dying to go again and have to wait a full year. Waaaaa! But reading your recap brought some of the highlights back to me!

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