David Farland: My Story Doctor - The End of Round 1

Well ... I'm all finished with my first workshop with David Farland over at mystorydoctor.com. The workshop I took was Story Puzzle, which Dave considers the first stepping stone in his online workshops.

I wanted to take a moment to offer some insights into the process as I experienced it, as well as my own thoughts on the workshop process as a whole:

The workshop consisted of six lessons which took me from the kernel of an idea, through development, and set me on the path to outlining--and it was a completely different process in approaching a story than I have ever seen.

First, Dave's core belief when developing a story is that the writer should start with a solid understanding of the setting first. He suggests that your characters grow out of your setting -- which makes a bit of sense on the surface. If you are setting your tale in Scotland, for example, you'd better know about Scottish traditions and the history of and daily life in Scotland, because your characters certainly should know all of this, and all of that history, all of the daily life and the traditions will help to form and shape who your characters are and how the behave and think.

That being said, I tend to approach my setting after I have some idea of my characters first. This isn't to say I allow my characters to dictate my setting (although sometimes this happens), nor is it to suggest I have fully fleshed-out characters by the time I get around to my setting. However, what I do mean is that, for me, characters are the most important part of story development. People read to escape, but they also read to make a connection with other people.

So, I like to get an idea of who my characters are -- just very basic traits -- before deciding where they live or where they are from.

Dave also teaches that, for him, conflicts grow out of characters. I find this to be true. Again, part of the reason people read is to escape and experience things vicariously through the characters of a book. These inter-character conflicts can really only come about once you have a good grasp of your characters ... and ultimately, then, the story's plot will come from these conflicts.

Look at it like a chain, if you will: Setting > Characters > Conflicts > Plot

Unfortunately, my typical method is to jump around. I can't think in this linear pattern so my traditional method of story development often looks like this: Idea > Characters > Plot > Characters > Conflict > Characters > Setting > Characters > Plot > Conflict > Plot

See? It's all over the place. An example of my typical work flow is this: I'll discover a cool idea. Something like, "What if lice had a matriarchal society, and what if they had an army to protect the queen?" I'd ask myself what kind of characters this lice queendom would have. I'll come up with an army called the Legion of Lice, and there would have to be a Lieutenant in the Legion of Lice ... and his name might as well be Larry. So, Larry, the Lieutenant in the Legion of Lice is new to the Legion and somewhat of a coward.

Now I need a queen ... Louisa ... and she's having trouble finding a replacement mate -- the louse responsible for fertilizing all her eggs. She can't be called a queen though ... I know! She's a Landgrave. Louisa, the Landgrave of ... shit, where do they live? Got it! Licenstein. Yes. Louisa, the Landgrave of Licenstein and Larry, a Lieutenant in the Legion of Lice of Licenstein. Perfect.

Okay ... what's Licenstein like? I already know they have an army (the Legion) and a queen (the Landgrave) and she's having trouble finding a mate. Well, obviously Licenstein is located on some kid's head, so their entire world is built of hair and scalp. Oh! Licenstein is a small country on a larger continent called Scalptopia! Great! And some of the other countries are populated by similar creatures. Ooh! There's Bedbugia, Arachnia, the Flea Republic, Tickland, and Mosquitonia. Oh! And all of these countries worship the Great Leech. Right.

Okay ... so ... I've got it! Louisa the Landgrave of Licenstein lives in the Parasite Palace. Yes! And within the Parasite Palace she protects the Blood Oasis ... the only open source for the Nectar of Scalptopia ... and all the other countries want it. So ... the other countries form a pact, like the European Union, called ... hmm ... what about the Bloodsucker Brotherhood? Right, and the Bloodsucker Brotherhood comes to Louisa and demands she join them and give them access to the Blood Oasis, which she refuses ... why? Right! Because if she gives in she believes the Bloodsucker Brotherhood will enslave her people.

So ... where's the conflict? It seems a stalemate between them. But ... what if there's a traitor in Licenstein? Oh! What if there's a louse who wants to take Louisa's place? What if he believes in a different way of doing things? Oh! What if, instead of one queen and one mate, there is a single king and a harem of female lice? That's this other louse's goal and when he presents the goal to Louisa she laughs and turns him down which pisses him off and so he goes to the Brotherhood and makes a deal.

Yes! And, that deal ... ooh! ... that deal helps the brotherhood wipe out the entire Legion of Lice and gives them access to the Blood Oasis ... but ... what about Larry? He's the guy I like the most. He's a coward but a soldier. There's got to be something for him to do. He's the hero of the story what can he ... I know ... he has to become Louisa's new mate. But how? I've got it! He has to find a way to overcome his fear and defeat the Brotherhood. How does he do that?

Oh! What if the Blood Oasis and the Nectar of Scalptopia give him super strength? What if the lice of Licenstein really believe the Blood Oasis is there only for the Landgrave to produce eggs and feed her young, but when the lice grow to maturity they are only allowed to eat dandruff cakes and oil drops from the scalp? Right, this would make them weak. Why would they do that though? Why wouldn't they all drink blood? Got it! Because they were forced to flee their old homeland and all the knowledge they once had was lost ... so they don't know all lice can drink blood ... Oh! In fact, they think that if all lice drink blood they will somehow run out.

Right! Which is the reason Louisa doesn't want to give access to the Blood Oasis to the Brotherhood.

You see how this goes back and forth, building on top of each other as I brainstorm this stuff. I'm all over the map with character, plot, conflicts, and setting.

This is part of the reason Dave's workshop was such a challenge for me. It forced me to look at my development process in a different way. Everything Dave teaches comes from years of experience from writing bestseller fiction to working in Hollywood as a story director and greenlighter. He knows his stuff when it comes to commercially viable fiction, so you can't discount his methods.

I have certainly learned a ton from his workshop and look forward to taking the next one on the list. I think the greatest takeaway from Story Puzzle for me was the exercises in seeing things differently and the realization that my brain doesn't function in the linear way that works for some people. I need to jumble -- the back and forth -- so one idea can build off another.

What is interesting, though, is how Dave's process and my process are very similar. We both cover the same material, but in a different order. Where Dave teaches his linear approach, I like the network approach, but in the end, the results are very similar. I would have eventually come to the same decisions with the lice story above following Dave's linear format as I did jumping around ... but, for me, the excitement of discover might not have been as great.

Bottom line: take Dave's workshops. Work through them. Learn different ways of approaching and solving problems within a story. Any kind of learning helps, even if it seems counter-intuitive. Go here to learn more.

David Farland: My Story Doctor: Story Puzzle - Part 6

In this installment on my experiences with David Farland's online workshop "Story Puzzle," I will discuss our last assignment on Treatments. (You can find Dave's workshops here.)

For Dave, it seems a treatment in this sense is different than what most people think of for a story treatment. Wikipedia (the greatest source of information in the world **please note my sarcasm**) defines a treatment as:

A film treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play.

Perhaps because we're talking about a novel ... though the differences are so great I would have to ask.

For Dave, a treatment discusses the emotional beats of a story. Not so much the step-by-step beats of here she feels happy, here she feels sad, here she feels angry, but the overall emotions for the various plot lines ... and, more specifically, how we, as authors, are going to utilize those beats to create emotional pull for our potential audiences.

Here's what I mean: 

In the particular story I am workshopping, the greatest emotional beat is Romance. This is because I intend on writing a romance. However, the next greatest emotional beat is Wonder because I am also writing a fantasy novel. Romance (if done correctly) should appeal to women and girls, Wonder should appeal to boys. No, I have a third emotional beat: Adventure. This emotional beat works with my male protagonist, and should appeal to men and boys alike.

The goal with this type of treatment is to create a focal point for the story to keep your target audience in mind each time you're writing a scene. Now, when I sit down to outline my scenes, I should remember these three emotional beats from my treatment and try to keep my scenes within one of the three. This isn't to say I can't have an element of mystery or suspense in the scenes, but the emotional beats I set out (romance, wonder, and adventure) should rule.

In my opinion, this was the easiest of all the assignments. I received positive feedback from Dave (which leads me to believe I did the assignment right and did a good job at that).

Now that I've gone through the workshop, the next step is to sit down and actually outline and write the story.

In my next post I'll discuss my overall reactions to the workshop.

David Farland: My Story Doctor: Story Puzzle - Part 5

Lesson 5 from David Farland's Story Puzzle revolves around theme. This particular post will be quite brief, as theme is a part of the storytelling process I don't like to force.

For this lesson, Dave asks we analyze the conflicts and plots within we've created thus far and discover whether or not a noticeable theme jumps out. From that theme, we are then asked to analyze how each of the major characters views this theme (with the hope that each character will be able to present a different argument on said theme). Finally, we were to list a series of scenes for each of these characters which illustrated their views on said theme.

So ... I completed the assignment, and I can see how it can be helpful, specifically to keep the story maintained within a particular paradigm. Focusing on a theme could help ensure a writer doesn't specifically wander too far away from said theme, which can help the writer keep the entire story focused.

That being said ... I don't particularly agree with focusing on a particular theme. I find doing so seems to create a heavy-handed narrative focusing too much on points of the theme instead of telling a good story. Instead, I like to think the reader will decide upon a theme himself, which makes the reading experience that much greater.

Perhaps it's just a matter of my own ineptitude as a storyteller, and my inability to bury a theme within the narrative.

Anyway ... the assignment was quite simple, and probably one of the easiest of the workshop thus far. One more assignment left. I still think this has been a great workshop. You can sign up for it here.

David Farland: My Story Doctor: Story Puzzle - Part 4

In this fourth segment on my review of David Farland's online workshop, Story Puzzle, I will be analyzing lesson four: Plotting. (Coming into the middle of this series? You can find the first post here.)

As you'll remember from the previous lesson, I am used to plotting and outlining my stories in a certain way. In lesson three (where we discussed conflicts), my first attempt at the assignment was basically a plotting assignment. Essentially, I jumped the gun and used my plot to help identify the conflicts.

So, you can probably guess that the plotting assignment was pretty straight forward. I took my final attempt from the conflicts assignment, and combined it with my initial attempt, and tweaked it just enough to follow the important take-away from the plotting assignment: try/fail cycles.

Let's take a moment to discuss try/fail cycles. As the name implies, these are cycles wherein a character attempts to accomplish a goal and typically fails ... until they succeed. A great analysis of try/fail cycles can be read here on Heidi Tighe's blog. The gist, however, is this: A character has a goal (be it rescuing the princess, escaping prison, fleeing the police, or making breakfast) and, as a means of escalating the dramatic tension over this course of the character's attempts to accomplish said goal, the character must make several attempts to accomplish the goal.

Why is this important? Because if your character succeeds in accomplishing his or her goals on the first attempt each time, your character will be unbelievable and, ultimately, uninteresting. Of course, the number of try/fail cycles a particular goal requires is directly proportional to the importance of said goal. Escaping prison is probably fairly important to a story and would therefore require several try/fail cycles. Eating breakfast ... no doubt not so important and therefore may require one or no try/fail cycles.

In crafting my own try/fail cycles for each of the major conflicts from assignment three, I chose to stick with the "Yes, but.../No, and..." format. This is a great way of escalating the tension for each goal. I won't get too detailed in this post since there are better examples here, here, and here. However, the gist is: Does the character accomplish his goal? Yes, but ... [escalating incident which creates a bigger problem] ... or ... Does the character accomplish his goal? No, and ... [escalating incident which creates a bigger problem]. This continues as necessary until the character ultimately attains his goal or ultimately fails.

Part of the importance of this particular assignment was to ensure the try/fail cycles of each character conflict could be braided together. For my particular piece, this was the greatest struggle for this assignment. I have thirteen characters, each with their own motives, and each with their own conflicts with each other, society, or themselves. Ensuring each of these try/fail cycles and conflicts wove together seamlessly was a bit of a struggle, but, a few weeks later I was able to finish it off.

All in all, this has probably been the best assignment within Dave's Story Puzzle workshop; in my opinion, the most helpful. Again, if you think one of Dave's workshops is good for you (and I think each of you should take one), you can find him here.

David Farland: My Story Doctor: Story Puzzle - Part 3

For those of you following along, I am deep in the process of taking an online workshop with David Farland. This is the third post of a six-post series on my thoughts and struggles as I work my way through Dave's workshop. In case you missed the first two posts, you can find them here and here.

In Part 3 of Dave's workshop, entitled Story Puzzle, we are looking at character conflicts. He discusses the traditional man versus man, man versus self, man versus nature. He also adds a couple of new ones I'd not heard or thought of before: man versus god, and man versus society. The general idea with this particular assignment is to generate conflict for each of the characters we developed in the previous assignment.

I just want to tell you right now ... this was a struggle for me, and I had to complete the assignment twice before I got it right.

You see, I'm used to outlining my stories in a certain way. I utilize a combination of the 7-Point Plot system attributed to Dan Wells (though he'll be the first to tell you he discovered it in the pages of a role playing manual) and The Snowflake Method developed by Randy Ingermanson. With this hybrid method, I typically "pants" my way into character conflicts. Usually I'll have a general idea of where the plot needs to go and discover the conflicts between characters as I develop them in conjunction with the overall plot. (This may be why my conflicts never seem that great.)

With Dave's method, however, he asked us to create all of these conflicts ahead of time. The essential gist of the assignment was to take each character, describe what happens to let the character knows he or she has a problem, and list all the ways he or she attempts to solve that problem (and all the ways the antagonistic force gets in the way) until the problem is either solved or the character fails.

For example: Suppose your character has an exciting relationship with her boyfriend. He takes her to fancy restaurants and they always stay in expensive hotels. Then she discovers he's married. What does she do? She confronts him about his wife. He tells her they are separated. She doesn't believe him and tells him she's leaving him. She doesn't want to be a homewrecker. He kidnaps her and tells her she can't leave. She tries to call for help but he ties her to a chair and tapes her mouth. Et cetera. Et cetera.

The problem I had initially was that I was looking at the minutia of my story. I set out to explain the smallest (but still relevant and important) conflicts within my story instead of focusing on the overarching story-wide conflict for each character.

For example: in my story, my main character (for now let's call her Nadia) is sent to prison for murder. She committed the crime, but it was self defense. However, she was set up to have to defend herself. Instead of focusing on discovering the treachery that sent her to prison, I looked at each of the minor events that put her there: the jealous colleague who discovered her affair, the jealous wife who had access to the tools necessary to put her in that position, the corrupt judge who was morally obligated to protect his sister (the jealous wife), and so on, ad nauseum.

It took me days to get this far in the process, and when I finally sent my work to Dave I felt I needed a break.

It was a good thing I took one, too, because he returned my work with a much needed reprimand. "Your down in the weeds on this one." He saw my focus on the minutia immediately and sent it back to me with instructions to look at the 1000-mile view of the story.

Another of hours later I resubmitted an updated assignment. This second time around was much easier. Perhaps because I already had all the little details in place, all I had to do was zoom out a bit to see the overall story as a whole.

Needless to say, Dave's response to my revised attempt was positive an I'm now off to start the fourth part of his Story Puzzle workshop: Plotting.

For anyone interested in honing their craft to its best potential, I highly recommend one of Dave's workshops. You can find access to them here, or by clicking the banner link at the top of this post. Stay tuned for the next post in this series on plotting. I'm sure it will be as much fun as conflicts were.

Review: Djibouti

Djibouti by Elmore Leonard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had never before read Elmore Leonard, but I'd heard good things, so I thought I'd give him a try. I chose Djibouti at random. It was interesting. Fiction with modern non-fiction tied in among the background. I was a little disappointed in the treatment of the story. There may be spoilers here, but: The story revolves around a woman who is a documentary filmmaker analyzing Somali pirates. It begins in a somewhat gripping yet nonchalant way with the woman showing up in Djbouti and meeting people associated with pirating around the horn of Africa. You get the sense that these are somewhat dangerous people, but that this woman ... the documentary filmmaker ... doesn't feel as if she's in danger at all.

She and her cameraman/grip/gaffer are set to go out on a boat to film these pirates doing their thing and getting their side of the story. Why are they being pirates? It's an interesting question, and one that is vaguely answered. The book shows them going out to sea, and then cuts to a single paragraph that says ... they were out to see for almost a month ... and then cuts to them back in her hotel room analyzing the footage they shot and discussing it. I felt it was a little weak, almost like watching a story unfold through flashbacks.

The rest of the tale doesn't follow this same pattern, however, as they soon realize there is more at play than just Somali pirates. There are some rather eccentric characters in the tale ... some who might be too much of a caricature to be real, but they are fun characters nonetheless. The billionaire sailor and his runway model girlfriend. The Al Qaeda members ... who might be gay, which seems incongruous with everything we know about Al Qaeda (though, perhaps not at all unlikely), the highly resourceful young man who seems to have unlimited funds, out to get our protagonists.

It was a super fast read, and was enjoyable for all the slightly unbelievable characters. I'll likely read another Elmore Leonard book again.

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David Farland: My Story Doctor: Story Puzzle - Part 2

The image above is the header image accompanying David Farland's #WritingTips I receive weekly via email. Dave has some great advice about the process of writing and the business of writing and I love receiving these tips from him each week. If you're interested in learning more from Dave, check out his blog and subscribe to receive free weekly emails as well.

With that out of the way, let me get on to this post about my experience with Story Puzzle Part 2: Characters.

As you'll remember, Story Puzzle Part 1 was all about the setting of the story. Where is it taking place. The world the characters will occupy. Story Puzzle Part 2 is all about the characters (or so I thought).

As Dave will say, "Characters grow from their setting," and that makes a kind of sense. You don't really what kind of people are going to populate your story until you know where they come from. How can my protagonist be a mild-mannered computer geek if my setting is a secondary world that looks more like a prehistoric Amazon rain forest? I suppose it could happen, but there would need to be something in the setting to explain the hows and whys of the matter.

For this lesson's assignment we were asked to do three things. Create a page of physical description for the protagonist, down to the minutia of things like the shape of their ears, the freckle on their pelvis, and the color of their toe fungus; State what the character thinks about when he or she is alone (and presumably bored) -- basically, where do the character's thoughts go when there's nothing else driving them; Write an autobiography from the character's point-of-view.

This was not as difficult as I thought it would be. However, since I was starting from scratch and only had a wisp of an idea (and no real notion of any of my characters, or my setting) I had no idea where to start. So, I did what I've heard a lot of writers talk about ... I interviewed my characters. I acted as if I was a journalist for some magazine wanting the "full scoop" on the character's entire life and asked questions. Then I acted as the character herself and answered those questions as thoroughly and honestly as I could (as that character).

Never before had I experienced what other authors talk about when they mention their characters coming to life. This woman, my main character, was as real to me by the end of this interview as anyone I had ever met (even though I know she's completely fictional). 12,000 words later, I knew enough about my character to complete the assignment.

Here's the thing, though. I may have been able to complete the character assignment with this single interview, but I also learned so much more about my setting while interviewing this woman. She elaborated for me how her government works, the monetary system, the way the apprentice system works in her country. All manner of things I would never have thought to ask about ... all because it was important to her daily life.

I don't know if I'll ever use the description part of the assignment. Yes, it is what she looks like, and I suppose if I have multiple POV characters in the book it might come in handy, but I often feel that my protagonist should be drawn a little blank (in terms of physical description), primarily so the reader can insert his or her own imagery into that role.

The "What does she think about alone?" portion of the assignment was quite useful. It helped get into the emotional mindset of the character--to know how she feels about herself and the world in which she lives.

Finally, the autobiographical portion of the assignment is basically a shortened version of the interview I conducted to get the information I needed for this assignment. It was by far the most helpful, not only in understanding who this character is, but also in understanding the world in which she lives.

I've gone back through and completed a similar interview for the other major characters in this story (ten in total) if for no other purpose than to better understand their world and who they are as people.

If I haven't mentioned it already, I highly recommend Dave's workshops to anyone serious about perfecting their craft. Find out more at David Farland: Story Doctor

Review: Million Dollar Outlines

Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Holy crap! My brain is overflowing with knowledge. David Farland's Million Dollar Outline has more information in it than I can possibly consume in a single reading. I've made bookmarks and highlighted passages which require a second pass, just to absorb the total wealth of knowledge and information provided.

This is a great book, and one I recommend to anyone serious about improving his or her craft. Normally I wouldn't have picked up this book. It's cover looks a little cheesy, the "Million Dollar" part speaks of something too-good-to-be-true, and (honestly) I'm at the end of my rope with how-to manuals for writers. I've read so many, with so many fantastic (yet surprisingly different) takes on writing, I don't want to read another for a very long time (and now that I'm done with Dave's book, I think I'll stick to that promise).

The reason I did read it was that it was provided as part of the course material for one of Dave's online workshops "Story Puzzle" (you can find out more information at www.mystorydoctor.com). The workshop is great and has forced me to look at my story in a new light. The book, however, goes hand-in-hand with the workshop and offers so many tools to help improve the overall scope of telling a good story (we're not talking about the mechanics of sentence structure and subject-verb agreement here).

There is so much great (useful, important, inspiring) information in this one volume, I don't even know where to begin with a review. Perhaps I will sum up the biggest take away for me at this moment. Toward the end of the book, Dave discusses a writing conference between George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, and Larry Kasdan as they discuss the story which will become Raiders of the Lost Ark. According to Dave, these three men spent 9 hours a day, over 5 days, discussing everything that could possibly happen in the story. They had so much information, they actually had enough for two films.

One point Dave makes is that many new authors start with too few ideas, and the result is a weak story. His advice: brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm. Create so many ideas to choose from, and then start culling. This will help you make a rich and fascinating story--and give yourself the time to do it. This has been my problem by far. I don't allow myself the time to properly brainstorm, create characters, plot, settings, arcs. Let alone simple scenes. I fear that if I'm not writing prolifically--I try to write a novel a year, and several short stories besides--I'm not being productive. But I never take the time to do these things. Maybe that's important.

This is a great read with so much information I recommend taking it in chunks and really allowing yourself to absorb every word.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a slow reader. Maybe you couldn't tell that by my list of books read this year. I'm on track to read 30 books this year, and that's a lot for me. After reading so much dense material on the how-tos of writing, I felt I needed something light and fun, so I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone the other day, and within five hours (spanning four days) I finished the book. I was amazed.

Now, it could be that with all the additional reading I've been doing lately, my reading skills have increased and my words per minute are beefing up. I do, however, tend to read everything out loud still (part of a habit I have for reviewing my own writing), and this type of reading tends to be slower than silent reading.

That being said, I don't even feel like I read a book. I feel like I watched a movie made from words. This first book is 83,000 words long, but it felt like no more than 20,000. I couldn't find a single extraneous word. Every single scene did double and triple duty, building or developing character, advancing the plot, adding humor, hinting at theme.

If you want to write a bestselling novel, I suggest reading and analyzing this first book to discover exactly how it is done. There's no wonder Rowling hit it big with this series. It's amazing.

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David Farland: My Story Doctor: Story Puzzle - Part 1

In the first lesson of David Farland's Story Puzzle (an online workshop I am taking with him -- I discuss it here), we discuss the importance of Setting in your story.

Dave has an different point of view when it comes to approaching story than any I've seen before. Since you can find this information practically anywhere online, I don't feel I am spoiling anything for Dave and his workshop by revealing that he suggests you start building your story with the setting.

Where does the story take place? What is the overall setting? Where are the smaller settings? If the story takes place on someone's farm property, will we see the hay loft as a setting, the kitchen, a horse stall? Things like this.

I took Dave's advice when I signed up for the workshop and began Story Puzzle with a fresh story -- something I had never worked before.

The approach of beginning with a setting for a story is foreign to me. I almost always begin with a character or some "wow" idea I can't shake from my brain. However, I think it's important to try new things, to break out of the box and attempt to find alternative ways to approach the same problem, so I'm glad for the challenge.

Without giving too much away, I have started with a Macro Setting (the overall world of my story) as a country called the Krása Confederacy, in which the country's capital, the city-state known also as Krása, is home to the corporatocracy government.

Like I said, this is a strange way for me to build a story. I have created all manner of micro-settings: a prison mining camp, for example, which hosts several settings itself (the prison cell in which the main character is interred, the warden's office, the bargeman's shack, the barge itself, the graveyard in the foothills above the mine, etc.). I don't honestly know if I'll use all of these micro settings, but they were fun to create.

By the end of this first lesson, I didn't feel I had a very strong grasp of the world I had created, or of the story that would come out of it. However, since Dave has written dozens of best-selling books, and helped other big name authors jump start their careers, I'm satisfied with with the knowledge he knows what he's doing, and I can trust his instincts and follow his lead for this story and this workshop.

I'll keep you posted as I follow through with the rest of the workshop over the next several weeks.

Review: The Mote in God's Eye

The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting book. I read it based on recommendations from the Writing Excuses podcast. What I like about it, as the podcasters have said, it is (currently) timeless. It may have been written during the 70s, but it could have been written yesterday. The book doesn't date itself. What I also found to be interesting about it was the commentary it makes on humanity as a whole. Spoilers: we've found an alien civilization which has the potential of ... essentially ... destroying us if it is allowed to grow the way we, ourselves, have allowed ourselves to grow. Therefore, we must subjugate them or destroy them. The only other comment I have is how many adverbs stuck out at me. It could be a fad right now that writing shouldn't have adverbs, but this book seemed to use one in every sentence ... every paragraph at least.

Anyway, descent book. It ended a bit anticlimactically for me, but I still enjoyed it. It was great to read about all the different sciencey bits (that's a technical term, by the way).

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David Farland: My Story Doctor

Based on the recommendations of Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells from Writing Excuses, I decided to take an online workshop with science fiction and fantasy great, David Farland. He runs several online and live workshops through his website at MyStoryDoctor .


As a newbie, Dave recommended I begin with his beginner level course "Story Puzzle."
The course is amazing. There are a dozen or so videos for each section of the course in which Dave discusses theory and story structure. He then assigns you homework. You complete the homework, email it directly to him, and he will critique and return your homework with notes. This is hands on stuff here.

Additionally, Dave hosts a conference call twice a week for students to log in and ask questions directly to Dave. He answers as many as he can within the hour time slot. Most of the questions, from the calls I have been on, are more related to the business of writing and very little personal assignment questions are asked. It's a great supplement to the course work.

Over the next several weeks, I will be following along with his workshop and developing a story from scratch. With each lesson, I will post my thoughts and some of the work I have completed during the lesson. I'll try to not give away too much of Dave's teaching style of the assignments he offers, as I think, if you're truly interested in learning from him, you should sign up for one of his workshops yourself. They are totally worth it.

So, stay tuned for more information about my time in this workshop. It should be fun.

Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's a great classic, but oh my God is it long. Definitely not a modern story, and that's okay, but be prepared for it when you get into it.

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PRLAAC 10th Anniversary Event

I was invited, as part of the Jackpine Writers Bloc, to read a short work of fiction at the Park Rapids Lakes Area Arts Council 10th Anniversary Event today. What a great time. The photo above is my friend Jerry Mevissen (introducing the Jackpine Writers Bloc to the assembled audience) and fellow Jackpine Writer, Marlys Guimaraes preparing for their portion of the evening.

There were dancers from the local dance academy, opera singers and singers from the local community theater, artists, a bluegrass band. It was a fun night and I'm glad to have been there.

Review: The Final Empire

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'll keep the three star review. This book was above average. I tried to read it once, years before, and made it about half-way through before putting it down. At the time I felt that nothing was happening. I could classify the book as one long training montage. By the end, however, I can honestly say I was not expecting everything that happened to happen. There were moments toward the end where I felt a little cheated, but overall the ending was satisfactory. That's the most we should ever ask. I'm not sure I'll get to the second book in the series right away, but I am intrigued to discover how the loose ends from this book will be tied together in future novels. Overall, good read. I'd recommend it.

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