2018 Writers Workshop

By guest blogger Eric James Stone (Writer winner WotF 20)

The writers began the day by critiquing two of the 24-hour stories they had turned in the day before. Rumor has it that the two stories are singled out for critique by the process of David Farland throwing the manuscripts down the stairs and Tim Powers picking up the ones that traveled the farthest. (So far, however, there is no photographic proof of that process.)

For each critiqued story, the winners—other than the author of the story—offer their critiques in two minutes or less. Tim and David then offer their own critiques. The exercise is less about these two particular stories and more about teaching the winners how to be an effective critiquer.

After lunch, Tim and David spoke to the winners about the pros and cons of traditional publishing versus self-publishing.

That was followed by three guest lectures by Writers of the Future Contest judges.

Mike Resnick, the field’s all-time leading award-winner for short fiction and the editor of Galaxy’s Edge magazine, focused on the business side of writing. Among other things, he explained the importance of reprints and foreign sales, contract option clauses, and various tax provisions.

Jody Lynn Nye, author of dozens of novels and over a hundred short stories, talked to the winners about science fiction conventions, including practical advice on how to become a panelist or presenter at conventions, and how to act like a professional once you get there.

Best-selling epic fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson explained his three “laws” about writing:

1. Your ability to solve problems with magic in a satisfying way is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.

2. Limitations are more interesting than powers.

3. In worldbuilding, depth is better than width.

He also revealed the existence of a “Zeroth Law” that takes precedence over the others: Always err on the side of what’s awesome.

After the guest speakers, writers and illustrators, winners and judges all got together for a very large book signing party of Writers of the Future Volume 34.

2018 Illustrator Workshop

By guest blogger Illustrators of the Future judge Val Lakey Lindahn 

Early morning 8:00 a.m. and the Illustrator winners are learning about client management, networking, direct contact, mailing lists, website inclusion, in addition to directories used to find illustrators, and agents covered in detail by Echo and Lazarus.

Echo recommended sites important for artists to be on; such as Art Pic and Workbook. Our winner Reyna Rochin, also recommended “Up Work.”

At 11:00, Illustrator Judge Larry Elmore enchanted us with his original art including traditional painting for National Lampoon and Heavy Metal in the 70’s.

He described colors as flavors in traditional paintings when studying clouds and the different levels of colors in trees and nature depending on the light, time of day, and depth of field. He discussed how we each may see colors differently.

I mentioned that scientists recently discovering that 1 out of 3 women can see a color that no one else can and no males can because extra cone(s) were detected. Lazarus reminded us of the effect of color blindness and found a website that showed the same painting with the loss of red, then blue, or green. Each example would be how a colorblind person views the painting and lack of that specific color. Pretty impressive!

Larry in his talk emphasized that most people don’t “see.” Artists, however, “learn to see” —and training your eye is essential to see a Level 10 of color. Sometimes we achieve a level, say of a 7. Until you reach a higher level you cannot paint at a level 10, let alone appreciate the beauty and depth. It is something to strive for.

Judge Sergey Poyarkov was next with several unique and brilliant ways to market yourself. He lives in Ukraine, is quite well known there and throughout most of Europe. He has 6 large tomes ( beautifully designed and printed) coffee table size books of his work. With good humor, he dropped one of the heavy books on the table with a loud thunk and said “Here! —This is my business card!”

Annual Writers & Illustrators Barbeque

To top off this wonderful day, the judges, winners and their families joined the Author Services and Galaxy staff on the roof of Author Services for a barbecue. Round tables set with deep blue velvet chairs were surrounded with lovely twinkle lights. A dozen heaters with tall yellow flames danced to keep us warm and the aroma of Al grilling burgers, sausages, and Wild Salmon lured us up to the rooftop. Joann and many of the staff contributed homemade slaw, potato salad, barbos, not to mention the dessert table with Haagen-Dazs chocolate walnut vanilla ice cream, toppings of berries and nuts, freshly homemade fruit cobblers, pies and a large assortment of coconut ice creams! Yum and Nom nom, nom.

I looked around at the tables and will never forget the smiles, happy faces, and laughter of the winners!

Best and Cheerios’
Val

2018 Writers Workshop

Today the 2018 Writer Winners got into full swing with a day of instruction by David Farland and Tim Powers, along with practical assignments. Then the authors were sent off at 5:00 p.m. to write their 24-hour story.

What sets this Writing Workshop apart from others is that everyone attending is already a writer and a very good writer at that (evidenced by the fact that their stories won out over thousands of other stories submitted to the Contest). In fact, both instructors agreed that within the year, many of the winners attending will have gone on to publish one or more stories and many will begin garnering awards for their efforts.

So if they already know how to write, what is the point of holding a Writers Workshop?

Breaking the Speed Barrier

Both David Farland and Tim Powers, award-winning and bestselling authors in their own right, know the biggest barrier for a writer is breaking what they call the artificial speed barrier that can be the make-break point between dreaming and being a successful author.

As Farland described it, back in the early 1950s no runner had broken the 4-minute mile. In fact, it was commonly held to be impossible, with many athletes believing it couldn’t physically be done without the runner’s lungs bursting. That is, until 1954 when the first runner, Roger Bannister, broke it. And since then it has become the standard for all male professional middle distance runners.

David likens the process of writing a story in 24-hours to breaking the speed barrier for a new author. So this is the challenge each Writer winner is given at the end of today’s Workshop.

But as professional authors, David and Tim don’t just throw out the challenge without also providing the means of how to do it, and how to do it successfully. This is covered in detail in the “Story Ideas, Where They Come From” section of the Workshop.  Advice our authors readily took in.

Then, at the end of today’s Workshop, at 5:00 p.m. sharp, they were on the clock.

While the writers may be feeling the pressure and a bit anxious, Farland remarked that he only remembers 1 writer in the last 15 years who didn’t complete their story. In fact, many go on to sell the tales, as in the case of Tim Napper (WotF Vol 31). He wrote the short story “Flame Trees” in the writing workshop and not only sold it, but it was nominated for a Ditmar Award.

As Farland put it, “These are great writers, but many of them have never been tutored by a professional writer. As a college student, I was taught mainly by non-writers. My professors told you to ‘wait for inspiration from the muse.’ But in this workshop, we teach the authors how to hunt her down in her lair. In college, we were given weeks to write a simple short story, but in this class we will ask you to do it in a day. It isn’t hard, and I want our authors to begin stretching their literary legs, to learn just what amazing things they can accomplish!”

So, looking forward to tomorrow and reading the great tales the Class of 2018 are producing.

2018 Illustrators Workshop

Guest blog by Illustrator judge Val Lakey Lindahn

What a fantastic first day for our artist winners!

Workshop instructors Echo and Lazarus Chernik filled them with so much information about the business end of illustration as a career from 8:00 a.m. (Lazarus a self-confessed tyrant for starting so early) until 11:00 and then a well-deserved break to process it all.

During the week we’ll have guest speakers such as Larry Elmore, Rob Prior,  Sergey Poyarkov, Jeff Snow, Ven Locklear as well as myself talk to the winners. Today was my turn. In addition to showing my 40 years of art (in less than 5 minutes) I passed along my tips and techniques for creating props (nothing was sacred in my son’s arsenal of toys), lighting and taking reference photos for illustrating.

In the afternoon, after the winners shared their portfolios with everyone, Echo and Lazarus dived in on the subject in detail, including help and advice on how best to arrange them, including how to attract specific clients and where to put your strongest pieces. A key tool for any artist.

We have some returning winners, Bea Jackson 2008, and Dustin Panzino winner from 2011 who encouraged Jazmen Richardson—one of this year’s winners—to enter the Contest and she won. Dustin commented, “The quality of the art has really gone up in the portfolios!” And I agree. It is the best I’ve seen in my 30 years serving as a judge.

One of my favorite parts of the Workshop is the Salon featuring professional models dressed in fantastic costumes and makeup. Tonight the salon was decked out with large spiders, skulls, a jawbone and other props artfully arranged around the models in keeping with this year’s “Magical Wizard’s” theme. For a few hours, the Workshop was transformed into a terrific temporary studio for all the artists.

End of a long day with the artists returning to the hotel to review their homework—more about that tomorrow!