{"id":73,"date":"2007-11-10T16:10:48","date_gmt":"2007-11-10T22:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=73"},"modified":"2007-11-10T16:10:48","modified_gmt":"2007-11-10T22:10:48","slug":"thoughts-on-dave-wolverton-and-the-aml-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/thoughts-on-dave-wolverton-and-the-aml-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Dave Wolverton and the AML Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

I apologize for the long post.\u00a0 I had a great time at the AML conference (what little time I was able to spend there!) and here are my thoughts on Dave Wolverton’s speech.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

AML (Association for Mormon Letters)<\/a> is this association for Mormon literary people (they have a blog here<\/a>), and I don’t know a whole lot about it, except that a few of my English teachers were members of it.\u00a0 They have a short story contest each year<\/a>, and I submitted The Clearest Vision<\/em> this year (and lost, unfortunately).\u00a0 I somehow signed up for their email list, so I got this email from them a few weeks ago announcing the AML Writers’ Convention<\/a> at SLCC today–with Dave Wolverton as the keynote speaker!\u00a0 I was pretty stoked!\u00a0 Dave Wolverton is a big name in Sci Fi \/ Fantasy (and he’s Mormon, too, just like Orson Scott Card and Tracy Hickman<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I went up with my friend Steve this morning and we had a really good time!\u00a0 Dave Wolverton’s speech was really good and thought provoking!\u00a0 He told a lot of personal stories, and some of them were really spiritual.\u00a0 Also, when you see him speak, you realize that he’s just a regular guy, which is actually pretty cool.<\/p>\n

He started out by speaking about how writers tend to be some of the most timid and self-conscious people around.\u00a0 He told several stories to show how he was like this when he first started writing.\u00a0 He was petrified that people would actually read the stuff he wrote, but then he had such a strong desire to write that he bought an $80 typewriter as a kid and hid it from his parents for a year while he churned out stories!<\/p>\n

And it’s really true–writers are some of the most self-conscious, timid people around.\u00a0 Sometimes I think that there’s something wrong with me, because I actually like to share my stories with people, rather than keep them private!\u00a0 I really get a sense of this self-consciousness when I give criticism in the writing group–when the writer of the story gives me this look like a scared, cornered animal as I get ready to lay on the criticism, I get really worried that I’m going to do more harm that good.\u00a0 But timidity really is the rule among aspiring writers.<\/p>\n

Dave compared this fear with the fear of public speaking.\u00a0 He said that the two are very similar, and that getting over the fear has almost nothing to do with writing itself.\u00a0 Like how you get over your fear of public speaking by practicing it, you can alleviate self consciousness as you share your writing with others.\u00a0 He said that creative writing classes are really good for this, and I also got the impression that writing groups (like ours!) can really help out a lot as well!\u00a0 Yay for the Quark writing group!\u00a0 He also said that success is really helpful for getting over this self-consciousness.\u00a0 Over time, as your writing is well received by many people, you “grow a thick skin” to criticism.<\/p>\n

He spoke a lot about his mission, and how that really helped him to get over both his fear of public speaking and his fear of sharing his writing with others.\u00a0 I can definitely understand what he was talking about.\u00a0 Before my mission, back when I first attempted to write a novel, I was so self conscious of my writing that I’d read what I’d written and just cry–I really didn’t want anyone to see it at all.\u00a0 Now…well, it’s different.\u00a0 MUCH different.\u00a0 I WANT to share my writing with others.\u00a0 I really don’t get upset with criticism, and sometimes I have a hard time being sensitive towards other people who do.<\/p>\n

He then said some really interesting things about writing about what you believe in.\u00a0 He told a story about how he was almost killed while working in a prison because he let a few black prisoners work with him in the kitchen.\u00a0 He said it was a real turning point to him when he realized that he believed in equal rights so much that he was willing to stand up to these Aryan Brotherhood thugs and risk his life to let them know that he wasn’t going to back down on the issue.\u00a0 He encouraged everyone to write with that kind of a belief in something.\u00a0 It’s not that you approach a story dogmatically, or say “this is the lesson I want my readers to learn,” it’s that you write about a subject that you really believe in strongly.\u00a0 If you’re doing this, then it will be impossible not to write something meaningful.<\/p>\n

He then spent some time talking about how it can be really difficult finding a way to share the strong beliefs that come from your spirituality as a Latter-day Saint with a non-Mormon audience.\u00a0 You can’t be explicit about it, because a lot of people really don’t want to hear it.\u00a0 But you can’t just cut it out, either, because it’s what you really believe.\u00a0 So how do you reconcile that?\u00a0 He suggested writing on ethical issues or putting forward ethical characters, or finding small ways to express those strong beliefs, but he really wasn’t conclusive on it at all.\u00a0 I think that ultimately that’s something that all of us are going to have to find out on our own–what works for us individually.<\/p>\n

He then ended with some of the most interesting thoughts in the whole speech.\u00a0 He went back to the fear and timidity that so many writers have, and suggested that the best way to overcome that is to displace your fear with hope.\u00a0 He said that nothing destroys your writing like fear–that as long as you’re afraid, it will be difficult to write.\u00a0 Successful writers are boundlessly hopeful–look for a hidden reservoir of hope.\u00a0 Think to yourself–what if you got published?\u00a0 What if you found success and things worked out?\u00a0 We need to get to the point where we really don’t care about the fear, we’re so hopeful.<\/p>\n

That really struck me!\u00a0 It got me thinking about the writing group–how can I help my fellow budding and aspiring writers really have hope that they can succeed?\u00a0 How can I give criticism in such a way that they really feel they can make their writing better–and find success because of it?\u00a0 Honestly, I feel something of a sense of duty as the writing vp to help out the other guys in the club as much as I can.\u00a0 I really want us all to have the hope that we can get published and succeed someday!\u00a0 We really need to have this sense of hope in the writing group.<\/p>\n

And this brings me to my last few thoughts–do I<\/strong> have this kind of hope myself?\u00a0 When I sit down and write, what do I hope will ultimately become of it?\u00a0 Do I actually believe that I CAN get published?\u00a0 That what I’m writing can get published?<\/p>\n

The first nine months after my mission, I attempted to write a novel and got 69,000 words into it before putting it on the shelf.\u00a0 69,000 words.<\/strong>\u00a0 Why did I do that?\u00a0 I think<\/em> I believed it could be published.\u00a0 That was always a distant hope.\u00a0 Do I believe it now?\u00a0 I don’t know.\u00a0 Do I believe that The Lost Colony<\/em> could get accepted? I honestly don’t know.\u00a0\u00a0 But if I don’t have it now, I need to foster it now, as much as I can!<\/p>\n

A couple of months ago, I doubted whether or not I could actually finish an original novel at this point in my life.\u00a0 Now, I am determined and incredibly hopeful to have the rough draft finished by the end of Winter 2006!\u00a0 I look back now, and I’m surprised that things have changed so much!\u00a0 Right now, I feel doubtful as to whether or not any publishers will accept this beast.\u00a0 Hopefully, in the future, this doubt will change to hope just as much as the last one did!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I apologize for the long post.\u00a0 I had a great time at the AML conference (what little time I was able to spend there!) and here are my thoughts on Dave Wolverton’s speech.\u00a0 AML (Association for Mormon Letters) is this association for Mormon literary people (they have a blog here), and I don’t know a… Continue reading Thoughts on Dave Wolverton and the AML Convention<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[8,20,4,599],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-writing-in-general","tag-quark-writing-group","tag-the-lost-colony","tag-thoughts-reflections","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1b","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}