Even though nobody who reads my blog seems interested, I keep talking about LTUE. I loved it last year. It’s totally worth your investment. Here are some of the panels I am excited to attend this year.
The Business of Being a Writer
- Can your dreams pay your bills?
- Charisma is not a dump stat: the importance of professionalism and looking your best
- What I wish I had done, if I could do it all over again
- How to recover from the writing slumps
The Craft of Writing
- Writing action
- Writing strong female characters
- Dialog tags and speech patterns
- How to write a good short story
- Romance versus adventure with romance elements
Worldbuilding
- Beyond orcs and elves: diversity in fantasy and science fiction
- Creating a fictional language (4 hours!) - one of the presenters is a former linguistics professor of mine
- Building different economies/politics
Internet and Media Issues
- The art of podcasting
- How the internet is shaping our kids
- Writing Excuses podcast live recording
Plot and Story Development
- Storyboarding
- Plotstorming from character
- How to get and develop killer story ideas
- Plots, subplots, and foreshadowing
Fighting and Bad Guys
- Military on military SF
- The psychology of the samurai
- Memorable villains
- What to do when your character knows more about fighting than you do
On Publishing
- Regional publishers
- What exactly does an editor do, anyway?
- What is an agent, and what can they do for you?
- Self publication pros and cons
Sounds pretty cool, huh? And this is probably less than a third of the various workshops and events going on. There are a number of panels and workshops on lots of other topics, like young adult fiction, Mormon themes and concerns, scriptwriting, horror, science fiction, music, poetry, and art. There will also be numerous signings, readings, and media events. There are several academic papers being presented. I believe there will be a game room and a store. There’s a keynote address every day and a banquet on Saturday night. It’s going to be a lot of fun.