Presenting at the League’s Summer Symposium

By John Brown | June 4, 2024 - 11:07 pm |June 4, 2024 Blather

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I’ll be presenting this Saturday, June 8, at the league’s summer writer symposium at USU. Here’s the description of my presentation. Make ‘Em Beg For More! How do you keep your readers begging for one more page? The answer is probably not what you think. Come to this session to learn the surprising secret—along with →

Interview with John Goodwin of Writers of the Future

By John Brown | April 19, 2024 - 10:08 pm |April 19, 2024 Blather

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During LTUE this year I sat down with John Goodwin, who manages the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contest, to chat about the contest, my win, and other writerly topics. I had a great time with John. If you’re a new writer or illustrator working in the science fiction or fantasy genres, I strongly →

LTUE 2024 Writing Presentations

By John Brown | February 18, 2024 - 4:48 pm |February 18, 2024 Blather

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Yesterday, I gave two presentations at Life, The Universe, and Everything, a SFF writers conference in Provo, Utah. A number of the attendees wanted copies of the presentations. I’ve linked to them below. The Two Types of Plots Every Writer Should Know There are two types of plots that power almost all successful commercial fiction. →

The First Step to Being an Entertaining Storyteller

By John Brown | January 27, 2024 - 3:10 pm |February 2, 2024 Blather

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What’s the first step to becoming an entertaining storyteller? In a recent ZOE Nutrition podcast, James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, suggests the key to starting a new behavior, like telling entertaining stories, is doing four things: But what’s the FIRST step? It’s mastering the art of showing up. That’s it. What does that look →