Things I Learned at Storymakers 2010

By Nichole Giles

I spent last weekend at the conference of awesomeness—the LDStorymakers 2010. This is my very favorite conference of all time, for several different reasons, but mainly because after six years of attendance (or is that seven?) I feel like these people are my second family, and the conference is a giant reunion.

As much as I’d love to share all my notes, the classes are copyrighted. And truthfully, you kind of had to be there to get the fullness of everything. But what I can share with you are some thoughts and quotes from the classes I attended, and those incredible authors who taught them.

These are the things that affected me enough to stick in my mind, but not necessarily in any particular order:

“Anything that gets people to read is a wonderful thing.” ~Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary Agency

“Writing a query is hard, but you can do hard things.” ~Elana Johnson author of From the Query to the Call.

“Writing is work, even when it’s fun.” ~Aprilynne Pike, author of Wings

“Believe in yourself, and find others who believe in you too.” ~ Laura Rennert (I went to two of her classes.)

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” ~Dave Wolverton (aka David Farland) author of the Runelords series, In the Company of Angels, and so many other books I can’t possibly list them all.

And finally, a thought given by Dave Wolverton at the Whitney Awards ceremony. (I didn’t write it down, so this is as I remember it. Definitely not verbatim.)

“Doctors spend years going to medical school, but for some reason, writers expect to be published right out of the gate…the difference between learning to be a doctor and learning to write is that medical school has teachers and instructors and college texts to teach them medicine and writers are all on their own.”

And.

“You can make a living as a writer.”

Do you need more than that? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

My advice for the week? If you want to be a writer, go out of your way to attend conferences as often as possible. Consider it medical school for writers, and justify it by reminding yourself that you need all the training you can get, whenever you can get it.

Oh, and check out my totally awesome friends. Our writer's group has certainly grown this year! This is only some of us. I love these people!