LTUE Overview

on Thursday, February 25, 2016
    I don't feel much like blogging today, for a few reasons.

  1. I've had a really crappy day so far. Let's just say that spilled Dr. Pepper might be something worth crying over.
  2. I'm exhausted. I haven't slept in days, and I've been fighting off a migraine since Sunday.
  3. It's a distractingly beautiful Spring-like day outside.
  4. I've got a lot of pent up creative energy and blogging is not as enticing as some of my other projects.
  5. I'm lazy.
    But, I realized I never did a full LTUE overview. I kind of did, but then I got distracted. So now I'm forcing myself to-


Day 1

  • I attended 8 panels and took 22 pages of notes. 
  • My favorite panel- Probably Jason King's panel titled Reasons Why I Reject Manuscripts. Most of what he talked about does not apply to the first draft of anything, but now that I'm working on edits, I paid close attention. I reference my notes on this panel (and other editing panels) constantly so I know what needs to get fixed in my current draft.
  • My favorite moment- When Shannon Hale got distracted by someone's dog in the middle of a sentence in the middle of a panel.

Day 2
 
  • 7 panels and 21 pages of notes.
  • Mass book signing = lots of new autographed books!
  • Favorite panel- Danny Potter's panel titled Things About the Brain that Every Writer Should Know. My favorite panel of the whole weekend. Far too much from this panel to summarize here. He talked about how the brain learns, and how to use schemas to include enough description without overwhelming or underwhelming the reader. He also talked about schemas in characterizations.
  • Favorite moment- An editor casually asking questions about my manuscript (without me knowing they were an editor) and showing their interest in my story.

Day 3
 
  • 5 panels (we had a friend in town) and 27 pages of notes.
  • Kaffeklatche with Shannon Hale!
  • Favorite panel- Christopher Baxter's panel titled Unpolished Prose. Seriously, visit his website. It's AMAZING. There is so much content, but it's all so helpful. He's an editor who shares easy fixes to common issues in writing. A lot of it is things we don't realize we do incorrectly, like confusing tenses or weird dialogue tags. Anything you have questions about, search his website. There's probably a post that will help. And if something isn't there, email him your questions and he'll answer!
  • Favorite moment- Getting hugged by Shannon Hale and her thanking me for sharing my story!

Grand Total
 
  • 20 panels
  • 70 pages of notes
  • 6 new books
  • 20 business cards
  • A new motivation to finish Powerful
    ~Allie

2 comments:

Heather Hayden said...

Sorry to hear you've had a crappy day. -hugs-

Sounds like LTUE was amazing, though! Wish I could have attended. I'm glad you had the opportunity to learn so much and that you're newly motivated to finish Powerful. :)

Rebecca N. McKinnon said...

I typed an entire comment and went, "Maybe I'll try the Wordpress account again...see if it's still being a bastard to comment with." Then it WAS a bastard anddd I lost my entire comment.

I essentially said: 1. Cons are awesome. 2. 20 PANELS?! Your feet must've hurt & 3. I bookmarked that editor site.

Thanks for the re-cap.

Oh, and don't be too hard on yourself if you need days off. Better to rest than burn yourself out.

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