BYU WIFYR Conference Update

So the first day of the conference is done, and it was quite a success.  I really enjoy having the chance to go and meet other writers and hear from authors and editors–always worthwhile.  Dave Wolverton’s class has 14 of us in all, and they range in age from a couple of years younger than me to quite older.  It’ll be interesting to see what their writing styles are like.

One of the high points of my day, suprisingly, was lunch.  I ate at the Morris Center by DT, a place I haven’t eaten since Freshman year.  I had remembered the food as being awful, but now I quite enjoyed it.  They had a large selection of fruit and vegetables, and a killer dessert bar.  Plus, all the chocolate milk I can drink.  And they only charge $6.75 with tax for this?  That’s great.  On the sort of sad side of things, on my way over there I discovered they’ve torn down V and W halls, where I lived Freshman year.  I knew it was going to happen eventually–I just didn’t realize it had already occurred.  I’m sort of sad by it, but . . . they weren’t that great, anyway, so I guess it’s for the best.

And finally, I wanted to look over my notes and give a good example of what I learned today.  Besides the personal invitations by the editors there (from HarperCollins and Delacorte) to submit to them (an invitation given to all conference attendees–one of the best reasons to go to things like this), I liked this tidbit on learning to write good dialogue.  Think of a book that had impressive dialogue, and then go through a few pages and highlight the actual dialogue–anything between quotation marks.  Study the rhythm of what’s going on and how the author is doing what he or she is doing.  I’m a big fan of learning to write by reading, and I think I should do something like this with different elements I struggle with.  Plotting, foreshadowing, etc.–take the time to really study how a good author is doing something, and then try to emulate it.

Oh–one more thing.  I watched Sixteen Candles the other day for the first time, and I loved it.  My favorite part of it is rather obscure, though.  John Cusak’s character in it is named Bryce.  Right spelling and everything.  I found that very cool.

And that’s all I have time for tonight.