SW 2013: Day 3-5

Sorry for taking so long to post this! Things got pretty busy after the first full day. Any time I sat down to try and write blog posts, I nearly fell asleep. So, here's a short summary of the rest of the week.

Wednesday
We took a group picture on the steps outside the Bell Center at 8:40. Everyone broke into song, singing things from the Sound of Music. 'Do Re Mi' seems to be one of the favorites of everyone. I hope someone got a recording, because it was pretty fun.

The first session was by Jeff Gerke and on the power of plot. He talked about things that can make or break your story--characters, genre, setting--and how to improve it. Something he suggested was a 'ticking time bomb' and putting one in all your stories. A ticking time bomb is something big that's going to happen and the entire story basically "counts down" to that. Not every story needs one, but it very much improves every story. You want your reader to keep flipping the pages and not be able to stop.

Jill Williamson gave the next session, and I have to say this was probably one of my favorites. She talking about storyboarding, which is an outlining technique. It looks really interesting and I think I'm going to try it for my next story.

We had critique groups again and I had a blast. My group was absolutely amazing. Go Elephant Trunks!

The evening session was by Mark Wilson and on Realism and Joy in Christian Fiction. This session was my absolute favorite. I've got so many good quotes from it, which I'll post here for you all:

"Sometimes evil wins for a while [in stories and life], but not forever. Christ has already won the ultimate battle."

"No matter how big the catastrophe is, no matter how long the Roman occupation lasts...there is always hope." (my favorite quote)

"Joy rings true to us because it's connected to the ultimate truth."

And then finally...

"Write with hope. Hope is realistic."

As you can see, it was a pretty cool session. Talk of hope and joy all over the place--and that is IS realistic. I loved it.

An improv team called Greenleaf came after his session and were absolutely hysterical. They had all of the OYANers nearly dying of laughter. Can't wait to see them again next year!

Thursday
Jill Williamson gave two sessions in the morning on revising your novel. I'd never really thought about all the things that need to go into that process before and she really laid out some good points.

She gave us a self-editing checklist (which I'm really looking forward to using). Some other things she said on editing were:
--Make charts for your characters: what they like, don't like, etc.
--Use personality tests
--Figure out what your character wants and why they want it.
--Give them an inner desire--everyone has one.

There was a break at 10:30 before she started the second part of her talk, which was about more considerations for editing. In this portion, she covered using multiple point of views, how important word choice is, dialogue tags, showing vs. telling and flashbacks/backstorys. I could probably write an entire blog post now on each one of those things.

Again, critique groups were awesome.

Dinner was one of the best parts of the day for me. I got to eat dinner with Jeff Gerke and Jill Williamson, so that was amazing. They gave me and some of my other writer friends some good advice on building a platform, advertising and self-publishing.

Mr. S gave a session on putting the unexpected in your novel, which was also interesting.

After Mr. S' session, we had student open mic night. Lots of people performed, including myself. I did the song 'Do You Hear the People Sing' from Les Miserables with a group of other people. It was so much fun and I probably could have stayed up there singing Les Mis songs all evening.

Friday
...and then came the last day.

Friday was a pretty tough day for almost all of the OYANers--it always is, as everyone prepares to leave. Mr. Gerke talked in the morning about three places novelists tend to make mistakes: before the editor sees your proposal, when the editor looks at your proposal and when the editor reads your sample chapters. I took tons of notes on that, so it was an extremely helpful talk.

The second morning session was a Q&A panel with Jeff Gerke, Jill Williamson, Stephanie Morrill and Amanda. People were able to turn in questions and get them answered from all of their perspectives. I really enjoyed that as well.

I went out to lunch with a friend on Friday and had a break from the rather fake cafeteria food. Chipotle has never tasted so good.

We had our last critique group session after lunch and everyone was pretty tired. We were all going crazy and laughing. At one point, one girl was reading a rather depressing scene from her novel. She, and the rest of us, cracked up nearly every paragraph. I guess that's something only writers do. I nearly fell asleep part way through and had to be a little more animated than usual to stay awake. Ahh, what fun. We took a group picture too, which I need to my hands on at some point.

The last session was called "Making it Real" and was by Mr. S. His talk was sort of like Mark Wilson's at the beginning of the week, on Realism.

Everyone hung out in the gym after the session until 1 AM...and cried. I talked with some really good friends, so that was a plus. Lord willing, we'll all be there again next year.


OYAN: I love you. You're like my second family and I can't wait to see you all again.

SW 2013: Day 2

Lindsay ended up getting on campus around 3:15. She accidentally set off some sort of alarm by keeping the outside door open too long, so quite a few people woke up. She’s in the room with my Grandma and I, so I think that will be fun.

I got up way too early this morning: 5:30. I got ready for the day a lot quicker than I had planned and sat in the gazebo for over an hour with some other OYANers. Most everyone was too tired to really talk much. 

Around 7:10, we all prayed and I read a passage from Matthew 5. We talked about mourning and hard times and how you can learn a lot from that. It was a good discussion, but like I said, most people were much too tired to actually talk.

Backtracking to this morning. I have been designated Kristin and Abbie’s alarm clock. Kristin thought I somehow managed to walk through doors or use a sonic screwdriver to get into her room this morning, because she’d locked the door.

Breakfast wasn’t all that exciting. I had fruit and pancakes, but they were way too sugary. I’m hopefully I’ll find something not quite so sweet tomorrow.

The first sessions were great. Mr. S talked about ordinary heroes and how they can really be extraordinary. I really enjoyed his talk. Someone named Mark Wilson talked about Rivendell for writers.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings, I’ll explain what Rivendell is. BUT. Only if you promise to read the books and see the movies. Yes, in that order. They’re amazing.

Anyways. I digress.

Rivendell is this peaceful place where the elves live. It’s always quite there. Beautiful streams and waterfalls run all throughout this city. Everywhere you go, there is light and the sound of nature. It looks so peaceful.

Mark Wilson was talking about the importance of a Rivendell like place for writers. Back in the late 17^th century, many poets would dedicate a poem to someone like a nobleman. In return for that, the nobleman would sometimes let the writer come to his house and write. It was really peaceful and a Rivendell like place.

After hearing that session, it’s kind of my goal to find a Rivendell now.

Lunch wasn’t interesting either. Just plain old lunch food. I had a really good salad.

Critique groups were next. I’m in the ‘Elephant Trunks’ group and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun in a group before. I didn’t know anyone, but we all get along really well. They LOVED my first excerpt and I got much unexpected cheering and applause. That was a little intimidating, but I think it may be why I like my group so much. We went about 30 minutes over, but no one really minded. The best quote from today (and of course, it made more sense in context) was someone in the group saying, “Girls have horns!” All the girls laughed and the guys look at him like he was crazy. Ah, I love this group.

Free time started after we finished with our critique group. I wandered around for a bit before gathering with some people in the auditorium of the Bell Center. We’re going to be performing ‘Do You Hear The People Sing’ from Les Miserables on Thursday night, so we all got together to practice. It went really well and, if I do say so myself, we sound pretty good.

The last two sessions of the evening were by Jill Williamson and Jeff Gerke. Both sessions were wonderful. Mrs. Williamson was very humorous and talked about world building and all the things that go into that.

Mr. Gerke talked about how to make a believeable hero and give them “knots”, or sins. He said, “We’re playing God, except for one thing. We GIVE the character the sin and then punish them for having it!” I got some really good story ideas for my current novel from that session, so I’m looking forward to being able to write again.

After sessions ended, I just hung out with some people until I decided to be mature go to bed. I did manage to get some pictures today too, so those will follow this post.

Keep Shmiling!

~Katie

Pictures Below:

I ate breakfast with these lovely ladies this morning. From left to right: Kristin, Abbie and Savanna.

This girl is awesome. We're the stinkers. I'm Stinker 1 and she's Stinker 2. It's a rather long inside joke with another OYANer who couldn't make it this year. 

Our lovely ice cream and my coffee. We sent this picture to the Queen of Stinkers. We're her minions. 

I'm in this dorm. The last window on the left on the first floor is my room. 

Volleyball nets. 

The beautiful gazebo where we have Bible studies in the mornings. 

And last, but certainly not least, the Bell Center. This is where most of the epicness takes place.

SW 2013: Day 1

We left the house at 6:00 AM sharp and arrived around 6:30 (CST) to the MidAmerica Nazarene University campus. I managed to drive and not freak out from excitement. Still not quite sure how I did that.

The registration line was really quick to get through, so after saying hi to a few people, I got my things and went to set up my dorm. I'm rooming with my Grandma and another OYANer this year, so that will be fun.

For most of the evening, I hung out with some people in the Tipping Lounge/Gym. I don't know as many people as last year, but the few people I do know are pretty close friends. So, that's a benefit.

I also talked to Mr. AND Mrs. S tonight, so that was pretty cool. If you're reading my blog and you're not an OYANer, then you should know that Mr. and Mrs. S are somewhat of celebrities around OYAN.

The only reason I'm up this late right now is because I'm actually waiting for my roomate--Lindsay--to arrive. Her flight got delayed for 3 hours and someone just went to pick her up. Hopefully she'll be arriving before too long.

A more interesting post will be coming tomorrow after I actually have a full day here. And...I'll take pictures. I forgot to do that.

Keep shmiling!
~Katie