Posts Tagged ‘ThrillerFest’

Steve Berry – Story Structure

Posted: October 6, 2014 in Writing
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I found the link to Steve Berry’s famous lecture about story structure. In the photo below, he’s covering the POV for an earlier lecture titled Who’s Telling the Story. But the link I’m providing is to the Six C’s of Story Structure. This is where I heard the great line _ “Where do you start your story? As close to the end as possible.”
In this lecture, he also talks about the ‘crucible’. The point in your story where the main character has been put in a scene or through the paces and comes out different. Changed. In a position where he can only move forward. It’s the kind of moment where Luke Skywalker goes back to his aunt and uncle’s house only to find them all dead. There’s nothing for him to do but move forward. To take on the evil empire.
But this is certainly a great class and CD to get and listen to. Steve is entertaining, charismatic and even funny as, in his own words, “a recovering lawyer”.

Check him out:
Steve Berry – The Six C’s of Story Structure
CraftFest 2014

Steve_Berry

Steve Berry

Posted: October 2, 2014 in Writing
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Some of the best takeaways from ThrillerFest earlier this year are sticking with me. In this class (photo below), the iconic Steve Berry does a classic lecture titled “Who’s telling the story?”. This is a great rundown of the major POV’s a story might have and how you can do your best in each. I am a big third person fan. Steve does a great job of teaching what you can do to keep yourself as tight in the skin of your character’s POV as possible. One of the biggest phrases he used was what he called ‘psychic distance’. This was the distance you have between yourself and the character you’re writing/reading. When you typically call them by name, you create a little more distance than using he/she. (This is even a little more distant than first person using ‘I’). You want to be in the eyes of the POV character who’s telling the story. That way we feel every bump, bruise and rush he/she feels. When you’re in the eyes of your character, you wouldn’t typically call them by name, it has a way of creating distance.

He talked about the times when you have several characters in a scene, and sometimes you just have to use a name. You have to keep the story straight. But as soon as possible, he reverts back to the he/she usage to get in as tight to the POV as possible.

I think about this a lot when I’m writing a scene with two women or two men (or more). But if you want to hear it from the masters mouth, ThrillerFest records and sells the CraftFest lectures. I’ve bought several of them and listen to them when I need a refresher. It’s a great way to keep it close to the vest.

I’ve included the links below to get you to the class I mentioned specifically, as well as the overall CraftFest library.

Check it out:
Who’s Telling The Story – Steve Berry
CraftFest CD Library

Steve_Berry

ThrillerFest lectures

Posted: September 29, 2014 in Writing
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ThrillerFest registration is now open. What exactly is it? It’s about all things within the thriller genre. Most importantly is what it is not. It is not just a chance to meet your favorite author and get their autograph – and occasional selfie if they oblige. But you still get to do that. It is not just a chance to listen to a panel of famous authors talk about their books. But you still get to do that.
So what is it?
It’s about the chance to learn and grow and network.
You learn by listening to individual lectures from these authors. Steve Berry teaches a couple of classes where great nuggets of knowledge still ring in my head. He was talking about ‘the six C’s of story structure’. And his words still echo. “Where do you start your story? As close to the end as possible…”. Just brilliant.
It’s the ability to sit in a class where a handful of real FBI agents talk about some interesting cases they’ve been through. It’s getting the chance to sit down and pitch to many real NY agents for hours, until you’re actually tired of talking.
I’ve grown from the lectures I sat in. There were times I learned so much after sitting in class that I had to run up to my room and start typing.
I’ve networked with groups of other aspiring authors, as well as famous authors themselves. I was able to meet the unstoppable Joanna Penn. A legend in the field of online marketing, book writing and everything about controlling your own destiny as a writer.
This is THE conference to attend if you’re into all things ‘thriller’.
Check it out: ThrillerFest

David Baldacci

Posted: September 23, 2014 in Writing
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Peppi Vecchio
Okay. Enough already. I have to talk about the guy who really started it for me. You see I was sketching out something in the lines of a techno-thriller and struggling quite a bit. I hadn’t read a good author in who knows when, and then the exact kind of thriller genre book I needed came from a familiar source, my mom. She said to try this guy, and she handed me a paperback of David Baldacci’s First Family. I was completely sucked in within the first few pages. To date I’ve read most everything he’s written.
What he did for me was make me realize you could write with a very easy and relaxed style, not so laden with descriptions that you wear our your adjective source and still paint a vivid picture and tell a thrilling story. Besides, he made it look easy. Of course, I realized since then that it is not easy to create such wonderful pieces of work, but I endeavor to do so.
Equally impressive is his starting The Wish You Well Foundation which is focused on supporting family literacy. It’s a great cause.
We had hoped to see him at ThrillerFest in NY this past year, but he could not make it. Crossing fingers that he makes it next year.
Check him out:
David Baldacci
The Wish You Well Foundation

James Rollins and Grant Blackwood

Posted: September 22, 2014 in Writing
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James_Rollins_Grant_Blackwood
I managed to find another techno-thriller writer I like, James Rollins. At ThrillerFest X I was able to sit and talk with Grant Blackwood, who co-authored The Kill Switch with James. Grant also taught one of the classes. Very interesting guy. James was not there this past year, but I’m hoping to see him there soon. Grant was kind enough to inscribe the inside of their latest book. I only just started it and can tell it’s going to be good.
Check them out:
James Rollins
Grant Blackwood

David Morrell

Posted: September 19, 2014 in Writing
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David_Morrell
ThrillerFest is an amazing conference concerning all things in the thriller genre. One of the best things they started this year was an immersive class called Master CraftFest. This is a class where you spend the entire day with about ten other budding authors and a teacher that has done more things in the genre than you can imagine.
I was lucky enough to be placed in David (creator of Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone) Morrell’s class. Aside from a short lunch, we ground out ten hours of workshop time. In this class the instructors critique your first ten pages (you submit weeks before the class) and they’re all discussed intimately. One of my greatest takeaways was David’s picking at the ‘trombone effect’ as he calls it. It is finding those pesky, hidden past tense words like ‘had’ in your sentences. When you realize they jerk the ready in and out of present tense, you can easily picture a trombone sliding back and forth. As he tells it, you’re telling a flashback at this point. When you look back at your work and see a flashback within a flashback, you realize how ineffective the work is. It’s okay to put a flashback in your work – but as he reminded us, ‘you better have a damn good reason to do so’.
What a fantastic writing coach and mentor. He freely hands out some base writing philosophies on his website:
David on Writing

Catherine Coulter

Posted: September 18, 2014 in Writing
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Peppi Vecchio
Catherine Coulter has written 70 novels, with 66 of them hitting the New York Times bestsellers list. Originally known for her historical romances, she started writing suspense thrillers, and with great success. I met Catherine in an elevator at ThrillerFest 9 in New York. She stood quietly in the back, a handful of something or others clung to her chest and she had sunglasses or dark glasses on. I didn’t recognize her at first. But couldn’t help but think this chic woman was important. Then she reached out her hand and introduced herself. As she exited the elevator I couldn’t help but count through all the FBI suspense titles I’d recently seen of hers in the bookstore.
Later in the conference, I had the chance to attend one of her lectures. Before it started she went around and introduced herself to each and every attendee. Magnificent. She did everything with a smile and grace. I hadn’t previously read anything of hers, but quickly sought out Bombshell. It was excellent.
During her class, she introduced me as the man she had sex with her in the elevator earlier. Of course it was all in fun, but she has a grand sense of humor. After that, she certainly had a fan for life.
Check her out: Catherine Coulter

ThrillerFest X

Posted: September 15, 2014 in Writing
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Peppi Vecchio
What? Registration for ThrillerFest is already open. I can’t wait to pick and choose what I’m going to do next year. But one thing is for certain, I want to volunteer and help the cause that’s strengthening the thriller genre. All the authors donate their time to talk about the craft of writing and share stories about what works for them. If you’re at all interested in deepening your knowledge of how to write in this genre, then this is certainly the place to be.
Check it out: ThrillerFest

Robert Dugoni

Posted: August 26, 2014 in Writing
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Another fantastic new acquaintance – Robert Dugoni. And silly me forgot to get a selfie with him. 😦 I was chatting with a friend of mine (Todd Gerber) in David Morrell’s MasterClass session at ThrillerFest, and he told me he couldn’t wait to sit in Bob’s session. I was intrigued. Knowing that ThrillerFest was fat with fantastic authors helping/teaching and sharing their knowledge, I looked him up. A New York Times Bestselling author. Okay. Let’s try it. – I was amazed. He was so clear and charismatic. Everything he said made sense to me. Light bulbs and connections in my brain were firing and flashing like mad. It was so helpful I ran up to my room and worked on my own book for the next hour. I felt like I made marked improvements with the new found knowledge. The good news is he was teaching a second class at ThrillerFest.
The lucky dozen – I think there were only 12 of us sitting there at 9 o’clock on a Friday night in New York City, ingesting a wonderful load of ideas and hints. Bob even ran over the time allotted because he cares about writing and teaching. It was soooo worth it.
I had to grab one of his books and found he was every bit of the writer as he was the teacher. His new book comes out Nov. 1st. Check him out:
Robert Dugoni

Joanna Penn

Posted: August 13, 2014 in Writing
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Peppi Vecchio
Uggh. After looking at all my fantastic ThrillerFest pics, I found I didn’t have one of my newest and most enthusiastic friends – Joanna Penn. But I just had to give her a ‘shout out’. Not only is she a great thriller writer (with an interesting dark side), she also shares her publishing, writing and marketing expertise with a smile. We shared a ten hour marathon class with super writer/teacher David Morrell and I’ve been learning from her ever since. I purchased her Best Selling book ‘How to Market a Book’ and confess, it’s the one and only book I’ve read cover to cover (pun coming) that was an e-book.

Joanna Penn

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