My First Writer’s Conference Changed Me

My experience and what I learned.

Okay, now that Ravengard has begun, I can finally write this article.

I went to Realm Maker’s this year!

For those who don’t know, Realm Maker’s is a group who supports writers and artists within the sci-fi and fantasy genres to get their work on the market, and they do so with a faith-centered worldview.

These guys are amazing. Their staff is fantastic, the community is kind and supportive, and the authors who taught classes this year were incredibly informative.

After attending, I can say for certain that I’ve been changed for the better.

Photo by Nat on Unsplash

The classes

I can’t think of a single class that I didn’t get anything out of. The teachers were all fantastic, and their classes were super informative. I have a ton of notes written down from over the course of the entire conference, but I’m going to narrow it down here to a couple of key takeaways instead of writing out fifty pages’ worth of notes, some of which will likely only make sense to me or with the context of being there (actually, it’s probably most).

One of the biggest takeaways was to have an ideal reader in mind before even thinking about marketing. This is something I’ve heard before, but I haven’t heard its importance stressed quite like I have here, and I can now understand why this is so important.

One of the authors teaching a class put it this way: say there’s a room, and in that room everyone is assigned a number. You’ve got some 1s, some 8s, some 4s, etc. You’re trying to write a book that all the numbers will want to read, so to figure out what they all want, you average out all the numbers in the group and come up with 5. So, obviously, you need to write a book for 5s, then everyone will read it.

But no one does.

Why?

Because no one has been assigned the number 5. The 1s want something written for 1s. The 8s want something written for 8s. The 4s want a romcom.

So, you pick one of the numbers and decide to write for them specifically. Your interests align with the 9s pretty well, so you write a book for the 9s and market it to let the 9s know that it’s specifically for them.

Does everyone in the room read the book? Nope. But the 9s eat it up, and they’re already asking for more.

Find your specific reader type that you want to write to (gender, age, interests, etc.) and write to that person. Come up with a name for him if that helps. Just make sure that person gets your book.

Another thing I learned that’s a little more technical and involves the actual art of storytelling is how to write a very long series without running out of emotional, internal storytelling juice. The answer, it turns out, is very simple.

Give the main character a flat arc.

This is the advice of a couple of great fantasy authors, those being Seth Ring and Z. S. Diamanti. If a character’s story feels like it’s getting flat as the series progresses, it probably is. But instead of leaning away from that, we should lean into it.

What is a flat character arc?

A flat arc is where the character in question hasn’t changed from the beginning of the story to the end. That might sound dumb since stories are about change, so how can you write a good story without change?

There is change, but it doesn’t come in the form of the main character.

You can change the outside of the main character all you want. You can change his weapons, his appearance, how powerful he is, etc. But if he doesn’t change on the inside, then he has a flat arc.

What changes instead?

The world around him.

For a fantastic example of a flat character arc, watch Paddington 2. Paddington doesn’t change at all throughout the movie, but we see how he facilitates change in the people he meets, such as the prisoners. Without Paddington, those prisoners would likely have never changed. Paddington changes the world for the better, and that’s the focus of his story.

That’s how long-running series should be dealt with as well. They can start with a normal positive or negative character arc, yes. But the way they continue is with a flat character arc, where the story focuses on what and who the main character changes as opposed to changing the main character.

The community

The community of Realm Makers is amazing. Everyone is very kind and uplifting. It’s a very warm and welcoming atmosphere everywhere you go. It doesn’t matter if you’re a newbie who’s written maybe a short story or two, or an experienced author with 50 published books. No one is going to tell you how much better they are for being ahead of you, and no one is going to tell you how insane you are for publishing so much. Everyone is welcome to meet, encourage, and grow in our craft and in the faith.

I had a small handful of people I connected with the most while I was there, one of whom was a fellow named Andrew, who I’ve recently found out is actually on Substack. I also finally got to meet J.J. Johnson and FoxxeHole in person, and they are some really incredible people.

I met some people who have accomplished a ton, and I’ve met some people who are still young in their craft, but they are ambitious, hungry to achieve, and hard-working. Not to mention the amount of sci-fi and fantasy writers who are strongly rooted in their faith, which isn’t something I see very often. It was incredibly encouraging, and I’m so very grateful for the opportunity to have met these fantastic folks, learned from their classes, and see what they’ve been working on. This trip was truly a blessing, and if you can, I highly encourage you to go next year.

The food

Now, my journey in cuisine.

I’ve never been to St. Louis, so this was a fun opportunity to try some new things, and try new things I did.

Some of these new things were absolutely incredible.

Others, slightly less so.

Okay, let’s begin.

The first place I went to after checking into my hotel was McDonald’s. I didn’t have a car, so I had to walk the whole way. That was fine. It didn’t look too far.

Half an hour later, I was on the outskirts of the city in a McDonald’s with a couple of people who looked like they could hurt me if I accidentally looked at them funny (they were actually pretty chill, though), and a guy knocking on the window next to me and asking for my fries.

One super messy double cheeseburger later and minus one medium fry, I was heading back into St. Louis through somewhere I probably was not supposed to be.

Do I have situational awareness? No. But I did have a double cheeseburger, so it doesn’t matter.

I don’t remember what I have for dinner that night (or if I had dinner that night), so we’ll skip that part.

The day after, which was technically the first day of the conference, I opened the morning with wandering around downtown again until I finally found the cafe I was looking for on my phone’s maps (turns out, it was in a hotel), and I had a delicious egg muffin with potatoes while reading my Transformers comic. Pure bliss, let me tell you.

I didn’t actually have to pay for lunch that day, because a PHD student attending the conference for his research into the world of Christian art (specifically, fiction) asked to interview me, so we went to the restaurant inside the hotel, where I finally got to try the famous St. Louis fried ravioli.

It wasn’t bad.

Didn’t blow my mind, but I enjoyed it.

That morning was the awards banquet, so I had the food they served there, including stuffed chicken, steamed veggies, and a salad. Excellent.

I’m gonna go ahead and start skipping the boring meals because A) this section in the article is getting way too long, especially since it’s about a writer’s conference and I’m talking about food, and B) I forgot to write this article on Sunday, and I only have a few minutes before I publish, so I need to get going.

There’s a restaurant outside of the St. Louis Station hotel that’s styled like a 50s soda shop, which is really cute. Go there for ice cream and soda. Do not go for their teeny tiny, crunchy, gross burgers.

There is also a taco stand out there selling street tacos. Go to that place immediately and order everything. It’s heaven wrapped in a tortilla.

I went to the fancier restaurant inside the hotel again, but by myself this time (which meant that I had to pay. Ugh), and as I was walking in, my new friend Bradley was walking out. Bradley said to get the chicken BLT. As a tomato… okay, I wouldn’t say hater, but they’re not that great.

As a tomato meh-er, I was intrigued, but not super excited.

That sandwich was the best meal I had there. Hands down. Better than the street tacos, which really surprised me. It was exquisite, and I ate every last bite of that thing.

Okay, food discussion is over, because I don’t care enough to talk about airport food, which was pretty much just donuts anyways.

Conclusion

Basically, writer’s conferences (at least, Realm Makers, since that’s the only one I’ve been to so far) are amazing, and if you have the opportunity to go, there’s no reason not to. Just do it.

Meet new people. Learn new things. Try new foods. Have a good time.

It is absolutely a blast, and it will change you for the better.

Until next time!!!

---

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you found value in this article, and I hope you were entertained as well.

If you like what you see or just want to check out my new ongoing sci-fi serial, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.

I have a lot of books on Amazon and plenty more to come, so catch up now while you can!