LTUE

I just finished attending LTUE (Life, the Universe, and Everything) symposium on science fiction and fantasy at BYU this weekend (http://ltue.byu.edu). It was a blast. I spoke on a panel on Friday about suspense in writing. Some of the other writers there were Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Dave Wolverton/Farland, L.E. Modesitt, James Dashner with special guests Tracy and Laura Hickman. This was the best one I've ever been to. Most of the panels and lectures I attended were excellent.

One thing the symposium did for me was to get me to rethink my second book. Even after the second draft, I'm still not happy with it. There are a lot of good ideas in it, but I think the problem is that I'm trying to do too much. I need to simplify. I might be able to split it and turn it into two books. Anyway, I'm excited to now have an idea on what to do, but frustrated that I need to almost start from scratch. Of course, I could take the outline I made for book 3 and make that book 2, but I think I still want a book between them. What I plan to do is try the discovery outlining method I started developing for the book 3 outline. I just need to try and not let what I've already written distract me, but use the good ideas that were already there.