As noted over the last few days, I’m still in Dallas at a writing conference. It’s fun, and I’ve met a lot of people, had some good discussions with various editors and agents, etc.

But here’s what I like most about writing conferences: The other writers.

Whenever two writers get together, they inevitably get around to the magic question, “What are you working on right now?”

Every time you answer that question, your answer get’s a little more focused. Here’s why:

You can be vague when you answer, but if you’re talking to another professional, he or she is going to pin you down a bit and ask the hard questions. Or brainstorm an idea for you. Or give you an analytical technique that you can use to ask yourself the hard questions.

That’s been happening for me a LOT this week. Yesterday after blogging, I sat in on a couple of sessions taught by my buddy John Olson. He was teaching about science fiction and fantasy. And one of the things he harps on always when he teaches that is how to make it a high concept book. Or at least a higher-concept book that it was before.

I’ve been working on a high-concept idea lately. This morning when I woke up, it was clear to me how to make that pesky concept even higher. I talked it through with John, who I’m rooming with, and he really liked it. He thinks it’ll fly. I think it’ll fly.

That’s what I like about writing conferences: talking with other writers and waiting for that magic moment when 1 + 1 suddenly becomes 10.

I’ll be flying home tomorrow, so won’t have time to blog. We’ll reconvene this blog on Monday and pick up on the topic of creating characters. See ya then!

Drat, I had wanted to blog last night, but wound up too metal-fatigued to try. I’m at a writing conference in Dallas with almost 500 other writers and am having the usual wonderful time. I went to a chocolate party last night and then had a couple of appointments and wrapped up a little after midnight and decided I’d rather call home than try to blog.

I taught this morning for 2 hours and 15 minutes. My students claim that I said 100000 words in that time, which is possible, because I was going Xtremely fast. I’m teaching internet marketing in a continuing session that started today and ends tomorrow. Wish I had twice as much time to cover all this stuff!

Things are going amazingly well. I never make an agenda for myself at writing conferences. I just talk to people and try to get to know them a bit better. Good things often happen that way. There’s always some sort of surprise in store.

My friend James Scott Bell is the keynote speaker at the conference. Of course, he lost no opportunity to razz me about the infamous Mildred Koppelheimer scam that I ran years ago. (A scam you can easily Google if you need to, so I refuse to put a link here.) All publicity is good publicity, so I’m fine with a little razzing, although if Jim finds a dead raccoon in his room, I’m not going to be terribly surprised.

We are in the middle of a discussion here on the blog about creating characters. I will continue that discussion when I have at least two neurons in my brain that can fire simultaneously. Right now I’m just a little wired, and I need to run off to listen to my friend John Olson teach about science fiction, which will provide me with a very convenient alibi when Jim’s dead raccoon shows up.

Gotta run!