The stories of Bryan Young

I was asked to take a crack at explaining to other writers how to deal the vulnerability that comes with sending out your work. I'm not sure what to do about that. That's something that comes with every piece of your soul that you bare in writing. There's not much I can say to make you feel comfortable with sharing your work. This is a highly personal process. And all I can do is give you some advice on what to expect and what not to expect. First, you're going to need to develop a thick skin. People are going to give you a lot of feedback on your writing and you need to understand that they are trying to help you. No one writes a perfect, clean first draft. And when you hand that first draft over, there are issues with it that you are completely blind to. People will point them out. It's nothing personal, they're trying to help you get better and help you see some of the things you've certainly missed in the blind fury of a first draft. And the...

I will be doing a whole pile of panels. I'll be doing a signing and lots of live podcasts and I would love to see you. Stop by. Say hi. Ask questions, etc. Friday 4:00 pm - Fauxthentic History: The Princess Bride - The History of Florin and Guilder Room 150G 5:00 pm - Mysteries of the Force Room 150G 6:00 pm - Carrie Fisher - To Me, She's Royalty Room 250A 8:00 pm - Adventures in Podcasting Room 150G Saturday 11:00 am - Spotlight on Greg Grunberg  Grand Ballroom 1:00 pm - Author Signing with Bryan Young Shadow Mountain Booth #401 4:00 pm - The Interconnected Star Wars Universe Room 250A 5:00 pm - Inside Rogue One  Room 250A 7:00 pm - Full of Sith - Live! Room 150G There are a lot of cool things going on and I'll be a little busy, but I would still very much like to meet and say hello. These conventions are large, though, so if you don't catch me, don't feel too bad. But if you like Star Wars , my guess is you'll be seeing l...

Over the weekend, I taught a panel at SaltCon, which is a gaming convention held each year in the Salt Lake City area. It's a lot of fun and there's always a lot of interest in the intersection between storytelling and roleplaying games. The panel I gave was on worldbuilding, but I taught about a concept that makes for really great roleplaying game stories from the perspective of the game master, but it can also be a powerful tool when crafting certain kinds of stories. If there were a style or mode of writing a book that's most like the way a roleplaying game, I would think it's the method of writing that Stephen King outlined in his book On Writing. He talks about how he doesn't do any outlining, he's very much working on the story by the seat of his pants, taking a premise and putting the character (or characters) through the paces. Every chapter he asks himself, "How would this character react to this situation realistically?" and that's...