20Books Vegas 2021 Day 2 - Kate Pickford - How to Make Your Novel UNPUTDOWNABLE

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Keyword: Craft of Writing
Speakers: Kate Pickford
Description: How to Make Your Novel UNPUTDOWNABLE
Kate Pickford is a master story spinner who has helped innumerable people sharpen their eye and their tales.
20Books Vegas 2021 Conference Presentation List drive.google.com/drive/u/1/fo...
Disclaimer: The views of 20Books Vegas 2021 guest speakers are their views alone and do not represent the views of 20Booksto50k(R) or the conference or the conference organizers.
Bio: Kate Pickford
Kate Pickford is a displaced Briton who writes for an American audience. She has been a screenwriter, a script doctor, a book coach, a developmental editor, and a ghostwriter covering everything from international uprisings to dragons and one-eyed samurai. Her post-apocalyptic works have sold tens of thousands of copies, but she now returns-under her own name-to her first love: science fiction.
Read Craig Martelle's Successful Indie Author series:
SIA1 - geni.us/BecomeSuccessful
SIA2 - geni.us/ReleaseStrategies
SIA3 - geni.us/Collaborations
SAI4 - geni.us/WriteCompellingFiction
SIA5 - geni.us/PricingStrategies
Disclaimer - If you're in the US, there is an embedded affiliate link where the author gets a small percentage of revenue from the sale, but at no additional cost to you.

[@pinyao1]

This is wonderful.

[@bowasmr]

"Putting the author aside." You're officially my hero. Thanks for being an ally and for the amazing talk. 🙏🏾

[@billyalarie929]

I absolutely love the energy of this speaker. It’s so chaotic, it’s my favorite.

[@jonevansauthor]

I'd just like to say, that Kate says people don't know who she is. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't ask me to point her out at conferences so they can speak to her, if that were true. There's a reason people talk about her in breathless whispers, as if she worked some kind of esoteric magic she found in a tome that caused 3d6 SAN loss, to help them get their story to work. I missed 20booksVegas this year, but if I could have, I would have flown out just to see this talk and I'm really hoping we'll both be in Madrid.

[@CalmingAnxiety]

One of my favourite Human's ever. Within this talk you evoked memories of days past. Your humour and intensity have not waned .

[@AnnaMaledonPictureBookAuthor]

She's an excellent speaker, so pleasant to listen to and a wealth of knowledge. This was great but probably just a tip of an iceberg. If she didn't say it herself I wouldn't have guessed she was nervous, stressed or didn't do speaking all the time.

[@thomasfruman6932]

Kate, you did so well. I love your presentation style. This was marvelous and I certainly learned some new and good stuff. Sorry I missed this year's meetup.

[@kit888]

00:01 Introduction Independent of genre and story structure What this talk is not about - marketing Works for less popular genres too Will work, but not for all readers - matter of taste Need many reviews to know if book is working or not, need a big dataset 09:55 Fixing an unpopular book Marketing questions - marketed to right people, right keywords Craft questions - killer premise, high stakes, right tropes, protagonist relatable, antagonist hateble in a relatable way, protagonist and antagonist paired properly, cause and effect trajectory (gets people turning pages), write from inside-out or outside-in, plot or story focused Run craft questions through two-part test (explained at the end) 11:25 Who are we? Brain makes us hallucinate To create ongoing hallucination make people suspend disbelief (feed the logic monster) and make them feel (lizard brain can glut on Id stuff) 12:25 Logic monster Example - 1995 Pride and Prejudice If readers point out logic holes, they are not in the story Get cerebrum (logic monster) to chill, accept the illusion, brain can't distinguish between story and reality, reader becomes protagonist Readers want stories that are the same but different Cerebrum wants things to be the same (safe), amygdala (lizard brain) looks for different/new If you don't feed the logic monster with sameness, you can't reach the primal lizard brain with exciting information 20:10 How do you want the reader to feel? If you don't know, story will misfire 21:30 Quieting the logic monster Use unassailable logic - three-act structure, cause-and-effect trajectory (inside-out not outside-in) Use the right story tropes in the right place, depending on genre Get continuity right After logic monster is quiet, can plan character's goals for each scene and whole story 22:55 Sidebar: Cause-and-effect trajectory Lisa Cron's book Story Genius Plot - what happens Story - why it matters to protagonist Balance of plot and story differs by genre - Hard SF is more plot, Romance is more story Cascading domino effect of protagonist reacting, causing reaction, reacting to reaction... Might not be best structure for all genres 29:30 What do you want the reader to feel? This is the hallucinating bit The lizard brain is about survival A talk by Jennifer Barnes, in Romance Writers of America 2018 video collection, Writing for Your Id. What kinds of Id things do you love. Use basic human things that we have in common that are necessary for survival - touch, beauty, power, competition, wealth, danger We want to feel full range of human experience What is your Id list, what is your reader's Id list - genre specific 39:20 Two-part test for craft questions Does it keep the logic monster (cerebrum) quiet? Does it speak to the Id (amygdala)? Same, same, same, different 43:30 Q&A

[@elizabethkahle6449]

I’m glad you posted this, I got super lost in her talk. It went all kinds of directions, so I really appreciate a bullet list so I know I didn’t miss anything.

[@ZaraAltair]

Thank you!

[@lucymiller6616]

Love your thoughtfulness!

[@nikkiguerlain]

Amazing & lovely!

[@TheJulz2010]

I absolutely loved this.

[@Kev_Partner]

Super talk, Kate, with awesome insights.

[@Me-Myself-Ann]

Great talk! Thank you so much!

[@gin.hollan]

She talks like it's an award show followed by her advice. Curious way to start a talk, but skip to 7:00 if you want to skip that. (No offense intended.)

[@Robutube1]

Beat me to it. This is a trope with Kate's talks it seems (no offence etc.). Thanks for the time stamp!