Great, great, great weekend. I attended my first writer’s convention this past weekend in Myrtle Beach, SC. I came away from it with both less and more than I expected, but the more was really, really more. (What an odd sentence. Why is describing a great writer’s conference making me totally inarticulate?)

The editor from Tor, Eric Raab, was hands-down the best part of the conference for me. His sessions were the most informative. He knew his stuff and his stuff was all the things I wanted to know.

In the session on avoiding holes in your imaginary worlds, he talked about writing a bio for every character, and I mean every single named person, who enters your story at any point. Also for each town, city, country, world. Even though little if any of that information may enter your story, it will enrich your understanding of each person and how their individual story affects their actions, their interactions with others, and the story as a whole.

And I’m sitting there thinking ‘why didn’t I think of that,’ as bios of characters I’d barely given a thought started blossoming in my head.

That’s some good stuff right there. I’m really excited about starting the bios. Oh, and he recommended doing this after the first draft and before the second. Which makes a lot of sense to me.

Anyway, I’m still processing all that I took away from the weekend in the way of industry knowledge, writing advice, and just general hey-maybe-I-can-do-this-after-all-ness. (Yeah, that’s definitely not a word.)

Have you been to a writer’s convention? What was your experience?