Tag Archives: advanced fiction writing

NaNoWriMo Day 5

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I’ve been avoiding doing a daily post, mostly because I don’t want to talk too much about my “novel” (I feel weird calling it that. It’s really just a long story, lol), because I don’t want to give away too much of it. Suffice it to say, however, that I’m very excited about what’s come out of the effort, so far. I am just under 1/3 of the way to the minimum word requirement, though if I know myself, I’m going to exceed 50,000 words.

I’m still working through the major story lines— I like to just dive in and let the details set themselves up and work themselves out. Every few chapters or 5,000 words or so, I do some fact checking and make sure certain details stay true, then plan out a little further, then write some more and plan out a little further. It’s going well, so far. I feel like when I plan out the entire thing, I lose my zest for the story and I feel like I’ve written it already. That’s no fun.

So far? World building and story writing and writing something new in  a big damn hurry is a lot of fun. Everyday I post my word count over at the Nanowrimo site and I feel really proud of myself, and I’m so in love with the story. It’s been such a nice break from the story I’ve been writing for uhmmmmmm almost a year. Wow. Need that one to end, and soon.

But now, Mama is tired, and have already put away the piece for the night. I’m off to sleep, perchance to dream, while visions of plotlines and realistic, believable dialogue and story arcs and stylebooks and well rounded characters dance in my head!

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I “R” A Graduite.

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It’s official!

6 weeks, 12 lessons, 8 assignments,  12 quizzes, one final exam and I am a graduate of Advanced Fiction Writing! \o/

This was my first class and I really enjoyed it. Started off kind of easy but then it got a little more difficult, which I didn’t mind at all. I picked up some great tips, and techniques, dos & don’ts and now I have all of the lesson plans saved for future reference– a really good starting point along with all of the writing books I have bought (and haven’t finished– I have an excuse, they’re all packed up!)

So now I am thinking I will take another, but not sure. Write Like a Pro starts July 15th, I may take that one, or some other selection. I’ll be traveling through some of that, so not sure but I’m tempted!

Anyway, YAY!

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I just can’t.

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I can’t. CANNOT. take anymore right now.

It just occurred to me tonight that I haven’t blogged since last week, but I set up this blog to be my writing blog and not a personal one (because my personal life is so boring even *I* am not interested in it, let alone enough to write about it. There’s nothing exciting about ‘got up, went to work, came home, wrote, went to sleep’. Meh) and I haven’t really had much ‘writey’ things to blog about. And, I find that I can either write, or I can blog about writing. I’d rather write, so I’ve been plugging toward completion on my WIP. Soon, these voices will stop talking to me (or each other) in my head, and I can move on to some other voices.

I recently finished a writing class and I’d like to take another one, so I’m on the hunt for something I can do online or via correspondence that doesn’t cost 17 million dollars. I got a lot out of the class I took, namely the correct terms for things I’ve been doing instinctively, and tried to break some bad habits (like adverbs). I picked up tips on effective story telling, drawing the audience in and even a great chapter on dialogue. I wrote a few pieces for the class as well, short snippets that are somewhere along the weekly posts I was doing.

I’d like to take another because, well frankly, I feel like I need to be pushed a bit harder. Of course, I’m scared of being pushed harder, but right now while I’m not being pushed, I think I need it. I review my twitter list several times a day and sometimes I’m just so jealous at the talent I see. People working hard on 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 12th books, plugging away at them and offering great advice. I feel so way behind everyone else and like I’m the kindergartner looking at the big kids playing from behind the gate on the playground. Wishing I was a big girl and could play, too. Why doesn’t anyone tell new authors that you can’t become Mark Twain in a year? That whole ‘this looks easy’, thing that famous authors do is very misleading and deceiving, inside my brain. I know it takes hard work and a lot of rejection, but the notion that I ‘can’ write makes me want to just pop out something and be world famous, simply because I write. It’s just way more than that, I’m learning. Like 1% talent and 98% skill and about another %1 good luck. Or voodoo, which ever you believe.

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I’ve got to get a move on… and yet here I sit.

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busy-lady

I mean, I don’t have to go anywhere. But I have ‘things’ to do:

1. I am two lessons behind on my Advanced Fiction Writing. Don’t want to let Mr Alcorn, my professor, down. Now that he knows where my blog is, I’ll just assume he’s reading it. :\ I’m also in the class with Becky and I sure can’t fall behind her. We’re in this together!

2. Chapter 19 is a hurking two parter to “All I Wanna Do” the longest story in the history of stories. Not really. It’s just long. I need to edit part one and post it for the “grabbyhands” at the Fiction Archive to read and enjoy and tell me how much they love me and adore my writing. *shrug* A girl can dream.

3. I already wrote my review for The Chosen One. I finished it last night, and didn’t want to take weeks to review it like I did with Dark Places. By the time I reviewed it I almost had to read it again. I couldn’t remember important things like NAMES. So that’s done. Score one for ME!

4. I have to write more of The Nanny, my ode to the Lifetime Movie. Hopefully will get to that later today.

5. Woven between my literary achievements will be the conquer of Mt St Laundry. Because, OMG. Okay it’s not bad, just… I hate laundry.

I think five is a good round number of tasks. And considering I only average finishing about 3 of 5 tasks, that’s a good place to stop.

On with the day!

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Visions of Scene and Sequel dance through my head!

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Lesson #6– we’re halfway through! OMG!– focuses the class on the use of scene and sequel. The purpose of scene is to move the story along, and contains three elements: Goal, Conflict, and Disaster. The sequel is the followup– how your protagonist reacts to the scene: Emotion, Thought, Decision, Action. Every piece of fiction has scene and sequel and as our instructor points, out the best works have a great balance of the two.

Our assignment for this lesson was to take a story or a scene and identify the elements of scene and sequel– are they included? Were they used welll?  Could the scene or sequel be beefed with dialogue or action? Does this scene move the plot along?  After identifying the elements, does the scene read better? Like professional writing?

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The Fun Train rolls on

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Advanced Fiction Writing Lesson #5: Setting, Theme, Detail, Research

Tonight’s lesson was relatively easy, in a way. Generally about setting and how it sets the mood and helps the theme along. And what helps the setting along is use of detail and doing your research. I have declared myself to be the Queen of Research. Not really. I just alwys need a realistic standpoint to come from, so I’ll look something up in a hot second.

So back to setting and detail– it’s something I think I am pretty good at, but not offhand and not all the time.  And sometimes some well known authors irk their readers with overuse of descriptionary (is that a word? Is now) terms. I was just talking with a classmate about this and said that my mom cannot STAND to read Toni Morrison. She says she doesn’t want to read about all the hues of the flowers in bloom— get to the darn story!! I think a well written story, novel, memoir, is one that tells you just enough to paint the picture, and no more. I personally like to leave a little mystery.

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Find Your Voice

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I’ve had this little ditty by Fairly Odd Parents’ Chip Skylark in my head all day.

It’s sung by *Nsync’s Chris Kirkpatrick and since I’m a HUGE fan, I actually have his songs from FOP on my iPod. It’s rather fun to go from Ludacris “Slap” to Chip Skylark “Find Your Voice”  to Madonna “Holiday”. I love shuffle.

There is a point to my rambles about iPods and cartoon songs. Lesson #4 in my Advanced Fiction Writing Class  is about Viewpoint, Voice, And Tense.

Viewpoint- or uh. Point of View, or the intentions of the narrator. Who’s telling the story and from what vantage point?  We learned about three viewpoints:

(cont;d)

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It’s People!

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Soylent Green. And Character Sketches. It’s People.

Lesson #3 is on character sketches– pyramids and notebooks and protagonist and antagonist. Creating sympathy and antipathy. Naming your characters— I hate bad character names. I just….I do. Don’t make them up.

One thing that I found interesting was that our instructor advised that you ‘write who you know’, or develop your characters from people you know in your life. Dice them up and put them back together again, change names and features and characteristics.

(cont’d)

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Class #2- Plot Templates

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Every story has a plot, and a  lot of stories use the same plot template. The difference is in the writer, and what template s/he chooses to use and what fresh ideas they bring to the plot of the story.

Today’s lesson was on plot templates, what’s required to have a good, effective plot and a vehicle to move the emotion of your story along: setup, struggle, climax, tension, conflict, sacrifice, purpose-filled action. Whether the story is an action adventure or a love story, these elements are important.
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So I signed up for a Writing course

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My friend Becky is taking it and I was jealous so I was a copycat and signed up as well. It’s not so much a writing course as well-timed material being placed on the internet for reading, with a quiz following immediately after, and an assignment that is optional. At the end of our class, we will have a required assignment, which I assume will be a full fledged piece.

And so, Advanced Fiction Writing began last night, but I didn’t actually get the materials till today. Turns out I was waiting for a username and password that wasn’t going to come, so I just logged in. The first class was pretty basic, going over structure, plot, dramatic elements, and the three act structure:

I guess it helped to learn what I’ve been doing without knowing what I’m really doing– to put terms and theory and method to my clinking around the keyboard, playing ‘Author’. It’s certainly awakened me to things in stories I’ve written in the past, and even if I write snippets or drabbles, where to place the story vs the plot so that it drives people crazy wanting to hear the end– or the beginning.

Interesting and informative first course- of course I took the quiz right after and I got 100%! o/ My assignment for Lesson 1 is to introduce myself, a task I kind of hate. I have a hard time making myself sound interesting. *SIGH*