The Sweet Escape

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]