Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Save yourself the money- Revsion class

REVISION CLASS

I started taking a revision class and it's amazing.  I know title of the article makes it seem like you're learning from my mistake but that's not true.

This class is incredible and because of that, I wanted to share the knowledge I have learned.

Class 1

The teacher has published over 40 books and she knows her stuff.  It's not a NYT best seller but she's made a career of being mid list.   She's an example of you do it because you love it and if your smart about it, you can make a living at it.

The class started out with everyone sharing about their writing experience, which while interesting isn't why YOU came to this blog.  So I will by pass all the greetings and get into the MEAT of the course. 

Now if you are a regular reader of blogs, lots of this is stuff you already know.  But it's good to hear it from someone else. 

The course focuses on Content editing
And this week the topics are  Showing and POV.

Showing= more dialogue and action.

First sentence= important

The teacher's favorite opening sentence is:  “The last camel died at noon.”  BAM it hits you with the  tension, setting, conflict.

Never start with the weather.

SHOWING

Show instead of describing – why so the reader can participate. Allows the reader to escape. Participate.

Dialogue:
Character’s have to talk
Flip through and look at how much dialogue.
Develop the scenes.

Narrative distance- dialogue = closeness.  Summary = pulling back .
Think about how many characters you have in the story.
Think about 1 character you want your character to identify with.  They should be in a lot of scenes.

Omi POV  distances the reader from the story.

Who’s head am I in?
Stay in 1 character’s head for 1 scene- it’s the strongest way to tell the story

Look for:
POV-  in every scene. Have you kept it the same?  Does that character know thing he or she shouldn’t.

Uses the sense and only describe what that character knows.


We protect our characters-  we want to put the characters in stressful situations and challenge them.
Scenes that are important to the story needs to be played out.
 

Industry insider tip, if your goal is to be published:

**** WRITE A BOOK FOR ME AND THE WRITE A COMMERCIAL BOOK*****

Required Reading: 
The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman, Chapters  11, Showing Vs Telling and Chapter 12 View point and narration. 

Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King - Chapter 1


 Homework Assignment
Find three places in my MS where I have summarized action and I needed to SHOW the action. Make them places that COUNT.







The required reading books are the MOST AMAZING BOOKS I've read on writer's craft so far.   I am completely in love with The First Five Pages.  It's perfect and concrete.  GO BUY THIS BOOK







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