Writing Craft Recap for April

2012 is my "learning the writing craft" year. And once a month, generally on the first Thursday of the month, I will share some highlights of what I learned. And here I go.

This was my month, mostly, to apply what I learned the first three months - but I did pick up some knowledge along the way. I'm sharing it below.


From editing the first three chapters of Handmaiden to a Princess:

• Description is generally more effective when it's short and to the point.
• Finding JUST the right word is incredibly difficult.
• My default writing is overly descriptive - but I know how to fix it!
• Varying sentence structure and length can make a HUGE difference in how well your writing flows.

From the last two-thirds of Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint by Nancy Kress (check last month's post for what I learned from the first third!):

• The basic techniques for creating humorous characters are exaggeration, ridicule, and reversal of expectations.
• Keep ethnicity, family background, region, gender, education, and circumstances in mind as you develop your character's dialogue/dialect.
• Real dialogue and fictional dialogue are NOT the same.
• The most important thing to remember about love, sex, fight, and death scenes is that the characters should perform them in keeping with the personality you have given them so far.
• The most important emotion in fiction is frustration, because without it, there is no plot.
• The main expression of your character's frustration should be action that moves the story forward.
• Though dialogue may lie, the body doesn't.
• If you use more than one POV character, it's important that the reader knows this fairly early in the story.
• When writing in third person, use the fewest points of view you can get away with and still tell the story you want to tell.
• Omniscient point of view isn't just head-hopping. It must include authorial presence.
• The single largest aid you can give yourself as a writer is to regard your fiction as your characters' story - not your own.

From the May issue of The Writer and the May/June issue of Writer's Digest:

• Your theme should be intrinsic to the story.
• Your fiction should contain an abundance of places where your description of the setting calls the reader's attention to whatever theme you are striving to convey.
• One of the richest veins to mine for story subject is where two contradictory statements are equally true.
• A quote by Tawni O'Dell: "You don't decide to become a writer and then start writing. You write and write and then accept one day -  with a mix of immense pride and mild horror - that you are a writer."

Hope you learned something as well. Watch this spot next month, where I'll share what I learn in May - including from Devon Ellington's class Setting as Character (which is ALREADY amazingly helpful!), and possibly Janice Thompson's Humor in Writing class on the ACFW course loop.

Questions? Comments? Observations? What was most interesting or helpful to you?

 
Traveling Rough Roads With God's Strength

Just The Other Day - God Is So Good

Welcome to my Wednesday feature God is So Good. Here I will share stories - true and fiction, mine and others' - of the Lord's presence in the midst of trials, struggles, and difficulties.

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33b

Generally, I don't write poetry, but when I do, folks often say I do a pretty good job of it. I wrote this poem more than five years ago for the FaithWriters Writing Challenge , and it touches me each time I read it. It is NOT based on a true story, but it certainly could have been. I hope you can see the hope in this piece - and God's provision.

Just The Other Day

by Joanne Sher

Just the other day
I saw innocence speed by
in 3T overalls
a bright yellow shirt
Bob the Builder tennis shoes
and a fireman's helmet.

His blue and white tricycle
(with superhero trading cards
stuck in the spokes)
raced down the block,
bicycle bell ringing,
to come to the rescue
of cats stuck in trees
(do firemen still do that?)
and damsels in distress.

His fire hose twig
and boymade sound effects
triumphed over the flames
in grandiose fashion.

He was the hero
to his little sister
his stuffed dalmatian
and his imaginary friend Bud.

He was my hero too
for his reckless abandon
for his innocence
for his love of a pursuit
that had robbed him of a father.

As he napped on my chest
two years ago
(seems like yesterday)
his dada entered the flames
and entered heaven.

He wants to be like
the daddy he doesn't remember
to save the damsel in distress
to protect the world from the flames.

My little firefighter
showed me how to love
how to embrace a memory
how to honor a legacy
just the other day.


**


God may have "taken" his father, but this child, and his mother, still have hope. Could it be that that little boy in 3T overalls IS her provision? God is SO good!

Do you have a story you'd like to share about God's goodness in your struggles? Drop me an email and we can talk!

Traveling Rough Roads With God's Strength

Where'd That Month Go?? A Goals/Progress update

Since this is the first Tuesday of the month, I'm on my monthly "tech fast" - no computer, no texting (and my cell phone is NOT smart, just fyi). Looking forward to it (yeah, I wrote this post early). My son has a morning dentist appointment, and my daughter's guinea pig gets to go to the vet around lunch. Otherwise, hoping for some longhand writing, reading, cleaning, and basic chilling. 

Of course, that's NOT stopping me from sharing how last month went, and what my plans are for May - which arrived ENTIRELY too fast for me. Sheeeesh.

ANYhow - my goals for April, straight from last month's post, were:

• Review the classes I've taken since the beginning of 2012 (Mistakes that Scream Novice, Six Stages of Change - The Character Arc, Empowering Characters' Emotions, and Deep Editing) and work on applying what I've learned to Handmaiden to a Princess, starting with page one and working through til the month,or what I've written so far, is done - whichever comes first.
• Finish reading and learning from Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint by Nancy Kress (I'm about 1/3 of the way through currently. Learning tons here too!).
• Write another short story, likely for the FaithWriters Writing Challenge, applying what I've learned thusfar.

Well, I didn't exactly review the lessons per se, but I did review what I learned in my head, and began applying it to my MS. And BOY did I have a lot to apply! I'm slowly working my way through the 90 or so pages (30k words approximately) that I have written so far - have made it through 24 pages (aka the first three chapters) so far.

I did finish Characters, Emotion, and Viewpoint (great book!) - watch my blog on Thursday for what I learned from it, and a few other writing-related publications I made it through this past month. I didn't write another short story, but that's okay. Was busy with "life" stuff.

So, I did all right. How about May, you ask? Well, here I go.

• Keep up and learn from the month-long online Setting as Description class I'm signed up for in May (actually started yesterday) at Savvy Authors. This one sounds GOOD, especially for a biblical fiction writer like me. And I'll bet it's not too late to sign up, since it's only been going for 24 hours. Join me? (though I SHOULD mention there's already an assignment due at the end of today - which I've finished so I can ENJOY my tech-free day!)
• Work on what I've learned in my classes this year to Handmaiden to A Princess, "fixing" another 30 pages of the manuscript.
• Learn from Janice Thompson's FREE class on the ACFW course loop - Adding Humor to Your Writing (this one sounds FUN!). (this is a "want to" - will let this one slide if I get too overwhelmed - can always go back and look at it later)

So, there you go! Thanks for reading, and cheering me on. Onward I go!


Traveling Rough Roads With God's Strength