Revving your writing engine...

Thoor Ballylee Tower - Yeats summer home  copyrighted Judi Getch

Well, I said that I'd be back after my workshop was over, and here I am!  This was my first time taking an on-line writing workshop and it worked out great.  A bit weird introducing yourself to the others in the group digitally, but we all worked real hard for eight weeks. 

We started the first week with writing exercises which were fun. These were partially so our leader, Heidi, could get a feel for the writing capabilities of the group.  Then we submitted a piece, could be a chapter or a few pages, and the group as well as Heidi would comment on the posting.  About week four or five, she asked us to choose one of our characters and answer a set of questions about him or her, questions like what were they ashamed of or if they had a small wooden box what would be in it. You absolutely can't imagine what you can learn about your characters by answering a bunch of questions about them.  After I did it for my primary character, she asked me to do it for another... this was eye-popping for her and for me.  I discovered my plot through that exercise.  Characters are her thing... making them real, being inside them as the author, placing them in a scene that you the reader can sense.  My writing took a giant leap from studying with her... she can pinpoint problems and light them up for you like a laser beam.  

I'm continuing my writing journey on my own now, but I have so much more to offer a reader after this workshop.  It felt so good to have her say at the end..."you are making real characters, real scenes, real conversations here. Her French returns in a very natural way, and the reader follows along, seeing the scene spread out before him, with interest and pleasure."

I am rewriting my novel that I thought was ready to go and my new novel is moving so fast that even I can't keep up with those darn characters!  

If you need to restart your writing engines... find a group, take a workshop, read a good book by an author you love.  Trust me, your engines will be revving in no time at all!   

Back to my writing so I can see what my characters have been up to since I've been away!

Till,
Judi