2010, 9:38 pm
Breathing Life into Your Writing (April 11, 10am – Noon, RavenCon)
A Workshop Presented by Laurel Anne Hill, with the assistance of Nancy Holzner, Barbara Friend Ish & Allen Wold
A. Make Characters Come Alive on the Page: Stay Close to Point-of-View Characters
1. Create authentic and believable characters. Keep thoughts and actions consistent with who they are and the situation.
2. Back story should arise because the point of view character has a reason to recall the information. Organize back story to reflect the way people think.
3. Create realistic dialogue. Avoid unrealistic information dumps in dialogue.
4. Avoid “talking heads.” Let point-of-view characters react to words and actions of others through thoughts and words.
5. Use the five senses.
6. Stay in the culture
B. The Story Structure and Forward Momentum
1. Story arc, forward momentum and breathing space.
2. The contract with the reader.
a.) Where should your story start and end?
(1) Visiting a “new world”
(2)The question
(3) Character
(4) “World” out-of-order
b.)The end informs the beginning.
3. The opening promise and editing your story line
4. Employ strong verbs but “was-zies” have their place.
5. Minimize use of adverbs,” it,” and “that.”
C. Writing Exercise and Feedback: Participants are encouraged to bring several pages of a work in progress.
Hope to see you there,
Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”) http://www.laurelannehill.com