I can remember in my early days of writing, not the early ones when I was 12 years old and wrote stories on a typewriter I bought at a garage sale. I mean when I made a full-time go of it in my mid-20s. I felt so alone, so isolated…so weird. With the internet it is much easier for newer writers to find help. We realize that there are others out there who hear voices in their head and have reasonable conversations about murdering characters and destroying relationships. [All in the name of craft] We have an incredible opportunity now to learn from other writers—are you taking advantage of that? “Well, Tiff, I’m reading this blog post, aren’t I?” Yes, you are. But what are you doing with it? What did […]
Read the RestArchive | April, 2012
Quick Skills: 5 Essentials of a First Chapter
There are a lot of checklists for building a first chapter, and sometimes they can get overwhelming. MBT has an advanced checklist we use to help people build their Frasier Contest Scene (it’s the same checklist I use when building my first chapters!). However, I admit, it can get overwhelming. So, let’s start building that chapter one with 5 essential elements. In fact, this is step two in your process. As Sally and I talked about yesterday in Conversations, sometimes it just helps the writing process to let your characters walk on the page and wander around a bit. We can hear them, talk to them, discover if we have profiled them correctly. No, these wanderings probably won’t be the final first chapter, but it gives you a chance to […]
Read the RestConversations: First Chapter Essentials
“I’m angry with you!” Sally said as she sat down. She was smiling, so I frowned. “You let me write the first chapter before I was ready.” “Oh, that,” I said. “Yes, I did, knowing you weren’t quite ready. But I knew you had so much story in you that if you didn’t get started you’d only get frustrated. I know why you weren’t ready, but you tell me.” “I didn’t really know what my character wanted, nor how to hint at his greatest fear in the first chapter, so I created exactly the wrong scene.” “You created the scene that helped you jump start your story. You were doing a lot of “Wax On, Wax Off” and getting ansty. So, I told you to simply let your character walk […]
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April’s Writer’s Challenge and The Mountain’s Children
Congratulations to Delores Topliff who won the March writer’s Challenge with her delicious story “The Mountain’s Children” (Challenge: Give us an argument!) “Let her go!” Raymond Young Bear shouted, running forward, fists ready. The scrappy Indian youth had been walking Vancouver, Washington’s Main Street, killing time, past Shumway Junior High, where he should have been enrolled, when he heard the girl’s shrill screams for help. Racing behind the front brick building, he found three white teens pushing a young white girl against a wall, forcing her down, slapping her. She screamed again, eyes pleading, until someone clapped a meaty hand over her mouth. The biggest kid saw Raymond coming. “Scram, Indian. Or you’re next!” They punched the girl’s belly, making her drop, fencing her against the wall with their legs. […]
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