True tension comes when you have a character who is in danger against sufficiently high odds. – David Farland
I went into Salt Lake with the delicious feeling that today is just Day 3. There was more learning to look forward to!
As I recall it, this is the only creative writing class I have taken apart from one I took as a high school senior, where I wrote some short stories and a picture book about mice. Definitely no novel-writing there. In college, I mostly took literature classes and essay writing. My career goal then was technical writer, so I suppose that is why. But it still gnaws on me that I could have had a 30 year headstart had I taken even one or two creative writing classes back then.
Oh well. There’s nothing I can do about that. I am just grateful to have this opportunity to learn from one of the best writers around.
I am just reveling in all these concepts. I have gone to writing conferences before, but the classes were usually bigger, and I never really focused on workshopping my manuscript, so I never got as concrete of advice. And the writing exercises are fantastic. I love being able to apply David’s teachings and see immediate improvement in my manuscript (I am workshopping The Spanish Exile).
Today, we shared our homework from yesterday – metaphors/ similes and hooks. I LOVE adding metaphors to my story. Things really come alive plus, bonus, I am adding to my word-count and the additions are very meaty and work harder than just plain prose. Like whole wheat writing versus white bread. Ha, a metaphor!
We also shared a character introduction – and I chose to introduce a villain. It was super fun to add details, and characterizations that I hadn’t really fleshed out before.
Tonight, for our homework, it was to come up with dialogue without tags, so we can develop the voices of our characters. What a fun exercise. My favorite part of it was just how I was adding emotion to the exchange, just by having the characters speak true to themselves.
Next: Day 4
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