Going with the Flow
13/06/2011 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaBeen back from holidays a week now but that does not stop the serpent from pottering around and getting up to mischief
Last Thursday was one such day. It was a glorious crisp and crunchy day and got up early in order to be in far away Fremantle for the second week of a book binding course
It was a good morning and would have been most delighted to spend the day lurking around the old lunatic asylum after the class for several hours. There were books to read and emerald notebooks to squiggle in and coffees to be sipped but there was also a free workshop in the city at 2pm more than 30 minutes away on the train
Could easily just not bother turning up but would then remain eternally curious about missed opportunities and anyway there's another four weeks of this course to linger around the loony bin
The workshop was called "Free Flow" and was aimed at people who want to write their life story or about their family and as an afterthought - anyone who wants to write fiction in general
The presenter first asked the 20 or so folks who had turned up what sort of questions they had about writing and proceeded to write them up all on the board with the intention that most of them would be answered by the end of 90 minutes
He then asked if any of us had ever read a book where the characters were so real we did not want to say goodbye to them or the setting was so interesting that we would rather be there than in the real world. He proceeded to mention his ten and twelve year old kids who would rather spend their spare time at Hogwarts than doing their school work or other mundane muggle activities.
That is the sort of effect you want to have on your readers. Izzie commented that she was still waiting for her invitation.
He told us that he had learned five rules of writing as a student many moons ago in an adult education writing course and found them to be the most useful advice on writing he's ever had
The Izzie so had to giggle when he told us what they were
1 First ideas only - in other words brainstorm and turn off the inner editor
2 The pen keeps moving
3 Because the pen keeps moving - no edits, no corrections and no rereading
4 Write sensory detail - lots of little thing but only what is essential to keep the engine of the story going
5 Write towards and through discomfort, anxiety and fear
It was amusing to think that four out of the five are exactly what is required for the lunacy that is nanowrimo and lots of details of all kinds can also be added when desperate measures are called for to boost that ever important word count
Apart from how to start, the other common question was how to join the story together, how to find the glue to link a bunch of different apparently unrelated events together
He made the interesting observation that if you just follow those five rules and keep that pen moving then a theme will usually appear of his own accord
He said that if you concentrate on the specific and particular, the general and abstract ideas will quite naturally emerge from them
It's quite amusing - have often heard critics say that the more particular and local the details of a story are then the more universal it is likely to be (the best seller some years ago "Angela's Ashes" comes to mind) and from our own reading experience must definitely agree
This guy is a big fan of particular and specific story telling too and came up with some very intriguing five minute exercises to prove his point
At one stage he asked us all to draw a time line of our lives putting in the most important and memorable events. When the time was up he then asked if there was anything important that was missing. Pay close attention to such events as they are the ones that make the most interesting stories
He said to imagine that you have got a ten dollar note and he in his left hand he is offering you a big fat 500 page resume listing every education qualification or job that he has ever had and in his right hand is the diary from the year that his marriage broke up. He asked which of these two documents would we be most willing to hand over that ten dollar note for.
That was a pretty clear way of putting it.
Another interesting little thought experiment was the Dream Police. He must have never got past the first Potter book or he would have known that an Oblviate spell would be just as effective and infinitely simpler and cheaper.
Just imagine that twenty minutes from now the Dream Police are going to wipe your mind blank. All your memories and experiences will disappear except the ones you can rescue in the next twenty minutes and store elsewhere for safe keeping
He asked us to spend five minutes listing the memories we would like to save.
Along with those items from the timeline that we would forget about, they are the things most likely to have the greatest emotional associations and resonances. If they do it for you then they are also quite likely to work for other people too.
It was a most fascinating ninety minutes and was very glad not to have been tempted to stay in the gardens of the crazy old asylum.
Most rare indeed to find some one who does know what they are talking about- some one who has been there and done that. There are just so many "Big hat - no cattle" sorts out there
Also reading a book about writing that is different than most in that it is written by a professional editor. ("Solutions for Novelists" by Sol Stein) He talks about the stuff that annoys the hell out of him and how rarely writers ever put themselves in the shoes of a potential reader to see things from their point of view. Most fascinating indeed. He has very definite preferences. Once again the golden rule of "Show not tell" and if you can't imagine a segment of the story as a movie scene then it's got no business being in the story. Never underestimate the influence of the cinema is one of his favorite themes.
But this evening was dedicated to neither reading nor squiggling but sorting out the mess that is the Lair. Tonight's target were piles and piles of books that needed to be put somewhere.
It would likely take a lifetime to read the accumulation of words in the Lair - there's books in every nook and cranny.
Now the froggies are gone, all those books in the lounge are once again available for peeking in.
They must have been having babies during those two years or so of not being able to keep an eye on them
Yessss. The last thing the serpent needs is yet more books. It's an incurable addiction but one of our favorites.
Last Thursday was one such day. It was a glorious crisp and crunchy day and got up early in order to be in far away Fremantle for the second week of a book binding course
It was a good morning and would have been most delighted to spend the day lurking around the old lunatic asylum after the class for several hours. There were books to read and emerald notebooks to squiggle in and coffees to be sipped but there was also a free workshop in the city at 2pm more than 30 minutes away on the train
Could easily just not bother turning up but would then remain eternally curious about missed opportunities and anyway there's another four weeks of this course to linger around the loony bin
The workshop was called "Free Flow" and was aimed at people who want to write their life story or about their family and as an afterthought - anyone who wants to write fiction in general
The presenter first asked the 20 or so folks who had turned up what sort of questions they had about writing and proceeded to write them up all on the board with the intention that most of them would be answered by the end of 90 minutes
He then asked if any of us had ever read a book where the characters were so real we did not want to say goodbye to them or the setting was so interesting that we would rather be there than in the real world. He proceeded to mention his ten and twelve year old kids who would rather spend their spare time at Hogwarts than doing their school work or other mundane muggle activities.
That is the sort of effect you want to have on your readers. Izzie commented that she was still waiting for her invitation.
He told us that he had learned five rules of writing as a student many moons ago in an adult education writing course and found them to be the most useful advice on writing he's ever had
The Izzie so had to giggle when he told us what they were
1 First ideas only - in other words brainstorm and turn off the inner editor
2 The pen keeps moving
3 Because the pen keeps moving - no edits, no corrections and no rereading
4 Write sensory detail - lots of little thing but only what is essential to keep the engine of the story going
5 Write towards and through discomfort, anxiety and fear
It was amusing to think that four out of the five are exactly what is required for the lunacy that is nanowrimo and lots of details of all kinds can also be added when desperate measures are called for to boost that ever important word count
Apart from how to start, the other common question was how to join the story together, how to find the glue to link a bunch of different apparently unrelated events together
He made the interesting observation that if you just follow those five rules and keep that pen moving then a theme will usually appear of his own accord
He said that if you concentrate on the specific and particular, the general and abstract ideas will quite naturally emerge from them
It's quite amusing - have often heard critics say that the more particular and local the details of a story are then the more universal it is likely to be (the best seller some years ago "Angela's Ashes" comes to mind) and from our own reading experience must definitely agree
This guy is a big fan of particular and specific story telling too and came up with some very intriguing five minute exercises to prove his point
At one stage he asked us all to draw a time line of our lives putting in the most important and memorable events. When the time was up he then asked if there was anything important that was missing. Pay close attention to such events as they are the ones that make the most interesting stories
He said to imagine that you have got a ten dollar note and he in his left hand he is offering you a big fat 500 page resume listing every education qualification or job that he has ever had and in his right hand is the diary from the year that his marriage broke up. He asked which of these two documents would we be most willing to hand over that ten dollar note for.
That was a pretty clear way of putting it.
Another interesting little thought experiment was the Dream Police. He must have never got past the first Potter book or he would have known that an Oblviate spell would be just as effective and infinitely simpler and cheaper.
Just imagine that twenty minutes from now the Dream Police are going to wipe your mind blank. All your memories and experiences will disappear except the ones you can rescue in the next twenty minutes and store elsewhere for safe keeping
He asked us to spend five minutes listing the memories we would like to save.
Along with those items from the timeline that we would forget about, they are the things most likely to have the greatest emotional associations and resonances. If they do it for you then they are also quite likely to work for other people too.
It was a most fascinating ninety minutes and was very glad not to have been tempted to stay in the gardens of the crazy old asylum.
Most rare indeed to find some one who does know what they are talking about- some one who has been there and done that. There are just so many "Big hat - no cattle" sorts out there
Also reading a book about writing that is different than most in that it is written by a professional editor. ("Solutions for Novelists" by Sol Stein) He talks about the stuff that annoys the hell out of him and how rarely writers ever put themselves in the shoes of a potential reader to see things from their point of view. Most fascinating indeed. He has very definite preferences. Once again the golden rule of "Show not tell" and if you can't imagine a segment of the story as a movie scene then it's got no business being in the story. Never underestimate the influence of the cinema is one of his favorite themes.
But this evening was dedicated to neither reading nor squiggling but sorting out the mess that is the Lair. Tonight's target were piles and piles of books that needed to be put somewhere.
It would likely take a lifetime to read the accumulation of words in the Lair - there's books in every nook and cranny.
Now the froggies are gone, all those books in the lounge are once again available for peeking in.
They must have been having babies during those two years or so of not being able to keep an eye on them
Yessss. The last thing the serpent needs is yet more books. It's an incurable addiction but one of our favorites.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 05:54 am (UTC)Speaking of nano, I'm trying to resurrect my novel from last year and have set up a writing filter on lj. Want to be added?
I've been too busy, I really want to import lj over here and fiddle a bit but somehow real life keeps getting in the way... enjoying reading your entries, though.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-17 01:42 pm (UTC)Never did mention the presenter's name - it's Alan Hancock and he even has his own website
The lecture was for only 90 minutes but he basically distilled into those 90 minutes stuff that took us 30 days to discover ;) But then again learning by doing is the best way when it comes to writing. And reading his biography page - it seems that is exactly how he learned all that stuff too.
Here's hoping that with a bit of strategic requests and interesting leaflets, maybe it would even be possible to get the City of Perth library and others to see the wonderful advantages of having a bunch of nano novelists occupying their cosy little lounge - which is not in the quiet zone and conveniently has wifi access and maybe a bunch of powerpoints or two.
Presently sort of plotting and planning for this year's nanowrimo. The theory is to see what difference it makes to getting the actual words down on paper.
For the first year did not sign up until a couple of days before the beginning knowing that it would be the only chance to wing it as the serpent nature is more of a plodder and plotter than pantser. Slow and steady.
Last year started the plotting and planning mid September. It seemed to make a big difference but not as big as having half decent writing software and not the infernal and sluggish Google docs which constantly crashed and become more unstable the longer the story got. It also meant having to reread huge chunks of the story while trying to find where last leaving off
This time got only the first two weeks of the month off so we need to get every possible obstacle out of the way. Aiming for 60,000 this time.
Never bothered too much with editing or revising the first two entries considering them to be experiments and practice runs. An apprenticeship so to say. And nanowrimo certainly teaches you more than any number of writing workshops or devouring countless books about how to write a novel instead of just getting on with it
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 02:18 pm (UTC)I'm thinking of cheating a little this year with Nano and may actually try to finish off a good draft of an existing story. I haven't written much of it so far but I figure if I'm still going to aim for the 50K it will be adding a good chunk to what I've already got, and I really need to FINISH something instead of continually starting and leaving half-done works-in-progress in my writing folder.
Getting on with it... that's my problem, I think!! :D
I'm just tinkering with an entry now over at LJ, will add you to my writing filter now.