No doubt about it. Everything old is new again. Some of the recent conversations in the Writers’ Boot Camps forums inspired me to fish out an old interchange that makes a lot of interesting and enlightening points. Which is better–first, close third, omniscient? Can they be mixed without causing atmospheric anomalies?
The Secret Word is P-O-V.
Human Scenery? Is that legal? Is it even safe?
Daily life is detailed with persons who fulfill requirements but who won’t make it into that leather-bound journal on the nightstand. They populate the world without affecting it. They are human scenery.
Fiction, famously more demanding than daily life, is a chilly place for human scenery. Week 6 of How To Revise Your Novel lists and analyzes the characters who fulfill the plot and provide the warm, wiggly heart of the book.
Log in to see how HTRYN students have discovered their characters thus far.
By the way, how many Heavy Ciphers and Loud Skinnies did you find in your own novel?
This Sideways grad is planning a novel set in Seattle, a town with which she is not familiar.
Every professional writer researches locations, so this student began by gathering available materials. Feeling that she did not have enough information about the daily life of Seattle, she did the Sideways thing.
She sent out a call for spies–students with a special knowledge of her subject.
How many chances do you get to hire a spy–or to be one?
Log in and see what’s up.
This Writers’ Boot Camps student entered the annual Pikes Peak Writers contest. So, last night, she opened a particular email, and–
Imagine my thrill to find out I’m one of three finalists in the SF/F/H category! I’ll find out later exactly where I’ve placed. . . .
This is the book I posted chapter-by-chapter on my WordPress grad blog that some of you read. I removed several minor characters and one major, streamlined the story, and submitted it as a 105K word novel.
Read her complete Eureka post and the happy congratulations.
Story takes place somewhere and somewhen, and if those elements are not right the story can’t be right. Oh, the pressure!
Week Seven of HTRYN guides the writer to analyze his story world, from the macro to the micro, from World right down to Blinkies and Shinbangers. What are those, are they necessary, and how can they be most effectively used?
Here students report their findings in this part of the triage process. This is fun. Lotsa fun.
This student of How To Think Sideways has found her flow.
In the last two weeks I have developed a whole story from scratch, plot, scenes, characters and written over 12,000 words. I wrote 6 scenes yesterday over 5000 words in about five hours. It is just flowing. I feel like after two and half years of struggling to get what story arc, tension and conflict are, that I have finally cracked the conflict and twist thing in a scene. My scenes are flowing, I am loving what I am writing because it no longer feels like boring stuff that makes me go to sleep and lose interest. I am excited to write these scenes because they are interesting!
See her whole Eureka! here.
Very often, what’s in a theme is a huge, humbling surprise. Your you was working out plot details and making sure each scene had a proper structure and stressing over margins or typeface.
Your Muse was quietly revealing your heart, because that’s the beat she marches, slinks, bounces or tangos to.
HTRYN’s worksheets on theme have brought these writers some useful epiphanies. There’s room for you, too. Be brave and join in.
In addition to the Writers’ Boot Camps, Holly offers downloadable clinics on topics vital to writers. It’s a scrumptious and nutritious buffet–but where does the line start?
After downloading and devouring Holly’s clinics, this writer took the plunge and signed up for HtTS. The question now is whether to work through the clinics first or HtTS.
Also, how do Holly’s classes work for screenplays?
Sideways Students chimed in with ideas and information. What can you add? What can you take away? Hmm?
Don’t you love it when you learn how to fix a problem you didn’t even know you had? That’s what happened for this HTRYN student:
Okay, I was guilty of the “I don’t need this, my story is set in the here and now” mindset when I first read this lesson material. BUT, I figured I would do this anyway. Grudgingly.
That’s when I realized that . . . I never truly grounded my reader in my world. I mean, I KNOW why this tale had to be set in this place, but I never got that across, and my story is weaker for it.
Thank, Holly! No doubt I will find more reasons to cry/hope as I wade through this lesson.
This is so cool.