Fired Up

Stellar Morning

Surrounded by more than one hundred like-minded individuals, captured by the air of excitement, I attended the 11th Word on the Lake Writers Festival. The line-up of presenters was impressive, the workshops, and panel discussions informative.

Writing is a solitary endeavor. When I feel stuck or low on energy, my solution is to take pen and notebook and visit a coffee shop. The bustle of activity around me serves as an energy boost, and my written words fly across the pages. I’ve begun to think of myself as the coffee shop vampire. Imagine how I felt mingling with all these fired- up writers. I’m still vibrating.

Diana Gabaldon, one of the presenters, gave three workshops. The first, covered Building Believable Characters, the second, How to Keep the Reader Turning Pages, and the third, How to Write, or Not Write a Sex Scene.

What resonated, for me, from these three presentations is this:

Characterization

• Find expressions and mannerisms that set each character apart.
• Consider how each character will speak. Is there an accent? If so, use the accent sparingly. If the reader knows where the character is from, their own imagination will supply the character’s accent, bolstered by a few expressions for emphasis. Diana’s character, Jamie, used expressions such as “ Aye.”
• Bestow different attitudes for your characters.
• Consider how each character will contribute to the conflict. How do they fit in? And, are they necessary to move the story along?

How to Keep the Reader Turning Pages:

• Ask questions; big questions and small questions. Readers want answers.
• Provide answers to the small questions and save the big question until the end.
• Keep the reader wanting more by giving less, but not too little. The writer needs to strike a balance.
• Each chapter raises a question, and provides an answer. The underlying question is the promise, and the reader will read to the very end to find out.

How to Write, and not Write a Sex Scene:

• Keep a sex scene subtle. A badly written sex scene is hilarious, and this reaction is likely not the writer’s goal.
• It’s more about the relationship between the two characters, how well they know each other, or if they know each other at all.
• Small bits of dialogue, using the senses in describing, helps create a realistic scene.
• Everyone knows about sex, so they don’t need a play by play. Imagination is a powerful tool, and the reader has plenty of imagination to contribute.

I came away from the festival with a different way of thinking about chapters and paragraphs:

• A chapter is a short story in itself. It asks a question, small or large, and provides an answer. It also hints at the big question, sometimes offering clues.
• A paragraph, like a story, has a beginning, middle and end. I like that. -Simple enough, but for some reason it’s important to my approach to writing

The title to this post is Fired UP. I found that the lively energy I absorbed from the festival spilled into another of my other focuses, pottery. Tomorrow I am having a month long mug show at a local coffee shop, Oso Negro, in Nelson BC. Energy is energy, so thank you, Word on the Lake.