Fiction Friday: The Joy of Teaching

A couple of weeks ago I taught a writing class at the Words Worth Writing Center here in Dayton. (Well, actually in the conference room at the Oakwood Starbucks).

I tried teaching for the first time last Fall, three 2-hour classes in three weeks and I was so nervous I couldn't really enjoy it, but this time I LOVED IT!

Maybe it was the boost of confidence I got from winning the Golden Heart, or maybe it was just that it wasn't an unknown this time, but I felt like I was in the groove. We talked about protagonists, antagonists, goals, motivation, conflict and conflict locks--all the essentials for writing riveting fiction.

I started off by warning them that I'm not a teacher, I'm a computer programmer, so there was something they didn't understand, they needed to stop me. I wanted the class to be interactive, a dialogue. And that actually happened, and it was great.

The class was primarily based on Deb Dixon's Goal, Motivation and Conflict, one of the best writing books I've ever come across.

I lectured for about an hour and then handed out GMC templates and had them fill them in for their works-in-progress. While the class worked, they were free to come and discuss their work-in-progress with me individually. They had a pretty wide range of skills--some were newbies, others had thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of words on the page and just needed some help organizing them.

A common thread I heard was all this luscious back story they'd worked up for their characters. Which was great, because it meant that identifying the character's motivation, the why? of what they were doing, was pretty easy for them.

The harder part was learning that very little of what they'd accumulated had any place on the page. Mostly, their stories started after all that stuff--parents dying, boyfriends dumping, vampires swarming--happened.

We talked about setting up the protagonist and antagonist's goals so they they're mutually exclusive and only one can win. That doesn't necessarily mean the antagonist has a goal of stopping the protagonist from getting what she wants--stopping the protagonist may just be a by-product of the antagonist getting what he wants.

Here's the sample conflict box I put together for an early draft of Demon's Wager. The final version turned out a little different, but see how their actions interlock to block one another?

	Goal	Action	Conflict
Protagonist-- Belial	To win the wager and get Satan off his ass	1)      Volunteers to work at Dara’s clinic 2)      Cuts off all the other sources of funding and offers her a bribe. 3)      Commits malpractice and begs her to cover for him.	1)      Shreds his application and kicks him out of the Clinic. 2)      Assigns him to work in the PEDS clinic, where he catches the measles. 3)      Refuses to cover for him
Antagonist-- Dara Strong	To keep her clinic running	1)      Shreds the application of the demon who's trying to invade her Clinic. 2)     Takes the money but assigns him to work in the PEDS clinic, where she can keep a close eye on him. 3)      Refuses to cover for him	1)   Volunteers to work at Dara’s clinic 2)  Cuts off all the other sources of funding and offers her a $250,000 grant. 3)  Commits malpractice and begs her to cover for him.

Words Worth is going to offer the 3-class series again in the Fall. We'll talk about all of the above, plus acts, scenes, beats, turning points and subplots.

I'm already stoked!

Fiction Friday: Work Ethic vs. The Muse

When I was in New York for the RWA national conference in July, I got a chance to see two of my writing idols: Jenny Crusie and Nora Roberts. It's hard to imagine two writers whose philosophies are more different.

Jenny was my instructor in the romance writing certificate program at McDaniel College. I give her 95% of the credit for my Golden Heart win. Jenny is a firm believer in Calliope, the Muse of Writing. Well, she actually refers to her muses as The Girls in the Attic. In Jenny's view, the Girls are responsible for the inspiration that allows us to create story worlds. She says, "Whatever you do, don't get in the way of the Girls."

Jenny has published 15 books and is a legend in the romance writing world. Her books are brilliant and witty, with characters you want to hang out with far longer than the story lasts. Her most recent book came out in 2010 and she has legions of fans who are eagerly awaiting the next. She made time to meet with the McDaniel alums on Friday evening. Next to winning the Golden Heart, my favorite memory from the conference is of sitting at the hotel bar with the smartest writers I know, talking about the craft and business of writing.

I didn't get to actually meet Nora, but I did sit in on a Chat with Nora session, where everyone got to ask questions. Nora has published 250+ books over the past forty years. Growing up, she attended Catholic school and the nuns' rulers drove home the value of hard work.Although she is worth approximately $150 million dollars according to the website, The Richest, She still writes 6-8 hours a day, 6 days a week, 50 weeks a year. (She vacations the other two).

Her view of the writing muse is the polar opposite of Jenny's. Another writer once came to her husband's bookstore for a book signing and tried to engage her in a conversation on the topic.

"How do you summon your muse?" he asked.

"There is no f*cking muse," Nora replied. "You just sit there and you write until you have a book."

When my turn came to throw out a question, I asked, "Has there ever been a book you couldn't finish, one you just couldn't figure out?"

"No!" She was outraged. "If that happened, the book would win."

There's no question this approach works for her, but looking at this continuum, I'm closer to Jenny's end than Nora's.

How about you?

My Life Monday: Beauty is in the Eyelashes of the Beholder

A few weeks ago my 11-year-old granddaughter was visiting and we agreed to trade pedicures.

She judged my inventory of nail polish to be completely inadequate, so we made a quick trip to the store to pick up better (to an 11-year-old, anyway) colors.

The false eyelashes were right there beside the nail polish. While she was deciding between pink and red (we went with both), I picked up a set of eyelashes and considered them.

Kylie saw me checking them out. She took the box from my hand and put it back on the shelf.

"No, Grandma," she said. "If you don't have them, you just don't have them."

I love that kid.