Session 10: Wrap-up

At this meet-up we:

• discussed challenges we are facing with regards to our writing, and shared updates on our works-in-progress.
• talked about what topics we would like to see addressed or that various individuals might lead a discussion about. 

Writing obstacles we are facing:

• Getting from action scene to actions scene. The antagonist is a doer and not prone to introspection, yet the character and plot both require a moment of reflection to take stock and maintain the pacing. How to keep this from dragging and being boring? 

          One suggestion:
       
         -Think of your action scenes as dosing a reader. You want each dose (action scene) to have maximum impact so you're not numbing your reader. A break in the action not only preserves its potency, but allows the writer to pursue the MC's internal journey's and struggles which give the reader an "in" to connect with the protagonist and understand his or her fears/weaknesses/motivations.

• Getting feedback from Beta readers.

         Conclusion:
   
         -Perhaps sending to more readers doesn't ensure more feedback. In previous Beta reading cycles, writer had six readers and got six sets of feedback. This round, more than tripled the number of readers yet still only got six sets of feedback. If you've got a good range of readers that consistently provide quality input, adding more people may not yield better results.

• There was a general feeling that many writers would benefit from group writing sessions, to have accountability and the benefit of peer pressure to write and not... not-write.

And in victories, Sabine finished the first draft of her novel! Woo hoo!

Some suggestions for future meet-ups:

• All read a short story and have one person present on a particular story element
• All write to a prompt and then share the results
• A discussion or presentation on outlining and structuring, and the various approaches (painter/sculpter, plotter/pantser)
• Pick a format and discuss its  mechanics: long story, short short, poem, essay
• Discuss/present on detail accuracy and how much research, explanation, description is required 
• How nonfiction writing works and how much fiction and fictional elements play into this genre
• Scene setting during action scenes: providing context and a clear sense of space and movement while maintaining the intensity
• Protagonists and Antagonists

Session 9: Wrap-up

Instead of a traditional workshopping session, we spent the discussion portion of this meet-up analyzing self-selected published pieces of what each of us consider to be (nearly) flawless writing.

A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean

Through careful use of language, symbolism, and imagery the author is able to assign multiple meanings to people and objects, such that when he talks about one thing, it evokes for the reader a deeper significance with multiple associations associations.

Thanh-Nu brought up the idea that every story is two stories, and when the narrative really works, those two stories collide and make magic at the intersection. Sometimes that second story comes entirely from the reader and has nothing to do with the author's intentions. In any case, this second story is often different from reader to reader. It's the individual reader's own perspective and perceptions that shape what they see as the secondary narrative and its meaning.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Economy of language is key to the author's ability to convey so much with very little description. This launched a discussion around the themes of show v. tell and the idea that less is more, especially in evoking horror in a reader (or viewer). Given a powerful suggestion, our imagination can spin more terror than any text or image might invoke. Jim posited idea of "writing as mind control," where a writer is carefully manipulating the reader to think and feel according to the writer's plan. We also talked about the pacing of McCarthy's storytelling, and how it not only allows you room to think and provide your own imaginings, but propels the story forward in tight, effective scenes.

Red Plenty by Frances Spufford

The use of language/word choice serves form and function, such that meaning is conveyed in a poetic way. Alliteration, repetition, rhythm, and motif create lyrical prose exploring--as Sabine put it--the tension between the ordained world and the natural one.

In and around these discussions of specific texts, we also hit on:

• getting to the root of why we, the writer, are writing what we're writing? It's a crucial question, and often difficult to answer. This subject stemmed from the more specific question of why an author will traumatize a reader. Is it a power/ego trip, or is there value in this? What's the purpose?

• the difference between eliciting an organic response from a reader versus trying to write to that response (making a reader cry, for example, versus *trying* to make your reader cry)

• how, in nonfiction, it can take years and years to get to the truth of a moment or experience and be able to write it as it was, uncolored by anger or other strong emotions that might disrupt the authenticity and effectiveness of the writing.

Giving and Receiving Feedback

For the last portion of the meet-up, Renée led a discussion on giving and receiving feedback. 
(See her notes below.)

We discussed the "sandwich" model of feedback, structuring your comments in a positive-negative-positive order, and how it is no longer a preferred model for giving input.  Instead, just giving positive feedback, followed by the constructive criticism, is a better approach. Renée also highlighted the SBU, SAID, DRIVE, and CARE models, which are detailed in her notes. Similar to the ineffective nature of the sandwich, using the word "but" in a sentence renders everything before that word null and void. "And" is a much better word choice. In a group setting like workshopping, ensure the group has continuity in their feedback approach.

Tips for receiving feedback:

• When you're ready, everything goes better. To mentally prepare yourself, consider all feedback—positive and negative—a gift, and thank the person giving it (no matter how hard it may be to hear what they have to say!). 

• Whether they are sharing a criticism or a flattery, you're likely to be triggered by it. Have strategies for dealing with your response. Do you reply to stressful situations with a fight or flight response? Do you get angry and combative, or shut down and want to run away?

• To buy yourself time (usually 90 seconds is needed) to move through your triggered reaction, have a pen and paper ready to write down what the person is saying. This serves two purposes: it allows you to do something productive and appropriate to the situation while the panic passes, and you are also keeping a record of what is actually being said instead of what you expect to hear or think they are saying. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing; when you go back and review your notes, you may be surprised to find that the criticisms weren't nearly as bad as you felt they were in the moment!

• Another tool to buy time is to ask clarifying questions: Can you say more about/describe that? Can you give me an example?

Tips for giving feedback:

• Make clear that this is your perspective on the situation, not a judgement of the person. These are the facts as you, the giver, sees it, and focus on the impact you've observed and what you'd like to see done about it (possible fixes and actions).

• Don't attack the person, make broad generalizations, or imply that everyone holds the same opinion (unless you have verified this is so, and even then, tread lightly to avoid a sense of ganging up on the recipient). 

• Don't be vague or unclear, or use judgemental language.

• Always go for frequent and thorough feedback versus infrequent and incomplete input.

• Focus on the behavior, not the individual.

• Report observations and stay specific.

• Put yourself in the other person's shoes.

Timing!

When giving or receiving feedback, ensure you have adequate time for the conversation. If you know you're going to be distracted or interrupted, reschedule. Ensure you're in the right mindset such that the exchange is productive. And when giving feedback, try to keep the input close to when the action or situation occurs.

Session 8: Exercise

At our last meet-up, Jerome talked about the role of magic in a story, and how all magic must come at a cost.

With that in mind, try his exercise before our next meeting on July 21:


Pick anything that could be the cost of your magic ...
e.g. What if the cost of casting a spell is a loss of air around the person casting the spell? What if you lose some hair when you use magic?

Now think about all aspects of that, and how this tension/friction will inevitably impact on the society's infrastructure, its culture, its religions, the world around the characters, the way those at either extreme would be treated, and so-on.

Session 8: Wrap-up

We had so much fun with our exercise this week: to read and attempt to critique the Very Bad Prose that Lindsey posted for us, courtesy Dangerously Curvy Novels.

We are now fairly sure that, yes, it is terrible prose, and we all came away from it with extra determination to be aware of our reader's expectations, not only with how a text should look on the page (typos, breaking up paragraphs, punctuation etc.) but also that somewhere there needs to be a point. And if bad use of language and distracted narrative obscures the point ...? We'll likely chuck the book.

World-building

Thanks to Jerome for an informative and practical view into the art of world-building. 

Two key starting points, especially for writers of fantasy, that you can't go wrong with:

• geography
• magic  

Geography

A great place to start is by drawing a map of your world because this will inform the action, the history of the land and its inhabitants, the character of the people/creatures ... it can also kick-start great plot ideas (e.g. How exactly are they going to cross that mountain range in winter? What if the delta is flooded?).

Magic

A writer should always be aware of what exactly is possible to do with their magic (or new technology).

Say, for example, you have a box that can record people's thoughts. There are many questions you can ask about that box:

• From what distance does it work?
• What happens when there are multiple people in the same place?
• Does it need to be calibrated to a person, or does it work on anyone? 
• How big is the box? 
• And so on. 

You need to know the answer to all of these questions, and fix them!

If a technology (or magic) is very powerful, look at all your scenes and consider if the problems your character faces could be solved with it, because even if your characters don't remember, your readers still will!

Secondly, remember that all magic must come at a cost.

An exercise

Pick anything that could be the cost of your magic ...
e.g. What if the cost of casting a spell is a loss of air around the person casting the spell? What if you lose some hair when you use magic?

Now think about all aspects of that, and how this tension/friction will inevitably impact on the society's infrastructure, its culture, its religions, the world around the characters, the way those at either extreme would be treated, and so-on.

Session 7: Exercise

Here is a 'diagnostic' exercise to complete in time for Session 8:

This is a continuation on from our discussion about being able to discern 'opinion' (or 'personality') from 'description', in order to be able to observe how the narrative voice may be biased.

Select a paragraph of your own text (can be fiction or non fiction), and go through it, highlighting only the bits that aren't opinion or embellishment, but are the bare bones of description about what is happening.

Now go through and look for words that are embellishments, and you'll see that these are either unconscious (the writer doesn't realise they're offering their POV) or intentional (the writer is using the bias in order to give the narrator a personality or an unreliability, perhaps).

You should be able to start building a picture of how the writer is positioning the narrative voice.

Example from Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 1.

Bold is bare bones.
Green is opinion or example of how the words chosen exhibit personality.
Orange is assumption.

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all — I'm not saying that — but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.

You'll see the narrative voice is being built up as an 'unreliable' narrator. We can see he is probably young (colourful, colloquial language), has opinions, makes assumptions, and has perhaps even had (or likes to say he's had!) a breakdown.

Which all adds up to a unique Point of View!

Session 7: Wrap-up

Our 'topic' this session was Point of View (POV), and we were able to incorporate some thoughts about POV and its importance into the workshopping session.

We also had a discussion about writing in a language that's not your mother tongue.

POV

We kicked off with our workshop piece, and referred to the first chapters of the submitted work-in-progress to look at two POV aspects in particular:

1. How we break up our narrative on the page, asking questions like: How can the visual design be a 'clue' for the reader about a change in POV?

For example, italics can signify that the narrative voice is switching from external to internal. Thriller novels use this technique, sometimes as a way to get inside the head of the protagonist or the antagonist. (e.g. Silence of the Lambs.)

Similarly, a paragraph break can be a clue that a new action is happening, or we are changing focus (or dialogue) to a different character, or perhaps a different train of thought is being tacked.

2. How we choose to position our narration. How much does the narrator know? Are they all-knowing? How much of what they say is reliable?

We discussed the advantages of having a narrator who doesn't know everything (who is not omniscient), because it can be easier to keep the reader 'in the dark' or 'guessing', so to speak.

And, on the other hand, with Memoir, for example, omniscience can be useful for painting pictures with broad strokes, especially when writing about, e.g., a global political climate, or events going on in a country at the time the story is set.

(We also talked briefly about The Martian, because about 2/3 of the way through (ish), the 3rd person narrative voice breaks into an omniscient voice ... for just one solitary chapter. It's weird, but somehow it works, perhaps because of the pace or timing, as up till that point it's a fairly intense, same-ish read, and the break-out chapter provides a change of sorts for the reader to take a breath. We're talking about the final frontier, after all!)

We talked about the excellent exercise of breaking down our narrative into dot points, in order to remove everything that isn't a straight-up description of action. (One of Libby's favourite activities. :)) This is good practice for learning to identify opinion and fact (or action), and how we use the interplay of these elements (plus description and our innate writerly magic of course!) in order to build narrative reliability (or not).

An 'unreliable narrator' can provide the reader with a 'game', where they must work out what's real and what's not, what's fact and what's narrative fiction. Fun!

Writing in a language that's not your mother tongue

In this session, Thanh-Nu kindly shared her experiences of writing in English (a third language), having first learned Vietnamese and then French.

An insight for all of us was that being able to write in our first language can be an advantage, but we can also be too 'close' to that language, and sometimes writing in a different language can give you critical distance ... as well as some turns of phrase that are very 'non-cliché' and even unusually beautiful.

Session 7: Outline

At our meet-up on May 19th, we will:

• Hear from Thanh-Nu about submitting writing in a language that's not your mother tongue (and, if we get time, a few hot tips on submitting for journals and small presses!).

• Talk about POV (Point of View) and how choosing the point of view from which you tell your story matters (and in what ways).

• Tie POV to the units of story (global, scene, dialogue etc.).