A writing related post! I’ve been very reading-centric so it’s a relief to write this. My library’s writers group got together about a month ago and I’m only now getting around to summing this up. I hope some of this is worth it for you!
One of the other members said he does his writing using the snowflake method. I’d never heard of this, but it sounds interesting. There’s software related to this, it seems. You can read about it here. The basic concept is that you start with one sentence, then a paragraph, then a page, etc. At some point, you have a full novel, just growing it slowly so the points of the story are always in sight. Cool idea.
Then we talked about writing as a process. Our organizer gave us all a quote she’d found from a famous author about writing my favorite was from Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo
Rereading parts of your novel while writing is like doubling back at rerunning parts of a marathon midrace.
As an amateur runner, this really struck me. Though, I know this is only one approach to writing. Some writers get halfway through, read their novels, and then decide if they’re heading in the wrong direction. Still, I like Baty’s idea. It matters more that you get there, not how you get there.
The last thing we did was talk about clichés. The exercise we did was really great; we were given a list of cliché phrases and story plots and had to re-write them as something similar that’s not a cliché. So, for example, we were given the phrase “his bark was worse than his bite.” I wrote, “the Sargent screamed so loud that he covered Joel’s face in his spit. he threatened to transfer him, court-martial him. But we all knew he’d never willing let go of any of us.” It’s more fun to do with cliché plots. Here are a few, give it a try!
- Technology has turned us all into soulless robots
- Scar-crossed lovers
- An orphan turns out to be someone important
- It was all just a dream
That’s all for this meeting. I’ll be on a business trip for the next one so unfortunately I’ll miss that. I hope to update you all again as soon as I can with another writers’ group summary.
Remember to vote for the next book in my Read-Along series. Voting ends Monday, 25-August. Read more about it here.
Until next time, write on.
You can follow me on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I’m available via email at SamAStevensWriter@gmail.com. And as always, feel free to leave a comment!
Taking On a World of Words 