Libby

Ah another person in search of their murderer. I wrote 90% of my first draft before I identified mine!

I too found it fairly alien until recently but it works for me in a weird way, nudging my unconscious to sort problems out if that makes sense.

I am absolutely loving doing the character questionnaires, using the characters from the splurgy and shapeless first draft of my current WIP. Like @squidge though, I am not sure if I would get so much out of doing it before I had written extensively about them. It would feel like inventing a character rather than discovering one. Has anybody tried…[Read more]

Ditto from me @katemachon . Another quote from, I think, later in the chapter is ‘There’s nothing generic about fiction’- probably misquoted as I didn’t write it down. And also from The Art of Character – ‘It’s through character that we bring the general down to earth.’I am feeling both inspired and daunted!

I haven’t finished this chapter yet, but I’m already fascinated. Love the Sloane rule that speech ‘must do more than one thing or it is too inert for the purposes of fiction.’

And the example of the argument about sinking the oil rigs was an eye opener – to engage us emotionally in a disagreement, the characters must have an emotional stake in…[Read more]

Or choose a character you’ve developed already and see if the character questionnaire sheds any new light. Like you, I tend to discover who they are as I write.

Yes! I think that is what the MA is all about.

Thanks for all your hard work @woolleybeans.

Nice summary @JaneShuff. I think you’re right – it’s about getting in the mindset of making notes and creating work regularly. I read an interesting quote from Ira Glass about closing the gap between what you want to be creating and where you are now. That was all about doing a big volume of work and having deadlines. It’s back to the old idea of…[Read more]

I hope I’ve understood what is required/suggested for this part of the course. My overall aim is to expand my range in terms of writing habits and the type of writing I do which up to now has been very focussed on writing one novel after another.

I write every day already unless I am away from home or it is really impossible.

My plan t…[Read more]

Thanks WB!

Am looking forward to Class 2 and glad it’s working out for everybody.

Works for me. I’ve got my journal ready, just haven’t written in it yet! But a step in the right direction.

Going to jump in now because time and access to internet are going to be in short supply over the next week.

I am happy with how it’s going. I have no wish for it to be any quicker than it is.

I adored this @KazG. Nothing else to say.