Yesterday, I attended an incredible writing event hosted by Jericho Writers. It was a fantastic day, with talks from amazing writers, authors and agents. I just need to state that I would 100% attend one of their events again, and recommend them to other writers hoping to gain huge insight into writing, getting an agent and publishing.
So, I thought I’d share with you all some of the writing lessons I took away from the day. Next week I’ll share some of the publishing lessons too, but I think it’ll be too much if I try and fit everything into one blog post, so here we go!
1. Speech is one of the most powerful character traits
The first talk of the day was about ‘advanced characterisation’ and spoke about the various ways we can portray our characters to ensure they have depth. ‘Speech’ was discussed for a while as a powerful tool to really show who a character is, rather than simply tell. You can tell a lot about a character by the way they interact with people, their word choices, the things they choose to say out loud and the things they keep inside. It can help show you what their relationship with a person is like, whether it’s tense or relaxed for example. This talk was given by writer J.S. Law, and he actually said he does whole drafts based on individual characters’ dialogue. This way he can assure their voice is consistent and in line with who they are and how they would talk. This is a tip I’m going to take up myself.
2. There are no rules
It’s spoken about a lot in writing, the rules we follow to try and make sure we fit in, or are doing things properly. The rules we break because we don’t want to follow the crowd. But the truth is, there are no rules. If you want to write in first person present tense do it. If you want to switch tense with each POV chapter do it. Essentially, if you have a reason to do it the way you’re doing it, then don’t worry about what people say is right or wrong. It is creative writing, and if you bend to meet certain rules you lose your freedom to be creative and do something different.
3. Sometimes it’s okay to tell, instead of show
I say this one, because show don’t tell is spoken about a lot, and haven’t we just said there are no rules? But Debi Alper gave a great example during her talk about why it’s sometimes okay to tell instead of show. Her example was this:
If you’re writing a romance novel and the love interest has come around for coffee, you can show the character’s nervousness through how she makes the coffee. Show her trembling hands, her urgency to wipe away spillage so her crush doesn’t think she’s clumsy or messy. However, if you’re writing crime and somebody has come over for coffee because they’ve big news/found a clue, then the making of the coffee isn’t important and can be told instead. In this example, nobody wants to see the process of making the coffee, they just want to get to the big reveal! In essence, writing is all about finding the balance.
4. Post-its can be used for everything
In a brilliant, and very funny, talk by author Julie Cohen, she explained how Post-Its are a writers best friend. She gave six examples of how Post-Its can be used in writing. They can be used to brainstorm ideas, plan your story, see the stories shape, add sub-plot, see your story’s bones/outline, and revise your story. She chose post-its because they’re easy to move around, they’re disposable and they give you freedom to play around with all aspects of your novel writing journey. I won’t go into this in as much depth, as this is a talk she does at many events, and there is too much to get into one blog post point. But what I will say is this: get some post-its (or index/flash/revision cards) and see how they can help you arrange your plotting and planning.
5. Every scene should move the story forward
In writing, there’s no use in a scene that doesn’t move the story and the plot forward. One way to test this is to use a ‘Narrative Triangle’. Ask yourself three questions for each scene: 1. Where do you start? 2. What happens? 3. Where do you end up?
If you end up in the same place as you started then the scene doesn’t move the story forward, and should be revised to change this, or removed completely. Readers don’t have the patience to wait for things to slowly unfold, they want to be constantly swept along with the story.
I feel like these five points don’t really give the day justice, but I hope some of them are helpful. Next week I will post key learning points about getting agents/publishing and I hope that’ll offer you a lot too.
Have you ever been to a writing event? What did you learn? Share in the comments.
Until then,
Keep writing,
M
x
Sounds like you had a good time and learned a lot! Thanks for sharing. 😀
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Thanks for sharing, Meelie. Sounds like such a wonderful event with lots of great tips. I love the one about the rules. Can’t wait to read the next post.
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Thanks Kate! It’ll be next weeks post for sure, so hope it helps. Hope you’re well ❤
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😊 I’m good, thanks.
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I’m so glad you enjoyed the event. Thanks for sharing these great points, I can’t wait to read next weeks too.
I’m hoping to do an event in the summer. 😊
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Thanks, Rainy! Hope you find a good one to go to, I’m sure you will 😀 xx
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Thank you 🙂
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Welcome 😀
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Reblogged this on Writing for the Whole Darn Universe.
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Thank you 🙂 x
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Thanks for sharing these tips. I like the post-its/index card and the “Narrative Triangle” ideas. I’m going to put them into practice immediately.
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Thanks so much Janet, hope they help! x
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this great post from the Uninspired Writers blog with Key Writing Lessons from a Writing Event
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Thank you 🙂
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You’re welcome.
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Another great thing you can do with Post-Its is come up with sense notes about different scenes (the sound of rain hitting the window, the scent of lilacs coming in through the open window). It’s helped me immerse more fully into a scene I imagined months before. I’ll have to look for events like this in my area! Sounds like it was really informative!
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I LOVE this idea! I’m going to use this as I continue with my current WIP, thanks so much for sharing ❤ xx
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Thank you for sharing these tips!! I’m glad you had fun, the conference sounds amazing. The lesson about rules is especially a good one! I think you need to know the rules to break the rules, but if you have a why, then who cares whether you follow them or not? Whatever tells your story best. 🙂
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Thank you Madeline ❤ xx
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These events are so important to attend. I cannot stress them enough. I’ve been to a couple of them and I wish I could attend more. Not only do we learn but we are reassured what we thought was already true.
I’m happy to see that it helped you. Thank you for sharing your experience.
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Reblogged this on When Angels Fly.
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Thank you x
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Welcome!
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All good points, particularly #2 and #3. One of my writing mentors said “it’s important to learn the rules, so that you only break them intentionally.”
And I definitely think a writer should consider all of their tools, including telling. As Debi Alper cited, there are times where essential information needs to be established, but no one wants to spend much time with it.
I think a lot of “rules” exist because certain things are either over done or very challenging, so most writers need to cut down/avoid them, at least in the beginning.
At the end of the day we are all free to write whatever we wish, but if our goal is to appeal to a larger audience than ourselves, there are definitely some things worth considering.
Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for your thoughts, Adam. Spot on! x
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What goes great with post-its is a huge project board! I used to keep one of those boards around for whenever I needed to visually plot something out.
Great advice!
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That sounds awesome 😀 love that x
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All of them are really helpful.. Thank you so much for sharing what you learned! 😊
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Thank you for reading, glad they were useful tips ❤
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