Tweet I’ve told the story before about the time I graduated from college, realized I needed to get a job (yes, in that order), freaked out, and then fell into a high-paying technical-writing position that was created just for me. My interview went, “Would you prefer to work in this cubicle, or that one?” And […]
Tweet When it comes to movies and TV shows, I am continually behind-the-times. I grew up watching AFN (American Forces Network, which, as I understand, bought shows from stateside networks. This meant we saw TV shows 6-18 months after they started airing in the US. The delay was only frustrating if you were someone who’d […]
Tweet In January of 2011, I started taking a class called “Readings in Mass Communication” in pursuit of my Master of Professional Writing degree at the University of Oklahoma. It’s an interdisciplinary theory course that combines lectures and select readings in the academic literature to explore the changing role of mass communication in society, its […]
Tweet In yesterday’s article I introduced the concept of sequels in classical scene structure. They act as a kind of transition, a moment of reflection, and (as I said at the end) they provide your protagonist with a critical opportunity to shine. I described the sequel as a progression: It starts with an emotional reaction […]
Tweet Last week I told you all about classical scene structure for novels. The core of it is that the scenes driving your story should always be tightly focused on a direct conflict between two characters, and the scene should end in catastrophe for the protagonist. One More Word on Catastrophe Now…there is a great […]
Tweet Last week Trish went to book club which meant that, for just one evening, I had to watch the kids all by myself. It was terrifying. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids. They’re astonishingly smart and absolutely adorable, and I have a lot of fun playing with them when I get […]
Tweet I started the week talking about writing 17,000 words in three days…and all the catastrophes that made it necessary in the first place. Then yesterday I talked about a new writing technique I’ve been studying in class that pushes a novel toward lots of conflict and catastrophe. Today I want to make the connection. […]
Tweet Okay, I’ve been mentioning my Master of Professional Writing program left and right, but I want to say up front that full credit for the information in this week’s and next week’s posts goes to Deborah Chester. She’s the professor teaching my Writing the Novel class, and a lot of these ideas come straight […]
Tweet I’m pursuing a Master of Professional Writing degree at the University of Oklahoma. This semester, I’m taking one of the program’s three keystone classes, “Writing the Novel.” It involves two lectures on writing technique every week, but the core of it is the semester project. Over the space of just four months (almost five), […]
Tweet In the fall of 2009, I started a grand experiment. The English department at my alma mater lost their Tech Writing professor at the last minute, and the chair of the department asked me to step in and teach the class for a semester. I agreed, and then scrambled to put together a lesson […]
