Jennifer Lauck's Blog, page 10

Hawthorne Fellows Schedule

Hawthorne Fellows is a "refine for publication," and publish program.  We meet, like an editorial staff, to help one another towards a final product to be published on The Boulevard.  Welcome to the those six candidates chosen this spring.  I'm delighted to be working with such fine writers. 

Our schedule goes like this: 6 - 9 p.m.  Sofa Room

April 8 & 22
May 6 & 20
June 3 & 24
July 8 & 22
Aug. 2 (TIME TBA)
Sept. 9

To apply for the Fall Fellows, click the above link!  Welcome spring Fellows.

PM Craft Class

Welcome to class, keep an eye on site for details on reading to come soon. 
  
Books for Class:  Tell it Slant by Brenda Miller, Story Engineering by Larry Brooks, Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austin. 

Reading Details:  Sight read first round.  This means you bring copies for everyone or half the amount so people can share.  13 total copies.  Or 7.  Pre-read for rest of term and you submit pages four days prior to class to Cloie Cohen cloiecohen@gmail.com*
Up to eight pages, DOUBLE SPACED, with page numbers and name, .doc or pdf. Format, 12 pt. font.
Each student is responsible for printing, reading and coming to class prepared to discuss pages that have been pre-submitted.
 *If you do not submit or miss your deadline, you lose your reading spot or have the option of bringing pages to sight read but only five.

AM Spring Craft Class

 
Class Outline & Reading Schedule
Class 1, April 1:  StructureClass 2, April 8:  Scene
Class 3, April 15: – workshop 1-4.51            Joy            2            Marla            3            Fufkin            4            Lesley            4.5         Barbara S.
Class 4, April 22:  Prompt – workshop 5-85            Karena 6            Crissan             7            Erin             8            Rose           
Class 5, April 29:  Prompt – workshop 9-129            Jessica             10            Bill             11            Joyus             12            David
Class 6, May 6: – workshop 1-4.51            Joy             2            Marla            3            Fufkin            4            Lesley 4.5         Barbara S
Class 7, May 13:  Prompt – workshop 5-85            Karena            6            Crissan            7            Erin            8            Rose            
Class 8, May 20:  Prompt – workshop 9-12+19            Jessica            10            Bill            11            Joyus            12            David 1              Joy
Class 9, May 27 – Prompt - Workshop 2-62            Marla            3            Fufkin            4            Lesley 5            Karena            6            Crissan
Class 10, June 3 – workshop 7-127            Erin            8               Rose            9              Jessica            10            Bill             11            Joyus            12            David
Reading Details:  Sight read first round.  This means you bring copies for everyone or half the amount so people can share.  13 total copies.  Or 7.  Pre-read for rest of term and you submit pages four days prior to class to Cloie Cohen cloiecohen@gmail.com*
Up to eight pages, DOUBLE SPACED, with page numbers and name, .doc or pdf. Format, 12 pt. font.
Each student is responsible for printing, reading and coming to class prepared to discuss pages that have been pre-submitted.
 *If you do not submit or miss your deadline, you lose your reading spot or have the option of bringing pages to sight read but only five.

Teaching Point: Outline? WTF?

The last thing I would have ever done, EVER, is outline a book.  I've written four, by just sitting down and writing, so why should I outline now?

Umm, because I'd really like to sell a book that isn't about my life.  

This year, as I make the full transition out of CNF (creative non-fiction) and into fiction, a transition I have been trying to make for several years, I also learn the fine art of the outline.

Frustrating?

There are no words for how frustrating it feels. 

The artist in me desires only to throw words on the page and make them sing in beautiful combinations.  But another part of me, the part being developed by exploring the power and the potential of the pre-work like the outline, needs this skill. 

I've gone from a deep year of study on story structure models in screen plays and in fiction to the evolution of outline charts like the Milo Structure Chart (the one many of you saw last week).   This week, I evolved another chart, thanks to a fellow writer (who is also amazing with outlines) and sat down for two hours today to hammer out my whole book two full times.  Again, agonizing to the part of me who adores the art of composition, but satisfying to this new part of me. 

I trust that these outlines are a tool to save time.  And I also trust they are the place to make the mistakes I don't want to make within the scenes (which take hours and hours to craft).  Last, I know that if I don't do this heavy lifting now, I will be pushed back into a revision by my editors/agent/readers who will spot (and point out) the holes I overlooked. 

No, it's not easy.

But damn, is it rewarding.  Or at least I hope so.

Goal:  Finish draft of this novel in two weeks.  April 1.  More realistic end:  June 8 (the day the kids get out of school). 

Thursday Craft Class On Line: Welcome

A new class starts up today, a virtual teaching that spans all the way to Hong Kong and we are using the handy dandy Go To Meeting. 

Attached to this class is my virtual contingent (students who take the class, via audio recording if they are unable to make the time slot of our actual class.  CLICK HERE to get in on that option).  






For the live class, the following have pages due March 19 to be read on March 21:

Angie
Gaynelle 
Diane
Sheri

The next have pages due March 26 to be read March 28th: 

Beth
Meggan
Lynn
Terrie  

Criteria for pages:  double spaced, page numbers/names, 12 pt. font, one inch margins, 9 total. 

Teaching Point: "Is Writing for Me?"

One thing that happens in my class, from structure to craft, is that writers will discover  how hard it is to write.  Naturally they will ask, "is writing for me?"

This is a very important question, especially in the arena of memoir.  The work ahead is great (as are the rewards), but are you up to the task?

Rainer Maria Rilke is my touchstone on this question.  In his Letters to a Young Poet, the following sustains:

"Go into yourself.  Search for the reason that bids you write; find out whether is is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart, acknowledge to yourself whether you would have to die if it were deprived you to write.  This above all--ask yourself in the stillest hour of your night: must I write?  Delve into yourself deep for an answer.  And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple, "I must," then build your life according to this necessity; your life even into its most indifferent and slightest hour must be a sign of this urge and a testimony to it." 

Rilke's next instruction is stunning.  He writes, "Next draw close to nature."

And it is this instruction which has me eying my own surrounding environment and a desire to live deeper in nature and also what inspires me to post this link from Orion Magazine about artist, Basia Irland, who carves books out of slabs of ice and loads them with seeds, as an effort to honor books but also to re-seed dying rivers.  CLICK HERE to watch this short four minute video, especially my artist students who wonder about the combination of medias--art with writing, sound with writing, nature with writing, photos with writing.

I hope the work you see here will inspire those who are simply not ready for the word, but who are still drawn to some combination of the word and other art forms. 

Teaching Point: Rules vs. Principles on Characterization

I was lucky enough to chat it up with Larry Brooks this week, the author of the book I've been raving about all year:  Story Engineering.  Larry, in this book, has helped me clarify many issues of confusion around my own novel writing process.  One of them is on characterization.  Here is a lovely excerpt of our conversation:

JL Q:  I read 1st dimension characterization happens in the 1st part, especially for hero and those closest to him/her and 2nd/3rd dimension enters the story during parts 2 & 3.  I also read of limiting backstory to 10% (overall) and just hinting at backstory prior to the first plot point. Are these two rules hard and fast? 
Larry Brooks LB A:  I used to be hard nosed about this kind of stuff, and have been criticized (body slammed) for a monocular view on the writing process.  That criticism has both widened and softened my view, without the slightest dilution of my belief in the "principles" that make a story effective.  That's the key shift for me... to abandon the notion of "rules" and lean into "principles."  Which is where my response to your question goes.


What you observe about Part 1 in your question is a strong one, we meet our characters as THEY want the world to see them, and through our narrative we peel back that often contrived, sometimes defensive, sometimes strategic skin to reveal the inner character, explained in part by a back-story we also cleverly layer into the narrative.  Everything you said about this model is accurate.  Falls short of being a rule, though, as the precise degree and placement of these things is always an author's call. It's like dancing... to do it well we need to stay in step with the music, but the time and placement of us flapping our arms... that's art.  So it is with characterization, I think.  So many options.  These principles keep us sane, because they give us a touchstone and a target, yet allow us to apply our unique sensibilities to the lives we bring to our pages.  If exposing second and third dimension stuff in Part 1 serves you -- and I can see how it can happen, and effectively -- then trust your gut.
JL SUMMARY:  This response from the generous Mr. Brooks helped me clarify my own process.  But try it out yourself, experiment.   

Theme & Structure Class

Reading Schedule: 

Zaha and Angie: Feb. 23 to submit.  Discussed Feb. 26

Milo and Cassie:  March 2 to submit.  Discussed Mar. 5

Liz and Joyus:  Mar. 9 to submit.  Discussed Mar. 12

Submitting (no more than 20 pgs):

1) Idea
2) Concept as a series of what if questions
3) Theme
4) Character study
5) Description of whole project as an overview

Agenda for discussion:  

1)  Writer to offer some questions they have about the outline provided
2)  Two people in the group will share what the project is about, a summary
3)  Answer the questions the writer asked
4)  Offer additional helpful insights/discuss
5)  Writer to take notes and then ask questions at the end.

Structure & Theme Class Schedule

ML & Emily, Deadline, February 16th.
Discussed by the group on Feb. 19th. 
 
Zaha and Angie, Deadline Feb. 23rd
Discussed by the group on Feb. 26th

Milo and Cassie, Deadline March 2
Discussed by the group on Mar. 5th

Liz and Joyus, Deadline March 9.
Discussed by the group on Mar. 12th

10 to 20 pg. outline (double spaced, 12pt font) to include as follows:

1)  Idea
2)  Concept as a series of what if questions
3)  Theme
4)  Character study 1st/2nd/3rd
5)  Description of whole project, beginning, middle & end.

NOTE:  Yes, you can hold out #1-4 in lieu of fat #5 (meaning what you
submit is all project description).  And, I still want to see your #1-4 parts.

Your outlines will be pre-read and discussed in class on the schedule above. 
Send outlines via email on deadline date.

These will be sent to the group.  Print when you receive these, read and
bring copy to class to discuss.

Teaching Point of the Week: I'm Not a Hero

Image from: http://www.oknation.netIt came out in Monday's AM class that the whole structure model with the idea of a heroic hero isn't really working.  At least for this writer, hard at work on her own memoir.

"I just don't consider myself heroic," she said.  (I'm paraphrasing here).

This is not the first time this writer has mentioned her discomfort with the four part structure model so I know it's really important to her (and I'm really glad she keeps telling me).

How about this.  Scrap "Hero," and "Heroic."  Replace with "Narrator," and "take action against adversary."

The story, especially in a memoir, is about you.  This means you are the one to watch (from the reader perspective). Through the four part structure, you will introduce yourself (pt1), you will make a decision (pp1), you will be skill-less (pt 2), you will learn (pt. 3) and you will make decisions that are solely your decisions and overcome inner/outer demons (pt. 4).   

At the end of your book, you will be the one who takes action without the aide of anyone else.  You are the sole agent who makes some bold move and overcome, at some level, your inner demons and the outside adversarial force. 

A helpful way to see your own "action against adversary," is to take the time to outline the story you want to tell by writing a 10-20 description of the whole thing.   We may not be able to see the moment in our own story when we "take action against an adversary," but the moment is there, usually about half way or three quarters in.  We blow by it because out own story is often too familiar to us.  We don't see the nuances.   This is another reason to stay in class! 

AND YES, classes are filling up.  If you have loved this class, take it again.  I suggest writers stay in their time slot for two terms minimum and 18 months max.  I stayed with my own writing teacher for six years. 

Don't forget, I'm here to meet with you one on one, to talk through structures and do more personal work.  Call on me.

Also, here is that Dalai Lama link:  When is HH in Portland?