Creative Writing Course – Week #3
I am no longer a reading virgin.
I read the opening paragraph or so from my first chapter to the rest of the class last night, and it seemed to go down very well. I was given a couple of pointers as to suggested word replacements, but other than that I escaped any major criticisms. The course tutor asked for the full chapter to read through, which I presume I'll get feedback on next week or so. I'm looking forward to that, although it's pretty much in first draft condition at the moment.
The two questions posed last week – 'What single thing has bugged you most in your adult life?' and 'What has most positively absorbed you?' were tackled this week. My answers were 'negativity' and 'films/tv/music' respectively. I won't run through the answers given by the rest of the class, but they were similar to mine. The idea behind exploring these questions was that the emotions evoked by them should be channelled into your writing. If you are passionate about something – use that energy in your work. Similarly, if you are annoyed or incensed by something, use it. 'Your anger is a gift', to quote Rage Against The Machine. Wow – never thought I'd be quoting them in a blog!
The underlying message here is to aim to be able to write as passionately and enthusiastically as you can talk about a subject. A good principle, I'll try and employ it, hopefully without descending into a 100,000 word rant.
Homework for this week? A scene breakdown of your first chapter. Using the headings:
Location
Characters
Action
Justification
This is intended to make us look at the construction of our work, breaking it down into bare components. We're also being asked to look at our protagonist, and examine what their normal life is like and then consider what events change his or her life.
This is a relatively straightforward task, so shouldn't take too long to complete, but it should help to better inform us about our characters and the construction of their world.
I might also do some more work on progressing the writing I have already done, and pushing it past the 4 or so chapters I have so far. That is, unless Battlefield 3 arrives for the Xbox in the next couple of days, hotly pursued by Modern Warfare 3, which will both steal all my spare time!
PS – who is the phantom blog commenter from the course who left me message here recently? Short of asking the whole class who 'Hijinx' is, I'm still in the dark…
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