Thinking About Patreon
Bob and I have been thinking about doing another online writing course, this time through Patreon. We’d do a response to the HWSW writing posts from fifteen years ago, one of us writing the new response and the other of us responding to that, followed by the old posts just for reference. Then we’d do another post talking about a scene from one of our books and apply that week’s lesson to talk about what we did right and how we’d revise today so there’ll be a specific example. Three posts a week for four (or in some months) five times a month. The first tier would be $5 a month; there’d probably be a second tier, too, but we need the first tier to be solid, useful, and educational first.
We’re working on the Table of Contents now, and we have a rough draft. Since you’re my guinea pigs (and now Bob’s), the Table of Contents is below. For those of you who are interested, could you scan it and see if we’re missing anything? Any and all comments are welcome.
(Note: The dates are just tentative; we have no idea when we’ll start. The titles in the parentheses are the titles of the post from the old HWSW.)
He Wrote She Wrote Again
August 28: Introduction
Sept 5 The Heart of Your Story: Idea, Character, or Conflict. (The One Sentence Idea)
Sept 12 The Focus of Your Story: Plot vs Character (Situational vs Character ideas)
Sept 19 Conflict (Protagonist vs. Antagonist)
Sept 26 The Core of Your Story (The Central Question)
October 3 Character (Character Development)
October 10 Goal (External and internal Goals)
October 17 Motivation (Levels and Types of Motivation)
October 24 Vulnerability (Character Traits, Needs, Flaws, and Change)
October 31 Arc (Character Arc)
November 7 First Person POV (First Person)
November 14 Third Limited POV (Third Limited)
November 21 Third Omniscient (Third Omniscient)
November 28 Handling Multiple PoVs
December 5 Dialogue (Dialogue)
December 12 Sidekicks, Ficelles, Minions, and Spear Carriers
December 19 Family, Friends, and Lovers (Relationships)
December 26 Community (Community)
January 2 The Basic Linear Plot (Narrative Structure)
January 9 Beginning (Beginnings)
January 16 The Mess in the Middle:Expectation and Escalation (Expectations)
January 23 Ending (Climaxes)
January 30 Subplots (Subplots)
February 5 Scene Structure (Scene Structure)
February 12 Crowd Scenes
February 19 Action Scenes (Action Scenes: Violence)
February 26 Love and Sex Scenes (Action Scenes: Sex)
March 4 Unity (Unity)
March 11 Focus (Goals and MacGuffins)
March 18 Bookending (Beginnings and Endings)
March 27 Plot and Character (Plot Arcs, Character Arcs)
April 2 Time, Place and People (Setting)
April 9 Codes (Symbols and Metaphors)
April 16 Repetition and Motif (Repetition and Motif)
April 23 Theme (Theme)
April 30 Structure as Meaning (Structure as Meaning)
May 7 Revising: Conflict Box and Turning Points (Story Editing)
May 14 Revising: Outlining (Outlining, Tightening the Story)
May 21 Revising: Collage, Soundtracks, Sensory Details (Collage)
May 28 Revising: Critiques (Beta Readers)
June 4 Working with an Agent
June 11 Working with an Editor (The Editorial Letter)
June 18 Copy Editing (Copy Editing)
June 25 The Cover
July 2 Social Media
July 9 Reviews
July 16 Booksignings and Author Talks
July 23 The Writing Life (Being an Author)
July 30 Good Luck with All That (Conclusion)
