Writer’s Workshop: Editing for Voice
Writers of all skill levels welcome. St. Louis novelist Clayton Lindemuth will lead a free two-hour writer’s workshop titled Editing for Voice at 6 p.m. Thursday at 12935 North Forty Drive, Suite 106, near the intersection of Interstate 64 and Mason Road. Lindemuth’s debut novel earned a coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly and comparisons to Donald Ray Pollock and Tom Franklin. In the workshop Lindemuth will discuss how to turn a rough manuscript into a lean, gripping work of fiction, including a discussion of active versus passive voice, tips for finding text that needs cut, and devices for ratcheting tension higher. Attendees are welcome to bring a few pages of manuscript to work on. Register required. Email claylindemuth@gmail.com; is held in the boardroom of the Executive Financial Group. Refreshments.
Years ago a writer friend from Australia named Katherine Howell edited a few pages of a story for me and everything suddenly clicked. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, and then suddenly I did. Katherine told me that someone had helped her that way, and she was paying it forward. It was a big deal, receiving the attention of a published author, and I’ve never forgotten her generosity.
I recently helped another writer in a similar fashion and she raved… screamed through the email in all caps… how helpful it was.
So that’s what this workshop is about. I plan to take a sample of my own writing, a few pages of rough draft novel, and slice and dice until I get a lean piece of prose, discussing the reasoning behind each cut as I go. Then I’ll work with participants to apply the editorial ideas to their own manuscripts in the time remaining.
If you’re stuck, looking for new ideas to ratchet up the tension or give your voice clarity, drop on buy. Just email me first so I can plan attendance and refreshments…
