Seminar 1/11/12: Geographical Voice
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- Written by Megan
Setting is a fundamental aspect of literature, especially narrative prose (though setting is not limited strictly to prose - think of the poetry of the Romantics). How is possible to describe events if they don't have a place to occur?
It is this place that concerns tonight. Even within a given state, people from different areas react differently. Think about how someone from the south orders a soft drink, and then think about the rest of the country. If that same Southerner were to order a "Coke" in say South Dokata (or just about anywhere outside of the Southern United States), the individual would get a specific brand of cola. In the south, this person would then be asked "What kind of Coke?" Conversely, someone traveling to the South who was asked "What kind of Coke?" would be confused: he or she would expect the brand, not an offer of a range of soft drinks.
This brings me to my point: setting is created not just by the surroundings of a character, but also the culture of those surroundings. How does the character (or speaker?) react? And the others around the character? In the Coke/soda example above, the differences for the travellers create tension.
Give this a bit of practice. Define the setting of your work in progress not just through the surroundings, but also through the culture - through the actions, reactions, and expectations of your characters (or speakers). What specifics about your setting might someone take for granted but are different? Can you explain them quickly? Or are they complicated? What do the differences add to the story? How do the characters deal with these nuances of life? What do your characters take for granted.
Now go write!
Writing Circle 1/3/2012
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- Written by Megan Justice
Voice and Point of View are tied together. The point of view of the narrator creates the voice the narrator carries. One cannot exist without the other. But, how is it that you know you’ve hit the right voice for that point of view? Or that the point of view can indeed carry a specific voice being used? First, let’s take a brief look at each of these parts of narration. Then, an exercise.
Quite simply, the point of view is the reference point given to the reader by the narrator. A close point of view sticks with the character – events are observed through a specific character’s eyes. Anything the character cannot see or know the reader does not get to see or know either. This can be difficult if the reader needs to know about an event(s) the POV character does not observe or participate in. A more distant, or omniscient, point of view removes the reader from the action and puts a distance between the reader and the character’s experiences.
Voice is the words the narrator chooses to use and the tone they create for the reader. A butler wouldn’t say “hey dude,” just like a teenager wouldn’t say “please sir, may I have some more?” (Finding the exception is easier than writing it – why don’t you write the exception?).
Want to play around with this on your own? Here’s an exercise:
Start with a location, a setting. A laundry room. There’s a washer and dryer, not new, but not old either, and piles of laundry all around, some clean, some dirty. Now add an objective: all the laundry needs to be sorted by load, clean laundry needs to be folded and sorted by owner. And now the variable: characters with different points of view, and different voices. First, put a nine year old girl in the laundry room with this daunting task. What does she see? How does she feel about the chore? Does she do it? Is she interrupted? How? Then put her dad in the laundry room; wash, rinse, repeat. Put someone else in there, someone of your own making.
How do all the characters react differently? What makes them different? How did the voice change? What words were consistent, what words were unique to which characters? How did the landscape change?
Critique Night 12/28/11
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- Written by Sam Justice
We had a few people come out to Critique Night this Wednesday. Here's what a couple of them had to say about the evening.
"All the comments I heard tonight were constructive and helpful. However, there was some disagreement regarding one of the poems we critiqued. . . . my feelings are that a piece of writing is doing something interesting if there is disagreement about it." - Amelia
"I feel that 100% of the advice is helpful. I can relate to what is critical to the contiuinity of my form of writing." - Anon
Want someone to take a look at your work? Critique Night meets the fourth Wednesday of every month.
Help us Help You!
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- Written by Megan
We’re getting ready to celebrate four years of writing fun with BNO here pretty soon. Though we didn’t have a name until the middle of 2008, we’ve been writing and critiquing and educating in some respect since the fall of 2007. And we’ve yet to ask for anything other than participation. So, why the change now?
BNO was originally formed to provide a service to the writing community – to create a place where writers of all genres, levels, and interests could come together to help one another out. We feel we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that, and the time has come to expand a bit more, and bring more to you, the writer. To date, everything we’ve done has been offered for free, and has been provided by a volunteer core. Hours of program development, website development, networking, and of course hosting the evenings of writerly activity.
We want to do more than host a Critique Night and a Seminar Night. Last year we brought you Taproot Reading, a book club all about the writing. This year we’re adding in a Writing Circle. This monthly event will round out the regular programming and offer a chance for writers to come together and write, or commiserate, or find inspiration, or just about anything else necessary to help you, the writer, do what you need to do.
All of this isn’t enough though. We want to bring authors to you at these events. We want to open more dialogue with authors and writers across the country. We want to bring you new and different ways of looking at putting words on the page. We want to provide you with workshops and a conference. We want you to have a place to see your words in print right here in the Treasure Valley, every month. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what we want to bring you.
These programs, old and new, cost money. Want to see your favorite author come to town? Or how about attend a workshop online from the comfort of your own home? Put your words in print and see them distributed throughout Boise? Your $40 membership will help make all of this, and more, possible. Join today, and start benefiting immediately with our new Critique Matching Service and have your work critiqued beyond Critique Night.
Seminar Night: The Editing Process
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- Written by Megan
You wrote it all down. You created characters and put them somewhere and send them on an adventure and some got what they wanted and some didn’t. And you wrote it all down. You wrote it all down so it must be done.
But, wait! There’s this huge step in the writing process often ignored: editing. This is the hard part. Slogging through run-on sentences (much like the one up above), gerunds masquerading as verbs, tense shifts, point of view issues, and filling in the holes left behind by fabulous, though somewhat inconsiderate, plot bunnies. For most, this process takes longer than the actual writing. For some, it’s fun. For others, it’s hell. And, especially following National Novel Writing Month, it’s a daunting task. On December 14th, we sat down at Rediscovered Books and talked about editing for the month’s seminar. Here’s what came of it:
- Finish it, and put it away! Take a step back, and put some distance between yourself and the words before starting to change them. Sometimes a day is enough, sometime you need more than a month. If you start edit and you're not finding anything wrong, or all you can do is beat yourself up, it's time to take a step back and wait.
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Outlining is a good idea. Outlining before starting the project is great, but outlining after is at least as if not more valuable. This gives you a roadmap, something to follow in your editing process. A way to check in and say “Hey, does this make sense? Does this belong here? Did I forget to add something in?”
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Before attacking any of the nitty gritty, look at the story first. Along the way from A to Z did you stop at every letter? What was left out? What about the story do you know that the reader doesn’t? What about those little side-tracks? Did they get back to the story, or to they just sort of meander off into the distance, a nice little diversion, but not adding anything to the story?
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Characterization matters. In the course of any story, characters should change (or choose to not change). Does their change make sense as a reaction to the events of the story?
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Finishing the story you started. This is a point brought up that I often forget. When you start a story, the ending must finish that story. Finishing a story never started leaves an unsatisfied reader.
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Though language is the last aspect of writing to attack when editing, it’s worth paying attention to right from the start. The words on the page are what tell the story. If the language used makes no sense, or otherwise fails to tell the story, the reader won’t get what he or she is looking for.
What do you think about starting the editing process? Finishing a story?
Taproot Reading December Review
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- Written by Sam Justice
We'rereading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for Dec. 20th.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a quirky novel written by Douglass Adams. Based on a radio series by the same name, the book follows the misadventures of the unfortunate earth man Arthur Dent and his companion Ford Prefect after the Earth is demolished.
The Hitchhiker's Trilogy—the series that Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy starts—takes a satirical look at Life The Universe, and Everything, making fun of everything from bureaucracy and governments to stargazing and the sport of polo. When you finish you'll find the world a slightly stranger place; somewhat smaller, a bit bigger, completely ridiculous—and through it all you'll have an odd craving a for a good cup of tea.
Survey Time!
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- Written by Megan Justice
Help us get you what you want Boise! Let us know who you'd like to see give a workshop here in town. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter (though we won't be bringing your favorites back from the dead).