Teen Writers Circle Class Summary 10/21/13

with Michelle Cameron

Revisions

After our revision session last time we met, I edited the revised pieces. I told them that I’m approaching their work as an editor. 

In case anyone wants to conference with me on their work, I plan to arrive a half hour early to talk to them. Please encourage your writers to take advantage of this.

We talked about some common issues I’m seeing:

• Overwriting – I’m encouraging them to write simply and directly, and suggested that they read their work aloud every time.

• Unnecessary transitions – particularly if the piece is told chronologically. One unnecessary word many of them are using is the word “then.” 

---

In-class Critique

I’m delighted to see longer pieces from many of the writers – and if the pieces aren’t longer, they’re bringing more of them in. Some of the aspects of writing we discussed were:

• Flash fiction – these are becoming popular, but they still need to:

              - Have a beginning, middle and end
              - Be a satisfying store, which can mean more backstory, description and emotion

• How prologues are used in books they’ve read: 

              -  How some readers don’t read them, so they can’t contain necessary information
              -  How some authors craft them so that you forget them until the end of the book

• How effective body language can be when used properly.

• How appropriate dialogue can add to a story’s flavor and characterization (we’ll talk more about dialogue in a bit). 

• Keeping minor characters consistent in short stories (though they can grow and change in novels) 

• Setting up a situation in a story to lead (or mislead) the reader

• How to work with magical properties in a story. The fact that magic is employed doesn’t mean the reader doesn’t need to know its inner workings. 

 He said, She said

We then talked about dialogue, including:

• The grammar of dialogue: 

            -  When to use a comma and when a period
            -  Paragraphing

• Making sure the reader always knows who is talking
  
• The fact that dialogue doesn’t happen in a vacuum, that setting and movement are necessary.
  
• The fact that “said” is perfectly acceptable and should be used rather than alternate terms such as “exclaimed,” “retorted,” etc. 
  
• The fact that sentence tags (said, asked, yelled, etc.)  can and should be dropped if it’s clear who is speaking.
  
• That using a character’s body language is often a better thing to use than sentence tags.
  
• That they should avoid adverbs (not always, but mostly).
  

They then split into partners to work on a scenario, employing dialogue. 

---

---

Homework

As always, they have a choice:

• Continue something they’ve already begun. 
  
• Continue the dialogue they started in class – they can work with their partner or simply continue on their own (and they’re allowed to change it as they’d like)
  
• Start something new.