Sharing your work
Your work is very personal to you. Nobody will be forced to share their work in our group. However, we would encourage it – critique and be critiqued, both exercises can be very worthwhile.
Giving feedback
Offer feedback, don’t force it. It’s not your story. Respect the writer’s overall aim for the piece.
Receiving feedback
Receive feedback silently, taking notes. Mull on the feedback. If asked a specific question, answer it. Feedback is a gift. Sometimes it can hurt. But try to sit tight and think about the value that may be in it. Use feedback that you feel has merit.
There is no right or wrong way. The only wrong is not to explore the potential in your story. Work at it until you get it just the right place.
Show, don’t tell
Sometimes you’ve got to tell. But showing is the preferred option. Showing paints pictures, allows the reader into the scene, lets them feel the emotions. It’s more powerful and memorable. Shaelin Bishop (great mentor – search on YouTube for loads of great videos) has a good video on this topic HERE.
This VIDEO is related – emotion in writing.
I also like to talk about Describe, Don’t Report. I will elaborate on this.
Here’s another really good VIDEO
Why
Why is a great question to ask. Why is the main character acting this way? Why is a peripheral character acting this way?
Let the handbrake off
Write your first draft – some call it a zero draft – as if no-one will ever read it. Release the handbrake. Let the engineers run wild. We can tweak and tighten later, but in the zero draft, write what you want to write simply because you want to write it.
Write fast, edit slow (not for everyone)
This is not advice everyone will value. Some people like to get each sentence right before moving to the next one. If that’s your style, that’s great. However, others may find ‘write fast, edit slow’ to be useful advice. Get the idea out of your head and down onto the paper. Once it’s there, you can work on it, come back to it, tweak it, tear parts out, bring parts in and so on.
Why do you write?
People ask me if I write to tell stories. No, I tell them, I write to find stories. (That’s my own quote actually – sad to be quoting myself, but I’m sort of proud of it).
Why do you write?
Assert pressure / create tension
As writers, we can tend towards the episodic – the nice scene, the well-written words to capture something. However, to keep people reading, we must thinking about asserting pressure on the story. We can call this tension or conflict. What is happening on page 1 that makes the reader want to go to page 2; what happens in chapter 1 that makes them want to go to chapter 2?
This short VIDEO may help. Search online for similar videos.
What is writing about?
Change? Curiosity? Exploration? Movement?
Free daily writing sessions
London Writers Salon (8am and 9pm)
Mentoring
Irish Writers Centre have a mentoring programme (encourage someone to buy a mentor for your birthday…)