by CWC Marin administrator | Sep 25, 2017 | Events
As a genre of fiction, suspense conjures up spies climbing over the Berlin Wall, or a bomb about to go off in downtown San Rafael. But the definition of suspense is simply “a feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen.”
Your readers keep turning the pages because they want to know what happens next. Even without explosions.
In this participatory workshop, John Byrne Barry, CWC–Marin board member and award-winning author of Bones in the Wash: Politics is Tough. Family is Tougher, and Wasted: Murder in the Recycle Berkeley Yard, will map out how to heighten suspense by weaving together multiple storylines.
Hope you can join us on October 22, 2 pm, at Book Passage in Corte Madera.
by CWC Marin administrator | Sep 25, 2017 | Classes and Workshops, Craft, Events
At our September 24 meeting, David Corbett packed a book’s worth of insightful advice on developing characters who will drive your story. As a matter of fact, he’s written that book, The Art of Character, which Elizabeth Brundage calls “a writer’s bible.”
He covered far too much to distill into this summary, so here are just a few highlights. You can read his book for more. (He’s a frequent speaker in the Bay Area and he’ll be at Book Passage again on October 8.)
- Every character doesn’t need to change, but most do. Usually, protagonists are faced by a series of challenges that force them to do something they might not otherwise have done. They change. Like Rick in Casablanca, who has a wound curdling into a flaw that he corrects.(Some characters never change. Think Homer Simpson. In almost every episode, Homer has some brilliant idea, then he falls on his face, and the next episode he’s back where he started. The situation changes, but the character does not.)
- Corbett identifies four characteristics that we need to identify for our important characters — lack, yearning, resistance, and desire.
- Lack — something is missing from their life. A connection with their father. Material success. Love.
- Yearning is the deep-seated need the character has. What kind of person do they want to be? In every scene, the character is trying to move to satisfy that yearning. (Of course, they are usually thwarted.)Yearning is tricky because there’s this concern that if you name it too specifically, you kill it. Sometimes a symbol is better, like the green light on Daisy’s dock in the Great Gatsby. It represents his hopes and dreams for the future.Usually the yearning comes first and the lack comes from not satisfying that yearning.But the lack can come first as well. We all experience some of that growing up, especially if we have younger siblings. As a baby, we’re fed all the time, we’re at the center of our parents’ universe, then along comes another baby and we’re not so special anymore.
- The big question for most protagonists is, if they’re yearning for something, why aren’t you doing it?Which brings us to resistance.
- Resistance can come in a variety of forms — weakness (laziness, cynicism, lack of confidence), wounds (broken heart, death of a parent), limitations (too young, too poor), opposition (strict father, cultural norms), and/or flaws (lack of courage, inability to tell the truth).
- The strongest characters have external goals tied to their internal yearning. They have to defuse the bomb about the destroy Sausalito and prove to themselves and their loved ones that they’re courageous.Lots of characters in thrillers face daunting challenges. The challenge for the author is to answer why they persevere? Why not just clock out and leave it for the next shift?
- How do you make the stakes matter? It needs to be more than just defusing the bomb. Maybe the characters can’t live with themselves if they fail. That’s not who they are.
- How much back story does your story need and where do you put it? Ideally, backstory is behavior. Your characters acts in particular ways because of what happened in the past. If possible, show that past in a scene instead of explaining it.
- End your book in a way that is both inevitable and surprising. (Easier said than done, right?)
- All characters have to polar impulses — to pursue the promise of life, and to avoid the pain of life.If you’ve gotten your ass kicked too many times, you decide avoiding pain is the path you want to follow.
- Here are some questions you might ask for all your main characters? When were they most afraid? What was their moment of greatest sorrow? How about their moment of greatest forgiveness? When was their golden moment, their greatest success? Was anyone else there?
These short takeaways don’t do justice to the wealth of valuable insights Corbett shared. I have read and studied his book and I recommend it. He has helped me make my characters richer and more compelling.
Next month, I’ll be presenting When Plots Collide — Create Suspense by Weaving Multiple Storylines.
This workshop will be more focused on mapping out plot, but of course, as Corbett would say, what happens in the story has to organically grow out of the character’s yearnings and wounds and passions. If you create a plot that doesn’t honor the characters, it won’t ring true.
Hope you can make it.
by CWC Marin administrator | Aug 28, 2017 | Classes and Workshops, Events
Join us September 24 for the always-compelling David Corbett, award-winning author of six novels, as well as The Art of Character, which Elizabeth Brundage calls “a writer’s bible.”
You’re also welcome to join us for our informal and interactive Opening Act, where we’ll read a page of dialogue and then share feedback on how to make it snappier.
by CWC Marin administrator | Jul 25, 2017 | Events
Thanks so much to all of you who came to our first summer salon and read your first page. It was a wonderful evening, and the quality of the readings was amazing.
Our second salon is focused on pitching your book. You can practice your pitch as if we were agents who might represent you, or if you want to be more informal, you can practice telling us succinctly what your book is about.
—Thursday, August 24, 7 pm — Pitching Practice
Whether you want to practice how you talk about your book or practice an actual pitch for publishers or agents, you’ll want to come to open mic focused on “Pitching Practice.” It will follow the same format as July’s event. Pitch your book and ask for feedback or not. Each reader will get five minutes total for his or her pitch and feedback. We’ll be outside on the deck if the weather’s nice, or inside if it’s not.
Please join us. RSVP to marincwc@gmail.com for directions and additional information. If you’re one of the first ten people, we’ll guarantee you a slot. We may have time for more.
by CWC Marin administrator | Jul 6, 2017 | Book Tour, Events
Marin author Tommie W. Whitener will be launching his new novel Mother Earth: Three Couples on July 10 at Book Passage in San Francisco, at 6 p.m.
The personal development world was new to Alex, Roberta and Marie when they joined twenty or so others (the “Stars”) for a series of residential “leadership” courses at a retreat center deep among the redwoods in Sonoma County. The fact that they had left their spouses behind should have been the first harbinger of trouble.
As the “Stars” did their ropes courses and told their innermost secrets to each other as part of their development, they experienced changes not shared by their husbands and wives at home. Thus, the spouses were often not ready for the “evolved” person who came back to them with new ideas of honesty, life purpose and, sometimes, deep and growing spirituality. A period of adjustment was the norm. Most of the couples were successful. All were changed by the experience.
Tommie W. Whitener has practiced Family Law in Marin County and the Bay Area for many years. As he winds down his law practice, he is now putting his extensive knowledge of people and relationships gained during that time to work in his new career as a writer. After having handled thousands of divorce cases, he believes he is particularly well qualified to write on the marital connection and the effect on it when one of the spouses “develops” and the other does not. Such is the subject matter of his first novel, “Mother Earth: Three Couples.”
He is also at work on a collection of short stories and memoirs and a volume of historical fiction concerning two remarkable generations of his ancestors in Arkansas. He lives in Novato with his wife Svetlana, who is an executive coach.
by CWC Marin administrator | Jul 5, 2017 | Events
—Thursday, July 20, 7 pm — First Page Open Mic
We’ve all heard how the first pages are key to capturing the attention of readers, publishers and agents. Here’s your opportunity to share yours.
New CWC-Marin President Mary Krefting is hosting a “First Page Open Mic” summer salon on Thursday, July 20, at 7 pm at her home in central San Rafael. We’re inviting writers to read out loud the first page of your book or manuscript. If you like, you can ask for feedback. Each reader will get five minutes total for reading and feedback. We’ll be outside on the deck if the weather’s nice, or inside if it’s not.
Please join us. RSVP to marincwc@gmail.com for directions and additional information. If you’re one of the first ten people, we’ll guarantee you a slot. We may have time for more.
