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Workshop
Lessons
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WelcomeWelcome and sign-in. Our procedures and expectations. How things work. Navigating the site.
Assignment: Posting your biographical sketch.
Underlying principles and methods used in the Harriette Austin Writers workshops.
Assignment: Introductory Lesson. Reading assignment. Writing assignment.
The Harriette Austin Writers approach. A general statement of what is to come in the workshop. The Introductory Lesson.
Assignment: Introductory Lesson. Reading assignment. Writing assignment.
- The contract between writer and reader
- Character
- Point of View
- Setting
- Scene as the building block
- Plot
Assignment:
Writing two scenes. Summarizing two plots.
There are certain basics
about characters and fiction that we are working from and toward. Here
is a partial list, discussion and exercises.
Assignment: Character basics and backstory.
How
do you describe a character effectively? You build the character with
significant specifics that lead readers to feel the way you want them
to feel.
Assignment: Read excerpt from Creating
Characters: How to Build Story People, by Dwight V. Swain.
Do field observation. Write assignment.
How do you make a character real? You provide him or her with a dominant impression, and appropriate tags, traits and relationships.
Reading Assignment: Read Fleshing Out assignment; & Stein on Writing, Chapter 5: Markers.
Writing Assignment:
1. Write a short scene showing your main character's
a. dominant impression
b. appearance
c. speech pattern
d. a mannerism
e. attitude
f. a relationship2. Write a short scene identifying two supporting or minor characters by using markers.
Post your responses to the Characters-L discussion list with the subject heading of Fleshing Out.
(1) Who is telling the story?
(2) What is the narrator's vantage point?
(3) How much does the narrator know about the thoughts and motives of the characters?
Reading Assignment:
Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein. Chapter 13.
A Writer's Tool Kit, by Carroll Dale Short. Chapter 5.
Writing Assignment:
Write a series of short scenes using the various narrator voices and points of view discussed in this lesson. Add a self critique of each, expressing what you think are the strengths and weakness of each. Suggest a voice and POV you feel comfortable with for your story and what it will do for the understanding of your characters.Post your responses to the Characters-L discussion list with the subject heading of POV.
Three
Levels of Importance
1. Major characters
People readers care about—they love or hate these characters. Must have:
a. The power to make choices
b. Focus—you want everyone to be looking at your character
c. Frequency of appearance
d. Action—what the character says/does must impact the plot
2. Minor Characters
They make a difference in the plot, but readers are not supposed to get emotionally involved with these characters.
Their desires and actions might cause a twist in the story, but play no role in shaping its ongoing flow.
Rule of thumb: Minor characters do one or two things in the story, then disappear.
Minor characters can help characterize the major players in a story and help to advance the plot.
3. Walk-ons & Place-holders
Don't develop these characters. They are just background people meant to lend realism or perform simple functions and then disappear and fade into the scenery.
The reader may or may not be conscious of what she is looking for in those beginning pages, but writers and editors know the elements that must be there to catch and hold the reader's interest and to establish the implied contract between author and reader.