The Write Stuff - How to Write Damn Good Prose

Sorry it took me longer than I wanted to get this blog post up. Another workshop from The Write Stuff conference and another from James Frey - How to Write Damn Good Prose:

Attitude

- There are no born writers, everyone can learn
- I'm a good writer but I want to be a damn good one. If you adjust your attitude to this, you will, with work.

Style

- Violation of rules - grammatical errors.
- You first have to know the rules in order to break them well.

Sense-ous details

- How many sense used in each page? (sight, sounds, smell, touch, taste, "sixth sense")

Viewpoint

- Writer creates narrator who creates the characters.
- Your writing is a letter between you and the readers through the narrator.
- Author is invisible - just reporting on the characters.
- Limited omniscient
- 1st person - wised-up person looking back, has a take on the story.
- Voice of the narrator is crucial

Scene

Dramatic narrative


Show the reader what causes the reaction. Show the rat first, then the recoiling.
Telling details versus generic terms.
Switch between narrator and character voices.

That's the last of the workshops notes that are worth sharing from The Write Stuff. I'm going to go back through my notes from EPIcon and post them next.