Hi everyone, I'm brand new to AW. I'm excited about this community, and about writing. I'm a career investigator, and so I write for a living, but I don't make a living writing. One thing is to report your findings, and the other is telling a story. I don't tell stories, I just report facts.
So here I am. I want to learn to tell a story, and I look forward to interacting with all of you. I have perused the internet extensively looking for writing resources and a community of writers to join. I chose AW because it appears to be the most genuinely dedicated to the art of writing and to the cultivation of a writers' community.
As I explored AW, I came up with an idea for a new social group, which I created yesterday. It's called the Amateur "Workshop Style" Discussion Group (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/group.php?groupid=66). The group will pick a novel (nothing complicated), and then dissect it scene by scene, or chapter by chapter, and pluck out and discuss the techniques used by the author. We'll study scene selection, dialogue, and the author's skill at showing rather than telling. We'll also look at techniques used to build tension and hold interest as well as how authors segue from scene to scene. Obviously, there is no limit to what we will observe, which is why a group setting is the best. By doing a chapter or scene a week, we can be more focused and not be overburdened.
This can be a powerful experience for amateurs and experienced writers as well. The amateurs learn to read like writers, and the experienced get to reinforce their skills by following along and contributing their insight to the rest of us. We can all benefit by practicing the techniques, or by getting back to our works in progress and checking to see if we might benefit from what we have just learned from the authors. I encourage all of you to consider joining.
The teachers will be the authors we read.
I look forward to hearing from many of you, but in either case I wish you all well.
So here I am. I want to learn to tell a story, and I look forward to interacting with all of you. I have perused the internet extensively looking for writing resources and a community of writers to join. I chose AW because it appears to be the most genuinely dedicated to the art of writing and to the cultivation of a writers' community.
As I explored AW, I came up with an idea for a new social group, which I created yesterday. It's called the Amateur "Workshop Style" Discussion Group (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/group.php?groupid=66). The group will pick a novel (nothing complicated), and then dissect it scene by scene, or chapter by chapter, and pluck out and discuss the techniques used by the author. We'll study scene selection, dialogue, and the author's skill at showing rather than telling. We'll also look at techniques used to build tension and hold interest as well as how authors segue from scene to scene. Obviously, there is no limit to what we will observe, which is why a group setting is the best. By doing a chapter or scene a week, we can be more focused and not be overburdened.
This can be a powerful experience for amateurs and experienced writers as well. The amateurs learn to read like writers, and the experienced get to reinforce their skills by following along and contributing their insight to the rest of us. We can all benefit by practicing the techniques, or by getting back to our works in progress and checking to see if we might benefit from what we have just learned from the authors. I encourage all of you to consider joining.
The teachers will be the authors we read.
I look forward to hearing from many of you, but in either case I wish you all well.
