Thursday, May 13, 2010

Second Class

So I sent in my prologue and 'first line' to Nancy last week, and got it back yesterday. I'm quite happy with what she said about it, despite the fact that she said it wasn't needed. The prologue, while it was good and interesting, is kind of superfluous. When I sent it to her I told her that I was dubious about including it as a prologue, and listed my problems with it (like it's from the wrong POV, I'll be going over the same information later in the story, etc.) and she pretty well agreed with me. I liked it because I think I wrote it well, but it just didn't belong. It's back-story that should be cut.

So that's great. And she liked my first line, and I like it too, so it stays ^_^

My assignment this week is to write the first page of my novel. This will be the official start of my writing of the novel, for me, so I'm going to write as much as I possibly can. She only wants the first page though, so I'm a little nervous.

One page, double spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman.

OUCH.

To me, that's like...a paragraph *lol* well, maybe three. She said that it will 'force you to be concise in your writing' and I'm all o.o thaaaat's juuuuust great. I get one double-spaced 12pt page to wow her with. Great.

On the up side, she did like the prologue I wrote (the prologue that's being scrapped), though she did have a few notes about style that I'll be paying attention to. She's also going to be watching that we take her 'show, don't tell' lesson to heart. She said (and I heartily agree) that the best way to tell a story is by not giving away EVERYTHING. Let the reader deduce things like emotions and thoughts from a character's actions. For instance, if someone's angry, don't say 'She was angry'. Instead, say 'She slammed the door, stalking towards the kitchen and ripping open the fridge door' or something like that. The reader gets it. She's angry. We don't need to become Captain Obvious ^_^

Did I mention I love this class?

We also spoke about character archetypes and how each of them behave. I discovered that Nis'ku is a blend of the Spunky Kid (Girl Next Door) and the Crusader (Rescuer) archetypes. Max, however, will be a progressive archetype: she will begin as a blend of the Boss (Trailblazer) and Seductress (Dark Lady) archetypes, and end up by the end of the novel, as the Nurturer (Caregiver) archetype. At least, that's the theory ^_^ I've already decided Rory is the Best Friend (Confidant) type and Stephen is a blend of Bad Boy (Rebel) and Lost Soul (Outcast), but haven't gotten to Holden yet. I'm thinking he will be 'book two', so I have plenty of time to figure him out ;)

All of these archetypes are outlined in a book 'Heroes & Heroines - Sixteen Master Archetypes' by Tami Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders. I wanna see if I can find it somewhere 'cause it sounds awesome. There's another she recommended that I want, 'Goal, Motivation & Conflict - The Building Blocks of Good Fiction' by Debra Dixon, but she thinks it's probly out of print o.o (I just looked for it, and it's about $200 on amazon. I kid you not)

So I have writing to do :)

...I also I have to put the garbage out. And it's midnight o.o

More later ^_^

2 comments:

  1. Yes. I so very much want to be in this class.

    I'm loving this blog, love. ^^

    (I also want to see the prologue and the 'first line'!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. uggh mayhaps I'll email it to you :P Aaaand where have you been, silly girl? I miss youuuu!

    ReplyDelete