A Writing Lesson Learned
So, as mentioned, I’m taking this fabulous WriterStudio.com class and we get this assignment I found very difficult. We switched, after 5 weeks, from writing in the 1st person, where I’m comfortable, to third person. I had a scenario picked that the teacher thought would work well but I just didn’t FEEL it.
I was really busy last week, so the actual writing of the assignment was done in the few hours I had available on Sunday, the day the assignment was due. However, I was so lost that I mulled over the scenario over and OVER again, and reviewed the sample piece several times.
I didn’t have time for revisions, which I should have, but I submitted it, knowing that even if the piece failed, we have a chance for do-over on the last week of the class.
It didn’t. It was by no means my strongest assignment, there were some issues, but because I mulled over it so much, I think it had a chance on the page even without strong revisioning.
My lesson learned this week:
See your scene, see it live. Smell it, feel it, hear it, be there in person.
Also, this was another scene based on write what you know: Kew Gardens, NY during the blackout of 76(77??), in a dark lobby with the super (my dad was the super of a large building that night). The details were from my memory, but the characters were all purely invented, so that is one interpretation of write what you know.
peace out readers!
Good lesson! I had a similar thought this week and assigned sensory tags to my book. It really made me see it in a new and deeper light.
Sensory tags, I like that, Pam. Mur over at I Should be Writing suggested you comb through your story and every time a character appears, sit down and write in a notebook, what they are wearing, hair style, etc. That’s a cool idea too.