Creative Writing Sunday.

On Sunday January 9th, 2011 Maxwell Alexander Drake presented a creative writing class on plotting.  His focus was structure, timelines and the organization of ideas to build a solid framework for a story.

One point I appreciated during the discussion was that you cannot sell an incomplete work.  Writing is a business.  For many of us beginning writers who are yet unpublished and who write simply for the love of writing, we often have a fanciful view of the organic development of plots and charters.  We feel it is only right to let them create themselves, to allow them unfold from our imagination and enjoy watching them grow.  This may be beneficial as an exercise and during the character development stage of fiction writing, however if we do not take a strong character through a cohesive journey to some discernible point of conclusion we do not have a finished sellable product.

This may sound elementary to some seasoned writers but for me it was an ‘ah-ha!’ moment.  I knew there was something missing that was hindering me from getting to the finish line on my novel.  I have strong characters developed, I have an outline and I know where I want to take the story but Mr. Drake offered some tools to build a better structure to support all of the above.  Now I have some work to do.

Also this past weekend the Sisters in Crime group that gathers at the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on

Maryland Parkway held their monthly meeting.  Did you attend?  What else did I miss in the Las Vegas writing arena?  Please let us know what’s going on around town.

Jennifer Lightfoot