I just realized that this was the perfect place to post a link to Forward Motion for Writers, and in particular the two year novel writing course that is due to begin again in 2010. It's free, it's highly structured, and this may be the last year it is available to everyone for free. I've done it once before, petered out a bit before it was all done, but still have material I want to work on from it. I'm planning to start 2010 off with a bang, and this looks like a good way to do it. The Two Year Novel course is here. Check it out.
But don't wait too long to decide, because January is upon us.
Raul Castro Squandered His Last Chance
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14ymedio, Generation Y, Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 22 March 2017 — A year ago
Cuba had a once in a lifetime opportunity. US President Barack Obama came
to the ...
7 years ago
The course seems to spend lots of time on preparation before having students get down to writing. I find this prospect attractive. What is your experience with the course?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I think it works very well for people who like to plan a lot out in advance, and not so well for people who don't work that way. Of course, as it's often structure that is a pitfall for the second group, which I fall into, it can work to their advantage to try and do this. I actually found it very beneficial to try to do even the exercises I was averse to. But I did drop behind and eventually out. Part of it is that as this class comes out of the sci-fi/fantasy world, there are a lot of assignments on world-building, and as mine was in the real world, though with a fantasy element, I found it hard to translate it for myself at times.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the peer approach means that you can spend a lot of time critquing other people's work, at least at first, though it's not required. After awhile you drift rather naturally into smaller groups. And of course not everyone sticks with it all that long.
Such writing as I do is sketches and vignettes. If I am ever going to write an extended piece of fiction, I'll have to go beyond that and create a convincing world for my entertaining characters and amusing dialogue. This would be the case even if that world was a near-perfect simulation of my own. That's why world-building attracts me even though I have little interest in science fiction or fantasy.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I actually think you might enjoy the process, Peter, but I'm not sure the forums would be to your taste. However, as they are optional, you wouldn't have to deal with them any more than you wanted to.
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