Level Two: tessa's first assignment
First off, let me just say a great big 'thank you' for this assignment. As one who usually jumps into the middle of something before paying even a scant bit of attention to the details and such, these articles have provided me with a great wealth of information of how to leap after looking.
The idea of a character cheat sheet is a fabulous one! I have already made one up for myself and will be using it from here on out. From the tiny bit of experience I have, I already understand quite well that I cannot remember it all, no matter what I tell myself.
I have only slightly dabbled in the realm of dialogue as a way of storytelling. This part of the General Writing Tips article will aid my tries in this arena of authorship. I am rather excited about attempting this form of writing. Not that I am so sure of the success of my attempts, but it will most definitely prove interesting.
On conflict and scene and sequel, which I am putting together here, wow. Aspects that I have always appreciated in good writing, but never knew the why's and how's of them, all are presented in such a clear and understandable way in this first article. My writing samples are, at best, a scraping of the surface. Barely that even. Being able to utilize these tools of writing would deepen and broaden the scope of the story, the characters- the everything of the tale. It will be quite thrilling to try and use these techniques in my writing. When I'm brave enough, that is.
If you ask the right questions, your characters will tell your story for you.
This statement might as well have had a bright spotlight aimed at it, at least for me. I am finding that to be so very true. A character can just crawl from my mind and say, "where's my story?" Having the questions to answer will be such a help! Where as before I would just try and create something from nothing, now I have the "bricks" for the foundation of my storyplot.
I could comment on each and every sentence contained in the article on Becoming a Better Writer. I printed that out and put it in my writer's notebook. Since I don't wish to write a book on the one article, I will focus on what really stood apart for me.
I can usually get the general idea of what I want to write formed out in my mind. It's all the details and jumble of thoughts that get cluttered up in there. This article stated the usefulness of an outline, but gave the option of which type of outline one might choose to utilize. The outline doesn't have to be formal or all that detailed. It can be composed to suit the needs of each individual author. I especially appreciated that information. We don't all do things in the same way. The way one author outlines a story idea may be the wrong way for another. The choices given made sense to me, therefore, I am very apt to take the suggestion and use it. Actually, I will take the suggestion and use it.
My thanks again for assigning us the articles. While I would have read them on my own, I may not have perused through them as I did. All the ideas and suggestions presented in them will allow me to have the knowledge necessary to improve and enhance my, as now, limited skills. I look forward to finding ways to use them all.
