A Writer's Toolbox: Classes to EMPOWER Your Fiction

Are you ready to go crazy?



If you’re a writer, you probably already are.

No offense, it’s just the fact of a writer’s life. :-)

And if you are a crazy writer who wants to expand their craft and learn some great tools, sit up close for a moment. I’m going to share a writing-world secret.


You’ll probably guess my point before I get there, because truth is, this secret isn’t much of a secret.


But play along for a minute, okay?


I’m constantly searching for help in making my craft stronger. I’ve tried freelance editors (helpful, yes, but not quite there yet). I’ve taken copious classes and multiply how-to books (again very helpful, the pieces to the puzzles are coming together).


But I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Something isn’t clicking and when I sit down to edit I can’t SEE the physical errors in my writing besides the plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face obvious. (cliché alert) Worse I don’t know how to fix them.


(HINT: there was a clue. Did you catch it?)


Hand me a class I can afford and most likely I am going to jump in feet first and see how wet I can get.


This time around, I was DELUGED.


In a very, very good way.

Photo Curtesy of Flickr

I took a class this month on powering your characters emotions, which turned into way more than I ever expected. This class took the power of an editor and put it into my hands. Through the month long class (with 10 lectures total), the most helpful thing I think I learned is the EDITS system. Basically a system of highlighting different aspects of your writing.


Put into layman’s terms, I learned what each color represented and what they represented on the PAGE and what it most likely meant for my story.


(Do you know who I’m talking about yet? I’ll keep going for a few more paragraphs.)


Chock full of examples from superb fiction, you SEE what these authors have done right. It’s all broken down and by the time the final lessons have rolled around, I’m looking to find these concepts in other books.


You learn by doing. The assignments stretched my brain and took me another step down this journey. In-depth advice from the instructor and the help of my edit partner brought concepts home.


Wow.


Let me say that one more time. It needs to be over-stated.


WOW.


(Figured it out yet? Answer’s coming!)


Suddenly (or probably not-so-suddenly) I can SEE what is wrong with my work. It hasn’t made it perfect, but when all you see is blocks of yellow (gotta take the class to know what I’m talking about :-)-you know you most likely have a problem.


And instead of just KNOWING you have a problem, you are given the tools and the power to go and FIX it.


It’s more than just staring at a block of words and knowing in your gut you’ve got something that needs fixing. This is actively investigating that block of words and actually making changes that will forever change how you view your fiction.


Can you tell I’m a proponent of this class?


No, I wasn’t paid to write this post. I just paid for the class. Which is worth every penny of the $30 I spent. (and I would have spent three times that)


Are you still with me?

Think you know who it is?

If you guessed Margie Lawson, you guessed right. Check her website out. I’m serious. You won’t write the same again and she puts her classes into terms you can UNDERSTAND. You will grow and stretch, plus we read many examples from Multi-Margie grads that are now published or in the stages of publication. :-)


EMPOWER YOUR FICTION. It’s guaranteed.


Questions? Comments? Do tell… :-)

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