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Please welcome Jennifer St. George to the blog today!
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Five Things That Revolutionized my Writing
Recently
I developed a workshop concept with my fellow Destiny Romance author Louise
Reynolds for the 2013 RWA conference to be held in Fremantle, WA in 2013. It
made me think about the key concepts or ah ha moments that changed my
writing for the better. These are my top five:
Getting
My Writing Style Right!
I’m
a planner. Always have been but my writing style was true
‘pantser’. It didn’t feel right, but I didn’t know how to fix it. First
Draft in Thirty Days by Karen Wiesner gave me the keys to unlocking the
natural planner in me. I credit this craft book with enabling me to write
much more efficiently.
I
Want to be Just Like Her!
I
ventured into my first RWA conference in Brisbane a few years ago and didn’t
know a soul. At the Awards Dinner, I watched as unstoppable Kylie
Griffin scooped award after award. I thought, I want to be just like
her. During a break I asked her was there any one thing that had made
a big difference to her writing. Enter Margie Lawson’s the EDIT
system. This logical, practical edit system shows things in your writing
you might otherwise never see. It can be tricky to master but stick with
it.
The
simple GMC
Debra
Dixon’s Goal, Motivation, Conflict is a wonderful tool for writers and I use it
before I begin a book. However, my lovely friend, Desire author Rachel Bailey
gave me a shorthand version that I keep ‘front and centre’ whilst I
write. Why not this woman for this man and why not this man for this
woman? So simple, yet so useful.
Emotional
Order is Important
The
talented Nikki Logan calls it the natural order of things, that is, how a
character reacts to stimuli. It’s important to have the order right
starting with the visceral leading to the subconscious and ending with the
conscious. This is how we react in every day life. For an author, it is
important to capture this on the page, or the reader may feel something is not
quite right.
Always
Finish the Book
The
very first craft workshop I attended was given by the phenomenal Melanie
Milburne. She taught me so many things that I’ve used everyday in the years
since in developing my writing skills. One piece of advice that really
made an impression was, always finish the book. Again, sounds so
simple, but without that advice I probably would have begun many different
books without actually finishing them. As she said, how do you know how
to write ‘the middle’ and ‘the end’ if you’ve never done it?
Combined,
these five concepts progressed my writing to a higher level. Perhaps some
of these ideas will provide other aspiring writers with that wonderful ah ha
moment!
Find Jennifer on the web:
Buy Her Book:
Sienna De Luca will do anything to
save her family's hotel, and ruthless Italian businessman Antonio Moretti knows
it. With problems of his own, he proposes a marriage of convenience and plans
to use Sienna to secure his next business deal. But things don't go quite
according to plan.
