This Month we changed up our format a bit and entered a bit more of a teaching mode. We discussed the stories submitted this Month and then had a bit of a lesson on First Person Narrative:
First person storytelling- In a first person narrative the narrator is telling the story from their personal perspective. Usually they are recounting a memory or account of a previous happening, though they could also be telling the story in real time. The trick for the author is to remember to use the proper tense and to describe the events as they unfold rather than glossing over important details.
Remember that your audience cannot see, smell, hear or taste what your character is seeing, smelling, hearing or tasting. To be really effective the author must remember that actions should be described in a logical fashion.
The narrator in a first person narration may or may not be the primary focus of the story. They may or may not be privy to the thoughts and motivations of the other characters. If you decide that your character does know intimate thoughts of other characters in the story you need to make the audience understand how and why this character knows this information. Are they guessing based on previous experience or are they truly omniscient?
When writing in first person narrative the author should use language that reflects personal perspective: 'I, or we' when referring to themselves.
This is just a summary of the lesson, interested writers can refer to the meeting on Page 3 about half way through the page.
Our Topics this Month are:
*First Person Perspective (Critical Review)- Using the starting phrase: It was a dark and stormy night" write a first person perspective story. This does NOT have to be erotica but it does have to stay in First Person!
*Your Favorite Flower- Tell us all about your favorite flower! It's still cold and we could use some reminders that Spring is just around the corner.
Open Topic- Whatever is on your mind and in need of expression!
We no longer have a blog to post our work on so interested writer's can either post their work in this forum (start a new discussion) or post a link to the work (again by starting a new discussion). Be sure to include in the title of your post that it is for the March Meeting and if it is a post on the critical review topic include that somewhere in your post. Be aware that the forums currently have an 8 thousand character limit so you can break your posts up by writing until you hit the limit and then posting to your own discussion the conclusion to your work. That keeps the work in one forum!
Our next meeting is scheduled for March 12, 2012 at 7pm EST. On March 5th I will post a clickable link to all the posts so that they are all in one location but feel free to check back and comment on the stories before the meeting!
There will be gift cards at the next meeting...jus' sayin'!
First person storytelling- In a first person narrative the narrator is telling the story from their personal perspective. Usually they are recounting a memory or account of a previous happening, though they could also be telling the story in real time. The trick for the author is to remember to use the proper tense and to describe the events as they unfold rather than glossing over important details.
Remember that your audience cannot see, smell, hear or taste what your character is seeing, smelling, hearing or tasting. To be really effective the author must remember that actions should be described in a logical fashion.
The narrator in a first person narration may or may not be the primary focus of the story. They may or may not be privy to the thoughts and motivations of the other characters. If you decide that your character does know intimate thoughts of other characters in the story you need to make the audience understand how and why this character knows this information. Are they guessing based on previous experience or are they truly omniscient?
When writing in first person narrative the author should use language that reflects personal perspective: 'I, or we' when referring to themselves.
This is just a summary of the lesson, interested writers can refer to the meeting on Page 3 about half way through the page.
Our Topics this Month are:
*First Person Perspective (Critical Review)- Using the starting phrase: It was a dark and stormy night" write a first person perspective story. This does NOT have to be erotica but it does have to stay in First Person!
*Your Favorite Flower- Tell us all about your favorite flower! It's still cold and we could use some reminders that Spring is just around the corner.
Open Topic- Whatever is on your mind and in need of expression!
We no longer have a blog to post our work on so interested writer's can either post their work in this forum (start a new discussion) or post a link to the work (again by starting a new discussion). Be sure to include in the title of your post that it is for the March Meeting and if it is a post on the critical review topic include that somewhere in your post. Be aware that the forums currently have an 8 thousand character limit so you can break your posts up by writing until you hit the limit and then posting to your own discussion the conclusion to your work. That keeps the work in one forum!
Our next meeting is scheduled for March 12, 2012 at 7pm EST. On March 5th I will post a clickable link to all the posts so that they are all in one location but feel free to check back and comment on the stories before the meeting!
There will be gift cards at the next meeting...jus' sayin'!
