AmyMaidaWadsworth

Here are the PowerPoint notes from the writing workshop held on August 11.  I highly encourage you to purchase the books recommended.  Mark them up and practice the concepts they teach.  You'll learn far more from these amazing authors and teachers than you will from me!  Part 1: Story basics—review   ž Characters are key.   ž Point of view—the point of view character provides the body and mind through which we experience the story. ž Emotion is the key to any story. The point of view character shows us how to feel about the story’s events. ž Stories start with character and continue with conflict.   Without conflict, there is no story. ž The choice cycle is the basic element of fiction.   It ties your reader into point of view, provides setting through sensory input, and provides emotional interpretation of events through the character’s evaluation and choice   ž If the choice cycle is the story atom, then scenes and sequels are story molecules—scenes and sequ

A couple of days ago, I got an unexpected check in the mail.  Just over $7.  It's better than a kick in the teeth!  But the coolest thing about this check is that it is a royalty check from the re-release of all three of my books for Kindle!  Apparently, the books were released in January, and I never even knew it.  I guess that explains why they wouldn't release the rights to me--they had plans.  :)  So, if you like the Kindle and you don't have my book yet, check it out.  And if you know someone who would like any of my books, pass on the info.  Yay!  Here's the link. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Aamy+wadsworth&keywords=amy+wadsworth&ie=UTF8

Today was a fabulous day!  Probably one of my favorite teaching opportunities occurred at Write for the Heights, located in the Whitmore Library Conference room.  Three hours of instruction and workshops, free to the public. (To find out more about this program, check out the page "Write for the Heights 2012" on the home page of my blog.)  I shared techniques I've gleaned through my past ten years of writing, researching, editing and teaching.  Approximately 40 people were in attendance, and responses were very positive.  A huge thank you to those who were able to attend!  This blog post includes notes from the lecture in case you weren't able to take notes as I rambled on, or if you missed the class.  This is long, but so was the class.  :)  Enjoy! These techniques were gleaned from my personal experiences and understanding as well as concepts taught in the following books:  "Techniques of the Selling Writer" by Dwight V. Swain, "Scene & Structur

I hear it over and over--Writers Write.  You're not a writer if you don't spend time stringing words together to communicate some pithy thought that's in your head.  Well, what if my head is empty?  No more pithy thoughts.  Gone, gone gone. Just kidding.  I have a lot of pithy thoughts, they just don't want to fit together into a story that can take me past chapter 13.  Seriously.  I don't know what it is about that ominous half-way mark, but I have gotten there twice now with the characters who have been living in my head for more than a year, and I've started my third new draft--new genre, revised villains, same main characters with new twists.  Does it count as writing if it ultimately ends up in the recycle bin? It better count! :-P

I'm teaching a class on writing personal histories.  The last time I taught this class was in 2004.  A lot has changed since then.  Technology plays a much bigger part in, well, everything.  My octogenarian parents have an iPad, for goodness sake.  How do you use technology to keep your personal histories?  Blogging is a big part of that, I think.  Any thoughts?  I'd love to expand this topic beyond my personal knowledge.