BellaOnline Forums Career Fiction Writing First Five Pages Editing Workshop Thread

Oh, I just found you are doing this! I have the book and have just got back a round of "no thanks" from the agents I queried. I think I'll play catch up tonight

Betty, I'm glad you're getting so much out of it.

Laura, welcome

Hi everyone

I'm without a computer at the moment, and considering many countries have a long weekend coming up I'll give us all a break until next Thursday 27 March.

Of course, if this upcoming break means that you have more time rather than less, you are welcome to read ahead if you want to, or go back and extend some of the exercises that you found very helpful to a few more chapters of your book.

This past week's chapter. Four hours on one paragraph??? I've yet to do that. I'll try to do it, since we have some extra time. Thank you for the break, Elle.

Betty, that four hours is up to you. If you spend one hour on a paragraph and consider that it is the best you will ever get it to sound, then spending another three hours just staring at it is not really going to help. I think the idea is to get used to taking care and spending the necessary time over each piece of writing.

Comparison

Welcome back.

Today we�re looking at the use of comparison, symbolism, metaphors, and imagery in your story. The editing phase is an ideal place to consider these areas because the hindsight of having completed your book gives you plenty of material to use in retrospect. However, it�s not uncommon to find that you�ve already used some quite good symbols subconsciously as you were writing � finding these unexpected gems is the exciting part.

Your assignment for the fourth class:

1. Read through Chapter 4: Comparison of The First Five Pages.

2. Read through the article Weaving symbolism and imagery into your story

3. The end of chapter exercises for this chapter involve creating comparisons for an object in the room you�re in. I suggest that you select an object in your manuscript instead, so that the exercises you do now are valid for use in your manuscript if you find something useful in them.

4. Likewise use the characters from your manuscript to practice comparing moods and behaviours, rather than people from life, unless you feel you need extra practice with this exercise before you apply it to your manuscript.

Style

Today�s chapter is on developing and understanding your writing style. Your overall style is unique to you, but this doesn�t mean you can�t improve the way it sounds or alter it to suit a different type of novel or form of writing. The exercises in Chapter 5 are all about experimenting with your style � you may find a different approach that you can incorporate into this manuscript or your next one.

Your assignment for the fifth class:

1. Read through Chapter 5: Style of The First Five Pages.

2. Read through the article Developing your writing style

3. As per the end of chapter exercises, take a page of your manuscript and rewrite it using a very straightforward style.

4. Take another page and rewrite this page in a very complex style.

5. Using your dialogue as a starting point, rewrite a third page using the voice, inflections, and vocabulary of one of your characters. Ideally, choose a character who is very different to you so that you can see how the style varies.

6. If you discover a variation in your style that you want to explore, rewrite all five of your workshop pages using this insight.

Elle. I hope you don't think no one is out there listening to you, because I am. I was at a writer's conf. over the weekend, so I'm a little behind. I'm catching up though, so don't give up on us. I hope someone else is listening too. Wanted to ask you -- do you write the articles you have us click on? Because they're great. Thanks. b.

Thanks Bettyann Yes, those are my articles. I'm glad you're getting something out of the workshop.

I just got to the 4 hrs. I actually went about 2 hrs before I realized it. On one paragraph!