I just loved this post.

Determination is the name of the game....

http://networkedblogs.com/w2eI4

That's fab, Caroline. Thank you. I loved it.

Lovely, lovely post! Thanks for sharing, Caroline!

Great post!

Great blog. But in a funny kind of way, you wonder why the process she went through isn't put across to new writers as what's actually needed. After all, 12 years isn't that long, if you're trying to become good at any creative art. The problem, perhaps, is that the path to learning how to write isn't very interesting to the world at large, and maybe gets obscured by the fact we all write in various forms on a daily process - so it can't be that different writing a story, can it? Teachers get pupils to write stories at school but I wonder if they ever show them how.

Having been working with new authors for a long time now, I'm still surprised at how many people write novels without finding out how to first. Mostly, it's the structural side of novels that gets missed, maybe because that's the 'uncreative' bit, the side of things that needs thinking about (although I'd argue that planning a novel should also be creative, unique and fun, or the actual writing is likely to get bogged down in it).

The last two novels I looked at both suffered from an almost total absence of plot. With one of the writers, I spent an hour on the phone trying to get him to see that there were no causal links between his scenes. I think he got it eventually but what he was having trouble with was separating out what he knew about the characters' adventures in his mind and what the reader would actually get from the words he put on the page.

I sent him a link to a video (which I can't find but think someone on WW posted recently) of the two South Park writers crashing a college class of (I think) film writers. They explain that what they do is put all the scenes for a programme up on a white board. Then, starting with the first scene, they only move to the second if the word that's connecting them is 'therefore' or 'but' - this happens, therefore this happens next; this happens but this happens next. If the word is 'and', they know that bit of the story doesn't work.

Terry

absolutely loved that, Caroline - thanks for sharing And she's right - she is funny!

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especially liked the advice from Cornerstones, that if three people identify a problem, they will come up with three different solutions - but you must come up with your own solution.

Wow. Great post. I admire her determination and great to hear it's paying off. She's got a fabulous attitude.

Terry, I love that "therefore" "but" idea. It seems to crystallise the whole story building thing so simply.

They explain that what they do is put all the scenes for a programme up on a white board. Then, starting with the first scene, they only move to the second if the word that's connecting them is 'therefore' or 'but' - this happens, therefore this happens next; this happens but this happens next. If the word is 'and', they know that bit of the story doesn't work.

Oh I love that! Be great if whoever posted it could post it again.

It may not have been WW. I'll have a quick look on a couple of US forums I'm on. I tried to find it through Google just now but the sites that had it on won't show it to the UK.

Terry

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Found it!

http://vodpod.com/watch/15379740-hello-matt-stone-and-trey-parker-crash-a-class-at-n-y-u-nytimes-com