All in all the class yesterday was a success, I manged to avoid choking, and I actually interacted with human beings who did not exist when I started writing professionally. More important, I think I did manage to get a few things across. It helps that we had a smart group that really seemed to have some writing talent. If any of them do pursue this gig, I’m curious to see what they produce a decade or two from now to see if my genre assessments of them turn accurate (I see one kid doing psychological horror, another going into either techno-thrillers or military SF…)
This was also good in another way. I’ve done a fair bit of pondering how one puts words together to make a story, but I never thought of an action scene as a separate entity until I was asked to present some guidance on it to this class. It gave me an excuse to dissect one of my strengths as a writer, and from that examination I think I came out with a better understanding of the topic, or at least a more conscious awareness of it.
4 Comments
Mary Turzillo · June 21, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I was the featured writer the day after you, Steve, and I had a sort of opposite experience. I did the Orson Scott Card group story exercise, not to teach plot, which is how Card uses it, but to demonstrate fluency and how to move forward when you think you’re stuck. Then I did beginnings, which was interesting because only after telling Charlie I was going to do beginnings did I realize that they are one of my weaknesses. So I did a lot of furious study of good hooks.
They are really cool kids. I have my theories about each of them, which would not be appropriate to share in a public forum, but they all really rock. The girls were more quiet, but their written contributions really showed some fire.
I’m also curious as to whether they’ll go on and publish. They might lose interest. But I remember deciding I was going to be an SF writer at about their age, so it might come to pass for them. And we don’t even know their last names!
Barry · June 22, 2009 at 7:15 am
As one who has recently read one of your novels for the first time, I agree that the action scene is one of your strenths. I had never heard of you but recently picked up a copy of Teek in a used book store — to be honest, because it was in a 50 cent sale pile! But I loved it. An exciting and fun read.
The one that sticks out most in my mind is that scene of Allie shooting the quarters into the tires of her pursuers’ car — powerfully written. I read it several times.
Good job and thanks! I’ll be giving some thought to which of your books I want to read next.
Barry · June 22, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Okay, I’ll have to admit, somewhat embarrassedly, that when I wrote this morning that I had “recently read” Teek, I still had the final 50 pages to go before I was finished. I just wrapped that up on my evening walk tonight.
I only mention this because I pointed to the shooting-quarters scene as a memorable action scene from the novel — which, now that I’ve read the final chapters, seems sort of like talking about the Exodus story and saying “Yeah, that part about the gnats rocked.”
The final 50 pages were masterfully done. Again, thanks.
Barry
Geoffrey A. Landis · June 23, 2009 at 9:30 am
Yeah, I agree; Teek was a good one.
-I was the thrird (of the four) writers Charlie brought in for the writing camp, and I’ll have to agree; a great bunch of kids with a lot of promise. They still need polish, but I was really impressed that they were really excited about writing. I did a worldbuilding exercise, which took a while to get moving, but came out with a pretty interesting story ideas by the end.
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