Finished the Class

I completed the Anastasia Suen writing class I took. I enjoyed it. Each week I had to read three books - which wasn't difficult - and then do the homework assignment. We analyzed first chapters, themes (which I was never good at in high school but have somehow figured out) and voice.

My favorite lesson covered story beats. When I do my own writing, I don't outline. I find outlines restrictive, and I never end up following them anyway. I was always the person on school who wrote the paper and then wrote the outline when one was required. That just worked better for me.

But the story beats were different. They function as an outline but can work equally well for forming the structure of the book. I'm going to go over some of my writing and apply a "beat sheet" to it. Just another way of polishing.

I plan to take the second half of the class beginning in June. I'm already looking forward to it.

Writing Class

I signed up for an online class from author Anastasia Suen. The class is the first half of her children's chapter book workshop.

I'm looking forward to it. I've never taken anything remotely resembling a creative writing class. The only real writing class I took was a newspaper reporting and writing class in college.

I think that news writing class is why I tend to write short. Newspaper articles are generally short. I think I internally edit before I even get the words on page.

When I finish writing a book, it's never long enough. At least not in terms of word count - which is nebulous and not a hard-and-fast rule but try pitching a "short" book to an agent or editor. As I revise, I find myself adding words - details, character development, dialog, subplots.

Everyone else in my critique group has to delete words in their works. I felt like some kind of weird writing freak.

Until I went to the SCBWI conference in Austin in January.

The author Sara Lewis Holmes was speaking with her editor, and one of the things Ms. Holmes said was that she was a writer who had to add words. I wanted to leap out of my seat and cry, "Me, too!" I was so thrilled to find out I wasn't alone.

I even emailed her to thank her for the hope she had given me. She wrote back to me and told me she had a similar reaction when she heard another author say the same thing.

Learning about other author's work and methods and habits make me realize that my own haphazard, strange approach to writing could actually work.

Here's hoping!