So Much Fun

I am amazed at how much I am learning by teaching these classes. In my second Scene Stealers class, writing a scene for a two and a half year time period that the original author doesn't deal with is proving a challenge. For both student and teacher.  For my student, it isn't a matter of not having something to imagine, it's more that there is too much that she can imagine and she is having a tough time picking something. So it falls to me to guide her through the continuity of the story. It is a challenge for any writer not to introduce too much. It is for most of my adult writers, from the poets whose images don't quite coalesce to a novel writer who is writing a series of books and has a spreadsheet to keep her characters straight, even if they don't ultimately make it into the books at all. It causes a problem for readers because the unseen characters are portentous, they weigh down the story. It's also difficult, because I haven't read the series of books that this scene is based on. Thus I am finding that I can only advise in generalities. Even with all these challenges, I must be doing something right teaching-wise because my student kept muttering "This is so much fun". Complete with gleeful squeal and everything.

Now, on to my second Thursday student. His story is about two smart cousins who go an vacation and travel by canoe. Since in this day and age, unless you live on Lake Titicaca, there are faster ways of traveling, we agreed that the canoe travel would be one of the modes of transportation on the vacation, not the main one. This student wants the kids to decide all the vacation fun, and I've had to explain that people reading the story aren't going to be able to suspend their disbelief to the extent that the kids rule the vacation. (Although, in my other job managing a restaurant, they seem to do exactly that.) In order to write the story, which is set in Mexico, I found a picture of a hotel in Mexico that is super kid friendly, and we are describing it from the picture. I find that will kids, giving them something to look at works wonders. Grounding the story in real time and place, helps with focus and the flow of the story as well. That is true of the adults as well as the kids. And of me. My current project is set in the present in Edinburgh, and I rely heavily on my memories of my time there, but sometimes I need pictures of my time there to remind me of exact details. In this class, the challenge is keeping the student on schedule with the story, and I find it is very easy to fall behind.

Well, that's all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. Stay tuned, as always, there is more to come.