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Last week, before I was hit by the monster flu, I had a great school visit with the writing group at our local high school's March Intensive.
This was a new experiment. For four days, students got to choose one "intensive" topic of study. Some went on trips to England or Costa Rico. My daughter learned how to make stained glass windows. There was dancing, art, science, politics, and of course, writing. (Next year, I'm signing up for figure drawing!)
Anyway, the writers invited me for pizza and Q and A, and I thought their questions were a lot of fun to answer. They made me justify my decisions, which really hasn't happened in a while. And when I went home to write, I coughed up twenty pretty good pages.
So I'm passing them forward!
The first out of the box: Why do some writers describe their characters' physical appearance, while others don't?
Where do you find your settings? Do you have one particuar place in mind, or do you always just make it up? (This was a really great, since I've been struggling with setting...)
What does it mean, to become your protagonist? How do you actually do that?
Do you have a writing routine?
How do you know you are done?
What happens when you don't know what to write next?
Do you ever throw away your work? (big smile)
Their interests covered all genres. It was really cool about sitting with a bunch of kids and listening to them recommend your friends' books! We talked about film (of course) and the connection of writing and film directing (another of course). They already knew all the mantras: show, don't tell, kill your darlings....we talked as writers talked.
A great day!