https://electricliterature.com/poetry-six-by-elisa-gabbert/#.pjkv3pvkx Or bought the New York Times Carol Brennan King May 20, 2024 I want to build on the premise we were exploring last week that to be a good writer, you need to be a reader. And not just a reader in your genre, but someone who reads broadly. You need to read what…Read more Have you been to the library lately?
Creative and Memoir Writing
OK, I’m no spring chicken, but as I told someone, I just love continuing to learn. That’s what drove me into Nadia Colburn’s online classroom four years ago to take her free poetry class. Oh My Word. I loved it, and I have taken nearly every class she has offered since.
Creative and Memoir Writing
Do you consider the character’s genetics? Yes – genetics. Or her formative moments? Or personality? Those things that influence how a person presents him or herself. OK, if a person's last name is Langinello, how do you think they use their hands when they are speaking?
Creative and Memoir Writing
As I stood there for the first time, at my great-great-grandmother’s grave, tears filled my eyes. I made a promise to her that brilliant fall day: I will tell your story with as much realism and honesty as I can.
Creative and Memoir Writing and Editing
Carol Brennan King May 30, 2023 Have you ever looked for an editor for your book? You really have to have one, and this is from someone who has edited two books for other people and now needs an editor. I knew that as well qualified as I was to edit my book, having been…Read more Creative and Memoir Writing and Editing
Creative and Memoir Writing
Today I printed the entire manuscript out for the first time, all 291 pages. Now, I will head through the pages, pencil in hand, for a final edit. Once I have penciled my way from one end to the other, I will go into the document and make those changes.
Creative and Memoir Writing
Carol Brennan King May 17, 2023 Greetings Writers! Are you feeling great because of all that you accomplished last week? I ask that because every week I have to write, send to my coach, and post over my desk what my writing-related goals are for the week. Then, at the end of the week,…Read more Creative and Memoir Writing
Creative and Memoir Writing
But what is a writer’s platform? Jane Friedman addresses the challenge of defining a platform because it is defined in different ways by different teachers. I love her summary definition: it is an ability to sell books because of who you are or who you can reach.
Creative and Memoir Writing
All I could do was cook, bake, and travel if someone would fund that travel….and write or teach about writing. So that is what I did. Started teaching and working on a book or two.
Creative and Memoir Writing
Those of you who have followed me for a while, you know I have a writing coach. AND, you probably know that one of the benefits of my relationship with my coach is that every week, we, her coachees, must turn in our weekly writing re-lated goals. Then, a week later, we turn in our accountability report. So, I asked her if she minded if I passed on some information about what she does.
Creative and Memoir Writing
We are nearing the end of our Spring semester so, as those of you in the Zoom class will remember, I am giving you a number of online resources right now. Think of it as a reference library to be used as you continue writing. I know that many of you write as fast as you can to get them all down...but here they are.
Creative and Memoir Writing March 1, 2023
Midpoint: or Second plot point. It is also considered the moment of truth. The protagonist discovers the biggest clue yet, but his or her understanding of the truth is not yet complete or clear.
Creative and Memoir Writing
Simon scuffed his wellies off on the stones leading up to the old cottage and ducked his head before stepping through the open door into thick darkness. Ready to pull his ID card from his pocket, he called out, “Inspector Hay here, looking for Mrs. Featherbody. Anybody home?” Once inside, he saw what was left of the pull chain to a ceiling lamp, and he pulled the short chain carefully, glancing around the room full of what could have been his grandmother’s furniture, at least what he could see of it.
Creative and Memoir Writing Feb. 15, 2023
We read the published work to find out what works, at least as a writer. I have been writing for decades, and I still read to find out what works, especially in the genres I enjoy reading and writing and the new work just emerging.
Creative and Memoir Writing February 6, 2023
This next bit of advice is important so read it through thoughtfully: Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water. Think about this: if you know someone wants something, a part of your brain is going to read to find out if they ever got it.
Creative Writing and Memoir Jan 18, 2023
If you want to publish something significant, it really helps if you have some name recognition. You get that by getting published. Starting small. Like articles. Like entering contests. Like putting your toe in the water where the water is warm and friendly at first.
Creative and Memoir Writing Class
The first mistake that we talked about was the idea that you had to write “the most beautiful prose in order to write a story that holds the reader’s attention.” The reality is that by the time you purchase or borrow from the library any book, it has been through the hands and efforts of many professional editors. So, just get your story down; remember that the first draft is just a first draft. Once you have your ideas on paper, you can polish them to your heart’s content, and your editor’s heart’s content.
Fiction and Memoir Class – November 2022
Often your words gave me similar impressions that embedded in my mind and made it crackle. I like crackling. You also made me better understand the additional peril for the immigrants when they tried to sound more English to avoid being attacked by them.
Creative and Memoir Writing Class scheduled for Oct. 12, 2022
Then, what do you know about the character you are focusing on for this exercise: his or her place in history or life? Do they have a position of influence? Are they bound by their place in the culture of the community where the action occurs? Or have they been influenced by the events that impinged on life before the story opens?
Creative and Memoir Writing
First of all, if you don’t know your audience, you cannot very well market your book or story or article. So let’s talk about genre or markets.
Creative and Memoir Writing: The Right Editor or Coach, Part 1 September 7, 2022
I have a coach, and she really helped me finish my book by requiring me to turn in weekly goals - like I will write four days this week for a least 90 minutes a session. That worked for me...
Don’t Waste Your Time
“We need to be thinking seriously about moving,” floated into the air like static on the phone during a storm. Does that help you understand how I felt about the idea? I confess my first thought was, “I hate moving.” My second thought was, “It is sooooo much work.” Don’t leave now. It is going to get better.
Writers: This alert is for you! July 27, 2022
I never envied your clothes, homemade and thin of fabric. I never envied your dented car nor your life on a farm small farm, the barely scrape-by kind of farm. I never envied you until,
Choosing Discernment over Fear
o. Don’t be afraid of the Bible. Or any other book with new ideas or words. Read closely, with discernment. Look the words up. See how those words are used and what they mean. Don’t be afraid of what you might find out. Be freed to discover the truth of God’s love story.
Creative and Memoir Writing
It crunched. Yes, it crunched, like a thing with a shell, really, I could imagine like a baby octopus with little bony tentacles. Well, I could not swallow it like it was, so I had to chew it up somehow. So very gingerly, with my napkin very close to my mouth, I chewed it up fast. There is no other way to describe it – fast. And almost as fast, I swallowed it.
Creative and Memoir Writing July 8, 2022
How has your protagonist or hero changed since the beginning of the book? Think through who that character was at the beginning of the story, consider the journey and the challenges, and the impact on him or her. This is subtle or may be dramatic, but if there are no changes to the characters, the story is really a linking of scenes in which pretty boring people get up in the morning, do stuff, and go to bed at night, no different.
Creative and Memoir Writing June 22, 2022
“LEAVING IRELAND” BY CAROL BRENNAN KING, READING & DISCUSSION One of many things that would show up if you googled my name - a good sort of thing to show an agent or editor or publisher - talking today about name recognition online By Carol Brennan King Personal Essay Writing and Why! To get a…Read more Creative and Memoir Writing June 22, 2022
Creative and Memoir Writing
Like any good piece of writing, your review needs to hook the reader or get their attention. You might begin with a question or a statement about the author or the subject matter. But give it a little zip.
Creative and Memoir Writing:
5 Steps to Writing an Article Carol Brennan King June 8, 2022 Notes from our writing class Last week we put our toes into the water of writing an article. We stepped back and did an overview of the process, but today we stepped right in knee deep. First, remember that we are talking about…Read more Creative and Memoir Writing:
Let’s Try Writing Something New This Week!
After nearly three months, I am back at my desk! By Carol Brennan King June 1, 2022 As I thought about what facet of writing we should consider this summer term, it came to me that we have talked about our platform. But we really haven’t done much in class to build one. When I…Read more Let’s Try Writing Something New This Week!
When you don’t feel like writing!
This is like planting a garden and watering it. Get your materials and put them in a handy place in your bedroom. Start writing something small, four lines maybe, not a book or anything. This is just a playground for ideas.
Creative and Memoir Writing Class (yes, even during a break)
Many of you know that two months ago I fell on the treadmill and broke my kneecap. Really smart maneuver! Consequently, my writing corner, set up in the family room, was transferred to a corner of the dining room.
Good Morning Writers!
OK, enough of that. You all have four weeks with no writing class, but I hope you take some of that time to read. And to read closely. Jeff Goins puts it this way in his online article Why Writers Need to Read if They Want to Be Good:
Getting Your Story Off and Running!
Here it means the inciting incident happened not long before you opened that first page and now the adventure or drama is on.
Creative Writing and Memoir Class Notes
Carol Brennan King March 8, 2022 This week we discussed some of the business sides of writing and promoting. Therefore, because I want to leave you with helpful resources, I am going to pass on to you some comprehensive websites I have found useful. We talked first about the path to publication with the tools…Read more Creative Writing and Memoir Class Notes
Creative and Memoir Writing Class Notes March 2, 2022 by Carol Brennan King
We must consider the people who share or impacted our story and how our writing about them impacts them. We can hurt feelings. Does that matter? Do we have enough distance to be rational about what happened?
Classes Start This Week
January 29, 2022 from the desk of Carol Brennan King Long time, no ??? See doesn’t work, or maybe it does. It has been a log time since you have seen me here. That does not mean that I have stopped caring about our writing community. I have been taking classes – the most recent…Read more Classes Start This Week
Resurrecting Leaving Ireland
December 12, 2021 Carol Brennan King After months of feeling blocked, I have picked up the story of my great-great-grandparents and their journey to Bradford County in Pennsylvania in 1848. The working title of my book is Leaving Ireland, and I think 2122 might be the year it is finished. Today we went up to…Read more Resurrecting Leaving Ireland
Creative Writing: Fiction and Memoir
Secondly, the first character the reader usually meets is the protagonist, the main character, and you must show the reader things about this person that makes them want to know more. Is she sobbing at her desk? Is he running down the street? Is he in a fight? Or on the phone?
Creative Writing and Memoir Writing September 15, 2021
Welcome Back! from Carol Brennan King It has been a while since we have been together and it was great to see you in person and via Zoom. In person people - please note that you can bring your laptop or tablet to class, and set it to zoom so that you can see the…Read more Creative Writing and Memoir Writing September 15, 2021
Creative Writing and Memoir Writing Class Notes
Carol Brennan King July 7, 2021 Prompt for next week: Write something around the word vacation. Think school, holiday, family, short or long vacations, accidental vacations (a snow day) or intentional and planned vacations. The example that I am sharing here may seem a long way off from vacation, but I was on my vacation…Read more Creative Writing and Memoir Writing Class Notes
Creative Writing and Memoir Class Notes
Today was devoted primarily to putting some resources into your hands and then trusting you find them helpful.
Creative and Memoir Writing Class Notes
Instead of thinking, “I want my reader to feel sad,” I needed to show how I felt the day I learned another girl thought of my boyfriend as hers. I sat in his car outside my school and told him I would not play second fiddle to anyone, and I cried, ...
Creative Writing and Memoir Writing Class Notes March 31, 2021
Remember, however, that the story’s action and its characters are vehicles through which the reader creates her own emotional experience. AND the goal is not to get the readers to feel everything as the character does but to stimulate the reader to consider his or her own response.
Creative and Memoir Writing March 17, 2021
When you are writing memoirs, your job is to recreate dialogue, not create it. Sometimes, that means you cannot remember exactly what you said. In that situation, you can recreate it, getting as close as you can to what actually was said and what and how your character would have said it.
Creative Writing and Memoir/Nonfiction Writing Class Notes
March 10, 2021 Taught by Carol Brennan King Creative Writing: today we focused on using white space, lines, and punctuation as tools to help us communicate our stories. We also talked about how using breath units, or the words we want to be read in one breath, help us reach our reader to interpret the…Read more Creative Writing and Memoir/Nonfiction Writing Class Notes
7 Tips for Literary Fiction and Nonfiction Writers
The emphasis in on the character, his or her feelings, motivations, and interior life. A clear plot may exist but the interior life of the character is of as much importance as is the plot in importance.
Trying Something New in our Creative Writing and Memoir Classes
prompts can free our creativity, giving us opportunities to think about different words and how to use them in fresh ways. Then we talked about How to use prompts.
Digesting the Quarantine or Making Sense of the Quarantine
I have trouble praying that God would end the pandemic and end the political mess.
Writing Resources : collected by Carol Brennan King June10, 2024
Think you have five minutes to sell your book to an agent: that’s an elevator pitch. It really takes only five minutes for an agent or publisher to know if your book will sell and if it is worth his or her time.
Synopsis: Does the word scare you? Get Over It!
Because you write the synopsis first, you save yourself a lot of wandering around, wondering how to get the characters to do what you want them to. And why. The WHY is key.
Hello Again! May 13, 2024
I say sadly because if you ever hear him read his work, you wish he would not stop reading when he ends the ones he chose to share just then.
Creative and Memoir Writing
by Carol Brennan King October 14, 2023 I know, I know. This is inexcusable, such a long time between posts. But if you came to my house, I would show you stacks of notes from classes I have been taking. And then there is all the research (about writing and publishing, of course) that has piled…Read more Creative and Memoir Writing
Memoir and Creative Writing
September 30, 2023 Carol Brennan King Did you ever finish a project but not know what to do next? Well, that has been me this last month. I finished the book I have been working on for several years, submitted it to a couple of places, and to be honest, I felt a bit discouraged.…Read more Memoir and Creative Writing
Memoir and Creative Writing
On another note, did you know that agents and publishers expect your manuscript to meet their criteria? You can't just use whatever size and type of font that rings your bell. You can't use color to help you make your point. BECAUSE before you send that baby in, it has to meet the publisher or agent's standards. So check them out and use those standards to write your story.
Creative and Memoir Writing
. The good sentence might say, "Grabbing his coat and laptop, Simon raced for the back door, away from the front doorbell ringing like someone was punching it."
Carol's Notes 