Writing Class

[CrackedAxe]

It's a great idea, TSO, I'm sure many of the writers here in the mead hall would find the info invaluable. Monk's point is a good one, though - if you're writing just for the enjoyment of it, then anything is acceptable. Not everybody wants to sell short stories to magazines or write that best-selling novel. If, though, a writer wants to learn the forms of proper short story or novel writing, then certain forms and structures have to be adhered to. This isn't due to academic dogma, but to ensure that the work is readable and enjoyable. You have to be a master of the written word before you can break the rules and still have marketable work.

To give some examples of TSO's points:

Conflict: ALL stories should contain conflict of some sort, whether internal, external, emotional, physical or all. This is what drives a story.

Drama: physical conflict alone is never particularly dramatic, unless it's incredibly well done. The internal conflict of characters needs to be included to push the physical events along

The point of a story: all stories should have a clear point and premise, a reason for being, this should be worked out before the story is started.

Descriptions: should never be overdone or exist seperately from the plot, but worked into it.

All stories should have a beginning, middle, and end. Writing your story to a structure will make it incredibly enjoyable to read, and believe it or not, make writing a story a hell of a lot easier for the writer.

These are just a few points about story writing that are invaluable to learn and it would be great to get some of the info up on here for us all. I'd welcome it if you want to go ahead with this, TSO. I study a degree in Creative Writing and would be glad to help out.