Tonight I went back to my friend Chelsea's house. I attended a writing club she invited me to, Two Good Things. The two good things are writing and dessert. And boy were they good! The way it works is that someone brings a dessert, and it's the motivation for the writing (I mean, maybe some people are motivated to write just for itself, but the dessert doesn't hurt!). Another person comes with a prompt to give the others, and we take a chunk of time - however long we want - to respond to the prompt. Then we share what we wrote while we eat. Our prompt tonight was a question from a book about creative writing: What things do you like in good novels? What things do you not like in novels? Discuss. Here is my response:
Things I like in a novel:
*suspenseful chapter endings
*good dialogue
*symbolic description
*fun quotes
*realistic love
*thwarted love
*loyal characters
*self-sacrifice
*sad endings
*happy endings
*(subtle) humor
Things I don't like in a novel:
*cheesy jokes
*gratuitous sex scenes
*endless sentences
*assuming that the reader knows too much about something
*unrealistic goals/plot advancement
*no plot
*illogical jumps
As you can see, these lists are no work of art, but I think that it might help me as I prepare to write more for our club. I plan on posting my work on this blog each week, so we'll see how/if I improve. And while I'm sure I won't be producing anything like Henry Van Dyke's The Three Best Things, I will definitely get Two Good Things on Thursdays!
Merry, this sounds like sooo much fun! I'm totally jealous :) It sounds a lot like a fiction writing class that I took at NAU. It's always nice to know a kindred spirit in writing. I'm excited to read your creations!
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest. I only had time to briefly skim your post but I heart you SOOOOO much! I agree with your lists, I did read those :) Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteI love Three Good Things. Glad you told me about the second two.
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