Harold Underdown spoke about turning off the literary critics in our heads and focusing on the emotional impact of writing. The exercise is simple and tremendously powerful.
Read a few lines of writing.
Jot down what you are feeling.
Repeat with the next section of writing.
See how your emotions change.
This technique is terrific for revising your own work and for analyzing other people's writing. It's fun to do as a group because reactions vary so much.
The hard part is quieting that internal literary critic. In the first example Harold gave (The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston), the scene opens with a boy riding a train by himself, and outside it's raining. My first reaction was: Oh no another sad scene in the rain. Tired metaphor. But when I forced the literary critic to sit down and shut up, I realized it wasn't a sad scene, and the rain was simply part of the setting.
Go ahead. Try it. And let me know how it works.
Phenomenal First Pages Contest
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1 comment:
I was at the same workshop. I, too, found this a helpful and revealing exercise. I intend to try it on some of the "sticking points" in my current novel.
I think this was the best conference in re exercises; or perhaps I'm just in a place where they're more useful.
I like that this exercise is about the writing, and not just about the publishing/marketing, which is the main focus of the SCBWI conferences I've attended.
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