The 21st Point

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En provenance du cours de Wesleyan University

Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

1768 notes

Wesleyan University

Creative Writing: The Craft of Plot

1768 notes

Cours 1 sur 5 dans Specialization Rédaction créative

In this course aspiring writers will be introduced to perhaps the most elemental and often the most challenging element of story: plot. We will learn what keeps it moving, how it manipulates our feelings, expectations, and desires. We will examine the choices storytellers make to snag our imaginations, drag them into a fictional world, and keep them there. We will learn how to outline and structure a plot, discuss narrative arc, pacing and reversals and reveal the inevitable surprise: connecting the beginning, middle and end.

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Cut It Out

This modules deals with the specifics of editing and revising your work. This process of revision starts with the first draft (which will now become your second draft) and continues until the manuscript’s ready to send to an agent. Included here are a twenty-one point checklist on what to do once you have a completed first draft, and conversations about creating characters with strong motivations, and how to define language that gets rewritten vs language that gets cut.

The 21st Point3:30

Rencontrer les enseignants

Brando Skyhorse
Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
English

[MUSIC]

Welcome to Segment 4 of Module D, your written assignment.

Okay, so you've completed 20 out of the 21 points on the revision check list.

At least three to four months of work has been done on the manuscript.

You've omitted needless words, you've set thing in complete scenes.

You've explained the risk involved for every character.

And your second draft is at least 10% shorter than your first.

So you're asking, what's the 21st point on my checklist?

Glad you asked.

But first, let's set up that point.

It's time for other people to read your work.

Once you've done everything on the checklist in segment one,

and at least three to four months of work has been done on the manuscript,

you need to find some outside readers.

These can be loved ones, spouses, relatives, close friends.

Or they could be people in your writing community, either here on Coursera or

in your hometown.

The point is to get as much feedback as possible.

Make sure your feedback is from people that read a lot of books.

And people that don't read much at all because you're going to need

a mix of both.

Do this only when you've finished the whole manuscript.

Start with just a couple of readers.

Give each reader just a few chapters at first.

Also, give them two or three specific questions to answer.

Do not give them the whole manuscript and say tell me what you think.

Give them the manuscript and ask specific queries for

instance, what did you think of my main characters actions in chapter 2?

Or, were there any parts of chapter 3 that seemed confusing or hard to follow?

Or, locate a scene and mark off each of the five parts that a scene should have.

Never ask a reader to read your work without giving them specific directions.

Once you have reader feedback, process it and see if it makes sense to you.

Address every comment that seems reasonable then go through the 20 point

revision checklist again, then give the revision to

either your original trusted readers, or if some of those readers weren't right for

you, to a new set of readers and get their new feedback.

Now you're ready for your 21st point from the 21 point checklist.

Are my readers no longer confused?

This is the key and final point on your 21 point checklist.

It's crucial that none of your trusted readers are confused by

anything that's happening in your manuscript.

Now when I say confused, I'm not talking about a twist ending where readers thought

character A was the bad guy and it turned out to be character C instead.

I'm talking about genuine confusion about what actually happens.

Keep revising your manuscript until all your readers

are no longer confused about what's happening.

Thanks so much for completing this course on Plot with me and

I'll see you all in the Capstone.

[MUSIC]

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