CWS7 Journal Entry 1 Š
15Mar08
Journal Home
March 15 Craft
Seminar
March 22 Guest
Speaker
March 24 First
Draft Emailed to Sally/Sally Distributes Drafts for Critique
March 25 Š 28 Writers Critique First Draft Manuscripts at
Home
March 29 First draft Writing
Workshop
April 2 Second
Draft Emailed to Sally/Sally Distributes Drafts for Critique
April 2 Š 4
Writers Critique Second Draft Manuscripts at Home
April 5 Second Draft Writing
Workshop
April 5 Š 11 Writers Prepare Final Draft
April 12 Final Draft Reading & Celebration
Nine writers are
participating in MCWS 7. They are a sharp group and IÕm excited about working
with them. Here is a list of MCWS7 writers and what they might write about.
Charlotte: Marine officer; Nonfiction; Homecoming from Iraq
Stacy: Two-year enlisted marine; Nonfiction; Why she enlisted.
Fred: 30-year marine veteran; Nonfiction; How memories of his Vietnam
experience have mellowed over the years.
Nancy: Civil Service/father was a B52 pilot & sheÕs married to a marine;
Nonfiction; Uprooted from civilian life by marrying a marine, she is deployed
to Guam with husband during Vietnam War.
Tracy: Married 20+ years to a marine; Nonfiction; Discovering that in marrying
a man who is a marine, sheÕs also married the Marine Corps.
Bernard: Vietnam Vet; Fiction; Meet Allen Stern, a country boy and a Vietnam
Vet diagnosed with PTSD.
Jack: Korean War Vet; Nonfiction; Acting as defense attorney for a marine
during a court martial.
David & Adam: David is a retired marine; his son, Adam, is on active duty
in Iraq; together, they are writing a story about AdamÕs first days in-country.
IÕm really looking forward to working with this group and to reading their
stories.
During our first Saturday
Craft Seminar, we discussed everything from writing process to elements of
fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, to publishing. Most of our time was spent
discussing planning strategies. I emphasized the importance of planning.
Sometimes a simple technique like using lists to organize ideas and details can
make all the difference in getting that first draft written. Another useful
planning strategy is to develop a story timeline complemented by a historical
and cultural timeline. I like to line these timelines up on a big piece of
paper, with the story timeline (major action beats) at the top of the paper.
Then I place the historical timeline just below it on the same paper. Last, the
cultural timeline is written out beneath the historical timeline. I try to keep
the historical and cultural timelines simple by including only major elements.
But sometimes, I fill all three timelines with as much information as possible
and then look for parallels and contrasts with the story timeline. The
historical and cultural timelines often reveal a wealth of details that can
bring a story or scene to life.
Timelines can be built
using any unit of measure for time. It all depends on the story. For instance,
a storyline might unfold minute-by-minute, day-by-day, or month-by-month, etc.
The timelineÕs purpose determines the unit of measure. If using a
month-by-month unit of measure for the story timeline, use the same unit of
measure for the historical & cultural timelines. The same rule that applies
to unit of measure applies to type of timeline created to parallel the story
timeline: the subjects of my timelines are going to be dependant on the subject
of my writing. LetÕs say that I decide to write about how I, as a child, was
affected by the race to land a man on the moon. Then my timelines would be
personal history, space race, and cultural. The really cool thing about doing
timeline work is discovery of correspondence between events and the ability to
use specific details to build scenes.
Happy Writing!