Taking Classes, A Guest Blog by Jackie Diamond Hyman

Jackie Diamond Hyman

Does anyone really need to take a writing course? Why not just sit down and write your novel?

Here’s a secret: That’s pretty much what I did. Starting when I was about, oh, ten. A short novel about a horse (the less said about that, the better). A longer novel – maybe 150 pages – about a girl with a white cat and an active fantasy life. I also branched into writing the books and lyrics for musicals. Many years later, a friend set one to music and a local children’s theater mounted a production, but fame and fortune remained elusive.

I won’t give you the long version of my road to publication, but I was about 32 when I sold the first of more than 80 novels (mystery, romance and fantasy). By then – in those pre-Internet, pre-RWA days — I’d studied in a hodgepodge of situations. A couple of seminars in college. A University of California extension course. A long-running critique group. Finally, I had the benefit of an agent and professional editors.

Here’s what I discovered: when I received intensive feedback from knowledgeable critiquers, I made rapid progress. That, in a nutshell, is what classes should provide.

A year and a half ago, I began teaching for a distance-learning organization. Now I’m seeing the process from the other side. I guide students individually through the Breaking Into Print course (short stories and/or articles) and, for advanced students, a novel-writing class. I won’t name the institution here, but if you’re curious, it’s listed on my Web site, www.jacquelinediamond.com. You’ll also find a page of writing tips on my site.

The challenge in teaching is to get inside a student’s head, figure out what works for her (or him), and help her to make the most of it. It’s incredibly rewarding to see the rapid improvement my beginning students make as they master basic fiction skills.

What do I mean by fiction skills? Here’s a quick overview:

–Point of View. This means filtering a story through the main character’s personality, attitudes and reactions. Head hopping – jumping back and forth between characters in the same scene – usually dilutes the impact. So do long passages of dialogue or action that seem to be observed by a camera rather than being colored and shaped by internal monologue. As a reader, I want to get inside that person’s emotions and go with her on a journey.

–Exposition or back-story. There’s a natural tendency to start out by telling the reader the background situation, but while that’s convenient for the author, the reader doesn’t care yet. Other writers, a little more sophisticated, start with action or dialogue, but after a few paragraphs, they stop the story cold to drop in a major chunk of exposition. These techniques may have worked back in the leisurely 19^th century, when readers weren’t so easily lured away by digital entertainment, but today they want to get right into the story. The author must learn to weave in exposition without losing momentum.

–Scene setting. Okay, action is good, but where are these characters? It’s amazing how many disembodied conversations and vague situations I read. I don’t need pages of description, but are they in the kitchen or the bank or a monastery in Tibet? Are there holes in the wall and roaches on the floor, or did a decorator with a startling resemblance to Martha Stewart just finish texturing the wall coverings?

–Dialogue. Most writers understand that they need to make the dialogue sound natural, but beyond that, they trip, stumble and stagger through endless booby traps. These include the technical aspects, such as punctuating and capitalizing properly, but more than that, dialogue needs to reveal character and progress the story. Forget chitchat (“Jane, how are you today?” “So nice to see you again, Mary”). You’ll put the reader to sleep. And… well, I could go on, but there isn’t room here. Sorry.

–Structure. Almost everyone needs help with this, from the short-story or article writer to the novelist. Every scene needs a structure – a purpose, a progression, and a turning point. So does every chapter. Books must build toward turning points that ramp up the tension, even in a comedy or literary novel. Speaking of structure, it’s vital in today’s market to start a novel in the right place. Not with the heroine’s childhood, not with a casual conversation or bathtub reflection, but with a chapter that sets up the major change in her life that’s going to propel the rest of the book.

There are more sophisticated skills as the writer advances, such as creating a character arc and using misdirection to increase the suspense. That’s a lot to learn on your own. Good classes make it easier.

Now, I’ve got a queue of lessons to teach, so please excuse me. Hope to see you at the bookstore – when you’re signing your first published novel!

In September, Harlequin American Romance will publish Jackie’s next book, Doctor Daddy by Jacqueline Diamond. For more of Jackie’s writing tips, please visit www.jacquelinediamond.com.