Getting Authentic with Tim Crouch Part, III
(Note: Sorry this post is so late. Teething baby = temporal black hole.) In my last Tim Crouch post, I talked about co-authorship and the role of the audience and/or reader. Today, I’m getting a little deeper in again, with some of Crouch’s thoughts on actors, characters, and emotions, and a couple of exercises I find helpful. Writing Outside of the Box We’ve all heard this expression in some form or another. But part of writing outside of the box is understanding what exactly...
Read More3 Ways Twitter Can Make You A Better Writer
Twitter can be an excellent tool for people in any profession. But most of us pigeon-hole it, leaving Twitter to the social networking and new media mavens. Here are 3 quick ways Twitter can help you become a better writer. 1. Distilling Your Storyline – the one sentence novel. A guest speaker at one of my English Lit classes led a class based around the idea. She presented us with half a dozen classics, then had us give just one line summarizing the plot of each– Mrs. Dalloway...
Read MoreGetting Authentic with Tim Crouch, part II
Yesterday, we talked about authenticity in a nebulous sense - what it is, and why it’s important. Today’s post is about co-authorship, or building a relationship with your audience. [As Crouch is an actor and playwright, he speaks specifically about theater, though the same ideas carry into other aspects of fiction, too.] A large part of Crouch’s theater philosophy revolves around the idea of acting and not acting. “I’m bored to the back teeth of watching actors...
Read MoreGetting Authentic with Tim Crouch, part I
Tim Crouch is of middle height, pale, and loud. He looks like the kind of guy you might see at Man Utd. game, or down at the local pub getting laughs for his self-deprecating humor. Last week, I attended Crouch’s first ever writing workshop, held at the ICA Boston in conjunction with Grub Street. Here’s the blurb from the Grub Street Rag: FREE PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP: CREATIVE WRITING PERFORMANCE WITH TIM CROUCH British playwright/performer Tim Crouch will offer a practical...
Read MoreBad Things Happen to Good Characters
Consistency is important. And I thought it was something I had a handle on–after all, I loved chocolate when I was a kid, when I was a teen, before, during, and after my pregnancy. Beyond that, I never really thought about it. And then my critique partner Amitha pointed out that my main character trucks along nicely for first three chapters, then mellows. Come the third chapter, the writing eases off a bit, and I give him a break. This is a problem for two reasons. 1. Consistency Ever...
Read MoreThe Dialogue Drinking Game
As you may have noticed, I’ve been away for a while – Baby and I have been down with a cold. Since sick Baby is even cuddlier than usual, he’s been sleeping a lot–though only if I’m holding him in close to my chest and rocking in our glider. Sounds great, right? It is, except for one thing–my hands have been all tied up, which means no typing, no reading, and very little (lukewarm) tea drinking. Sans hands, there’s very little else I can do except watch...
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