Nancy Lou Canyon's Creative Writing Class - 8 Compelling Ideas and Strategies for New Writers

Last night's class soared around tried and true strategies for gaining power as writers.  Nancy Canyon encouraged us to:

• Remember a novel can be written one scene at a time.
• Write 100 words about the subject you're writing about.  For example, if you were writing about a wagon journey in the 1900's, start a list describing the wagon and it's contents:  oxen, floorboard, tongue, cast iron pot, bonnet, whip, traces . . . .
• Try writing exercises that will tap into your right hemisphere.  For example, write ten minutes on "I remember" and take a break.  Come back and write ten minutes on "I don't remember" and see what comes out!
• Treat writing like a job.  Schedule yourself for writing hours and keep to that schedule.
• The more you write in the second or third person, the more you will believe in your own story.
• In the course of reading our story, we want to see a character become different.
• Consciously use dialogue, exterior monolog, interior monolog, stream of consciousness, etc. in your writing.
• Writing practice - 5 minutes short sentences, 10  minutes "chaining," 20 minutes long sentence release (do not lift your pen from the paper) and (finally) 5 minutes writing dialogue.