MY WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE TAKING MY FIRST FICTION WRITING COURSE

If you want to learn a lot about writing take a stab at a Fiction Writing course.  My instructor was great and the students all eager to improve upon their writing.  It was an intenstive course where we had 10 stories to be completed in a 10 week course.  The April course was perfect for me as it finished before all the hot weather.  Eagerly I would wait in turn to read my truly wonderful fiction story.  You should never take the critiquing that follows to heart as every student is there to learn where they can improve in their writing.  I would listen and write down the comments from both the students and the instructor.  By critiquing other students work I would learn through them what I was doing right or wrong.  The course taught me how to examine my writing as well as how others wrote.  Some of the things that come to mind that make you a better fiction writer are the following:

• write in the active voice
• keep it short its not an novel
• put some good little details into your characters like how she twirled her hair and moved her lips in that funny way she had
• make sure you don't put too many characters in your story and enough information so your reader knows who the protaganist is
• don't name people with the same letters like James and jim, it gets confusing
• put lots of emotion into your character
• show it
• don't tell it
• try to stay in the same tense
• try to stay in the same time sequence if your a beginner
• mix it up, some scenery, some plot, don't drag it out too long
• write something that inspires you, it will be more passionate
• try not to end with a sermon (although a morale to the story can shine through)
• do every assignment
• show up for every class
• enter writing contests

Remember, in order to succeed you must first be willing and able to accept that sometimes you will fail.  Most great writers, Stephen King comes to mind, was rejected a lot before he became famous.  Hope you find this both inspiring and helpful. Good luck to all you novice writers.  I wish you great success.