At the January 12th, 2008 Fiction Workshop in the EPICC at USC, WriteGirl mentees, mentors, and volunteers were lucky enough to be graced by the wisdom and experience of fiction writers Gina Nahai and Janet Fitch.
The WriteGirl Workshop Team separated everyone into two groups. Each located in a separate room, Ms. Nahai took one room’s group and Ms. Fitch, the other.
Ms. Fitch began her lesson with an exercise: take ten minutes to write one sentence without stopping.For this exercise there are two rules:
1. Your pen must not stop for ten whole minutes
2. You must not use periods
Reactions to this exercise at first appeared to be utter frustration! Alas, isn’t that the idea? Once we passed the 5 minute mark, all pens in the room seemed to be moving fluidly, without faltering.
Next, Ms. Fitch moved on to her top five lessons for fiction writers:
1. Write for the 5 smartest people you know. Assume that the writer will understand you.
2.Write in scenes. A scene is when someone or something enters and changes the course of the story.
3. Vary the construction of your sentences. Make some long with dependent clauses to deepen the meaning. Make some short for punctuation.
4. Do not use cliches.
5.Don’t buy things on credit cards. Live within your means so that you don’t have to take a job that will distract from writing.
Gina Nahai’s number one tip:”Have faith! Writing takes a lot of faith!”
Gina Nahai is the author of Moonlight on the Avenues of Faith, Cry of the Peacock, and Sunday’s Silence.
Janet Fitch is the author of the acclaimed book White Oleander which was adapted for the screen in 2002. She has also written Paint it Black and Kicks.
