Writing News

This week was a bit more productive. I finished exercises #7, #8, and #9 in The Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook and they brought about some good changes in my manuscript. Number seven was “Personal Stakes” and I went through the story and was supposed to deepen the personal stakes in seven different places. I can’t remember how many spots that I actually deepened but I made a lot of changes and tried to make the daughter/father relationship more meaningful. Number eight was “Ultimate Stakes” and in this lesson I wrote a paragraph describing the moment of irrevocable commitment for the protagonist. Then I wrote a paragraph that would hint at that moment early on in the novel. I ended up placing both of them into the story and I think they really flesh out what I was trying to accomplish. Number nine was on “Exposition” and you were supposed to find five places in your novel where not much is happening and then transform those moments into deep personal reflection for your protagonist. Make her self-aware, give her some interesting observations about herself and life and round out the character. I ended up skimming through every chapter to make sure that she was self-aware all through because my protagonist’s scathing personal reflection is so vital to the voice of the book that I needed it to be consistent. I found out that it pretty much is, although I did make several good changes. So now you can rest at ease knowing that Kristen has deepened her exposition.