Proglogues and such - or a novel starts on page 1 
Excerpts taken out of feedback Rebecca gave to Raven, all notes re: her story have been deleted.
This advice is geared to literary novels.
 
Literary stories have a far, far wider acceptable structure and method
than the basic formula genre's. There are many different types of structures
and many, many ways to open a story.
 
If this is the first draft, my gut reaction is that you should continue
writing the story through to the end - just keep going from here. You've
got a good launching pad and, as you write scenes, there is the strong
possibility that there will be openings, reasons, dialogue, places for
memory or story telling. And then so you can go back in your next draft 
and choose to start somewhere else, or who knows? Some other idea you may have.
 
Since this is literary and you have a wide array of choices in how to open
your story, No prologue.
 
However, there are as many ways to start a story as their are stories -
and only you know which that will be.
 
A writing instructor I had always said and it is so important. The NOVEL
starts on page one. That's where it starts. The STORY starts at "the point
of change". The triggering event.
 
We hear far too much that is slanted to formula genre novels. Often the
writers of formula genre are told to start right at the "triggering event"
(usually a murder or something melodramatic)and that is called "top-loading"
or "front-loading" a story.
 
But please remember that this is advice that is only really pertinent to
formula genre and has little, if anything to do at all with literary writing.
So you need to determine where the NOVEL starts (page 1) and when it is
appropriate to your novel the event when God dies.
 
The thing about literary readers vs. genre - genre tends to be plot driven.
Literary is character driven. Give us enough so that we are invested enough
in the characters to care that God drowns.
 
One brilliant novel that comes to mind as we discuss this, is the Booker
Prize winning novel "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. Not only did it win this
major literary prize in 2002 and receive outstanding critical acclaim -
it also was a bestseller.
 
In that story the NOVEL began on page 1. (ahh, but of course) but the triggering
event, the "point of change", the dramatic inciting incident did not occur
until at least a third of the way through the novel. (as opposed to advice
given formula genre writers)
 
This gave the reader a chance to CARE about what happened to the boy. It
gave the reader a chance to be so fully invested it MATTERED.
 
Just keep going. Go forward, and don't look back until you
are done with this draft.
 
Then, you'll probably have a far better idea of where the NOVEL starts
(page 1) and then where the "inciting incident" occurs.
 
 
Rebecca
 
 
 

This was posted by Mary M.

I have difficulty writing body language that adds to my story, so I've
looked up some information that I thought I'd share. The reason I picked
the prompt for this week that I did is to practice body language. (I picked
it for a selfish reason because I need the practice, but I hoped others
might want the practice, too.) I feel that doing dialogue and body language
separately might be a good idea. First, we can concentrate on giving our
characters lines that help them say exactly what they mean (or give the
impression they want to give) in their own words. That way, we can show
a lot of their emotions through their speech alone, reducing the need for
body language, so that when we DO feel the need for body language to give
more cues for our reader, we can go back and choose wisely. Then, every
use will be for a purpose. I also find that when my characters are actually
DOING something, they tend to have more opportunities to demonstrate emotions
by the WAY they do it.
 
To demonstrate how body language makes a difference in how the reader interprets
the character's speech, note the following taken from the site, 
http://www.freewebs.com/alabamaworley/Mary%20Body%20Language%20Exercise.htm):
 
Have you ever met someone and you instantly didn't like them? Something
deep down inside you said, "no, don't know why but I just don't like him/her".
How many times have you argued with yourself when your instincts told you
something negative? Most of us are pretty eager to listen to our inner
voices when they're telling us something positive.
 
But, when it comes to first impressions and that "gut feeling" you get
about someone, most of us seem a little hesitant to follow our instincts.
Maybe it's human nature to want to give the benefit of the doubt, to believe
in the good in people, even if we don't see it. Well next time your little
voice tells you not to trust what you see - listen! Studies show that most
often that "gut feeling" is our subconscious mind making a decision about
trusting someone on the basis of the nonverbal cues we're picking up on.
On a conscious level we might like what we see or what we're hearing but
on deeper level we're recognizing that a person's outward physical and
verbal message contradicts what their body language is saying.
 
Here's an interesting exercise (in addition to the prompt for this week):
 
Start at the crown of your head and work your way down. For various parts
of your body (or the bodies of your characters), come up with movements
and twitches and grandiose gestures. Write them down, so that you develop
your own set of possibilities. Try to move from the commonplace and the
cliché to the creative. And award yourself extra points for gestures which
convey emotions or interact with the environment.
 
Note, you can also observe other people and take notes, especially if you
are in a position where you can see without being seen or noticed.
 
Here are some questions to consider about each item on your list:
 
Originality: Is the expression fresh or is it cliché?
 
Emotion: How well does the expression convey emotion?
 
Senses: How well does the expression convey one of the senses?
 
Here are some sites with specific examples of body language showing emotion.
I plan to print these out when I get home and add to the lists:
 
http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/body.htm
 
http://changingminds.org/techniques/body/body_language.htm.
 
http://www.job-employment-guide.com/reading-body-language.html
 
http://www.bodylanguage.netfirms.com/new_page_1.htm
 
 

Hey Kathy,
 
How do I manage everything? My friend, Judy, says I have an A++ personality...LOL...
I also have the ability to multi-task, and I do so all the time. Yes, I
do watch TV now and then (not often, though -- there are only a few shows
out there that can keep my attention), but I'm usually sitting with my
laptop at the same time, uploading reviews to the reviews blog or other
brainless activities.
 
I'm up early (4:00 a.m.-ish), so have two - three solid hours of uninterrupted
time to work on the stuff that requires my full attention.
 
I don't know how I squeeze it all in. And, yes, it gets overwhelming at
times. NaNo may end up putting me over the edge... if so, I'll stop. But
I have to give it a try. I LOVE doing it.
 
And, you have to admit that YOU loved doing it last year, too. Didn't you?
 
Maria

**

In Maui, they had an entire lecture devoted to this subject. There were
a couple of nuggets of good advice. The first was that the muse is a creature
of habit... writing in the same place everyday at the same time makes the
writing far more efficient--even if it's on the subway (so you already
do yourself a favor there, KathyK). I forget who it was, but there was
a famous writer who couldn't write unless he was on a train, and if he
was in the middle of something big, he'd book cross country journeys, just
so he could finish the damn thing!
 
The second is to have a notebook with you at all times, so that you can
work on a scene or idea when it comes to you, or in the short periods of
time you would otherwise waste.
 
And the last was to decide what you wanted to work on the next time you
sat down before you closed up shop the last time.
 
When I was working on this last set of revisions, I found it really helpful
to print up "packets" of work I could take along to work on longhand. I
did most of my work on the computer, but having parts that I could do longhand
made great use of my free moments that would otherwise have been frittered
away tapping my toes and staring into space. I also find that some of my
best writing comes when I put pen to paper, especially if it's a difficult
passage where the words don't seem to flow.
 
The other thing, though, that I gave up (and I had to do it cold turkey,
and it wasn't easy--but it's been easier since my daughter left for college
a few weeks ago) was TV. I don't miss it anymore (much)... Hubby does have
Gray's Anatomy and Ugly Betty on tape, and I'll probably watch those at
some point, but I'm really not interested in anything else. If I need to
unwind, I'd rather read... and see how someone else has crafted their words.
They drilled that into us in Maui, too--the importance of reading as writers,
and letting other authors words sink in. Noticing the structure of their
work, their turns of phrase, how they describe things... appreciating their
craft (or lack thereof), not to copy but to learn, incorporating bits that
work. I don't always remember to read that way, but when I do, I enjoy
it more. I find it helps to have a pen in hand and mark up my books. When
I had my mentor autograph my copy of her book, it was all marked up. She
was tickled.
 
Gay

Inspirational writing book?

Writing craft book?

Writing exercise book?

You just get to pick one in each category. I'm posing this question in

response to this posted by Gay:

"I would love to collect a list of really good books of authors writing

about writing--not craft, but their thoughts about writing itself. I find

it really helps me to "spend time with them," thinking about what it means

to be an author and the way that we pluck words out of thin air... and

not just the rules that we follow while doing it.

I've enjoyed Stephen King's On Writing and Ann Lamott's Bird by Bird and

I just picked up a George Orwell and I forget the name of the other...

both looked interesting. But I'm always open to suggestions. "

 - Carol

Whatever made you decide to write a novel? Discussion question

Posted by Carol on Wednesday, 1 June 2005, at 11:03 a.m.

We go to the computer every day or nearly every day to write about imaginary people doing imaginary things. Why? What compels you to do it? Why did you start writing the particular novel that became your first completed novel or the one you are going to complete? Is the novel you are working on your first or do you have unfinished novels lying around? Why did you abandon them? Why don't you abandon this one? What's next? If you knew you would never be published, would you continue to write novels? Where do you see yourself five years from now in terms of your writing? Ten years from now?

I had originally posted a question about why we write novels as part of the progress report, but people are ignoring that part so i decided to try it as a discussion question. Let's share some thoughts on this. Maybe it will help us during those times when we want to quit.

Carol

I was thinking of all the "props" or "tricks" we all use to get us jumpstarted on writing when it's the last thing we feel like doing...or when the blank page paralyzes me...

I thought it would be great to see what all of you do to "trick" yourselves into writing.