BENEDICT BROOKS
  • Home
  • Books
  • Creative Writing Courses
  • Bio
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Link Page

Totnes Phase 2 TENSION Friday 27th 

28/11/2015

 
We looked at some line-editing skills today.
Tips:
  1. start with concreteness, rather than abstraction
  2. remove as many function words as you can
  3. let your verbs and nouns predominate in each sentence - try not to hide them behind function words
  4. Function words are inexpressive - but we use them a lot in talk - so it tends to infect our prose if we're not careful.
  5. Words to avoid: be, as such, already, because, there is, it was, there was, had to be a, has there ever been such a, - the list is endless really…
TENSION
Tension has 4 styles:
Relationship / Task /  mystery / surprise
1. Dialogue should always have inflection to reflect relationship tension (rise to point of crisis)
if two people are at odds - use shorter responses, less need for attribution and direction
2. Task tension works best by placing obstacles in front of your main protagonist, and just keep putting them there. TIP - don't always have an answer or solution as to how your character will resolve the crisis.
3. Mystery tension - use dramatic irony, let the reader see the misunderstandings of your protagonist - let them scream at the page.
4. Surprise tension (where's the twist?) Work at it being a surprise to you too. If you're surprised by what your protagonist has done, the reader will be too.
​


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Writer and creative writing course teacher, Benedict Brooks invites you to share in his story and progress to becoming a successful author.

    Archives

    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Benedict will be teaching the second instalment
of his How to Write Amazing Prose series at

​ Dartington Hall 
on Saturday April 29th


the topic for the 2nd session: "Life Inside The Plotting Shed"
Saturday - April 29th - 09.00-12.00
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

​Call to find out more, or register your interest on the website
Tel: 07484 193789

Click here to read a local newspaper article about Benedict Brooks.

 Bio
 Books
 Creative Writing
 Blog
 Contact
'Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon' 
E.L.Doctorow
Tweets by @Benedict_Brooks
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Books
  • Creative Writing Courses
  • Bio
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Link Page