Several weeks ago I spent a day at a Donald Maass workshop. The focus was on character and emotion, a good balance to the John Truby workshop I attended last fall that was all about structure.
The workshop aspect of the day involved Donald Maass posing questions for us, mostly about our own emotional life, to draw on for our own manuscripts. He talked about this like method acting – using our own emotional experiences to bring emotional depth to our characters.
He also discussed micro-tension – tension in every line – developed through conflict between the characters, in the reader not knowing what’s coming next, in the unexpected. I particularly like this for writing for children – it helps new and reluctant readers to want to turn the page, to read the next chapter.
He demonstrated his techniques by rewriting paragraphs from other writers (including one brave soul in the workshop), and the difference was astounding. He’d read the edited version, and the silence in the room echoed, as we felt the emotional punch he’d added.
I took frantic notes, my mind leaping from one project to another: oh, I could do this for that story, and that for this character, and …. scribble scribble scribble. After, I chose one of my projects to use to study this material, going over it page by page, with four coloured markers in hand.
I’m now working through all my current projects (they are legion – I never quite understand how that happens), reading my workshop notes and coming up with edits. None of them are substantial changes; these are more in bits and moments, things I can highlight, play on, enhance. It’s an interesting process, watching a manuscript get stronger through small changes.
And so I slowly learn to use these new tools in my writing toolbox.
Maureen
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