As I mentioned earlier this month, my desire to see how the other half (i.e., you writers) lives led me to seek out a fiction writing class. I signed up for a ten-week session of “Fiction I” at Gotham Writers’ Workshop, which runs numerous classes in numerous genres of writing, both in New York and online. I’m workshopping live, but the online version is exactly the same, so pay attention even if you’re not a New Yorker! Now, what was week one like?
Okay, I realized after the fact that week one of any writing class or workshop is bound to be less exciting or interesting than the sessions to come. Why? None of us students had written anything yet! Which provided no opportunity for the backbone of Gotham’s program: the “Booth,” a format for students who have brought in short fiction to receive critiques from their teacher and fellow writers. In the Booth, the class, who have had a week to peruse one student’s work, take turns offering up one positive reaction, followed by one element of the writing they feel needs improvement.
Scary as getting feedback can be, I’m looking forward to my first time in the Booth (so-called because the writer being picked apart—sorry, constructively criticized—is forbidden to speak until the end). No classmate is allowed to repeat another’s comment, so every piece of writing discussed is assured a thorough and thoughtful critique of both its positive and its negative qualities. Of course, this may lead to the last person in line having to say, “I just loved your use of… um… words in paragraph two.”
In my group of about fifteen writers, each of us will have at least two opportunities to bring in a piece of fiction and sit in the Booth. Our instructor, a woman with impressive credentials in the publishing business as both a writer and an editor, also lectures on such standard topics as character, plot, and point-of-view. Standard, I say, not basic or boring. Last night’s lecture focused on the creation of character, and even with all my years of editorial experience, about twelve light bulbs went off in my head that never flickered before. And that was just one session. No shortage of insights into the importance of characters in fiction.
Have you done any writing yet, you ask? Why, yes. First, an exercise called “non-stop writing” or “free writing,” which is pretty much self-explanatory. Pen to paper, start the clock, don’t stop transferring what’s on your head onto the page until time runs out. Stream-of-consciousness: so simple, yet always so interesting. I started out writing about the likeliness that the flickering fluorescent light in the classroom would give me a seizure and ended up with about three different promising short story ideas. At least I think they’re promising.
The other writing exercise was of the “creating a character’s background” variety. I’ve always hated this exercise. You know, the one where you write down a character’s hometown, parents’ occupations, biggest secret, kindergarten teacher’s name, etc. I’m not sure why it gives me fits. Perhaps it’s because I’ve done it only in a blank-slate, vacuum kind of way, as we did in class. In the case of a preexisting character from a story or novel, providing a backstory would no doubt provide additional depth. But I have yet to be successful in dreaming up someone named “Petal,” who’s “twenty-seven years old” and grew up in “Jupiter, Florida,” and watching a story grow from that. It works for many, and perhaps I’ll learn to make it work for me, but my characters tend to emerge in my brain already in the context of their current experience, rather than only as products of a past.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the creation of characters—are they the chicken and the plot the egg? Does the character, in the best of stories, come first? Share your own creative process below. Writing workshoppers want to know.
If you’re interested in learning more about Gotham Writers’ Workshop, either their workshops or the many other resources they offer (writing contests, etc.), explore their terrific website.
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