RJ has added the lesson here and we've also attached the full text below. Apologies for the issues.
Leslie

joan koster submitted a new resource:

Autocrit - Revision editor

I would like to recommend the www.Autocrit.com editing wizard. It is a very handy revision tool because it really gets you to focus on specific issues in your prose. Some of the features could be done using the word find feature in your processor, such as looking for specific overused words, but there are certain things it does that are very handy. Finding cliches is one. Another is finding passive construction, repeated phrases, and sentence starters....

Click to expand...

Read more about this resource...

Hi All,

Lesson Seven is perhaps my favorite because I love all things myth related, and JKR does LOADS with it. This is a fairly long post because there is so much to cover.

Likewise, in working with myths and archetypes in our stories, there is so much we can analyze. So I'm going to break it down into a few options for you, just choose one (unless, of course, you're a glutton for punishment!):

1) using the hero's journey, break down your story according to the steps
or 2) if you've incorporated any myths into your story, analyze the conflict of that myth and how you re-used it
or 3) pick out 2-3 storyline or personality archetypes that you have used and how you have used them

Thanks!
Susan

Hi All,

Today's lesson is on backstory. It's not as long as the last couple have been.

For your assignment, please review your first chapter, or first couple of chapters, and identify your backstory. Analyze whether it is the appropriate amount. Is there any that is too much for this early in the MS? Is there any that you can save for later without confusing the reader? Try to separate your need to reveal from the reader's need to know.

Susan

Welcome to Ignite Your Fiction with Sally J Walker– March 16 - April 19, 2015.

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“Ignite Your Fiction”
Session Three: Description Fundamentals & Techniques
by Sally J. Walker

Description is the words that succinctly, vividly trigger thought associations of sensory memories in the reader that, in turn, prompts a visceral emotional experience of the fiction story.

When non-writers think of what it means to be a writer they seem to immediately latch onto descriptive voice as the end-all-be-all essence of a truly gifted writer. However, storytellers know how false that concept is. The writer who can UNOBTRUSIVELY create a reader’s experience of place and experience through the senses wherein “less is more” is the gifted writer. The ability to describe down to the scientific foundation of an element is meticulously trained OUT of a mature writer. That writer evolves into an understanding of how to use lean, vivid language that trips the senses in an easy flow without calling attention to itself.

Young people in rapturous love of language get carried away with their own efforts. They throw MORE words instead of less into their story thinking all those evocative nuances will surely entrance the reader as evidence of how brilliantly a phrase can be turned, instead of how simple and direct the writer can be. Simple seems to translate to boring in the young writer’s mind. O, silly youth!

In reality, all those words, all that minute detail suffocate the reader’s mind with information that must be processed. The actual reading experience becomes a numb exercise of holding a dictionary in one hand and a Thesaurus in the other, whipping back and forth trying to decipher exactly what the young writer is getting at.

So, chant with me: “Less is more, Less is more, Less is more . . .”

FUNDAMENTALS OF DESCRIPTION
First, description must evoke an emotional response both in the character AND in the reader. The writer has five senses to choose from: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Right here and now I BEG you to avoid the word “felt” at all costs. Whenever you are tempted, insert a sensory phrase instead, the experience of a sensation of one of the five senses. If you adhere to that discipline, you WILL allow the reader to experience the scene WITH the character. The word “felt” is TELLING, but the use of the senses challenges the writer to SHOW the reader . . . thus engaging thoughts that associate to EMOTIONS in the reader’s mind.

Second, descriptive details, authentic details, legitimate (not strained metaphor) details make both character awareness and the ENVIRONMENT more realistic, more believable for the reader. But to what depth? Again, chant after me: “Less is more . . .”

Thirdly, You-the-Writer, want to choose just those details the character will need and will notice. In other words, you will not use multi-syllabic or sophisticated adjective-laden phrasing when the POV character is an innocent five year old or ignorant serf. You will use ONLY those images and details appropriate to your character’s age and education. A Boy Scout appreciates some details in nature but a military person who has taken survival training notes much, much more because his or her life is at stake.

A personal example: I remember our vet coming to do the biannual check of our two horses and right after he entered the barn, he stopped, inhaled, coughed distastefully and muttered “Jerry must have gotten some goats to milk. Nothing stinks like goat manure!” Jerry owned the farm stables where we kept our horses and, indeed, the first stall to the vet’s right had four new nannies. I hadn’t noticed until the vet said something. Now, if it had been pigs . . . part of my childhood was on a pig farm. The experience and thought comparison set me to thinking EXACTLY how I would describe the aromatic nuances of goat vs. pig vs. horse vs. cow. The trained vet didn’t need words. His nose knew.

My fourth point has to do with genre. Some genres demand lush details. I did not say repetitive detail or over-use of a Thesaurus to see how many different ways you can describe the same thing. Some forms of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, paranormal, horror) need the cataloging of creatures, strange worlds, clothing, rituals and customs. NOT describing the details (as the character needs them) leaves the reader feeling cheated. Romance likes the sensual detail of sexual description whereas action-adventure dwells on the gore and guts of battle. However, repeat the chant. Give enough to create your scene, but not so much as to suffocate the reader’s mind.

Finally, there is the matter of a writer’s style. Journalistic writers write lean by habit. Their OBJECTIVE STYLE gives a sprinkling of sensory description and relies heavily on the reader to connect the dots to insert their own sensory conclusions. At the other extreme is the SUBJECTIVE STYLE of craving more and more. Ah, yep, time for the chant. Even the subjective writer can evolve into a mature craftsman with a reputation for sensation’s sensory description that evokes scene and emotion. If subjective is your style, like me, it is a perpetual battle to think of these five key points when I set to describing.

TECHNIQUES OF DESCRIPTION
Focus on the purpose of description. Its use is NOT to demonstrate how intelligent or poetic you are. It is meant to give substance, fullness, reality to character, setting, place, or object through the five senses.

Use of descriptive language gives an event the aura of immediacy and mood through the senses. The segment of life experienced by the character is EYEWITNESS action moving through a time sequence and you will portray your awareness of that segment’s significance, its reality, by the sensory details you select.

Consider periodically using the character’s experience as a contrasting sensual awareness to the character’s mood, such as triggers that shift anger into lust. Try a counterpoint scene wherein you start with a universal sensory appeal (aroma of Thanksgiving turkey baking when the teen girl awakens) then SHOCK both reader and character with a negative detail of private significance to the character (but this is a week to the day of her mother’s funeral and her father is blindly determined to continue traditions in the midst of their agony). Readers will vividly remember artfully structured contrast and counterpoint.

KEYPOINTS OF DESCRIPTION
Yes, I do use both a Thesaurus and a dictionary to be absolutely certain each and every word is used appropriately and to its best advantage, connecting my image to the reader’s mind.

Check list of STRICT ATTENTION to . . .
1. Brevity . . . Find the shortest, simplest word (snot or phlegm?)
2. Selectivity . . . Not the most common word (crescendo scream)
3. Precision . . . Go for exact nuance (cherry blood is arterial, burgundy venous)
4. Imaginative appeal . . .Surprised/juxtaposed words (fiery ice crystals)
5. Reader overload . . . Most distinct, not everything
(Example: “In the woman’s dark doll eyes, Justine had glimpsed a carnivore.”
Fallen Angel, Deborah Camp)

Focus is an important concept for a writer to drive deep into his or her creative process. It is the distinctness the mind’s eye renders an image. There are three LEVELS OF FOCUS a storyteller must remember:

1. Internal Focus (of character) concentrates on personal life, what touches sensation and emotions. (Internal monologue appreciating sensations)

2. External Focus (of character) concentrates on needs at the moment for survival, tunnel vision resulting from awareness of jeopardy (Surrounding world forgotten in the death-defying chase)

3. Writer’s Focus (in writing the bloody thing) concentrates on using the right details, implications, aura, which all transfer sensory input into descriptive words that precisely recreate an image in the reader’s mind.

In conclusion, once you have established the viewpoint character, be consistent in what THAT character needs to note and use. That singular discipline will give you control and prevent meandering into another character’s commentary or awareness . . . which will only confuse your reader.

GAINING CONFIDENCE IN DESCRIPTION
You will find many articles and even books on the use of description in creative writing. I have tried to give you a few different slants. Now, I want to give you one more that may just stretch you to where YOU want to go.

Abstractions & the Five Senses
How can you give vague concepts concrete terms? Try metaphor and simile . . . one sense at a time. Write down one abstract emotion like "friendship" or "loneliness" or "disappointment." Now, write five descriptive metaphor phrases for:

Friendship looks like . . .
Friendship tastes like . . .
Friendship sounds like . . .
Friendship smells like . . .
Friendship (tactilely) feels like . . .

Make the same list for loneliness and disappointment. Try anger, ambition, curiosity, depression, success, pride . . . Okay, you get the idea. But, I truly do urge you to experiment and grow your descriptive ability through this exercise.

On-the-Spot Efforts
You cannot take for granted your descriptive ability. You have to constantly be honing it. I urge you to focus an hour on the following collection of materials:

For smell, pull out a variety of spices from your kitchen cabinet and sniff one at a time then HURRIEDLY scribble down a phrase for that aroma WITHOUT USING THE SPICE'S NAME.

For touch, as a child (or young person) to collect ten small items of varying sizes, shapes, textures and drop them into a sack. Put on a blindfold, pull out each item and describe its FEEL without naming it.

For sound, try to find a sound effects tape or CD. Close yours eyes and listen to 10 to 30 second clips then describe the sound in METAPHOR, again not naming the actual sound. Focus on the motion the sound evoked.

For taste, ask some one you trust to select ten items that can safely be LICKED . . . and not all foods! Have this associate hold the item near your mouth and simply lick it. Describe the taste without NAMING the item.

For sight, select a highly emotional and visual scene from one of your favorite films. Play it with the volume OFF. Write down descriptive METAPHOR phrases pin down the images.

By the time you have finished these two very different exercises you WILL be a better descriptive writer, guaranteed.


* * * * *

Exercises for IGNITE Session Three:

Print out the attachment for markup

Exercise 3a. On the provided opening pages to my published novel Desert Time, find THREE descriptive words YOU would change and write YOUR word above mine. Now ask yourself how did your word change the nuances of the sentence?

Exercise 3b. Mark an “I” before a descriptive passage that was a character’s Internal Focus, “E” before a character’s External Focus (survival/immediate jeopardy) and “W” before what you identify as specifically, intentionally Writer’s Focus of language manipulation to trigger reader perception. Are there correlations to genre or style?

NOTE: The more often you do this exercise with the work of others AND your own work, the more likely you are to naturally incorporate the concepts into the flow of your writing.