Held on the first Thursday of every month, the Adult Writing Group has convened in the Kay Cristo Room for more than six months. “We’ve been meeting here since September,” said Assiniboian author, Heather Hobbs. “People usually come and bring a piece of writing.”
The group gather on the first Thursday of every month at the library, where they regularly engage in roundtable discussions about writing. The workshop-styled scenarios are similar to the sessions organized in university-based creative writing classes, where students read out their submissions then the class discusses the strengths and weaknesses of their works.
The writing group met during their usual time at 7 p.m. on March 5 to workshop their fictional and nonfictional pieces and talk over writing techniques with Heather Hobbs. Hobbs has written several Y/A books since retiring as a school principal, including the popular Breaking the Rules series. The participants in the group included an author who is working on a suspense novel and another writer who is completing a memoir. A newer member of the group is currently deciding on a project for the future.
During the workshop, Hobbs discoursed over some of the methods she employed in her writing, such as the story’s five milestones. In the first milestone, an incident happens. Next, the first slap occurs, which represents a complication for the story’s protagonist. Following the first slap, the second slap transpires – this stage is essentially a progressive complication embedded in the plot. Both slaps are actions in the story which should surpass the reader’s expectations. Predictabilities within a plot must be avoided to engage the reader’s interest. Next, the actions within the story have to build-up into a climax – the climax is the turning point in a piece of fiction. The climax in a novel must contain the highest peak of tension and drama in the story. Also, the ultimate crisis within a story should be confrontational with an added impulsive element designed to further surpass the reader’s anticipations.
“You want to be hard on your heroes,” Hobbs instructed her class.
After the climax, the story is expected to unfold into a resolution – the resolution at the end is the last of the five milestones.
During the meeting, Hobbs advised the writers to practice various techniques when they are developing their stories. “You should brainstorm – write 20 things to help avoid things that have been done before.” Also, successful writers will express their thoughts using clear, knowledgeable voices. “Write about what you know,” Hobbs instructed. Further, Hobbs suggested her writers should carry notebooks to write down their thoughts. “Always have a notebook,” she said, referring to notebooks as compost heaps, where sudden thoughts can be jotted down then used for story ideas at a later date.
