Five Random Writing Lessons
When I try to think of the best of the writing lessons, it occurred to me that the most helpful teachings depend on what we need to know right now.
Every lecture at OCWW has taught me something. When I try to think of the best of the writing lessons, it occurred to me that what I consider the best isn’t necessarily what anyone else would choose.
So …
5 Random Lessons From OCWW Sessions
The importance of specific and unique details. Specificity makes a plot engaging and prose shine. Dig down deep to find something unexpected and unusual. This lesson was given to us more than once. Rebecca Makkai covered it in 2022 and Fred Shafer also taught it a few years earlier.
Don't swerve. If you avoid the conflict you've dredged up in your manuscript, readers will revolt. You need to confront the cause and effect of character actions. This came to us from Goldie Goldbloom, and the concept and term are something I use to this day with my critique group.
Limit writing to specific constraints. Jennifer Solheim taught us the concept of opening up creatively by writing within boundaries. It's a French term called Oulipo, and I had no idea what it was, but it blew me away when we worked through the concepts and exercises. It was fun to write a paragraph, each first word starting with the next letter in the alphabet. That's when I learned it’s possible to write an entire novel without using the letter "e," though I would never try.
Bring in ‘Captain Happen.’ Charles Baxter taught us the concept of having a a character that moves the plot along by doing things "normal" people don't do. The impact of a well-placed blurt or social blunder. In that same lecture introduced the concept of the one-way gate, a decision/action after which a character can't go back to where they were. They are forever altered. I think about both of these concepts often when I write.
Get your author photo done now. Richard Thomas advised; you aren't getting any younger, and you can use that photo for the next fifteen years
I hope one of these is something you can use right now. Personally, I’m looking forward to the next five writing lessons I’ll learn in our new season.
Ed. note: many of the instructors Hollie mentions here grace the OCWW podium every year. Check out our schedule of upcoming speakers and register today. Charles Baxter's craft book Wonderlands includes the Captain Happens essay, as well as Wonderland, which he also taught us.
HOLLIE SMURTHWAITE is the author of The Color of Trauma, a paranormal romantic suspense novel and winner of the 2020 Soon to Be Famous Illinois Author Project in adult fiction. She lives in Chicago with her husband, son, and too few pets. Find her work at HollieSmurthwaite.com.