At the creative writing workshop ‘Writing what you know: Using autobiography in fiction’, conducted by Nina McConigley, participants kept pouring in even after its commencement. Nina, author of Cowboys and East Indians and a teacher at the University of Wyoming, asked the participants to list 10 firsts and lasts in their lives — like the first kiss, the first job, or the last day at school.
Then using some of the words she asked them to weave a scene.
After five minutes of listening to the sound of rustling paper and a scratchy pen, she asked them to rewrite the scene by making a big change and asked some of them to read it out.
Nina also offered useful tips on how to take real-life experience and fictionalise it. Here are five takeaways from the workshop:
1. There is no right or wrong way to approach fiction writing. And setting a target of writing every day doesn't work for all. Reading every day, however, is necessary to be a good writer.
2. As seen in the workshop, pick a moment in your life and write a first draft without any pause. Then smash it and introduce something new and mix it up.
3. If your lead character is perfect, has everything and doesn't want anything, the story becomes boring. Every protagonist has to want something and has to go behind it.
4. Once you're finished with your draft, make sure to revisit it. It doesn't necessarily mean rewriting the whole thing but make sure the truth is in there.
5. Lastly, revise and edit. Edit thoroughly with the eyes of a hawk. Because, being a writer is a scary thing but you can overcome it.
