Narrative Structure: the skeleton that holds your story together

Today I'm blogging over at Savvy Authors, talking about the importance of understanding narrative structure in order to give your stories a solid backbone, and to ensure they deliver on your promise to the reader.

The blog post is an introduction to the course on narrative structure I'll be teaching through Savvy Authors for the next month, starting on Monday 12th February.

The entire month-long course is only $40, and for that you receive personalised feedback as well as lessons. This is huge value, and you only have until Sunday night to sign up, so don't delay!

You can find out more about the course and register here: Savvy Authors' Narrative Structure Course.

Keeping up the Pace!

What keeps a book intriguing enough to have fans turn the pages and not set it down? How can one author’s books have you riveted and another’s leave you feeling ho-hum? Ever wondered if there are key craft tips and techniques to balance fast-paced conflict, tension, suspense or mystery, action and emotion? In PACING: HOW TO CREATE A PAGE TURNING MANUSCRIPT you’ll learn:

* The ingredients of a page turner
* What hooks are and how to maximize them
* The power of effective scenes: common  pacing pitfalls to avoid
* The ten elements of strong pacing
* How to use subplots and secondary  characters
* How to avoid a sagging middle
* Learning what a beat is and how to use it
* Great beginnings and endings that have your readers wanting more!

Mary Buckham is co-author of BREAK INTO FICTION: 11 Steps to Building a Story That Sells and an award-winning romantic suspense author. She has a non-fiction book and hundreds of free-lance articles to her credit, and is a former magazine editor. Currently she presents writing workshops online and around the country. Mary encourages you to visit her website at www.MaryBuckham.com for more information about her and her current writing projects.

Script Writing Masterclass

The Writers' Guild of South Africa is offering a screen writing workshop for Johannesburg-based writers on Saturday 27th August at AFDA Film School in Milpark.

You can find out more information at their Facebook site, and bookings can be made via email to admin@writersguildsa.org.

Postcards from Cape Town writing retreat

Australian travel writer and photographer Kim Wildman will be hosting a writers' retreat in Cape Town in September.

Held from 5-9 September at beautiful Dunkley House guesthouse in the city's old quarter, this five day retreat will take participants on a travel writing journey through the sights, sounds and scents of Cape Town.

Facilitator: Australian-born Kim Wildman has spent the better part of the last ten years criss-crossing the African continent as a travel writer, guidebook author and wannabe National Geographic wildlife  photographer. She has authored and updated more than 15 guidebooks including Lonely Planet's South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland and West Africa, Bradt Travel Guide’s Tanzania and Ghana, and Random House Struik’s Offbeat South Africa. Kim has a Masters Degree in African Studies attained from the University of Cape Town. Recently voted one of Tripbase’s 100 Favourite Travel Writers in the world, her feature articles have appeared in Travel Africa, abouTime, Planet Africa, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Voyageur magazine. Visit her website at: www.wildwriting.com.au

You can find out more about this retreat here: http://www.wildwriting.com.au/retreats/cape-town or feel free to contact Kim on kim@wildwriting.com.au

Franschhoek Literary Festival and The Writers Workshop

Heard on Jenny Crwys-Williams' book show on Radio 702 last week:

The 2010 Franschhoek Literary Festival will be held from 14th to 16th May. It looks like it's going to be great fun and very interesting. You can check it out here. If you live in the Cape and decide to go along, please drop us a line and tell us all about it, as most of us here at South African Romance Writers are a little too far away. Guest bloggers welcome ...

On the back of this, festival organiser Christopher Hope will be holding a residential writing workshop in the little town of Greyton. The workshop seems very reasonably priced considering the fee also includes accommodation, but again it's sadly too far away for me to attend, so if anyone out there goes along we'd love to hear about it. More information can be found here. 

Finally, if you love books and want to keep up with what's happening in South African publishing, podcasts of Jenny's shows can be found here.

Writing Courses

Radio 702 listeners might have caught Jenny Crwys Williams' show last week in which she interviewed the organiser of an online writing course. Sadly I missed it, but I've had a few friends mention it to me and it piqued my interest. I've heard of this course, and a few others, but I'm struck time and again by the costs involved in learning to write novels. For most of us writing starts as a hobby, growing with time into an obsession and finally, hopefully, into something we can make a living at. But who can afford to spend several thousand rands on what is still effectively a hobby?

I've learned a lot from the internet, from reading 'how to' books and from networking with other writers. But writing is a lonely business and online interaction is a poor substitute for the real thing. I drool over adverts for those glamorous writing courses offered overseas, like Sharon Kendrick's Tuscan romance writing course or the Fishguard weekend with Kate Walker. Am I alone in wondering how long it will be before an esteemed romance writer decides to do a course in the inspirational setting of the bushveld?

Have you been on any writing courses or done an online course? Would you do it again? If you haven't yet done any courses, would you like to and what sort of things would you want to get out of the experience?