Writing with Will Weaver--"Our Own Stories"

The following are notes as I took them from the Will Weaver workshop "Our Own Stories" held at Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Minnesota. "Our Own Stories" was held from 9-11 am.

http://www.willweaverbooks.com/

Quotes by Mr Weaver:

"Write intensely with authentic local details..."

"Former Students" Poem by Mark Vince

"We are surrounded by our material and think twice about it"

"Revisit, reexpress our own stories"

Realistic Fiction have some basis of your own perception, your experience (like 80 fiction/20 life)

story should be personally valuable and important to us

Nature can be an inspiration. Metaphors very important

"Pre-writing Strategies: Every book is its own puzzle"
1) How much time am I going to cover (a summer, a lifetime)
2) Point of View--how much distance (first person--very intimate)
3) Audience
4) Focus


Approach Big Subject through a very small lens

Gertrude Stein once commented that there are only 10 stories that just get told and retold (like coming of age, love found, love lost). So how do develop your own voice for telling that story?
*Use strong desription, full-range of imagery and details to make it REAL
*Need Sensory Imagery. Most people remember visual imagery, but forget the other sense. So don't neglect olfactory, tactile, aural, and details you can almost taste.
*There also needs to be a balance of time for story and the details (too many details can affect the tempo)
*Use symbolism
*Conflict--puzzle
*Create a movie in your head
*Get feedback

But sometimes you have an original idea or concept.

Tips for how to catch editors attention can be found on his blog. But you need:
*Strong sentence structure and writing skills
*Write with "Zing"
*Have a strong story to tell

Short stories have a tight ending (clean clear ending)

Will commented that he benefited from the exercise of taking his work and another person's work and comparing it page by page.


"If you want to be a writer you also need to be a reader"


Poems and short stories can be sent directly to magazines (realizing it is a non paid submission--usually get a couple of copies of the journal) or there are some onlines sites.

Will's not a fan of self-publishing--he comments that this is a debateable topic in writing circles. He adds, "Some people want to be a writer more than they want to write...maybe these people are starting at the wrong end."

Be ready for rejection. And even after that feel as if the work wasn't wasted, wasn't for naught

His experience was that working with the independent movie makers was much more collaborative than big hollywood. When your works get taken on by someone else, expect changes and have a thick skin.