Joan Thomas

Good morning Literary Blogsters, 

As you'll see in the note below, Joan Thomas has an excellent writing workshop lined up for this Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Mary J.L. Black Library.  

We'll break for an hour during the workshop: you can either go out or bring your own lunch.  Tea and coffee are provided.

This workshop is full, with a waiting list. If you can't make it, please let us know right away so that someone else can participate.

Here's a note from Joan Thomas about what to expect:

Hi everyone,

I’m really looking forward to meeting all of you and spending next Saturday talking about our shared passion for writing. 

This won’t be a workshop in the sense of reading and commenting on each others’ work; it’s a “master class”—direct instruction with examples and discussion. I hope both emerging and experienced writers will find the material thought-provoking and relevant to their work.

 Bring a notebook and pen, and any questions you have about our two subjects: Narrative Voice and Point of View in the morning, and Pace in the afternoon. 

We’ll be talking about things like . . . How do we decide whether the 1^st or 3^rd person is more appropriate for a story? Why do editors get so worked up about lapses in point of view? What does “voice” mean in the 3^rd person, and how do we create it? Has fiction speeded up in our lifetime? How do we create suspense and a sense of movement in character-driven (as opposed to plot-based) fiction?  

See you soon,

Joan