Margie Lawson Afternoon Impressions

Margie Lawson's workshop wrapped up this afternoon, and tomorrow begins the conference. She whipped through the material like a whirling dervish, trying to cover as much as possible while still giving the attendees the understanding needed to use her tool, the EDITS system.

I think there are several important things I took from this workshop. Any tool you find, if you want to see if it's for you or not, you have to USE it. You can't just look at it and say, 'oh, maybe, maybe not.' So I've tried the snowflake method, I've tried several other things, and have come to understand what works for me. With this understanding I can say that Margie's tool looks very good, and is something I will use, at least on some scenes or chapters.

I've already discovered I need to rewrite my most important scenes, in order to ramp up their emotional impact. It reminded me of what some of my readers (editors, critiquers) have said. 'You just did something major to a character and the character didn't respond. Huh?'

Margie took a passage from a well-known author's book and went over it showing how she would use her system of highlighting on it. Someone looked for a 'hard and fast' rule, but she demurred. There is not right or wrong pattern of highlighting. It's purpose is for you to discover the tone of your story, and whether it makes sense the way you've written it.

Based on what I've seen from her, I'd recommend getting more of her information. It could definitely help!

Tomorrow starts the conference, and I'll post as I can, outside of my volunteering duties. I also took a first look at the FWA Family Collections book (Chrissy let me take a look), and I found it to be very professional. I highly encourage everyone to take a shot at next year's collection, and will do something with our group for those that want to work on a submission.

Later!
John