Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 24th, 2009
(C) 2000 BK REEVES/THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ROMANTIC LOVE _________________________________________________________________ THE CRUCIBLE OF LOVE Our concept of love is centered in our minds. Our human sexuality constrains us to love, and this is the crux of the male/female equation: we want to love and be loved by a member of the opposite sex. When we refer […]
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 24th, 2009
(C)1999 BK REEVES/FICTION/BEGINNING WRITERS/ADVANCED WRITERS BEGINNING WRITERS Beginning writers are welcome in my class whatever the level. One of the joys in my life is discovering a writer who has long wanted to write, who commits and–at last!–produces copy. However, beginning students should be aware of the differences between themselves and advanced student-writers.
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 24th, 2009
(C) 2000 BK Reeves/THE POWER OF MYTH/THE CODE OF STORY _________________________________________________________________ MYTHIC CHARACTERS/MYTHIC JOURNEY For the Western reader, characters based on mythic models have the ring of psychological truth. These characters are the internally determined “roles” or archetypes (Carl Jung). They are familiar because from childhood, we have encountered them again and again in ancient […]
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 24th, 2009
(C) 2001 LEARNING TO WRITE SCENES – BASIC FICTION/BASIC STORY _________________________________________________________________ SCENES A story is a continuum of scenes. A continuum? Something that extends continuously. (OAD) A story flows like a river from beginning to resolution but may be structured non-chronologically. A storyteller around a campfire held his audience captive from his first words: “Once […]
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 24th, 2009
(C) 2001 BK Reeves/BASIC FICTION _________________________________________________________________ A DELIBERATE PATH OF NARRATIVE Remember that narration is one of the four kinds of discourse (which is communication). The other components of discourse are exposition, description and argument. Exposition “exposes” facts or explains Description gives your reader images Argument appeals to the reader’s reason or […]
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 22nd, 2009
(C)2000 BK Reeves/EDITING/A Process _________________________________________________________________ EDITING I suggest you write your first draft as if it were the final version of your manuscript. You realize you’ll have to rewrite, but pretend you won’t. Format your pages: double spaced, headers left top, page numbering right top, left justification only. In other words, turn right justification off. […]
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 22nd, 2009
(C) 2000 BK Reeves/BASIC FICTION/Advanced _________________________________________________________________ FLASHBACKS There are two general types of flashbacks, and the differences between them are subtle. (1) This is a flashback with the protagonist thinking through some problem. H/she will be alone, usually, and fall into a type of reflection. That is, he will reflect upon what is or has […]
Posted in Writing Handouts on Apr 22nd, 2009
(C) 2000 BK REEVES/NONFICTION: ESSAYS, ARTICLES & JOURNALS Once in a while I write nonfiction. These handouts are personal essays designed to instruct and to impart my beliefs about fiction writing. They evolved from my classes on writing. Sometimes I’ll be asked to write “a piece” for a newspaper, magazine or newsletter. I always do […]