Those of you in the Washington, DC area won’t be surprised to see Michael Hauge’s name in the title of my blog post today. Any WRW member who had a chance to spend time with him this weekend at his fabulous workshop, presented by WRW, appreciates my adoration. The man rocks hard with the identity and the essence and the stages of conflict that bring emotions to life. You know what I’m saying.
But why Six Sentence Sunday? Besides the sense of community it fosters and the promotional ops, why am I mentioning the two in the same blog?
A few weeks ago, I pulled out one of my old WIPs and decided to use it for Six Sentence Sunday. Then after a few weeks of consistently searching for, finding and posting a ‘good’ six, my old WIP felt brand new. Positive feedback fueled me, prompting me to shove the WIP to the number one spot on my must-finish list. (And oh, it’s about a vampire FBI agent struggling to keep a promise to a witch.)
So with that WIP in my head, I spent the weekend with Michael Hauge. Now in short, Hauge is a Hollywood script (screenplay) doctor. This was my third Hauge encounter in four years. And this weekend, I also signed up for a 30-minute one-on-one meeting (which he allowed me to record!).
A quick aside…I’m a visual person, and whether or not you buy this next statement–so are all writers. At least fiction writers are visual artists – they take the vision in their heads called a story and write it into words that make so much sense the reader ‘sees’ the characters in action as they read about the character’s conflict, emotions, fears and longings…played out in a plot.
So Mr. Hollywood screenplay script-doctor Hauge is perfect for me. Combined with other workshops, craft books, brainstorming sessions, online think tanks, and all the activities writers use to make better sense of their craft, he brings a fresh terminology and a passion for emotional story telling that captivates me. He also isn’t shy about showing his impatience with writers, which made me smile. But more importantly, that impatience reinforced a key component of his message for me—simplify, simplify, simplify.
Some writers, like me, we do too much. We put too many obstacles–situations–in front of the character to replace the difficulty of understanding and writing conflict. Our world building is so complicated it takes over the characters—which can never happen in a good book. You can tell I could go on and on…but let me recap the highlights of what I learned this weekend. Here goes:
- There is a difference between conflict and obstacles. Don’t laugh. That realization was a big deal for me…
- Internal vs. external or emotion vs. situation. Without conflict, without emotion, a situation is a plot point without a heart.
- Less is more.
- Don’t give away too much about character in the opening of your story–drive to the finish line (don’t sprint). In my one-on-one private session with Hauge, which I highly recommend, we talked about my opening scene and the black moment and the ending scene, all driven by conflict and set-up in the opening scene (yep, in 30 minutes:).
If you were there this weekend, I’d like to know what hit home for you. If you weren’t, what craft book or workshop instructor, or author, comes to mind when you need inspiration or just a reminder of what matters on the page…and how you can get there. So share, and let’s celebrate good workshops, good RWA chapters (hoorah WRWDC!), and insightful instructors.
(And oh, I have nothing to say about NaNoWriMo – I put it in my blog title because, well, my brain is ready to explode…12k and counting…and we must never forget November is National Writing Month–damn it!:)
Wow Denny! Thank you for sharing your experience with Michael Hauge. I too tend to put too much in front of the character and the ‘simplify’ tips you shared are awesome. I did not get to attend this weekend but I do have something I’d like to share that I’m using and is a huge help. At our WRW retreat last spring, I won the raffle basket that Dianna Love donated. In it was her Break Into Fiction book. It’s 11 steps for how to power plot your book. And it uses movies as templates which I love for the exact reason you relate so well to Michael Hauge–the whole visual thing! I definitely recommend it. Anyhow, thank you again for sharing! Sounds like you had an awesome time.
I am so mad I had to miss MH. Am jealously stewing over here.
Don’t stew:)…he’ll be back and/or around – but there’s always that ‘teacher’ or workshop that hits the right cord. We’ve already had a few really good ones with WRWDC this year already – but this guy works for me. Besides, missy – you are doing just fine.
I’m super jealous as well. I wasn’t able to go this past weekend or hear him at Nationals in NYC. Next time though!
Your vampire FBI character sounds so interesting!!!
Giggle, giggle on my vamp FBI guy – I love a man with a gun, a badge and an aversion to sunlight…can’t help it.
But don’t be jealous, as I said above to Avery – we all have that instructor that just does it for us.
Thanks for stopping by.
Denny – The workshop was great and it was so nice to hang with you a little bit. For me it was this little gem:
“Identity’s only job is to keep us safe. But the only way it can be effective is if we believe that it is truly who we are.”
So true in life and with my characters.
It was a great weekend, and especially good to spend a few minutes chatting during lunch Saturday – wish we’d had a bit more down time, but it was so engrossing (and exhausting) – that although I spent the weekend I disappeared to my room after each session:)…
And OMG! That is one of the best quotes because I must admit I got a tad lost with the ‘identity to essence’ stages, and defining ‘safe’ vs. ‘potential’…now to get to the writing of it all:)!
Kerri and Avery, you should be jealous. It was that good.
Here’s another tidbit I liked: when your heroine and love interest fight, it should be on the level of identity (the emotional armor we put to protect ourselves). But when they connect, it is always at the level of essence (our true selves). I’m paraphrasing.
Great post, Denny. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Well, I’m going to bookmark this page – because you remembered one of the key topics he covered for that journey from identity to essence. Definitely, a lot of information shared this weekend.
Thanks for dropping by P.H.:) – wish we’d had more time to chat – but next time!
I was going to say, I’m jealous, too! (But that would be redundant.) LOL.
I’ve heard great things about him though.
I had an English teacher tell me to write from the heart. A good story has heart if that is where it comes from. She also told me, don’t go with the pack–expressing ideas and thoughts in a new way is what makes a writer unique. I still fret over all the grammatics and such. (Hey, we live in a society in which we talk in fragments, thus our characters will speak that way.) But if I have a good story and premise with strong believeable characters I have a chance of maybe catching someone’s interest. Like my teachers–
The story scene I turned in to her was fraught with sensual innuendo. A scene in which anyone would assume the two characters were kissing, ended up as a lifeguard giving mouth to mouth resuccitation. The teacher had me read it aloud. You should have seen the looks I received from my freshman high school class by the time I got to the end. 🙂
I had a high school history teacher who was the BEST – to this day, I love research and adding bits of history to stories – whatever I want to do no matter if its urban fantasy for a space opera – there’s a connection to history:) – so yeah, I like your story of the inspirational English teacher – but also your ‘scene’ in high school was probably as inspiring as the teacher…:)
Wow Denny! Thank you for sharing your experience with Michael Hauge. I too tend to put too much in front of the character and the ‘simplify’ tips you shared are awesome. I did not get to attend this weekend but I do have something I’d like to share that I’m using and is a huge help. At our WRW retreat last spring, I won the raffle basket that Dianna Love donated. In it was her Break Into Fiction book. It’s 11 steps for how to power plot your book. And it uses movies as templates which I love for the exact reason you relate so well to Michael Hauge–the whole visual thing! I definitely recommend it. Anyhow, thank you again for sharing! Sounds like you had an awesome time.
That’s what I mean – the make-sense information can come from one or any number of sources. I have books I live by – like Dwight V. Swain’s “Techniques of the Selling Writer” and Alicia Rasley’s Point of View book. The fun of writing for me is learning…and next time you just need to be there!
Denny, there were so many things that hit home for me at the Michael Hauge workshop, but the first things that come to mind are the emphasis on making everything visible. You can have those amorphous concepts broiling under the surface but they won’t count and they won’t be clear unless you find a way to make them visible. And that emotion grows out of conflict, not desire. (Another slant on the visible/amorphous.)
But wow, it was a great workshop and it was great getting to talk with you for a while. Can’t wait to hear more about the Vampire FBI guy . . .
Yes, yes, yes…the visible statement is getting to me because I can’t remember if that also applied to identity to essence…mmmmm….but yeah, it was good having a chance to chat – we should have an informal post-discussion on Hauge – so much to remember.
So jealous that I didn’t make it this weekend, but even more jealous I didn’t get to hang out with all of you fabulous ladies! Thanks so much for sharing Denny–I feel like I got to learn a little here too!
That’s why I wanted to post about it because the mix of those who were there (and what hit home for each individual) vs those who weren’t and since those who were there didn’t all connect with the same pieces of information I’m book marking this post as my own personal reminder page:)! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Terrific post! I was at the MH presentation at Nationals and loved the first hour so much, I cancelled the rest of my workshops for that day. Definitely worth another visit but the DC weekend wasn’t the best for me. Perhaps I’ll see some of you in NJ when he visits this spring?
Oh my – don’t tell me that! I may well have to add those dates to my calendar! He is worth the time and investment. Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.