Workshop Activities for First Time Authors

Jul 15
08:23

2015

Tanisha Williams

Tanisha Williams

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If you’re a first time author who dreams of having your work published in print or online, attending a writer’s workshop can work to your advantage. It provides an organized way of going through the writing process, helps in deciding what to write about, and provides direction on how far to take each piece.

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If you’re a first time author,Workshop Activities for First Time Authors Articles utilizing a writer’s workshop can be very beneficial if you wish to have success selling ebooks online.  It provides an organized way of going through the writing process, helps in deciding what to write about, and provides direction on how far to take each piece.

Organization is Key

There are a variety of activities that take place when a writer’s workshop is held. However, it is your organization skills that should be honed first as it will give you a good foundation for becoming a successful author. Good organization skills can save you time and effort in the process of writing your draft and getting your book to market.   Organization pointers may include using a writing folder for storing all of your work.  These sections can be divided into drafts, works that are to be published, prewrites, record keeping, topic lists, etc.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is another activity that is essential for a first time author at a writer’s workshop. Depending on your current project, brainstorming can be applied to a variety of written work such as letters, articles, poems, narratives, etc. The objective of this activity is to give writers an opportunity to allow random thoughts to stir up inspiration that ultimately provide direction.  For instance, an aspiring author who leans toward writing novels will be required to come up with a few ideas on how he envisions the story he wants to write – including the theme, narrative and wording, setting and the characteristics of each individual character in the book.

Creative Writing

After brainstorming comes creative writing. Here, writers are given exercises that aim to help them develop fictional elements that will attract readers to buy their books. These include:

  • Characterization: Readers won’t care about characters unless they are believable. Writers will learn how to develop characters (with backstories, strengths and weaknesses, gestures, quirks, etc.) that feel like real people.
  • Dialogue: Dialogue needs to have some form of tension to hold a reader’s interest. Writers will learn how to come up with something unique to each person’s style of speaking when developing persuasive or argumentative dialogue.
  • Setting: A poorly established setting is unclear or confusing to readers. Writers must make sure that readers know the time and place in which the story takes place.
  • Plot: A well-structured story makes the story easier to execute. Writers will learn how to figure out angles and develop proper pacing, climax and ending.

First Draft

Once you’ve mastered creative writing, you’ll be ready to get your feet wet by writing your first draft. Note the word “first” – your first draft isn’t about writing something publishable.  It’s only one part of the writing process and not the process itself, so you should give yourself permission to make mistakes.  Your first draft is all about piecing together the details of the story. All of the skills learned in the creative writing phase –characterization, writing persuasive dialogues, visualizing the setting and plot twisting – should ease you through this process of creating a decent draft.

Revision

After coming up with a draft, writers discuss what should be accomplished in the next step such as adding to the work, replacing words or ideas in the work, and moving ideas, paragraphs, or sentences around. In this phase, collaborations are encouraged by allowing writers to pair up and make suggestions about each other’s writing. Through this practice, writers gain a better insight about their writing from an unbiased perspective and gain ideas about how to make their work better. As soon as revision is completed, writers move to the editing stage. Here, the use of a checklist is introduced so writers can check off items after they have finished looking at a specific element.

Having success writing ebooks online can be hard for a first time author. So if you’re a newbie, attending a writer’s workshop can work to your advantage.  By partaking in the activities that writer’s workshops offer, first time authors can gain the skills necessary to effectively write successful ebooks online.