“Writing Your First Novel” Workshop

 











Recently a friend of mine recommended the Lighthouse WritersWorkshop, where numerous opportunities are available for writing classes, retreats, and camaraderie. Since my friend has published three excellent books, and I really respect his abilities, I thought I’d check it out.

I was delighted to see that many of the classes offered at Lighthouse address the needs of serious writers who are more advanced.

Today I attended a two-hour session at Lighthouse titled Writing Your First Novel. It was free, part of the One Book Denver program. I wanted to test the waters before investing money, time, and effort. I can tell you that this initial session far exceeded my expectations. Now I am very excited to join the organization and get involved.

The facilitator, who has published three novels and has been teaching at Lighthouse for 11 years, provided a handout that I will use over and over again. The handout, was the basis for a series of exercises where we explored great openings, creation of characters and locations, and development of tension in the story.

While I already have much material that I would like to weave into a novel, I have lacked a common thread that pulls it all together. Today’s exercises helped me clarify my characters and point of view and to see directions that I might take the story. I also realized that for me, it will not work best to start writing at the beginning of the novel and continue through to the end; instead, I need to write bits and pieces clearly and then fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle.

I can hardly wait to begin.