I had a fantastic time teaching a bunch of very talented teen writers this holiday weekend over on Salt Spring Island. Huge thank you to the Salt Spring Library branch, Nikky McCarvill for organizing the event, and the Writers Union of Canada for funding.
So, we didn't have quite enough time to finish everything so, as promised, I've included the last exercise below with some tips and tricks.
1. Pick out a book - one you've read by an author you really admire. It can be anything - so long as it's an author you'd love to be compared to.
2. First page - Now that you have your book, turn to the first page and give it a read through to re-familiarize yourself with it.
3. Write - Now, for the exercise. You are going to write in the style of your chosen author and book using the sentences (prose) on this first page. Now, the trick is NOT to copy. You want to write something original, but use their sentence structure and style. Do they open with dialogue? Include some character descriptions? So will you but for your own characters. You stop when you get to the end of the page.
The goal with this exercise isn't to copy, but to familiarize yourself with your favourite/admired authors style of writing. Many of you commented that you didn't know how to start a novel- well, this is a great way to practice! Using the prose of a pro and matching them to your own ideas.
Good luck and feel free to contact me with questions/difficulties, or even just to show me your results. Speaking of which you can also post your exercises in the comments.
