Joshua Mohr appeared at the Redwood Writers General Meeting Sunday, May 18. I’m so sorry I missed him but reading his “homework,” I found that he put words to the techniques I seem to be evolving. Reading these two files were helpful in moving forward with my third Nick and Meredith novel.
–Thonie
The following is taken from the Redwood Writers website; links are to Mohr’s website and pdf files.
Joshua Mohr
“Plarachterization: Intersection of Plot and Character”
The best plots aren’t controlled by an authorial presence. Plot springs from the characters themselves. The writer masterminds all of these things, but the more we program ourselves to think of it in this way—that our protagonists are sovereign beings with independent consciousnesses from our own—the better prepared we are to traverse what I’m calling “plarachterization.”
This seminar will be geared around characters’ decision making, the causality between plot points, how to keep a reader excitedly flipping pages. We’ll also delve into specific tactics for constructing a present action and how to fold backstory into it. Plarachterization is a strategy that will help any aspiring writer!
Joshua Mohr is the author of four novels, including Damascus, which The New York Times called “Beat-poet cool.” He’s also written Some Things that Meant the World to Me, one of O Magazine’s Top 10 reads of 2009 and a San Francisco Chronicle best-seller, as well as Termite Parade, an Editors’ Choice on The New York Times Best Seller List. He lives in San Francisco and teaches in the MFA program at USF. His latest novel is Fight Song. Visit his website: http://www.joshuamohr.net/
TO PREPARE FOR THIS SEMINAR ON WRITING CRAFT,
DOWNLOAD AND READ TWO SHORT ESSAYS BY JOSHUA MOHR.
CLICK ON THE TITLES : DRAMATIC ACTION PLARACHTERIZATION
