Writing Class

The dead birds on the walls are probably the first things that will strike you as you walk into my novel-writing class. Their glass eyes gaze down at you, their wings and necks are frozen at odd angles. They are ducks, hawks, woodpeckers. Some are stuck to pieces of wood. Some are on the shelf against the wall.

It's an adult continuing education class, and we get whatever random classroom is available. So we ignore the birds except for the occasional pun that leaks into our discussions. Dean, the instructor, occaisionally gets freaked out by them when he turns his head from the blackboard and realizes that one is staring at him.

Last night we broke down plot and discussed how you develop the arc of a story. You start with a protagonist who has an object of desire, and motivations behind him that propell him to that desire. But alas, there are conflicts! Inner conflicts (emotions, hang-ups), personal conflicts (people in the protagonist's life), and environmental ones (forces of nature).

I am a protagonist! The object of my desire is to write a novel. My motivations are many -- my love of writing, my wanting to share a story and my perspective, the sense of accomplishment, the possibility of success. My conflicts are many -- inner: doubt, maybe I'm not good enough, maybe it'll be terrible, maybe I'll get bored with it after 30 pages, maybe I'll never get to 30 pages because I'll be trying to make the first 20 perfect. personal -- the time demands of my friends, family, and boyfriend (not malicious, of course!) environmental -- beautiful fall weather beckoning me outside, the time required by my job, chores, moving at the end of this month, even the writing class itself! Will this protagonist be able to rise above these conflicts? Or will she fall short, but learn something about herself in the process? ... stay tuned!