Saturday, February 28, 1pm NT.

Online only

 

Riddle Fence presents the first in our series of online workshops! Join from wherever you call home, and learn from some of the very best writers in Newfoundland and Labrador (and beyond!)

Riddle Fence workshops are offered at both a general admission and a pay-what-you-can rate. Workshop run time will be 2-3 hours. 

The Importance of Moving the Clock and Camera in Fiction

with Michael Winter

In every scene we write there’s a camera and a clock. The camera is either looking at things in front of the protagonist, or it’s remembering something or thinking about the future. The clock is ticking off at a certain speed as events happen. Sometimes the clock stops while a memory or a thought occurs. It’s important, as writers, to be aware of the camera and the clock as we rewrite material. Even in the stillest of scenes we can create what feels like action, or movement. And this movement can help the reader turn the page.

During this workshop we will discuss other various writing techniques, including how to use raw material witnessed first-hand, how to write sensorial descriptions. We will examine technical devices like delay and psychic distance (both heavily reliant on the camera and clock). We will look at how humour can be used as a contrast to deepen serious drama. We will talk about keeping a promise in the air, and mixing brevity in with longer, slower pacing. Why is trouble interesting? How do we produce delays. Finally, we will look at how focussing on the unusual thing in the room can often suggest the universal (but more boring) general state of things.

Participants will have a chance to write a scene, and then rewrite it, thinking about these techniques.

Workshops will be presented over Zoom, and will require a password.

Register here.

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Michael Winter is the author of eight books, most of them are fiction. He makes money in Toronto and sends it home to Conception Bay. He is currently living on the sixth floor of a leftist co-op with a dog and a pair of binoculars while teaching creative writing in the MFA program at the University of Guelph. He is trying really hard to finish a novel, but worries that his critical eye has grown larger than his talent.