Writing With One Hand Waving Free

Writer and teach Margot Case offered a brilliant workshop at he Richard Hugo House Write-O-Rama workshop entitled Ordinary People. We read excerpts from “Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning” by Donald Bartheleme, Sixty Stories.
I’d tried The Dead Father by Bartheleme, but found it at the wrong time and had never tried Donald Bartheleme again. What a [...]

The essential elements of a marketable novel author Janice MacDonald teaches in her writing course are:

Hook
Sense of place
Interesting characters
Compelling dialogue (she’s English)
Strong storyline (one with a logical pattern)
Appropriate pacing
Distinctive voice
Particular point of view
Slowly revealed secret or answer (the presentation of information)

Ms. MacDonald refers to these as the “Furnishings.” She’s speaking of the traditional novel or [...]