ARTICLES ON THE CRAFT OF WRITING

The following are training lessons and exercises I've written for my local writers group. The first is a lesson on point of view. Read the story, "Blood on the Cover".  Hopefully, you'll see the terrible POV mistakes I've made.  If not, then you really need to click the link,  "What You See Is What You Get"! This will bring up a Word document with the actual lesson.

 
BLOOD ON THE COVER
by
Kathleen E. Kovach
(But don't hold it against me!) 

                   Ashley walked into the library of Greystone Manor, her childhood home. The pleasant smells greeted her, evoking memories of her father. The sizzling oak in the fireplace, his expensive cigars, the Bay Rum cologne he always wore.

Little did she know that Blain, the man she'd just met at the party downstairs lay just a few feet away, behind the large desk--his lifeblood draining through the floor boards.

          He could see her slender legs and tiny feet from under the desk. He tried to call to her, but the mortal world was fast slipping away, and with it all mortal ability.

          Ashley moved across the room to the black walnut shelves that held the classics her father had shared with her those many years ago. She flipped her lustrous blonde hair over her shoulder and twitched her full cherry colored lips in concentration.   

          Eyes followed her every move. Eyes hidden behind the heavy drape.

          Suddenly, Ashley tripped over something. A pair of feet! Blain cried out, pain shooting to the wound in his chest.

          Ashley fell on him, knocking over the heavy podium that held the family Bible.

          "Ouch!" Rupert called out from the curtain as the heavy book landed on his toe.

**END OF SCENE**

Permission granted to print this as long as my copyright is included. If you try this with your group, please drop me a line and let me know how it went along with any suggestions you might have.

Copyright © 2005 Kathleen E. Kovach. All Rights Reserved

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET

A Writer Group Exercise on POV (Using the above story)

MORE ARTICLES

From Skeleton to Muscle to Flesh - Filling out that basic story line and creating a synopsis.

The Synopsis Game - Just a fun exercise on the one line synopsis.

Track Changes - A brief overview of the Track Changes feature in Word.

FROM MY BLOG, FICTION FUNDAMENTALS

Lessons highlighting "Self-Editing For Fiction Writers" by Browne & King

Show and Tell

Characterization and Exposition

Point of View

FAVORITE LINKS

Angela Hunt's Plot Skeleton in three parts:

     Part I

     Part II

     Part III

Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake method of plotting

Gail Martin's For Writers page

Deb Raney's Rewriting: Getting It Right

Majorie Vawter's The Writer's Tool

Kathy Ide's PUGS: Punctuation, Usage, Grammar, Spelling (a sampling from her book)

Barbour Publishing's Edit Cafe

Suspense writer Brandilyn Collin's Forensics and Faith

Keep Me In Suspense

Charis Connection Blog - A place for an elite group of authors to share their thoughts on Christian fiction.

Bible Gateway

More than just a dictionary refdesk.com

Watch for more links and articles to come.