Evon Davis

An on-going workshop that guides students who are working on specific projects or just want to improve their writing. The workshop covers all aspects related to the craft of writing, including structure, the elements of compelling stories and characters, and scene writing, so you’re able to accomplish a major writing project such as a novel or memoir. Free-writing exercises help stimulate creativity, as each week you’ll write new scenes and watch your manuscript grow. To get your creative energies flowing, you are welcome to read scenes aloud and get feedback on your writing.

To register, click on the Pay Now button below.

What makes us care about how a character struggles? What makes us fall in love with the character on the page? When people read stories, they want to feel what the characters feel. They want to be moved, touched, and inspired by character-driven stories. Writers do this through the way they create their characters. In this workshop, we will explore the elements needed to make your characters ones that readers will love. Once they pick up your book or short story, they won’t be able to put it down. Evon Davis is the author of several books, including two novels, Pandora’s Box and The Bohemian Life.

To register, click on the Class Number link.

Hemingway said that there is no such thing as writing, only rewriting. What he meant is that we cannot expect any first draft to be good writing. Those occasions when it does come out fabulous right off the bat are rare and magical. Even professional writers like Stephen King have to rewrite and revise several times before their manuscripts are ready for publication. If you’d like your writing to be publishable, come to this workshop and learn the tricks that the professionals know in order to polish your writing until it shines. Through discussion, reviewing sample pieces, and in-class writing exercises, novelist and writing teacher Evon Davis will raise your writing up to the next level.

To register, click on the Class Number link.

The Structure That Holds It All Together

To register, click on the Class Number link.

Here is an extension to the writing exercise on Modeling Authors:

1) Type an excerpt from a novel or memoir you like

2) Use the writing as a model for your own scenes

3) Map the pattern in the author’s writing.  For example, the pattern might look like this:

character description
some action
a line of dialogue
some more action
some description of setting (that might tell us something about the character)

Or like this:

character
action
prop/object
action
setting
description of object

Use the pattern to design your own sentences, paragraphs, and scenes.  Write 500 words for this exercise.  You will undoubtedly see a huge improvement in your writing.

Here’s a fun writing exercise for breaking out of old, constricting habits in your writing and taking a fresh approach.  This exercise is taken from Manuscript Makeover by Elizabeth Lyon:

1) Choose an excerpt from a piece of writing you like.

2) Type slowly, word for word, thinking about the author’s word choices and sentence construction, feeling the patterns and rhythms in your fingers, and imprinting them in your body-mind.  Don’t type like a robot, copying mindlessly.  Connect with the author’s writing in a deep-listening way.  Copying excerpts is a technique that will help you break restrictions and allow you to experience, through muscle memory and new patterns of thinking, many different styles.  When you return to your own manuscript, it can be as if you have gained coaches looking over your shoulder, making suggestions.

3) While studying the author’s word choices, sentence structure, character description, setting, movement, emotional expression, style, or any other element of the writing, begin to write something of your own, using the excerpt as a guide.  If you feel you can do better than the author, don’t hold back!

I’ve been suspecting it for about a week now, but I fully realized today, that my latest novel has reached the point of being over-workshopped.

I’m a firm believer in getting feedback, especially from people who know something about writing (others you have to take with a grain of salt).  It helps to know if a piece of writing is having the intended effect.  But at some point it crosses a line from suggestions that can truly improve the novel, to suggestions that have nothing to do with the craft and are only the reader’s personal opinion about how the story and characters should be written.

At that point, it’s a matter of splitting hairs and workshop feedback has diminishing returns.  Here’s an example:  my novel is set in the UK and one of the characters sometimes says, “Bloody hell,” which people in the UK really say, but one (american) reader thinks it sounds silly and I should take it out.

Secondly, although one of the rules is “show, don’t tell,” sometimes you just have to say, “she was frightened.”  I mean, you can only have a character’s heart racing and pounding so many times in a novel until they start to sound like they’ve got a congenital heart defect.

Although we want to know the character’s emotions and bodily reactions, some of that should be obvious from the situation.  If the character is fidgeting in her seat, craning her neck to look out the window, and asking about the dancing lights in the sky, it should be obvious that she’s curious.  We don’t need the author to then tell us that she’s curious about the dancing lights.

I’ve finished revising of the first 9 chapters… 33 to go.  And I’m seeing that there’s still room for improvement, but not every suggestion that’s been offered is useful at this point.  One person likes it one way; another likes it the way it is.  Who decides?  Uh… I guess that would be me.

And I’ve decided I am not going to have my characters emoting in every other sentence.  That, in my mind, is excessive.

For those who have never reached the point of being overworkshopped, the simple realization doesn’t mean it suddenly becomes easier.  I’ve made up my mind that this novel won’t be workshopped anymore, but I still have to decide which of the suggestions to take seriously, and which ones to ignore.  That comes down to confidence and that’s something most writers struggle with.

But at some point an author has to be able to look at his or her writing and believe that it’s good.  I’ve got too many voices in my head right now.  Time to shut some of them up.

I just ran across this new blog:  http://www.deadlinedames.com

I was reading a post about rejections and how to respond to them.  Getting published seems to be a cut-throat business, yet I’ve read that 60,000 new books are published every year, many of those are first-time authors, so it is possible to get published. 

I’ve often compared it to gambling in Las Vegas or on Wall Street.  I think it comes down to luck, numbers, and skill (oh, and perseverence).  I’ve wondered why some people seem to “get lucky,” like JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer.  Rowling sent her manuscript to two agents; one rejected it; one picked it up. 

Now I’m willing to believe that Rowling’s manuscript was spotted for its writing and story.  I love Harry Potter.  I loved the seventh book.  But to be completely honest, I couldn’t read the first 6.  I’ve tried, but I can’t do it. 

I suspect I was able to read the seventh book because it was the most adult of the series, and also because I wanted to find out if Snape was good or evil.  Now that I’ve taken the time to really study her books and her work habits, I’ve come to appreciate a great deal about her and her writing.  But something about getting picked up after two submissions seems lucky to me.

Is it really true that Harry Potter 1 was so much better than all those other manuscripts getting rejected?  Hmmmm, my honest opinion is that it’s good, but it’s not that much better. 

I do think luck is involved.  Unfortunately there may not be anything we can do to make ourselves more lucky (though I will certainly try).  These are the areas we can impact:  numbers, skill, and perseverence.

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Don Juan said, “A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness.  He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as grounds for regret but as a living challenge.  It takes time for every one of us to understand that point and fully live it.”  (Tales of Power, page 19)

This passage felt relevant to me this evening.  I’m sitting at a friend’s house on the south side of town waiting to pick up my daughter at 9:00pm.  My friend’s home is beautiful, but I’m cold (I’m always cold) and I’m tired, looking forward to getting home so I can go into my bedroom, turn on the radiator, crawl into bed, and fall asleep.  How lovely that would be.

But that’s not my lot at the moment.  I’ve been thinking lately of the winter cold as warrior’s training.  An impeccable warrior doesn’t complain; she accepts her lot in all humbleness.  I think there are a few reasons for this.  One is that complaining does no good.  It only drains us of energy.  It’s less energy- consuming to be at peace. 

Another is that an impeccable warrior is always conscious not to take anything for granted.  I am so blessed.  How could I possibly complain? 

Finally, to accept the present reality helps us to become stronger.  It’s not about being a prisoner.  It’s about being free.  I am free to be here or leave.  If I choose to stay, then I take full responsibility for that.  There is no room left for complaining. 

“To change our idea of the world is the crux of sorcery.” (Tales of Power, page 13)

When we change our idea of the world, we change ourselves.  And when we change ourselves, we change our idea of the world.

He also said, “If one is to succeed in anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obession.” (Tales of Power, page 12)

I remind myself of this as I work through the revisions of my latest novel.  Obviously I want to be finished, so when I get feedback saying that I need to work on the relationship between my main character, Trinity, and her mentor, Artemis, I feel frustrated because I think it’s fine the way it is.  Am I missing something?  If so, what is it, and why can’t I see it?  Am I blind to my own writing or does the reader just not get the relationship I’m trying to create?  (I was going for the sort of feeling like that between Ged and Arren in The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. LeGuin). 

So it’s back to the basics.  I need to read The Farthest Shore again while reading my own manuscript and see if I got the feeling I was striving for.  Even so, it’s possible it could be better.  I just need to be patient, put in a great deal of effort, and not get stressed out or obsess about it.  That’s how an impeccable warrior moves through her world. 

For more on The Warrior-Goddess Chronicles, please visit: http://www.thewarrior-goddess.blogspot.com/

Workshopping can be tough, but I’ve learned to take everything with a grain of salt for two reasons:  1) people giving critique don’t necessarily read the genre you’re writing in so don’t know how to judge it, and 2) they don’t necessarily know how to critique in a way that’s truly helpful.  
 
It took me a year to write Journey to Artemisia.  I became a better writer over the course of that year.  Now that I’m going back to the beginning, I think it should come so easily, but in some ways it’s still a struggle.  One of the best skills I’m developing is objectivity.  When people critique my work, I’m often resistant at first, but then I step back and I can see where they are right and where they just don’t get it.
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