Write Tight: Baldwin workshop clears foggy writing

By Dee Jordan

Editor Don McNair answers a question for Mavis Jarrell (right). Dee Jordan is at left.

The Write Tight Workshop sponsored by the Baldwin Writers Group and many local sponsors created an atmosphere of unbelievable quality.

The line-up of authors and editors included Don McNair’s twenty-one steps to fog-free writing. He was the keynote speaker. He inspired and taught us how to edit our WIP to publishing standards.

Next was author Suzanne Hudson, who read us a hilarious letter from her editor that showed how detailed the editing process can be.

Author Suzanne Hudson

We then had a brown-bag lunch and each table had six people–one was a speaker/author who critiqued the first page of each person sitting in the group. This was most informative.

Terry Cline gave a talk on how to set up your manuscript for movies. He was humorous and we laughed our way through some serious learning. He stressed that the first chapter should have an interesting plot, ending on a cliff hanger. Then the next three chapters build up to chapter five, which then has a plot twist. He said if your first, fifth, and every fifth chapter until the last has a good plot twist, the twenty-eight-year-old executive at Paramount will more than likely put in an option for the movie rights.

The last chapter has to be the largest plot twist of all. He told us to have someone hurt the protagonist by the last chapter.

Joe Formichella taught us how to plan a map and do research for a fiction book about a real event. He interviewed people that knew anything about the incident. He used his book as an example: Here’s to You, Jackie Robinson, a historical account of the Pritchard Mohawks paralleling Robinson’s life.

Tammie Hunter and Press-Register columnist Francis Coleman review pages during a round-table critique.

Last but not least, we heard Francis Coleman explain how tight one has to write to do a six-hundred-word column every single week. Each word has to count. We gained insights into the work of a journalist.

We closed with the panel of the speakers opening the floor to questions. This was where the metal hit the pedal and we opened up our many, many complex questions.

We took away with us a workbook that detailed McNair’s twenty-one steps with examples, the books the speakers have written, and even a sample story for us to edit as practice  with a sample of the correct edits later in the book.

Baldwin County Writers Group did an outstanding job and this will become one of the yearly workshops I’ll attend in the future.

The lunchtime round-table critique was a major component of the workshop. In this group (from left): Dee Jordan, Marilyn Johnson, Frank Coombs, Tammie Hunter and Francis Coleman.