|
Coming
Saturday, October 25th 2008
CBW sponsors Day-Long Workshop with Best-Selling Author/Entrepreneur/Teacher Loree
Lough
 Loree's
"SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT!!!: Best-selling,
award-winning, multi-published author with
66 books (fiction and non for kids and
adults; 1 novel optioned for a TV movie; 59 short stories,
2,500+ articles) in print. Since 1990, I've stayed
busy developing and teaching writing-related courses and
workshops for area colleges, online (including Writer's
Digest). I'm frequently invited to speak to groups and
organizations (writing, educational, and corporate) on
numerous writing-related topics (hire me, I love to
travel!), and in 1999, at the prompting of former students,
I founded The Leading Edge Writers' Studios, dedicated to
helping writers of all genres and at all writing levels
improve their craft."
http://theloughdown.blogspot.com/
For more about the workshop,
Click
Here |
Interview
with Loree (excerpted from her
website)
Q: How did you get your start as a
writer?
A: I wish I could say I’m one of those
authors who wanted to write since infancy, but the ‘bug’ didn’t
bite me until I was in my early 30s. It all started in Richmond,
Virginia…when my local paper advertised for someone to write
newsy little tidbits about my neighborhood. The pay? Free issues
of the newspaper. Well, the editor liked my style, and began
making regular assignments. Soon, editors of other newspapers
and magazines in the area were calling, and before long, I was a
full-time freelancer (paid in spendable cash!) with more work
than I could handle. When a job transfer brought the family back
to Baltimore, I showed my ‘clip book’ to a few editors, who made
assignments, and when editors of other newspapers and magazines
saw the articles….
So many people—readers and editors
alike—commented on my ‘voice’, and asked why I hadn’t tried my
hand at fiction. So I did. My first novel, Pocketful of Love,
was the result of my new affliction: Fiction Addiction.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: Well, there’s this little elf, see, who
lives under my porch, and whenever I need an idea, I just poke
him with a stick. Once he finishes jumping up and down, and
cursing in his teeny tiny voice, he’s usually good for an idea
or two.
Seriously, I get my ideas from living
life. Everywhere I go, anything I do, if I’m quiet and look
around me, I’ll see or hear something that’s a potential book
idea. Standing in line at the grocery store, pretending to read
in a doctor’s waiting room, dining at a favorite restaurant,
visiting a friend in the hospital…ideas are everywhere!
Q: Do you ever pattern your characters
from real people?
A: You bet I do (but I’m not naming
names)! I find I’m drawn to people who aren’t afraid to roll up
their sleeves and get their hands dirty, who don’t whimper and
whine, who aren’t permanently sidelined by life’s assorted
traumas. Consequently, my characters tend to be capable,
independent, and strong… and determined not only to acknowledge
their own flaws, but to improve themselves as well.
Q: How do you research love scenes?
A: Well, there’s this little elf who lives
under my porch, and…. The truth? Everyone, writers and readers
alike, have heard that old adage “Write what you know.” Need I
say more?
Q: How do you research the ‘bad stuff’
in your books, like illness and murder and other things that
kill characters?
A: Today’s readers are intelligent and
savvy…and extremely well-informed on innumerable topics. That
means to satisfy them, I have to get my facts straight. The best
way to do that is, talk to the experts, which is exactly what I
do. (Yep, that means I’ve visited prisons to talk to the
inmates…)
Q: What’s your advice to unpublished
authors?
A: Read, read, read. Write, write, write.
Then write some more. (Remember the old adage “practice makes
perfect”? Well, it applies to writing, too.) Attend conferences,
so you can mingle with your peers…published and non. Sign up for
writers’ workshops and/or classes…but make sure to thoroughly
check out your instructors. (Read alerts and warnings on this
subject and numerous others on my blog (http://www.theloughdown.blogspot.com/.)
Q: I’ve heard that your mentoring has
helped more than 500 former students get their work into print.
How is this possible?
A: When you’ve been teaching as long as I
have (15+ years), you teach a lot of people (in college
classrooms, workshops, seminars, etc.). Part of the job, in my
opinion, is to provide what I call “manuscript guidance”. I
believe in putting a lot of time and attention into my
critiques. I never attempt to change a student’s style or voice.
My goal? Make their work salable.
So I ask questions, make suggestions,
state opinions, offer advice. Even when they choose not to
incorporate this learned-the-hard-way stuff into their scenes,
they’ve picked up a subtle how-to lesson, despite themselves,
just by reading my scribbles. If I had a dollar for every
student who said “Before you pointed out (this or that) in my
manuscript, I just didn’t get it…and when I read what you said,
it clicked!”, well, I’d have a little over five hundred bucks….
"
|
