What I learnt from the Writing Challenge

February’s Writing Challenge has finished and I learnt a lot. It felt like being in a community of friends because we all had the same interest: to write a book about the ancestor’s stories. Fortunately I’ve been invited to a group of 14 people who will continue reviewing each others’ work and generally inspire each other.

The biggest eye-openers were ‘showing versus telling’ and using dialogue. I wrote about these in earlier blogs.

I also learnt:
– not just to write in chronological order but to use flashbacks
– to avoid putting too many elements in too little words
– to first describe the setting: country, location, date, social context
– to identify the inner story, the character’s inner conflict which can be about self-confidence, love, security, etc.
– to appreciate the value of Facebook private groups where you can share with others from all over the globe.

I’ve also achieved a lot in February:
– written 15,000 words of Jack’s story
– set up this website
– actively participated in the Challenge community.