Welcome to the Writers Forum. In the coming months, we’ll be sharing ideas about writing fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. This space—a collaboration between Cowichan Valley Voice Magazine and the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society—will be used to encourage ‘story telling’ by sharing techniques and strategies.
We can begin with the statement that: Writing isn’t just about writing.
It’s about sharing experiences in ways that entertain, inspire, explore, celebrate, deplore, challenge, and amaze with descriptions of life in all its forms, manifestations, motives, moods, and actions. For some, it’s a cyclical vocation that arcs from beginning to beginning with occasional breathers in places called ‘The End’.
What is commonly referred to as ‘writing’—the skillful organization of those whirling streams of consciousness into works of literary art that captivate and engage readers—is part of that cycle. And perhaps ‘audiences’ is a better word to use than ‘readers’ for describing who we want to reach because, in this day and age, we have to take our stories beyond “a set of written, printed, or blank pages fastened along one side and encased between protective covers”—thefreedictionary.com definition of a book.
Books and e-books will remain the reader’s choice for a long time to come. But we will also consider alternative formats—novels published as websites, audio and video readings, Zoom sessions—because they offer opportunities to reach new audiences and to promote and sell books effectively in online venues.
We miss the point of writing if we begin too soon or stop before we’ve reached our goal—a gripping work of literature coming to life in the minds of readers, listeners, and viewers. Over time, most writers develop a cycle that might include: inspiration; exploration of theme, character, plot, setting, and structure; story mapping and outlining; research; audience identification; writing (initial draft); story editing and rewriting (second draft); proofing and rewriting (final draft); final final draft (and so on); pre-publication production and sharing; final publication and production; promotion and sales; promotion and sales; promotion and sales…
The most successful writers are excited and creatively engaged at every stage in their process. From the inspired outset they believe in their stories and are enthusiastic about getting them read, heard, and shared.