Books to Write by blog supports online courses by Margie Lawson. I checked our topics below and found two such posts. One discusses Margie's DEEP EDITING course and the other is entitled DEFEATING SELF-DEFEATING BEHAVIORS. Courses offered online give you a great writing workshop in the privacy of your home and at your preferred time.
During the month of February, 2012, this humble writer took an in depth study with Margie Lawson on EMPOWERING CHARACTER EMOTIONS. My critique partners constantly mark my manuscript with "ramp up the emotions." I write character-driven stories, but even if one tends more toward plot-driven, you must grab the reader by the emotion, be it fear or anger or excitement.
The benefit of her unique deep editing procedure is invaluable. I learned again that I don't add enough description. Without using her method, I could read my same chapter over and over and not realize my problem. The reader did not "see" my hero and heroine. I gave no insight into how they looked. Margie states that every time we introduce a new character, we should have at least a line or a phrase of description.
Remember the biggest percent of our communication is non-verbal. To write great dialogue, we must master body language. Margie looks at characters through a psychologist viewpoint. How the character stands or where they put their hands gives a different slant to their words. Sometimes, characters don't speak at all, but they show a lot.
A Margie Lawson course stuffs my brain and overworks my imagination, but I learn volumes, I strengthen my writing with power words, or empowered phrases, and I finish a better writer than when I began.
Three years have passed since I took my last Margie course. It was time for me. If you haven't taken one before, or if it has been awhile, I recommend you enroll. Is it time for you to take a Margie course?
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