Get Published Now!
Coronado Adult Education
Winter 2018
The Great American Novel
February 13, 2018

“If you decide to become a professional writer, you
must, broadly speaking, decide whether you wish to
write for fame, for pleasure, or for money.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

Why Should We Write?

“No one ever made a decision because of a number.
They need a story.”
Daniel Kahneman
Quoted in:
Michael Lewis
The Undoing Project

It Takes Courage to Write

"Give me six lines written by the most honorable of
men, and I will find an excuse to hang him."
Cardinal Armand Jean du Plesssis,
duc of Richelieu

Recap of What
We Covered Last Week

Non-Fiction - The Hungry Market
• Being - or becoming - the expert?
• Pursuing a subject - or letting life happen?
• Scratching itches - or entertaining?
• How much to tell and what’s next?
• Getting a publisher to buy your book
• Examples and resources

A Non-Fiction Writer
Margot Lee Shetterly
Margot Lee was born in 1969 in Hampton, Virginia. Her father
worked as a research scientist at NASA-Langley Research Center
and her mother was an English professor at Hampton University,
a historically black college or university. Lee grew up in an
environment of knowing many African-American families with
members who worked at NASA. She attended Phoebus High
School and graduated from the University of Virginia's McIntire
School of Commerce.
After college, Lee moved to New York and worked several years
in investment banking: first on the Foreign Exchange trading desk
at J.P. Morgan, then on Merrill Lynch's Fixed Income Capital
Markets desk. She shifted to the media industry, working at a
variety of startup ventures, including the HBO-funded website
Volume.com. She married writer Aran Shetterly.

A Non-Fiction Writer
Margot Lee Shetterly
In 2005, the Shetterlys moved to Mexico to found an English-
language magazine called Inside Mexico. Directed to the
numerous English-speaking expats in the country, it operated
until 2009. From 2010 through 2013, the couple worked as
content marketing and editorial consultants to the Mexican
tourism industry.
Margot Lee Shetterly began researching and writing Hidden
Figures in 2010. In 2014, she sold the film rights to the book to
William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, and optioned by
Donna Gigliotti of Levantine Films

So much for non-fiction…
…let’s move on to fiction…
…and specifically, novels

Non-Fiction vs. Fiction:
What’s Needed to Sell It
• Non-fiction: What are you going to write?
• Fiction: How are you going to write it?

This Week:
The Great American Novel

“For me, I gotta write, and it’s the adventure of it that’s
hooked me. As the writer, I can do it all. I get to be the
National Security Advisor who recommends the action
to the President who must commit the forces. I’m the
senior officer who sends his men into action and who
feels the pain if they don’t make it back. I’m the enemy
and the defender; logistician and staff planner. But
most of all, I’m a young man again, that fresh
lieutenant who must lead his men into battle.”
Dick Couch
“So you Want to be a Writer”

2015 & 2016: “The Great American Novel”
• Great or not-so-great? What you need to know
getting started
• Mainstream or genre? Which way should you go?
• Defining your audience and picking a “voice” and
point of view
• Getting the sale with a publisher

2017 & 2018: Pitching, Writing,
Selling and Promoting Fiction
• The high concept and the pitch
• Writing your novel and making it shine
• Selling your novel to an agent or a publisher
• *Promoting what someone publishes*

Optional Homework Assignment
for February 13
• Novels have the lowest barrier to entry of virtually
anything you can write except social media
• You have a novel idea you want to pitch to an agent
or a publisher:
– Tell us whether it’s mainstream or genre
– Tell us why it is “familiar but new”
– Convince the agent it will have fabulous:
• Plot
• Characterization
• Action
• Put this into prose you can read in two minutes

Writers (left) and Editors (right)
• …. • ….

Kelly
Please destroy the contents of this box upon my death. It was
not a request, but a politely placed order. Written neatly in black
marker on a box found in the dusty shed behind the home where
she had lived for the last 40 years. The tape holding the box
together was disintegrating as was my perception of the lady
who wrote it. I realized for the first time I really did not know the
woman I had called Auntie Liz. The woman who had given me
my first string of pearls and played bridge with my mother.
Elizabeth Wells passed away twelve days ago. I am the Executor
of her estate. I presumed it was going to be easy. No heirs, no
specific instructions except “Do not let them tear down my
house dammit. Give the proceeds to the Historical Association.”
Easy, but I just found my first instruction and I could not, would
not follow it.

Kelly
This story based on true-life events, is grounded on history
but fictional. The facts may never be known, as all the
characters are deceased. However, there is enough to piece
together the remarkable story of Elizabeth Wells. A young
woman, who during World War II married a man she loved
deeply, who traveled to Japan to find him and became the
only American woman to spend time in a Japanese prison
camp. A story that you will not read about in American
newspapers but is documented by letters between Liz and
Henry and confirmed by correspondence between the US
Government and Elizabeth’s parents. It is a story of
international tension but it is more. It is the story of a
woman, who loved deeply, endured courageously and then
lived quietly.

The High Concept and the Pitch:
The Great American Novel?

Mr. Clancy said none of his success came easily, and he
would remind aspiring writers of that when he spoke to
them. “I tell them you learn to write the same way you
learn to play golf,” he once said. “You do it, and keep doing
it until you get it right. A lot of people think something
mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you
on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired — it’s hard
work.”
Tom Clancy
Quoted in the New York Times
October 2, 2013

The High Concept and the Pitch
• What you need to know getting started
• Mainstream or genre? Which way should you go?
• Getting story ideas
• What a reader wants from a novel

The High Concept and Pitch:
Of What?
• The king died and then the queen died.
– A story
• The king died and then the queen died of grief.
– A plot
• The queen died, and no one knew why, until it was
discovered that it was through grief at the death of
the king.
– A mystery

Some Preliminaries: Dean Koontz’s
Recommendations to New Writers
• Thought
• Care
• Storytelling
• Craftsmanship

Great or Not-So-Great?
What You Need to Know Getting Started
• Lots of decisions to make:
– Mainstream or genre
– Publisher or self-publish
– Single work or a series
– Time-bounding to complete
• The competition is intense:
– Increasing number of novels published
– This means that far-fewer are commercially successful
– In many ways, the market is over-saturated
– Compared to non-fiction, there are fewer barriers to entry

Two Types of Fiction
• Literary fiction
o Literary fiction, also known as serious fiction, is a term
principally used for fictional works that hold literary merit,
that is to say, they are works that offer deliberate social
commentary, political criticism, or focus on the individual
to explore some part of the human condition.
• Trade fiction
o Trade books are published for general readership, and
usually are headed for bookstores and libraries. They are
not rare books or textbooks for small, specialized or niche
readerships. A trade book can be paperback or hardback. It
can occupy a wide range of genres.

Mainstream or Genre?
Which Way Should You Go?
• Mainstream…
• Genre…
• Niche…
• Other…

Dean Koontz
On Generating New Story Ideas
• Read!
• Write!
• Tickle the imagination and generate story ideas by
playing around with exotic titles
• Type out a bunch of narrative hooks and find one
that is intriguing
• Prime the idea pump by building up a couple of
characters in enormous detail
• Whatever you write, you must begin your novel by
plunging the hero or heroine into terrible trouble

What the Average Reader
Demands of a Novel
• A strong plot
• A great deal of action
• A hero, or heroine, or both
• Colorful, imaginative, & convincing characterization
• Clear, believable, character motivations
• Well-drawn backgrounds
• At least some familiarity with the English language
• A style with lyrical language and striking images

Defining Your Audience and Picking a
“Voice” and Point of View
• Who are you writing for?
• What point of view should you pick?
– What POV do you most enjoy in the fiction you read?
– What POV seems most natural to you?
• Go for a test drive
– Write three chapters in third-person
– Write the same three chapters in first-person

Writing Your Novel
and Making It Shine

“There is only one recipe for a bestseller and it is a very
simple one. If you look back on all the bestsellers you
have read, you will find they all have one quality you
simply have to turn the page.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

Writing Your Novel and Making It Shine
• Success stems from this quality as a story-teller
• That said, the three most important things
• Other essential things
• The quality control process

Success Stems From This
Quality as a Story-Teller
“It’s not what you know that counts, it’s whether the
reader believes that you know something. This effect is
called the suspension of disbelief.
Oscar Collier and Frances Leighton
How to Write and Sell Your First Novel

Let’s talk about three of the most
important ingredients in writing a
successful novel…

CharacterizationPlotting
Action
You must do
all three well!

Plotting

“There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

The Classic Plot
• The writer introduces a hero or heroine who has just been –
or is about to be – plunged into terrible trouble
• The hero or heroine attempts to solve his or her problem but
only slips deeper into trouble
• As they try to climb out of the hole they’re in, complications
arise, each more terrible than the one before, until the
situation could not become more hopeless, then one final
unthinkable complication arises and makes matters worse.
• At last, deeply affected and changed by his awful experiences
and intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something
about himself and the human condition. He then understands
what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation in
which he has wound up. He takes the necessary actions and
either succeeds or fails, succeeding more often than not.

“You can distill anydrama – a Greek tragedy, a
Shakespearian play, a modern novel, a TV drama or
comedy, whatever – into a simple equation: ‘What do
these guys want, why do they want it, and what’s
keeping them from getting it?’”
Bill Bleich
Writing advice

Plots
• Create a compelling plot
• Write a grabber opening
• Write a successful ending
• Create a middle that keeps the reader involved

James Hall – Hit Lit
• Gone with the Wind
• Peyton Place
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Valley of the Dolls
• The Godfather
• The Exorcist
• Jaws
• The Dead Zone
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Firm
• The Bridges of Madison County
• The Da Vinci Code

Let’s take a deep-dive into one well-known
way to design or deconstruct a plot….

The
Freytag
Pyramid

Let’s Deconstruct This Using a
Book We All Are Familiar With
• Pride and Prejudice
• Ulysses
• War and Peace
• Anna Karenina
• Don Quixote
• Little Women
• The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz
Exposition
The exposition stage of the story sets the scene and introduces
the characters. In The Wizard of Oz, the exposition is everything
that happens from the beginning of the story to the tornado. We
meet all the major characters. Dorothy runs away with Toto and
meets Professor Marvel; and on her way back to the farm,
Dorothy is overtaken by the storm.

The Wizard of Oz
Inciting Incident
Next comes the inciting action, which is the event that
introduces conflict into the story. This is a bit tricky in The Wizard
of Oz, because there are two elements in the story that might be
called the conflict:
• One is the conflict between Dorothy and Miss Gulch, because Miss
Gulch wants Dorothy’s dog put to sleep. This is what causes Dorothy to
run away from home, leading to the blow to the head she receives
during the tornado. In this sense, we might consider Miss Gulch’s
threat the inciting moment.
• But this conflict becomes more complicated when the tornado
transports Dorothy to the Land of Oz. There, Dorothy’s house lands on
the Wicked Witch of the East and kills her, and the Wicked Witch of
the West threatens to kill Dorothy in revenge.

The Wizard of Oz
Rising Action
The rising action is where the plot becomes more complicated
and exciting, building tension. This includes Dorothy’s departure
from Munchkinland, her meetings with the Scarecrow, the Tin
Man and the Cowardly Lion, her arrival in Emerald City; her
audience with the Wizard, and her capture by the witch:
• During this part of the story, small obstacles are thrown in the path of
Dorothy and her companions, and the two conflicts mentioned during
the inciting incident are reemphasized.
• The two conflicts are then explicitly linked when the Wizard tells
Dorothy he’ll help her get back to Kansas if she brings him the witch’s
broom.
• Dorothy and her companions then face their most difficult challenge,
with Dorothy getting carried away by the flying monkeys and her
companions breaking into the witch’s castle to rescue her.

The Wizard of Oz
Climax
The climax is the most dramatic and exciting event in the story.
In The Wizard of Oz, the climax comes when Dorothy and her
friends are trapped in the witch’s castle, and Dorothy kills the
witch by dousing her with a bucket of water. At that moment,
much of the story’s tension is released because at least one of
the conflicts, the one between Dorothy and the witch, is ended,
and the plot begins its descent down the other side of the
pyramid.

The Wizard of Oz
Falling Action
The next element is the falling action, which is made up of
events that result directly from the moment of climax. The
element after that is called the resolution, where the character’s
conflict is resolved:
• After Dorothy has killed the witch, she take the broomstick back to the
Wizard. He solves the problems of Dorothy’s three companions, and
agrees to take Dorothy back to Kansas himself.
• This is the falling action: it shows the results of the death of the witch,
but it doesn’t resolve Dorothy’s second conflict, the fact that she
wants to go home to Kansas.

The Wizard of Oz
Resolution
The resolution comes when the Wizard accidentally takes off in
his balloon without Dorothy, and Dorothy learns from Glinda the
Good Witch that she could have taken herself back to Kansas at
any time just by using the ruby slippers. At this point, Dorothy’s
conflict is finally resolved. The threat from the witch is
liquidated, and she realizes that she always had the power to go
home.

The Wizard of Oz
Dénouement
The denouement is the ending of the story, when order is
restored. At this point, we are often shown the characters one
more time so we can see what happened to them. In The Wizard
of Oz it’s the final scene in Dorothy’s bedroom, where she is
reunited with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and the now-familiar
farmhands:
• In some stories the denouement simply shows that order has been
restored, and the world is now back to the way it was. But this isn’t
usually the case, and it’s certainly not the case in The Wizard of Oz.
• Dorothy is back home, but everything is not back to the way it was
before she went to Oz. Dorothy’s understanding of herself and her
place in the world have profoundly changed.

Characterization

“There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

“There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

Important Qualities for
Heroes, Heroines and Strangers
• Virtue
• Competence
• Courage
• Likeability
• Imperfections
• Change:
– Layers
– Arcs

Character Motivations
• Love
• Curiosity
• Self-preservation
• Greed
• Self-discovery
• Duty
• Revenge

Character Traits
• Physical appearance
• Movement and gestures
• Past life
• Religion
• Sexuality
• Vocation
• Skills and talents
• Fears
• Dreams
• Pleasures
• Plans for the future
• Sense of humor
• Politics
• Voice and speech

Presenting Character Traits Thoughtfully
• How many major and minor characters to have
• All major characters must have a biography
• Develop a “job description” for each character
• You will know what your characters will do
• You are writing a novel – not a movie script
– You have to get your characters from Point A to Point B
– Your characters are not dead when they’re off the page
• What is each character doing?
– On stage
– Off stage

Take a female character who is on her way to her high school
reunion. She’s 50, attractive, divorced, and has had no contact
with her graduating class since she left Iowa for Berkley in
1985. There was a guy she jilted when she went off to
school. Develop her.
• Physical: height, weight, hair color, best feature, worst
feature, etc.
• Occupation: attorney, doctor, college professor, executive,
runs a dot.com startup, etc.
• Personal: strengths, weaknesses, phobias, attitude toward
men, attitude toward all others, etc.
• Family: siblings, relationship with mom/dad, rivalries
• Relationships: good/bad/difficult, marriage(s), children?
Present her in a way that’s not a “police blotter”

James Hall – Hit Lit
• Gone with the Wind
• Peyton Place
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Valley of the Dolls
• The Godfather
• The Exorcist
• Jaws
• The Dead Zone
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Firm
• The Bridges of Madison County
• The Da Vinci Code

.…let’s color in three characters….

New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly
& USA Today Best-Seller!
Let’s color in one character, Anne
Sullivan, Op-Center’s Deputy
Director

“Anne Sullivan was a retired General Services
Administration super grade who had made a career in
Washington. She knew all about the government,
including government contracting, hiring, firing, and
funding, and how to sidestep the issues. These were
things Williams never had to deal with, even during
his multiple tours in Washington.”

“Unlike Williams, Sullivan came from money. Her
father had fashioned a successful and lucrative career
in finance with Bain Capital Ventures. Between that
family money and her GSA retirement, she was
looking forward to a comfortable life. She enjoyed the
D.C. social and cultural scene and traveled often,
primarily to Europe and especially to Ireland. That
plan was interrupted when Williams recruited her—
charmed her, really, she readily admitted—to be his
deputy.”

New York Times, Publisher’s
Weekly & USA Today Best-
Seller!
Let’s color in one character,
Kate Bigelow, Commanding
Officer, USS Milwaukee
(LCS-5) Freedom-Class Littoral
Combat Ship

“Kate Bigelow was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. She’d
gone to the Academy for two reasons: to play lacrosse and to
sing. Coming out of Montgomery Blair Prep in Silver Spring,
Maryland, her two passions had been playing lacrosse and
singing in her school glee club and church choir. She was an all-
state midfielder and also had a strong voice. Her grades were
good if not outstanding, but the Academy women’s lacrosse
coach saw her play and liked what she saw. Lacrosse was a
rough sport, even the woman’s game, and Kate Bigelow, while
owning a technically sound game, was not above flattening an
opposing player with a legal hit. She started for three years on
the lacrosse team, beating Army two of those three years, and
had sung in the Catholic Choir and the Naval Academy Glee
Club.”

“Kate had graduated in the upper half of the bottom third of
the Class of 2002. She’d never really considered a full career in
the Navy as a seagoing officer, two things intervened that kept
her from leaving the service. She found she liked U.S. Navy
sailors and she had a knack for leading them. Secondly, she
found command intoxicating. There was nothing like it on the
outside, so she stayed in the Navy. She had previously
commanded an MCM ship like Defender that now followed
them out of Sasebo.”

New from
Braveship Books
Let’s color in one character,
Lieutenant Laura Peters,
Intelligence Officer, U.S. Southern
Command

For Laura Peters, it was an opportunity for professional growth
that might not come her way again. It was not surprising she
loved what she was doing. The daughter and only child of a
Navy chief petty officer, she had been the apple of her father's
eye. Master Chief Donald Peters had risen through the ranks as
far as he could, but he always wanted to be an officer. That
goal, unfortunately, had eluded him. When it was clear his
marriage would produce no sons, he regaled Laura with the
opportunities that beckoned in the Navy. The master chief
knew enough about how the Navy worked and what it looked
for in its officers—and particularly its need to recruit more
women officers—that he groomed his daughter throughout
high school to make her a shoe-in for winning a Navy ROTC
scholarship.

She had thrived at the University of Virginia, earning top
grades, and lettering in cross-country, squash, and tennis.
Sensing that the Navy was still not enlightened enough to fully
accept women as equal partners commanding ships and
aircraft squadrons, she opted for the intelligence field upon
graduation, correctly surmising that it would provide a more
level professional playing field and afford her the opportunity
to prove herself and advance through the ranks. In her seven
years since graduation she had sought out only the toughest
assignments, usually registering firsts, breaking ground where
female officers had not gone before.

Here’s a better example

When he finished packing, he walked out onto the
third-floor porch of the barracks brushing the dust from
his hands, a very neat and deceptively slim young man
in the summer khakis that were still early morning
fresh.
James Jones
(From Here to Eternity, opening sentence)

"Jones packs a hell of a lot into that first line. He tells
you it's summer, he tells you it's morning, he tells you
you're on an Army post with a soldier who's obviously
leaving for someplace, and he gives you a thumbnail
description of his hero. That's a good opening line."
Ed McBain in Killer's Payoff

…plot?...characterization?...which is more
important?

Plot or Characterization
• You have to have plot to make the reader turn pages
• People are the story and the whole story
????????????????????????????????????????????????
• Plot has the entertainment value to pull the reader
along
• The characters are the vehicle, the tools through
which you tell your story
• Readers want you to tell them a story
• Dialogue brings your characters to life!

Action

“There is only one recipe for a bestseller and it is a very
simple one. If you look back on all the bestsellers you
have read, you will find they all have one quality; you
simply have to turn the page.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

What About Action?
• Action evolves naturally from the plot
• There is no “formula” for having action in your novel
• As Clancy said, don’t overthink the action
• That said, here are some things to consider:
– Different kinds of novels lend themselves to more or less
– Write all the action you can – then consider Goldilocks
– If riveting, hold-your-breath action is anywhere – up front
– Balance scene and summary to bound action scenes

But That’s Not All!
(Mainstream and Genre)
• High Concept (Think in movie terms)
– The Coronado Conspiracy
– For Duty and Honor
• Theme
– The Coronado Conspiracy
– For Duty and Honor

Selling Your Novel to an
Agent or a Publisher

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding
your breath.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Selling Your Novel to an
Agent or a Publisher
• In many ways, it’s all about the sale to an agent
• Getting an agent to read your proposal and ms
• Packaging yourself professionally
• The query letter and the pitch
• The Treatment
• The Narrative Outline

It is All About Getting the Sale
• Query agents – get the statistics on your side:
– Forty years ago – 30% of books were agented
– In the last decade – Over 85% of books were agented
• Small publishers – you will likely bear some risk
– Probably no advance
– Limited print run
• Be your own agent – to find an agent: Richard Curtis
How to Be Your Own Literary Agent

Getting an Agent to Read Your Manuscript
• It starts with being familiar with books in your “field”
• Then you find out which agents agented those books
• Stay in the library: Get contact info for agents
• Go back to what you’ve learned about query letters:
– High Concept (back to the movies)
– Treatment
– Narrative Outline
– Full Manuscript
• Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: One example

Let’s “Deconstruct” a Treatment
and a Narrative Outline

Let’s Deconstruct
a Novel Treatment
• Cover
• Organization
• Organizing Impulse and High Concept
• The “Old” OpCenter Dies
• The “New” OpCenter is Born
• New Character Details
– Preamble
– Those who spend a great deal of time
physically at OpCenter
– Those who deal with crises overseas
in each scenario
– Those who deal with crises
domestically in each scenario
• OpCenter Plot and Scenario Plan
– Preamble
– Short Plot Synopsis
• For us, this was 17,000+ words

Let’s Deconstruct
a Narrative Outline
• Cover
• Front matter
• Chapter summaries
– Separate sections
– One or two paragraphs per
section
• Epilogue
• For us, this was 19,000+
words

Promoting What
Someone Publishes

“You are the CEO of your own career.”
David Sona
Navy Transition Course
Spring 2000

Promoting What Someone Publishes
• What you should think twice before doing
– Pestering friends and family to buy your book
– Taking your books from event to event to sell
• What you should think of doing instead
– Create anticipation for your book
– Establish a world-class online presence
– Use social media to the extent writing is still first
– Write about your book’s subject matter – everywhere
• We’ll cover these subjects over the next two weeks

Resources
• E.E. Forster Aspects of the Novel
• Francine Prose Reading Like a Writer
• Richard Curtis How To Be Your Own Literary Agent
• James Hall Hit Lit
• Dr. Linda Seger
– The Art of Adaptation
– Advanced Screenwriting
• Robert Masello
– Robert’s Rules of Writing
– Writer Tells All
• The Great Courses, especially, Jane Friedman How to Publish Your
Book
• Bob Mayer (Writing tips on Slide Share via LinkedIn):
http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?lang=%2A%2A&page
=1&q=Bob+Mayer&qid=e14407c8-676f-4ab8-9857-
82cab373669b&searchfrom=header&sort=relevance

“Being a comparatively successful writer is a good life.
You don’t have to work at it all the time and you carry
your office around in your head. And you are far more
aware of the world around you. Writing makes you
more alive to your surroundings and, since the main
ingredient of living, though you might not think so to
look at most human beings is to be alive, this is quite a
worthwhile by-product, even if you only write thrillers.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

Slides Posted:
http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/
E-mail address:
george@georgegaldorisi.com
E-mail me if you’d like:
The Treatment and Narrative Outline for
Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Out of the Ashes

Next Week

Establishing an Online Presence
• Review of weeks one through four
– Writing in general
– Writing for and selling for publication
– Writing and selling non-fiction
– Writing and selling novels
• Developing the Heart of the Story
• Establishing an Online Presence
– What makes your online material unique?
– Beating the competition for “eyes”
– Balancing content and entertainment
– Doing-it-yourself…or…?

Optional Homework Assignment
for February 20
• Developing the Heart of the Heart of a Story
– Even if you’re not keen on writing a novel, come up with
an idea for a story, any idea and write it down
• Establishing an Online Presence
– Think of a few writers that you enjoy
– “Google” their names and find their author websites
– Pick the one that impresses you the most
– Walk us through why it’s impressive

Backups

"It is utterly implausible that a mathematical formula
should make the future known to us, and those who
think it can would once have believed in witchcraft."
Jacob Bernoulli

"It is utterly implausible that a mathematical formula
should make the future known to us, and those who
think it can would once have believed in witchcraft."
Jacob Bernoulli