Ms. Deb, as her students affectionately call her, is the CEO & Founder of Creative Writing Institute, and the former A-1 Writing Academy (now defunct).
"The A-1 Academy was a pilot program built within the virtual walls of a large writer's group," said Deborah. "In the first year we drew 600 students, but I wanted to reach the public. In another year Creative Writing Institute was created. It is a high-quality, low cost writing school with full-time mentors and small classes. Even distressed students and seniors can afford our prices."
Creative Writing Institute now partners with http://bookpleasures.com to bring the best and most up-to-date information available to creative writers everywhere. Check out the new school by Clicking Here.
Have you ever wanted to write fantasy,
but perhaps did not know where to begin? Then this is the article for
you. By the time you finish reading, you will know enough to write
your first fantasy story.
Writing fantasy is making an
impractical idea into a reality in the mind of your reader. It is
using your imagination to find its deepest creative power. It is the
ability to visualize things and places you have never seen. What a
vast and exciting realm that opens!
Begin by freeing your
mind of everything that is real and tangible. Escape this world of
gravity and float beyond the ties of places and time. What do you
see? Purple beings with six snouts and wings? A planet completely
engulfed in water with underworld cities? An atmosphere where the
inhabitants breathe gas and explode when they reach maturity? Fantasy
is the place of no bounds, no limits – the place where anything is
possible.
When you get your first vision of a new world or
new life, go to the next step. What characters are in this world?
What problems do they encounter? How will they solve the problems?
Remember that your characters must be three-dimensional, even
in fantasy. You must have a physical description in mind. How do they
typically act and what is out of the ordinary for them?
How
do they communicate? How do they move from place to place? Do they
fly? Slither? Swim? Waddle? Can they function on their own, or are
they dependent on something else for life? Are your characters
supposed to be royalty? Are they prisoners? Are they heading up a
revolution? How intelligent are they? Do you want to involve some
kind of magic? Is it a story of good versus evil? You must know all
of this before you can advance your plot.
Take the time to
write down fifty things about each of two main characters and the
world they live in. What do the inhabitants eat? What things are
unacceptable in their world? What is their vocation?
Now
decide what your overall story is about – not just the middle
conflict scene. The middle climactic scene is called the plot. The
meaning in the overall story is the theme, so what will your theme
be? Slithering lizards battling dinosaurs over human prey? Colliding
worlds that give birth to a new planet?
When you have
answered all of these questions to your own satisfaction, begin
writing the middle conflict scene of the story. Next, write the
ending. (You need not connect them just yet.) By that time you will
know what needs to be in the beginning of the story to round it out
fully. Develop that last. And finally, connect the three scenes.
This is called the DeBowen system of developing a story and
it's very easy. If you will write your story in this order,
everything will fall into place naturally, and that which you have
only imagined will become a reality.