LIVE! #40
3 April 2022
Agenda
- Why We're Here
- Literary Forensics
- - What do I bring?
- - What do I feel?
- - What do I notice?
- - What do I study?
- Next Month's Reading & Study
Why We're Here
We Writers want to improve our craft
by Reading like a Writer
through Literary Forensics training
we learn from each other
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
We practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Meet today's author: Damon Galgut
- Writes longhand on notebooks for first two complete drafts,
then transfers it to the computer - The Promise
- - Primary motivation: Depicting time and the passage of time
- - Secondary inspiration: Friend who related stories of four funerals
- Other books
- - 1st novel @ age 17
- - 9 novels: The Good Doctor and In a Strange Room shortlisted for Booker Prize
- - 4 plays
What do I feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do I notice?
- • Language and Grammar
- • Context
- • Point of view
- • Character & character development
- • Pacing
- • Horizontal structure
- • Layering of themes
- • Overall effect
The Promise - Stats
- Marketing: Family Saga Fiction, Family Life Fiction, Literary Fiction
- Genre: Recent Historical Archplot Longform
- Print Pages: 256
- Word count: 84,068; Avg. wds/sent.: 11.87
- Reading Level: Grade 7; Lexical Density: 45.07
- Flesch Reading Ease: 76.91
- POV: Omniscient; Person: 3rd; Tense: Present
- Publish date: April 6, 2021
- Publisher: Europa Editions
- Sold By: Europa Editions
- Audio book narr.: Peter Noble (9 hrs: 37 mins)
- Awards 2021 Booker Prize
POV
Epigraph
Pa's Funeral
Writers Who Read: Coming Up
May 1: Intimacies - Katie Kitamura (USA, 2021)
June 5: Crossroads - Jonathan Franzen (USA, 2021)