On May 12th, I had the good fortune to attend a workshop put on by my local RWA chapter. We hosted Michael Hauge, a well-known story and script consultant. He often presents at the RWA Nationals (I missed him in NYC last June, alas), and after taking his seminar, I can see why.

His seminar was split into two parts: The Outer Journey, which we dealt with in the morning’s session, and The Inner Journey, our afternoon’s work. The Outer Journey was very similar to what I’ve learned in other courses (Laurie Schnebly’s ‘Plotting via Motivation’ course comes to mind), but I would say that the afternoon’s Inner Journey part of the workshop was worth the entry fee and then some.

When I write, I’ve nearly always found it easier to deal with the outer journey and motivations of my characters (Character A wants X, thus must do Y), but the inner emotional journey is much more difficult to portray. My notes for the afternoon are voluminous and as I continue with my WIP, I’ll be using them regularly. (I already know that I’ll need to go back and rewrite, but I won’t do it just yet.)

Michael used examples from several Hollywood films, including Shrek, Titanic (which I still haven’t seen), Hitch (ditto), and L.A. Confidential (seen once, not well-remembered). Already in watching some of my favourite films (Casablanca), I can pick out the structure and character arcs with greater ease, and I know that it’ll help my writing.

Naturally, it was also a great time to chat and reconnect with my fellow Calgary RWA members, and we had a drink or two afterward.

LtoR: Michelle Pierce, Susan Bohnet, Karen Uhl, me, and Jill Flanagan. (photos by Suzanne Stengl - http://suzannestengl.blogspot.ca/)