Posted by Gabriel Constans on Amazon.com and Goodreads on May 4, 2023
Comedy, Movies, Romance All in One
5 Stars
As a screenwriter or romcoms (and other genres), married to a short woman, it seemed like this book was taken from part of my life. I don’t pretend to be a stand-up comic, but Love Is the Punch Line is a great romantic dramedy. Josh and Holly seem to be like oil and water but turn out to be quite complimentary. The story has a lot of insight into the movie business, looks closely at self-esteem and depression, and the ways we can hurt and support one another. Don’t hesitate to read this script (novel).
Have you finished writing the first two or three drafts of your novel? Do you want feedback on your manuscript before you start working on your next draft?
I found myself in this situation back in August 2020. I had just completed the third draft of my novel and wanted to know how to improve it. I didn’t belong to a writing group, and I didn’t have beta readers, either. So I looked online for help.
An Online Mentor Was the Answer
A number of institutions offer creative writing courses; however, most of these courses weren’t suited to me, as I was an experienced author who had already published a novel. What I needed was a course offering feedback on the manuscript I had already written. And that course needed to be online because Covid had made in-class learning dangerous.
After a bit of searching, I found the answer: the Online Mentor course offered by the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies Creative Writing Program. I decided to enroll for Winter 2021.
How Does the Online Mentor Course Work?
The course is email-based. Once the student is enrolled, she or he chooses an online mentor (usually an established Canadian author) from a list. If the mentor agrees to work with the student, the mentor contacts her or him by email; the student then submits some chapters to the mentor; the mentor provides feedback on the student’s writing. Students have up to 12 weeks, including time for rewrites, to work on up to a maximum of 25,000 words of a manuscript, 40 pages of poetry, or 90 pages of a drama or screenplay.
Is This Course Worth Your Time?
It definitely is! My mentor, Marina Endicott, a Canadian novelist and short story writer, provided valuable feedback on my manuscript. With her help, I was able to rethink the characters, cut out unnecessary details, and balance out the plot, which was a bit on the gloomy side. We worked on the first four chapters together; I then completed the rewrite using the insights I got from Marina.
How Do You Enroll?
Apply online at https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/courses/1686-online-mentor You’ll also need to submit a 10-page excerpt from the manuscript you wish to workshop to scs.writing@utoronto.ca, along with the name of your mentor-of-choice from the list of Creative Writing program instructors.
The timelines in my first novel didn’t work. The written analysis from my freelance editor pointed out dozens of timelines that weren’t realistic; for example, my main character travelled large distances in an absurdly short period of time, the setting (especially the weather) didn’t fit the time of year, and on and on.
We writers are usually so intent on getting the story down on paper that it’s easy to overlook these small details. But even though these problems may seem minor in the scheme of things, they will, if unaddressed, chip away at the quality of your novel.
Check Your Timelines Before You Submit Your Manuscript
It’s a good idea to check the timelines in your manuscript before you submit it to an editor, agent, and/or publisher. The following method works for me:
Write an outline of your manuscript.
Break the outline down into chapters.
In the margin, write down the dates for each chapter (e.g., March to April 2017).
Write your first draft, following the descriptions and dates in your outline.
After you finish writing your first draft, write a second chapter by chapter outline of your manuscript, and include the timelines. Quite often, this outline will differ from the outline you created before you started writing your first draft. Ask yourself the following questions: Does the action fit into the timelines in this chapter? Are the physical details appropriate for the time period? (For example, would you expect to see flowers at this time of year?)
If the timelines (and details) in your first draft don’t work, note the changes that you need to make in the margin of your second outline.
After you’ve written your second, third, and fourth drafts, check your timelines again.
Once you’re happy with your timelines and polished your manuscript, it’s time to submit it.
If you’re like most people, your life is busy, filled with work, home chores, and family responsibilities. But you also need some time to work on your novel. What can you do?
Set Small Writing Goals
If your writing time is limited, try setting small writing goals. Some ideas:
Decide how quickly you want to write or rewrite a single chapter (for example, one chapter per week).
Then decide how many days per week you can write. Three or four days per week might be realistic for some people.
Next, decide how much time you have to write on those days (e.g., one or two hours).
Set realistic goals for each writing session. For example, you might try writing just one or two scenes or three to six pages during a single session.
The Results Add Up!
These goals might seem ridiculously small, but the results really add up! If, for example, you write one chapter per week, you’ll end up with four chapters per month. That means, if your novel has twenty-eight chapters, you can finish one draft of your manuscript in seven months.
My first novel, recently published, was a joy to write. A lighthearted romance set in the world of stand-up comedy, it was a sweet and funny story built around two loveable characters. My second novel, which I am currently writing, is far different: it’s angry, cynical, and deeply sad. In other words, it’s a “dark” novel.
Why would anyone choose to write such a gloomy book? Lots of reasons . . . .
First, a dark novel gives a writer the golden opportunity to deal with real-life experiences, the sorts of everyday events that most people experience but rarely talk about. Trouble paying off a mortgage, disrespectful and abusive treatment from a boss, unruly children, parents who don’t understand your personal struggles . . . all of the hardships of modern life can become the foundation of a dark novel. Dark novels also offer intellectual challenges for writers, as their plots and characters tend to be more complex and harder to describe.
More importantly—at least from my point of view—the process of writing a dark novel forces a writer to confront the truth. By confronting certain hard realities I’ve had to face and by writing about them, I’ve been able to come to terms with my past and to help myself heal. Doing this takes courage, but the experience has been more deeply satisfying than I could have ever imagined.
It’s not easy to write a dark novel. Far too often, the dredging up of painful emotions leaves me depleted and depressed, and all I want to do is to abandon the novel once and for all. But I just can’t; the book is too powerful to run away from, and it’s crying out to be written. The journey hasn’t been easy so far, but it’s definitely worth taking.
Kathleen Jones, The Quirky Novelist 