Aug
Interview with Margie Lawson!!
Posted in How I Write Series, Writing | 4 Comments »
I would like to welcome Margie Lawson to my blog today!! I have attended a number of online writing classes over the years and Margie’s classes have been the best. They are well rounded, well documented and well taught.
She teaches a number of aspects of writing that I haven’t found in any craft of writing book (and I have my own library of them!). Please give a warm welcome to Margie Lawson!
Some readers may not be familiar with your approach to writing. Can you give us a bit of your background and how you began to teach writers?
I used to teach college, from undergraduate to post-graduate courses. Abnormal Psychology, Group Dynamics, Psychology of Learning, plus all the other courses I taught, gave me a strong foundation to teach writers. Not that writers are abnormal. 
When I got serious about writing fiction, I applied an analytical bent to my manuscripts. I challenged myself to learn how bestselling writers capture emotion on the page. We all know that bestselling doesn’t necessarily mean best-reading. I analyzed and dissected hundreds of books and separated them into two groups: page-turners and skimmers. I found thirty-plus skimmers to every page-turner.
I set the best-reading bar high. In the first few pages to first few chapters some books masquerade as page-turners, then disappoint the reader. I wanted to learn how to write top-of-the-bestseller list page-turners, books that emotionally grab the reader on page one and never let go.
Can you give a brief overview of the classes you teach and some detail on how they differ from what’s already out there?
I developed my first on-line course, Empowering Characters’ Emotions, because the editing techniques I developed were not available to writers anywhere. As a psychologist, I analyze what’s on the page as well as what’s missing that would have made that page stronger.
Empowering Characters’ Emotions teaches writers how to use the full range of nonverbal communication, how to write fresh, how to analyze their writing using my EDITS System, and how to add emotional power.
The first time Empowering Characters’ Emotions was offered on-line, over 100 writers signed up. I didn’t realize that was large for an on-line course. I’d come home from work, pop on the computer, and respond to class e-mails–analyze, edit, and create Teaching Points–every night until 2AM, and full days on the weekends. Having taught college courses in real classrooms for six years, it was easy for me to teach and connect with writers on-line.
A year later, I developed a second editing course, Deep Editing: The EDITS System, Rhetorical Devices, and More. This advanced course takes my EDITS System deeper so writers learn more about how to fix what’s not working. It also explores thirty rhetorical devices — and how and when to use them. I also share more deep editing techniques that teach writers how to add psychological power.
One of those deep editing techniques is my Five Question Checklist. When a writer applies those five questions and the multiple subsets to their scene . . . they know that scene carries emotive power.
My editing courses are different than editing courses taught by others. I’m not teaching about adverbs or passive voice. I go deeper. I teach psychologically based deep editing. It’s material I developed.
My courses are also different because they are structured like graduate level courses. I taught graduate courses to doctoral psychology students for six years. My courses are as organized and as content-loaded as any graduate course.
My month-long courses have over 300 pages of lectures. They have assignments. The only difference between the graduate level courses and my editing courses is the assignments are optional, and there are no tests.
Now I teach six on-line courses. My newest course and Master Class: Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like A Psychologist. It’s as power-packed as it is popular.
Plus – The lectures from my on-line classes are bundled as Lecture Packets and available through Paypal from my web site, www.MargieLawson.com.
I also present full day master classes across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I may present at a writing conference in Italy next year. 
)
In 2011, I’m offering a Write At Sea: Deep Editing Power Master Class, March 24 – 28, 2011. Two days of master classes, four days of fun in the Caribbean!
I also offer three-day Immersion Master Classes in my home on top of a Colorado mountain west of Denver. It’s actually a five day event, with three full days focusing on Deep Editing. I limit the Immersion classes to seven participants–they stay at the lodge next to my home. So handy to live next door to a mountain lodge.
I offered five Immersion classes last year and they all sold out months ahead. The five IMC sessions offered this year were all full, but two people had to cancel. Now the October session has two openings.
The amount of course material that you provide for each class is exceptional. I continue to reference my copies 2 years later!
Rhetorical Devices and the EDITS system is my favorite for stringing words together for maximum impact. I can say if I were a cartoon a light bulb would have exploded above my head when I completed this class, I learned so much!
Empowering Character Emotions is another of my favorites. The level of detail you give us as students is remarkable.
I especially appreciate your use of examples throughout your Lecture Packets. It is much easier to grasp a high level of understanding of a writing concept when shown a well executed example in a published work. I wonder if we will see more YA and MG examples in the future?
Yes! I had way too much fun reading YA and MG books this spring and summer. I added examples from over 30 YA and about 20 MG books to my courses. I’m always looking for more fresh writing and psychologically powered examples.
What do you believe makes a blockbuster novel? How do your classes help get a novice writer to that level?
Most writers don’t know why some writing hooks them. They don’t know why some books are page turners. They don’t know why when they read certain books, they become engaged viscerally. Heart rate up, breathing shallow, muscles tense.
They could be reading any genre – and have the same gut-wrenching, jaw-clenching physical response. And still . . . not know the techniques and processes the writer used to hook the reader viscerally.
We’ve all read passages that by their content, should have hooked us emotionally, but didn’t. We’ve written scenes that we expected to pop, but went pfft. They fizzle.
I teach writers how to write to psychological power.
I teach writers how to build credible conflict and crescendo emotion.
I teach writers how to speak to the subconscious of the reader.
I teach writers how to wrap their words around the reader’s heart and squeeze.
I developed my on-line courses and Master Classes to teach writers how to write real emotion. Emotion so strong, so smooth, so immediate, that the reader is hooked viscerally.
When the reader is hooked viscerally, and stays hooked, you’ve got a page turner.
Do you have any success stories you would like to share?
Yes! I frequently hear from graduates from my editing courses that they’ve been finalists in contests or offered a contract. I’m thrilled for them!
Thirty-plus success stories are on the ‘What’s the Buzz?’ page of my web site. More are in my e-mail folders. I’ll share two here.
Allison Brennan:
1. Before Allison Brennan was contracted, she took the first Empowering Characters’ Emotions course I taught on-line. Allison was active in the course, posted lots of assignments, got lots of deep editing feedback. She asked smart questions, got detailed answers from me. Her first book was released two and a half years later. It debuted on the New York Times list.
Since then . . . all of Allison Brennan’s books have hit the New York Times list.
Since then . . . NYT bestseller Allison Brennan has retaken one of my on-line courses a year, posted assignments, and requested feedback.
Randy Ingermanson:
2. This quote from Randy Ingermanson still gives me a visceral response.
In the twenty years I’ve been writing fiction, two teachers have astounded me with their insights and taught me something radically new: Dwight Swain and Margie Lawson.
Margie has made an enormous splash among novelists with her Deep Editing class and her Empowering Character Emotions class. I absolutely love her work. After reading Margie’s material on nonverbal communication and empowering character emotions, something clicked in my brain. Fiction is about giving readers a powerful emotional experience. Margie taught me a new ways to empower my writing.
~Randy Ingermanson, Ph. D., award-winning fiction author, creator of SnowFlake Pro, author of WRITING FICTION FOR DUMMIES
What is the one thing you wish you could teach every writer?
Write fresh. Write fresh. Write fresh!
A heartfelt thanks to Margie for participating in this week’s How I Write series.
I highly recommend all of Margie’s classes. Not only do I see my own writing in a new light but I know I have the tools to make it AWESOME! And I owe that to Margie. Thank you!
So as you read look for any continuity issues that need to be resolved. Things like your character starts school but then in the next scene is heading home for the day. Or the music teacher is brunette then bald. One of my own issues is talking heads. My first drafts are full of characters having conversations in a void. Keep setting in mind as you revise.
Personally I have always hated switching gears but I believe that’s because I find Revision the most challenging process for me. I know the more I do it the better I’ll get and the less I’ll resist the process.
