Guest Speaker - Margaret Dilloway

There is not much to catch up on from today because we went to see a guest speaker.

Her name is Margaret Dilloway.
She is a novelist and might be able to answer some of your questions about the novel you're about to write.

Reminders:

• By the way, did you finish your book blurb for your perfect novel? I have what you submitted, but if you didn't finish or need to make it better, you should probably do that. **hint hint**
• Read your independent reading novel. Really.
• If you finish a book, go write the book review for it and post it on Goodreads.
• Turn in your group novel at the library if you have not done so already.

Some highlights (she had great advice and you might want to use some of this):

• The 3 Cs of Novels - Context, Character, Conflict
• Context - This includes your setting or the world your characters live in
• Character - This includes actions that speak about the character. it is important to know what and who the character loves as well. 
• In novels, you sometimes have to make bad things happen to good people (it's about the lessons those characters learn from those bad experiences)
• Conflict - what does the character want and what is in his/her way?
• There should be conflict of some sort in every scene and every piece of dialogue.
• Most novels have about 60 scenes
• Act 1: Inciting Incident and Plot Point 1 (15 scenes)
• Act 2: Plot Point 2 and Turning Point (30 scenes)
• Act 3: Climax and Denouement (15 scenes)
• Check out the index card method for plotting scenes
• You DO NOT have to have 60 scenes. Your novel can have less. It's a guide. 
• Dialogue!
• Real dialogue is boring.
• You have to include what the characters are thinking as well. What someone is saying isn't necessarily what they are thinking.