Goodreads asked Céline La Frenière:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Céline La Frenière I can only tell you how I started to write. When leaving my native Quebec at the age of 16 to settle in British Columbia, I wrote extensively to my friends back home. Letters are, in my view, the best way to learn the principle of structuring a good drama. They should have a beginning, a middle and an end. The first paragraph should concentrate on the recipient (e.g.: How are they? What made you think of reaching out to them? Etc.) The second and following paragraphs deal with the purpose of your letter. And the last paragraph returns to the recipient and indicates how they fit within the purpose of your letter. Writing letters-to-the editor in your local newspaper is another useful way to brush up on your communication skill. If editors don’t publish your letters, keep on writing until they do.

In the film industry, writing a two-page synopsis of a proposed script
Is helpful to find out whether a story works dramatically. Once that is done, move on to a 10-15-page treatment, fleshing out the characters (with some dialogue) and story. Then, and only then, are you ready to write a full-length screenplay. Remember that one page of screenplay equals approximately one minute of filming, so make each line count. It should advance your character(s) or story or both.

Writing a novel is different, inasmuch as you are allowed more freedom to describe your characters and settings, although good dramatic structure works pretty much on the same principle.

In Glaston Town, for example, the first Part “The Solitary Kingfisher” deals with the relationship between the residents of this rough neighbourhood, and how they band together to overcome their fear of reprisal from criminals to clean up their streets and save their park. The Second Part “The Rebels” picks up from the first part. It develops relationships established earlier on in the story. Trouble is stirred up among the residents of this close-knit community, and this leads to a brutal murder. The third part “Unfinished Business” gets to the bottom of whodunit and resolves the relationships between the characters.

I hope this is helpful.

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