Weaving words

Alane Ferguson needs to see it, smell it, feel it and maybe even taste it.
And she’s not shopping for produce at the grocery store.
 

Matthew Beck

Mystery author Alane Ferguson tells Lecanto Middle School students that the plot in a story is like a human skeleton. “It holds things together,” she said. Ferguson led a writer’s workshop for students at the school.

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Matthew Beck

Kelsey Miles, left, poses for a picture Monday with mystery author Alane Ferguson after an author’s lunch. Jacquelyn Kistenmacher snaps their picture.

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Matthew Beck

The Christopher Killer series is a popular forensic science series for teens.

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That’s how the mystery fiction author and self-described writing doctor explains how to go about packing specific details into a story to make it more vivid for the reader.
 

That writing tip and many more were shared with dozens of middle school students Monday at an intensive writer’s workshop and an author’s lunch in the Lecanto Middle School media center.
 

Media Specialist Jeannene Riddle has kept in touch with Ferguson, 55, since the writer first visited the school several years ago for a similar workshop.
 

“We just bonded at that time and we’ve kept in touch ever since,” she said. “This is a wonderful, wonderful thing for our students.”
 

Ferguson, popular with many elementary and middle school-age children, came to Florida by way of her home in Colorado for a series of workshops at a number of schools in Citrus and Orange Counties.
 

She addressed the students in medical scrubs and a lab coat, playing the part of the writing doctor.
 

“I really believe in revision. I teach writing workshops all around the country and that’s my big thing,” she said. “I can teach on just about any kind of writing but I concentrate on what I write and that’s fiction. So I’m really big on how to restructure, how to build a plot and how to get dialog into the story correctly. I’m really keen on teaching kids and adults how to revise their work. That’s the key.”
 

She feels revision, or tightening up a story, is a critical component to a strong story.
 

“You won’t get your best work the first time out of the chute. I call it vomiting up words,” she said.
 

After the first draft is written and edited, she said, “Then it’s a matter of picking the best and throwing out the rest. That’s one of the things I teach.”
Through the lunch hour a select group of about 30 students gathered with Ferguson for a catered Italian meal.
 

She enthusiastically answered questions from the group of children, grades 6 to 8.
 

When asked who had read Ferguson’s books, most of the students in the room raised their hands. Many in the group have been reading the four-book series she’s penned called “The Christopher Killer.” A fifth book in the series is on the way and expected to be on the shelf later this year.
 

After lunch a new group of students flowed into the media center for the writing workshop.
 

Using large sheets of paper on an easel, Ferguson, the author of more than 30 books, illustrated her lesson on plot with a crudely-drawn skeleton.
“A skeleton to your body is the same thing as the plot is to your story,” she said. “It’s the structure that holds it up. You have to have good plot structure. I believe that if you do not have a proper structure to hang your story on then it will just kind of turn into what your body would look like if you didn’t have any bones to hold you up; a blob of goo.”
 

A quick start to her stories, or the hook as she calls it, is what several students acknowledged they like best about Ferguson’s books.
 

“I just got done reading her last book,” said Autumn Graham, 14. “She starts her books out in a way that really hooks you. It’s fast pace and exciting. And I like how there is a lot of factual information in the books, even though it’s fiction.”
 

The writer gave students solid building blocks from which to work on making a strong story.
 

Topics like hooking a reader at the beginning, limiting back story, and incorporating dialog and vivid detail into the story were other topics of
discussion.
 

“Your job is to look at yourself as a word weaver,” she said to the students.
Ferguson said she has been writing since the age of four under the watchful eye of her mother, Gloria Shurzyski, an accomplished author in her own right. Shurzyski has about 60 books to her credit.
 

The mother-daughter team collaborated on a series of books called the Mysteries in Our National Parks which has been popular with elementary school children, according to the media specialist.
 

School Board member Ginger Bryant, a teacher for 28 years in the Citrus County School District, was on hand for the lunch and shared her thoughts on how critical reading and writing is for students.
 

“I just think it’s important for children to be exposed to good writing and go through the process with somebody who does it well,” she said. “I used to teach writing in the classroom, but I never wrote a book. I taught the fundamentals with my students years ago but this author is actually publishing books that they read. That’s awesome.”