Writers in Residence: Terry Fallis

By Zach Rinzema (‘18)

On January 23rd, Greenwood Grade 12 Writer’s Craft class was paid a visit by two-time Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal winner and accomplished author of six published novels, Terry Fallis. The class got the privilege to learn about Fallis’ highly-acclaimed planning process, his history as a writer, and some personal tips and tricks to guide students towards successful short stories of their own.

Fallis began his lecture by talking about his past, and his late entrance into the world of creative writing. Despite writing being a main component in many of his occupations, Fallis did not write a novel until he was 45 years old.

Before going into his own processes, he stressed that every single person writes differently, and there is no right or wrong way to approach writing a story. Personally, Fallis revealed he is a planner. He spends most of his time laying groundwork for his stories, utilizing self-designed tools such as the chapter map and chapter notes in order to always remain structured and organized.

Fallis then went into more depth about another important story writing aspect: voice. He insisted that sometimes the only thing holding your idea back is the way it’s being portrayed, and encouraged using a narrator that isn’t your center of attention in order for readers to see the story from a different set of eyes. Terry has written all of his stories like this.

In terms of writing as an occupation, Fallis assured Greenwood students that there is always time for something you love. Rather than adhering to the mantra of ‘writers must write every day,’ Terry simply encouraged writing when you can, and that if you really have a passion, time will be found. This theory held true in is own life, as he managed to establish himself as an accomplished writer while also being co-founder of a communications agency. Before wrapping up, Fallis shared some final story writing advice with the Greenwood students. This included distinguishing your characters, sentence length, and an emotionally moving message. The class came to a close with a final applause from optimistic students, packing newly acquired expert knowledge in their back pockets.

After learning about Terry Fallis’ success as a writer and reading some excerpts from his novels, I came into the lecture with high expectations, and an open mind ready to absorb every little tidbit of knowledge and experience. Fallis’ words blew my steep expectations right out of the water, providing my peers and I with newfound writing wisdom that will not only help with short story production, but leave a lasting effect on the way I see writing as a whole.

Though I saw eye to eye with Fallis for essentially all of the lecture, there was one main component that completely differentiates us as writers — his strong opinion on the importance of planning. Fallis finds that meticulous preparation and timelining is the key to his perfectly polished novels, relating his process to the composition of a history essay. For me, putting together an essay is the last thing I’d relate to my story writing. If I had to place myself on Fallis’ spectrum of planners and pantsers, I would undeniably be closer to a pantser. When I write, I like to embrace the escape from the real world and just jot down whatever sort of crazy thoughts and ideas arise from my imagination. Sitting down and spewing out a story is how I’ve always thought about creative writing, and has the been an approach that has yet to fail for me. Despite this, I did understand Fallis’ precautions on being a pantser, and how zero planning beforehand can lead to an unwanted stalemate or loss of focus while writing. Though both approaches have their pros and cons, Fallis and I can both agree that there is no such thing as the ‘right way,’ and whichever approach works best for you as a writer is the one that you should stick with.

Though not a planner myself, it doesn’t take much to appreciate Fallis’ self-designed processes for the blueprints of his novels. His ‘chapter map’ divides square sections of a paper into chapters, allowing him to see the advancements of the plotline side by side and continually monitor the rhythm of the story. ‘Chapter notes’ is his second tactic, in which he simply creates bullet point notes for each chapter in order to maintain a sense of direction and organization. These clever practices are prime examples of Fallis approaching a story how he does best, with a little element of creativity.

 

Not only did I get the opportunity to learn from a writer, I got the opportunity to learn from a writer who happens to be world-renowned for humour. Fallis’ humorous personality was noticeable right from the get-go, whether it be how he got his point across or interrupting himself mid-rant to tell the audience ‘I forget what the question is now.’ I like to incorporate pinches of humour in my writing as well, and I was quite interested to see if Fallis would provide any pointers on regulating how much to include.

He did end up touching on this, referencing a piece of feedback he got as a young writer. After publishing his first book, Fallis was told that there is sometimes a limit for humour, and in order to get the best effect, “less is more.” He went on to utilize this advice in his future novels, including slightly less humour to increase its relevance when it does to come up. Not only does this answer my humour question, but confirms my newly adopted standpoint on feedback. On my unit reflection, I spoke about how I need to pay more attention to feedback in order to better polish my drafts, as I had previously caught myself disregarding it. Writer’s craft continues to teach me to listen to feedback, and Terry’s example solidifies to me that it will always be relevant, regardless who it is from or who it is to.

I was very impressed by Terry Fallis’ lecture, and was humbled I got the opportunity to hear from him. His amusing personality taught me some very relevant story-writing tips, and I couldn’t help but admire his intense work-ethic. There were no negatives I could take from his presentation, and I’m more than confident that his advice will work wonders for not just myself, but my peers, as we begin to put together our original short stories.