Color In The Background

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 10:41:26 EST

Let's knock this out early...

1. Pick some characters, a short plot, a little scene of some kind. Think about what you are trying to say or do with this scene, but don't get too comfortable with it yet...

2. Pick a number from one to six. And here is your color:

1. red 2. orange 3. yellow 4. green 5. blue 6. violet

3. Pick another number from one to six. And here is your setting:

1. Outdoors, country 2. Outdoors, city 3. Outdoors, desert
4. Outdoors, seaside 5. Indoors, party 6. Indoors, office

4. Pick one more little number from one to six. And here is the background news event:

1. A snowstorm has hit the other coast
2. A large foreign city has had a major earthquake
3. A small middle-eastern country has threatened its traditional enemy--with a suicide attack using nuclear weapons
4. A large foreign country admits that a plague has been killing people in one area
5. A terrorist group explodes a bomb in an American downtown area
6. A study shows Daytime T.V. Programming damages the minds of watchers

5. Now, resettle your scene. Start with a background description, focusing on that color, of the setting. Mix in a little action, perhaps some dialogue, and throw in the incidental news item. Use the characters' reactions to that news to build their personas in the readers' minds. Then return to the conflict or persona sketching that makes this scene fit your story, perhaps with echoes of that far-off news rippling through the local interactions.

Write...