Turn, Turn, Turn...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: July 21, 1995

[well, well, well.
sitting on your words again?
UP AND AT THOSE KEYS!
no strain, no gain, so work those words!]

Change is one of the essences of plot. So, let's try this:

a. Pick a pair of characters.

b. Pick one of the following 12 emotions. You may use two dice if you like.

1. sadness 2. distress 3. relief 4. joy
5. hate 6. love 7. fear 8. anticipation
9. anger 10. guilt 11. gratitude 12. pride

c. Pick another one of the 12 emotions. If you happen to roll the same number with your dice, roll again.

d. The plot skeleton--

one character feels the first emotion (towards the other character, if appropriate).
the characters interact...
the first character feels the second emotion (towards the other).

e. WRITE! How does fear change into gratitude? Pride curdle into anger? Guilt turn into joy?

Don't forget, you want to show us the person, rather than just telling us about the emotion. Okay?

(wow! these alchemist writers, bent over their strange alembics and intoning unspeakable tongues of demonic descent, with the philosophers' stone as an anvil and dialectical enlightenment as a hammer, forge the humors of man into new and marvelous shapes of mist and glitter.:-)

Watch as the plots thicken! See them twist, see them bend, and gaze upon raw climaxes exposed by you. Just put your belief in overdrive, your disbelief in suspension, and write on into the sunset...

I Never Expected That!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: July 14, 1995

(you can run, you can hide, but you can never, ever...
ESCAPE!!!!

tromp, tromp, tromp,
the monster's coming,
gnashing its teeth,
and hungry for you...

it won't quit for anything,
even bad prose and
broken rhythm
won't stop the beast!:-)

based on a notion from "Show, Don't Tell" by William Noble.

1. Start with an ordinary situation. Pick one:

a. birthday party b. wedding c. funeral
d. evening at a bar e. dinner party f. pick-your-own!

2. Quickly list the main characters. Just the key ones!

3. What emotions are associated with such a situation? list at least five.

4. What events are associated with such a situation? list at least five.

5. Now, to work. Pick one character, one emotion, and one event. They are feeling the OPPOSITE of the expected emotion.

Depending on how severely disturbed they are, they may even cause the event to occur in an unusual way, to be stopped, or perhaps replace it with something totally incongruous to the situation (instead of blowing out the candles, they give the children a haircut?).

Anyway, the "ordinary situation" is NOT going to be so ordinary, okay?

6. That's the core of this exercise--take an ordinary situation, reverse or replace one "expected" emotion or event, and write!

So, on your keyboards, limber those fingers, and GO!

(How does a sobbing mother fit into a birthday celebration? Why is the bride's maid carrying a gun instead of flowers? The coffin-bearers all wore clown uniforms? What gave the lounge singer a real smile for a change? Pick your situation, pick the emotion/event to change, and see where it leads you...)

Everyday life, with a twist, makes a fine tonic for the writer.

tell me a story, okay?

[BTW--I'm not there, this exercise has been brought to you in absentia, but I will be reading the mail after I get back. Read you then!]