EXERCISE: A Creative Whack?

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Original posting 7 August 2008

I'm working on a course in creativity right now, and of course I've been looking at various books and other materials that I've collected over the years. Fair warning -- you are likely to be hearing bits and pieces as I mutter over the stuff. Prepare to duck now?

Among them is a Creative Whack Pack (r) by Roger von Oech. It's 64 cards each of which has has a little description -- a creativity strategy if you will. He identifies four roles, with 16 cards in each. The roles are interesting.

The Explorer discovers resources to help create new ideas. The Artist transforms resources into new ideas. The Judge evaluates ideas, making decisions about the idea. And the Warrior kicks things from ideas into action. Between them, they cover four major parts of the creativity process. Collecting knowledge and stimulation, generating ideas, picking and choosing, and then taking the steps to make the idea concrete and real.

Just as a first step in playing with this, you might consider how you tackle each of these roles. Since we are talking about writing, when you want to write a new story, where do you go to get your ideas? Do you look at the news, read old books, or what do you do to get the information for your ideas? And how do you transform those into pile of new ideas? What do you look for to pick out the one that you're actually going to work on? And what makes you sit down and turn it into a real story? You may want to have more than one strategy in your kit for each of these.

Just for examples, here are the first in each of the four roles in the Creative Whack Pack (r).

1. Give Yourself a Whack on the Side of the Head

The more often you do something in the same way, the more difficult it is to think about doing it in any other way. Break out of this "prison of familiarity" by disrupting your habitual thought patterns. Write a love poem in the middle of the night. Eat ice cream for breakfast. Wear red sox. Visit a junkyard. Work the weekend. Take the slow way home. Sleep on the other side of the bed. Such jolts to your routines will lead to new ideas.

How can you whack your thinking?

17. Think like a Kid

A high school teacher drew a dot on the blackboard and asked the class what it was. "A chalk dot on the blackboard," was the only response. "I'm surprised at you," the teacher said. "I did this exercise with a group of kindergartners and they thought of fifty different things it could be: a squashed bug, an owl's eye, a cow's head. They had their imaginations in high gear." As Picasso put it, "Every child is an artist. The challenge is to remain an artist that you grow up."

What would a six year old see if he were looking at your project?

33. See the Positive

"The human mind," notes scientist W. I. Beveridge," likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy." When you judge new ideas, focus initially on their positive and interesting features. This will counteract a natural negative bias, and help you to develop more ideas.

What's positive about the idea?

49. Take a Whack at It

You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can't catch fish unless you put your line into the water. You can't make your idea a reality unless you take a whack at it. If you want to be a singer, go sing. Sing in the shower. Sing for your friends. Join the choir. Audition for a musical. Start now. As adman Carl Ally put it, "Either you let your life slip by by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them."

How can you take a whack at your idea?

How can you shake yourself up? What would a six year old see? What's good about the idea? And how can you get started right now?

Right, write!

When we write, we get to rub our ideas together and see what catches fire.

TECH: Make A Scene #16: Dialogue Scenes

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Original Posting 11 August 2008

From Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld, we're now on Chapter 16: Dialogue Scenes.  And without further ado . . .

Dialogue is a very versatile element in fiction writing, and it's used in most scenes. This chapter talks about scenes that are primarily dialogue. Dialogue scenes usually feel fast to the readers, so they pick up the pace and move the plot forward. You can also use them to build conflict with characters arguing and expressing themselves. You can also build tension with characters struggling for position or caring.

Opening a dialogue scene. Before starting a scene, decide if you're going to use dialogue to convey action or to reveal character, plot, or background information. Don't use dialogue is filler, with characters prattling along. You probably don't want to start in the middle of a conversation, because it's confusing. Instead, use a scenic launch, or narrative, action or character -- then move into dialogue. Try to start by:

• get the reader settled firmly in the setting to begin
• start the conversation in the first couple paragraphs
• make the protagonist an active part of the conversation; don't let them just listen in
• make sure the reader knows who is talking
• build the dialogue around conflict and opposition

Dialogue for big revelations. Use dialogue to give the reader information about the plot or characters. Dialogue can show who characters are, reveal effects on other characters, and introduce new plot information. Reveal characters by:

• show them speaking under pressure or in conflict. Dialogue should not be mundane.
• use conversational style to reveal true nature
• express feelings or thoughts about significant events or situations

Always suit your dialogue to the character. Each of them should talk in their own way.

Reveal plot information by:

• make sure the information is earned. Don't let mysterious strangers reveal important information without a reason. Deus ex machina applies to information, too.
• show the protagonist's emotional reaction to the new information
• the greatest emotional impact is in the middle of the scene or at the end.

Make your revelations important, and build into them. Make sure that the revelation has consequences, that the plot and the protagonist change.

Use tension and subtext to make dialogue scenes rich. Build your dialogue around bartering or negotiation. Rosenfeld calls this tug-of-war dialogue. Think of each character asking for something and withholding something at the same time. Different points of view, dynamics of relationships, exchanges of insults or arguments, attempted manipulations or seductions, attempts to convince another character of something, and fending off accusations -- all of these can use tug-of-war dialogue. Even without actual physical movements, this kind of tug-of-war can help make a dialogue scene feel active.

But if people are just volleying words back and forth, you can lose the sense of a meaningful interaction. To keep that, pay attention to subtext. People don't always say what they mean, they withhold information and feelings, and they use language to manipulate each other. So use flashbacks, body language, setting details and objects, symbolic objects, or even avoiding certain topics.

Ending dialogue scenes. So dialogue scenes give the reader more understanding of the characters or of a plot element. Revelations near the beginning of the scene usually mean that the rest of the scene explorers their feelings and reactions. However, an effective approach is to make the revelation near the end of the scene, so the reader rushes into the next scene to find out what happened. If the next scene turns to something else, the reader is left with a mystery, wondering just how the characters will react. So you want to end your dialogue scene with the protagonist:

• on the final words of a spoken revelation
• shook up in some way
• starting an action in response to the revelation
• starting to reflect on what happened

Rosenfeld suggests that dialogue scenes should:

1. Does your dialogue scene reveal new information about characters or the plot?
2. Does the dialogue feel like action to a reader and add energy to a scene that would otherwise be plodding
3. Does the dialogue scene have enough setting details for foreshadowing, subtext, and an even pace?
4. Does the dialogue reveal plot information in a realistic way, not just a convenient way?
5. Does the dialogue that a character uses reveal intentions?
6. Does the dialogue use opposing forces or a tug-of-war to build tension?

That's what Rosenfeld had to say about dialogue scenes.

So, let's see. What about an assignment? Perhaps the first might be to consider an existing novel and a scene that is largely dialogue that you remember? Perhaps the final scene in many mysteries, where the great detective explains just who done it? How does the author start the scene, and how do they keep us grounded in the scene in the midst of all that flying dialogue? How do they wrap up the scene?

Or take a scene that you've been working on, and consider doing it as a dialogue scene. Does it fit? How does writing it as a dialogue scene help or hinder? Consider replacing the car chase (action!) scene with a dialogue scene -- how does that change the pacing and approach?

Take a look at your story overall. Does it have a dialogue scene in it? Is there a good place for one? What would it do to the structure? Why would you add one -- or take one out and replace it with plain old fisticuffs and other violence?

Go ahead. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of a dialogue scene. Remember the talking heads of TV, and make sure your chatterboxes have at least a sketch of a setting around them. Then let the voices rise, let tempers flare, let the exchange of conversation show us characters engaged with plot.

And don't forget,
write!

When we write, characters talk.