EXERCISE: Write It Up!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 14 July 2010

I've been doing something for a little while now that I think is kind of an interesting way to practice writing.

See, there's a 15 minute show here in Japan, six days a week, that will run for six months. We're now in week 16. And because I was interested, I've been writing up the show every day. Mostly just translating on-the-fly and taking notes, then later in the day going back and writing up that day's episode.

Part of the fun for me is figuring out which parts need explanations, or where I should "stretch" what was done on the show to help English language folks follow along. I mean, I don't have the visuals, and I really can't expect English readers to have the Japanese background. So I kind of fill in around the corners sometimes. And of course I get to select which actions and dialogue I'm going to bother including.

You might want to take a television show or movie and write it up. Just as a way to exercise or practice writing. How do you convert that visual car chase or whatever into narrative? What do you include, what do you drop out? Feel free to do some transformation or rearrangement. After all, a Mickey Mouse cartoon could turn into a bar scene, or maybe an opera could become a visit to a Turkish harem? Or...

Scribble while you watch, do-de-do-do-do-do-do...

FILL: How do you start?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 18 July 2010

Odd...

Over here

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/07/11/writing-excuses-4-27-major-overhauls-to-broken-stories/

at Writing Excuses, among other things, there was a short discussion of the need for new writers to just WRITE. Write lots, and don't try to fix it up, just keep going. You need the practice.

Somewhere on

http://madgeniusclub.blogspot.com/

the Mad Genius Club, there was some discussion of fan fiction, that this was a great way for new writers to do some early work.

And I've had the occasional thought that writers, like artists, really need to start out with simple imitation. In Zen in The Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury, who is often considered quite a creative guy with a good handle on language, mentions somewhat off-handedly that he spent considerable time copying other writers.

And then Mike Kabongo over here

http://madgeniusclub.blogspot.com/2010/07/historic-fixation-and-stagnation.html

talks about the peculiar split personality that SF & F in particular have towards the question of originality. Merely a hint that something might be similar to another work often results in knee-jerk rejection. But, on the other hand, daring to actually write something original also gets rejected. We want the same, but different! Although if it is too obviously the same, well, that's no good.

It kind of seems as if we need to recognize the "training ground" use of copying, emulation, and fan fiction -- doing variations and knock-offs -- as a way to get the basics really deeply imbedded, while still recognizing the need to mix, match, and stretch the boundaries.

How should new writers learn their craft? Is writing something like the writers they read really so bad?

EXERCISE: Try this set of scales?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 21 July 2010

Over here http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/07/greed-is-good.html Jacqueline Lichtenberg talks about High Concept character motivation, using greed as an example. And along the way, she suggests these little exercises. She suggests that doing these is similar to a pianist practicing scales...

1. Create a POV character who hates greed (because he/she is riddled with it and rejects Self).
2. Create a POV character who lauds greed and proves that greed is the personality trait to foster if you want to get rich or stay rich.
3. Create a supporting role character who fights greed in human society. Generate a POV character from the supporting role (B story character), a POV character that the supporting character can redirect.
4. Create a villain or simple antagonist who either embraces greed or eschews it, but does so with way too much force. Explain why he/she's so obsessed.
5. Create a character whose hidden fear is that his inner greed will overtake him -- perhaps he starts out living the severe austerity of a street-begging monk with a bowl and a robe, no sandals, and suddenly has to command a galactic fortune that's shrinking alarmingly fast.
6. Create a greed-theme-based character with your own formula for a character. Then build a world to display that character's lessons in greed.

Greed -- wasn't that one of the cardinal sins? Sure, wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Heck, you could probably try modeling characters and stories around each and every one of those.

Just write!