EXERCISE: Christmas Songs and Stories?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 23 Dec 2011

Just listening to the muzak playing everywhere -- I saw Mommie kissing Santa Claus, I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, Jingle Bells... Most of them have a little story (or two or three) buried in those words and melodies.

So, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, Mr. (or Ms.) Writer, is to tease out that plot -- that string of events. Either the one in the music, or perhaps the one that the music reminds you of? Feel free to add backstory or consequences as needed. Mix your own characters, setting, subplots and other problems in (what if Daddy DID see Mommy kissing Santa Claus? Uh, oh...) and retell that story as only you can.

Do it for the Grinch, for Marley and Tiny Tim, for the little drummer boy, for Saint Nicholas taking presents to the poor, for all those, known and unknown, who said and showed us in one way or another...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Have a great holiday, one and all.
And, of course, WRITE!

TECH: Characters in Four Parts?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 29 Dec 2011

Over here, David B Coe talks about attributes that make characters effective and memorable. The four parts are a secret, the wall, loss, and desire. I'm not sure if we can come up with an acronym to help us remember those --  SWoLD? No, that's just silly.

http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/on-writing-character-development-secret-wall-loss-desire/

Anyway, the secret is just that. Something that the character does not want to share. Sometimes it's a secret that is being kept from the character. Anyway, there is some secret information waiting in the wings.

The wall is whatever sets the character apart from other people. Something makes this character different.

The loss is something that the character regrets. Something about their background or their history has left deep scars, emotional pain.

And the desire -- they want to achieve something, usually to fill in the hole in their own life.

And then he looks at some examples. Sure enough, protagonists seem to have a secret, a wall, loss, and desire.

Now the fun question is, can we turn this around and use it to develop characters? If you're writing a short story or novel, and your character doesn't seem to be quite as interesting as you like, can you take a look at them in terms of these four parts? What is their secret? What is the wall that separates them from the rest of us? What is the loss in their background? What is the desire that is pushing them?

What do you think? Does SWoLD really help in creating characters?

Something fun to think about!