EXERCISE: morning tv challenge?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 20 Dec 2012

Wow. I happened to see a morning tv panel show, and they had a writing challenge! They didn't call it that, but...

First, they showed us a photograph. Pretty simple, and very Japanese. In the picture, the sun shone (or is that shined?) through sliding doors on a small table with a quilted blanket spreading under it. That's a kotatsu, the traditional way to stay warm in the winter. It's a low table, about coffee table height, with the blanket under the top to spread across your legs, and a heater stuck underneath the table, up underneath.

On top of the table was a small bowl, filled with oranges. Actually, probably mikan, which is mandarin oranges, very popular and widely available now. Also, a small teapot, the kind with a straight handle poking out one side and a spout out the other side. Two cups sat on the table, both with a little tea in them.

That was the picture. And the challenge they posed for the watchers was simple, "What's going on here?" Write it up and fax it in. They read a number of titles and descriptions of what people thought, including "we were watching the holiday tv show, but you just have to go to the bathroom sometime!" Which got a laugh from the panel. Or "home for the holidays." Or...

Apparently two people, sitting at the kotatsu, over tea, and eating mikan. Who are they? Where have they gone, leaving full cups sitting on the table? What do you think is going on in this picture?

Write!

FILL: Sticking your neck out?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 22 Dec. 2012

One piece on the TV morning shows was really interesting. They were visiting an art museum somewhere near Aomori, northern Japan. A number of unusual pieces.

The one that caught my attention or maybe my imagination, though, was actually pretty simple. Basically, you stepped into a white room, with a very plain white table sitting in the middle. Beside it there were two plain white chairs pulled back from the table. Sitting on the table was one more white chair. Hanging from the ceiling was a white animal's torso, short flipper-like legs just dangling. Imagine maybe a large rabbit whose neck is embedded in the ceiling, with the rest of his body hanging down. Near the hanging torso, just above the chair on the table, there is a hole in the ceiling, just big enough for someone's shoulders.

You are welcome to climb up on the table, climb up on the chair, and stick your head up through the hole.

When you do, you enter another world. Colored plants, cloudy sky, fog blowing across the glistening water under your chin. And nearby, a strange white head smiles at you, with his eyes closed, eyelids slanting down.

That's the entire piece. The plain white room with the mysterious torso stuck in the ceiling, and the other world, just through the hole.

I didn't hear the name of the work, but I certainly think either "Another world" or "Through the rabbit hole" would be quite appropriate. Even watching on TV, the contrast between the plain white room and blocky white furniture and the exotic world that you could stick your head into was delightful.

EXERCISE: just one little line...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 23 Dec. 2013

Are you ready? All right, here's the line:

The children screamed as they raced down the stairs.

What's behind them? Where are they going? Why? Who are these children, and where are the stairs? Are there adults around? Who is it that is listening and heard the children, and what was he or she doing? What do they do as the children scream?

Go ahead. Imagine that scene, add in details to make it live and breathe. Oh, wooden stairs that drummed and creaked as the children stampeded down them? And there was a smell of... What in the air? Was it day or night, dry, rainy, snowing, frost...

Then write it up! Just think, all over the world, little scenes of children on stairways, playing out their motivations, the events, the actions and reactions...

And it all started with just one line.

TECH: Layering your story

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 27 Dec. 2013

All right. Let's take a look at the process that Mary Robinette Kowal uses to write her stories, as described in two podcasts:

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/12/12/writing-excuses-7-51-brainstorming-with-mary/
http://www.writingexcuses.com/2012/12/09/writing-excuses-7-50-outlining-the-mary-way/

Oddly enough, 7-51 should come first, with 7-50 second, but that's a peculiarity of the release process.

Basically, Mary starts with an quick thumbnail and brainstorming step. This first step, described in 7-51, Brainstorming with Mary, starts with making several thumbnail sketches of ideas. These are just short descriptions of some ideas, a sentence or two long, a paragraph at the most. Make them up, then take a look at them and decide which one grabs you the most, which one interests you, excites you. Take this one, and brainstorm it a little. What are the key elements in the idea? What is the conflict in it? Ending, beginning? What about the stakes involved? Who are the characters, and what is the setting? All right?

The second step is to develop a synopsis, based on the brainstorming. This is where 7-50 picks up. Put the idea together again, and get set for the next step.

Third, draw up an outline. This is mostly a list of the scenes you need to get from here to there. Use bullet points, sentences, a paragraph here and there. Think of this as sketching in the under painting ready for you to expand later.

Fourth, review this. Does each scene move the plot forward? Does it build characters and setting? Ad specifics where needed. Combine, remove, and split up scenes to make it work.

Fifth, if you have multiple POVs, stop and consider who has the most at stake in each scene. Adjust motivations and stakes to suit.

Now, if you are ready, start writing. When you need to make changes, drop back to the outline and consider what changes are need to make it work. Adjust the outline, then write it!

Simple, right? So write!

TECH: Plotting Your Novel

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 29 Dec. 2013

It's time for a moldy oldie! I was cleaning my office and found some of those great Writer's Digest articles that I had pulled out and saved. The pages are turning brown, so it must be time to make up a posting here on writers about them.

Pages 22 to 25 in the September 1995 issue of Writer's Digest has an article by Jack M. Bickham. He starts off talking about organizing the storyline, also known as plotting. Some people just make a list of the major events, other people make up a careful timeline, and some people worry about all the events before the present story. No matter how you tackle putting together your plot, there are three common problems that you may want to try to avoid. First, a story with a timeline that is just too big for an ordinary novel. Second, starting the story without enough dramatic incidents or events planned for inclusion. And third, not really having enough of a plan about how to present the events in the most dramatic way possible.

There are some simple tactics that help with these three issues. First, consider the time span of all the events you have imagined for your novel, and look for the latest possible time that you can start and still get everything major in. Second, keeping in mind this tight time frame, look for new twists, surprises, or even subplots that can make the plot denser and busier. Third, develop a dynamic plan for presenting everything in the most dramatic way possible.

So we want to start late and fast. The trick here is that we almost naturally start digging into the back story, but we really want to start the novel at the beginning -- which is a scary place to start! After all, change is threatening, and yet that is the right place to start your story. Really good novels usually start with a moment of critical change that puts two or more story people in conflict with one another.

How can you pick out something like that? Well, try making a list of all the major happenings or events that you think are going to take place in the story. Now look for one that contains a threatening change. Try laying out a plot that starts there. Everything before that is back story.

Now, you might be tempted to try sneaking it all in as flashbacks. Sometimes a flashback is good. But a lot of the time, it's just an author being lazy. Ask yourself whether the reader really needs to know all the details. Or can you do it in some other way? Remember that flashbacks stop the present story which really plays havoc with that momentum you a trying to build.

Now, you want to make sure that your plot is full of events. Yes, we want to start late, but we want there to be enough going on, enough at stake, enough complexity, enough meaningful stuff happening. You need little incidents, and you need events, happenings that are important because they have impact, and make other things happen. Wherever possible, pick events that the characters initiate.

"How do you facilitate this process? Remember: every major character should have his or her own problem or goal or ax to grind. Each should be motivated, trying to accomplish something. Work to identify clearly in your own mind what these characters' goals and plans are. Have the characters act to accomplish their goals. Each such act is an event, and someone else must respond to it with his or her own -- which in turn becomes a new event for the other character. Move and countermove, event leading to event, keeps the plot proceeding at a fine, hot pace."

Next, Jack recommends using 3 x 5 cards to help lay out your plot. On each card, briefly describe the event. Note what you think will cause that event, and what other events it needs to. In pencil, you can note where you think this event fits in the chronology of your story. Write up all the events that you know about. Then put them in order. You might want to lay them out on a large table. Look for holes in the sequence. Add to your pack of cards. Shift them around.

Before you transfer your outline from the cards to a wall, or a typed up listing or whatever, stop and think about the story question. Readers like to worry. If a major character wants something or needs it, readers are going to make that into a story question. Will the character get what they want? And they interpret most of the events in terms of the questions. So take a look at your cards. Does the first or second have a decision by the major character about a long-term goal?

That's what your reader will say the story question is. So go ahead and write a card stating the question, so that you can make it very clear. Then double check that your other cards relate to this goal and this question. And at the end, there needs to be an event that answers the question. Take a look at the main story question, and at the secondary story questions for the secondary characters.

All right? Figure out where you're going to start, make sure you've got lots of events, figure out the right order for them, and make sure the story question and the story answer are in there. Then write your first draft.

Simple, right? Or is that write?