EXERCISE: Just add stories!

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Original posting May 28, 2014

Here you go. Howard Tayler, writer of Schlock Mercenary, a webcomic (beware! Deep archives!) recently tweeted:

Howard Tayler @howardtayler "I just wrote three strips in a row where the last panel has a dialog bubble that reads "PUNCHLINE HERE, PLZ." It must be Tuesday."

Bradley W. Schenck @Thrilling_Tales responded A: "One sheep in Scotland is white, ON ONE SIDE." B: "No, I just had some ice cream" C: "I meant, we use it to ride into town"

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to take one of those punchlines, and then write a short story leading up to it! Yes, something that makes "One sheep in Scotland is white, ON ONE SIDE." or "No, I just had some ice cream." or "I meant, we use it to ride into town." really suitable finishes for your story.

Some years ago, we had a member who pointed out that Readers Digest short stories are often good for a similar exercise. Take the final paragraph or sentence from the short story, then add your own tale building up to it!

Now go write!
tink

TECH: Writing a Novel in 3 Days?

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Original Posting June 4, 2014

Here's a fun one. Well, I think it looks like fun. Over here

http://www.ghostwoods.com/2010/05/how-to-write-a-book-in-three-days-1210/

There's a blog posting about writing a book in three days! Admittedly, it's based on Michael Moorcock's advice, and he was talking about sword-and-sorcery pulp fiction, running about 60,000 words, but it's still quite an accomplishment. You should read the article, but here's a summary of the technique.

First, get prepared. There's actually a day or two of setup before you sit down and start cranking out the words. He recommends starting with a plot modeled on the Maltese Falcon, or any of several other quest stories that has a lot of people looking for an object. For this formula, you are probably going to have a human hero facing superhuman forces. The hero is fallible, and really doesn't want to get involved, until something grabs him and involves him personally.

Moorcock recommends that you prepare a list of events for every four pages. He suggests a list of coherent images. You need to make a structure of clear demands, with narrative problems and solutions. You want to make a list of fantastic images with deliberate paradoxes. He says that the image comes before the action. The action is largely pursuit of an object in a limited time. Keeping the clock ticking pushes the action.

You want to start with a mystery. And every time you reveal something about it, you want to add to the mysteries.

Take the 60,000 words and divide it into four parts, 15,000 words each. Divide each of those into six chapters. Moorcock says you can scale this up or down, but it will take more time. You should probably shoot for chapters of 2500 words or less. At the beginning of the first section, you want the hero to say, "There's no way I can (save the world, get the golden tablet, or whatever the overall goal is) unless I start by (state the goal of the first section!)" Now we've got a goal for the first section, a limited time to accomplish it, and an overriding goal for the whole book. Each chapter should move the action forward and contribute to the goal. Moorcock recommends simple chapters, with a problem, and a solution. He also points out that the first part should introduce all the major characters and themes. The second and third parts develop the characters, themes, and problems. The fourth part? Guess what, that resolves everything.

Michael Moorcock recommended using Lester Dent's master plot. You may have heard of Lester Dent as Kenneth Robeson, or perhaps you've heard of Doc Savage? Basically, Lester recommends a simple approach.

1. Start by making a list of characters. Give each of them a name and some sort of a tag.
2. Now devise a different murder method, a different thing to be sought, a different locale, and/or a different menace to the hero. One of these is good, two is better, and at least three is fine.
3. Follow the master plot. Four parts:
– 1. In the first line, introduce the hero and hit him with a bunch of problems. Hint at the mystery, the menace, or the problem to be solved. In this section, the hero tries to deal with the problems. You introduce all of the characters with action. Near the end of this section, let the hero get into a physical conflict. And provide a complete surprise twist to the plot at the end of the section. This section needs suspense, menace, and a logical flow. Incidentally, whenever there is action, the hero should also learn something.
– 2. Hit the hero with more problems. The hero struggling with the problems leads to another physical conflict. And yet another surprise plot twist at the end of the section. This section needs suspense, menace, they hero getting in more trouble, and a logical flow.
– 3. Pile on more trouble. The hero should get the villain cornered, just in time for a physical conflict. Plus, one more surprise plot twist. And again, the section should provide suspense, looming menace, things getting worse for the hero, and a logical flow.
– 4. More trouble for the hero, who is almost buried, just before the hero pulls himself out of the problems with his own skills, knowledge, and abilities. In this section, you should clear up mysteries, with one final twist and a big surprise at the end. The final punchline should leave the reader satisfied.

So there you go. The interesting thing is that yes, it's formulaic, and yet it really isn't. Here are a couple of pulp fiction writers, and they are both focusing on characters! Yes, they are talking about events and images and a driving pace, but even so, it's really a story about the characters more than the plot.

I think. What do you think? Could you write a book in 3 days? How about 30 days -- just 2,000 words a day?

EXERCISE: Background Setting

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Original Posting June 12, 2014

Most of the writing advice stresses that we need to have character, plot, and setting. However, most of the attention goes to character and plot. Who's doing what? However, setting also plays into things. For example, Little House on the Prairie would be very different if it was really Little House on Times Square. So...

Take a couple or three characters. Imagine them having a vigorous discussion -- an argument -- about what they should do next. And...

Try putting that discussion and those characters in several different settings. A coffee shop, a crowded airplane, a taxi, a library, the backwoods of Alaska, whatever you like, put it there and show us how the setting, the characters, and the action work together. For one thing, the same people shouting at each other in a library or in a crowded intersection are likely to get somewhat different reactions from the people around them.

All right? Write!

EXERCISE: News That Changes Things

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Original Posting June 16, 2014

I had an odd dream the other morning. In it, apparently I walked up behind a woman who was typing on a console in a crowded computer room. I said, "Excuse me." She turned around and said, "Hi, I'm Charlotte. Karl told me to come in. Where is he?" I said, "There was a fight, and he was shot. He's dead." That's where I woke up.

I don't remember any Charlotte or Karl nor do I really recognize the computer room. But it left me thinking about the question of how do you pass on news, especially news that changes things? Do you have characters just blurt it out, the way I did in the dream? Or do they try to soften it somehow?

So go ahead and set up a confrontation where one character has some important news to give to the other character. Death, birth, lost at sea, whatever you like. Put that confrontation in a setting, and walk us through it. Your choice as to which point of view, the person with the news, the person getting the news, or perhaps that wonderful omniscient point of view that knows all and sees all?

There you go. Write?

EXERCISE: What happened before, and after?

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Original Posting June 24, 2014

The woman stood in the empty office, looking at the man who had come in. He glanced around, then took a step forward. He stared at her. Then he said, "About last night..." He stopped and swallowed. "I just wanted to say... I'm sorry. Please forget it." He bowed, then turned and walked out. The door clicked shut behind him.

She stared at the door for a long moment. Then she said, "Forget it? What does that mean?"

This was the cliffhanger ending of a recent episode, and also the beginning segment of the next episode, on a show currently running here in Japan.

Here's your task, should you choose to accept it. First, imagine what happened last night. Go ahead and make it whatever you like. Now write up that scene, with the two (and any other characters, or whatever).

Next, toss in this scene -- with the apology and request to forget whatever happened last night. Feel free to elaborate.

And then... tell us what happens next! Go ahead, lay out the sequel, the emotional response, the consideration of what to do next, the decision, and the start of the next action-packed scene...

All right? What happened before this, and what happens next.

Write!

EXERCISE: What did he put in the trunk?

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Originally Posted July 20, 2014

It's summer doldrums time, isn't it? But... Let's see what we can find...

Hum. The tv had a dramatic replay of a real incident about two years ago, here in Japan. Imagine that you are a somewhat bored taxi driver, cruising around in the evening. It is almost the end of your shift, but you decide to take one more fare. A young man comes up, carrying a large duffle bag in his arms. He loads it into the trunk, with your help.

As you drive towards the train station, you wonder. The newspaper headlines were about a young man kidnapping a young woman. But... Then as you are driving, you hear a strange noise. That sounded like a zipper. You glance in the rear view mirror, and see that your fare has fallen asleep, and isn't moving. So where is the zipper? It almost sounded like it was coming from the trunk...

What do you do? That's the exercise -- write up that beginning, then go ahead and tell us what happens next.

For those who are interested, in the actual case, apparently the taxi driver decided to turn and drive to a nearby police station. On the way, stopped at a light, he heard a young woman calling to be let out. The taxi driver turned and yelled at the young man, who got out of the car and started to run, but the taxi driver jumped out and caught him, shoving him back into the taxi. The taxi driver got a passerby to open the trunk while he held onto the young man, and a sixth grade girl got out.

There you go,
Write!