TECH: Aha, the premise!

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Original Posting March 2, 2015

I was poking around the other day on the web, and stumbled across this article

http://www.writermag.com/2013/09/01/how-to-structure-a-premise-for-stronger-stories/

Apparently it's from The Writer, September 1, 2013. By Jeff Lyons.

Basically, he's suggesting that before you start writing, you do some story premise development. Here's the five steps that he recommends (although you should read the article for details):

1. Identify the core structure of your story.

I like this sentence "For our purposes, a story is defined as a metaphor for a journey that leads to change, as played out by the dynamic interdependence of character and plot." Then he goes on to identify seven structural components needed for every story:

-- Character: who is the protagonist?
-- Constriction: what problem squeezes the protagonist? How does it trigger action?
-- Desire: what does the protagonist want?
-- Focal relationship: who is the protagonist talking with, who is their attention on?
-- Resistance: not just internal constriction, what is the external opposition? Who is this?
-- Adventure/chaos: entropy means everything falls apart. What happens in your story?
-- Change: how does the protagonist change?

2. Do you have a story? Or just a situation?

Situations are problems or predicaments with obvious solutions, that just test problem-solving skills without revealing character. Situations have very few subplots, twists, or complications. Finally, situations begin and end with the same emotional charge.

3. Map the core structure to the anatomy of a premise line.

Here's the template: [When] some event sparks a character to action, that [character acts] with deliberate purpose [until] that action is opposed by an external force [leading to] some conclusion.

The When clause grows out of the character and constriction. What gets the character started? You may not have an inciting incident, but what would push this person to begin an adventure?

The Character Acts clause comes out of the desire and focal relationship. Who does the protagonist work with, what are they trying to achieve?

The Until clause is based on resistance and adventure/chaos. Who is going to get in the way and what happens?

The Leading to clause is built on that change.

4. Finalize the premise line. Clean it up.

5. Test the premise line with objective readers.

Run it by some trusted readers. Get their feedback. Is it a whole story? Is it exciting?

Incidentally, Jeff points out that sometimes you do just write about a situation. And if you want to do that, go ahead and do it. "Situations entertain us; stories entertain and teach us what it means to be human."

The exercise to go with this? Well, obviously, take a story you are working on, or even one you are thinking about, and walk through at least the first four steps. Think about the seven components, check whether you have a situation or a story, lay out that premise line, and tidy it up. For bonus points, go ahead and post your premise for critique!

Write.

EXERCISE: Just a TV commercial?

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Original Posting March 13, 2015

I hadn't seen these before, but take a click over here

http://www.values.com/inspirational-stories-tv-spots

and click on one. Homer Loyalty, or maybe Hallway Forgiveness? Or...

Now get out a tissue and blow your nose.

Think about it. How did they tell that story? Why is it so effective?

And can you write a story using that theme? How would you change it? Where would you set it, who would be in your story, how would it start, how would it end? And then what happened...

Heck, for a quick practice exercise, play one, then write that story! Yes, show us in words the TV commercial you just watched. Translating from visual media to written is always fun!

Yeah, you know, write!

EXERCISE: Look what turned up where?

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Original Posting March 25, 2015

All right. I'm playing with a new random writing challenge spreadsheet. Right now, it only has a few parts while I think about it, but I thought I would give you a chance... so pick a number from one to five, okay? Got it? Here's what you chose!

1. My life changed forever when I got an AI robot in an Amazon delivery box.
2. When I found an alien pet in the trash, I knew I was in trouble.
3. When the old key turned up in my car, it was the start of a real adventure.
4. The bloody knife in the bathroom changed everything.
5. I'll never know who left the money on my doorstep, but that was the day my life changed.

There you go. The key here is the (thing) in the (place). Feel free to rearrange, mutilate, spindle, fold, or whatever, but write a little bit starting with that seed, okay?

Write!

EXERCISE: Translating from the visual into writing

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting March 27, 2015

Start by picking one of those big action scenes, a visual bit from a movie or TV show that you like. Anna tossing her coat and raising a palace of ice? Or what about... Whatever you like. It could be a small scene, just ordering dinner from the waitress. But make sure that it is largely a visual scene. One where we enjoy the rich background of Mos Eisley Cantina, or perhaps the big blue sky over Texas? And where we get some good strong action, a fistfight, someone riding a wild pumpkin, or something like that.

Now, tell that story in words. Remember, no music, no background setting, just word after word.

Assume that your reader has not seen the show, so you can't just rely on referencing it, reminding them of what they saw. Instead, show them in words what the scene is, who is there, what they are doing, and what happens. Tell them in words what they would hear.

Turn the visual experience that you had into writing. It's good practice!

Write.

EXERCISE: College Application Essay Prompts?

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Original Posting April 2, 2015

Over here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-benedict/common-app-college-essay-prompts-they-re-here_b_6984710.html

Elizabeth Benedict provides us with five prompts from the Common Application organization. They look kind of intriguing?

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Something special about you? Sure...

2. The lessons we take from failure can be fundamental to later success. Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Bouncing back from failure? Or the underdog succeeds tale? Or just lessons learned from failing? Go for it!

3. Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? 

Aha! Speaking out, challenging the status quo, I did it my way! What a story!

4. Describe a problem you've solved or a problem you'd like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma-anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.

Yes! The sine qua non of research and learning, tackling a problem, gathering data, and reaching some kind of conclusions. Process...

5. Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

Life changes, and how did you get through them? Lots of tales to be told.

So we've got uniqueness, dealing with failure, challenging, problem-solving, and transitions.

For bonus points, compare that with your favorite list of stories and see how well they match up. Or what's missing? If you were going to propose one more essay question to add to the list, what would it be?

Write!

TECH: YouTube Video #1?

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Interesting. I was talking with a friend about finding material on the Internet, and they made some comment about being able to find all kinds of useful videos on YouTube. I'm not a big YouTube viewer, but I thought, "What the heck, let's see what we find." So I plugged in "writing fiction ideas" as a search term, and... flash of light, bang of thunder... found a whole list of bits and pieces. Here's my transcript of the first one (and notes at the end).

tink

http://youtu.be/rWNDpXqo-Ik

Writing Fiction & Poetry: How to Generate Short Story Ideas
By David M. Harris

How do we find the idea for a short story? Not one that's already written, but one that we want to write ourselves? Well, one thing we can do is read a good book about writing short stories such as this one, Creating Short Fiction by Damon Knight, which happens to be my favorite of the books that will help you to write.

But we're not just looking for a story that happens to be short. It has to have the beginning, the middle, and the end. The easiest way to sum it up is really that you have a person... And whether that person is an alien or a bunny rabbit or a human being, it doesn't matter, it's still a person... Who has a problem and strives to solve that problem and doesn't necessarily succeed.

We can have a short story in which the protagonist fails, but learns something nonetheless. That learning is enough of a triumph, enough of a victory for the reader to be satisfied. The protagonist doesn't have to be satisfied, the reader has to be satisfied.

So we either succeed or fail, presumably fail nobly, fail meaningfully, and the protagonist should be changed in some way. Change is what we are always looking for in a piece of writing, on a good piece of writing. Something is going to change.

Ideally, what you have is at least two ideas going on at the same time. Damon Knight talks about the intersection of two ideas, bringing together two perhaps unrelated ideas and seeing how they will both affect your story.

In a number of classic short stories, for example, in The Hills Like White Elephants, you have two people who are waiting for a train and they're drinking quite a lot and they're evading the issue that they are really needing to discuss. We don't even know what their final decision is. The man picks up their bags and puts them by one of the train tracks to go someplace, but we don't know in which direction they wind up going. So we have their intersection with the landscape, their intersection with their problem, their intersection with their apparent drinking problem. All of those things going on together, and it is where they mesh that would create the interesting short story.

---------------

My notes: Not particularly deep, but I do see two basic ideas here. First is the framework or the description of story as being a person with a problem, their efforts to overcome or resolve the problem, and their success or failure. Part of the key here is realizing that the external story, the problem, striving, and success or failure, also has an internal component, the learning or change in the person. That's really what we want to read about, is the reaction of the person, not just the ricocheting events.

Which brings us to the second idea, that of two intersecting ideas. Don't depend on just one idea, get yourself a couple of ideas and let them run into each other! That's what gives your story the richness and echoes, is the intersection of ideas.

EXERCISE: You're calling 911 from where?

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Original Posting April 17, 2015

One of the Japanese TV programs just had a dramatic re-enactment of a strange situation. Imagine being a 911 operator, and you get a call from a guy who says he's in the back of a trash truck, and they are compressing the trash!

How did he get there? Well, he's a homeless guy living in Chicago, it was cold, and he climbed into a dumpster to get warm, and then fell asleep. He only woke up when the dumpster got dumped into the back, and he's stuck under a heavy load. He knows where the dumpster was, but he doesn't know where they are now because the truck is moving.

In this case, the police started stopping every trash truck they found, and indeed, they managed to save the guy.

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to imagine where else someone might be calling 911 from? How did they get there? And what do the cops, firemen, or emergency workers of your choice do in response?

Go ahead, tell us all about it!

Write!

EXERCISE: A Headline To Start?

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Original Posting April 23, 2015

Over here

http://www.powtoon.com/blog/91-headline-formulas/

Powtoon, which combines powerpoint and cartoons, provides a long, long list of possible formulas for awesome headlines. Now, it's intended for business folks, but...

The five principles -- address your specific audience, highlight a specific benefit or outcome they desire, highlight a specific pain they want to avoid, create curiosity, and add urgency -- certainly sound like things that any fiction piece could use, too!

So what might we stumble over? Let's take a look at the first ten (with a bit of hero thrown in, for fun...)

1. A little mistake that cost your hero five years of their life?
2. The fortune hidden in your hero's closet?
3. How your hero saved the day with a bucket of cream?
4. Is your hero still wearing suspenders?
5. There are three kinds of heroes in the inner city -- which one is your hero?
6. To people who want to save the day, but can't get started...
7. The crimes we commit against our heroes?
8. These five heroes tried to beat the Joker, see what happened?
9. The death of barbarian heroes!
10. How one word can make your hero stop.

Whoa! Take those formulas, chunk a character or event from your story in there, and see what they inspire. That's the first 10 of 91, and he has links to other sources of formulas.

Just to stir up your writing!