EXERCISE: A word, indeed...

[mbarker]

Original posting Jan. 17, 2018

This is one that a professor in Boulder, Colorado used to suggest as a prompt for a short story. Basically, flip through the dictionary and pick out one of those unusual words, the ones that you don’t see used much at all. Read the definition, think about it, and then...

Put your story together, including your unusual word, in such a way that the way it is used, the characters’ actions, the context shows what the word means, without ever explicitly defining it. Imply the meaning, so that the reader can figure it out, just from the way you have used it!

The professor passed out 3x5 cards with words on them for us to use. I still remember that my word was incunabulum. I won’t subject you to my story, but it did manage to convey that some people prize having a book from before the printing press, without ever being quite that blatant about it. It was a lot of fun, too!

So, there’s your task. Flip through the dictionary, pick an unusual word out, and then... use it in your short story so that we understand it from the context.

Might take a look at http://www.dictionary.com — the word of the day often is pretty unusual, although I don’t see any easy way to flip through the pages online? 

Write!

TECH: Say What? (Moldy oldie one more time!)

[mbarker]

Original Posting Jan. 19, 2018

Writer's Digest, April 1994, had an article by Nancy Kress on pages eight, 10, 11, with the title, "Say What?" The subtitle explains a little bit more, "To make your dialogue sound natural, make it artificial." Nancy starts out by comparing great beauty in art with nature – guess what, art isn't nearly as natural as nature! And dialogue in writing is one of the places where what we write and what we might hear just don't quite line up. In particular, Nancy points to four key differences.

First, good dialogue is artificially concise. Repetition, interruptions, stuttering, almost funny ums and ohs, it all goes away. Written dialogue is edited. The repetitions, side trips, and all that just disappears. "Edited dialogue is… More informative, concise, and detailed than natural speech." It's the way we wish we sounded, not the way we really sound.

But, not too artificial. It needs to convince the reader. Watch out for too stilted (no contractions, too many multisyllable Latin words, and so forth…). Too informative? As you know, dialogue that explains too much is hard to believe. Too concise. Yes, perfect short statements are good for fortune cookies, but not necessarily for dialogue.

Next, good dialogue is emotional. When people are really talking, a lot of it is nonverbal. Tone of voice, inflections, facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, where you're looking and all of that. In writing dialogue, we don't get all of that. You can include a little bit in your action tags and speech tags. But you may need to jazz up the words! Make sure the emotion comes through the talking. A bit theatrical, but… Good dialogue.

Finally, dialogue needs to be individual. These are characters, and you want what they say to reflect them. Yes, a lot of talk is generic. But try to make your written dialogue "differentiate characters and make them individual." As usual, don't overdo this. Sometimes people do just say, "Which way did they go?" But… Check your dialogue. Can you interchange who said it without any problems? Try for diction, rhythm, individual insights.

"Writing dialogue is a balancing act. Good dialogue is artificially concise – but not too concise. It's artificially informative – but not implausibly so. It's consistently interesting – except for the occasional brief break to discuss mundane topics that establish verisimilitude. It's emotional and individual – but not so much of either that it becomes parody. How do you learn this balancing act? The same way you learn everything else about writing – through reading authors you admire, and through practice, practice, practice."

So there you go. If you want to practice, well, take some dialogue and work with it. You can always take some actual speech and transform it into written dialogue for story. Or perhaps take the same exchange, and rewrite it for different characters, different setting, different situations? We often talk about writing sketches as a way to practice writing – you can do dialogue sketches almost anytime, and anywhere.

Just write.

EXERCISE: The Victor Appleton Challenge?

[mbarker]

 Original Posting Jan. 20, 2018

I was thinking about starting an outline for a story, and happened to think of this exercise. I guess I’d call it either the Victor Appleton Challenge, or maybe the Tom Swift challenge. I don’t know if you are familiar with the Tom Swift series, either the older ones or the Tom Swift, Jr. ones that I grew up with, but according to what I have heard, they were all written under a house name by various writers, following standard plots provided by the house. So if you were to write a Tom Swift book, the publishing house would provide an outline, you would write it and get paid, and then... it would be published with the author Victor Appleton!

So, the exercise. It comes in two parts.

First, well, what if you (that’s right, you!) were to take a story — short story, novel, movie, anime, song, poetry, whatever story you like and know pretty well — and put together an outline for us. Include whatever you think is important, genre, setting, characters, events, and so forth, but in outline form! Do whatever level of detail you think is needed. Now post that, right here on the list.

Second, of course, would be when you (yep, you! The other one!) take that outline that someone has posted here on the list, and you write a story based on it. Feel free to ask questions if necessary, but mostly, take that outline, and develop your story from it. You may need to add some things, you may want to shift the genre, setting, characters, and so forth a bit, but... try to make it somewhat related, okay? Again, post your response right here on the list.

You might label the first part OUTLINE and the second part RESPONSE to make it easy for us to put them together?

There we go! Two exercises for the price of one! You do the outline, and you write a story from that outline. Go for it!

Write!

EXERCISE: If they let them out...

[mbarker]

 Original posting Jan. 26, 2018

Oddly, this started with a dream. In my dream, I was sitting in a town council meeting (no, I am not now or ever have been on a town council. I have been a reporter covering them...). Anyway, one of the members looked around and said, "Someone bought the old Wilson place. They say they are going to reform it." Several people shook their head, and another member said, "If they let them out again..." At which point, someone nodded and said, "We have to stop them!" Which is where I woke up.

Okay? So, your job, if you feel up to it, is simple. Just take this little sketch, and expand it. Where is this town? Who is in the meeting? Who has bought the old Wilson place? And, of course, who or what do the council members fear will be released if someone reforms the place? And what will happen?

Of course, you should feel free to go ahead and finish your story. Do the ghosts (werewolves, vampires, aliens, podpeople, who is it?) take over the world? How do the council members explain why the stranger shouldn't reform the old place?

Go for it!