EXERCISE: Pick a Prompt!

[mbarker]

Original Posting: 5/20/2019

I was watching a quiz show recently, and they showed a whole sequence of manga pictures and asked the panel what the sound was to go with each one of them! They had a lot of fun trying to guess the appropriate sound effects, which in manga style are written across the picture. Kind of like the old Batman TV show, BIFF! BAM! and so forth? Anyway, I grabbed some of the situations and thought you might like to use them as one line writing prompts.

So, pick a number from 1 to 6. You may roll a die (that's the singular of dice you know) if you want to do that. Then look at which one you picked, and... WRITE!

1. As she stood with the valentine's day card in her hands, with him standing around the corner, her heart jumped, "Dokidoki."

2. As the arrow whistled into the apple on his head, the son couldn't help but give a small shout.

3. As the ghost climbed out of the well beside them, his girlfriend grabbed him with a screech.

4. As his hand went through the paper on the bamboo screen covering the window, he heard the ripping, shook his head, and groaned. The hotel was going to charge him extra for that!

5. As the egg cooked in the frying pan, everyone heard the sizzle and licked their lips.

6. As the lightning forked down from the sky around them, their ears were battered by the crack as it sank into the tree beside them.

There you go. Just a little hint of a scene. Who are the people, what's going on? What happened leading up to this, and what happens next? Go ahead, tell us all about it.

tink
 

TECH: Telling Stories within Your Stories (moldy oldie)

[mbarker]

Original Posting 5/27/2019

Writer's Digest, January 1994, on pages 44-46 has an article by Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet talking about anecdotes. As the subtitle says, "Anecdotes told by one character to another are an effective means of accomplishing a host of storytelling objectives."

 

They start out by recounting part of Jaws, when Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss are waiting for the great white shark to attack, and Shaw tells a war story. Even while it lets us the viewers catch our breath, it adds to the tension. Now, having characters tell anecdotes to other characters is fairly common in stories, on paper, stage, and movies. So, how can you add this tool to your toolbox? Why would you want to? Well, it at least provides variety, right? But it also has a number of other advantages.

 

First, it helps you deliver information. Sure, writers may get away with infodumping, but playwrights and others usually dramatize information. Even little stories about other characters can help with this.

 

Second, anecdotes are engaging for the audience! Show, right? Well, anecdotes make things very clear. "In short, the more your audience can picture what's happening (instead of trying to decipher abstractions), and the more they wonder about what's going on, the more involved though be in your story." Simple, right?

 

Third, anecdotes often are used to illustrate themes. "An effective means of simplifying a difficult concept is to create a narrative that dramatizes your story's major insights." These anecdotes "translate complex ideas into more easily understood situations, characters, and actions."

 

Fourth, anecdotes can deepen characterization. Readers need insight into characters, and a well constructed anecdote can give them that insight. Often, they can explain motivation.

 

Fifth, anecdotes can save words. You can accomplish multiple goals. Exposition, engaging the audience, characterization, and theme? All in a short anecdote.

 

So, what if you wanted to let your audience in on a character's motivation for a dream? Well, you could just describe it, perhaps in a flashback. But you want to emphasize it, so, think about dramatizing it. When one character tells another character about something, that anecdote gets a little extra polish. They provide an example in their article. Engagement, exposition, theme, characterization, all compressed into a few words. Not bad!

 

Now, to make the-story-within-the-story most effective, use it sparingly. If a short story has four or five anecdotes, people are likely to notice. You can vary the presentation, picking a different speaker and listener, and maybe changing the length. Remember that the anecdotes don't have to be autobiographical every time, for that matter, they don't have to be about humans. The old stories about animals may be just the right anecdote for your story. Do try to have your anecdotes serve multiple functions. It's not just content. "The fact that a character chooses to tell a story, how he relates it, and to whom he tells it can all divulge something about the teller."

 

So, kind of like the cream filling in an Oreo, think about adding a-story-within-a-story, an anecdote, to your story! Where can it add just the right touch?

 

tink

TECH: Meet "The Beat" (Moldie oldie!) (580 words)

[mbarker]

Original Posting 5/31/2019

 

Writer's Digest, May 1993, pages 30-34 and 50, have an article by Renni Browne and Dave King with the title Meet "The Beat." But, what kind of a beat do they mean? They actually start with a chunk of dialogue, that they tighten up by removing some mechanics. What they call beats. "Beats are the little bits of action interspersed through a scene, such as a character walking to a window or removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes – the literary equivalent of what is known in the theater as stage business." Physical gestures, or sometimes internal monologue. "Beats enable your readers to picture the action in a scene, allow you to vary the rhythm of the dialogue, and help reveal your character's personalities."

 

They're useful, but it's easy to get carried away. Too many beats can damage the flow, which is what they are showing us with their first example. Even interesting and well-written beats can be irritating.

 

Sometimes authors overuse beats because they're not sure that the dialogue really carries the story. As usual, don't go too far. Give your readers some hints, but allow them to fill in blanks. To put enough beats in to anchor the dialogue. You need to balance dialogue and beats.

 

So, how do you figure out when to include a beat. Give your readers enough detail so they can picture the action, but leave them free to imagine some parts of it. Also, use beats to vary the rhythm. High tension, keep the beats minimal. Relaxing a bit, and in some beats. Sometimes a continued action in steps actually helps support the dialogue. Try reading it aloud, and see if the pauses need a little beat.

 

Also, beats defined characters. See if you can use a beat to help do that.

 

Do be careful about pointless, distracting, clichéd, and repetitive beats. Try to make your beats fresh and unique.

 

How do you find beats? Keep your eyes open. Seriously, watch people. What do they do? Watch movies and TV? Of course, you might dig them out as your reading. Both good ones and bad ones!

 

So, you might use beats to turn up the tension, or to provide breathing space in a tense scene. Sometimes they do both.

 

So, think about your beats. Try not to have too many or too few, but just the right ones!

 

For me, at least, thinking about it as stage business seems like the easiest approach. Your characters are busy talking on the stage in your mind. Now, are they doing things at the same time? Are they things that you want the reader to know about, or are they just the ordinary stuff that the reader is going to imagine anyway? Sure, big Jim just pulled a knife out of his pocket and started cleaning his fingernails as he says, "Are you sure you want to do that?" You don't have to mention it, but… It does add a little bit to the menace of the scene.

 

Go ahead, get with the beat. Or maybe it's "the beat goes on..."?

 

There's a checklist on page 33 that you might want to use:

1. How many beats do you have? How often does it interrupt?

2. What are your beats describing? Everyday actions?

3. How often do you repeat a beat?

4. Do your beats illuminate your characters? Are they individual?

5. Do your beats fit the rhythm of your dialogue? Read it aloud to check!

 

tink