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writercisesOriginal Posting Oct. 10, 2016
All right! While you probably won't want to use this as a way to revise your story during Nanowrimo, you can certainly use these ideas to help get yourself set and ready, and even to spark some excitement while writing, writing, writing during Nano! Sound like a plan?
Writer's Digest, March 2003, pages 38-41, had an article with the title Your 6-Step Storytelling Workout by Steven James. He suggests that using these six steps will give your story punch, power, and poignancy! Oooo... Ready?
1. Crystallize characters!
Steven starts with a short anecdote about an acting conference, where a director said, "Every time a character steps on stage, he wants something. To develop your character, figure out what he wants while he's onstage."
Simple, right? Why is this character here? What they want? How far will they go to get it? MOTIVATION! Yes!
What does this character want?
Hum... Steven says "At the heart of every story is a character who faces a struggle and makes a discovery." So... who is that character?
2. Intensify struggles.
Steven talks about teaching children to write. He doesn't ask them to write about their vacations, that's boring. He tells them, "You don't have a story until something goes wrong. Tell me about something that went wrong over vacation." And stories pour out!
What is the struggle of your main character? What are they trying to achieve, overcome, or accomplish?
Note, Steven recommends struggles, intimate and personal, rather than conflicts, external and distant. Make the struggle deeper, richer, don't just add conflicts. Then show how facing that struggle transforms the character.
Personal, emotional, hard to overcome. Escalate those problems, make the setbacks serious, and the dangers bad and closeup.
3. Hint at emotions.
Here's where you need to be subtle. Don't worry, an interesting character busting themselves in an intriguing struggle is going to bring out emotion. But you, as writer, don't want to be bashing the reader over the head with telling them about it. Hint!
Get the reader to identify with the characters, get them to feel the struggles, then let them ride along. Action, dialogue, and body language, don't just tell us about it.
4. Clarify discoveries.
Beginning, middle, end? Well, how about origination, muddle, resolution? The beginning originates everything that follows. The middle is the central struggle. And the ending? That's the culminating event, the big climax, surprising and yet inevitable.
"What makes a story worth telling is the causal relationship of events that produces a change in the condition or circumstances of the main character.… Stories reveal the transformation of characters or situations."
Make the revelation or discovery by the character clear!
5. Muddy the choices.
Choose the right thing or the wrong thing? Too easy. Make your character choose between two right things! Dilemmas, situations that demand the character be in two places at once, choose between two promises, or otherwise figure out which pile of straw to go to.
Internal struggles with all the choices there, and external struggles with tasks. Play them off against each other, and look for "a moment of realization when a choice from the outer story helps the main character overcome her inner struggle."
Highlight those moments of decision! Raise the ante! Life or death consequences! Make your reader wonder what's going to happen!
6. Ratchet up the action.
"The more personal the struggle and the more impending the danger, the more suspenseful the story." Make sure you introduce the central struggle early.
Keep the pace moving. Watch for long flashbacks, dialogue that doesn't move the story forward, and getting stuck in one scene for too long. Movement, contrast, action, suspense… Keep the reader interested.
Rising tension, more and more action. Always add a new struggle before you resolve an existing one.
Motivate your characters, make them struggle, hint at emotions, bring out those decisions and discoveries, make the choices hard, and crank up the action! Keep your stories working!
There is a sidebar on page 40 labeled creativity starter. It's got one exercise for each of these points! Here we go!
1. Characters. Select a character from your story. Write a scene that shows your character's personality through his actions.
2. Struggles. Take a key external conflict in your story and make it more personal. Brainstorm possible internal struggles that the characters affected by the conflict could simultaneously face. Make a list. Consider both the antagonist and the protagonist.
3. Emotions. Word choice is key to expressing how your characters feel. Practice the art of subtlety. Describe your character waking up in the morning. Do not tell us how she feels. Show us through descriptive words.
4. Discoveries. Stories shouldn't just end, they should reveal. Whether you've completed your story or not, you should consider the final resolutions – for the conflict and the characters. Articulate what transformations your ending will unveil.
5. Choices. The difference between right and wrong is often a fine line. List the pivotal choices that occur in your story, and brainstorm elements you could add to gray the distinction between right and wrong.
6. Action. Peruse your story and find a long section of boring exposition. Spice up the action by rewriting the scene as dialogue or having it take place in a new location.
There you go! Obviously some of this is aimed at revisions more than initial writing or preparation for writing, but I think there are parts of it that can help you get ready for nanowrimo, or even add some spice during Nanowrimo. I mean, can you imagine getting stuck during nanowrimo, and running down this list of ideas or creativity starters, just to get your writing going again? I certainly can!
tink
All right! While you probably won't want to use this as a way to revise your story during Nanowrimo, you can certainly use these ideas to help get yourself set and ready, and even to spark some excitement while writing, writing, writing during Nano! Sound like a plan?
Writer's Digest, March 2003, pages 38-41, had an article with the title Your 6-Step Storytelling Workout by Steven James. He suggests that using these six steps will give your story punch, power, and poignancy! Oooo... Ready?
1. Crystallize characters!
Steven starts with a short anecdote about an acting conference, where a director said, "Every time a character steps on stage, he wants something. To develop your character, figure out what he wants while he's onstage."
Simple, right? Why is this character here? What they want? How far will they go to get it? MOTIVATION! Yes!
What does this character want?
Hum... Steven says "At the heart of every story is a character who faces a struggle and makes a discovery." So... who is that character?
2. Intensify struggles.
Steven talks about teaching children to write. He doesn't ask them to write about their vacations, that's boring. He tells them, "You don't have a story until something goes wrong. Tell me about something that went wrong over vacation." And stories pour out!
What is the struggle of your main character? What are they trying to achieve, overcome, or accomplish?
Note, Steven recommends struggles, intimate and personal, rather than conflicts, external and distant. Make the struggle deeper, richer, don't just add conflicts. Then show how facing that struggle transforms the character.
Personal, emotional, hard to overcome. Escalate those problems, make the setbacks serious, and the dangers bad and closeup.
3. Hint at emotions.
Here's where you need to be subtle. Don't worry, an interesting character busting themselves in an intriguing struggle is going to bring out emotion. But you, as writer, don't want to be bashing the reader over the head with telling them about it. Hint!
Get the reader to identify with the characters, get them to feel the struggles, then let them ride along. Action, dialogue, and body language, don't just tell us about it.
4. Clarify discoveries.
Beginning, middle, end? Well, how about origination, muddle, resolution? The beginning originates everything that follows. The middle is the central struggle. And the ending? That's the culminating event, the big climax, surprising and yet inevitable.
"What makes a story worth telling is the causal relationship of events that produces a change in the condition or circumstances of the main character.… Stories reveal the transformation of characters or situations."
Make the revelation or discovery by the character clear!
5. Muddy the choices.
Choose the right thing or the wrong thing? Too easy. Make your character choose between two right things! Dilemmas, situations that demand the character be in two places at once, choose between two promises, or otherwise figure out which pile of straw to go to.
Internal struggles with all the choices there, and external struggles with tasks. Play them off against each other, and look for "a moment of realization when a choice from the outer story helps the main character overcome her inner struggle."
Highlight those moments of decision! Raise the ante! Life or death consequences! Make your reader wonder what's going to happen!
6. Ratchet up the action.
"The more personal the struggle and the more impending the danger, the more suspenseful the story." Make sure you introduce the central struggle early.
Keep the pace moving. Watch for long flashbacks, dialogue that doesn't move the story forward, and getting stuck in one scene for too long. Movement, contrast, action, suspense… Keep the reader interested.
Rising tension, more and more action. Always add a new struggle before you resolve an existing one.
Motivate your characters, make them struggle, hint at emotions, bring out those decisions and discoveries, make the choices hard, and crank up the action! Keep your stories working!
There is a sidebar on page 40 labeled creativity starter. It's got one exercise for each of these points! Here we go!
1. Characters. Select a character from your story. Write a scene that shows your character's personality through his actions.
2. Struggles. Take a key external conflict in your story and make it more personal. Brainstorm possible internal struggles that the characters affected by the conflict could simultaneously face. Make a list. Consider both the antagonist and the protagonist.
3. Emotions. Word choice is key to expressing how your characters feel. Practice the art of subtlety. Describe your character waking up in the morning. Do not tell us how she feels. Show us through descriptive words.
4. Discoveries. Stories shouldn't just end, they should reveal. Whether you've completed your story or not, you should consider the final resolutions – for the conflict and the characters. Articulate what transformations your ending will unveil.
5. Choices. The difference between right and wrong is often a fine line. List the pivotal choices that occur in your story, and brainstorm elements you could add to gray the distinction between right and wrong.
6. Action. Peruse your story and find a long section of boring exposition. Spice up the action by rewriting the scene as dialogue or having it take place in a new location.
There you go! Obviously some of this is aimed at revisions more than initial writing or preparation for writing, but I think there are parts of it that can help you get ready for nanowrimo, or even add some spice during Nanowrimo. I mean, can you imagine getting stuck during nanowrimo, and running down this list of ideas or creativity starters, just to get your writing going again? I certainly can!
tink
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