EXERCISE: Warming UP! (450 words)
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writercises Original Posting March 16, 2018
Okay, let's consider tackling that six-weeks, six stories, from a slightly different slant! Suppose, as you look at it, that you would really rather tie everything together, instead of having six shooting stars? Well, in that case, maybe you could take something like... hum, how about this.
1. Setup (what's life like for our hero?)
2. The call and refusing the call (hey, there's something that needs doing? But not me, I'll let the cops, the government, somebody else take care of it!)
3. First doorway of no return (the pinch, the kick in the butt that sends the hero out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary?)
4. Complications, conflicts, try-fail cycles...
5. Second doorway of no return (another pinch, a twist, the decision that the hero makes that pushes us into...)
6. Climax
Or another of the beat sheets, plot points, or whatever? Blake Snyder's 15 beats?
1. Opening image
2. The theme
3. Set up
4. Catalyst
5. Debate
6. Break into act two
7. The B story
8. Fun and games
9. Midpoint
10. The bad guys
11. All is lost!
12. The dark night
13. Break into act three.
14. The finale.
15. The final image
Or maybe the Hero's Journey 12 points?
1. Ordinary world
2. Call to adventure
3. Refusal of the call
4. Meeting the mentor
5. Crossing the first threshold
6. Tests, allies, enemies
7. Approach to the inmost cave
8. Supreme ordeal
9. Reward (seizing the sword)
10. The road back
11. Resurrection
12. Return with elixir
Anyway, take some of these points, and scatter them across the six weeks? I'd probably suggest starting with the climax, and kind of working backwards, but tackle it your way! I mean, think about writing a scene each week, and calling it a short story (or actually using the short story framework as a way to structure your scenes?). So maybe the first week, you write the triumphant climax, when truth, love, and honor win again? Then drop back to the the scene where the hero faces their own inner demons, and realizes that they have to take on the bad guy, even if they think they are going to lose? And back up again, for some fun and action as the hero faces trials and tribulations? Then back up one more step, and tell us about the fateful day that the hero set out, in a mismatched set of armor with a rusty sword, all to find ... With the final week devoted to telling us just what kind of life our hero started out in, a pig farmer, a shepherd, a kangaroo rassler?
There you go. Yet another way to tackle six weeks, six stories. And I suspect you are chomping at the bit, with ideas scattered here and there? Good! So get on your marks, get ready....
WRITE!
Okay, let's consider tackling that six-weeks, six stories, from a slightly different slant! Suppose, as you look at it, that you would really rather tie everything together, instead of having six shooting stars? Well, in that case, maybe you could take something like... hum, how about this.
1. Setup (what's life like for our hero?)
2. The call and refusing the call (hey, there's something that needs doing? But not me, I'll let the cops, the government, somebody else take care of it!)
3. First doorway of no return (the pinch, the kick in the butt that sends the hero out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary?)
4. Complications, conflicts, try-fail cycles...
5. Second doorway of no return (another pinch, a twist, the decision that the hero makes that pushes us into...)
6. Climax
Or another of the beat sheets, plot points, or whatever? Blake Snyder's 15 beats?
1. Opening image
2. The theme
3. Set up
4. Catalyst
5. Debate
6. Break into act two
7. The B story
8. Fun and games
9. Midpoint
10. The bad guys
11. All is lost!
12. The dark night
13. Break into act three.
14. The finale.
15. The final image
Or maybe the Hero's Journey 12 points?
1. Ordinary world
2. Call to adventure
3. Refusal of the call
4. Meeting the mentor
5. Crossing the first threshold
6. Tests, allies, enemies
7. Approach to the inmost cave
8. Supreme ordeal
9. Reward (seizing the sword)
10. The road back
11. Resurrection
12. Return with elixir
Anyway, take some of these points, and scatter them across the six weeks? I'd probably suggest starting with the climax, and kind of working backwards, but tackle it your way! I mean, think about writing a scene each week, and calling it a short story (or actually using the short story framework as a way to structure your scenes?). So maybe the first week, you write the triumphant climax, when truth, love, and honor win again? Then drop back to the the scene where the hero faces their own inner demons, and realizes that they have to take on the bad guy, even if they think they are going to lose? And back up again, for some fun and action as the hero faces trials and tribulations? Then back up one more step, and tell us about the fateful day that the hero set out, in a mismatched set of armor with a rusty sword, all to find ... With the final week devoted to telling us just what kind of life our hero started out in, a pig farmer, a shepherd, a kangaroo rassler?
There you go. Yet another way to tackle six weeks, six stories. And I suspect you are chomping at the bit, with ideas scattered here and there? Good! So get on your marks, get ready....
WRITE!