EXER: Making Ends Meet?
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writercises Original Posting April 13, 2018
Whoops! Hope everyone is happily chewing away on their 6x6 stories? I’ve been being frustrated by a computer that seems to want to reboot, blue screen and all that, at the most inconvenient times! I’m actually writing this on my iPod, and I despise hunt-and-peck typing with my finger.
So, just thinking about MICE (or MACE, according to some folks). MICE was Orson Scott Card’s version. Milieu, idea, character, and event. Which, as I understand it, was kind of to identify which thread dominated, say at the beginning of a story, and then you need to have a matching closure at the end of your story. Of course, you may have layers, like an onion, with matching pieces at each end. MACE? Oh, in place of idea, slide in ask and answer. So if the beginning is a character problem, the ending should resolve that, or at least go back to it. Similarly for the other three areas.
Aha! Over here
https://www.writingexcuses.com/tag/mice-quotient/
There's even a summary chart about MICE.
Milieu: enter new place, struggle to get out, survive, understand, and... exit new place. Ye olde quest, more or less.
Inquiry? IDEA. Oh, well. Ask a question (mystery!), get clues and info, and... answer the question!
Character. Unhappy with self. Try to change, New understanding of self.
Event. Disruption, upset, floods, fires, and other calamities. Fight! Chase! Excitement! Status quo resumes (new or old). Action galore!
Or take a look at this summary
http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/Workshop-stuff/MICE-Quotient.htm
or one of the many, many other writeups available from your friend and mine, Google!
So, there you go. Now layer those, and poof! Write a story!
Now, this does raise a problem. How do you match them up? One answer, that JC, a member of this writing group, used to recommend, was to write the later part first, such as the ending, then go back and do the lead up to it! After all, the reader doesn’t know what order you wrote it in, all they see is the final product. So write it out of order, then shuffle the pieces into the right order.
Write the ending first? Then do the beginning and middle that leads to that? Sure, why not? I mean, often the end is the exciting idea that grabs you, so go ahead and enjoy it!
And meanwhile, I need to crunch a bit. So, go ahead, write it in whatever order works for you, the splinters of milieu (aka setting or world building), idea (oh, fascinating!), character (who are these people?), and event (what happened? And then.,,). Then rearrange!
And when the ends meet, hey, tell us that story!
Whoops! Hope everyone is happily chewing away on their 6x6 stories? I’ve been being frustrated by a computer that seems to want to reboot, blue screen and all that, at the most inconvenient times! I’m actually writing this on my iPod, and I despise hunt-and-peck typing with my finger.
So, just thinking about MICE (or MACE, according to some folks). MICE was Orson Scott Card’s version. Milieu, idea, character, and event. Which, as I understand it, was kind of to identify which thread dominated, say at the beginning of a story, and then you need to have a matching closure at the end of your story. Of course, you may have layers, like an onion, with matching pieces at each end. MACE? Oh, in place of idea, slide in ask and answer. So if the beginning is a character problem, the ending should resolve that, or at least go back to it. Similarly for the other three areas.
Aha! Over here
https://www.writingexcuses.com/tag/mice-quotient/
There's even a summary chart about MICE.
Milieu: enter new place, struggle to get out, survive, understand, and... exit new place. Ye olde quest, more or less.
Inquiry? IDEA. Oh, well. Ask a question (mystery!), get clues and info, and... answer the question!
Character. Unhappy with self. Try to change, New understanding of self.
Event. Disruption, upset, floods, fires, and other calamities. Fight! Chase! Excitement! Status quo resumes (new or old). Action galore!
Or take a look at this summary
http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/Workshop-stuff/MICE-Quotient.htm
or one of the many, many other writeups available from your friend and mine, Google!
So, there you go. Now layer those, and poof! Write a story!
Now, this does raise a problem. How do you match them up? One answer, that JC, a member of this writing group, used to recommend, was to write the later part first, such as the ending, then go back and do the lead up to it! After all, the reader doesn’t know what order you wrote it in, all they see is the final product. So write it out of order, then shuffle the pieces into the right order.
Write the ending first? Then do the beginning and middle that leads to that? Sure, why not? I mean, often the end is the exciting idea that grabs you, so go ahead and enjoy it!
And meanwhile, I need to crunch a bit. So, go ahead, write it in whatever order works for you, the splinters of milieu (aka setting or world building), idea (oh, fascinating!), character (who are these people?), and event (what happened? And then.,,). Then rearrange!
And when the ends meet, hey, tell us that story!