The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 23 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

From drama: A Sound, a Key, a Knock at the Door

Theater games make actors build stories around arbitrary props and actions. Some seeds, a quick rehearsal, and show us the scene. Improvisation often makes lively scenes. Given this scenario: clashing swords clang off stage, a key slides under the door, and someone knocks at the door -- add gestures and movements and the actor has a lively scene.

Your task: use the same sort of improvisational strategy in a paragraph game to spark writing. Just fill in the blanks connecting these words into a paragraph. You can use your own set of words, although nouns or active verbs are best.

The fireplace [fill in the blanks] flames. [Fill in the blanks] smoke.

Connected words like this may make it too easy. Try again with words you normally wouldn't find in the same paragraph (raked, sauteed, dropkick). This should take two and a half minutes.

You can also pick three words from a dictionary. Just flip the pages and put your finger down. That's a good word! Now do it again. Oh! And once more! There you go, three words, just waiting for you.

Write!

Original posting 16 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

The article starts with notes about Claude Monet trying to paint with a brush attached to a long stick, Miles Davis giving musicians music only minutes before the start of the recording session, and Anton Chekhov who tried to always finish stories in 24 hours or less without using notes from his notebook. "Good artists often put themselves into risky or challenging situations to spark their creativity." Monet was deliberately reducing his control, forcing himself to rely on impulse. Davis wanted improvisation based on pattern and variation, pushing the riffs and motifs, depending on spontaneity. Chekhov gave himself deadlines and wrote from memory to add urgency and emotion to his stories. They were all working towards what's often called the creative moment or breakthroughs.

All too often, hours of concentration don't really move things ahead. But get up and walk around the block, take a shower, or do something else -- and there is a lightbulb popping over your head and suddenly you know what needs to be done. Insight, inspiration, Eureka -- whatever you want to call it, that moment of creativity often makes complex tasks much easier. "Any self-imposed device that focuses intensely on craft can serve as a catalyst to set the wheels of creativity in motion."

The exercises translate established artistic processes or devices into tools that you can use to spark the fires of your most creative moment. Some suggestions for using them:

1. The games are an experience or adventure, not a thought process. Don't over think, and certainly don't grind away at them.
2. Observe the time limits as one of the keys for accessing creativity.
3. Trust the unknown. It's scary, but thrilling.
4. Look for spontaneous answers. Don't fabricate answers, just watch and see what comes up.
5. If one game doesn't work, try another. But don't be afraid to struggle with an uncomfortable task that forces your mind to try something new.
6. Learn to identify what you feel like when creativity strikes. But then just observe. Save the analysis for later.
7. The object of the games is the sensation you discover. Get in touch with how creativity feels.
8. Don't strive for a polished, finished piece. Do accept the vitality of your results.

As for instructions, each exercise has its own. But in general, you want to do this:

1. Relax. Use whatever techniques you like, such as meditation or deep breathing, to relax.
2. Enjoy the discomfort. Follow directions, do the assignment, "stupidly copy everything" as Michelangelo said.
3. Let go. We are not analyzing, critiquing, etc. Play again.
4. Watch your body for sensations. We really aren't disembodied creatures of thought. Recognize what creativity feels like to you.
5. Wait for inspiration. Patience -- creative fish bite when they want to, with the word, a phrase, an idea out of nowhere.
6. Go back for more. When you fall out of the creative zone, take another look at the pattern or structure that got you there, and climb back in again.

Okay? I'll go ahead and write up the exercises.

Original posting 13 July 2008

TECH: Make a Scene #12: The First Scene

We're about to start into Part Three Scene Types of Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld. In case you're just coming in, we've already gone through the functions of a scene, including a mixed salad of complex characters, a point of view, memorable and significant action, meaningful dialogue, plot information that advances the story and enriches the characters, conflict and drama, a rich physical setting, and a bit of narrative summary here and there. We've talked about launching the scene, complicating the middle and raising the stakes, and scene endings full of emotional weight.

Then we looked at an array of core elements, including setting, senses, character development and motivation, plot, subtext, dramatic tension, and scene intentions. Which brings us up to date as we plunge ahead into the first scene.

The first scene opens the significant situation of your plot. It has to introduce your plot in the form of the significant situation, introduce the protagonist, establish the setting and evoke the senses, and set up dramatic tensions that suggest complications and conflicts ahead. The best first scenes have an air of mystery, pose a question or problem that needs an answer, or plunge the protagonist into a crisis. Through action and plot information, the first scene needs to compel the reader to keep reading without getting confused without backstory or narrative summary.

"Your significant situation should happen within the first couple of paragraphs. If you force the reader to wait too long for the event that they hope is coming, you stand to lose them before ever getting to it." Where does your first scene start? In media res, in the middle of the action, or at least so close to it that you fall into it immediately. Or should I say the protagonist, the main character, falls into it, dragging the reader along with them?

Successful first scenes involve:

• a significant situation that challenges the status quo of the protagonist
• a catalyst with whom the protagonist interacts
• a quick introduction to the immediate intentions of the protagonist
• a glimpse of the personal history and personality of the protagonist, suggesting motivation
• a decision or action by the protagonist that leads immediately to more complications

So how do the core elements stack up in the first scene? I'm glad you asked, because Rosenfeld has some answers.

-- unless setting is a dramatic part of the significant situation, keep the setting light and suggestive. Subtle details, not great swatches of descriptive prose, no matter how much fun they may be for the writer. Sometimes you can unbalance normal expectations with an unexpected significant situation in a familiar setting, so that the setting and the action play off each other.

-- subtext and dramatic tension. Don't overdo, suit it to your readers and the genre. Set your tone, and suggest the plot direction and themes. The first scene should make the readers worry about the protagonist -- raise the dramatic tension by showing that things can go wrong. Then keep the potential for conflict and consequences open.

-- the pace of the first scene should match the emotional content. Typically they start with a bit of an emotional bang, simply because you want to let the reader know what is happening. First scenes usually move fairly quickly, with actions and introductions to get the reader hooked. Later you can slow down and fill things in.

(Interesting. Rosenfeld didn't run down the whole list of core elements. And I don't exactly recollect pace being in his list of core elements. Oh, well, consistency is a hobgoblin, right? Onward!)

Ending the first scene. Leave the reader with the feeling that trouble, conflict, crises, or a dilemma has only just begun, and you help the reader move on into the next scene. Four ways to do this are [1] to leave the consequences unresolved (the police have just found the protagonist standing over a dead body -- do you want to know what happens next?); [2] end the scene before a major decision by the character, or possibly just after a bad decision; [3] let your protagonist find out something disturbing that could change everything (you mean you've been working for the CIA all these years?); and [4] let your protagonist react without thinking through the significant situation, so that the reaction makes everything more complicated.

Rosenfeld's checklist for first scenes

1. Are the protagonist and the significant situation introduced immediately and clearly?
2. Does the pace match the emotional content?
3. Do thematic images foreshadow the outcome?
4. Does the setting unbalance reader's expectations? Does it play against the significant situation?
5. Keep the pace. Too much exposition or description slows things down, while long passages of dialogue or action may push too fast.
6. Does the scene end with the protagonist in trouble or at least uncertain?

Next, suspense scenes.

The fun part here is to take something you've been writing or a book that you are reading and look at the first scene. How well does Rosenfeld's prescription work? Are there things that you want to change in the scene? Are there parts of Rosenfeld's guidelines that just aren't quite right for you? Go ahead, put this description of a first scene and the pieces and parts to work. See how well it works for you, and make the changes that you need to make.

The thrill of creative effort grows from the mud of spelling and grammar.