The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 4 March 2011

OK. So lesson one was use lipstick to write your stories?

No, no. Stories, like lipstick, generate emotion. They make us feel.

But, lesson two at http://johndbrown.com/writers/getting-specific/ points out...

That's not very specific. Emotion? Which one? There's so many. OK. So let's see if we can figure out which emotions you like to read about and would like to create. Get specific.

John Brown recommends an exercise (I like this guy! He wants you to work for it.)

Step one: list 10 of your favorite stories. Not necessarily your most favorite, just 10 favorite stories. Fiction, history, biography, novels, movies, poetry, whatever. Make a list.

Step two: beside each one, write down what you liked about it. What did it make you feel? What did it do to you or for you? Did you laugh, cry, wonder, hold on to the edge of your desk, feel that sense-of-wonder, say, "I wish I could do that?"

Step three: Look at your lists. You'll probably see a pattern. These are what John Brown calls your draws. What draws you to a story. You might want to write those down as a separate list, although keeping them with the stories that make you feel those can help you. After all, when you want to write your stories, you'll need to have models of stories, characters, setting, problems, plots that make you feel those. Then you'll want to do some imitation.

OK? So we've got lipstick -- stories make us feel emotions. Now we've got draws -- the specific feelings that we like in stories.

Go make your lists. We'll come back to thing one, lesson three real soon now.

Oh, my. The Phantom... no, don't look ahead. Make your list.