writercises | Entries tagged with six by six

Original Posting March 18, 2018

Okay! The simple form here is that we are going to write a story this week! Go, write, and post by or on Saturday, March 24! Any length, from the six word wonders through the 100 word aka drabbles or sometimes flash fiction up through the more common thousand words or multiples... and if you really get carried away, I suppose you could even turn in a novella or something. But... write that story!

Now, if you want to, you could try playing with dragons! That’s right, one of the six fantasy themes is dragons, and you could do something about dragons this week.

Or maybe... here, use these to spark some ideas?

Problem: When you've witnessed a crime
Genre: There and back again: into and out of the fantasy world
Scruple: A friend offers to hook you into pay-TV for $2. He says the risk of being detected is slight. Do you tune in?
RPG Plots: Bad guys: better late than never
A broken pencil in my briefcase

Nope? Well, let’s see...

How about a picture? I’d suggest taking a look around google for thematic apperception test. If you look at the images, available various places, I think you’ll find one of a young boy looking at a violin on a table in front of him. Or maybe one of the other pictures will catch your interest? Feel free to take a picture that catches your interest, and consider these points:

— what led up to the event shown
— what is happening at the moment
— what the characters are feeling and thinking
— what the outcome of the story is

Go! Write! And enjoy!

(That’s right. The starting gun has fired, and you are welcome to write! Go!)

mbarker

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!

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting 8 Jan 2008

Hey, y'all having fun?

I'll admit, I am. I have my little list of ideas, I've picked one and started scratching out notes, and been reminded of a couple of things.

One is a generic approach to getting work done that someone showed me some time ago. Pretty simple really, with four steps.

Step 1. Make a list of ideas. This is the brainstorming part, where you poke around in various places, maybe take a walk through a toy store, pick some random words, or otherwise stoke the furnaces of your imagination. And make a list of possible ideas. Set yourself a quota, and push to get as many as possible. (I also find it useful to just keep adding to the list as I wander through life, bumping into stuff.)

Step 2. Selection. Here is where you pick through the ideas from the list, setting aside those that aren't quite ripe, don't have the oomph for what you want right now, and so forth. Given the realities of writing, you probably need to pick one to work on right now. Doesn't have to be the idea to end all ideas, just something for now.

Step 3. Plan. Take that idea and stretch it out. For a short story, think about characters, setting, scenes, plot. You might use the checklist of questions . . . what checklist? Oh, here's one at
http://community.livejournal.com/writercises/47919.html

Background
Where are we? (setting)
Who is involved? (characters, strengths, flaws)
Where are they headed? (goals, motives)
What stops or blocks them? (obstacle(s))
What are they going to do about it? (plans to overcome problems)

Story

What hook(s) or bait for the reader will I use? (where start)
What story question do I pose for the reader?
What backfill is needed? (background that needs to be filled in)
What buildup do I want? (scenes)
What is the climax?
- how does the character change? (overcome weakness, etc.)
- how is the plot resolved? (overcome problems and achieve goals)
- What answer does the reader get to the story question?

Higher Level

What purpose, moral, or theme am I writing about?

This step is kind of like outlining and such - do what works for you. But I find some time scribbling little notes before I start writing actually helps me.

And then,

Step 4. Write! Sit down, put words down, try to capture that festival hall in your mind through the words. Don't be afraid to start with the ending, then work backwards, or otherwise write things out of order. And most important, don't fret about trying to think it all through, or have the perfect bits and pieces to start with - get something down, then polish and revise.

Simple, right?

So I hope everyone is having fun!

[When is Saturday again? Eeek - only three more days, four if you count today? That's almost tomorrow! Back to work, oh ye of the easily distracted.]

tink again!

[psst? If you came in late, we're in the first week of a six week exercise called 6x6. Simple notion - start writing a story on Sunday, and post it by Saturday night. 300 to 5,000 words. And then do it again. And again. 6 times. So probably on Saturday, or perhaps before that if some of us get in a rush, you'll see some stories posted out here. And maybe along the way, some reflections about the process? Or at least observations about what kind of craziness it takes to do this? :-]

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Entries tagged with six by six

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