writercises | Entries tagged with surprise

Original Posting 2022/01/15

Let's see... I have a random prompt generator, stocked with various bits and pieces. Tell you what. Pick a number between one and six, and see what you got!

1. Problem: Psychosocial and environmental problems. Genre: Overcoming the Monster: Hero and the bad guy. Surprise: abduction, eloping, running away. Oddment: a quilted snake in the living room.
2. Problem: Christmas! Genre: Monster in the house. Plots: Mystery, elementary, my dear Watson. Oddment: dragon kittens in my backpack.
3. Character: firemen (emergency worker). Problem: death of a spouse. Genre: voyage and turn, boldly exploring. Surprise: ask/offer help. Oddment: pictures in the kitchen.
4. Character: private eye. Problem: runaway pet. Genre: whydunit. Surprise: revenge, good payback, forgiveness. Oddment: pictures in the trash.
5. Character: doctor. Problem: change of personal habits. Genre: Quest, seeking and finding. Plot: doing good, diplomatic, long or short fork when eating with elves. Oddment: a jar of plastic ants in the bathroom.
6. Problem: when you get engaged. Genre: tragic plot, failure of a strong character. Surprise: dark secrets, hidden abilities. Oddment: wallet in your luggage.

There you go! I left out some of the odds and ends from the generator, but I think there's enough there to get you started. Take those bits and pieces, add setting, characters, events, and so forth to your taste, and...

Write!

mbarker

Original Posting July 7, 2017

Over here https://madgeniusclub.com/2017/07/05/the-shadows-of-whats-to-come/ Sarah Hoyt discusses foreshadowing. Apparently early in her career, she often got criticism that she had no plot. Now, since she was outlining, diagramming, and even borrowing structure/plot from other sources, this puzzled her. Then a friend told her that her plot and structure were fine, but she needed to foreshadow.

Foreshadowing? Giving the reader advance warning without spoiling the surprise. That's right, instead of just dropping walls on your characters without warning, toss in some creaks, a few groans, and... when the wall falls, your reader will cheer!

Feelings, premonitions, dreams, bystanders making pithy observations about where this will all end up -- these are all possible. Signals and hints about what's coming!

Foreshadowing, done right, adds to the tension about how things are going to resolve.

In other words, the problem with surprise is that it feels to the reader as if the author is just tossing random events in. Bad. So... foreshadow! Make us worry about what's coming, give us hints and shadows on the walls, and then... unexpected, but inevitable!

Drown your hints in other actions. Make them vague. But make sure the reader expects something to happen.

Three times? Well, that's the rule of thumb for most things. Three little pigs, three bears, three times the raven crows... okay, maybe not that. But don't depend on one hint -- make sure your reader catches on by giving them three chances.

And then when the surprise comes, they will really be shocked!

Practice? Take a piece you've written or are working on. Check what revelation, climactic twist, or whatever you've put in it. Now, where do you foreshadow that? If you don't have enough hints before hand, add some!

And, as always, write!
tink

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original Posting Feb. 29, 2016

Yes, indeed, it is February 29! The day that only turns up once every four years. Which made me ponder the man who wasn't there (last night upon the stair... oh how I wish he'd go away...) and other effervescent events (fizzy, right?). Taking an extra step when you've run out of stairway? What about the 13th floor, beloved hiding place for various odds and ends in the movie industry?

We kind of enjoy the optical illusions and other whoops involved in such days, hauntings, stumbling, and hidden trickery.

So, your task, should you choose to accept it, is to simply put a couple of characters into a scene, and have one of them make a mistaken identification of the other one... or was it mistaken? I mean, perhaps that really is old Larry, except he doesn't want anyone to recognize him? That's why the mustache, sunglasses, and beret? Or...

Mix it up. Who was that person that walked by you, that looked just like...

Write?
tink

Current Mood: surprised

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original Posting 1 March 2009

Guess who's coming to dinner?

Writer's Digest, April 2007, page 19 has the writing prompt:

On your birthday, instead of buying you a present, your spouse announces that he invited a mystery guest to dinner. You're stunned when you learn who it is. Write about your dining experience with this guest.

That's it. Your spouse tells you they have invited a special guest to your birthday dinner, and you are stunned. Tell us about that dinner.

Write!

Current Mood: candles

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting 15 Dec 2007

Just noticing that when the train goes past a building with lighted rooms, there is this irresistible urge to peek in the windows. And if there is anyone there, to see what they are doing, and to imagine what happens next.

Three flashes from my day. First, I was amusing myself translating station names. How about Green Bridge, also known as Midoribashi? A location, or perhaps for you it will be a literal bridge? Now is green just a color or does it refer to the building materials, somehow?

Second, I was amused to see an older gentleman with a white cane in the train station, texting away on his cell-phone. Frankly, his glasses were thick enough that I suspect he could not see far, but the immediate impression of a person with the trappings of a blind person using his cell phone for text messages was surprising.

Finally, when I ordered lunch, the young waitress looked at me and said in English, "Your Japanese is very well." I thanked her, explained that I've lived in Japan for a long time, and asked about her English. She admitted she is studying it now in school.

Your task, should you choose to accept it. Write something involve the green bridge, a blind man taking notes, and the phrase "Your Japanese is very well." You can change Japanese to another language, if you prefer.

Current Mood: flashes

mbarker.livejournal.com

Original posting 1 December 2007

Oh, that looks like it could be fun.

I was reading James Maxey's essay at http://jamesmaxey.blogspot.com/2007/11/stories-are-made-out-of-scenes-scenes.html (first of five about his five things he's learned about writing). A good thoughtful piece about scenes and nouns, which you might want to peruse in your spare time. But . . .

Down near the end, he's got an exercise. First, take four "generic" nouns and punch them up. The four he suggests are "man, woman, building, city." Replace with more specific, evocative knowns, and then see what kind of scene or story they suggest. E.g., "Cop, nurse, Superdome, New Orleans" hints at something. Or perhaps "Shuttle pilot, astronaut, launch pad, Cape Canaveral" light your rockets? (Isn't that Cape Kennedy now?)

I also thought his list of starting surprises was interesting. E.g. there was a shark in the kitchen, a skull on the coffee table, a lion in the laundromat, or a giant lizard reading to a kindergarten class - any one of those juxtapositions of the sinister or strange with the mundane gets the brain going and makes the reader want to find out what's going on.

I'm going to be at a conference this week - general chair for the first day's thisworkshop, then attending, so may be a bit quiet. But this gives me something to do during those long conference meetings this week, perhaps? Specify nouns or surprise contrasts, then sketch the results - and smile, that's the end of his talk?

So - write, write, write!

Current Mood: juxtaposed

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The Place For My Writers Notes

Entries tagged with surprise

EXERCISE: Random Prompts?

TECH: Foreshadowing? Aka The Shadows of What's To Come? (295 words)

EXERCISE: The day that wasn't there?

EXERCISE: blow out all the candles?

EXERCISE: Peeking in Windows

EXERCISE: four nouns and a surprise!

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