Creative Spark Week 10 - Sense of Place

One of the most important things to remember about creating a sense of place is that the same location will appear very different depending on whose eyes we are seeing it through.

Parallax

Parallax is a way of describing the shift in viewpoint that is needed when you step into someone else’s head.

A couple walk down the street holding hands.

If that couple are a white man and a white woman, then in most places in the Western world, that walk down the street is an unremarkable act. But what if that couple were a white man and a black woman? Or two men? Depending on the location, their experience of walking down that street could be completely different from the first couple’s.

Even if all three couples pass along the street unmolested, the way they perceive their surrounding will not be the same. What does each couple think as they approach a group of teenagers drinking lager outside a pub? A policeman talking on his radio?

Allow your characters their own biases, grounded in their experiences of the world.
(Here's a great real life example of parallax from a recent edition of the Guardian.)

#bridgesnotbarriers

Exercise 1: Going for a stroll:

Take your character for a walk through a landscape (or a townscape). Is it one that is familiar to them, or alien? How does a lifelong townie cope with a muddy field full of sheep? Or someone from a small village with noise and the traffic of a big city? What does a person notice on a walk they take every day of their life? What scares them? Surprises them? What do they wish they could change?

Mood Music

Even if character and place remain the same, how they perceive their surrounding will depend on their mood.

Exercise 2: What a difference a day makes:

Select a place where your character spends a lot of time (kitchen, office, favourite park). Describe that place as it seems to them at different key moments in their life. How does their office appear on the first day of a new job? Or just after they close the deal of the decade? As they await the arrival of administrators following bankruptcy?

Ref 1: Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward Writing the Other
Ref 2: Rebecca McClanahan: Word Painting


Exercise 3: Application of sensory detail

Take another place more than one of your characters might frequent in your writing. It could be a pub, playground, bedroom. Take your first character, Joe, for example, who spends all his time in his bedroom. Describe that place ensuring you include all five senses. Now take another character, Susan say. She's Joe's mother and is constantly asking him to clean his bedroom. Describe the place from her point of view including all five senses. How do the characters differ and why?

Exercise 4: Sensory interpretation

Look around you. Choose an object. Something innocuous, nothing with a particular meaning. Look up. Right now. What do you see?

Brainstorm associated words: eg, sash, pane, glass, latch, smudge, reflection, sill, open, freedom, prism, light, draught, escape, bluebottle.

Choose an emotion: eg, contentment, frustration, panic, infatuation, boredom, joy, grief, reconciliation, disillusion.

Write 500 words on the object without naming it, selecting the senses which attach that emotion to that object. Don't say why. Leave us curious.


Exercises by Triskele Books.
Images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 9 - Emotionally Connect

Making an Emotional Connection with Readers Exercise

By Laurence O’Bryan

Making an emotional connection with readers is critically important whatever type of fiction you are writing. If you don’t, readers can easily stop reading. That’s the last thing we want. Without emotion what we write can become dull. If we add emotion reader engagement pulls the reader forward.

We are all familiar with emotions. They are, typically, what makes us have a great day or a bad one. But how can a writer use emotion to connect with readers?

One of the most basic emotions is desire. If your characters are motivated, if they have desire, if only for a glass of water, then readers will feel more connected to that character. And the more they want something, the more interesting your story becomes, as the reader is left wondering what the character will do to achieve their goal.

Desire is the basic emotion which keeps us involved in a story. If your main character wants something bad enough, you are, according to the logic of story, obliged to put obstacles in their way too. Why? Because obstacles create conflict and difficulties. And conflict will inspire an emotional response in your reader and keep them turning the pages.

In The Istanbul Puzzle, my mystery novel released by Harper Collins worldwide in 2012, my main character, Sean Ryan, wants to find out what happened to a good friend, who has been murdered. He feels responsible. This mixes both desire and danger into the story early on.

Some other ways to build an emotion connection with the reader are:

* Creating embarrassment for a character. By making the reader feel that embarrassment you will build a connection with them.

* Having a character abused in some way. Natural sympathy will be evoked if you do something terrible to a character we have come to know.

* Placing opposing characters in the same situation. There’s a natural tension when opposing characters meet. Your readers will feel it if the opposing characters views have been shown to them. 

* Fear creates tension in the reader too. If we know the murderer is coming up the stairs, and the woman is having a shower, we fear the outcome.

* Anticipation. If you foreshadow, occasionally, without explaining exactly what is going to happen, readers will anticipate something happening. I use a very occasional piece of foreshadowing to heighten tension.

* Surprise readers. Readers will enjoy your writing if something surprising happens. They won’t have any idea what is going to happen next. I try to make my stories as surprising as possible with something unexpected happening regularly.

* Excitement is a powerful writing tool. You can move the plot fast, anticipate, and spell out what might happen, and then keep the reader waiting. All the above methods combined will produce excitement in your reader.

One of the hardest parts for a writer is in creating authentic emotional scenes.

The ability to understand how it feels to be in an emotional situation and to express that feeling in a genuine and new way, without resorting to cliche or to simply naming how characters feels, is vital to creating truly engaging emotional writing.

People look for writing that truly explains how it feels to be in each situation. And they can tell if you haven’t represented the reality in a way that’s believable.

I wish you well with this. This is one of the hardest challenges of becoming a good writer in the 21st or any century.

Images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Laurence O'Bryan
My latest novel in the puzzle series, The Nuremberg Puzzle, is available now. Find out more at http://www.lpobryan.com 

The puzzle series has been translated into 10 languages and published in over 20 countries by Harper Collins. 

I also promote other writers through our site: BooksGoSocial.com.

Creative Spark Week 8 - Flirting with Subtext

By Jason Donald

When writing prose, you should aim to have tension in every single scene. The more tension you build, the more engaging it becomes for the reader. But how, you may ask, do you place tension in every scene?

One very effective method is to use subtext. Subtext is whatever is going on beneath the surface of a scene in a story. For example, a husband and wife may be discussing who will take the kids to school, they are both being extremely polite to each other, however the reader gets the sense they are on the verge of divorce. What the characters are saying is on the surface, while their feelings are below the surface. Their feelings are the subtext. This difference between what characters say and feel is what creates the tension in the scene and the reader is engaged because they have to figure out what is really going on. So, creating a subtext creates tension, which creates a better scene.

Creating subtext is a two-fold process. So let’s begin by writing the ‘surface level’ of a scene.


First Exercise:

1) Choose two characters. Name them.

2) Imagine the characters are in the kitchen sharing a task. For example: washing the dishes together, making cocktails, preparing food, clearing up after a party.

3) Imagine what they would say to each other and write a short scene.

NOTE: Focus on the dialogue. Deliberately try to keep the dialogue very banal and straightforward. For example: “Is there any more ice?” or “Wait a minute, I’ll need to put these glasses in the dishwasher.”

As you re-read your scene, you may be worried that it feels flat. And you would be right! A good rule of thumb for spotting flat, unengaging writing might be this: If a scene is about what a scene is about, then you’re in trouble!

Flat, surface level dialogue is called writing ‘on the nose’. This is when characters say exactly what they mean. This may be fine when a character says, “Pass the salt.” But when it comes to more complex emotional issues, people in the real world rarely say exactly what’s on their mind. In fact, people almost never explicitly talk about their problems. Instead, they misdirect, threaten or negotiate to avoid dealing with the issue head on.

This is especially true when comes to expressing sexual desire. Flirtation is all about the subtext: you want to drop heavy hints without explicitly describing your desire. The same is true of a relationship breaking up. Most arguments are triggered by surface level things like hanging up the bathroom towels, while the real issues of anger, betrayal, disappointment or emotional projection are not explicitly addressed.

Now, let’s add the second layer to the scene you wrote: the subtext.

Second Exercise:

1) Take the two characters from the scene you wrote in the First Exercise and decide what kind of sexual energy exists between them. Make notes about what is going on within each character. For example:

- A and B are in love with each other and are hoping to kiss for the first time

- A has a crush on B and is trying to find out if the feeling is mutual

- A and B were once lovers but they now despise each other.

2) Without changing the dialogue, re-write the scene from the First Exercise while suggesting the sexual energy between the characters.

NOTE: Focus on the character’s movements and on how they say their lines of dialogue. Explore ways to reveal the character’s inner worlds without naming any emotions. Make the readers feel what the characters are going through.

3) Don’t worry if scene sounds like an innuendo laden scene from a ‘Carry On…’ film! It’s all subtext. Play with the scene. Have fun! Re-write it again, keeping the same dialogue, but this time make the characters hate each other.


Jason Donald was born in Scotland and grew up in South Africa. He studied English Literature and Philosophy at St. Andrews University and is a graduate of the Glasgow University Creative Writing MA. His debut novel, Choke Chain, (Jonathan Cape) was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award and the Saltire First Book Award. His second novel, Dalila, (Jonathan Cape/Vintage) will be available from Jan 2017. He lives in Switzerland.


All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 7 - Polish Your Prose

Polish Your Prose by Tightening Descriptions Exercise
by Jessica Bell

Too much description and you risk boring your reader. Too little description and your reader has no environment in which to visualize your characters. But it really is a fine line, and depends so much on personal taste.
Being a poet as well as a novelist, I adore description. And I have to admit, I go overboard sometimes. But my “description binges” are always calculated. And more often than not, I cut them down to at least half the original length. There are two ways you can do this. I suggest you implement both for variety of pace.

1. Identify which parts of your book are purely “decorative” and/or have little or no relevance to your setting and plot and evaluate how important they are to you. You don’t need to get rid of them all. Just find a balance you’re comfortable with. Trust your instincts. And I say don’t take that “kill your darlings” stuff too seriously. If everyone killed all their darlings, they’d have no family left.

2. Extract a big chunk of description and break it down into rational stand-alone segments or sentences. Then incorporate them into some action.

Look at SEGMENT No.1 below, for instance. Here we have an example of action, an example of description, and an example of the same piece of action and description combined:

SEGMENT No.1
Action:
“I can’t believe Selma’s gone.” John runs his fingertips along the fence before opening the gate.

Isolated segment of description:
Rusty wire fencing borders the abandoned paddock. The gate is squeaky. It always has been. Selma claimed it kept her alert to trespassers and refused to oil the hinges.

Description segment added to action: 

“I can’t believe she’s gone.” John runs his fingertips along the rusty wire fencing that borders the abandoned paddock. He opens the gate. It squeaks like it always has. He’s reminded of Selma’s refusal to oil the hinges. She said it kept her alert to trespassers.

The final example does several things. There is action. There is back story and character info on Selma and there is description.

In the grand scheme of things, the changes you choose to make are your choices. So if you want lots of description, and believe it deserves to be there, so be it. But, I urge you, please don’t go on and on for pages about the beauty of Mother Nature in spring. Your readers will just stop reading if the action is interrupted for more than a page. Some say that the limit is two paragraphs, but if, like me, you’re a literary author, I think you can get away with one page. At the very most. And I’m talking a book page, not a manuscript page, and that should add up to, on average, about 250 words.

So, as well as cutting your description to the level you feel comfortable with, and peppering it throughout the action, how else do you think you can go about polishing it?

Don’t overuse adjectives and use more strong verbs. The key word here is “overuse.” I’m not saying never use adjectives. I’m just saying your writing will be stronger with moderate usage.

Take a look at SEGMENT No.2 below. Here we have a weak example of description, with lots of adjectives, and a strong example of description using a moderate amount of adjectives and strong verbs.

SEGMENT No.2
Weak example:
The darkness of the thick grey low-hanging clouds made the massive decorative rocks in our backyard look like animated gravestone-giants.


Strong example:
The thick clouds hung low and shadowed our backyard. The decorative rocks doubled in size and morphed into gravestone-giants.

Can you see how the strong verbs in the second example help to eliminate the need for all the adjectives in the first one?

Now it’s your turn.

Combine the following texts so that the description is peppered throughout the dialogue and it uses less adjectives and more strong verbs.

Patti Smith begins a Jimi Hendrix cover on clarinet. A tragic mellow vibrato goes through Lykabettus Theatre like a sad wilting willow. The crowd is quiet and still. The guitarist’s jazz scales moves the clarinet’s tune like warm approaching rain. The rhythm guitar sounds like a heartbeat, and the pounding makes the crowd become a big loud mess of chaos. Patti puts the clarinet down, comes over to the microphone and sings in her deep, gruff, aching voice, If you can just / get your / mind together … The slow four/four beat of the guitar and Patti’s voice is like quaking earth. It moves through my legs, body, arms, making my throat tight. Synchronic drums, bass and distorted guitar move alongside the rhythm on the beat, creating an eruption of sundry emotion within me that makes cold and awestruck tears fall down my cheeks.

“Have you ever seen Patti Smith live before?” I said.

“Nah. This is my first time. I’m not entirely impressed yet,” he said.

“What? How can you not be impressed? She’s an icon; a genius.”

“Yeah, but, you know. I guess I’m just not as into it as you.”

“You should just close your eyes and listen. Can you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That. Shh ... Feel it.”


Need more self-editing advice? Why don’t you check out Jessica Bell’s editing guide: Polish Your Fiction: A Quick & Easy Self-Editing Guide.

Jessica Bell is an Australian award-winning author, writing and publishing coach, and graphic designer who lives in Athens, Greece. In addition to her novels and poetry collections, and her bestselling Writing in a Nutshell series, she has published a variety of works online and in literary journals, including Writer’s Digest.
In addition to the above, she is the Co-Founder and Publisher of Vine Leaves Literary Journal & Press, a singer/songwriter/guitarist, a voice-over actor, and a freelance editor and writer for English Language Teaching publishers worldwide such as MacMillan Education and Education First. She is also the coordinator of the Writing Day Workshops which take place throughout the United States on a regular basis.
Before all this she was just a young woman with a “useless” Bachelor of Arts degree and a waitressing job.

All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 6 - Voice and Character

Voice and Character Exercise
By Lindsey Grant

Voice in fiction writing can refer to either the author’s voice, which is the style of writing that makes a work distinctively yours; or the narrator’s voice, which is the way in which a novel’s main character thinks, talks, or writes (in epistolary form) throughout the novel. This exercise will focus primarily on the latter, though you may learn a bit about your own writing style as you discover your character’s voice.

As the components of your novel come together, you will find that POV, character, and voice are all very closely related pieces of the puzzle. Before you start working on character voice, you'll need to identify from the perspective from which the main character or characters tell their story. Is this a first person narrative, in which the character will be guiding us through his or her own thoughts and experiences? If you are instead writing in the third person, do we as the reader have access to the character’s inner monologue? Or is the third person perspective limited only to what an outsider can observe of the events that are unfolding around your characters? (Even if you’re not convinced of your POV choice yet, writing through a couple different scenarios using dialogue, inner monologue, description, or the epistolary form can help you not just figure out your character’s voice, but also the POV you feel most comfortable writing from.)

Remember, the scenarios provided for the writing prompts below don’t need to be included in your novel; instead, they are meant to be instructive in revealing how your character interacts with others, thinks about the world, and communicates his or her thoughts. If you already have an idea or ideas about scenes you’d like to write into your novel, use one or some of those instead!

If you're writing your novel in the first person, choose a scenario below or make up your own in which your main character has a conversation with a secondary character.

If you’re writing from the third person omniscient perspective, write your character’s inner monologue on a subject below, or one of your choosing.

If you’re writing from the third person limited POV, describe a scene based solely on the events unfolding—that which can be observed—using a provided topic or one of your own. (Hint: This is where you will start to feel your own authorial voice taking over.)

Or, no matter what POV you’ve chosen, try writing a letter penned by your character about one of the provided topics, or one of your own.

Possible topics:

• The death of a childhood pet
• Asking for a loan
• Catching a loved one in a lie
• Meeting a past or current idol
• Encountering an ex

Once you’ve completed your scene or scenes, look back at the way your character expresses him or herself, including the types of words he or she uses, the tone of his or her communication, and—if you’re able to distance yourself enough from your own character—the way his or her talking/writing/thinking makes you as the reader feel.

As you answer the questions below, you may find you need to revisit this exercise again to feel confident enough in your character’s voice to move forward.

1. Can you sum up your character’s voice in a sentence or two?

(eg: My main character talks a lot, without pausing, and often interrupts others, all in an effort to cover up his own nervousness and insecurities.)

2. Is your character’s voice consistent with the plot and tone of your novel?

(eg: Not really. My character thinks abstractly, veering into poetic ruminations on the world around him, but the action of the story is meant to be taut with suspense and fast-paced.)

3. Does your character’s voice lend itself to the POV you’ve chosen to write your novel from?

(eg: Yes. I didn’t want to write the book from a first person POV, but the inclusion of the letter-writing device allows the reader to glimpse the inner thoughts of my character from the character’s perspective. Best of both worlds!)


Lindsey Grant is the co-author of Ready, Set, Novel! A Writer's Workbook and author of the memoir Sleeps with Dogs: Tales of a Pet Nanny at the End of Her Leash. You can learn more about her and her work at sleepswithdogsbook.com.


 All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 5 - Character and Story Development

Exercise on Character and Story Development
By Roz Morris

Write about a wedding, from the point of view of two characters who’ll be having very different experiences. One of them is happy to be there.
The other is churning with negative feelings.

The exercise is to describe the same scene from the two characters’ viewpoints. 

To help you enter the two different experiences, the happy character will think in shades of blue or white – imagery, descriptions of feelings, figures of speech and objects they notice. 

The angry character will use phrases, images and observations that involve the colour red. Use this mental colour palette to create two distinct experiences.

This will highlight how very differently two people might see one event, depending on their mood and emotional baggage.

Now we’ll make one of these folks into an unreliable narrator.
It’s probably expected that the spurned character, Red, will be the character readers will dismiss. Nobody believes a grouch, especially on the happiest of happy days.
But let’s be unpredictable.
Write the scene so that hey-nonny-nonny Blue is the unreliable one. Slant their account so that the reader doubts their judgement. Make them naive, or blinded by optimism.

Now look at what you’ve got. See how far the scene has come now you’ve done a few mental twists.
Did you begin by assuming Red was in the wrong?
Has the story deepened now you’ve explored both people?
You never know what you’ll find until you let the characters live.


Roz Morris is a book doctor and an author in her own right. She also has a secret identity as a ghostwriter with sales of more than 4 million copies under other names. She teaches writing masterclasses for The Guardian newspaper in London and has mined more than 20 years of writing and editing experience to create her Nail Your Novel series. 
Find her books here http://rozmorris.wordpress.com/my-books/



All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 4 - Point of View

Creative Spark Week 4 - First Person Point of view
By Amanda Hodgkinson


As we all know, Nabokov’s famous novel Lolita, is written from the POV of Humbert Humbert, the man who pursues Lolita. That’s to say, the novel’s story is told to us by Humbert Humbert. We hear his version of events. His voice. And Humbert, we soon learn, is an unreliable narrator. But what if Nabokov had decided to write the novel from the point of view of Lolita herself. One thing is sure, it would be a very different story…

Clearly, the writer’s choice of point of view is crucial. For this exercise on POV think of Cinderella. Traditionally, the story focuses on motherless, down on her luck, sweet and modest, Cinders. She searches for happiness in a world where everybody, it seems, is out to thwart her goals. But is that really the case?

Spend a few minutes thinking about a possible opening scene from the story. Now, write a few paragraphs from Cinderella’s POV. Use her voice as you hear it. Use the word ‘I.’ Let us really hear who Cinderella is – What kind of accent does she have? How does she see the world? What are her desires? Is she really dreaming of marrying a prince? Or does she dream of other goals? Go with whatever comes into your head. Surprise yourself. What story does Cinderella really want to tell?

Now write a scene, or perhaps the same scene, in another POV. What happens to the story if we hear it through the voice of the fairy godmother? How does Cinderella’s Stepmother tell the story? Or the prince? Remember as you write, first person POV, is exactly that. We can only know for sure what the ‘I’ of the narrator sees and thinks and hears. We cannot go into another character’s head and hear their inner thoughts.

Now that you have tried out first person POV, I hope you can see that the narrator who tells the story in this way, using the ‘I’ form, will always focus on their own ‘angle’ of the story.

Amanda Hodgkinson's debut novel 22 Britannia Road became an award-winning international bestseller. Her new book Spilt Milk came out in February 2014 (Penguin Books) and her novella Tin Town was published in the Grand Central collection of stories (Penguin US) in 2014. Meanwhile she is working on a third novel... http://www.amandahodgkinson.com

All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 3 - The Essence of Character

The Essence of Character
By Joanne Furniss

Some characters make it easy for you—they will walk into the room and stand beside your computer, drumming their fingers on the desk while you write their story. A teenage character in my first novel, The Lonely Steps, appeared like this; I spotted a girl being escorted by her doting boyfriend across a crowded swimming pool in Switzerland and she high-stepped into existence as Lola, my “girl out of time”. But other characters, like Lola’s mother, may be more bashful and need to be coaxed into reality.

The central question for any character—the reason they occupy space in your story—comes down to what do they want? There is a second part of this question: and what do they need? Chances are, your plot will involve denying them what they want in order to give them what they need, so you must be clear about these driving forces in their personality.

What does s/he want?

Exercise 1: Everyone has a secret. Most are not life-changing. So why do we decide that one particular incident / fact / mistake is so powerful, we keep it hidden?

So…

From the POV of your character, write a private letter or diary entry. The first line is: I have never told anyone this, but…

What does s/he need?

Exercise 2: Most people don’t know what they need in life—we’re too distracted by our desires—and your character is no different. Someone else can probably see into their heart more clearly than they see it themselves.

So…

Your character walks into a café / pub / restaurant to meet someone they know well, a friend or family member. There is also a waitress/ barman / cleaner. Write a 360° description of the scene from three POVs; how the friend sees the character, how the stranger sees the character, and how the character sees the scene. 

How do these conflicting wants and needs motivate your character?

We are all driven by desires and instincts. What your characters wants and needs will affect their every decision, consciously and unconsciously.

So…

Exercise 3: A brain-storming activity to answer this one question. The aim is to nail the issue of want / need into one clarifying sentence.

What wounded her early on in life and led her to believe a lie?

As an example, the answer to this question for my main character in The Lonely Steps is: Marlene believes that, because of her own frigid childhood, she doesn’t feel emotions deeply enough to be a good mother.

From this stage, you can develop a character arc—how your character will change (or stubbornly not!) during the story. Their actions within the plot will also be grounded in these deepest desires.



Jo Furniss is a British writer now based in Singapore. Her first novel, The Lonely Steps, is represented by the US literary agency Browne & Miller. A second domestic thriller, set in the glossy expat world of Singapore, is making progress. After working as a Broadcast Journalist at the BBC in the UK, Jo gave up the glamour of night shifts to become a serial expat and freelance writer. She is editor of www.swaglit.com, a magazine for writers in Singapore. 

All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 2 - Plot and structure

Plot and Structure exercise
by Tracey Warr

Plot is the sequence of events that drives the story from its beginning, through it middle, to its end. ‘Somebody’s got to want something, something’s got to be standing in the way of getting it.’ (Sorkin in Yorke).

Plot plans can help you at two stages: generating the first draft and rewriting. ‘Writing is 10% writing and 90% rewriting’ (Smitley). Writing is more perseverance than inspiration. ‘Great stories fold over themselves at the midpoint and aspire to symmetry (Yorke).

Use the list of questions below as a guide-rope to spend 20 mins producing a 1-2 page max. plot summary, either of a novel or short story you have written, or one you are working on or planning to write. A few words/one sentence should be enough for each element. You are aiming for a bare bones summary. Complete as much as you can. Leave blank answers you can’t figure out quickly.


1. Who is the Hero/Heroine?

2. What are their characteristics (good and bad)? (four words)

3. What is their ‘ordinary’ world where the story begins?

4. What do they think they want – their stated want?

5. What do they want that they don’t yet realise - their inner need?

6. What happens to start the action that changes the Hero’s world for ever?

7. What is their goal now?

8. How does the Journey/story get underway? Does a friend(s) team up with Hero? What seemingly insignificant object might Hero acquire that proves important later?

9. What secondary character does Hero meet who is more familiar with the changed world and mentors and assists Hero?

10. What first three trials test and deepen Hero and allies’ relationships?

11. Everything is going well and Hero’s goals look likely to be realised but then someone yanks the rug out from under them – how?

12. The Hero does not give up and realises their inner need but thinks it’s possible to have both stated want and inner need.

13. What second three trials test and deepen Hero and allies’ relationships?

14. Someone or something very precious to the Hero dies (doesn’t have to be literal). Who/what?

15. The Hero wants to give up, going through the stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining (I would be a better person if …), depression, acceptance.

16. Someone or something gives the Hero new inspiration (the seemingly insignificant object may come into play). What? The Hero has an epiphany, abandoning their stated want and going all out for their inner need.

17. Reconciliations/relationship problems are cleared up – how/what?. An attack on, or ambush of, the problem is planned – what?

18. Something totally unexpected happens – what? forcing the Hero to make the final choice, a choice the Hero would never have made if put in this situation at the beginning of the story.

When you have filled in as much as you can, study your answers. Spend 10 mins thinking about how you might develop or change this to enhance the drama of your story?



Further Reading

Booker, Christopher (2004) Seven Basic Plots, A & C Black.

Smitley, Adron J. (2011) A Stranger Comes to Town: 13 Essential Steps for Plotting Your Novel, Create Space Independent Publishing Platform.

Vogler, Christopher (2007) The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters, Michael Wiese Production.

Yorke, John (2014) Into the Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them, Penguin.

Find out more about Tracey and her work here: http://traceywarrwriting.com

All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Creative Spark Week 1 - Story Fundamentals

Welcome to Creative Spark!

Triskele Books tried out a self-sourced creative writing course last summer.
We loved it. Now we've refined and honed and gathered support, and want to share with you.

Ten weeks of creative writing exercises from professional writing tutors, each focused on a particular element of fiction writing.
We don't want your money. We don't even want your email address.
This is FREE.

For ten weeks, every Friday, we'll post an exercise or two on a particular theme.
Each post is designed to last no longer than half an hour, but trigger ideas lasting so much longer.
Share your thoughts in the comments or keep it to yourself. Up to you.

Have fun! We did.

With grateful thanks to Ingram Spark and all our contributors.



Story Fundamentals Exercise
By Emma Darwin

A story is built of people who act, and what makes us keep reading is that they act in ways which we can believe, for reasons we can believe in. But it’s not always easy to hit on that story-driving combination of convincing actions in a convincing world, so this exercise starts with the most basic job: evoking physical convincingness, and develops outwards from there.


1) Think of an object which you’ve never seen, but know must exist or have existed. It might be a toy your German grandfather left behind when he came to England on the Kindertransport, the gun that was used to assassinate Anwar Sadat, or the fridge on the Space Shuttle.
Don’t worry about being accurate.
Make notes to evoke its physical presence.
Make sure you’ve checked in with all six senses including kinaesthesia (what’s it like to pick up, hold, throw, sit on?).

2) Our first, default ideas are often the least likely to bring out the best writing, so start imagining outwards from that moment in the object’s life. Where else might it have been? And where else again?
Maybe your grandfather’s toy had been his grandmother’s. Maybe the gun was bought on the black market in Moscow. Maybe the fridge had to be specially imported from a tiny specialist company in Guatemala.

3) When you’ve found an atmospheric place, pick one of the people who owned or had custody of your object.
Write some notes to bring this Character A into focus: who they are, their job, personality and so on, and how they feel about the object.
Now, your character A must sell or give the object to Character B.

4) Start writing the scene at the point where they meet.
Does A want to or not? Is B willing to take it, or not?
What kind of negotiations or arguments might result? Does A get to hand it over, or not?

Good luck!

Emma

Novelist and creative writing tutor Emma lives in South London. Her latest book is Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction, while her novels have been long and short-listed for many awards. She also writes short fiction and blogs about writing at This Itch of Writing: the blog. 

All images courtesy of Julie Lewis

Triskele’s Creative Spark

Summertime! Well, almost...

Same as last year, we're taking the summer months off to improve our writing. But this time, we invite you to come along for the ride.
 
We’ve bagged fifteen expert international tutors - including such luminaries as Emma Darwin, Amanda Hodgkinson and Jessica Bell -  to tackle one specific area of technique/style. We are officially excited!

Starting July 1st, for ten consecutive weeks, we’ll post an exercise every Friday. No cost, no commitment, just take what you want, when you want.

Each exercise is designed to last no more than half an hour, but all have suggestions for further exploration.

If you like, share your work/opinions/suggestions in the comments. But if you’d rather keep the results quiet, fine with us. Write like no one's looking!

Here’s the programme:

Triskele Books Creative Spark

• Story Fundamentals
• Plot and structure
• Character
• Point of View
• Voice
• Polished prose
• Subtext
• Location & setting
• Theme
• Sensory detail

See you on the first of July!

With grateful thanks to Triskele’s Global Partner, Ingram Spark.