"It begins with a character ..."

Immediate Fiction

It's been a bit since I've had time to stumble across an extra that didn't feel like something to throw onto the list just because it's the end of the week ;-)

Right now I'm reading Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver.

He gets into *how* to fix story problems. In the introduction he describes how the writing instructors he encountered focused on telling him his writing was wrong and that a writer needed to feel when writing was right. He kept asking *how*? Over the years he did manage to find a process that helps.

When a scene or a story isn't working, he says, look to your five tools. (Really six if conflict is broken down.) The first are the Big Three, Want, Obstacle, Action, without which a story is going no where.

Conflict (Want + Obstacle)
Action

Resolution
Emotion
Showing

When analyzing a story, first ask yourself

• "Who wants what?" If no one wants anything, that's your problem.
  
  
• "What's the obstacle?" If there is no obstacle (it can be the character, others, a big mountain) you have no conflict and no dramatic tension to move the story.
  
  
• "What's the character doing (action) to overcome the obstacle and fulfill his want?"
  

That's not, of course, the totality of writing. But if you can't figure out why a story isn't working, Want, Obstacle, Action is the place to begin.

While he does repeat himself. Over and over. A lot ;-) It's a more practical writing book than most. (It's based on the workshops he teaches so may account for the repetition which probably comes across in person as emphasis for the evening's writing exercises than it does in a book.) He's not saying anything new so much as the way he's saying it: as a set of writing tools to analyze your own writing with.

The one section that made me sit up is his analysis of why writing is so hard sometimes. It's because we need to make the characters do the opposite of what we naturally do in real life: work hard to *avoid* conflict. And I realized avoiding conflict is what my characters do a lot ;-) They do what makes sense. But what a story needs, what makes the readers turn pages, is forcing the character to plunge head first into conflict. The characters *needs* to upset his life to get to his goal.

"Ask yourself how you get along in society, how you survive when you're out in the world. By making as much trouble as possible every change you get? No, you survive by avoiding conflict, by playing it safe, by being careful, by dong the exact opposite of what you ned to do to write exciting stories.

"Writing compelling stories goes against the grain of all our socialized, civilized training. Creating fiction is an antisocial act. .... If you take the easy way out, which yo will be prone to do, consciously or unconsciously, because of your civilized nature and your affection for your character, if you take that easy way, you character will not act in a compelling way, your story will sag, and the reader will leave. So you must be cruel to your characters. It's the only way."

(Of course there's cruelty and there's character revealing cruelty! Running over a child's puppy is cruel. What you want are more obstacles in the character's path. Obstacles that challenge and illuminate in a way that makes sense in your story.)

Wish you were here

You (or your character) have taken a vacation on Naboo (just before Star Wars Episode 1 begins.) Then the Trade Federation invades. Write home about it.

(Feel free to substitute a vacation to any place in a movie or book or TV show or video game or story you've written ... :-)

A Bestiary

Create a bestiary. Use each of the following words in the name of the beast or one sentence description of the beast.

amnesiac
bewitches
chamber
disguises
eerie
flickering
graffiti
hypnotized
invisible
journey
karma
laughing
moonbeam
nuzzle
outcast
pilfer
quake
rumble
saccharine
taunt
uneasy
valkyrie
whirl
explode
yammer
zigzag

"Hardly anybody ..."

Four out of five thumbs

I wanted to do something based around anime because of the convention, but after 7 1/2 hours (not exaggerating 10AM to 5:30PM) waiting in line to register, I'm a little punchy! Ah, but Kat had enough time to make new best friends ;-) It's the 5th time we've been and it's never been like that. I suspect they totally forgot that Friday was a holiday with all the kids off and only expected to be registering adults and college students like they usually do.

But this ain't half bad considering ... Make up blurbs, 2-4 sentences, for the following movies that might appear in TV Guide. You can go all the way with it and give star ratings, genre, actors.

Of Mice and Men
Shadow Dancing
I Was a Male War Bride
Based on an Untrue Story
Witching of Ben Wagner
Zombie Cop
Iron Monkey
Daughter of Darkness
Christmas Evil
But I'm a Cheerleader
They Live
Secret of My Success

Quadridecennial

Anu Garg of Wordsmith.org has been sending out a word a day for 14 years. In celebration this week all the words were not only 14 letters long but defined in 14 letters.

Use them in a story, a paragraph or even a single sentence. :-)

acritochromacy (uh-KRIT-o-kro-muh-see) noun -- Color blindness.
tintinnabulate (tin-ti-NAB-yuh-layt) verb intr. -- To ring; to tinkle.
tinctumutation (tinkt-myoo-TAY-shuhn) noun -- Change of colour.
Brobdingnagian (brob-ding-NAG-ee-uhn) adjective -- Of gigantic size.
circumbendibus (sur-kuhm-BEN-duh-buhs) noun -- Circumlocution.

"Good writing is ..."

A hellhound and a suit of armor

Pick one of the following as a prompt. Mix up the elements if you wish, or go to the generator and make some new ones.

• The story must have a hellhound in it. The story must involve a suit of armor in it. A character robs someone, and they aren't happy with it. A character is kind throughout most of the story. During the story, a character drinks something they haven't had in a while.
  
  
• The story must have a water-spirit at the end. The story must involve a potion at the end. A character hits something in anger, but the action is misinterpreted. A character becomes attracted to someone during the story. During the story, a character finds out a dark secret.
  
  
• The story must have a salamander in it. The story must involve a sceptre in the beginning. A character will prepare for a religious ceremony, and they are surprisingly overenthused about it. A character is kind throughout most of the story. During the story, a character is misunderstood.
  
  
• The story ends during a funeral. During the story, there is an attack. The story must have a dragon in it. The story must involve a quiver of arrows in it. During the story, a character becomes pregnant.
  
  
• A character hits something in anger. During the story, a character discovers someone has written a book or article about them. The story is set during a sporting event. The story takes place at midnight exactly. During the story, there is a sudden change in weather.
  

From Seventh Sanctum Writing Challenge Generator where there are tons of generators for stories and characters and names and creatures ...

Barbarian Cult Hero Bewitches Bunny Queen

Print out the following words in a largish font, cut them up, shuffle them around to create fantasy tabloid headlines like:

Acclaimed Ghoul Eats Mist Enshrouded Monastery
Toothless Pig Dumps Ugly Android

You may need to throw in some prepositions (in, through, on, etc.) to use the places and things. Feel free to add in your own words. There's also a longer list at  Dragon Writing Sticks. 

Adjectives

acclaimed
annoying
barbarian
blasphemous
disturbed
enigmatic
foul
fractured
glowing
golden
grotesque
insectoid
mad
massive
mist enshrouded
morbid
oozing
quirky
sapphire
toothless
ugly

Creatures

android
assassin
baby
bunny
dragon
queen
cult hero
dragon hunter
fiend
fortuneteller
ghoul
mouse
musician
pig
priestess
soul
thief
vampire
warlord
witch
worm

Verbs

assaults
avenges
betrays
bewitches
blesses
burns
cheats
completes
corrupts
curses
deceives
destroys
deviates
disguises
dooms
dumps
eats
escapes (from)
exorcises
falls for
fears
hits
imprisons
jealous of
kidnaps
loses
mourns
quests for
rebels against
rejects
resists
rips off
rules
sacrifices
saves
seizes
separates
shoots
silences
smashes
strikes
sues
summons
surrenders
terrorizes
threatens
tortures
traps
tricks
weeps for
yields

Places

abyss
altar
bakery
bones
camera
castle
diary
dungeon
goblet
grave
heaven
island
key
monastery
paradise
ring
runes
space colony
tavern
volcano
well

"The best way to have a good idea ..."

1,2,3 ...

Write a paragraph that begins with a one-word sentence. Followed by a two-word sentence. Followed by a three-word sentence. Keep going as long as you can :-)

From #167 in Unjournaling: Daily Writing Exercises that Are NOT Personal, NOT Introspective, NOT Boring! by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston.

Deadly drumming

"Now I don't have to listen to those damn drums every morning -- and all the dead bodies are gone!"

You're an investigative reporter and you overheard this. Dig in to find the story behind it. (Of course, if you get inspired in another direction, feel free to go for it :-)

"Writing is the best way ..."

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines for March 2008

Though the Weekly World News is no more, here's the headlines from the archives of City Newstand in Chicago, for writing prompts or just for fun :-)

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines from MARCH 1998

1. TORCHED BY AN ANGEL! -- WWN
   
2. GERBIL JUGGLER BRINGS PARTY KIDS TO TEARS -- SUN
   
3. NOW it can be told . . . Liberace was a rough & tough he-man who spied for the CIA! -- WWN
   
4. Did Castro replace Pope with a Communist double? -- WWN
   
5. SCIENTISTS TO CLONE NEANDERTHAL MAN -- FROM 30,000-YEAR-OLD DOO-DOO -- WWN
   
6. GIRL GETS PIG'S ARM -- BECOMES BOWLING CHAMP! -- SUN
   
7. 3 out of 5 Americans are reincarnated in Brazil -- WWN
   
8. Prisoner escapes & mails handcuffs back to cops -- WWN
   
9. Medical students expelled -- for throwing human brains at each other! -- WWN
   
10. Cursed rocks scare tourists -- SUN