2.18 Ideas for a Story

Turn on the radio and take note of the first thing that is mentioned. Use it as the basis for a story of no more than 500 words. Imagine a character, someone who is central to what the story is about.

I turned on the radio to a weather report! Hmmm. 

I'm putting the 'elegant geek' character from last week into the story, trying to get into his head with the point of view. And... yes I recently watched Rise of the Guardians. Haha. I will take inspiration wherever it comes from!

~

A gust of wind sends a shiver down my spine and I quicken my step. The first chill of winter crawls over my face with icy fingers making me pull the collar of my light jacket as high as it can go and wish for my thicker coat at home. Autumn leaves still cling to trees in a rainbow of golden yellows and browns and there's still some strength in the sun overhead, but any warmth is forgotten as the wind strengthens.

A shock of cold suddenly hits my nose and memories of childhood flood through me. My mother's advice to 'wrap up or Jack Frost will nip me'. An involuntary smile spreads my lips at the memory, the cold briefly ignored, and I find myself calling out to the wind.

"That you Jack? Bit early this year aren't you?"

I chuckle to myself for talking outloud to my childhood hero. At 19 I should have grown out of it and despite no one else in sight a twinge of embarrassment coats my laugh. As a child I had chatted at length to him, imagining grand adventures and games whenever a shiver of cold came around. It didn't matter to me that I never saw him. A young boy's harmless fantasies.

The cold wind vanishes as suddenly as it arrived and with another soft laugh I imagine myself waving a cheerful goodbye. I feel giddy as a boy again. I kick out at a pile of nearby leaves and spin in the cloud of them as they fall. It's a swirling whirlwind of snow and I'm being swept up and carried hundred of miles.

The actual wind returns, and despite my current juvenility I'm aware enough to notice it blowing in the opposite direction. It literally had returned, rather than continued. I stop and swivel my head, confusion smeared across my face. I still feel odd, and with child-like logic the only conclusion I can come to is that the wind (or something in it) had heard my call out and returned to answer.

"... Jack?" I whisper. "Jack Frost?"

Another memory from childhood. This time from my father. "You have to believe. You can't see them if you don't believe." 

Do I believe? At this precise moment I just don't know. Some part of me, the part of me kicking up leaves just a moment before, was shouting 'Yes, yes, yes', but the near-adult part just scoffed in derision.

"Jack if it is you, I want to believe... I really do! But it's hard. I'm too old. Help me." The words spill out without thought.

Instantly I'm surrounded by swirling snow and then nothing. Belief blossoms in me like a spring orchard, and a cast about frantically. There! The shock of white hair on such a youthful face should appear odd, but it doesn't. Floating a few feet above the ground and with a hopeful grin he stares at me.

My confusion melts and a incredulous smile appears in its place. 

"I see you!"

~

Technically that is the end of Week 2 now. A good week! There are a few exercises in the middle I missed out and may come back to. Might also look at someone else's story too.

Until then...

Happy Writing :-)

2.12 Familiar Words

2.12 Familiar words in unfamiliar places.

I'm really struggling with this one. Hmmm... perhaps I could describe the struggle itself!

The writing task sat smugly on a pedestal, confident it has me bested this time.

~

The struggle for an ordinary word description smothered me in a sticky embrace.


Yeah, I'm not too sure about either of those. This is definitely tricky.

Other course writers to the rescue.

"It was mid-morning, sunshine squeezed through the small slatted window of the dingy apartment."

This is part of the entry from Deana Mazzocchi-Phillips. Sunshine squeezing. I love it! Ordinary word, unfamiliar use.

~

I'm going to have to keep an eye out for opportunities to practice this.

Happy Writing :-)

2.5 Talking about Writing

2.5 Talking about Writing.

You can see my writing area descriptions in the 2.4 post.

This was an good exercise, and a lot harder than I first though. Especially the second one. I decided to not split it directly into best/worst writing places, but make both seem pleasant enough from the point of view of the writers in those locations. Whether either one is heaven or hell for you will depend massively on individuals.

For me, despite the distractions, the first one is my preferred writing location. The second - a typewriter - would just irritate me. The constant terror of making an error and having to start again. The clunky heaviness. No - pleasant as it likely would be for some, it's not for me.

So lets talk about writing by going to the course comments and plucking out a random piece to ponder.

Today's victim is Julie Rowe. Her piece :

Sitting in the crowded bar trying to sort my notes into some sort of order was proving incredibly difficult. The bar was fairly quiet. but what noise there was bounced up into the high vaulted ceiling, swirled around the upsidedown boat carcasses and then caught the voices coming up before booming back down. The muzak was adding to the general noise chaos and whatever it was that was playing i could only hear the bass. All of this amalgamated into a clamour in my head which invaded my thoughts and sent them swirling off into the great unknown, never to be made sense of again.

My dining room table, a large mug of Yorkshirte team home alone, chores done, just me, ,my notes and a blank piece of paper or screen. Ahhhh silence at last. Come on mind, get yourself together!
First thought - what a wonderful image is the 'upsidedown boat carcasses'. I love the strength of this description. It builds the image up so vividly. That bar actually sounds a delightful place to write to me. At home, alone, I would just be too tempted to play some computer game instead!

Some comments for Julie then - in the vein of us trying to help each other.

- In the first line you call the bar crowded, and yet immediately at the start of the second you call it 'fairly quiet'. A confusing contradiction. 'Fairly' is one of those adverb things too. Watch out for words ending in 'ly'. One or two is fine, but they have a habit of sneaking in throughout writing and can make it weaker.

- General curiosity - is muzak a specific thing, or did you mean music? My apologies if English isn't a first language and this was just a slip. Although maybe it's a colloquialism. I'm not sure.

 - Amalgamated is a great word, but here I'm not sure it works. It speaks of an almost graceful gathering together, or at least more smoothly than I get the impression the sounds are doing. I think the sentence works perfectly well without it. A sort of less-is-more moment.

"All of this clamoured through my head, invading my thoughts ..." etc

- I would like to have seen more of your home-alone writing. It seems like you ran out of steam after a lot of great description in the bar. Perhaps that's what you mean by your last line. Haha.

Is there a window in the room? What is the light like? Any smells? Is the table old or new, a family heirloom? Any pictures on the walls which might be there to help inspire your writing? Just details to bring it alive like you did in the first piece.

~

Just going through Julie's writing there proved to me how useful an exercise it is. Whilst looking for helpful comments to say I spotted similar issues in my own writing places and made a couple of edits. I'm learning more and more just how iterative writing actually is. Historically I've pretty much written, and almost never gone back to amend or add additions.

See you in the next section folks.

Happy Writing :-)

2.4 Imagining Writing Spaces

2.4 Imagining writing spaces

Imagine two different venues for writing – one that seems most suited to you, and one that you would find bizarre or too difficult. Write a paragraph describing two writers at work, one in each of the venues.

The low murmur of voices and telephones blur to nothingness in his mind, as he stares at the blinking cursor on the screen. He shuns fancy word-processing programs in favour of the simple elegance of Notepad. A colleague wanders over, some work related question poised on their lips, unaware of the vibrant lands and alien vistas they are about to pull him away from. With weary patience he deals with their problem and returns to the blinking cursor. An idea is slowly blooming. From where he isn't sure, but something about sitting in the office seems to provide a fertile quagmire for his imagination to sow. Long fingers caress the keyboard and the first words grace the screen. An email alert pops up. 5 minutes until a conference call. Snooze. More words appear. Time's up, for now. Press save, alt tab, and come back later.

~

I'd found it at the bottom of some bargain bin. It was love at first sight and I'd shelled out the required £20 without thought or regret. Once I got it home I shifted out my laptop, notepads and other paraphernalia so it could take pride of place on my desk. An Underwood. It looked glorious. Its faded powder blue paint brought forth images of summer walks and lazy meadows. I gently stroked the home-row keys, letting my eyes close, and in that instant of darkness I caught the faintest scent of old ink and dreams. Childhood memories of my grandpa's desk floated through my mind and with barely a thought I fed in a crisp white piece of paper and reverently sat down. The very first clunk sent a shiver of joy down my spine. Mechanical wizardry whirred into action and a story was born.

~

Part 2.5 of the course has us discussing and reviewing each other's writing space paragraphs. I'll see you there for my thoughts on this exercise as well as looking at some examples.

Happy Writing :-)

2.3 Writer's Rituals

2.3  Writer's Rituals.

Week 2 dawns and Derek hints that this week we'll be working towards more character profiles and even a mini-story. Things move on apace.

But we start with an interesting discussion. Writing rituals, and superstitions. Lucky pens, and lucky chairs. Thinking spots and caps. Muses and Blocks.

It comes as little surprise to me that authors can be quite inventive in their rituals. After all, it's a profession centered around imagination and fantasy.

Monique's morning style is interesting. I could imagine something like that working well for me. I often have fairly vivid dreams which fade rapidly after I wake unless I make a conscious effort to record them. Whilst such notes are not going to be Shakespeare (or even really make any sense at all) I think it will be a good way of seeing what is floating through my imagination.

Michèle's psychotic breakdowns sound a little hectic and confused. Not really for me, however I have been known - when particularly bored - to just open up Notepad and start typing what I suppose is my inner dialogue.

14:02 Bored, bored... bored. Hmmm thirsty, should go get some water. It's a long way away though.

14:04 Mmmmm water.

You get the gist. I'm not sure how helpful it is. Whether it lets 'language out to dance' I'm not convinced. Passes a few minutes though. Very rarely it has morphed into a few paragraphs of what could become a short story.

~

So my general writing practice is to just write. I almost never do any planning beyond a concept. I am usually writing with little more than the vaguest idea of where it might end and let the story go where it will. This style almost certainly developed from the Storygaming origins of my writing. When readers are voting and deciding on what happens at the end of each chapter it makes planning very hard to do. The options they come up with for dealing with the various situations can be varied and surprising. Typically any plans are cast aside quickly. 

I have experimented with a more formal planning session. For some of the competitions I entered on Writing.com I made brain-storm diagrams and word bubble pictures to come up with various possible options before choosing the one that felt most formed. It worked in a fashion, but felt forced.

Adding some more structure through use of the notepad, and whatever other tips we get during this course may help me find a more productive balance between planning and writing.

Happy Writing :)