Gladys

At my free writers’ group a couple of weeks ago, only two of us showed up. We still quite enjoyed ourselves. One of our prompts was to look at one of the customers where we meet and then take ten minutes to write what she thought about that morning. I could only see the back of her head, but I instantly had an image in mind. As I sat down to write, I heard “lattice, lattice” over and over in my head. I thought, “That’s not a name.” Then, “Oh, Gladys!”

I put pen to paper and wrote about how Gladys spent the morning sipping tea in her comfy kitchen and planning her garden for the year.

At the end of the ten minutes, we always read our free-writes aloud. My writing companion shuffled her papers, straightened in her seat, and offered to go first. She cleared her throat and said, “I’m going to call her Gladys.”

O_O

You Can’t Have Five Characters All Be the Same. Sorry.

I have a problem. All my commanding officers seem to be the same. The squad leader and the company commander, I realized, act almost the exact same way. They have this firm but genuine air. They don’t let people get away with things, but they care. They even look the same! Tall, thin, light hair. Hmm. This could be a problem.

Especially in basic training. I know my military isn’t as tough as our real military, but still, I think it needs to be tougher. For a little while, I was daunted. That almost gentle kind of CO seemed to be the only kind I knew how to write. But then, I remembered the drill sergeant from an earlier draft. Ta da! So, I resurrected him, and I’m really pleased. The problem I have now is keeping gruff drill sergeant different from unreasonably harsh disciplinarian commander.

Here’s an idea! Try putting a completely different character into a scene you already and see what happens. What happens if you add a tough drill sergeant in place of an encouraging mentor? What happens if the rowdy class clown is replaced by a mime or the meek accountant vanishes while a rough and tough cowboy appears?

Happy writing!

One Scene, Three Ways

In switching back and forth between points of view, I sometimes write a scene several different times. One scene in particular kept switching back and forth between point of view characters. This isn’t a bad thing; in fact, it’s an exercise many writers do on purpose.

Try writing a scene (any scene, the opening, the finale, the climax) from the point of view of a different character. What changes? What other details do you notice? What do you realize about the different characters’ motivations?

Save this new scene for reference. This exercise can help you to realize you’re writing from the wrong point of view or it can simply give you better understanding of your story.

Here’s another option: Write a memory of your own from the point of view of someone else who was there (a sibling, a bystander, a friend). What kind of insight does that give you?

Happy Writing!

Brainstorming

So, at the young age I am, I’m still starting to feel just a leeeetle bit older. Formerly, I could come up with ideas upon ideas, jot down a title, and forever remember the entire plot of the story. Not so much anymore. I’ve started getting confused with all the revisionary ideas for my story. So, three weeks ago, I sat down with a blank sheet of notebook paper and titled it “What If?” I then asked all the questions I had been wondering. My page looked something like this:

What If?

. . . the hero and heroine don’t meet until later?
. . . the program the hero joins has ten times as many people?
. . . the war is less trench warfare and more covert ops?

In the margins, I jotted down other notes, for example, on the “covert ops” question, I wrote, “how would that affect the characters’ reactions in book two if they’ve been trained as spies?”

This brainstorming session was exceedingly helpful, inspired by my free writer’s group. As someone who was once skeptical of free writing, outlining, or brainstorming, I now know that you just have to figure out what method works for you, and these all can be valuable tools.

So give it a try! It’s actually kind of fun.

Typical Characters, Part II

Over the past week or two, I have been noticing people who look different or seem different than the characters I usually write. I’m starting to feel excited about experimenting with characters other than the same ones I’ve always written. I know this will stretch me and that I will grow. I’m looking forward to seeing what this does. Soon, I will give myself a challenge. I’m just not sure what that challenge will be yet.

Here’s a challenge for you: notice the people around you who are people you might not normally befriend, people who are dissimilar to you. Imagine why they are the way they are--what is their motivation? What is their past? Try writing a couple of pages about that person, and just see what happens!

First Writer’s Group

You will be shocked and appalled, I know, but yesterday, I went to my first ever writer’s group. (Shocked because I’ve never been to one before, not because I went.) It’s a small local group and seems to be mainly just for fun. We spent the entire hour and a half responding to free-writing prompts. It was quite refreshing.

One of the prompts was to give chapter titles to the different parts of your life. I found this helpful as I have often thought about recording my life, but I get too bogged down. So much has happened! Naming chapter titles helped me to organize everything in my mind.

I think I will continue to attend this writer’s group. I would still like to find a good critique partner, but a relaxing afternoon of free writing can’t hurt. :-)

Physical Manifestations of Emotion

I have known for a couple of years now that I have difficulty including sensory detail in my stories. I experience the world through thoughts and thought processes. I don’t necessarily remember how things smell or taste or sound--I remember specific images, dates, and numerical or logical details. I remember what I thought at the time.

For example, a few years ago, I went to an air-show on an especially sunny and hot day, and I got heat exhaustion. I don’t remember how I felt, the heat on my skin, the thirst or anything like that unless I try really hard. What I do remember is thinking, “I feel miserable.” I remember sitting on a concrete floor in a hanger near a table where a dismantled M-16 was on display thinking, “All these people probably think I’m weird.” If I try hard, I can remember that everything echoed, I faintly remember cool air coming from somewhere; I vaguely remember the cold concrete floor.

One of my good friends is studying psychology and counseling. When I asked her to read Part 1 of Book Two, she sweetly agreed and has given me insights based on her training. She reminded me that a young man probably wouldn’t be able to articulate his feelings as well as my MC does. She encouraged me to use physical manifestations of emotion rather than just saying, “he was angry” or “he felt sad.” What does being angry feel like? Did his muscles tense or weaken? Did his back ache or his neck hurt? When I mentioned my trouble with recognizing sensory detail in my own life, she suggested sitting still and quiet and counting backwards from ten while focusing on what my body is experiencing.

For any other intuitive rather than sensory writers, I hope you find this helpful. Happy Writing!

One Lump or Two?

I just read an interesting article at the Teaching Authors blog on food and fantasy. It reminded me of an exercise I did once for a big project. I wanted to get to know my characters better, so I wrote a few questions for them. A couple of the questions were "What is the character's favorite dessert?" and "How does the character take his tea or coffee?" I used it just to get to know my characters better, but the answers came in handy later for a scene where the characters drink hot tea after a harrowing experience. I knew the MC always had his tea with a little bit of honey.

In other news: today, I turned in the first twenty pages of a young adult science fiction novel for my workshop in January. I really like the story, but I have a feeling the first draft of the first twenty pages isn't very good. I'm also almost done with the second draft of my middle grade novel. And my last packet is due December 10! I feel this semester should be over already, but just three more weeks.

I imagine I won't post in the next week (family in town), so Happy Thanksgiving everyone!