Julie Duffy's Blog, page 188
September 28, 2012
[Writing Prompt] 2 Points Of View Part I
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We’re almost at the end of the month! Congrats to anyone who has written at ALL this month and HUGE, HUGE congrats to those of you who have 28 stories already. Two more and you achieve SuperHero status!
The Prompt
Write a story with more than one character today, so that tomorrow you can rewrite the story from the other character’s point of view.
Tips
Remember that the ‘truth’ of the story is not so much in the details of the events as the details of how the protagonist tells/sees the story.
September 26, 2012
[Writing Prompt] World Building
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Writing a story is more than just throwing some characters into a situation and seeing what happens. A good writer builds a whole world around the story of the characters. This is more than setting: it’s also the soundtrack, the slang people use, the color palette of the rooms, the social hierarchy hinted at…
The Prompt
Spend Some Time Painting A Realistic World Around The Edges of Today’s Story
The most obvious place to find examples of this ‘world-building’ is in science-fiction (especially futuristic or space stories) and fantasy. Each of these genres has to define everything for the reader from social structures to the shape of the vehicles, to the way gravity works in this world (think Harry Potter’s wizarding world and its unconventional public transport, or Star Wars vs. Firefly in how they handled the sound of space ships.)
But every story needs a certain amount of ‘world-building’. In a Hercule Poirot story we are in a world of drawing-rooms and exotic locales, and a certain class strata. In 50 Shades of Grey, we are introduced to a world where certain people define the shape of their relationship with detailed contracts.
Pay attention to the details of your world today.
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
September 25, 2012
[Writing Prompt] Ageism
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Today we’re going to take a look at a character from the perspective of age.
The Prompt
Write About A Character In A Different Age Group
By “different age group” I mean either someone who is not the same age as you or someone of an age that you don’t normally write about. Also, you can decide to write about someone in an age band that no-one ever writes about (well hardly ever. Not ‘never’. It’s a big universe…)
Tips
Get inside the skin of the character
Don’t write ABOUT their age, just let them BE that age
How does their age affect their thoughts, reactions, physicality, the scope of the story setting?
How do other characters react to them, and is that affected by their age?
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
[Reading Room] “Ziggurat” by Stephen O’Connor
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This week I’m listening to “Ziggurat” by Stephen O’Connor, which I found on the NPR Selected Shorts podcast. (It’s read by Tim Curry who does a fantastic job. It’s worth a listen. You can find it here.)
It tells the story of what happens when the Minotaur encounters a new arrival in his Labyrinth, a computer-savvy girl who affects him an an entirely unexpected way.
It’s a wonderful example of how to take a hoary old story and make it fresh and relevant and laugh-out-loud funny — without descending into slapstick — and poignant and full of suspense without being a mystery.
The author has a light, deft hand with description. At one point the girl is teaching the Minotaur to play pool (yes, really!) balances a particular brand of pool cue on her foot and the whole thing seems as real as a dank, mythical Labyrinth can seem. When he is leading the girl somewhere (and not, to their mutual surprise, eating her) the imagery is full of eating-imagery (“gnawed through the rocks”, “digested”).
Well worth a read (>or a listen).
September 24, 2012
[Writing Prompt] Cross Dressing
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Today (and by the way, Day 25?! You’re still turning up and giving this a shot on Day 25? You amaze me!)…ahem. As I was saying. Today we’re going to try a little cross-dressing, just for fun.
The Prompt
Write A Story From The Perspective of the Opposite Gender
…and if you’re in the habit of writing from the opposite gender’s POV, feel free to take this as an opportunity to write from the perspective of your own gender for a change.
Tips
*Remember that a character of the opposite gender does things other than button up their shirts the ‘wrong’ way.
*Show us some of the interior life
*Change the speech patterns you’re tempted to use (guys don’t generally want to talk things through the way women can)
*Feel free to teach me a lesson by writing a very feminine man or a masculine woman — hey, it’s your story.
*Go more than skin deep.
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
September 23, 2012
[Writing Prompt] Mood Altering
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Today, if you normally find that your stories come out one way, try to write a different way.
The Prompt
Write Against Your Normal Type
What I mean by this is simply: if your stories are usually sombre, try to force something flippant. If you normally go for comedy, try drama. If you write romance and happy endings, kill off a hero today. If you normally write paranormal stories, today try something rooted firmly in the real world.
It may not work, you may find that it feels awful, or you may discover that you’re much, much better at writing something other than what you THOUGHT you were meant to write.
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
September 22, 2012
[Writing Prompt] Fanfic
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Yet more stealing! After stealing from actors on Friday and songrwiters yesterday, today I’m just going to advocate just plain old ripping off your favourite authors today.
The Prompt
Write a Fanfic Story
That’s it. Steal from your favorite writers, screenwriters, people in your writing group, me, whoever.
Tips
Don’t break any ‘rules’ of the world that you are writing in.
Have fun.
Don’t try to get this published. That would be a breach of the original author’s rights. Just have fun with it.
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Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
September 21, 2012
[Writing Prompt] Story Of A Song
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Today you’re going to do a little more burglary. Yesterday I encouraged you to steal from an actor, today I’m encouraging you to steal from a songwriter 1.
The Prompt
Write The Story Of A Song
Tips
There are plenty of ballads out there that tell a story from the Me & Bobby McGhee to Copacabana. Tell the story of the main characters or something that goes on in the periphery.
Other songs conjour a mood but don’t tell you the specifics (“Whiter Shade of Pale” springs to my mind)
Some songs have a strong central character that we might like to follow through another day (Maybe “Born This Way” or “Somebody That I Used To Know”)
Put the song on repeat and try to capture the mood of the song as you write.
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
Note that if you do this, it’s technically a derivative work and you can get into trouble if you decide to publish. If you want to avoid that, change the names and only ever acknowledge being ‘inspired’ by the song. If the song is an old folk song, and in the public domain, however, you’re in the clear. Publish away! ↩
[Writing Prompt] Describe A Character
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In today’s story, we’re going to focus on a very particular type of descriptive writing
The Prompt
Creating a Character Your Readers Can “See”
As you write about your character today, make sure he or she is three-dimensional. You don’t have to tell me how tall they are or whta they weigh, but paint a picture of them that is so vivid that the reader can’t help but form a mental imgae of them
Tips:
Describe the way they walk.
Have your character use a signature gesture or two.
Show how they move their body.
Allow other characters to notice things about them.
For this exercise free to steal mannerisms from an actor or a TV character (I’m thinking Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes or, perhaps even better, Martin Freeman’s long-suffering Watson).
Make your choice of words carefully: see if you can make them reflect what you are trying to convey without using adverbs (‘stalking’ instead of ‘walking quietly, like a predator’).
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
September 19, 2012
[Writing Prompt] Descriptive Writing
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These prompts are designed to help you go further with your daily story than a simple ‘idea’ might. If you’re having trouble coming up with that idea, check out the Story Sparks post.
Today we’re going to focus on your descriptive writing. Every story has some sort of description in it1.
The Prompt
Write A Story in Which Every Piece Of Description Is Designed To Elicit An Emotion In The Reader
Ideally, the emotions that you are forcing the reader to feel are the ones the protagonist is experiencing.
Go!
And when you have written your story, log in and post your success in The Victory Dance group or simply comment on this post and let the congrats come flying in.
Unless you’re writing some kind of post-modern experimental work that isn’t designed to please an audience in which case you’re excused. ↩
