This week’s Booking Through Thursday meme deals with female main characters:

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

For today’s exercise, pick a female lead who captures your imagination and free-write for ten minutes about why you find her so fascinating. What aspects of character make her so intriguing? What about the writer’s style draws you in to her trials and travails?

The next time you read a book or story that you really don’t like (or, if you can think of one you read recently or remember well, go ahead and use that), sit down and fill at least two sides of a sheet of paper (or set a timer for 15-30 minutes) and dissect not just what you didn’t like about it, but how you would go about improving on it.

If you think the characters are flat, how would you make them interesting? If the characters take actions to further the plot that make no sense for them, how would you alter the plot or create a justification for those actions? If the author brought up a plot point and then dropped it again without resolution, how would you either excise that plot or, better yet, bring it full circle and complete it? If the book’s climax lacks punch, how would you amp up the tension? If the pacing of the action is off, how would you improve it?

These are the sorts of things it can be difficult to do to your own work because you’re so close to it and have difficulty seeing it from any sort of distance. Sometimes it’s much easier to learn on other people’s work and then apply the same techniques to your own. A great way to do this is through critique groups or workshops, but if you don’t have access to those, you can try this method instead.

Write “hope” and “despair” at the tops of two sheets of paper–one word per sheet. Under each, list and/or free-write anything you associate with that term, or which you feel could be used to thematically represent it. Try to fill each sheet completely without stopping. When you’re done, look through both sheets and try to find one item, thought, or image from each that particularly appeals to you or strikes you. Work both of these into a single piece of work: a short story, a poem, a piece of artwork, a journal entry, an essay, or an article. Try to contrast them in some way, or use them to offset each other.

Today I have another quote from Michael Michalko’s second edition of Thinkertoys (reviewed):

In Greek, the word dialogue means a “talking through.” The Greeks believed that the key to establishing dialogue is to exchange ideas without trying to change someone’s mind. This is not the same as discussion, which from its Latin root means to “dash to pieces.” The basic rules of dialogue for the Greeks were: “don’t argue,” “don’t interrupt,” and “listen carefully.”

Today, treat every conversation–including those you hold online–as though it fell under the old Greek definition of a dialogue. Force yourself not to argue or interrupt. Listen carefully to those you speak with. Offer up your thoughts and ideas for consideration without attempting to convert or change the minds of others. Treat those you speak with as your equals in conversation and examine their opinions accordingly.

At the end of the day, write about your experiences. How easy or difficult was this? How well did you succeed? How did it change the dynamics of your conversations? What did you learn from it?

When writing a story from a character’s perspective–whether in the first- or third-person point-of-view–it’s important to see things as that character sees them, and to understand that this character will see things a little differently (sometimes a lot differently!) than everyone else in the story will–and differently than you would. One of the most popular ways to play with this is through the use of the Rashomon effect, whereby you tell a tale through the eyes of several characters. The accounts differ in certain contradictory ways, and yet because of the vagaries of perception they are all true.

Technorati Tags: cats, journaling, perception, prompts, perspective, write, writers, writing

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Yesterday I posted the following video to my blog:

Watch it and think about the difference between perception and reality. Journal about that difference, free-write about the concept (or wherever it takes you), or write a short story in which the difference between perception and reality plays a key role.

Technorati Tags: free-writing, journaling, prompts, videos, write, writers, writing

In “Novelist’s Boot Camp,” author Todd Stone tells us, “When you’re done with your dialogue, what you have is counterfeit speech that feels more authentic than real speech. When you’re done with your description, what you have is an invented, counterfeit perception–using all of the senses–of reality that feels more real than reality itself.” He’s talking about the need to craft description out of carefully-chosen details, rather than simply taking a camera-real snapshot of your setting.

Today, look around the room you’re writing in. Free-write a list of descriptors–adjectives, phrases, etc–anything you might say to describe that setting. Go through that list and circle the particularly memorable or interesting ones, or the ones that you think best represent your environment or what it means to you. Cross out anything dull or uninspired, or that duplicates information conveyed already by a more interesting piece of description.

Finally, use what you have in a carefully-crafted prose description of your environment.

Technorati Tags: free-writing, journaling, Novelist’s Boot Camp, prompts, Todd A. Stone, write, writers, writing

The writing community is fairly split on the matter of writing exercises. Some folks swear by them while others swear at them. Why the strong division? Well, there are some great benefits you can get from writers’ exercises, but there are also some real problems inherent in how they get used. So here’s a brief analysis of the pros and cons of these exercises, as well as some tips for making sure you use them to enhance your work–rather than allowing them to use you.

Pros:

• Well-crafted writers’ exercises, such as those from Brian Kiteley’s The 3 A.M. Epiphany, can teach you elements of style in a way that’s easier to internalize and remember than simple dry instruction.

• Free-writing can teach you to let go of the judgmental part of yourself that can prevent your most imaginative and creative ideas from coming out.
• Writing in response to unusual prompts can spur you to come up with ideas you might never think of otherwise.
• An exercise can serve as an excellent warm-up first thing in the morning when you’re having trouble getting yourself to set pen to paper.
• If you haven’t yet figured out what you want to work on, exercises can help you pour out your thoughts onto paper, giving you a chance to find out what’s percolating in your mind and how you might turn it into something interesting through writing.
• Exercises aimed at journaling rather than fiction-writing can help you to work through problems and issues you’re having in your life, while at the same time giving you potential material to create lifelike and interesting characters for stories, or for memoir-writing.

Technorati Tags: journaling, free-writing, write, writers, writing

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Today, fill at least one side of a sheet of paper by free-writing an answer to the following question: What is a plot? Get as weird, as random, or as crazy as you like. Then, after you’re done, take a look at these other folks’ interpretations of what a plot is:

• The elements of plot development

• Wikipedia on Plot
• What is a “Story”?

Pope - Art Not Chance Dark T-Shirt

Technorati Tags: books, prompts, plots, write, writers, writing

I believe most people who visit this blog for writers’ exercises, prompts, and warm-ups already know what free-writing is and how to do it. However, just in case, I thought it would be nice to put a brief post up for those few who might not.
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