Writing exercise for the day, August 5: You don't choose a story

You don’t choose a story, it chooses you. 

—Robert Penn Warren

Have you been trying to choose your story? Or have you been letting one choose you?

Get a piece of paper and a pen, even if you never write that way. Fill half the page with answers to this question. Then get back to your writing.

Exercise for the Day, August 4: A Writer's Scaffolding

I eschew a distinction between “art” and “craft” in fiction because they aren’t terms in disagreement — the craft of writing fiction supports the art. 

—Jeff VanderMeer

This quote is from Jeff VanderMeer on the Art and Science of Structuring a Novel in Electric Literature. Here's a passage from it:

What do I mean by “a writer’s scaffolding”? I mean something in addition to what seem the basics of what I need to start writing after having first thought about a story for a long time. Those basics are pretty…basic. Knowing where the story starts; a character I’ve come to know well; a sense of where the character is going (either figuratively or literally); a charged image connected to the character; and an ending, even if that ending changes before I reach it.

Set the timer for ten minutes and ask yourself if you know the answers to these basic questions for your story.

What is a "charged image connected to the character" for you? Set the timer for five minutes and put down as much as you know about this image.

Fundraiser Update Post

August 3

UPDATE: Midnight: winners chosen at $120 and $110  

In addition, a third person donated to RAICES with the request that I give a free consult to a woman who is an immigrant with a story to tell. If you know of someone who might be interested, please pass on the info. CONTACT ME form is on the right side of this page. 

Thank you so much to all who bid! 

UPDATE 5:40 pm: Bids are up to $120 and $110

UPDATE 10:40 am: Bids are up to $100 and $110

I'm offering two private consults in at Hudson Valley Writers' Center in exchange for donations to RAICES Texas. Bidding ends midnight August 3. Donations made directly to RAICES - I'll ask for winners' receipts. Use the CONTACT ME form on the right to get in touch.

Private Consults / Donations to RAICES - Bidding Ends Tomorrow!

I'm offering two private consults in at Hudson Valley Writers' Center in exchange for donations to RAICES Texas.


Bidding ends midnight August 3


Opening bid for one is $25 and for the other only $5


Please bid whatever you can afford Donations will be made directly to RAICES - all I will ask for is the receipt.


Use the CONTACT ME form on the right to get in touch.

Exercise for the day August 2: Permission to be entertaining

People want a method to the form. Mine is the unmethod method. Get a little quiet. Ask the story what it is. “I’m boring,” the story says. Then give yourself permission to be entertaining.

—George Saunders

Bad choices make good stories 

—Some T-shirt

We can sometimes be overcautious with our main characters because we want readers to like them, or because we fear their extreme behavior could somehow reflect badly on us. What if you freed yourself of that? 

For your next scene: don't write what your character would do. Write what your character's evil twin would do.

When I give this exercise, the "evil twin" scenes often start out as just an experiment but end up in the actual story. . . because it turns out they're entertaining.

Exercise for the day, July 28: Duos, trios, and ensembles

More on characters and their relationships.


How many characters are at the center of your story? Two, three, more? Just for fun, scan these lists and see if your characters fit, even loosely, with any of these tropes. What ideas can you pick up about the ways in which they're different, play off one another, bump up against one another?

Duo tropes

Power trios

Ensembles

Exercise for the day, July 27: Take a bad scene . . .

A revision exercise:

Find a "bad" scene. Something you're struggling with, that just isn't working right.

Answer the questions below:

-What is your character's motivation in this scene? (Pick one central character to answer for.)

-What specific goal goes along with this motivation? For example, if your character is motivated by a desire to forget a failed love affair, the specific goal might be to get drunk.

-Why does this matter? What happens if they don't achieve their goal?

-What changes for your character between the first sentence of this scene, and the last sentence?

-State this in your character's voice. E.g. "I'd gone into the meeting looking for a solution to one problem; but by the time I came out I had a new problem, and this one was a whole lot bigger."

I'll bet you've learned at least one new thing about your scene by doing this . . . now go rewrite!