Writing prompt for the day: Morally questionable

Read

 "My First Goose" by Isaac Babel


Write

Set the timer for fifteen minutes. Show your main character doing something morally questionable.

Prompt for the day: Question and answer

Read 

This is the same great story from a couple of days ago, looked at from another angle.

"Lather and Nothing Else" by Hernando Tellez (very short)

Here's an example of one of the most simple kinds of plot. A question is posed in the beginning and not answered until the end. That's all it takes to pull us through and make the narrative feel like it has forward motion.

Notice how the writer takes his time getting to the answer, yet each paragraph takes us closer--he doesn't go off in another direction.

In one of my classes recently someone brought up the question of "changing the subject" in a narrative--moving away from something that has emotional heat, and is maybe difficult to write about.  It's pretty clear where the emotional heat is located in this story, and the author never really moves away from it or changes the subject. At the same time, you could legitimately call this a quiet, slow, or subtle story.

Write

Set the timer for fifteen minutes and write a scene in which a question is posed in the beginning and not answered until the end. This could be something as simple as whether the main character gets a sandwich she's hungry for, or it could be something bigger. 

Prompt for the day: Iceburg

Read

The very short story "The Old Man at the Bridge" by Ernest Hemingway

One of the pleasures of reading Hemingway is the sense of power under the surface. There's always much unsaid, but you can feel it. Do you think that's true here? What is it?

Note the difference between being vague about something, vs. leaving it unstated yet letting its emotional power seep through every pore of the story.


Write

2 Options for prompt:

1) Set the timer for fifteen minutes. Write a conversation in which something remains unsaid.

OR

2) Do the classic John Gardner exercise: Describe a lake as seen by a young man who has just committed murder. Do not mention the murder.

Prompt for the day: Slow . . . way . . . down . . .

Read

"Lather and Nothing Else" by Hernando Tellez

As writers, we sometimes find ourselves worrying about boring the reader, and as a result, rushing forward from one plot point or bit of action to the next. (This varies a lot depending on when and where you came of age as a writer! But I have see it a lot in my classes.) In this short piece, the entire story takes place in one long . . . slow . . . scene.

And yet somehow there was no chance that I was going to get bored and stop reading this.

(It also reminds me of Lee Child's secret of suspense: Pose a question and make the reader wait for the answer. That's it--the whole secret.)


Write
Think of the next scene you want to work on. Set the timer for fifteen minutes and start, but slow . . . way . . . down . . .

What did this do to your scene? Did it add anything interesting, did it seem to make it too slow . . . ?

"The Tell-Tale Heart," by Edgar Allan Poe & POV Exercise

This week in my classes we've been discussing "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. Great, classic unreliable narrator story. So short. Takes 5 minutes to read. Perfect for Halloween season.

Note how he addresses the reader-- trying to convince us of something. Are you convinced by the end? Note how he tells you one thing (that he's perfectly sane! sane, I tell you!) and shows another. 

Even though we are only seeing through his POV--and never through anyone else's POV-- he shows us something that he himself does not know. (How batshit crazy he is.) 

I can't emphasize enough how handy this is to remember when you are inside your character's POV: You can show us things your character does not know.

Exercise: Set the timer for 15 minutes. Writing from your main character's point of view, show us something your character is not aware of. 

The closest thing to a rule

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. 

—Somerset Maugham (probably)

--


Some thoughts I wrote for a student recently:


If you ever feel your story going down a rabbit hole of wordplay, experimental formatting, layered storytelling . . . pull back and remember that while this can be fun, you don't don’t want it to eclipse the heart of the story. We turn the page because we want to know what happens to a character we care about. It really boils down to that. There really aren’t many rules for writing fiction, but this comes closest to being a universal rule: We turn the page because we want to know what happens to a character we care about.

Yes, there can also be a second and third character we care about.

We don’t have to always like the characters or agree with them. (Just as we don’t always like or agree with the people we care about in real life!)

The world in which they’re operating doesn’t have to be our world, or realistic, though we do have to know the rules of your particular world . . . so we can understand what’s happening to that character we care about.

The characters don’t have to be human: they can be nonhuman animals, spirits, mechanical beings . . .

But we have to believe in them, feel them as 3-dimensional so that it matters to us what happens to them.

Year of Your Book fiction class at Hudson Valley Writers' Center

New sessions starting 10/31 and 11/5


Year of Your Book
Hudson Valley Writers' Center
Wednesdays 10:15 to 12:15
Oct. 31 through Dec. 7
$320

This class is for fiction writers at all stages, including beginners, who are working on a short story collection or a novel. Everyone is welcome!


Advanced Year of Your Book
Hudson Valley Writers' Center
Mondays 10:30 to 12:30
November 5 through December 10
$320

This class is for fiction writers who have a draft, or most of a draft, of a story collection or novel. Must apply with ten-page sample. See link above for details.