Month: August 2011

(Today’s goal for me – write blog before painting.)

Do you know about the Hero’s Journey model of storytelling? It was popularized by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Briefly, Campbell found common mythical elements in many stories across countless cultures. (Note – the chart I’ve linked to needs to be read counter-clockwise.) Not all stories follow this pattern, of course. Some follow parts of it, others blaze their own path.

It’s fun to see how some of our most beloved stories can be analyzed for their Hero’s Journey elements. Like The Fellowship of the Ring, for example. Or Harry Potter (be sure to click through to subsequent pages). Or Bridge to Terabithia!

You see where I’m going with this, right?

Ready… watch this video about the Hero’s Journey, as seen through the television series, LOST.

Set… “If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell

Today’s prompt: Compare the structure of your current Work In Progress to the Hero’s Journey. Any gaps, holes, questions that need to be answered?

OR

Write out a fast and messy idea for a quest story. Character needs (fill in the blank) ______________, and has to go through (another blank) ____________trials and tribulations to get it. Have fun! Be absurd! The point is to think about this structure as a possible framework to hang part or all of a book on one day.

Scribble… Scribble…. Scribble…

Because, seriously, I am. Covered in paint, I mean. I have been painting for the past 10 hours. No, not an artistic masterpiece. I’m painting the mudroom.

(We gutted our house in April. It seemed like a good idea at the time. When this project is finished (current projected date: March 2057) I know I’ll be happy. Really.)

The mudroom is a lovely place because it has a floor, and most of its walls, and a little bit of electricity, and a ceiling, though that needs to be spackled. This means the mudroom is far and away the most completed room in the house. And I knew that if I didn’t get SOMETHING finished, I was in danger of losing my mind. This is why I painted for 10 hours today.

It was very therapeutic. And a good thing to do while I was waiting for the Internet to come back online.

Ready… Before your start your 15 minutes of writing today, jot down three unfinished projects in your life. Then pull out your calendar and pencil in the dates when you will finish them.

Set… “Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.” Henry Ward Beecher

Today’s prompt: This is deceptively simple. All you have to do is to write out three short lists. Don’t think about this too much; go with your gut.

List #1 – Write down your top five values.

List #2 – Write down the five things (other than sleep) that take up most of your time.

List #3 – Write down the ways that Lists 1 and 2 coincide and the ways in which they differ. What does that mean for your happiness? For your writing? What specific things can you do between now and the end of the year that will make these lists completely reflect each other?

OR – have your main character write out these lists.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

I saw a lot of early autumnal hints on my run this morning. Dark, low clouds scuttled from Lake Ontario to the Tug Hill Plateau like hungry crabs. The first small flock of geese passed overhead, either going for a test flight, or intent on getting south early so they’d have the best condo choices. A few sumac bushes have flared red and brilliant orange. The corn down the road from us is fully two feet taller than I am. And as I trudged up the driveway, a huge collection of robins had gathered on the lawn, arguing about those geese and whether they were prudent or crazy.

That is what early August feels like around here. (Attn: SCBWI conference participants… add this to the reasons of why you should move here!) Part of why I love living in the country is that it is easier to stay connected with the natural flow of the seasons than in, say, Los Angeles.

This got me thinking about how we show the passage of time in our books.

(Thinking about time always makes me long for a Weasley clock.)

The way your narrator describes the passage of time can be a wonderful tool that will show your readers how the narrator’s mind works, and give a sense of that person’s world. If you find ways to mark time other than the conventional “two weeks later,” or “On Monday,” or “after several hours,” you can create a much more interesting story, and sneak in contextual clues.

The early drafts of SPEAK were loaded with the conventional time markers. So much so that my editor gently suggested that I find a more creative way to let readers know that time was passing. That’s when I hit on the idea of using school holidays as a marker; those chapters that are built around Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day were all inserted to help the reader figure out where Melinda was in the school year. (The use of semester breaks and report cards had been in the story from the first draft.)

Ready… Yes, that is Autumn tapping her watch and telling you to get a move on. Winter is lined up right behind her.

Set… “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” Stephen King

Today’s prompt: How does your character measure the passage of time? The seconds? The hours? The days and years? Does she measure the time it takes for her mother to get out of bed on Saturdays by the number of cartoons she gets to watch? Or does she mark the days of the week according to what is being served in the cafeteria? List as many as you can in fifteen minutes.

OR!! Come up with a list of creative ways that YOU secretly measure time! What do they say about you?

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

I am reading The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich (which I recommend highly, btw!) and am struck by the layers and layers of storytelling that Louise presents to the reader and the number of narrators of these layered stories.

Louise nests these stories one inside the other with incredible skill. (I have no idea exactly how she does it, so don’t be waiting for a blog post about it) One of the many things I like about her style is her use of narrators from different time periods, narrators who are usually related to each other.

And then I realized that this was the foundation for a great WFMAD prompt!

Ready… Dig out a family album and locate a photo of someone from an earlier generation. It’s best if you don’t know too much about this person. OR Use this Google image search to find a photo that touches a nerve with you, for whatever reason. You’ll keep this photo in front of you as you write.

Set… “Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” Stephen King

Today’s prompt: Launch from that photo and write for fifteen minutes. Start with a family story, if you want, but do NOT tell the official version of the story. Make up the unofficial version, the one that your character in the photo knows. Let the voice of someone you know, but you don’t know, carry away your imagination. Bonus points – find a way to weave this person and his story into your Work In Progress!

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble…

If you are writing a plot-driven book, one in which the main character’s journey is largely a response to exterior forces (Harry Potter, Hunger Games) then you will rarely be at a loss to decide what kind of action a scene can contain.

(CAVEAT – except for when you hit those “quiet” scenes that pacing requires every once in a while. At that point, you’ll want to pay attention to the rest of this post.)

Character-driven novels (Speak, Wintergirls) have fewer Big Dramatic Externally-Driven Turns of Plot. And more scenes in which the characters move the story forward by dialog. However, page after page of dialog with little action sends a lot of readers to sleep. (Barry Lyga and I have an ongoing disagreement about this, btw. Ask him about it the next time you see him.)

image copyright Anita Kunz

My argument is that talking heads on the page are just as boring as talking heads on Sunday morning talk shows. More importantly, they are a missed opportunity. With a just a few lines of action, you can add layers of depth to a scene. Likewise the strategic insertion of a character’s thoughts, or timely setting or sensory details. Why would you chose to portray a scene like this in one color when you have the entire palette at your fingertips?

Ready… This is Week 2. Before you start writing, give a gentle reminder to anyone who might interrupt you that all you are asking for is fifteen minutes of peace and quiet. And that you deserve it.

Set… “Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.” Saul Alinsky

Today’s prompt: Write down five scenes in which your character will engage another with a great deal of dialog. Quickly jot down what the purpose of the dialog is, and how it will move the story forward. (This should only take a line or two.)

Then for each scene, try to come up with an action that the characters can engage in while talking to each other. For example: grocery shopping, trying on pants at the mall, looking for lost homework in an overstuffed locker. Extra bonus points if you can come up with an idea for the action that will give the reader further insight into the personalities or lives of one or more of the characters.

Scribble… Scribble… Scribble