http://litreactor.com/essays/chuck-palahniuk/nuts-and-bolts-%E2%80%9Cthought%E2%80%9D-verbs
Chuck Palahniuk puts into very clear words what it means to show (instead of telling) while writing stories. Brilliant stuff.
8/12/13 Meeting Recap
Prompt for next week:
Take mythos (like Greek, Norse, Chinese mythology, what have you) and rewrite a piece of mythos you choose into a poem or a prose in modern day context.
Welcome aboard, Shane! Our guest today gave us an excellent story to read.
Teachable/Activity:
We wrote complete two-sentence horror story.
My horror story:
"Did you know that sweet old lady who was killed in a car accident?" asked a grandson. His grandmother replied, "Yes, I made sure she died."
It helps you exercise you to be concise in a very short form. Such limitation inspires creativity and brings out horrible side of you. Muahahaha!
Take mythos (like Greek, Norse, Chinese mythology, what have you) and rewrite a piece of mythos you choose into a poem or a prose in modern day context.
Welcome aboard, Shane! Our guest today gave us an excellent story to read.
Teachable/Activity:
We wrote complete two-sentence horror story.
My horror story:
"Did you know that sweet old lady who was killed in a car accident?" asked a grandson. His grandmother replied, "Yes, I made sure she died."
It helps you exercise you to be concise in a very short form. Such limitation inspires creativity and brings out horrible side of you. Muahahaha!
8/5/13 Meeting Recap
Prompt for next week:
Take a cue from Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, which tells a single narrative in ninety-nine ways, and write a poem based on what happened just after you got up this morning. Then use one or more of these filters to revise the poem:
Take a cue from Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style, which tells a single narrative in ninety-nine ways, and write a poem based on what happened just after you got up this morning. Then use one or more of these filters to revise the poem:
- onomatopoeia (integrating the sounds of your morning into the language of its telling),
- litotes (a supremely understated start to the day),
- overstatement (embellishing every detail),
- olfactory (emphasizing the morning's smells),
- tactile (emphasizing the morning's physical feel),
- gustatory (emphasizing the morning's particular taste).
7/15/13 Meeting Recap
Activity:
Write two pieces for 10 minutes each, freestyle.
Take what you wrote from activity and write it into a story. It could be an idea, phrase, a character, a setting, or a sentence you wrote in your activity. However you like.
Write two pieces for 10 minutes each, freestyle.
- A man starts on his journey
- A stranger walks into a town
Take what you wrote from activity and write it into a story. It could be an idea, phrase, a character, a setting, or a sentence you wrote in your activity. However you like.
Andrew Stanton: The Clues to a Great Story
Have you wondered how Pixar has become well-known for great story-telling in cinema realm?
7/8/13 Meeting Recap
Prompt for next week:
No dialogue. (Or for those who never done a dialogue before or who are challenged by it, could do the dialogue.)
Activity:
Write a one-line opening to a short bit of fiction. Hand it to the person on your left. Then write a single line to end a story. Hand it to the person on your right. Then, with the two lines you've been given, write the in-between.
No dialogue. (Or for those who never done a dialogue before or who are challenged by it, could do the dialogue.)
Activity:
Write a one-line opening to a short bit of fiction. Hand it to the person on your left. Then write a single line to end a story. Hand it to the person on your right. Then, with the two lines you've been given, write the in-between.
7/1/13 Meeting Recap
The prompt for next week:
Pick any two people in any room. One says, "I don't like what you're doing." Continue the drama without revealing the relationship of the two people.
Today, we did a creative kick. On little pieces of papers, we each wrote a bunch of random stuff:
Pick any two people in any room. One says, "I don't like what you're doing." Continue the drama without revealing the relationship of the two people.
Today, we did a creative kick. On little pieces of papers, we each wrote a bunch of random stuff:
- A generic character
- A specific character
- A location
- A random thing
- An event
- A conflict
6/24/13 meeting recap
Next monday's prompt: Take a story you've already written and write it from a different perspective. Another characters voice, a different tense, or take a third person story and let one of your characters tell it in their own words. Have fun!
Perspective and tense.
Perspective and tense.
We did a little experimentation on monday to see how writing in different tenses and perspectives change the way that we write. While there are formally dozens of perspectives and tenses, we only looked at a few. And each presented it's own flavor.
Present tense: Leads to more "blow by blow" story telling. It's more engaging, because we tend to be learning things as characters are learning of them. Works well for building suspense, or for doing a quick switch of expectations for humor.
Past Tense: Can be very similar to present tense, as though the story is commenting on events just after they happen; particularly in a third person perspective. A first person perspective makes it much easier to give a sense of distance between the teller and the events. Which works well to put the reader in a place where the narrator knows more about the way the story unfolds than they do.
Future Tense: This one gets confusing quickly, but has a definite purpose. We imagined a short story told in reverse. The events of the story are laid out in detail to the reader, and at the end the unsuspecting protagonist steps into the first event of the story. Excellent for creating a twist and making a story that you just have to read a second time.
6/17/13 Once Upon A Meeting
Once upon a time at Boulder Cafe, half of the writers couldn't make the meeting. The rest who could come, played two rounds of the awesome fun game Once Upon A Time after they read a couple prompts from last week. The prompts are now postponed to next week so that the writers who did not write will have a chance to and hopefully more will feel better by then.
What is the game Once Upon A Time? According to its publisher:
What is the game Once Upon A Time? According to its publisher:
Tell your own fantastic tales of brave heroes and daring adventure!Want to see how it plays out? There is one of two ways you can do: 1) Come to Write Club and play! -OR- 2) Watch the Youtube video of the TV nerd Wil Wheaton play with his friends.
Once Upon a Time is the award-winning storytelling card game that encourages creativity and collaborative play. One player is the Storyteller, and begins telling a story using the fairytale elements on her Story cards, guiding the plot toward her Ending Card. The other players use their own cards to interrupt her and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to use all her Story Cards and play her Ending Card. The object of the game, though, isn't just to win, but to have fun telling a story together.
6/10/13 Meeting Recap
Hello, Fellow Writers!
For those who haven't finished their prompts from last week, please finish them! Rest of us would love to hear what you wrote.
For the teachable moment, we did some hilarious and fun interactive exercise. We each had a piece of paper and we wrote an opening line. Then we passed it onto the person on our left and we wrote correspondingly to the opening line that was written from the person from our right. Then we fold back the first line so that the next person could only see what we just wrote. We passed it again to the person on left and repeated. Twice we went in circle. How our pieces written by everyone in the circle were hilarious.
So as for the prompt for next week, transcribe your piece from this exercise on the Google Drive by Wednesday. So then, we can take any of the pieces and spin it into a story however we like.
For those who haven't finished their prompts from last week, please finish them! Rest of us would love to hear what you wrote.
For the teachable moment, we did some hilarious and fun interactive exercise. We each had a piece of paper and we wrote an opening line. Then we passed it onto the person on our left and we wrote correspondingly to the opening line that was written from the person from our right. Then we fold back the first line so that the next person could only see what we just wrote. We passed it again to the person on left and repeated. Twice we went in circle. How our pieces written by everyone in the circle were hilarious.
So as for the prompt for next week, transcribe your piece from this exercise on the Google Drive by Wednesday. So then, we can take any of the pieces and spin it into a story however we like.
6/3/13 Meeting Recap
We got a new guest today! Welcome, Andy. And welcome again, Sam!
The rules of Write Club are updated so please check them out. Click on the "Rules of Write Club" on top. Remember, anyone can join. All that is required is a desire to write and learn how to improve.
Please check your availability or preference on meeting during the week. Follow the link here to figure out when is best to meet for all of us. Feel free to forward it along to people who want to be a part of write club.( Link )
The discussion on last week's prompt was great. Each of us had our own unique way of thinking and writing when we were in transit. One was in the subway, one on a skateboard, one on walking in the office, and rest were in the car.
Different kinds of transits may spur different kinds of thoughts or process. It may depend on the mood of the day or different places.
The prompt for next week is:
Write a story where nothing takes place outside of one small room. You can describe the interior of the room, but refrain from describing anything outside of it. Take note of how this restriction forces you to rely on certain techniques of storytelling.
The roles for next week are:
Parsnip - Simon
Teachable and prompt - Jenn
If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please fill out the "Contact Write Club" on the right side. Thanks.
The rules of Write Club are updated so please check them out. Click on the "Rules of Write Club" on top. Remember, anyone can join. All that is required is a desire to write and learn how to improve.
Please check your availability or preference on meeting during the week. Follow the link here to figure out when is best to meet for all of us. Feel free to forward it along to people who want to be a part of write club.( Link )
The discussion on last week's prompt was great. Each of us had our own unique way of thinking and writing when we were in transit. One was in the subway, one on a skateboard, one on walking in the office, and rest were in the car.
Different kinds of transits may spur different kinds of thoughts or process. It may depend on the mood of the day or different places.
The prompt for next week is:
Write a story where nothing takes place outside of one small room. You can describe the interior of the room, but refrain from describing anything outside of it. Take note of how this restriction forces you to rely on certain techniques of storytelling.
The roles for next week are:
Parsnip - Simon
Teachable and prompt - Jenn
If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please fill out the "Contact Write Club" on the right side. Thanks.
5/27/13 Meeting Recap
Hello, Fellow Writers!
We had two guests this week, Luc and his friend. Yay! Welcome.
For teachable/exercise (Alex), we did "Sensory" writing. Using five senses, we wrote our experiences on a shared item: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Honey Mint. Everyone wrote differently and it was interesting in getting to know each mind.
It is a great tool to use to flesh out the characters or plots by relating to things in sensory experience. It helps tell the flow of consciousnesses, events, characterization, etc. for the readers to get to know them.
For the prompt for the following Monday (June 3rd),
Write about a time when you were in transit of some kind—on a train, plane, bus, or bike, in a car or even on foot. Write about where you were going and why, and focus on what you were thinking, seeing, and feeling as you moved. In literature of every genre, some of the most interesting reflection takes place in transit.
Hey, kinda like the sensory writing exercise!
Have a great weekend! And bring a friend to Write Club. For the rules, please read "The Rules of Write Club."
We had two guests this week, Luc and his friend. Yay! Welcome.
For teachable/exercise (Alex), we did "Sensory" writing. Using five senses, we wrote our experiences on a shared item: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Honey Mint. Everyone wrote differently and it was interesting in getting to know each mind.
It is a great tool to use to flesh out the characters or plots by relating to things in sensory experience. It helps tell the flow of consciousnesses, events, characterization, etc. for the readers to get to know them.
For the prompt for the following Monday (June 3rd),
Write about a time when you were in transit of some kind—on a train, plane, bus, or bike, in a car or even on foot. Write about where you were going and why, and focus on what you were thinking, seeing, and feeling as you moved. In literature of every genre, some of the most interesting reflection takes place in transit.
Hey, kinda like the sensory writing exercise!
Have a great weekend! And bring a friend to Write Club. For the rules, please read "The Rules of Write Club."
5/23/13 Meeting Recap
Hello, fellow writers!
Some changes are being made in case if you missed the meeting this week or forgot.
I have been appointed as the Scribe. My job is write recaps on the blog after the meeting on the same day and send a reminder on Thursday or Friday regarding prompt and roles for the following Monday. Also, I have given permission to re-design the blog! It's exciting.
From next week on, as long as the sun is out to warm us, we might meet outside. We have yet to pick a location and we can decide when we meet again. For now, let's meet at Barnes and Noble.
Alex will make Google Groups and Calendar as to write discussions in one place and to assign & remind us the rotating roles we have weekly. The roles include:
Write at least seven sentences that only contain six or seven words each. So for examples from Seven at the Sevens,
This prompt is a form of restricted writing and it forces your to use your brain differently which can kick start creativity. In this form, you have limited words to put together an entire story. Ernest Hemmingway started with this: "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." That's the teachable moment.
Some changes are being made in case if you missed the meeting this week or forgot.
I have been appointed as the Scribe. My job is write recaps on the blog after the meeting on the same day and send a reminder on Thursday or Friday regarding prompt and roles for the following Monday. Also, I have given permission to re-design the blog! It's exciting.
From next week on, as long as the sun is out to warm us, we might meet outside. We have yet to pick a location and we can decide when we meet again. For now, let's meet at Barnes and Noble.
Alex will make Google Groups and Calendar as to write discussions in one place and to assign & remind us the rotating roles we have weekly. The roles include:
- Parsnip Base
- Teachable
- Prompt
- (Are there any more?)
Write at least seven sentences that only contain six or seven words each. So for examples from Seven at the Sevens,
- "Always on schedule but still misses deadlines." - Adair Willow
- "Creative writing, feels like holding your breath." - Kent Ethan Clarke
- "Cell phone died. So did social life." - Lime Anderson
- "Going against the gran smooths the surface." - Lime Anderson
- "I'm recyclable. Been used over and over." - Lime Anderson
- "I wish someone could proofread my life." - Adair Willow
- "Making money was an impossible career goal." - Uncommon Bostonian
This prompt is a form of restricted writing and it forces your to use your brain differently which can kick start creativity. In this form, you have limited words to put together an entire story. Ernest Hemmingway started with this: "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn." That's the teachable moment.
3/18/13 Meeting Recap
Next weeks Prompt: Write a story that opens with your main character doing something that is completely antithetical to his or her personality. Let the story be about how this character came to do what he or she did.
Roles for next week:
Prompt Discussion: Antithesis
Teachable: Domo Panda with Blog Design
Prompt Bringer: (Shoot, I don't remember! this is why I should write this down!)
QuoteMaster: Alex Turner (I'll experiment with this, it's fun but I don't know that we need to complicate this any more... :P )
Prompt Discussion: Talked about our description pieces, mostly focused on tone & diction. Lots of excellent writing, but not necessarily potential for standalone stories (except for Jn, whose book hijacked her brain while she was writing.) A good opportunity to stretch ourselves into territory we're not comfortable with.
Teachable: Speed writing Fantasy Critters
Marine Cat-spiders, flowy death dragons, and Clifford the big black luck-puppy.
Roles for next week:
Prompt Discussion: Antithesis
Teachable: Domo Panda with Blog Design
Prompt Bringer: (Shoot, I don't remember! this is why I should write this down!)
QuoteMaster: Alex Turner (I'll experiment with this, it's fun but I don't know that we need to complicate this any more... :P )
Prompt Discussion: Talked about our description pieces, mostly focused on tone & diction. Lots of excellent writing, but not necessarily potential for standalone stories (except for Jn, whose book hijacked her brain while she was writing.) A good opportunity to stretch ourselves into territory we're not comfortable with.
Teachable: Speed writing Fantasy Critters
Marine Cat-spiders, flowy death dragons, and Clifford the big black luck-puppy.
3/4/13 Meeting Recap
Write Prompt for next week:
Kaylee immediately captures the audiences heart as the cute, plucky ships mechanic by being cheerful, and saying quirky things (Everything's Shiny, cap!)
Write for twenty minutes, without stopping, a piece of pure description about something you see (a person, a scene, or an object in the room). No dialogue, no metaphor, no emotion; just pure description, as detailed as possible. Then write, nonstop, for another twenty minutes about the same subject, but this time use only speculation—imagine the subject's thoughts, perceptions, emotions, inner, or outward dialogue, etc.—and/or your own thoughts and observations about the subject. Combine the two pieces, and see what kind of story comes to life.
Discussion From Last Weeks Prompt:
We read everyone's perspective pieces, and surprisingly enough, nobody stepped on anyone's toes! It was very interesting to imagine the characters interacting with one another, (and at times they nearly did, and it worked!)
Teachable from this week:
We read a passage from Lord of the Rings quoting Faramir and started a discussion about:
Introducing a Character and Getting an immediate reader connection:
We started with what Tolkien does well:
- Faramir values peace and beauty (both intrinsically valuable) in a world that values glory
- Faramir is fair, and just, and patient, and humble. And he makes that clear using trigger words and phrases, and is put to the test early and often during his brief stint in the book
- Faramir has a well developed foil (character to contrast against) in his Brother Borimir, who is a prime example of everything Gondor values (Glory in Battle, Strength, Rash Bravery)
This makes him very likable and makes his character valuable to the reader, and as a target for consequences. It sounds cruel, but we need to have characters that readers like so we can feel the weight of consequences when they suffer. And if it's in the beginning of our stories or near the end, we have to introduce them very quickly.
Then we started discussing the case of wanting to make a character un-likable (much harder to do).
- Making them Cruel or obnoxious is one way.
- Cowardice, unless it's funny, is a sure winner. Brave villans are admirable (Javert), cowardly ones are detestable (Commodus in Gladiator)
- Have them attack a likable character
- Have them ridicule a relate-able flaw in another character. (Snapping at someone for being reasonably late to a meeting)
You can hinge your whole narrative around a character in the beginning, and set the stage for who to like and who not to, and who is good and bad:
A Well presented case study: The Pilot Episode of Firefly
Kaylee immediately captures the audiences heart as the cute, plucky ships mechanic by being cheerful, and saying quirky things (Everything's Shiny, cap!)
-You like Book because he is convinced to go with Serenity by Kaylee's love of her baby (the ship that is)
-You learn to dislike Jayne because he insults her.
-You learn to like Mal because he defends her from Jayne
-The stakes are raised when she (as an innocent bystander) is shot by the Fed agent, obviously he is super Bad dude.
-You learn to like Jayne a little more because underneath that mean, crusty mercenary exterior is a extremely competent, brutal mercenary, and underneath that is a big softie that really cares about Kaylee's well being.
- And so on!
2/25/13 Meeting recap
Next weeks prompt: Write a scene that connects back to This One from the perspective of another character. You're not limited to the time that piece covers, but be sure to link back to it. A few direct quotes will probably help.
2/19/13 Meeting Recap
Next Week's Prompt: Dialogue Prompt recycle!
Teachable on the Prompt:
It's been a few months, we've got some new faces, and as we heard from Jn, this is a really valuable skill for anyone who wants to get a lot of ideas down on paper fast (Nanowrimo style.) You should check out the original post that talks about what we learned last time we did this.
We've focused a lot on constraints that force us to be hyper-creative with our diction these last few weeks, which is an excellent skill to develop. However, I wanted to get us back into thinking about characters & story telling for a while. This prompt in particular allows scenes to write themselves. All you're allowed to think about is "what will they say next" which leads to the setting, characters, plot and action all getting distilled down to only the stuff that's worth having your characters talk about it. Using these kinds of tools can limit Tolkein-esqu exposition (beautiful when done correctly, boring if done wrong) and grab your readers with the details that they care about because your characters care about them.
Also for your enlightenment and entertainment, I present to you: They're Made of Meat - Terry Bisson
Teachable on the Prompt:
It's been a few months, we've got some new faces, and as we heard from Jn, this is a really valuable skill for anyone who wants to get a lot of ideas down on paper fast (Nanowrimo style.) You should check out the original post that talks about what we learned last time we did this.
We've focused a lot on constraints that force us to be hyper-creative with our diction these last few weeks, which is an excellent skill to develop. However, I wanted to get us back into thinking about characters & story telling for a while. This prompt in particular allows scenes to write themselves. All you're allowed to think about is "what will they say next" which leads to the setting, characters, plot and action all getting distilled down to only the stuff that's worth having your characters talk about it. Using these kinds of tools can limit Tolkein-esqu exposition (beautiful when done correctly, boring if done wrong) and grab your readers with the details that they care about because your characters care about them.
Also for your enlightenment and entertainment, I present to you: They're Made of Meat - Terry Bisson
02/04/13 Meeting Recap
Next weeks Prompt: Write a new piece or re-write one of your old pieces as a lipogram or using some other type of highly restricted writing (see below for details).
Challenge Mode: Write using prisoners case- no letters with ascenders or descenders.
Prompt from last week: Found Names Character Sketch
Our assignment was to find a name, fictional or otherwise, and use it to create a short character sketch. The personality and traits of our character would develop solely from the name itself, and the context in which we found it. We ended up using names we found in homework articles, old books, graffiti, broken signs, and other mediums. The characters that came out of these 'found names' were varied, and most even seemed to take on some characteristics quite different from their own authors.
Teachable moment brought to you by Jenn! Restricted Writing!
Challenge Mode: Write using prisoners case- no letters with ascenders or descenders.
Prompt from last week: Found Names Character Sketch
Our assignment was to find a name, fictional or otherwise, and use it to create a short character sketch. The personality and traits of our character would develop solely from the name itself, and the context in which we found it. We ended up using names we found in homework articles, old books, graffiti, broken signs, and other mediums. The characters that came out of these 'found names' were varied, and most even seemed to take on some characteristics quite different from their own authors.
Teachable moment brought to you by Jenn! Restricted Writing!
This is one of Jenn's favorite techniques when she gets into a writing rut. To put it simply, restricted writing is any writing done to conform to a set of rules. A sonnet or a haiku would count as would acrostic poetry. We discussed lipograms in more specific detail. Lipograms are written by choosing to not use words that contain one or more specific letters. Jenn wrote her character sketch in this form as an example. We also discussed and read a few passages from George Perec's book A Void which dances around the letter E but never uses it. It is rarely possible to simply substitute words for synonyms when attempting a lipogram. This forces the writer to use different words and modify sentence structure as well.
1/28/13 Write Club Reboot!
Next weeks Prompt: Character Sketch inspired by a found name. (Cemeteries, or movie credits, or broken bowling alley signs... for example)
Challenge mode: make it fit your setting?
Prompt from last week: Write a setting 250-500 words
We went over our assignments, and discussed the narrative tools we used to make our settings more than just word pictures.
-Use emotional reactions to the setting to tell the reader what is being felt
-Use senses other than sight (definitely do this!)
-Present the reader with cues that may powerfully trigger other memories (either in line with your scene or to jarringly contrast with it)
-Use analogies (metaphors & similes) to give life to descriptions.
Simile: ...groaned underfoot, as though it had just been awoken.
Metaphor: ...groaned, just awoken as it passed underfoot.
A little futher: ...now sleepily groaning under the foot of man.
Metaphor, as a rule is much more active, and gives more life to the thing (gravel in this case) that you are comparing. In my actual text I chose to go beyond metaphor to anthropomorphize (attribute human qualities to) the gravel. Simile allows for comparisons of much more dissimilar things without being confusing. Consider this old saw:
Simile: That idea went over like a lead balloon
Metaphore: That idea was a lead balloon.
Teachable moment brought to you by Jenn!
We discussed using a three act structure (largely from script writing and theory) in conjunction with non-linear plot lines. The original blog post from which Jenn found the idea is here. The script writing and 3 part story structure tools came from Save the Cat! The most important concepts are that all stories can be broken into a beginning, middle and end. Call it introduction, rising action and conclusion or whatever technical terms you like but this is always the basic pattern to a tale (even non-fiction). Most stories play out with increasing tension towards a resolution but sometimes this can be best accomplished best by describing the pieces out of order. This is often the case when the author wants to convey not how something happened but WHY. Non-linear timelines work well for situations like time-travel (shocking, I know), memory, or multiple characters experiencing the same events in parallel. A few of the non-linear examples that came up included The Things They Carried, Momento, Run Lola Run, Dracula, Slaughterhouse 5, Catch 22 and Cloud Atlas. There were also a few web comics mentioned (with names I don't remember). We also read "The Continuity of Parks" by Julio Cortazar.
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