Some people love them, others hate them. I like them when they cause me to think harder about my project and realize something I haven’t thought of before. Here’s a simple exercise we used last night at Write Night.
1. Write 50 facts about your protagonist.
2. Choose one statement. (Close your eyes and point, or pick a fave.) Write a scene to demonstrate/explore/expand on the statement.
3. Choose a statement that surprised you or two statements that seem to contradict each other and write a scene about it or them.
My list started with the obvious and progressed to things I hadn’t fully realized. I’d intended #2 to be a warm up, but I ended up with useful material. I thought #3 would be the clincher, but for my WIP, I’ve already made a good start on exploring this idea, so I simply enhanced it.
Self Promotion
9 hours ago
2 comments:
I was at that Write Night and I found this exercise useful. I used it to explore two background issues for my protagonist Wheeler. This new material may or may not make it into the book, but either way it's stuff I should have a handle on, but I've been letting go.
AND I wrote what I believe is my first flashback scene! I don't care for them. I write in a very linear way: this protagonist has this problem, and we follow him until he works it out. That’s the way I like to read, too.
But this was a short flashback and Ann said it worked well. So maybe that’s a tool to add to my toolbox? Flashbacks done right.
Update on this exercise: I later combined it with one of my own, with delightful results. I've lately been doing this to start many of my writing sessions: rewrite the last page or two wherever I stopped the day before, twice. First with stronger voice, then rewrite that with more description. Or the other way around. It gets me back into the story quicker, and works on two things I need to work on.
Well, I did this with the wood-chopping scene from Write Night, Ann, and came up with a cool new revelation! I'll send more detail in an email to the group.
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