Actions Speak Louder Than Words

I regret my critique group no longer meets for Write Night because A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice (Viking, 2012) begs to have a writing exercise modeled after it. 

A Diamond in the Desert has pithy, emotion-packed chapters that get to the heart without extra verbiage. One way Fitzmaurice achieves this is by having characters move instead of experiencing physical reactions.

The Japanese-American family in this novel is interned at Gila River Camp in Arizona after Pearl Harbor is bombed. Living conditions are harsh. The father has been sent to North Dakota for questioning, and the family had to give their dog because dogs aren’t allowed in the camp. When the family learns that the dog ran away from its new home, Fitzmaurice writes: 

“Mama bent her head down and glared at the dust on our floor that’d found its way back into our barrack since yesterday’s sweeping. Then she stood up and swept harder than I’d ever seen her sweep a floor.” 

That angry sweeping speaks volumes about the mother’s reaction to the changes in her life.

Revision Technique

This idea came from one of my Write Night exercises. It worked well for the other participants, although I’m having a hard time with it. The technique is simple.

1. Print the manuscript or a section of it.
2. Consider how the voice could change to express a personality trait: tougher/gentler, more/less educated, warmer/colder, outgoing/reserved, aggressive/passive, confident/insecure, younger/older etc.
3. Highlight words or phrases that could be strengthened or changed to express the personality trait.
4. Consider what words or phrases that would improve the highlighted sections.
5. Revise.

Step 3 is a problem for me because I continually put down the highlighter, pick up a pen and rewrite, cross out, rewrite again. I shall persevere.

No Time to Think

Usually when I design the Write Night exercise, I post it in my blog, but last week I forgot. The idea for this one came from the skillful writing of two authors. Both Judy Blundell in What I Saw and How I Lied and Sara Gruen in Ape House let their protagonists uncover secrets gradually. After each discovery, the protagonist is faced with events so earthshaking that she doesn’t have time to process the new information.

I’ll post my exercise here. During Write Night, we only completed parts 1 & 2.

1. Think of an essential secret, clue, fact or tidbit of information that your protagonist needs to know in order to finish the novel. (You don’t have to tell us what it is – yet.)

2. Write a scene in which your protagonist discovers this secret. Provide a bit of setting, show how your protagonist discovers the information, and a hint of his/her initial reaction. Be sure you actually get to the discovery. (We can allow extra time if needed.) No limit on the number of characters.

3. Before your protagonist has time to process this information, make something happen. It has to be big, distracting and exciting. Consider the emotional, physical and psychological implications of this event on your protagonist. Write the scene.

4. Independent Study: (We probably won’t have time to write anything else.)
a) Will your protagonist be faced with further dilemmas before finding time to process the information?
b) How will your protagonist cope with the information once he/she has a minute to think?

More on Plot Problems

So what is a plot problem? When I introduced my exercise at Tuesday’s Write Night, I was asked to give an example. A plot problem is anything that isn’t working, doesn’t make sense, or bogs down the story. Plot problems are easy to revise around and delightful to put off, but eventually they have to be faced.

Here are examples from the group that don’t give away anyone’s story.

• Getting a character to do something he didn’t want to do
• Explaining an essential technicality of a magical world with humor
• Rescuing characters from a high-tension, hopeless situation
• Bringing two disparate characters together
• Adding excitement to a lack-luster sequence of events

 In case you haven’t guessed, the last one was mine. Yesterday I replaced a chapter of sludge with action and tension.

Plot Problems

Last night's Write Night exercise seems to have worked out well - if I do say so myself. Here's the exercise.

Briefly summarize a plot problem in your novel.

Make a list of 5 or 6 solutions. (They don’t all have to be practical. They don’t all have to work. Brainstorm wildly.)

Pick one solution and write a scene that begins to implement it.

Accents, Dialects and Languages

Yesterday evening at Write Night, we worked on the following exercise. I found it very difficult, even though I thought it up.

1. Write an innocuous statement.
2. Rewrite it using a different accent, dialect or language.
3. How would your protagonist react to the statement in #2?

• a. Is it familiar, foreign, interesting, scary, impressive, despicable, etc.?
• b. Is the character aware of his/her reaction?
• c.  Does the character show or hide his/her reaction?

4. Write a scene depicting your protagonist’s reactions to the accent/dialect/ language.

5. Write a second scene in which you change the character’s reaction to the accent/dialect/language, with the emphasis on 3b. (If your protagonist was conscious of the reaction in the last scene, make him/her unaware this time or vice versa.) The scene may be a continuation of the last one or something completely different.

Write Night Exercise: Letter Writing

This Write Night exercise was inspired by Elegy for the Personal Letter by Allison Joseph. Here’s the exercise for those who could not attend.

Write two letters from one character in your novel to another character in your novel. The second letter should be written by a different character than the first. Remember voice!

The second letter may be a response to the first, but it doesn’t have to be.

The two letters should convey opposite emotions. Choose a pair of emotions from list and write one letter to depict each. (The order doesn’t matter.) If I omitted your favorite pair of emotions, feel free to write about those.

Happy/Sad
Angry/Pacifying
Accusatory/Congratulatory
Triumphant/Defeated
Industrious/Lazy
Hope/Despair
Fear/Bravery
Love/Hate
Grief/Joy
Anticipation/Surprise
Aggression/Submission
Guilt/Innocence
Pride/Shame
Envy/Selflessness
Disgust/Pleasure
Exhausted/Energetic
Regret/Satisfaction
Worry/Relief
Embarrassment/Self-esteem

One letter should tell the truth. The other should be a lie.

Writing Exercise

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.

Writing Exercise: Desire

A lot of writers hate writing exercises, so if you fall into that category, just click to the next blog in your Google reader. I find writing exercises most useful in the initial stages of writing because they help me get to know new characters. This is the exercise I brought to Write Night. We concentrated on first person point of view, although it would also work for third person narration.

1. Choose a character, and list his or her name, age, gender and time period. Also write something the character wants but does not or cannot have. Have your character describe what he or she wants. Include details and the reasons why your character wants it. Concentrate on voice.

2. Repeat with a different character who wants the same thing. Make sure the voice is different.

3. Write a scene in which the two characters interact about what they want. Choose one point of view, but make sure the personality of the other character shows.

Writing Exercise: Sins and Virtues

Last night, I brought the exercise to Write Night, and it didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. So, to make amends, I’m posting the new and improved version.

Step 1: Brainstorm words and phrases that apply to your current project. Consider setting, period, clothing, slang, food, entertainment, smells, tastes, textures, sounds and sights. Use anything that is characteristic of your Work In Progress. For a terrific example, see Angela Ackerman’s blog, The Bookshelf Muse

Write the words and phrases on small slips of paper.

Step 2: Write the Seven Deadly Sins* or the Seven Heavenly Virtues** on other slips of paper***. Last night, we wrote two scenes, one for Sins and one for Virtues.

Step 3: Each participant draws one of the Sins or Virtues and three of the phrases and writes a scene about the Sin or Virtue (without mentioning it) and using the three phrases.

Step 4: Participants read the scenes aloud and the others guess the Sin or Virtue.

*As a refresher, the Sins are Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony and Lust.

** The Virtues are Humility, Kindness, Patience, Diligence, Charity, Temperance and Chastity.

***Why the Sins and Virtues? No good reason. I was inspired by a humorous essay Sam wrote last year about how owning a car would help him indulge in the Seven Deadly Sins.

Family Counseling for Your WIP

or why I’m not a psychologist

List your protagonist’s family members. Choose one relationship to focus on.
Write a few sentences describing your protagonist.
Write a few sentences describing the family member.

What is the major source of conflict between your protagonist and the family member?
List 5 things your protagonist finds annoying about the family member. Does the family member do these things to intentionally irritate your protagonist?
List 5 things the family member finds annoying about your protagonist. Does your protagonist intend to irritate the family member?

Write a scene that displays the conflict between your protagonist and the family member. Write it from the family member’s point of view. Try to include some of the little irritating things.

List 5 things the protagonist could do to help mend the rift with the family member.
List 5 things the family member could do to help mend the rift with the protagonist.

Write a scene in which the protagonist and the family member try to make up, but end up in a worse conflict. The scene can be written from either point of view.

Writing Exercises

Part of my critique group meets one evening a month for writing exercises. Often the scenes I create, never make it into a WIP. The few passages that do appear in a manuscript are changed significantly.

Why do we do it?

The goal of a useful exercise is to help the writer discover something about his or her WIP. Last night, I brought the exercise, and a glaring problem with my WIP smacked me in the face. The central conflict between the brothers in my novel is nebulous. I need to clarify it.

My exercise was more difficult than I'd intended, and we didn't finish all of the steps. Everybody wrote one scene, and most of us complained about having to think too hard.

I'll paste the exercise into another post.

Postscript: Last night I worked on my current WIP (TAoCBS), but my previous WIP (CBL) could also benefit from this exercise. And since I need to revise CBL before I send it out again, this exercise might be a good place to start.

Coin a Phrase

Last night, I brought the exercise to Write Night. Here's what we did.

1. Make a list of 10-15 things that can be detected with one of the five senses. (At first I planned to list objects, then I remembered expressions like, cool, sweet, hottie and twitter.)

2. Next to each item in your list, write what it could mean. Remember you’re making up a new phrase, so don’t use standard connotations.

3. Read the lists out loud. Feel free to borrow ideas from others. Feel free to change the meanings.

4. Pick an expression and consider what kind of person would use that expression. Write a short description of that character. Repeat with another expression and another character. Continue for ten minutes. Read them aloud.

5. Write a scene that puts two or more characters in conflict. They can be your characters or those invented by others. Each character must use his or her expression in the scene. Remember to develop the voices of your characters.

6. Write a scene in which a character misunderstands the meaning of one of our new expressions. Focus on the conflict or tension that ensues. Concentrate on voice.

Conflct: Making It Worse

Tim Bogar invented a good Write Night exercise designed to crank up conflict. We started by compiling a list of twenty characters. We did this as a group with each person suggesting a few general characters. (For example, a milk toast or the most popular girl in high school.) Next, each person chose two or more characters to put in conflict, and wrote the scene. After we read each scene out loud, we brainstormed ideas to make the conflict worse. (Okay, we got a little silly sometimes.) Then we rewrote the scene with heightened conflict.

Try it.

Back in the Saddle

Yesterday was a great writing day, topped off by Write Night in the evening. Right now, I'm feeling positive about this writing career/WIP/revision business.

That could, of course, change at any time.

On Revisions:
I now have a method to my madness. Taking time away from my project added insight. (duh)

On Writing Goals:
My October Goals are out the window. But hey, it's almost Halloween, and around Thanksgiving, I start thinking about my yearly writing goals. Perhaps I'll plug along with deadline-free revisions until Turkey Time.

On Write Night:
We worked on voice. Tim Bogar brought magazines with lots of photographs, and we each chose a picture and wrote something pertaining to the picture, keeping voice of the character in mind. This is a fine writing exercise and something that could be used as a warm up or in writing workshops.
I also learned that I cannot and never will be able to write anything at all in a Scottish brogue.

Descriptions and Hooks

Tonight's Write Night exercise was designed by Tim Bogar. We started with a picture from a magazine. Then we were asked to write a one-sentence description, a two-sentence description and a four to six sentence description of the picture. Finally we wrote a paragraph including description and a hook (something that would make a reader want to continue reading).

The first set of pictures were of scenery. The second was people and the third buildings. Some of our efforts were moving or funny. Others needed more work/thought. Personally, I found the hook for a non-peopled picture of scenery the most challenging.

Takes Two To Tangle

Yesterday evening was Write Night, and I brought the exercise. Kay Grimnes suggested I post it here.

1. List 3- 4 of your protagonist’s friends, family or followers.

2. List 2-3 reasons why your protagonist might quarrel with each.

3. Zero in on one of these scenarios.
a. Who started the fight?
b. How do things change if the other character starts the fight?
c. Why is the fight important? (stakes)
d. What does each character have to lose?
e. Are there hidden reasons for the fight? (Are the characters fighting about something trivial because they can’t/won’t verbalize the critical stuff?)
f. If so, how can you, as a writer, communicate the hidden, important stuff?

4. Write a scene describing the build up to the quarrel or fight. (The build up to a blow up may occur over many scenes, choose one.)

5. Write a scene describing the quarrel or fight.

6. Repeat 4 and 5 with:
a. The other character starting it, or
b. A major change in intensity (a quarrel becomes a fist fight or one character refuses to rise and stalks off in a huff, or laughs etc.) or
c. A different cause resulting in the same quarrel.