by tara on February 24, 2010
Put your characters in strange places.
It seems characters are always talking and discussing things in restaurants. This is true in real life of course too. But for the most part it’s fairly boring scene setting, at least when it’s done over and over again. And by putting your characters somewhere mundane and expected, you lose a big opportunity. What if for example, your characters are in a critical conversation on a Ferris wheel? Perhaps a long day of arguing at a fair has culminated in a confrontation. It just so happens they are in the air at the time, high above the fairgrounds. What if your characters are at a costume party, in costume? Maybe it’s Halloween. The amazing Lorrie Moore story, You’re Ugly Too, is partially set at a Halloween party. At the party, the main character is forced to make small talk with a man wearing a woman costume with fake breasts. The scene is funny, and yet there’s an underlying feeling of sadness. All night she’s been trying unsuccessfully to connect with people and failing. And as she stands trying to have a normal conversation with a man wearing breasts, we’re reminded just how alone she actually is.
So your challenge:
Find a conversation in your novel or story between two people that happens somewhere rather mundane -maybe the kitchen, or a restaurant or coffee shop. Try and find a scene you are stuck with; a scene where something important is being discussed.
- Change the location. It doesn’t need to be ridiculous, though it can be. But challenge your characters and your dialogue. You’ll be using the setting to raise the stakes and the tension.
- Don’t get too bogged down describing the setting just yet. Just jump into the conversation they are having and make it obvious where they are, both through dialogue and what is happening around them.
- If you already have an idea, go for it. If not here are six places to put your characters.
- amusement park
- in a car stuck in a snowbank.
- lost on a hiking trail
- in a tent
- in a hot air balloon
- on an airplane
by tara on February 23, 2010
Even Dickens needed a word count to keep him moving.
If you’ve ever read a Dickens classic and thought, wow, good writing but he sure does go on, you now know why. Dickens was paid by the word. His episodic style writing appeared in newspapers and every extra word meant money in his pocket. Probably for the best, we aren’t paid that way anymore. Content is king. A good story is king. Superfluous words are just that, superfluous.
But word counting was a motivator, or rather money was a motivator as tied to word count, for Dickens. You can take a lesson here though. If you don’t get your work done, you’re not going to get paid. So start word counting. Or even page counting. I have a writing teacher who writes five pages a day. Over the years, she’s discovered that this is her magic number. If she gets her pages done, she can go for a run, she can tackle her other daily chores. When she sits down to write in the morning, she looks over the most recent page, and that’s it. And even that’s only to get her bearings and remind herself where she left off. She doesn’t edit. She doesn’t rewrite, she doesn’t get bogged down in what she wrote the previous day. Instead, she moves forward with her next five pages. For her the editing will come last when she has all her pages, when her novel is done. This has become a routine, five pages, every day. Sometimes, those five pages come easily. She might finish those pages quickly and have the rest of the day to do other things. Sometimes they’re a chore. But either way, it’s five pages. This method has led her to several published books and a new book coming out with Ballantine, called French Lessons. The second you see that baby on the shelves of bookstores, you’ll know she did it five pages at a time. This works for word count too. If you’re new at this or old at this but terribly stuck lately, you could do a very small word count, say 500 words a day.
And so your muse crushing challenge:
Are you…
Hopelessly Stuck: Write 500 words today. Sit down and write. If you are hopelessly stuck, tell yourself you will just do this today. Once you’ve done your 500 words, I’ll let you off the hook. But you gotta do 500.
Moderately Stuck: Write 500 words all week. You can have the weekend off. Once you’re up to 500 words, stop for the day. And the next day, don’t get bogged down in what you wrote the day before. Keep moving, keep writing.
Not Stuck: If you fall into this blessed category but are still needing some directions, I have a challenge for you. Write 1000 daily for five days. Remember not to revisit what you wrote the day before. It’s not important and will slow you down. The idea is momentum.
