ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

I was just plodging about the internet the other day, thinking about how I enjoy writing and really ought to put a bit more effort into trying to write some fiction. Obviously, once I’ve done that, the harder part is persuading someone to give me money for it, but one thing at a time, yeah?

I remembered doing a free creative writing course years ago, which I enjoyed because we were given different exercises each week, so we’d have to write something different, and it gave us a bit of focus. So what exactly could I find to give me that practice?

I’d come across The Writers Bureau before but objected to them on three grounds:

• It costs money
• I did once phone them up to ask for a prospectus, they got my name wrong and for the next three years I received mail sent to Mr. J. T. Guard
• The ASA upheld complaints about them including on the grounds of ‘truthfulness’. Which is a little off-putting

So I needed to look elsewhere for some creative writing exercises. And, looking about I found some info on an old BBC page (you can tell how old it is by the fact that the images don’t appear to exist any more).

What did they have to say?

The first exercise is to get into the habit of writing regularly, either in longhand or straight onto computer. Consider when, where, and for how long you could write (even if just for fifteen minutes) on a regular basis – daily is best. And then just go for it. Don’t censor yourself. The important thing is to keep going.BBC Get Writing: First Steps

…hmm. Well as someone who blogs pretty much every day, I think I’ve got into the habit of writing regularly, so I’ll skip this one. They also advise that you listen to what other people think:

Let a number of people read your story or poem and note down their advice. You might not agree with it all, but you will get a balanced view of your work, and it might highlight problems in the writing that you already knew were there. It will also let you now where your writing is at its strongest, and give you some pointers as to how to improve it still further.BBC Get Writing: Editing — Letting In Other Readers

…which is easy enough as I was planning on posting it on my blog and rather hoping my readers would comment on it. They also have a selection of other, writing-based exercises to look at. I have included a selection of them below, with the intention that I will work my way through this selection, completing around one exercise per week. Anyone else up for it?

I’m going to specifically suggest that I’d like to see what Steve would do with it, since he’s obviously such a fan of books; that The Goldfish should do it because writing is what she wants to do, so it ought to be fun, that Shannon should do it just to pad out the gaps between ‘dog’ posts, and because recently she implied she was short of ideas; I’d like to see what Holly would make of it (although she has already had a book published, so I’ll let her off if she doesn’t want to play — indeed, I’ll let anyone off if they don’t want to play). As it’s traditional to name five people for this sort of thing, I’ll also ask Rich, in a vain attempt to get him to post more frequently.

Other people are welcome to join in too: if you know anyone who might be interested, by all means suggest it to ‘em. The more the merrier. Don’t feel you need to do all of the exercises: just pick a few (or even one) you like. Don’t feel you need to do them in the same order, or at the same speed. Also, if anyone wants to knock up a little badge graphic for those taking part, that’d be cool.

Anyway, the exercises…

1. Down the left hand side of a sheet of paper, list all the types of book you can think of (such as Crime, Romance, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Biography, etc). If films or plays are what interest you, then try the same exercise with you video or DVD collection. Go through your bookshelves and make a note of how many books you own in each category. Only record those books that you have read or seriously intend to read. What are the top three types of book on your shelves? Is the type of book you wanted to write one of them?BBC Get Writing: What do you read? What do you want to write?

2. Take a current newspaper story and use it as the basis of an opening for a story. Try writing the first paragraph of this story in the following genre styles: as a thriller; a romance; a crime novel; a children’s story; a work of science fiction; a literary novel. Which genre came easiest? BBC Get Writing: Finding the Right Genre

3. Go somewhere public, like a café or a shopping centre. Take a notebook with you, and spend half an hour making notes on some of the interesting people that you see around you. You might want to start with a physical description, then go on to create a short imagined history for each one. Make notes on at least five different characters.BBC Get Writing: Making Characters Unique

4. Take one of the characters you made up a history for in the last exercise and write a monologue for that character of about 200 words. When you’ve done this, see if the way they speak has something unique about it. Take another character, one who is very different, and do the same again. Have the character react to their environment.BBC Get Writing: Character, not Caricature

5. Take a notepad with you when you go out. Make detailed notes on the sensory impressions of your location, interesting-looking characters (try to use all the senses at least once), any visual detail which captures your eye. When you get home, condense your notes and write a 300 word description of what you saw and experienced, as if it’s the setting for a short story.BBC Get Writing: Focus, Focus, Focus

6. Re-visit your writing for the previous exercise and introduce a character. Show your character expressing mood and emotion - frustration or anger, perhaps, or longing, or even happiness. Describe, briefly, their physical appearance, but concentrate on gesture, speech, the body in action (how do they move?) . Make everything you note be relevant to the principle state of mind you wish to convey. Finally, could you alter or change the emphasis of your location to reinforce the whole tenor of your character’s mood? Keep to another 300 words, repeating with further characters, until your ability to sketch character through setting, incident and imagery become second nature to you.BBC Get Writing: Getting in the Mood

7. Choose a childhood memory and write around it, either in poetry or prose. Most people have a range of memories, from the trivial to the traumatic – choose one that has some emotional power to it but won’t upset you to explore in writing. Perhaps your first day at school, the day a younger brother or sister was born, or an early holiday. Consider writing from the point of view of a third person narrator, putting some distance between you and your experiences.BBC Get Writing: Tapping into Personal Experience

8. Select a fairytale (e.g. Little Red Riding Hood or Cinderella) and read several versions of it. Then re-write it from memory. As you write, if you feel inspired to diverge from the traditional story, let your imagination lead you - perhaps in your version the wolf bursts into tears, or Cinderella is thoroughly mean! You may find this is enough to prompt an original twist or two.BBC Get Writing: Adapting News Stories and Other Fairytales

9. Picture two characters you might want to write about and in a list, jot down things about their backgrounds that would affect their dialogue. Where is each character from? How were they educated? How old are they? Are they shy or an extrovert? Do they have a dark secret? Make your characters different from each other, and write down snippets of dialogue they might use.BBC Get Writing: Conveying Character through Dialogue

10. Take these characters and put them in a tense situation, such as in a broken down lift. Maybe one of them has a prejudice against people like the character he or she is stuck with. Write a story of 1500 words, demonstrating how they react to their circumstances and each other through dialogue, and through what they don’t say. Remember to put in directions, and use slang sparingly.BBC Get Writing: Character, Dialogue, Action

11. Writing in the first person. Imagine your character has committed some kind of criminal act (she is 16 and steals her grandmother’s bingo winnings; he is a drug dealer who supplies his own brother’s heroin habit; she is an animal rights activist who plants a home-made bomb in a scientist’s letterbox). From this character’s perspective, write about and defend these actions. Why should this act be considered justifiable, or at least comprehensible?BBC Get Writing: Anti-heroes? (First-person perspective)

12. Write a paragraph in the third person from the perspective of someone who is extremely angry about a particular incident or issue. Use as much of the character’s language as you possibly can. For example, “Zelda was the only flaming person in her whole flaming office who wasn’t one hundred percent British, so it wasn’t like some huge leap to think ‘conspiracy’ when her boss posted the ‘English Only’ sign in the break room.”BBC Get Writing: Caught On Camera Exercise (Perspective: Third Person)

13. Imagine that two people meet on a train - do they already know each other or are they strangers? One of them insists on taking the other’s seat. He or she has a special reason for wanting it. Use every external method possible to explore this scene – such as dialogue, the view out of the window, neighbouring passengers, mechanical sounds of the train, the presence of train staff etc - but don’t use any of the characters’ thoughts at all.BBC Get Writing: Being Objective (Perspective: Third Person)

14. Take a story idea you are working on, and create a parallel narrative (either a flashback/forward for the main character or story, or a completely different story which has subtle connections to the first). Write in two first person voices, or both in the third person, or a combination, preparing a rough draft of each. Then, use your computer to cut and paste the two narratives together, so they alternate every 500 words or so. Check that a reader can make sense of the switches.BBC Get Writing: Using Flashbacks (Structural Integrity)

15. Consider this summary: “Sophie had a huge argument with her boyfriend about whether or not her father hated him.” Rewrite it as a scene with dialogue. Where are the two characters? Are they sitting, standing, walking, running? Is there anyone else present? How does the argument start? Is the scene from Sophie’s point of view or her boyfriend’s? What’s the nature of the argument? Is one of them paranoid, or is the father truly contemptuous?BBC Get Writing: Using Dialogue (Showing & Telling)

16. Sophie and her boyfriend are having an argument about whether or not her father hates him. Where are they? Let’s imagine that Sophie and her boyfriend are in a bowling alley and her father works at the shoe rental counter. Sophie is a champion bowler at a tournament and her boyfriend is there to support her. They begin to argue while she waits for her turn. When she’s up again, she throws a gutter ball, something she hasn’t done in four months. The smoke and the music and the crashing pins and the sound of fruit machines suddenly seem too much. The chips her father gave her earlier rise in her throat. She rushes out to the car park, locks herself in her car and fumbles in her coat pocket for antacid.

    Note that there is no use of words like ‘upset’ or ‘worried’, but they are implicit in the scene. Now you try it. Redraft your scene so that the character’s actions and the character’s reactions to his or her environment convey the emotions, trying not to use any actual emotion words.BBC Get Writing: Heightened Emotions (Showing & Telling)

17. Create a criminal character, but without describing them physically. Imagine you are visiting their house, their place of work, their friends or family, perhaps investigating their computer. Don’t make things too obvious though (no bloody knives!), but instead think how a disturbed, defensive character might arrange their life. Write in the voice of another key character, perhaps a ‘detective’ (who does not literally have to be a detective inspector, of course) closing in on their suspect, or perhaps a lover who has no idea of the crime committed, and so notices telling details without realising their importance. If it’s working well, try another point of view.BBC Get Writing: Leaving Clues (Crime Fiction)

18. Take your work from the previous exercise. Develop either in the voice of your detective character, or a character who does not realise the importance of what he or she sees. Have them search for your criminal character. Edit the piece carefully so that it is spare, strong and suspenseful. Cut out adjectives and adverbs, and only re-introduce if absolutely necessary. By the end of the piece, something happens to act as a cliffhanger. Make the writing vivid and sudden. End, after perhaps 1,000 wordsBBC Get Writing: Cliffhangers and Suspense (Crime Fiction)

19. Imagine a character subject to a build up of intolerable tension. They might be travelling alone, or waiting in an empty room for something, or lost in a wood or strange town. Give your character a sequence of ‘false shocks’, events which threaten their sense of safety, identity, or self-control. Imagine them becoming more alarmed with each incident… Try for about 500 wordsBBC Get Writing: Slowly, Slowly (Horror Fiction)

20. Write a scene of 500 words or so which features a gruesome monster or a violent incident, making it as explicit as you can. Then re-write the scene, but this time imply the horror rather than spelling it out. Keep your descriptions of the creature or incident to a minimum, focusing instead on your characters’ reactions, or things like the sounds and smells associated with whatever it is they are so afraid of.BBC Get Writing: The Face of Fear (Horror Fiction)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 12:36 am and is filed under Books, Fiction/Writing, Memes. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.