Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Creative Writing

Exercises

by Maggie Hamand

Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2014

© 2014 Maggie Hamand

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents at a Glance

Introduction ................................................................ 1

Part I: Getting Started with Creative Writing Exercises... 5

Chapter 1: Preparing to Create Your Writ ten Masterpiece..........................................7

Chapter 2: Sketching Out Ideas .....................................................................................21

Part II: Realising That Character Is Everything ............ 35

Chapter 3: Developing Your Characters’ Backgrounds ..............................................37

Chapter 4: Creating Drama through Dialogue..............................................................47

Chapter 5: Embodying Your Characters.......................................................................57

Chapter 6: Developing Your Dialogue-Writing Skills ...................................................65

Chapter 7: Conveying Characters’ Thoughts in Style .................................................77

Chapter 8: Choosing and Using Different Points of View............................................87

Chapter 9: Creating Complicated, Well-Rounded Characters..................................105

Part III: Painting the Picture with Description ........... 125

Chapter 10: Navigating the Locations in Your Stories .............................................127

Chapter 11: Appreciating the Power of the Senses ...................................................137

Chapter 12: Getting Things Done: Describing Action and Activity .........................147

Chapter 13: Building Character with Objects and Possessions...............................155

Chapter 14: Using Description to Create Atmosphere and . . . and . . . Suspense!......167

Chapter 15: Managing Metaphors, Similes and Symbols..........................................187

Chapter 16: Describing the Inef fable: Saying What Can’t Be Said ...........................203

Part IV: Developing Your Plot and Structure............... 213

Chapter 17: Writing a Gripping Opening.....................................................................215

Chapter 18: Plot ting Your Way to Great Stories........................................................225

Chapter 19: Making Good (Use of) Time in Your Writing.........................................235

Chapter 20: Structuring a Longer Work of Fiction.....................................................247

Chapter 21:Tightening the Tension to Enthral Readers ...........................................257

Chapter 22: Expanding Your Ideas into Larger Narratives.......................................267

Chapter 23: Approaching the Grand Finale: The End’s in Sight!..............................279

Part V: Polishing Your Product: Revising and Editing.....299

Chapter 24: Reviewing and Rewriting Your Work .....................................................301

Chapter 25: Whipping Your Work into Shape ............................................................313

Chapter 26: Polishing Your Work for Publication .....................................................321

Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................... 331

Chapter 27: Ten Top Aids for Writers.........................................................................333

Chapter 28: Ten Great Ways to Stay the Course........................................................339

Index ...................................................................... 345

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................. 1

About This Book ..............................................................................................1

Foolish Assumptions.......................................................................................2

Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................3

Beyond the Book .............................................................................................4

Where to Go from Here...................................................................................4

Part I: Getting Started with Creative Writing Exercises.... 5

Chapter 1: Preparing to Create Your Writ ten Masterpiece . . . . . . . . . . 7

Planning for the Writing Journey...................................................................8

Setting your writing goals.....................................................................8

Locating the appropriate genre ...........................................................9

Creating the right title.........................................................................11

Discovering the scope of your book..................................................12

Silencing the inner critic.....................................................................13

Reviewing the Creative Writing Process ....................................................13

Taking your first steps ........................................................................14

Gearing up for the long haul...............................................................15

Writing in a spiral path........................................................................15

Using creative writing exercises ........................................................16

Living with Creative Confusion....................................................................16

Allowing yourself to make mistakes..................................................17

Writing what you want to write .........................................................19

Chapter 2: Sketching Out Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Getting Your Creative Juices Flowing .........................................................21

Starting with your first thoughts .......................................................22

Creating a mind map of ideas.............................................................23

Brainstorming: Creative idea sessions..............................................27

Moving Beyond Words with Objects and Images......................................28

Keeping a scrapbook of ideas and materials....................................28

Finding images related to your project.............................................30

Using objects to enhance your writing .............................................31

Considering the Level of Research Required ............................................33

vi Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Part II: Realising That Character Is Everything............. 35

Chapter 3: Developing Your Characters’ Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Creating Seriously Deep Characters ...........................................................37

Detailing your character’s family tree...............................................38

That reminds me! Exploring characters’ memories ........................39

Seeing into a character’s CV...............................................................41

Setting out a character’s timeline......................................................42

Using Diaries, Letters and Reminiscences in Your Writing......................44

Chapter 4: Creating Drama through Dialogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Recognising Great Dialogue .........................................................................47

Drafting and Developing Dialogue...............................................................48

Talking about dialogue basics............................................................48

Getting up close and personal: Face-to-face dialogue.....................51

Ringing the changes: Phone conversations......................................52

Making the Best Use of Dialogue .................................................................53

Deciding where and when conversations happen...........................53

Creating and handling conflict...........................................................55

Hinting at what’s hidden: Subtext......................................................56

Chapter 5: Embodying Your Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Building a Body for Your Characters to Inhabit........................................57

Inventing and describing major characters .....................................58

Rounding out minor characters.........................................................60

Getting Under a Character’s Skin ................................................................61

Thinking about emotional make-up...................................................61

Coping with sickness...........................................................................62

Constructing Characters’ Activities ............................................................62

Surrounding Your Characters with Physical Objects...............................63

Owning up to your characters’ possessions....................................63

Choosing what to wear........................................................................64

Chapter 6: Developing Your Dialogue-Writing Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Conveying Individuality and Character through Dialogue.......................66

Feeling for foreign accents..................................................................66

Dealing with dialect.............................................................................69

Nailing down your use of slang ..........................................................70

Getting quirky with speech quirks ....................................................72

Don’t All Shout at Once! Coping with Crowds ...........................................74

Producing Effective Speeches and Monologues........................................75

Imparting information .........................................................................75

Interviewing and making presentations............................................76

Going it alone: Interior monologues..................................................76

Table of Contents vii

Chapter 7: Conveying Characters’ Thoughts in Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Exploring Ways to Set Down Characters’ Thoughts .................................77

Dramatising Characters’ Thoughts and Feelings Effectively ...................79

Thinking in the real world ..................................................................80

Gesturing towards body language.....................................................81

Capturing a character’s inner voice ..................................................84

Enjoying the Flexibility of Free Indirect Style ............................................85

Chapter 8: Choosing and Using Different Points of View . . . . . . . . . . 87

‘From Where I’m Standing’: The Importance of Taking a View................87

Experimenting with Voices and Viewpoints ..............................................88

Using ‘I’, the first-person voice ..........................................................91

Using ‘you’, the second-person voice ...............................................93

‘He said, she said’: Using the third-person voice,

limited to one character..................................................................93

On the outside looking in: Employing an outside narrator ............95

Five third-person narrative styles .....................................................98

Adopting More Than One Viewpoint ..........................................................99

Choosing the number and type of narrators..................................100

Balancing and structuring your viewpoints ...................................101

Chapter 9: Creating Complicated, Well-Rounded Characters . . . . . 105

Adding Layers to Your Characters............................................................106

Revealing depth through experiences ............................................106

Remembering basic human needs...................................................107

Looking at different areas of your character’s life ........................108

Workplace relationships...................................................................111

Passing the time with hobbies and interests .................................112

Confounding expectations and creating contradictions ..............114

Depicting Sexuality and Gender.................................................................115

Risking the wrath of your grandmother: Writing about sex.........116

Finding the right words.....................................................................118

Considering Other Ways to Add Character Depth..................................119

Employing lies, half-truths and evasions........................................119

Sharing and keeping secrets.............................................................121

Multiplying misunderstandings .......................................................123

Part III: Painting the Picture with Description............ 125

Chapter 10: Navigating the Locations in Your Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Choosing and Conveying a Setting............................................................128

Making your characters feel at home..............................................128

Travelling to exotic lands . . . by book ............................................131

viii Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Creating a Location’s Fine Detail ..............................................................132

Using maps for realism......................................................................132

Imagining and recording the finer points .......................................133

Inventing Your Own World: Fantasy and Science Fiction ......................134

Chapter 11: Appreciating the Power of the Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Creating a Colourful, Meaningful World ...................................................137

Giving associations to colours.........................................................138

Colouring in scenes and characters................................................140

Listening to Sound and Music on the Page ..............................................141

Sensing scenic sounds ......................................................................141

Making musical moments .................................................................142

Sparking Emotions with Smell ...................................................................143

Tantalising with Taste and Food ...............................................................144

Feeling Your Way with Touch and Texture..............................................146

Chapter 12: Getting Things Done: Describing Action and Activity . . . 147

Watching Characters Tackling Everyday Tasks ......................................147

Homing in on domestic life...............................................................148

Working at creating a work life ........................................................148

Chilling out to reveal character at play ..........................................149

Writing Dramatic Action Scenes................................................................149

Choosing the best words for action scenes ...................................150

Controlling a huge cast .....................................................................151

Portraying Violence and Its Effects ...........................................................152

Chapter 13: Building Character with Objects and Possessions . . . . 155

Giving Your Characters Significant Possessions.....................................155

Choosing objects to use....................................................................156

Owning objects(and being owned by them) ..................................157

Remembering to Use Objects to Spark Memories!..................................158

Representing Characters: Objects as Symbols........................................159

Same object, different meaning........................................................160

Making use of magical objects and superstitions..........................160

Getting(metaphorically) emotional.................................................162

Experiencing unexpected meetings with objects ..........................163

Creating Clues to Your Character .............................................................164

Using objects to stand in for aspects of your characters.............164

Seeing things in the dark...................................................................166

Chapter 14: Using Description to Create Atmosphere

and ... and ... Suspense! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Adding Ambience and Atmosphere ..........................................................168

Choosing your words carefully........................................................168

Enhancing character and atmosphere with description ..............169

Table of Contents ix

Foreshadowing Events for Suspense ........................................................170

Omens and prophecies .....................................................................171

Anticipating the future with objects and events ...........................174

Writing in All Weathers and All Year Round............................................175

Working with the weather ................................................................176

Using the seasons ..............................................................................180

Handling the Uncanny.................................................................................181

Seeing ghosts......................................................................................182

Dabbling in doubles...........................................................................183

Conjuring up curious coincidences.................................................183

Receiving visions and visitations.....................................................184

Creating suspense in your sleep: Dreams and

premonitions ..................................................................................185

Chapter 15: Managing Metaphors, Similes and Symbols . . . . . . . . . 187

Employing Metaphors to Deepen Your Writing.......................................188

Entering the world of the metaphor................................................188

Finding a controlling metaphor .......................................................190

Avoiding metaphor clichés . . . like the plague! .............................192

Personifying: A heading that jumps for joy! ...................................193

Substituting Similes That Fit Like a Glove................................................193

Appreciating the strength of a simile..............................................194

Making the best use of similes .........................................................194

Standing for Something with Symbols ......................................................195

Using universal symbols ...................................................................196

Investigating individual symbols .....................................................198

Dreaming up some dream symbolism.............................................199

Delving into the deepest of meanings .............................................201

Chapter 16: Describing the Inef fable: Saying What Can’t

Be Said . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Handling the Ineffable: When Words Fail .................................................204

Defining the difficulties of the inexpressible..................................204

Attempting to communicate subjective experiences....................205

Revealing the Mysterious with Literary Devices.....................................206

Defamiliarising to see the world anew............................................206

Experimenting with the rhythm of sentences................................208

Listening to the sounds of words ....................................................208

Using the Contradictory to Communicate the Ineffable........................210

Playing with paradox.........................................................................210

Creating ambiguity ............................................................................211

x Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Part IV: Developing Your Plot and Structure ............... 213

Chapter 17: Writing a Gripping Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Introducing the Art of the Opening...........................................................215

Starting somewhere, anywhere........................................................216

Locating a great place to start .........................................................217

Avoiding common mistakes .............................................................218

Discovering Openings from the Greats.....................................................219

Making a statement: Philosophical openings.................................219

Speaking from the start: Dialogue openings...................................220

Intriguing readers with odd-narrator openings .............................221

Holding on for an exciting ride: Dramatic events ..........................221

Beginning with a bang: Firing-squad openings...............................222

Setting the scene with descriptive openings..................................223

Waking up your readers: Science-fiction openings .......................224

Going for the obvious: Statement-of-fact openings .......................224

Chapter 18: Plot ting Your Way to Great Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Intriguing Readers with a Core Question .................................................226

Propelling Your Plot with Motivation and Conflict.................................227

Revealing characters’ motivation....................................................227

Creating conflict.................................................................................228

Handling Plot Coincidences – with Care...................................................229

Keeping Readers on Their Toes.................................................................231

Making twists and turns....................................................................231

Delivering shocks and surprises......................................................232

Chapter 19: Making Good (Use of) Time in Your Writing . . . . . . . . . . 235

Working with Time in Conventional Narratives ......................................236

Jumping over the dull bits................................................................236

Stretching out with sagas and lifetimes..........................................237

Living life in one hectic day..............................................................238

Looking Over Your Shoulder at the Past..................................................239

Handling flashbacks ..........................................................................239

I knew that would happen! Writing with hindsight .......................241

Playing Around with Time..........................................................................243

Leaping into the future......................................................................243

Mixing up time....................................................................................244

Travelling through time ....................................................................245

Chapter 20: Structuring a Longer Work of Fiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Dividing Your Work into Parts, Chapters and Scenes ............................247

Partitioning into parts.......................................................................248

Chatting about chapters ...................................................................248

Writing complete scenes...................................................................250

Table of Contents xi

Linking Different Narrative Threads .........................................................252

Spinning subplots ..............................................................................252

Trying different subplot structures.................................................254

Playing with Structure ................................................................................254

Becoming more complex ..................................................................255

Chapter 21: Tightening the Tension to Enthral Readers . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Introducing the Art of Creating Suspense ................................................258

Investigating Ways to Turn the Screws ....................................................259

Pushing the narrative for tension’s sake ........................................259

Sowing clues into the story ..............................................................263

Constructing cliffhangers..................................................................264

Creating a gap in the narrative.........................................................264

Chapter 22: Expanding Your Ideas into Larger Narratives . . . . . . . . 267

Expanding Your Work with the Characters .............................................268

Connecting with new characters .....................................................268

Involving characters in new plot lines ............................................269

Complicating your characters’ lives................................................270

Weaving characters into new timeframes ......................................271

Using Narrative and Plot to Expand Your Story......................................272

Bringing in big themes ......................................................................272

Threading together themes and subjects.......................................275

Spanning events with a bridge story...............................................277

Chapter 23: Approaching the Grand Finale: The End’s in Sight! . . . . 279

Preparing for the End..................................................................................279

Climbing aboard the story arc .........................................................280

Bringing all the threads together.....................................................281

Building up to the climax..................................................................281

Producing Your Story’s Highpoint: The Climax.......................................283

Understanding the climactic scene .................................................283

Changing everything in a single line................................................285

Answering the central narrative question......................................286

Throwing in the unexpected ............................................................287

Writing the Final Scene ...............................................................................288

Tying up loose ends...........................................................................288

Choosing your type of ending ..........................................................288

Perfecting Your Last Line ...........................................................................291

Looking at types of great last line....................................................292

Coming full circle ...............................................................................298

xii Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies

Part V: Polishing Your Product: Revising and Editing ..... 299

Chapter 24: Reviewing and Rewriting Your Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Reacquainting Yourself with Your First Draft..........................................302

Leaving your first draft alone for a while........................................302

Reading your work in one go............................................................303

Speaking up: Reading your work aloud

(but perhaps not in public)................................................................304

Making Major Changes to Your Initial Draft.............................................304

Taking a different viewpoint.............................................................305

Changing character and location names ........................................305

Altering the story’s structure...........................................................306

Considering other large reworkings................................................307

Restructuring Your Story: Second Draft...................................................308

Working on the overall structure ....................................................308

Weaving in those loose threads.......................................................309

Checking the timeline........................................................................309

Fixing fundamental flaws ..................................................................310

Chapter 25: Whipping Your Work into Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Looking with a Fresh Pair of Eyes .............................................................313

Searching for the obvious and the obscure ...................................314

Dealing with redundant characters.................................................314

Considering the order of scenes......................................................315

Cutting Redundant Material ......................................................................316

Stopping overly long dialogue..........................................................316

Trimming interior monologue..........................................................316

Keeping your back story to yourself...............................................316

Getting to the point: Avoiding summary.........................................317

Giving out too much information.....................................................318

Adding Necessary Details...........................................................................318

Making Your Writing Sparkle .....................................................................319

Weeding out clichés ..........................................................................319

Tightening up your sentences..........................................................320

Chapter 26: Polishing Your Work for Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Carrying Out Your Final Read-Through....................................................321

Correcting continuity errors ............................................................322

Spelling and punctuating correctly .................................................322

Spotting grammatical errors ............................................................324

Making the Presentation Professional ......................................................325

Complying with publishing conventions ........................................325

Displaying dialogue ...........................................................................327

Table of Contents xiii

Part VI: The Part of Tens........................................... 331

Chapter 27: Ten Top Aids for Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Getting a Notebook – and Using It! ............................................................333

Keeping a Decent Pen on You....................................................................334

Having a Good Dictionary and Thesaurus................................................334

Buying the Best Computer and Printer You Can Afford.........................335

Blocking Out Your Writing Time in a Diary..............................................335

Investing in a Desk and Chair.....................................................................336

Putting Up a ‘Do Not Disturb’ Sign ............................................................336

Surrounding Yourself with Great Books ..................................................337

Backing Up Your Work Regularly ..............................................................337

Drinking Coffee – But Not Too Much!........................................................338

Chapter 28: Ten Great Ways to Stay the Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Bribing Yourself with a Major Reward to Finish......................................339

Promising Yourself Minor Rewards for Meeting Targets .......................340

Banishing the Inner Critic...........................................................................340

Finding a Supportive Reader......................................................................341

Accepting the Bad Days Along with the Good.........................................341

Writing Every Day........................................................................................341

Taking a Writing Course .............................................................................342

Joining a Writers’ Circle..............................................................................343

Searching for a Mentor ...............................................................................344

Believing in Yourself ...................................................................................344

Index ...................................................................... 345