NaNoWriMo:Israel - Recently Updated Pages

Critique Circle

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 07:02:38 CST

I've discovered this very serious "Critique Circle" site where you post your work and other people provide you feedback - and you actually choose the format they use to provide it. The key is, you critique other people's work to gain "points" and then post your work for "points" That way it very quickly becomes a tit-for-tat situation where everyone is sharing. So far I've only posted one short piece and it has yet to "come up" onthe queue, but I've provided feedback - criticism to others.

I definitely encourage you to try it out.

Exercise : Developing Successful Dialogue

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:44:17 CST

Dialogue is one of the most difficult aspects of writing to master. There are many pitfalls you must try to avoid, such as:

Stilted language
Dialogue that does not sound like natural speech.
Filler
Dialogue that does not further the scene and does not deepen your
understanding of the characters.
Exposition
Dialogue that has the character explain the plot or repeat information
for the benefit of the audience.
Naming
Having one character use another character’s name to establish identity.
People almost never say other people’s names back to them, and if they do it
is a character trait typical of a used car salesman.
Overuse of Modifiers
Too many dialogue modifiers such as shouted, exclaimed, cried, whispered, stammered, opined, insinuated, hedged and a million others. Modifiers such as this can sometimes be useful, but are often annoying and used as a crutch for poorly designed dialogue.

Here are a few exercises to help you master dialogue as a tool for writing:

Write down the things you say over the course of the day. Examine your own speech patterns. You don’t have to get every word, but you may find that you say less than you think and that your statements are surprisingly short. You might also find that you rarely speak in complete sentences.
Find a crowded place such as a restaurant, a bar, or a shopping mall and write down snippets of the conversations you hear. Avoid trying to record whole conversations, just follow along for a brief exchange and then listen for your next target. If you are worried about looking suspicious, you might want to purchase a Palm Pilot, Handspring Visor or other hand-held PDA device. These handy spy tools make it look like you are conducting business or playing with your favorite electronic toy rather than eavesdropping.
Test responses to the same question. Think of a question that will require at least a little thought, and ask it of several different people. Compare their responses. Remember that you are focused on their words. Write them down as soon as you can.
Record several different TV shows. Some choices include: sitcom, news, drama, talk show, infomercial, sporting event, etc.). Write down a transcript using just the dialogue and people’s names. If you don’t know the names, just use a description such as announcer or redheaded woman. You can also transcribe two shows of the same genre, using one show you like and one you dislike. Compare dialogue between the fiction and non-fiction programming you recorded. Look for such things as greetings, descriptions of physical actions, complete sentences, slang, verbal ticks (Such as like, you know, uhhhh, well, etc.). Compare how these dialogue crutches change according to the show format and quality.
Rewrite one or more of the shows in exercise 4 as prose, trying to recreate the show as accurately as possible. Note how easy or difficult it is to work in the entire dialogue from the show. Does it seem to flow naturally and read well or does it get in your way. Rewrite again eliminating any dialogue you feel is unnecessary. Try not to change any dialogue though until your final draft. Work with what you have. Remember that you don’t necessarily have to rewrite the whole show. Do enough to be sure you have the feeling for it.
Rewrite one of the the transcripts from exercise 4 using as much of the dialogue as possible, but changing the scene in as many ways as possible. Change the setting, change the people’s intent, and change the tone. See how easy or difficult it is to give the same words a different intent. Again, do enough to be sure you have the feeling for it.
Write the dialogue for a scene without using any modifiers. Just write down a conversation as it goes along naturally. After you have completed the dialogue, add narrative description, but not dialogue tags such as said, shouted or ordered. Instead, try to work the dialogue into the action as a logical progression of the statements. Finally, add any dialogue tags that are absolutely necessary, and keep them simple such as said, told, or asked. Again, only put them in if you can find not other options. Compare this to the previous dialogue you have written and see what you like or dislike about the changes.
Write a scene in which one person tells another person a story. Make sure that you write it as a dialogue and not just a first person narrative, but clearly have one person telling the story and the other person listening and asking questions or making comments. The purpose of this scene will be both to have the story stand alone as a subject, and to have the characters’ reactions to the story be the focal point of the scene.
Write a scene in which one person is listening to two other people have an argument or discussion. For example, a child listening to her parents argue about money. Have the third character narrate the argument and explain what is going on, but have the other two provide the entire dialogue. It is not necessary to have the narrator understand the argument completely. Miscommunication is a major aspect of dialogue.
Write a conversation between two liars. Give everything they say a double or triple meaning. Never state or indicate through outside description that these two people are lying. Let the reader figure it out strictly from the dialogue. Try not to be obvious, such as having one person accuse the other of lying. That is too easy.
Write a conversation in which no character speaks more than three words per line of dialogue. Again, avoid crutches such as explaining everything they say through narration. Use your narration to enhance the scene, not explain the dialogue.
Write a narrative or scripted scene in which several characters are taking an active role in the conversation. This can be a difficult aspect of dialogue to master, because with each additional character, the reader or audience must be able to keep track of the motivations and interests of the individuals involved. This can be especially difficult in prose, where the time between one character speaking and the next can be interrupted by action or description. See how many characters your can sustain within the scene and still have it make sense and be engaging.

Exercise : Awareness of Place

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:20:25 CST

For Proust, the scent of a madelein evoked an entire novel. In this exercise, list ten places. (Any places will do: your office, the Taj Majal, whatever pops into your head). After you have listed those ten places, for each one, list a smell that comes to mind. Once you have all ten places and all ten smells, circle the pair that you find most intriguing, then start writing.

From C.M.Mayo's 365 Writing Workshops

Setting

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:17:53 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

POV Switch

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:16:11 CST

A generous person from San Diego read my first attempt at writing a novel and suggested that I "tighten up" my control over Point of View. To help me become more aware, he suggested I take a particularly critical exchange between two protagonists that I had written from one character's Point of View, and rewrite the exact same scene from the other protagonist's perspective. It was one of the most eye opening exercises I have ever undertaken. I strongly suggest you try it as well.

Yoel

Exercise : Exploring P-o-V

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:11:36 CST

From Your Own Life, POV Switch

Today's exercise is courtesy of Charlie Anders, a fiction writer who lives in San Francisco.

Think of a scene from your own life and write a brief description of it from the point of view of someone else who was there. Try to explore how you (or a fictionalized version of you) might have appeared to this person at the time, but also how this person might have seen the entire situation. Include at least three small details that this other person could have noticed.

Creating a Character by Clustering

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:03:56 CST

Clustering

Do you want to develop a character? It's a fun exercise to do even as a throw-away exercise.

In the middle of a blank piece of paper, write down your starting concept and circle it. Now, do a bunch of radiating lines from that center, and put concepts relating to your starting concepts. Circle each of those. From those circles, radiate even farther out and put more relating concepts. The "cluster" of connected ideas starting from a central concept is your finished product.
For example, I started once with "computer programmer" as my starting concept: I wanted to think about a character who was a computer programmer, because I know that world and could write about it. The first layer had concepts like "wizard" and "relationship with computer" and "nerd" and "works long hours": each of these in a circle, connected to my central idea. From "wizard" I got ideas like "algorithms as spells" and "mystic incantations" and "result appears like magic". From "relationship with computer" I got "loves their computer" and "superuser" and "fast typer". From "nerd" I got "sits too close to screen" and "wears sloppy jeans". From "loves their computer" I radiated out even further and got "speaks to computer"
Now, the cluster doesn't really define an interesting character, its more of a stereotype. It's also a list of things to explore.
What can result in a really interesting character is negating one of the stereotypical ideas. For example, I negated the idea "loves their computer". That was a particularly rich choice, leading to questions about why the programmer would hate their computer, for how long they had hated it, and why they had become a computer programmer if they hated their computer. Perhaps the character hated their job but was afraid to leave it (the salary, the safety, the routine). Another cluster, done by a friend of mine, was about a dance teacher. The idea "supportive" was negated to lead to a vision of a dance teacher yelling at a row of dance students trying to do their best. That vision led to questions as well: why is the teacher so critical? Is the teacher bitter about something that happened?

Language

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:57:20 CST

There are a number of issues pertaining to language that I didn't know where else to place them. If you have ideas, let me know.

Sensory Language

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:53:14 CST

How To A Sensory Tour of Your Setting
A Guided Free Write on Setting
From Ginny Wiehardt,

Many writers swear that setting is the most important element of any fictional work. Whether or not you believe this is uniformly true, you will want to spend some time considering your story's setting -- if you haven't already -- before you begin to write.

It's especially important to use details, especially things that don't immediately come to mind. You don't need a lot of them, just the right ones. Through this exercise, you will devote some time reflecting on your story's setting and conjuring the details that will make your setting vivid and real for your readers.

Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 30 minutes - 1 hour

Here's How:

To begin, read part or all of a work with a strong setting. This can be a poem, such as Naomi Shihab Nye's "San Antonio" or an Elizabeth Bishop poem such as "At the Fishhouses" or a short story. Faulkner, Willa Cather, Jack London, and Katherine Mansfield are all writers known for their settings, for how their sense of place infects their work. What in particular made you believe in this place and in the writer's knowledge of it?
Now take some time to think about your story's particular setting. If this is a place you have been, you might look at old photographs, maps, or diary entries. If you have not been there, check out some books or look online.
Start with sight, which is for many of us the most immediate sense. Write down every image that comes to mind, whether it pertains to your story or not. Free associate. It doesn't have to make sense or be grammatical. Just get down as much as you can.
Repeat the above for taste, smell, sound, and touch. Again, don't be afraid of unconventional answers. You never know what might end up in your final story.
Finally, in one line sum up the dominate feeling you have about your setting. Is it a feeling of loneliness, menace, freedom? What mood will your setting evoke in your readers?

Look at the lists you've compiled. Which elements will contribute to this dominate mood? Which elements will complicate that mood?

Tips:

This exercise can also work for imaginary settings. In fact, for science fiction and fantasy, it's even more important.

Paper
Pen
Books, photos, maps, letters, diary entries, or other memory-jogging artifacts

Originally published on About : Writing Fiction

Characters

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:30:25 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

10 Tips for Writing Dialogue

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:29:14 CST

Top 10 Tips for Writing Dialogue
From Ginny Wiehardt,

Writing dialgue -- realistic dialogue, anyway -- does not come easily to everyone. Done well, dialogue advances the story and fleshes out the characters while providing a break from straight exposition.

However, just as realistic dialogue is one of the most powerful tools at a writer's disposal, nothing pulls the reader out of a story faster than bad dialogue. It takes time to develop a good ear, but noting these simple rules and obvious pitfalls can make a huge difference.

1. Listen to how people talk to each other.
Eavesdrop and scribble down phrases you like. Writers must have a good ear and eye for detail. The right detail can bring a character to life. Likewise, the wrong detail can destroy the reader's belief in the character. For instance, it's unlikely that a mechanic is going to use the word "behoove" or that a tax attorney would say "awesome." Develop a sense of the natural rhythms of speech and a good memory for phrases.

2. Dialogue is not exactly like real speech, but it should read like real speech.
That is to say, real speech has plenty of words and sounds that would be distracting if included on the page. Beginning writers often think that including words like "uh" and "oh" makes their dialogue sound more realistic. The truth is, these kinds of extraneous words look unprofessional (the same is true of attempting to write a stutter). Alfred Hitchcock once said that a good story was "life, with the dull parts taken out." Keep this in mind when revising dialogue.

3. Cut words and phrases that don't serve the conversation's purpose.
As I said in the beginning, dialogue should move the story forward while bringing the characters to life. If it doesn't do either of these things, it should probably be cut altogether. Oakley Hall, in The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, offers the rule, "One thought at a time and keep the lines short."

Many writers find it helpful to record their dialogue and play it back to themselves during the editing process.

4. Don't try to provide too much information at once through dialogue.
In other words, it should not be obvious that you are using dialogue to communicate information. In general, apply the three-sentence rule: give no character more than three uninterrupted sentences at once. Let the story unfold naturally. You don't have to let the reader know everything up front, and you can trust the reader to remember details from earlier in the story.

5. Break up dialogue with action.
Remind your reader that these are physical human beings by grounding their dialogue in the physical world:

"That's her!" J.P. says. He puts his cup next to his chair. He gets up and goes down the steps to the drive.

Physical details also help to break up the words on the page: long periods of dialogue are easier for the reader's eye when broken up by description. (And vice versa, for that matter.)

6. Don't try too hard to vary your tag lines when writing dialogue.
Veering too much beyond "he said/she said" only draws attention to the tags. Readers tend to read over these phrases anyway, whereas obvious efforts to insert variety, through words such as "interjected," "counseled," or "conceded," draw the reader out of the action. If the writer is doing his or her work, the reader is already aware that the speaker is interjecting, counseling, or conceding. The writer won't have to say it again in the tag.

7. Avoid stereotypes, especially when it comes to dialect.
Any Southerner will cringe if you have a character say "Pa" in this day and age. And unless you grew up in Brooklyn and know you can pull it off, think twice before inserting, "Fugeddaboutit," into the mouth of your Brooklyn cop.

8. Don't overuse profanity and slang when writing dialogue.
Rather than making your characters seem tough or cool, both of these will quickly date your work. Hemingway, whose characters included soldiers, fishermen, hunters, and artists, had excellent advice on this subject: "Try and write straight English; never using slang except in dialogue and then only when unavoidable...slang goes sour in a short time." You'll notice that even with his toughest characters, profanity is as rare as slang.

9. Read widely, noting both good and bad dialogue.
Pay attention to why things work or don't work. Where are you taken out of the action of a story? When do you feel confused or frustrated? Are there points at which you stop believing in a character? On the other hand, in stories that work, in which you feel particularly close to a character, how did dialogue help to achieve that effect? See the examples and reviews on this site for suggestions of stories and books to read, or pick up an anthology and start your own list.

10. Punctuate Dialogue Correctly
Take some time to learn the basic rules for punctuating dialogue. Nothing is more distracting than a writer who doesn't know how to use punctuation.

Originally published in About : Writing Fiction

Dialogue

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:24:35 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Plot

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:23:32 CST

In fiction, a plot or storyline is the rendering and ordering of the events and actions of a story, particularly towards the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect. In other words it's what mostly happened in the story.

Story arc

Plot is often schematically represented as an arc reflecting the rising action described in the following phases:

Initial situation – the beginning. It is the first incident that makes the story move.
Conflict or Problem – goal which the main character of the story has to achieve.
Complication or Rising action – obstacles which the main character has to overcome.
Climax – highest point of interest of the story.
Dénouement or Resolution – what happens to the character after overcoming all obstacles and reaching his goal, or failing to achieve the desired result and not reaching his goal.
Conclusion – the end result

References

Bickham, Jack M. (1993). Scene & Structure: How to Construct Fiction with Scene-by-scene Flow, Logic and Readability. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books. ISBN-10: 0-89879-551-6.
Edgerton, Les (2007), Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go, Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-514-6

from Wikipedia.org

Back Story

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:18:53 CST

In narratology, a back-story (also back story or backstory) is the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This literary device is often employed to lend the main story depth or verisimilitude. A back-story may include the history of characters, objects, countries, or other elements of the main story. Back-stories are usually revealed, sketchily or in full, chronologically or otherwise, as the main narrative unfolds. However, a story creator may also create portions of a back-story or even an entire back-story that is solely for his or her own use in writing the main story and is never revealed in the main story. In role-playing games, a character’s back-story is usually called his or her background.

Wikipedia.org

Exercise : Avoiding Too Much Back Story

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:17:16 CST

How To Avoid Too Much Back Story
From Ginny Wiehardt,

Do your short stories tend to get bogged down in back story? Do certain scenes seem to drag, even to you? As Alicia Erian pointed out in an interview for this site, screenwriters have a lot to teach fiction writers about creating fiction that moves.

This writing exercise will help you take advantage of these lessons to create forward-moving fiction, thinking of a scene visually, strictly adhering to the present moment, to eliminate unnecessary back story.

Difficulty: Hard
Time Required: two hours

Here's How:

Choose a scene from one of your short stories or novels that seems to drag. Scenes designed to be more action-oriented are particularly well-suited to this exercise.
Rewrite the scene as a play or screenplay. In other words, tell the story using only dialogue and brief descriptions of action and characters. (If you aren't familiar with screenwriting or playwrighting formats, don't worry. This isn't an exercise in formatting, but in thinking visually.)
Practice economy. Think strategically about how character can be revealed through action and dialogue. (Syd Field has excellent examples of how this can be done in his classic book, "Screenplay.") Instead of telling the reader what a character is like, find a way to illustrate character as the plot unfolds.
Rewrite the scene in prose, abstaining from back story and long descriptions, and incorporating some of the details you have added in writing it as a screenplay.
Take a few days off from the work and return to it later, noting how the pace of the work has changed.

Tips:

In some instances, backstory will be necessary to the plot of a story. Determine what's absolutely necessary and what the reader can surmise from the dialogue and the action. Readers generally pick up on and remember more details than you might expect.
Don't confuse foward-moving fiction with fiction written for the screen. It's possible to write rich, literary work that also has movement.
It's easy enough to reinsert any necessary information later. When you start to get feedback on the work, people will let you know if anything is confusing.

What You Need:

A story or novel written within the past few years.
A pen and paper or a computer.

Originally published on About: Fiction Writing

So What is POV?

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:33:10 CST

I listen to Paula B's delightful podcasts and have learned a great deal about writing, and the "business of writing" from her shows. The following is one of the most succint and clear exposition of Point-of-View I have heard anywhere. Well work downloadiung and listening to!
Downbload : "Point of View in Fiction"

Website Link: The Writing Story

We’ve had a lot of requests for a show on point of view, so I’ve been researching the topic, and despite the fact that I majored in literature in college, I’ve been surprised by almost everything I’ve discovered!
In this solo show, I’ll share with you what I’ve found so far, including:
What point of view is
What the function of the narrator is
What types of narration there are
When to use the various types of narration
How to decide who should be a viewpoint character
What to watch out for when switching between points of view.
I’ll be illustrating my findings with lots of examples.– Paula B.

Interviewee: Paula Berinstein
Host: Paula B
Date: July 22, 2007
Running time: 50:42 minutes
File size: 25 megabytes
Rating: G

Exercise : Writing in the 3rd Person

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:22:12 CST

How To Start Writing in the Third Person
From Ginny Wiehardt,

Though it's easy to fall into the habit of always writing in the first person, it's important to to be able to write in the third person as well. Both first person and third person have their strengths and weaknesses; what works for one story may not work for another. This exercise will help you observe the effect of writing in the third person point of view in order to add this tool to your toolbox

Difficulty: Average
Time Required: 1 hour

Here's How:

Choose a particularly compelling -- or problematic -- scene from a piece of prose you have recently written in the first person.
Rewrite the piece from the third person point of view. Take your time. It may require some strategizing to pull off the transformation. You'll also have to consider whether or not you want to use third person omniscient or limited. In moving from first to third, it might be easiest to try third person limited first.
Notice how the change in point of view changes the voice and the mood of the story. What freedom do you have with this narrator that you did not have before? Likewise, are there any limitations in using this point of view?
Make a list of three or four advantages of the new point of view: ways the new voice helps develop plot and/or character.
Make a list of the limitations of the third person point of view with regard to this particular piece. Is it the most effective way of telling this story? Were there ways in which it was harder to develop your central character with third person? Did it force you to use other techniques in revealing your character? Was the voice stronger or weaker? If weaker, was the trade-off worthwhile?
If the new point of view works well with this scene, consider changing the point of view for the entire piece. Otherwise, return to your original.

Tips:

Even if changing to the third person point of view has not improved this particular piece, remain open to it in future work. Use the lessons learned in this exercise to evalaute point of view in all the fiction you write.
Lorrie Moore has a good explanation for how she chooses POV: "There are times when the first person is necessary for observing others (not the protagonist) in a voice that simultaneously creates a character (usually the protagonist); then there are times when the third person is necessary for observing the protagonist in a voice that is not the character’s but the story’s."

What You Need:

* Scene from a recent story or novel.
* Computer or paper and pen.
* Quiet place to work.

Point of View

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:19:16 CST

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Writing 101

ePublicist — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:18:59 CST

A collection of articles and especially exercises that will perhaps open your eyes and assist you in honing your craft as a writer.

NaNoWriMo:Israel - Recently Updated Pages

Critique Circle

Exercise : Developing Successful Dialogue

Exercise : Awareness of Place

Setting

POV Switch

Exercise : Exploring P-o-V

Creating a Character by Clustering

Clustering

Language

Sensory Language

Top Questions for Believable Characters

Characters

10 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Dialogue

Plot

Story arc

References

Back Story

Exercise : Avoiding Too Much Back Story

So What is POV?

Exercise : Writing in the 3rd Person

Point of View

Writing 101