What YOU Can Create

So these last two days I’ve been shuffling pages this way and that, adding sections and rewriting my murder mystery WOLF. That means I missed yesterday and Monday’s prompts.

As the conference roars closer, I have to finalize things there.

Here are all five prompts, the last of them, before WIFYR 2017!

#50

What are the significant events in you book? Write them down, in order. Do they rise in tension, causing more at stake for your main character? Is the tension tightened with these events?

#51

Write the most important scene from the point of view of a person watching it unfold, not experiencing it. Pay particular attention to sense of place details. How does this inform your novel?

#52

Choose your five favorite novels. Break away from series and the same genre.

Using each book as an example, rewrite one page of your story, from the opening, imitating each book.

So page one will be like Harry Potter, page two will be like The Road, page three will be like THIS IS WHAT I DID etc.

What do you learn? Can you take any of this and put it in your writing?

#53

Take 15 minutes to put yourself in a scene with your main character. Make it a tough scene. Write what you talk about.

#54

If you have done all these prompts, which one has helped you the most? Why? How can you use this in more of your writing?

 

Okay, Everyone (all three of you!). I’m off.

Will see you in July!

Happy WIFYR. Happy writing. Happy life.

Three Things Thursday–

From Brenda Bensch:

1. Yesterday I had lunch at the Olive Garden in Valley Fair Mall with 6 of my former debate students from Cyprus HS. They are now in, or quickly approaching, their 30’s. We’d done this two or three times before, but not in the last five years. It was good to see them, hear about their triumphs (there were many), their challenges (also, quite a few), and how they’re all doing now.

If you could invite 6 old friends to join you for lunch, who would they be? How far back do you go? How had you impacted their lives? How had they impacted yours? (On Facebook today I commented on how “loud” we all were. One of them answered that I’d taught them “to project”! Guilty.)

Write about an imaginary lunch with your former friends.

Write about your MC’s invitation to lunch. Who would s/he invite? What were the concomitant impacts of all on each other?

From Me

2. I looked up Top Romance Novels of all times and got titles like Pride and Prejudice, Outlander and Jane Eyre. But what are some terrific young adult romances? Perfect Chemistry, Anna and the French Kiss, and Beautiful Disaster were top books when I looked in that category. As I searched through the titles, I felt a little disheartened. Many seemed one dimensional.  I did see Fault in Our Stars. And lots of books by Utah authors (always a good thing). But many of the books weren’t what I would want to spend my time with. And I love a good romance.

So I looked up this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel

And saw these words:  The romance novel or romantic novel is a literary genre.

After twisting things around in my head, I thought–‘We can write well-written love stories. Stories that aren’t only romance but life and good things and hard things and fun things, too. Where people change and the outcome is for better or worse.’

You know. Like Louise Plummer in some of her amazing young adult novels–which have romance in them for sure. But real life told well.

From Me and Ann Dee

3. So Ann Dee sent me a whole bunch of stuff that we should include in our romance stories.

For today– Write an opening scene with your main character.  Start the story on the day something new happens. Not something huge–necessarily. But something is different. In This is What I Did: Logan  is kicked in the balls at scouts. In The Chosen One, Kyra knows their is a family meeting that evening. Neither are huge events.

The new thing doesn’t have to be a life changer.

In this scene, let us learn a little of place, a lot about the character, and a little about who she is on the inside. Let us see her dealing with the new thing that has happened today. Take as much time as you need. Don’t go back and change anything.

Put this with your other three exercises.

Tonight when you go to bed, think about your new character, this new situation, what she wants and see if anything pops into your head. Make sure you have paper and pencil next to the table.