We had a bumper crop of poems in January. To Steven Withrow, my thanks again for providing ETERNITY as our word. It inspired an impressive array of interpretations.
Now, thanks to our friend, Mary Nida Smith, we have a new word for February. This time we’re headed off in a new direction so think Superman, think Dracula, think chains rattling in the walls, think SUPERNATURAL! Thanks, Mary Nida, for giving us this new challenge. Everyone, grab a pen. Go!
David
Good day to everyone. I know that some of you are story writers with your own ideas about what makes a story and how to get started. I’ve published a number of stories, too, for children and adults, and I love writing them. Sometimes on school visits we talk about story writing. What I tell students is much the same as what I tell adults. Today I thought I’d offer some ideas on the subject of getting started. If you disagree or have other suggestions, I hope you’ll join the conversation.
“A writer’s job is to create characters and give them a place to grow. Start with a situation, introduce the characters, then begin to narrate.”
– Stephen King
Novelist, story writer
“A story consists of a sequence of actions that occur when a sympathetic character encounters a complicating situation that he confronts and solves.”
– Jon Franklin,
Pulitzer winning journalist
“The three greatest rules of dramatic writing are: Conflict! Conflict! Conflict!”
– James Frey
Novelist
King is more concerned with narration, description, and dialogue than he is about plot. He believes that plot isn’t important and can even restrain the characters’ abilities to move about and grow. These successful writers tell us to take a situation, introduce characters, and start telling their stories.
In my book, I show students that situations and characters can be thought about together.
• Wooden puppet, sometimes naughty, wants to become a real boy (Pinocchio).
• Pig born runt of the litter fears for his life (Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web).
• Hero from another planet disguises himself as a mild-mannered reporter (Superman).
Start your own list of characters and situations. Here are three to help get started.
• Old dog in animal shelter fears he’s too ugly to be adopted.
• New girl in class says she can do something she can’t.
• Boy hurt in accident must learn to live without walking.
Once you have selected a situation and introduced your characters, you are ready to begin telling the story of what happens. There is more to a story, of course, than getting started. We can talk about other elements later, if you wish.
Stories are about characters and how they solve their problems. If we make the problem too easy, the reader gets bored. If we make it too hard, the reader doesn’t believe the solution.
Stories usually build toward a climax during which the leading character(s) attempts to resolve the conflict (solve the problem). Failure in initial efforts helps build suspense and engage the reader in rooting for the hero to somehow manage to pull off the seemingly impossible.
How all the elements — idea, beginning, character, situation, problem, action, dialogue, solution, ending — come together are the stuff of many how-to books on story writing. But I always remind students or adults that writing begins with a single word on a piece of paper or the screen of a computer. The mind cannot improve on nothing. Carrying around that great idea is our minds is, for many writers, a necessary incubation period, but sooner or later that story has to begin showing itself on paper.
David
Do you have a Rooster Poem?
Mary Nida, you have your choice of the following: A signed copy of Pirates, a poetry critique (limit three pages, double-spaced in regular 12 point type) or a picture book critique (limit five pages, double-spaced in regular 12 point type). Let me know what you decide.
Don’t forget, tomorrow at noon I’ll close off voting on October’s dirt poems. Right now it’s a real race so get those friends and family supporters involved!David
David
If you are interested in writing books for teens and tweens, especially books for girls, there’s an article in the current issue of The New Yorker (October 19) that you’ll find interesting. This well written piece by Rebecca Mead introduces the reader to Alloy Entertainment, which produces books and creates other properties for the preteen and teen-age market.What I found helpful was the the description of all the editorial brainstorming that each idea must survive as it makes its way from suggestion to finished product. It struck me that Alloy has several people involved doing what an individual writer must also do. The trick for us, when evaluating a new idea, is to be as critical, focused, and unbiased as the whole team in an organiation like Alloy.It is far more sensible to weigh a new idea, find it lacking, and discard or revise it than to plunge optimistically forward into the writing process, hoping that somehow the story will turn out okay. For a lone individual, this is one of the hardest and most fundamental lessons we must learn. And learn. And learn.
If you have any comments about the article or about how you go about judging the merits of a new idea before you commit to writing it, please share it with the rest of us!
David
Thanks to everyone who has dropped by my website and signed my guest book. http://www.davidlharrison.com/guestbook.htm I love to hear from you.
To encourage others to sign my guest book,
I’M HAVING A CONTEST THIS MONTH.
At the end of October I going to take all the names of everyone who signed my Guestbook , put them in a hat, and draw a WINNER.
PRIZE: YOUR CHOICE OF THE FOLLOWING -
A SIGNED COPY OF PIRATES. The book was selected by NCTE as a notable poetry book for 2008 and by VOYA for its nonfiction honor list in 2009. Soon I’ll have some new good news to share about Pirates.
OR
A PICTURE BOOK OR POEM CRITIQUE – if you write poetry for young people or have a picture book and would like your work critiqued, I’ll give you that choice if you’re our winner.
RULES:
Poetry submission – no more than three double-spaced pages in regular 12 point type.
Picture book — in rhyme or otherwise – no more than five – 12pt, double-spaced pages. Be sure to leave your e-mail address!
Hope to see you on the guest book! http://www.davidlharrison.com/guestbook.htm
Am I the only one working on a poem stimulated by a single word? Yesterday (on day four) I finished a rough draft of the one I’m writing based on dirt. I hope on Sunday to hear from others who took the challenge! David
