>>> Item number 37153 from WRITERS LOG9409C --- (56 records) ----- <<< Date: Sun, 18 Sep 1994 18:35:03 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: EXERCISE: Changing Directions... 1. Pick a character (you know, those funny people who are always doing things in your stories?) [I always feel like a magician at this point. Pick a card, any card...] 2. Set them up with something they are intending to do. Keep it simple--they are going to lunch, getting ready to go home after work, setting out for work, maybe just settling down to watch the clothes spin in the dryer. Go ahead and write up this piece, if you want too. [now put it back in the deck...and shuffle it...] 3. Slam-bam! An accident intrudes. Your choice as to how big or small--anything from slipping on the ice to having a jumbo jet land in the backyard. Fire, flood, car spin or crash, a kitty cat tail in the recliner, children's fingers in the car door, take your pick. (yes, Robyn, you can use the farther out ones if you want. A dead troll drops through the roof? Why not? Oh, I see, a witch was carrying him home to be lacquered, and he slipped. Sounds perfectly reasonable...) [drop the deck on the floor! and put your foot on one card...] 4. Two parts--first, make us live through the shuddering moment of the accident. Give us that gulp in the back of the throat that says we just lost control of our life for a moment. Second, what happens next? Do they shiver and shake for a while, then go ahead with the original plan? Or do they turn around and give up on it? Do they suddenly decide to call their mother? In some ways, the follow-up changes in action can be more poignant than any of the immediate description--watching them suddenly and deliberately change their life in reaction to the accident...taking time out to learn troll taxidermy, putting in time as a volunteer for the ASPCA, even just taking a minute to hug little June and listen to her story... [Let me pick up a card...yes, your card is right here...oh, that's not your card? well, what about the one under your foot? Aha! And that's the end of this trick...] [oh, yeah. since most of the writing guidance says you can start with a coincidence, but should never ever put one in the middle of the story, you may want to start with the accident (in catastrophe res?) then flashback or backfill to tell us where the person was headed before laying out the changes. Personally, this feels like I'm rearranging the story just to meet the rules, but do it whichever way feels right to you.] As always, write it up, polish nicely, tie it in a little package and share it with your friends here on WRITERS. tink