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Creative Writing Exercises For Dummies (For Dummies PDF

386 Pages·2014·7.82 MB·English
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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 Registered office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com. The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor men- tioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRAN- TIES WITH THE RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IT IS SOLD ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. IF PROFESSIONAL ADVICE OR OTHER EXPERT ASSIS- TANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL SHOULD BE SOUGHT. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at (001) 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical sup- port, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-118-92105-0 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-92106-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-92107-4 (ebk) Printed in Great Britain by TJ, Padstow, Cornwall 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 vvii 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 vviiii Table of Contents 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 vviiiiii 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

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