Let's Get Writing Excerpt

 

Here are the first few pages of my book for creative writing teachers, Let's Get Writing: 

Introduction

A flexible resource

This is designed to be a very flexible resource. It would be very rare indeed for a writing group to meet fifty-two times in one year. Many only meet once a month.  Even those who do meet weekly often don’t meet over the summer or for a couple of weeks around Christmas time. You can of course pick and choose which sessions you use, or simply work through each one in order and keep going until you run out of material.

Timings

You will notice as you go through the resource that the timings add up differently for each session. You may be meeting for an hour, two hours or an hour and a half. With or without a break.  You may also be combining these activities with other writerly activities. Members may for instance bring work to share each week in addition. Or you might do the writing exercise one week, and then work on them for the next session where you share the work. You might simply find that you don’t need quite as much time as suggested for each activity – or indeed that you may need a little more.  The timings are just a guide.   

Feedback

There are many ways of giving feedback. The activities here suggest a light touch. A full description of how feedback might work is offered at the end of the book.  If you feel this is right for your group you may wish to supply a copy of this to members. 

Providing materials

You might consider emailing to members copies of any documents they need for the sessions.  They can the print them off or upload them to a laptop, tablet or phone.  

Who are the members

And what do they want? You will know your members and may adjust the suggested activities accordingly.  Do you want just to celebrate each other’s work?  Are members looking for really detailed critical commentary? Are they aiming for publication or is writing just a hobby?  This might usefully be negotiated in an opening session.

Order and inclusion

Some sessions are a little more demanding than others. Some are more serious and some are more fun. A few need advance preparation.  It’s a good idea therefore to read the whole resource from cover to cover and decide which sessions you will include with your group.  

1.     Character Magic Exercise

Preparation

Provide copies of the questionnaire below. 

Set up (5-10 minutes)

Get everyone to think of the four main characters in their story:

·         The hero – the person whose story it is e.g. Harry Potter

·         The friend – totally on their side but just or almost as powerless e.g. Ron, Hermione, Hagrid

·         The mentor – someone who can help and who does teach them e.g. Dumbledore

·         The enemy – Voldemort

Sometimes the mentor and the enemy may not be human.

 

Working on the characters (20 minutes)

Now your group members should think about their hero and one of the other characters. They should make notes.

They must know:

·         What their characters are like physically, emotionally, intellectually

·         What their personality is like

·         What they most desire in the world

·         What they are most afraid of

·         What is their motivation in this story (if you don’t have a story yet, what is their motivation right now)

You might consider providing a questionnaire:

1.       What does she look like?

2.       How old is she?

3.       What would she like to eat?

4.       What doesn’t she like eating?

5.       What type of sport would she like most?

6.       If she lived in our world, what sort of clothes would she wear to relax in?

7.       What does she most like to do in her free time?

8.       Which newspaper would she read?

9.       What might be her favourite type of TV programme?

10.   What is she good at?

11.   How does she get on with other authority figures?

12.   What is her ideal job?

13.   What makes her happy?

14.   What makes her sad?

15.   What makes her angry?

16.   Which quality does she admire most in others?

17.   What is she most afraid of?

18.   What is her greatest wish?

19.   What is her main motivation in this scene? 

 

Writing a scene (10 – 30 minutes)

When they know their characters well, they should put them together in a short scene and see what happens. Spend no more than thirty minutes writing. They may even have enough within ten minutes.  See how it goes.       

Discussing scenes (20 minutes)

Now participants should swap scenes.  They should ask each other what they’ve understood.  Does the reader get the same picture in their head as the writer started out with? 

Then get them to ask some specific questions about the characters, INCLUDING MATERIAL YOU’VE NOT SHOWN IN THIE BRIEF EXTRACT. For instance, they might ask what colour hair they have, even if this hasn’t been mentioned it.

Now, here is the spooky bit. If they’ve spent enough time on the characters the readers will get at least 70% of the answers right. I’ve used this exercise for ten years and only had one fail. Most people get more that 70% right. That extract carries all the DNA of your character.

Follow up work

Can they expand the story? Can they write more scenes that include these characters? Or add more characters to the story?  

Find out more about the book here