Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Complete and Total Newbie

This is topic Complete and Total Newbie in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by revmachine21 (Member # 1732) on :

My Bio: I am 32 and graduated with a Politics degree. Now I work for a German bank in Tokyo. I used to write a lot of poetry but dropped the habit in my late teens. I still write but; while my output is boring, the actual topics could be great story material. My last effort was a 60 page disaster response manual for my firm covering natural and man-made disasters like volcanoes or chemical contamination.

I want to try creative writing and get away from the manual-speak of duck, cover and kiss your backside goodbye. Anybody have some good sources for short story idea and character development? Guidelines for story structure would also probably be useful as I know nothing about how to start a story.

Posted by Narvi (Member # 1376) on :

If you're looking toward prose fiction (I have no idea about poetry) I recommend starting sith just your strong parts. If you have trouble with plot, retell stories from folklore or religion. If you have trouble with character, pluck some out of history. If you have trouble with setting, stick it in the real world (or write fanfic). Don't worry about who you borrow from, this isn't for publication anyway.

Oh, and one other thing: ignore length. Your stories will be as long as they are, just ignore it. Or maybe only I need to do that in order to write comfortably.

Good luck!

Posted by Alias (Member # 1645) on :

quote:
. . . ignore length. Your stories will be as long as they are, just ignore it. . .

What a wonderful quote! Sometimes when I write I get the impression that it is the story and not me who is in control, so this is a wonderful way to think about it. I prefer not to stress about lengths and so forth.

Posted by jiuyen (Member # 1730) on :

Hey Rev... you might try Card's books -- "How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" and "Character and Viewpoint". Both provide some pretty fundamental guidance on producing stories (such as the M.I.C.E. quotient).

I live in Tokyo, too, by the way! Good to know that there are fellow writers out there in the land of combini oversaturation...

Posted by revmachine21 (Member # 1732) on :

Thank you all! Length, length, length.

I am worried about length. The reason I managed poetry was that I could reduce and focus. The longer the text, the less control I feel I have, the less tight the material.

I have come up with a couple quirky story ideas that tie in some characters. But now I have got to figure out where they are going.

[This message has been edited by revmachine21 (edited September 03, 2003).]

Posted by Jules (Member # 1658) on :

If you're worried about structure, check to see whether your story fits this 'classic' one. If one of these stages is missing, it can sometimes feel wrong for a hard-to-define reason. Of course, as with all "rules" of writing, feel free to ignore it :-)

1. "Stasis" ... that is, the way things are before the story starts. Doesn't need to be explicit, but your characters ought to know what it was, so its something to keep in mind.
2. "Trigger" - an event that causes the story to begin
3. "Quest" - at least one of your characters decides to attain some goal because of the trigger
4. "Surprise" - the quest must not be too easy, unexpected things must happen
5. "Critical Choice" - your character must make a decision, preferably a difficult one, that influences the rest of the story
6. "Climax" - as a consequence of the choice, there is a confrontation.
7. "Reversal" - some change occurs in the life of your characters, arising out of the climax.
8. "Resolution" - the questions you raised about how the character was going to attempt to achieve the quest must be answered, or at least answers indicated.

Other suggestions are to ensure that you have a defined beginning, middle and end. The beginning is 1-3 above, the middle 4 and 5, 6-8 are the end.

But a lot of people just totally ignore this and come up with stories that work anyway. Do what works for you, but if you have trouble (I sometimes do) that list can be a good reference.