Faber Session 10 – Story Vs Plot

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, well today, you do get a picture of last nights cake!

Lemon, rosemary & olive oil cake! Oh how I will miss you once the Faber course is over *sighs whistfully* But enough of the cake porn, lets get down to the nitty gritty 🙂

Tonight, the discussion centered around what the difference is between story and plot. The simplest way to show the difference is by using the example given by Nigel Watts in his excellent book Write A Novel where he says:

The King died and then the Queen died. Is a story.
The King died and then the Queen died of grief. Is a plot.

Causality distinguishes story from plot. Does that make sense?

In it’s basic terms it boils down to:
character=choices=causality

Its basically the choices, that lead to consequences, which then becomes the plot.

We talked about Christopher Bookers 7 Basic Plots and why they work.

Then talked about plot bombs and how to keep the plot moving.

A very interesting session where my critique of last week was used as an example, as what we shouldn’t be doing, i.e. throwing everything at our reader in the first 5,000 words…whoops! *snigger* 🙂

So do you agree? Are there only 7 Basic plots or would you say there are more? And if you have another theory on the definition of a plot, I’d love to hear it 🙂

But Not Forgotten Needs Forgetting

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, what can I say about the critique *laughs hysterically*

If I just say that it looks like 65,000 words will be going in the bin within the next couple of days does that indicate what they thought? 😉 (a metaphorical bin of course!)

Seriously, I knew it was a mess, which was why I decided to use that piece. I just didn’t realise how much of a mess it was 😦

I knew I’d tied myself up in knots, I knew that was why I hadn’t been able to come up with an ending, but, what I was hoping was that I could tinker with it, make it better. What I didn’t expect was to find that the general consensus is/was to start from scratch!

A different angle, a different POV, don’t start with the suicide, in fact, don’t kill him off….WOAH! Concentrate on one aspect of the story and forget the rest! OMFG!!!!!!! I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT!

So now what? Complete restructuring that’s what! A completely new novel really, only using the same characters and only part of the original plot line *slumps*

I don’t know if I have the energy!

Don’t get me wrong, everyone was helpful and sympathetic, but I came away thinking perhaps I’m not cut out for this, and what the hell am I doing in this class? Be prepared for a major self pity trip post on IWSD next month, honestly 🙂

I went for a Spa day today. I was going to cancel because all I wanted to do was sit in my jim jams, drink hot chocolate and sulk lol. But, I made the effort, went, and had my nails painted. I went for a walk and contemplated stuff. It was a nice day 🙂

I’m signing out with Edwin Collins

I need to think……

Faber Session 9 – Dialogue

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Ok, well coffee and cake was enjoyed at The British Museum last night. Lemon drizzle which was rather nice. So I sat for an hour, reading my book, nursing a latte and looking at this view 🙂

Tonight’s class was all about dialogue…some of my notes:

Limit speech tags to the minimum.

Pinter went on bus rides and recorded conversations.

It has to serve a purpose: move the plot along, raise a question or show something about the character.

What isn’t said is very important. Use silence and remember its often what’s not said that gives more away.

Give your characters verbal ticks to make them more realistic.

Remember to use body language. A character could be saying one thing verbally, but their body language saying the complete opposite.

We then had to do 3 exercises (writing dialogue) which were very interesting, and bloody hard! Lol

It’s funny because Stephen King said that dialogue is written best by writers who enjoy talking and listening to others. Do you agree? Do you enjoy writing dialogue? It seems to be something writers either love or hate!

Will post tomorrow about my critique when I’ve recovered and had chance to absorb it all lol. I’m off to a Spa Day today 🙂

On-The-Nose Dialogue (limebirdwriters.co.uk)
Is Your Book Dialogue Heavy? (breezybooksblog.wordpress.com)

Today’s The Day People

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Sorry for the lateness of today’s blog pst (and yesterday’s) but I’ve not been at home, back now though 😉

So today the Nanowrimo Verification system kicks in. Yep, that means that all of you who have reached the 50K mark can now upload your words and have them verified, and be officially classed a winner 🙂

I’ve just done mine, so I am officially a winner!

I feel a little bit guilty though, I didn’t do Nano this year the way it should be done. Some of you already know, but for those of you who don’t I ended up finishing my Mills & Boon experiment at 20,000 words. I briefly thought about giving up, but I wanted to complete the challenge. So the next 30,000 words were short stories.

But I tell you what….it ~~was~~ is probably the most enjoyable Nano I’ve participated in. To the point where I’m considering, next year, to do a short story a day for November. I guess it goes back to me being an ideas person. I love creating characters, creating crap to throw at them, and then, I kinda get bored. But I don’t consider myself a good short story writer. My endings suck lol. I can come up with the scenarios, the characters, but then I don’t know how to resolve the story, in a satisfying manner. I don’t resort to “and then he/she woke up” as a final line, but I’ve been tempted lol.

So congratulations to all the Nano winners, it’s been a blast! And those of you who haven’t finished yet,GO FOR IT you have 5 days!

So now that we have all these extra words that we didn’t have last month What’s the plan? What will you be doing with your Nano Words? Me, I’ll be fiddling with Sorrento Sunrise and trying to find 30,000 words to pad it out with lol 😉

Faber Session 8 – Guest Tutor Mick Jackson

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Arrived in a foggy rainy London 😦 That’ll teach me to wear suede boots! Lol

So I arrived at class with wet feet where we went straight into a discussion/talk by Mick Jackson which was all about Pace & Style.

A few of the things I took away from the session:

Style seems to be more important to reviewers and creative writing tutors.

style should develop naturally. Each writer has their own style.

Writing is like a game of tennis between the subconscious mind and the conscious mind.

Can you reproduce another writers style?

Pace is the speed of the narrative.

Adding back story can slow down the pace if not weaved into the story.

Attach little details to the stream of narrative. It shouldn’t stand out.

Reading your work aloud can pinpoint problems in pace, but it can also help you establish if you have a set style.

A fascinating session, and now, I’m sitting in a hotel room enjoying some chill out time 😉 So if I’m quiet, you know why. I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow 🙂

Do you think you have a style? I think I can see a style developing within my work but I will definitely be reading my work out loud from now on 😉

The Artist Manifesto

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Jeff Goins told me to share this, so I will 🙂

Soooooo…..

THE TIME IS NOW!

What creative thing will you do today?

Have You Voted?

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Every year, the brilliant website for writers Write To Done asks readers to nominate their favourite “writerly” blog. Winners get to display a nice shiny button on their blog to say they are in the top 10 blogs for writers and smile lots.

So have you voted?

I have 🙂

Oh go on, it takes 2 minutes just to post a link to your favourite blog in the comments. I’m sure you know loads of blogs you think deserve to win. Support all our marvellous writing bloggers 🙂

Will you be voting?

In other news….I’VE DONE IT! I’VE HIT THE 50K FOR NANO! GO ME!

Where The Ideas Are And How To Get Them

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

No actual post today people, but I’m really excited!!!! My article went live on the Faber Website last night *grins* 🙂

So if you’d like to have a read (please do!) check out my article which they’ve entitled Get Inspired. Stop Waiting Around which is all about where i find my ideas.

Photo courtesy of winnond at freedigitalphotos

Read it here>>>>> Get Inspired. Stop Waiting Around.

Pop back and tell me what you thought 🙂

How Can I Turn My Mess of Ideas Into Something Organized and Useful? (lifehacker.com)

Faber Session 7 – POV

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

Before I talk about class, lets get down to the important bit… cake 🙂

Today I divulged in Lemon, Rosemary & Olive Oil cake, but I was so busy enjoying it, I forgot to take a picture! Lol

So here’s a pic of my purchases in the book shop after cake 😉

So today’s class was about Point of View.

It made me realise how utterly unwell read I am (when Tim kept giving us examples and although I’d heard of most of the books, I hadn’t read them!). It made me realise that I don’t think about POV when I read a book. Jeez! I’m a bad reviewer and a bad critiquer 😦 I really need to work on that don’t I.

Anyway, POV….. Where does the authors voice end and the characters voice start? A good question, and one, I can’t really answer….can you?

We talked about 1st Person, 3rd Person, Omniscient, Free Indirect Style, and whether the first two should be singular or multiple. How, over the years, many authors have experimented, bent the rules and played with perspective. A really interesting session, I learnt a lot 🙂

Then we did a writing exercise which, hopefully, I’ll share with you later on this week 🙂

So, dear reader, what POV do you tend to write in and could you explain WHY? I admitted in class that the reason I write in 3rd Person is because all my 1st Person pieces sound like the same character lol 😉

My fellow class mates took home my submission this evening *gulps and bites finger nails* I’m going to be a nervous wreck next Monday! 😉

He Said, She Said: The Double Perspective and Its Perks (addictivestory.wordpress.com)
The Art of Narrative, Part One: Introduction and POV (evarieder.com)

Which Comes First? The Story or The Character?

Posted on November 17, 2012 by Vikki Thompson

A recent session at Faber, Kidnapping A Character, brought up a very interesting question.

Most writers have their own way of working. They either start with a story idea, then make up characters to fit it. Or they start with a character and then make up a story that fits.

Personally, I’ve done it both ways, and I can’t really say which one I prefer.

But I’ve never tried the method where you come up with 2 totally unrelated characters and write a scene where they meet. It was amazing to hear the interesting stories that had started to develop from 2 complete strangers having a chance meeting (during a 20 minute writing session). It’s definitely a technique I will be trying out again in the future.

courtesy of jscreations/freedigitalphotos