ENG 205: Intro to Creative Writing – Fiction & Poetry
Instructor: Y. Bailey-Kirby
FIRST WRITING PROMPT/PRE-WRITING:
EXERCISE/GENERATING IDEAS FOR A SHORT STORY AND CHOOSING A SUBJECT
PART I – CLUSTERING:
Directions: Insert a colorful term or phrase in the bubble, such as the word “BLOOD” which can evoke a powerful image, and jot down words that come to mind. On a day you do not feel much like writing or are stale for ideas, insert one of the following words in a bubble and begin clustering by asking who, what, where, when, why, and how.
· Name a place, such as a “nightclub in Moscow”: What are the sights, sounds, and other senses experienced in this sort of environment? Who would be the type of characters on this rendez-vous at a nightclub in Moscow? Why would these characters be meeting there and what might happen in such a place?
· Name a strong emotion, such as joy, revenge, envy, etc: What event do you associate with it? Who do you associate as a character involved? How or why would such an emotion be triggered under the circumstances associated to the characters/individuals involved?
· Name a type of person who you loathe or who has admirable qualities, such as someone who has no sense of humor vs. someone who does have a good sense of humor. How would each type dress, speak, smell like, or physically move in comparison to the other? What sort of conflict could they get themselves entangled by? Where or when might they cross paths and what might be the outcome?
· Name an unusual type of food, such as a sandwich of peanut butter, pickles, mustard, and bologna between waffles for the bread. Who would be eating it? What might it taste like? Why are they eating it? Is it a dare?
PART II – MENUS & LISTS:
THINGS YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER SAID OR DONE: / THE MOST EMBARRASSING EVENT/SITUATION: / THINGS TO PUT OFF AS LONG AS POSSIBLE:THINGS YOU HATE OR PETPEEVES: / THINGS TO DIE FOR: / THINGS YOU FEAR:
WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY: / WHO REALLY CHANGED YOU & WHY: / A CRUCIAL TURNING POINT IN YOUR LIFE:
THINGS YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT YOURSELF: / EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY: / SCARIEST NIGHTMARE OR FAVORITE DREAM:
A RECOLLECTION OF A MOMENT OF WANTING TO SEEK REVENGE (WHO, WHY, AND WHEN): / RECOLLECTION OF ENVY OVER SOMEONE’S SUCCESS OR ACHIEVEMENT: / RECOLLECTION OF A MOMENT SOMEONE SHOWED YOU KINDNESS OR LOVE:
PART III – CHARACTER IMAGING EXERCISE:
DIRECTIONS: An interesting fiction technique is to identify conflicting parts of your own personality and then try “character imaging.” You will make lists of the qualities, images, and actions that describe incongruities in your own personality. Afterwards, the contradictory list could be transformed into two separate characters, and you will want to establish their conflict and try “interpretation of another character” to practice an indirect method of character presentation.
1. List at least three conflicting parts of your own personality.a. / a.
b. / b.
c. / c.
2. Select two contradictory elements of your personality and transform them into two separate characters by giving them names. Afterwards, (a) describe their physical appearance: gender, eyes, hair, clothes, weight, height, etc; (b) where they live, work, vacation, where and what they eat, etc; (c) their marital status, education, hobbies, and/or any final unique traits about their background.
Character One: / Character Two:
a. / a.
b. / b.
c. / c.
1. Try “interpretation of another character” as an indirect method of character presentation. Remember, through speech (dialogue), action, or thought, they would be revealing the other character in this indirect method.
Character One’s Interpretation of Character Two: / Character Two’s Interpretation of Character One:
2. Consider the type of plot that you might create. a. What might be their conflict? b. Where would they meet and in what situation might they find themselves? c. How would a confrontation between these two characters play out?
d. What would be some possible endings? (List at least two alternative resolutions.)
a.
b.
c.
d.
PART IV – GENERATING IDEAS THROUGH A TREASURE HUNT
Directions: You are to take a stroll around the CSN campus with one of your peers from class and locate students with the items listed below and answer the questions below. Consider what type of characters might be created from the items that they find. You need to locate at least one of the following items or you may aim for all of them.
A. Locate a person with an unusual pair of shoes, sneakers, or boots because of the style, color, or maybe because they are so worn and torn. Describe it.
B. Locate a person with a unique hat, facial hair (mustache, beard, or sideburns) or hairstyle. Describe it.
C. Locate a person with a unique accessory, such as a bag/purse, belt, bracelet, necklace or earrings.
D. Locate a person with the unusual, mismatched outfit; the most obscene outfit; or the most attractive outfit.
Answer the following questions:
1. Where did you sight this person? What was he/she doing?” What do you think he/she does for a living and what subject is he/she studying as a major?2. What kind of car do you think he/she drives? What type of music do you think he/she listens to? What do you think his/her favorite movie is? Favorite snack food and beverage? What is his/her mobile phone’s ringtone?
3. If you were dating them, how do you think he/she would want date night to be? What problems or conflicts might you anticipate with this person? Would he/she be high maintenance or low maintenance? Why? Would he/she cheat on you? Would he/she be a stalker type? How do you think that he/she resolves a fight (through sex, manipulation, presents, etc?)
4. What sort of plot for a story might you create with this person? What would you want us to learn about this person from your story?
ENG 205: Intro to Creative Writing – Fiction & Poetry
Instructor: Y. Bailey-Kirby
PART V – SETTING ACTIVITY:
Directions: The instructor will play a few sample songs from different eras and types of music in class as a pre-writing strategy to build details on the setting (time and place, etc.). Afterwards, when you get home, you will want to select at least three songs of your own, listen to each one, and answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper or in your journal by using the music to inspire your imagination to build the background for your characters, playing in the foreground of your story.
Use the music to help you build the details of the time and location that the story’s setting takes place. Quickly answer the questions below and do not overanalyze or think about it too long. Simply use first impressions and ideas triggered and then jot them down quickly for this exercise. You want to play one song right after another (back-to-back), and afterwards, use the list of details to further build up a setting for a story.
There are no right or wrong answers, but the ability to use your imagination and express your ideas about a setting freely and without reservations because the setting could be used as an obstacle for your character or it may be used as heroic force to get them through a conflict or even be used as a metaphor for a character’s emotions or mood. Setting is an important factor to place your audience in the location of your story and to enhance the dominant impression or mood of the overall story.
Song A:______Song B:______Song C:______
1. What time and place does the song bring to mind? Identify the year or decade; and then the location if it’s indoors or outdoors: types of buildings surrounding it, types of neighborhood, type of architecture, or if there is nature imagery like trees and certain vegetation or flowers, etc.
2. Describe the type of characters (name at least two) that come to mind in this setting:
A. What might the characters say in a quick exchange, like a question and answer or merely observations,
(a dialogue) that reveals their dislike, interest or reason for having to be in this particular setting?
B. What about the setting may reveal the characters’ moods or emotions?
C. How do the characters’ movements or actions in this particular location reveal their traits or attitude about themselves, life, other characters, etc? (ex: lethargic, limp body in the desert) How might a character move in this particular setting? (ex: Do they swagger? Do they walk on the balls of their feet? etc.)
3. Identify the five senses involving this setting:
A. What do you smell in this setting?
B. What do you see (ex: colors, patterns of the drapes, types of furniture, make of automobiles, such as luxury vehicles vs. muscle cars, etc…details, details, details!)?
C. What do you hear in this setting? (ex: police sirens, high heels tapping on wooden floor boards, boots marching in sync, etc.)
D. What might you taste in this setting (in the air, on the menu, etc.)?
E. What might you touch or feel in this setting? (the grass, the upholstery of the furniture, the carpeting, etc.)
SECOND WRITING PROMPT/PRE-WRITING:
DIRECT METHODS OF CHARACTER PRESENTATION ACTIVITY
DIRECTIONS: The following three sections ask you to reveal characters through ACTION, DIALOGUE, & APPEARANCE. Read each section and write a scene about the characters and situations by applying these three direct methods of character presentation.
PART I - REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH ACTION• Your character is a clerk at a convenience store working the night shift. He or she has been working at this particular store for fifteen months and does not usually work the night shift.
• A thug comes in with a gun and demands that the clerk give him the contents of the cash register and the safe (there is, indeed, a safe below the counter, and it does have some money in it). The thug seems to be genuinely dangerous.
• There are three other people in the store: (a) A forty-something year old truck driver in the restroom. If one is standing before the counter and looking down a short hallway towards the back of the store, the restroom is just to the right of the counter and at the end of the short hallway at the back of the store. (b) The other two customers are a young woman and her three-month old baby. She is holding her baby and standing next to the coolers filled with gallon jugs and cartons of milk.
• There is also a gun below the counter hidden beneath a towel right next to the safe while the telephone is next to the cash register.
• The convenience store is on a highway. However, most of the businesses which surround it are closed, and the nearest business is another gas station about three blocks down the road.
• With all of this information in mind, how does your character respond to the demand for cash? What does she or he do? (You may briefly mention the other characters, but the clerk should be your focus because this is his or her story.) Using mostly action, write a scene that reveals these characters.
PART II - REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH DIALOGUE
• You have two characters walking through a home that they are considering buying. The real estate agent is also with them on this tour of the house, and there is no furniture in the house because the owners moved out months ago.
• Using mostly dialogue, write a scene which reveals something about these characters.
PART III - REVEALING CHARACTER THROUGH APPEARANCE
• Due to renovations at his or her place of employment, your character has been asked to share his or her office for the next three months with a co-worker. Your character does not know this co-worker. They are merely acquaintances. The scene begins with the co-worker moving his or her things into your main character’s office.
• Write a scene about these two characters and this situation. Mainly using their appearance, tell us something about these characters.
THIRD WRITING PROMPT/PRE-WRITING:
CHARACTER CHART FOR YOUR SHORT STORY
CHARACTER BACKGROUND: / Protagonist / Antagonist / Other Minor Characters
Character’s Name
Gender & Age
Profession & Nationality
Where He/She lives (i.e. NYC Penthouse or 200 acre Ranch, etc.)
Eye Color / Glasses / Contacts
Weight / Height / Type of Body
Skin Tone/ Hair Style & Color / Clothing
Physical Disability or Other Notable Feature (Ex: Scar, Tattoo, etc.)
Hometown / Education/ Background
Marital Status (Ex: Married to High School Sweetheart who is a Carpenter )
Describe Relationship w/ Significant Other, Mother, Father, & Siblings
Describe Parent / Describe Siblings
(Ex: Divorced, Alcoholic, Six Children)
Describe their Favorite Food, Music, Movie, Clothing, Prized Possession, etc.
What’s their Greatest Fear? Why?
What’s the worst thing that could happen or has happened to her/him?
When is she/he most at ease and then when is she/he uncomfortable?
Most embarrassing past failure or biggest regret in life?
What’s their darkest secret? Does anyone know? If so, how did they find out?
Greatest Strengths, Greatest Weaknesses, Biggest Vulnerability, Biggest Accomplishment
How does this character relate to others? How is she/he perceived by others?
What do others like most about the character? What do others least like about the character?
What’s their emotional responses toward conflict/others or psychiatric status?
What sort of inner conflicts does she/he have? How does she/he resolve it?
What sort of outer conflicts does she/he have with others? How does she/he resolve it?
What’s an incongruity or contradiction their behavior, attitude, or approach to life/others?
PART II – IDENTIFYING YOUR GOALS FOR SETTING, POINT OF VIEW, SHOWING, & PLOT
What’s the setting of the story? Identify the place, season, time, atmosphere?) What details will you use? / What’s the point of view of your story? Why? Consider your story’s purpose? (Ex: First Person or Omniscient Narrator?) / What’s the main conflict of the story? What do the characters want? What are they willing to do to get it? / What’s the theme of your story? What do you want the reader to take from the story as the central idea and how you intend to affect them?
Are you SHOWING rather than only telling by using significant details? Identify an example. / Do you show characters’ emotions through dialogue? Identify an example. / Do you show characters’ emotions through actions or movements? Identify an example. / Do you show characters’ emotions through appearance? Give an example.
How do you want to start your story’s exposition/opening? Why? Consider your type of story and what your purpose is. (Ex: Middle of the action, Flashback, Foreshadowing, etc.) / Consider your story’s conflict and how you’ll build tension in the rising action, so there’s a power struggle in the zigzag form (emotional, physical, or psychological tug of war.) where the power switches hands between the protagonist and antagonist. / Consider your story’s climax and what will be the turning point over your character’s conflict. Is it too predictable? Is it believable? Is it original? Would be satisfying to your reader? What’s the falling action once the turning point occurs? / Consider the resolution of your story? How does it end for everyone? Is there closure or do you find there are too many unanswered questions or a better alternative ending? Is the ending believable? Is it satisfying for your reader?
FOURTH WRITING PROMPT/PRE-WRITING: