L603 Fiesta 4--Writing Good Fiction

Story Starters...

2007-09-19T15:02:00.000-07:00

Or, Oh My Gosh, What a Crazy Thing that is! Let's Write About it!

Now that you're learned about creating characters, picking a setting, and choose the trouble that starts off your plot, let's write some stories.

First off, look at the goat at the top of the page. What do you think he's thinking? Is there trouble brewing for the goat, or for the person watching him? What kind of trouble do you think it might be? Make some character and setting decisions based upon the picture, decide on your trouble, and write a very short story. Creating a story about a goofy looking goat should be as easy as pie!

How about something harder. Here is a video of a cat. This is an unusual cat. You decide what kind of character he might be, and you decide what his goal might be for getting into trouble. What sort of trouble is he going to get into? Or is the trouble going to be for someone else in your story? (Like I said, an unusual cat. :-)

Meet Burger and Fries.

Here is another video to think about. The trouble here is sort of obvious, but who is having the most trouble here? What will our characters do to get out of trouble? Can you write this story from the point-of-view of the turtle, and also the point-of-view of the cat (either cat or both)? Which story is more interesting, and why?

The Turtle and the Cat

Here is a story I started myself. This one involves a girl named Alice and a cow. A shrinking cow. (What other kind of cow is a girl named Alice going to find?) Alice meets a shrinking cow, and immediately there is trouble. Watch and see!

Alice and the Shrinking Cow

Is Alice doomed to spend the rest of her life this way? Can you write a way for her to get back to normal? And what happens to the cow? Remember...you are making this all up, so you decide!

That's all for now. Keep on writing! (If you don't, that goat at the top of the page will climb in through your window at night and eat your homework. ::wink::)

Plot...

2007-09-19T13:31:00.000-07:00

...Or, Trouble is my Middle Name.

See that mouse up above? Her name is Tabitha T. Mouse. The "T" stands for trouble. What sort of trouble, you say? All kinds. Terrible trouble. Terrific trouble. Terrifying trouble. And perhaps even tickling trouble. Tabitha finds trouble each and every day. She finds it sometimes at night, too.

All right. You see our character. Her name is Tabitha T. Mouse. She is too curious for her own good, likes licorice and lollipops, and hates school. This dislike of structured learning is usually what causes our heroine to seek out trouble. (There is a moral there, if you look hard enough. :-)

So, one bright day, when faced with going to school or going out on an adventure, Tabitha chooses adventure. She steps out of front door, shown here...

(This is our initial setting.)

She has heard that licorice can be found at the local store, nearby. Here is the store:

This is also a setting. Can you see that your setting may change throughout a story? I'll bet you can!

However, the first thing that Tabitha sees when she steps out of her front door is this:

Uh-oh. This is trouble. BIG trouble for our little tiny mouse. What do you think she will do?

This bit of scaly trouble gives us our plot. Tabitha's own character traits--her love of licorice and her dislike of school--drive her out of her safe, snug home and into reach of this dangerous and hungry guy. This gives us our plot, which is "How will Tabitha escape the trouble?" better known as "To be eaten or not to be eaten, that is the question."

How about another example of trouble. What sort of plot does this picture give us?

How about this one?

Or this?

What does a mouse who is stuck in a pot do about it? This is definitely trouble.

Do you see how our choice of trouble, or choice of the problem our character faces, determines the flow of the story itself? Yes, you need a character, and yes, you need a setting. But with a plot, or a problem to solve, your characters will basically just be sitting around with nothing to do. So find some trouble for your characters--the more trouble, the better!

For fun, try writing Tabitha out one of the trouble situations above. Does she ever get to the store to get her licorice?

Next up: Fun video story starters.

Setting...

2007-09-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

...Or, Where the Heck am I, Anyway?

Okay, so you have a character. And your character is an interesting fellow. You like this character--you like him a lot. You are eager, frantic, in fact, to tell this little character's story. But where does his story take place? In the country, in the city, in a hobbit hole in the ground? The choice you make now--the choice of setting, will make a difference in how your character's story plays out. Don't believe me? Here's an example to prove my point.

See this little guy? I'm going to call him Ruddy Babbit. Ruddy is a cute little thing--he's timid, and dislikes loud noises. He also is very fond of carrots, and is very good as sniffing them out with his wiggly, fuzzy nose. (I decided these thing. You might call the rabbit FeeFee Fluffytail, and say that she eats only blueberry tarts and dances ballet in her free time.)

What does Ruddy Babbit want? He wants carrots. So his story is going to be a quest for carrots. We'll call it (appropriately) "Ruddy's Quest for Carrots," a story of adventure, much sniffing, and piles of orange vegetables.

So I have a character, and he's a cutie. What do I have to decide now? I have to decide where Ruddy will find his carrots. Here's the first place I pick...what kind of story is this going to be for Ruddy?

Yikes! This sort of setting--a spooky graveyard--it going to make Ruddy's quest for carrots a bit frightening, isn't it? Perhaps the ghost who lives there also likes carrots, and then what is poor Ruddy going to do?

Or how about this setting...

Can Ruddy find carrots here? Maybe, and maybe not. Maybe he will have to learn to use the crosswalk first, or risk being run over by a car.

How about this setting?

Not many carrots here, are there? What would poor Ruddy do?

And this setting? What do you think about this one?

A-Ha! A farm! Ruddy's story could be quite a gentle, easy story if we pick this setting. Unless, of course, the farm cat decides he likes carrots too...served up along side a plate of stewed rabbit.

Do you see how setting affects our character? We kept the same character throughout, and yet, as we considered different settings to put him in, each choice changes how our story might play out. In the graveyard, we might have ghosts and other scary things for Ruddy to face. In the city, we have traffic and automobiles, and curious children. In the desert we have very few carrots, and probably lots of snakes. On the farm, we probably have carrots, and very few snakes. (Well, maybe one or two. :-)

Here is another setting for Ruddy. First of all, where is Ruddy now? What sort of story do you think this setting would make? Write Ruddy's story with the setting of your choice!

Next up: Plots, Pots, and Trouble!

Characters...

2007-09-18T04:03:00.000-07:00

...Or Who Are You, and What are You Doing in My Story?

Today, we are going to talk about characters. We've already said that every story needs at least one, and in the last post, we picked a friendly robot as our star of the day. That choice seemed easy--let's just pick a robot as our character, and then let's write a terrific story! But was there more involved in our choice? Maybe. How much did I, the author of the story of the robot sitting in the mud, know about my robot friend before I started writing? Quite a lot, actually. Let me explain.

Here are the things I knew about my robot when I chose him:

1. He was friendly. (I said that straight out--he was a friendly robot.) This means he is not going to shoot laser beams out of his eyes and destroy all the playground equipment. This means he is not going to say mean things to the kids playing all around him.

2. I knew what he looked like. Go back to the first post--see the picture of the robot in the center of the screen? I spent some time Googling "robot pictures" and looking them all over before deciding that this little guy was the one in my story. Knowing what he looks like helps me imagine how he looks when he's sitting in the mud. It also helps me describe his actions--he has short legs and short arms, so he probably can't reach the monkey bars from where he sits in the puddle. If he can't reach the monkey bars, he can't pull himself out of the mud. Maybe he will have to settle on waving frantically at the children, hoping they will help.

3. I know the robot doesn't like the mud. I knew this before I even started writing his story. I thought about that robot sitting in the mud, and I said to myself, he does not like it. Yes, this ties in with our setting--the mud puddle--so you can see that some of our character decisions can be made as we write.

So I know that our robot is upset about being in the mud, and that he doesn't like the way it feels as it oozes inside of him. But I could have made him like the mud. He could have really loved the way that mud felt as it oozed, and because of that, he might have wanted some of the children to come into the puddle to join him. He didn't like it, though, and so you get the idea that he's going to want to come out.

See how much I knew about this little robot? And because I knew so much, writing about him was so much easier. Let's see how well you do on making some character decisions.

Frogs and Felines--What do Their Pictures Say?

Look at the frog picture at the top of the page. What can you tell me about him?

When I first look at him, I decide that he is small. Tiny. His size will make a difference in how our story goes, for if he is tiny, he will not stomp down main street and smash cars with his feet. (But imagine that you decide he is large. Very large! What will a huge frog do in your story? How many giant-sized frogs do you see every day? How much story stuff does that already give you?)

Is our frog friendly, angry, or sad? When I look at the picture, to me, this frog looks clever, like he is thinking about how to get a bite of your pizza off your plate. Or like he is thinking of tricking the nearest animal into giving him a prize. The frog's eyes say, "I'm thinking sneaky thoughts, tricky, clever, sneaky thoughts. Wouldn't you like to know them?" If the frog looks friendly to you, or sad, or scared, this will change how he acts in a story. A sneaky, tricky frog will behave very differently than a scared or sad frog, don't you think?

If I say our frog is sneaky and clever, then, I decide, he must want something. What does he want? Maybe he is hungry and your pizza, which he was thinking of snatching, is all gone. What will he now try to sneakily steal to fill his empty middle? Will he try to eat the fly that the spider has so neatly caught in her web? Will he try to sip the milk from the neighbor's cat's bowl? I don't have to decide this now, but I do have to know that this frog wants something. And he wants it very much. He wants it so badly that he will do a great deal of clever sneaking and tricking to get it.

Do you see how we build our character? Many times, you will make these character decisions without thinking about it too much. But other times, you will have to work at it, so that you create a character that can actually fill up your story. If your character is boring, it is hard to write about him. The choices you make before you write help make your character interesting enough to write about.

Let's practice, okay?

How about this picture:

What can you tell me about this cat? Write as much down about him as you can.

Now that you have created a cat character, what sort of story would you have if our tiny, clever frog decides to try and sip the milk from the cat's bowl? Imagine how this story might play out. Do you see how creating good characters helps us to write a good story? I hope so!

Next up: Pick your place!

What is fiction?

2007-09-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

Fiction is Storytelling

We all love stories. Stories are everywhere around us, even in places you aren't really looking. There a stories on the TV, of course, and at the movies. Stories play out on the pages of books, and in the comic pages of newpapers. Stories can be found on YouTube, and on your friend's blog as she tells about her latest adventure of the week. But are these the only places that stories can be found? As a person who loves reading, writing, and stories, I believe that stories can be found everywhere.

Let's think about that for a minute. Right now, you are sitting at your computer, reading your screen. You are reading my blog, and hopefully, you are enjoying yourself. What is going on around you? Is is quiet or loud? Is it hot or cold? Is it windy or calm? Who is in the room with you? Your mother, your sister, your cat, an annoying buzzing fly? What is happening around you, as you sit reading my blog, is a story, and you are the main character. Do you smack the fly? Do you fall asleep as your read and drool on the cat? Does your sister make you mad by singing loudly and off key, and do you yell at her (loud enough to be heard over her singing...loud enough to rattle the windows) to stop? All of this is story stuff. Let's explore what makes good fiction. Let's explore the "stuff" that makes up stories.

Story Stuff

Stories need three things in order to really be stories.

Stories need: A character, a setting, and a plot.

Let's look at each of these more closely.

A Character, or "Let me take center stage!"

Every story needs a star--the person, creature, animal, or other living thing that this story is about. How do you decide who to make the star of your fiction? Sometimes it is as easy as pointing to one of your pets--your cat, dog, fish, snake, mouse, gerbil, or even your pet worm--and saying "You are the star of my story."

Other times, it seems harder. Should you write about a kid just like you? Should you write about a friendly robot? How about a cranky slug or a scary ghost? Truly, the choices are endless. Yet...it may not seem that way. If you write about a friendly robot, you may feel you can't have his best friend be that cranky slug. But I ask you, why not? This is a story, it is fiction. You are making it up, and you can make it up in any way you want. Pick your star, anyone you want, and let's go! Let's pick the robot for our character. He seems like he could be fun to spend some time with.

(Story characters can be nonliving things if you bring a nonliving thing to life. This is called personification. Did you see "The Brave Little Toaster?" on tape or DVD? This is a good example of this.)

A Setting, or "This is the place where I am."

Okay, so you have your star, the character of your story. In this case, we have chosen a friendly robot. Do we write about him as he stands in the middle of nowwhere? Is he standing in the middle of a big white space? Where is this robot? Where do we want him to be?

Where we place our character, the spot where we plunk him down, is the setting. Think about having an actor step out onto a stage, or walk onto a movie set. If we put our robot onto the deck of a pirate ship far out at sea, our story will be different than if we put him in the middle of a big mud puddle in the middle of the school playground.

Setting can be anyplace. It can be a real place or an imagined place. Tatooine is a made up place, as is the Death Star, and yet, they are very good settings for a story. The deep of the sea is a good setting for Marlin and Dory and Nemo. How different would the story have been had those characters been plunked down in the middle of the desert? (It would have been a short story, I suspect. :-) Let's pick the mud puddle in the playground for the setting of our story about the friendly robot, and let's move on!

Plot, Sometimes Known as "Oh boy, I'm in trouble now!"

The last story element we need is plot. What is plot? It isn't a patch of ground, that's for sure. Plot is trouble. Plot is conflict. Plot is worry and uh-ohs and disaster. Plot is another way to say "Let's dump our character into the soup. Let's give him a really big problem to solve, and let's see what he does with it."

Let's think about our robot. How fun would our story be if he just sat in that mud puddle all day? Sitting, sitting, sitting, in the mud, mud, mud? Here's what that might be like:

The robot found himself sitting in a mud puddle in the middle of the playground. He sat there, in the mud, while the kids played around him. He just sat. And then he sat some more. Mud, he decided, was nice to sit in. He decided he would sit there all day. The end.

Wow, that's exciting huh? Yep, it's a bestseller for sure. Or not. Let's try that again, but this time, let's give our robot a problem--let's give him some plot.

The robot found himself sitting in a mud puddle in the middle of the playground. He was a bit surprised as mud started to ooze into his joints and fill up his middle. The mud was heavy and cold, and as he sat there in that puddle he knew if he didn't get out, all of his insides would become heavy and cold too. The robot didn't know what would happen then, when he was all full of mud, but he didn't think it would be good.

Is this more exciting? We have built up a story. We first chose a character--our robot. We next chose a setting--the mud puddle. We then chose a plot--that is, we gave our robot a problem--he is filling up with mud. Is this a good start for a story? I think so. What do you think? Could you write a way for our robot to get out of the mud? Try it!

Next up: Practice with picking characters.