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“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner
THANK YOU!
I have so appreciated all your
interest and feedback over these past few years as I’ve posted my writing
workshops on the blog as a free version while I revised and edited and listened
to your questions and suggestions.
Since Words with Impact is the
final in the series I am going to close down the writing blog. Hopefully I will
be able to get the rest of the workbooks up on Amazon soon to join the three
that are now published.
In the meantime if you have any
questions please message me on Facebook or Twitter.
Happy Writing
Continue to Read Deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“All this time the
Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a microscope,
and then through an opera-glass.”
Lewis Carroll
Alice does not change being Alice despite the various ways
in which she is being observed, but the perception of her is altered by the
method by which the Guard chooses to see her.
Just as images and word pictures feed our imagination
through metaphors, so can a study of map-making enlarge and enrich our
connections with the places we inhabit. In his book, the Geographer’s Art, Peter Haggett says that, “If the historian uses mirrors to look back and the physicist uses
mirrors to look forward, then the geographer’s use of the mirror analogy lies
in a different dimension—that of space.”
What exactly do we see in that space regionally and
historically? Are places mapped by linear distance as in a conventional map or
by spatial configuration?
Haggett gives an example from a vacation he once took at a
lakeside village nestled in the Austrian mountains. As he traveled back and
forth across the lake by boat he realized that the lakeside did not quite
measure up to the conventional map. Some routes he took were fast routes and
others slow. Which speed was taken would influence the map form or scale of the
lake. He put together four different sketches to try to determine how nine
locations reflected or related to the lake itself based on: distance, time of
journey, cost of journey and frequency of service. He concluded that each map
showed a “different aspect of the spatial
structure of this settlement.”
His experiment on vacation opened up a whole new outlook on
how maps can measure location and identity of place.
Today we can click our computers for directions and are
given a choice to find a destination by conventional map, or street view or
aerial. Why do we choose which version we do? How does your character approach
space in his world? Why does it matter what she sees?
Action Steps:
1. Visit a favorite place of your
own where you like to sit and watch the view. Take a pair of binoculars and a
magnifying glass. Pick one focused spot and look at it intently for a few
minutes each time using first your own natural sight and then each of these
lenses.
2. Write down the differences you
see with each one.
Share: Did you see something you’ve never noticed before?
Can you adapt the experience for your character?
Read deep, marcy
“On with dance, let joy be unconfined, is my
motto.” Mark Twain
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“For some minutes
Alice stood without speaking, looking out in all directions over the country –
and a most curious country it was… ‘I declare it’s marked out just like a large
chessboard!’” Lewis Carroll
There is a geography app game for children (and adults) that
help to learn about world countries. Three sections ask questions such as
language or landmarks or capitals, and then there is another that is by shape
only. You have to identify the country by its image, like a puzzle piece.
Two things surprised me while playing with my five-year-old
grandson. One, how much I’d forgotten about world geography factually, and two,
that it was almost impossible for me to identify a country based on shape only.
However after playing the game only a few times, my grandson had almost instant
recall on all the shapes and a high percentage of recall on flags. Whenever it
was my turn he cheerfully showed me the right answers. The game had become a
mutual teaching opportunity, as I in turn helped share with the capitals. At
least I had one high area to succeed in.
The ability to step back and see the landscape through an
unexpected image opens up a flow of possible thematic and plot ideas that might
not have occurred otherwise. It gives us a chance to stop and play again with
our creativity, especially as we move deeper in the middle of the story, which
sometimes becomes sluggish and difficult to navigate.
Twists and turns, ragged edges and soft flowing lines turn
into new metaphors, new possibilities, and new connotations to explore. What
symbolism can we apply to a land that is shaped like a chessboard, or a stone
dragon, or a blue marble? How can we turn them into theme types?
Action Steps:
1. Take different portions of the
map you are using for your setting whether a full world or a small town. Make
copies. Then ignore all the names and usual details and instead find shapes
within in. Draw random lines around them.
2. Color-code them.
3. Or draw a shape over a section
of the map and then look closely to see what is highlighted within that
section. Color-code the new details.
Share: What
perspective or theme or metaphor did you discover in your map world by seeing
it as shape only.
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Of course the first
thing to do was to make a grand survey of the country she was going to travel
through. ‘It’s something very like learning geography,’ thought Alice,…” Lewis
Carroll
Last week we looked at the image concept of a threshold as a
decision of choice. But a Threshold can also be
used as a typology for a crossing, which
can include walking away from a place, or a relationship, or choosing to no
longer be who we were a few minutes earlier. Often that moment of decision
become a life metaphor or signpost. A threshold
can also be developed as a Commitment.
Just as we plot out a map to a new location, this category requires
taking a deliberate step of faith. We are not forced. We choose with as much
insight as possible, even with an unknown outcome. Sometimes the decision is
plotted out ahead of time, and sometimes it’s spur of the moment. But we accept the potential
consequences before we act.
Alice follows the rabbit
down the hole even though the crossing feels as if she’s in a dream. Her
curiosity overrides the penalty she fully expects for wandering away.
Consider a character’s rationalization in a space movie when someone
who has never traveled through a time warp has to choose to get "beamed
up.” Their career is in the line and that desire to be a part of exploration
and discovery is strong enough to squash legitimate concerns.
Do you know anyone who manages to get into an airplane when terrified
of flying? What makes the person choose--commit to this action?
Or go backwards. A person refuses to cross the threshold and is held
in her immediate sphere, much like phobias trap people, such as agoraphobia.
How does a life get mapped out that is restricted by fear?
And yet sometimes choosing a restricted boundary line can be freeing creatively.
Emily Dickinson lived a reclusive life. The majority of her poems only became
know after her death when her sister discovered the extensive works.
Action Steps:
1. Make a list of your character’s
fears from childhood. Then put her
in a situation where she has the opportunity to change it.
2. What steps does she take?
3. When does she hesitate?
4. What gives her the ability to
push ahead?
Share: Which question was the most difficult to develop?
Why?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Thresholds are
necessary in the creative process in giving an idea somewhere to go.” Tim
Wynne-Jones
Themes
Earlier in Deepen Vocabulary we looked at some ways we can influence
our words with ambiguity like crossing a threshold. Here we’re looking at
thresholds as an example of conveying image symbols with almost silent
connections that undergird themes like the web threads without being as direct.
Themes can often become a silent and powerful tool for typology impact through
questions and choices and possibilities. Whether the purpose is for one scene
only or an ongoing thread it invites personal participation.
Do we open the locked
door at the end of the spider-coated hallway? Are we ready to hear the words
written in the old manuscripts found buried under the house?
When Eve saw that the tree God had forbidden, “was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and
she gave it also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Pandora
couldn’t contain her curiosity and opened the box. “Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the
bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid
closed, but it was too late.”
Both these
women were well warned before they succumbed to temptation, but what about the
times there are no clear directions. We have good reason to hesitate before the
unknown. When do we need courage
to resist a threshold, because the consequences are beyond our control and
could bring great suffering, or risk stepping into the unknown to bring light
into darkness?
If Lucy had
not opened the door at the back of the wardrobe and discovered Narnia, she and
her siblings would not have been instrumental in breaking the White Witch’s
spell. By willingly entering the Beast’s palace, Belle breaks the curse.
Hercule Poirot follows every lead possible until he can bring a culprit to
justice.
Change, no matter how small, can create mental and emotional chaos as
you turn into a different direction, physically or emotionally. To cross a
threshold though requires a choice, even if it has been forced upon you like a
refugee fleeing his war torn land. All sensory memory is heightened and
sharpened. It is not just the moment that is at stake, but the journey that
follows it. Thresholds become part of our soul shadows as much as our physical
bodies cast their shadow. And the question can linger. “Did I choose the right
fork in the road?”
Action Steps:
1. Look at the literal thresholds in
your character’s daily world and choose one to explore as a figurative
threshold.
2. Think of ways they could become a
life-changing threshold for your character: doors, windows, cupboards, gardens,
railroads, or books.
3. And/or put your character into a moment of choice. Overwrite all
the sensory details in the initial draft. Then write up the brief scene twice,
once for each possible decision: to flee or fight, or to submit the accepted
dogma either socially or personally.
Share: What main theme connection did you choose? Why?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“The poet—when he is writing—is a
priest; the poem is a temple; epiphanies and communion take place within it.” Denise Levertov
Genre Typology
Threads
One definition of an epiphany is that it is a moment of
revelation or insight. As we saw earlier symbol webs can strengthen genres
through a variety of image styles. Readers often lean towards one or two genre
styles because of the insight they want to explore for themselves. We also have
our favorite style or depth within those choices as well. Both a cozy mystery
and a psychological thriller give insight into a murderous revelation, but the
details and the descriptions of each will be very different.
As readers we lean towards the subjects and styles where we
want to discover or understand the revelation the story unfolds. Symbols,
images, concepts, and themes can be expanded both in a genre style and or as a
thread borrowed from one genre to another to give a fresh view. And a very
ordinary situation can be developed into a very different perspective like the
shifting mirrors we saw earlier.
For example: sometimes we don’t need to search for mystery.
It can happen during an ordinary day. The unexpected happens, either positively
or negatively, shifting our perspective into a whole new direction. Suddenly
the ground shifts out and the familiar, the foundation, is cracked opening into
a world we do not know and cannot understand.
Choices follow. Do we get out a flashlight and investigate
the new terrain, however hesitantly, or hide away and hope the world tilts back
to normal in the morning? Perhaps a little of both enables ourselves, and our
characters, to cope with sudden change.
In the movie Larry Crowne,
when he is called into the office for a special meeting, Larry confidently
expects to receive yet another employee reward. Instead he is fired for a
supposed lack of education. Which is a total mystery to him. He grew up in an
era when high-school education was the only requirement and work experience
became the criteria for advancement and evaluation. Now none of it is
considered valid? When and how did the life rules change? Or did they really?
Although still in shock, Larry begins to build a new life
trying to adapt to a new culture for him—college. Like a young child entering
the world of kindergarten everything is a mystery. Some days are extremely
difficult and bewildering. However he also embraces the unknown with curiosity,
changing not only his life but also those around him—especially his worn out,
jaded instructor. He finds a way to blend his past and present into a rich
discovery.
Action Steps:
1. Even if you do not have a
mystery in your novel choose a situation to become a mini-mystery parable with
long reaching significance.
2. Pick a scene where your
character is pressed for time. Make a list of possible obstacles, such as a flat
tire. Have a good ‘helper’ come alongside to assist, but keeps making the
situation worse.
3. Then, when your character
finally reaches his goal, he realizes that the interference saved him in some
way—maybe from a huge embarrassment. How does that change his perspective on
his frustration?
Share: What common question became a typology thread? Was
there one word or concept that could be developed into several angles?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Chart how each symbol
you use changes over the course of the story.” John Truby
Character Typology
Does this character description remind you of anyone in
particular?
-on top of the power hierarchy but
his power is not boundless
-can be still be opposed,
deceived, and tricked although dangerous to do so
-in a long term marriage but has
endless affairs
-does not participate in petty
arguments and schemes of daily activities
-can be extremely vengeful
Based on familiar movies, my first response might be a
dictator or a CEO of a vast financial/business empire, or a James Bond 007
villain. But these are some of the characteristics given in Greek mythology to
Zeus. Somehow they still sound quite modern. Truby notes that the character
Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story
can be compared to a goddess, not only because of her beauty and grace but also her coldness and fierce sense of
superiority to others.”
Each genre also has its own special qualities for heroes. A
place to begin might be to list what you consider to be heroic qualities. Are
you looking for a Batman or a John Wayne, or is your hero a parent who shows up
every day. What do you consider to be the difference between a hero and a role
model? These questions will help you decide where to look for the ‘types’ that
will best flavor your novel with the right added depth whether you are looking
in characters, plots, or setting.
Action Steps:
Example: In New
Testament scriptures Peter was named the Rock, and the promise given that
Christ’s church would be build upon him. In ancient Israel a strong foundation
meant a rock foundation, both for the Temple of worship and for any military
protective walls. Peter’s new name as symbol echoed his past history and
bridged into his new character and role.
From modern
culture, Rocky Balboa does not seem to fit his name at the beginning of his
story but like Peter grew into it. What traits did he build upon to become his
name?
1.
Make a list of your character’s traits, positive
and negative.
2.
Note where the change points are. Choose one and
make a list of possible symbols that define that particular action or emotion.
3.
Then list as many variations of that symbol as
possible.
4.
Use John Truby’s opening quote and make a chart
of your choices.
Share: Did you discover more positive or negative options?
Did any surprise you?
Read deep, marcy
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