Build Your Story: 8 Strategies for Writing Innovative Setting with Impact
Exercise: 1) Write a
letter to a relative in your past. What do you wish you knew about their
circumstances or their feelings?
For example: I knew at some
point in my life that my paternal grandmother had crossed the Atlantic in 1911
to join her husband. She had three young children under the age of ten. The
full concept didn’t connect with me until I saw a ship from that era and the
unit she and the children would have occupied. I was stunned at the deprivation,
barely more than a narrow bunk, and wished I could know more about her courage
to immigrate. All I had of her were a few pictures. (This picture is not of them)
2) Write a letter to a grandchild or great grandchild,
niece, nephew in the future. What do you want them to know about their
family—what do you feel is so important that it must be remembered?
Choose one of the journal suggestions from last week that
involved a family event.
A 1. Make a list of what you do
remember.
2. Make a list of what you don’t remember.
B. What is a memory in your life that you keep going back
to? Look for one or two sharp details.
Places to look or prepare
for your character
photo albums with vignettes/anecdotes
photo album with or without stories, autobiography,
biographical sketches.
a memory book either for individuals or whole family
family tree
a record of archives
All of these family memories have the potential to be turned into fictional episodes with secrets.
Exercise:
Take a real incident in your own life and adapt the emotional and sensory
reactions from the main character’s personality. Try reversing your own
reactions. For example if you felt embarrassed at a remark that was made, but
laughed at a joke have your character do the opposite.
Share: What is the key sensory detail to that
memory for either you or your character?
Read deep, marcy
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