December 16, 2009

Winner of December Boekehuis Gift Voucher

All the exercises this month were well executed, some startling in their intensity. Difficult to select the winner, but here it is: Helen’s was short, punchy, complex and utterly convincing.

Write a passage of physical action(a dance, someone is running to catch a plane, there is a fight or someone is trying to escape capture.) In order to make the action crystal clear, describe what happens as if you were filming it using only one camera that is fixed in a single place. This will help organise the action so it is easy for a reader to visualise.

Helen Webster’s Entry

The sun set inexorably in the west. Lucas ran up the rock strewn hill with long easy strides. His blood filled exhalations splattered the earth. Pumping knees and arms worked blistered feet.

Pieterse came after him, his strides not long, nor easy but he had the advantage of a gun. Pausing, he took aim. The squeeze of the trigger whisper soft, the trajectory of the bullet true. Lucas fell to the ground, orange dust rose up gently, softly, obscuring Lucas’s body like a veil. Pieterse hunkered down, patient as a dog out hunting hares.

Lucas crawled the last few metres to the crest. His eyes fixed on a point unseen, his palms torn open, his nails ripped beyond the quick, his were the actions of an automaton. Bits of dislodged shale betrayed his whereabouts but still Pieterse did not move. He waited below, so still, a fly landed on his arm, drunk with the prospect of perspiration.

Lucas gritted his teeth, stained with blood and dust. He found the crest. Sinking face down, a shuddering sigh expanded his lungs for the last time.

December 2, 2009

December Writing Exercise

This is the exercise from our December allaboutwriting/continued session. Try it yourself and stand the chance to win a R200 gift voucher from Boekehuis bookshop. Email your attempt to allaboutwriting@worldonline.co.za by 6pm on Sunday 6 December.

Write a passage of physical action(a dance, someone is running to catch a plane, there is a fight or someone is trying to escape capture.) In order to make the action crystal clear, describe what happens as if you were filming it using only one camera that is fixed in a single place. This will help organise the action so it is easy for a reader to visualise.

December 1, 2009

A Conversation with Writers, David Krut Bookstore, Arts on Main

November 12, 2009

Winner of November Boekehuis Voucher

Well done to Ronnie Whitaker winner of the November Boekehuis Gift Voucher. Read the exercise and Ronnie’s response below.

Write a scene of a fight or an argument or a disagreement (as violent or as subtle as you like), based on a remembered altercation between you and another — it might have been a partner, a friend, a parent, a teacher, a boss or a colleague. Write this in the first person — or third person attached. Take fifteen minutes and no more.

Then, in another fifteen minutes, write the same scene again from the point of view of the other person.

Try not to favour either person involved.

The Fight by Ronnie Whitaker

Lucy’s Perspective

“We have to go now. I want to miss the traffic” said Sophie.

“But Bill’s just ordered French champagne!”

“Tough. There’s enough people around to drink it. We have to go.”

“Shit” thought Lucy. “She’s in one of her moods. I knew this was a bad move.”
Sibling rivalry was still there, even in middle age.

“I will bring her home” said Bill. “We ordered French champagne to celebrate her triumph – as well as the birth of my first grand child this morning in the USA! You can’t deny a new grand father that pleasure?”

Sophie glared at him for what seemed an eternity.

“Fine!” She turned to Lucy. “See you later.”

Lucy was on a high. Sure, it was a phallic symbol, but as long as she was the resident bimbo with her hair blowing back at 160k on the highway, “You make me think of dancing” blaring out of the mega Bose sound system, phallic symbols were ok.

Sophie was rustling through packets of supermarket goods when Lucy burst into the apartment.

“I wish you’d stayed! We had such fun. I feel 26 again. Bill even had his hand on my knee driving here. Some larny sports car. God! I can’t believe I didn’t even notice what it was. Must be a Z4 … that’s what they buy in their 50’s isn’t it?”

She had prattled on for a good five minutes before she realized that Sophie was just standing there, glaring, murderous actually.

“Can’t you shut up for one minute! I’m listening to the market report. I have to know what’s going on in the financial world in my job. Not that you would understand that.”

“Here we go” thought Lucy. “She simply had to toss the career success in my face, today of all days.”

“Sorry. Sorry. I’m just on such a high .. and totally self absorbed.”

Lucy walked through to the guest suite, Godzilla following her, breathing fire. She could feel the heat on her back, burning.

“And – how dare you bring Jane up to my flat. And how dare you tell people at the table where I work”

“What are you talking about? I never mentioned you at the table. I was too busy talking about myself. And you know I had to bring Jane up so I could give her the extra copy. What else could I do? And what the hell’s the problem with that?”

“I’m just sick of you.”

“Do you want me to move to a B and B for the rest of my stay then?”

“That’s a bloody good idea. You can leave at 6.30 when I leave for work. Until then, stay out of my sight.”

She slammed the door.

“No supper then, I presume” muttered Lucy.

Sophie’s Perspective

Sophie had taken a day’s unpaid leave to attend the book launch. The day started with a flat tyre!

Lucy was standing there, calling a taxi service, instead of helping change the tyre. She had always been so fucking useless.

Sophie made her cancel and sent the taxi driver packing, as she had changed the tyre by the time he arrived. Sometimes one just had to make a point. If Lucy had been a little less spendthrift, she might have had more to her name at this stage of life.

There must’ve been 300 people at the luncheon.

“I wish I could be more sociable” thought Sophie. “But these pretentious obnoxious people just make me uncomfortable.”

Lucy met up with an ex boss in the crowd and immediately forgot about everybody at the head table. Sophie was left to make small talk with women who had never worked a day in their lives, despite being draped in Versace and Prada and dripping in rubies and diamonds. Thank God she was seated next to the cartoonist Eidin. Sophie enjoyed her Irish humour. and at least she wasn’t a stranger.

Eidin’s introduction was wonderful – teasing but warm. She was obviously very fond of Lucy, who, by the way, had disappeared!

When Jane introduced the speaker, Lucy flounced in, dressed in the ridiculous costume. The crowd loved it.

November 12, 2009

Writers’ Circle Course Early Bird Special

Our first Writers’ Circle Course for 2010 starts on 18 January. The course is designed for writers who have a specific project in mind as well as for those who simply want the chance to exercise their creative skills.

The Writers’ Circle Course runs participants through a range of practical techniques, reinforcing each with exercises which are both fun and challenging. Sessions are held in Parkview, Johannesburg every Monday evening from 7.00-9.30pm. Cost: R5500 for 10 sessions. Take advantage of our early bird special of R5000 by booking and paying in full by 31 December 2009.

Course Outline
• Freeing you up/finding your voice
• Brainstorming and story-boarding
• What is the story?
• Point of view
• Building characters, be they real or fictional
• Beginnings: where do you start to tell your story?
• Scenes: telling stories in a series of scenes
• Middles and ends
• Suspense: setups and payoffs
• Detail and description
• Avoiding exposition: show, don’t tell
• Dialogue and wrap-up

Please click here for a more detailed course description.

For more information please contact Trish on 0826524643 or email allaboutwriting@worldonline.co.za

Read testimonials from past participants and information about the facilitators.

Allaboutwriting is a partnership between Richard Beynon and Jo-Anne Richards who have both made their livings from writing for many years. We’re passionate about good writing, and have devised our courses to help communicate that passion – plus the skills that make it all much more than an academic exercise – to others with a similar calling.

October 20, 2009

Dialogue Exercise

The winner of the Boekehuis gift voucher for the October writing exercise and competition is Heather Hotaling.

We found this exercise on the site of a US writer, Meredith Sue Willis. Here it is:

“Anthony Burgess once said that he always began a novel by drafting sixty pages of dialogue– no “he-saids-she-saids” or other tags, no narrative, no description, just the words said. After his characters had talked for sixty pages, he would, he said, discard the entire sixty pages and start to write. I’ve never been sure I believe that he actually threw away all those pages, but the technique seemed to work for getting him started.

Try this: Do a directed free write with a kitchen timer set for fifteen minutes. Start with some words of conversation you have overheard or participated in. They can be totally ordinary, even boring. But keep writing, and adding more dialogue, maybe more speakers, more drama. But keep them just talking for the full fifteen minutes. “

Heather’s Come To Bed Dialogue.

Come to bed!
No
Come on, come to bed!
Just go back to bed
I can’t go if you’re not going to go
Why not?
Because. Will you just come to bed, please!
I don’t feel like it
You’re being ridiculous
Fine! I’m ridiculous then
This is so stupid!
Fine, I’m stupid
I didn’t say you were stupid, this is stupid
Whatever
Look, if I say I’m sorry will you come to bed?
Are you saying you’re sorry?
If I do will you come to bed?
Are you saying you’re sorry?
If I do will you come to bed?
Are you saying you’re sorry?
Fine! I’m sorry. Now will you come to bed?
That’s really not the point, though. I mean, it’s great that you’re sorry but it really doesn’t solve anything
Whatever!
See! You’re not even sorry anyway
This is making me crazy!
You’re making yourself crazy
That doesn’t even make any sense
Whatever – just go to bed. I don’t even want you here anyway
Fine!
Fine!
So… Will you just come to bed already, babe…come on, come to bed
No
Come to bed
No
You know you want to
No I don’t
I’ll give you a neck massage… Well?…
Maybe
Come to bed
Maybe
Please
Maybe
Please
Maybe
Please
Only if you tell me why you’re sorry.
Just fucking forget it! I’m going to bed!
Good!
I’m going to
Good!
I mean it
I want you to
I’m serious
Fine!
Fine!
Fine!
Fine, you fucking freak!
Fine! I didn’t want to go to bed with you anyway!
Good! I sleep better when you’re not there anyway
You sleep better?! You’re the one who’s tossing around and scratching your balls all night!
Fuck you, you fucking bitch!
Fuck you, you fucking dick!
Whatever
Whatever
So, will you knock this the fuck off and come to bed already?

Click here to read a selection of the entries.

October 15, 2009

Characters on the Couch

How would you convince your readers that the passionate understudy could be driven to murder to get the plum role? Well, our advice would be to e-mail Characters on the Couch – a blog written by a practising psychologist to help writers hone their craft.

Pierre Brouard, writing as Gabriel St Claire, offers psycho-literary advice to writers on www.allaboutlove.net . Writers from around the world send him questions about human motivation and character complexity – and he responds with practical advice both from his professional insight and his love of story.

“I do think it’s possible,” he told Adil, busy with his book set in the world of opera, “but I’m more inclined to think the acts of your understudy were a result of a heated and impulsive moment which would fit the so-called artistic temperament more closely.”

“To our knowledge, this is the only service of its kind available to writers anywhere in the world,” says Jo-Anne Richards, co-creator of allaboutlove.

“Every great novel – not to mention films and television – is rooted in characters that leap to life from page and screen. We remember them as real people,” says her colleague Richard Beynon.

In fact, all three are so convinced of the importance of complex characters, that they have also designed a one-day course to help writers of all kinds build characters that will effortlessly drive any plot forward. The first face-to-face Character Course is being held in Johannesburg on October 24, 2009.

E-mail Gabriel at info@allaboutlove.net

For more information contact allaboutwriting@worldonline.co.za

October 7, 2009

The Bus Stop

Here’s an exercise we adapted from one developed by the writer John Gardner…

A wo/man steps off a bus. In so doing s/he trips and manages to recover, reddens, and as he looks up sees someone of the opposite sex watching in a slightly amused way.

Write five little scenes built around the same incident in five entirely different ways, possibly using different genre conventions (romance, detective etc), or different points of view (third person attached, omniscient, etc)…

Mandy’s Exercise:

1. Joe was having a bad day. A day he really should start over.

He had literally got out on the wrong side of the bed and smacked his head into the wall. He’d cut himself shaving. He’d tripped over the rug in the passage and spilt his coffee, which even now was dripping down the walls.

He’d had no time to clean it up. He was terribly late. And now, as he stepped off the bus, he tripped again and stumbled, managing to save himself but not his briefcase, which snapped open on impact, sending papers all over the road.

But no matter. He’d made it, and there she was, waiting, just as she’d said she’d be, with that infuriating grin plastered across her face.

“Joe Anderson, you clumsy klutz,” she said. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. Come over here and give me a hug.”

2. As the bus pulled into the station, I scanned the crowd. How would I find her? I had to give her the package today – she’d said she’d be waiting.

I hung back, waiting for the others to disembark, hoping she’d be left behind, alone on the platform. But there were too many people, too many buses.

Finally it was my turn. Intent on keeping the package intact, I missed the last step and stumbled on to the station. Embarrassed, I straightened up quickly.

A shadow fell across me and I looked up into a face partly obscured by a dark hoodie. “Mr Cruz,” she drawled in a feline voice. “You certainly know how to make an entrance.”

3. Lindiwe was struggling to really enjoy the trip. Sure, these Rea Vaya buses were comfortable and convenient, air-conditioned and spacious. There was no jostling for space, no shoulder-to-shoulder sardine tin sensation. But she was nervous about what Jakes would think.

Finally they reached their stop in Mooi Street. The door opened and she faltered out of the door and down the steps.

As she stood up, she looked straight at a pair of Converse sneakers, a pair she’d seen many times as she collected her taxi for the day’s journeys. “So,” said Jakes, a cruel smile playing around his lips. “This is how you betray me.”

4. Heather waited anxiously at the bus stop. She smoothed her skirt down for the umpteenth time. This was a very odd place to meet for a first date. Still, at least it was a public place.

She ran her fingers through her hair. God, she needed to stop fidgeting and concentrate. How on earth would she recognise him? She hoped the picture he had posted on the site was recent.

She’d like his ad. He’d seemed normal, down to earth; not like all the others, who were interested only, it seemed, in parading their status symbols.

The bus slowed down and stopped and the doors hissed open. A little old lady tottered out, followed by … was that him? He tripped and stumbled as he alighted, and she smiled. He was everything he’d said he was in his ad – tall, dark, ordinary looking… and pathologically clumsy.

5. Owen couldn’t bring himself to look out of the window. He didn’t know what to feel, what to think. He’d waited so long for this day. He hoped he wouldn’t be a disappointment. Hell, he didn’t want to be disappointed either.

He’d been surprised when she’d agreed to meet him – the agency said it was a rare thing. And he was desperate to make a good impression.

He shone his shoes on the back of his trousers before walking to the front of the bus, and dried his clammy hands off on his handkerchief.

As the doors opened, he walked confidently out and then tripped as he stepped onto the pavement. When he looked up, it was into the smiling face of a woman he should have recognised anywhere. Finally, here was his mother.

Alethea’s Exercise:

1. From the window they all looked little better than ants. Filing here, dotting the pavement with their awkward bodies. Bobbing, begging, infinitely squashable. Until a woman drew to herself the scrutiny of the universe by blushing when she tripped in front of an upright man.

2. Shoes waited for shoes. Buffed to a shine, or scowling they stepped in half steps forward, some tapping on the metal of a step, others beasts of burden lifting suitcases on. The lady had shoes that said, “moccasin, I am an Indian in spring”, before they took to the air, and landed in front of a pair of Kenneth Coles, leather cut to the foot in a wide smile.

3. I remember every passenger, just like I remember the names of the roads I drive. They never change, and mostly the people never change, hidden behind newspapers and respectable clothes, sullen faces, and pallid or purple skin. But sometimes, like today, the clock comes off the works, and a lady tripping, then blushing, will light the face of even the most gangrenous gent.

4. Take another card. The joker. Yes, I see. At 4:15 you will do as you do every day. You will travel a familiar road, as though you were sitting, but inside you are standing, so that when it comes time to run, you will be ready. And as you run, the steppes that you know so well will fall away beneath you. You will find your feet again though.. to the rosy glow of a sunset… and at the feet of a dashing lover. If only you take the risk.

5. How is it that all thirty-five year old women look the same? As though, at the dusk of the nether year, they hit pumpkin hour and turn into their mothers. They even think like their mothers. If I bore my eyes in to the front of this ones curled and fringed head I can tell that she’s wondering if I’m married; if perhaps, I’d like to marry her. With that doleful look, I’d sure as hell not. But then she trips, and like a twenty year old, blushes it away, and then, well, I could be persuaded to a drink.

September 9, 2009

What makes a good writing class?

On Writing“As for myself,” says Stephen King in his wonderful book On Writing, “I’m doubtful about writing classes, but not entirely against them.” What I want to insist on in this article is that writing classes – or seminars, or workshops, or writing circles, call ‘em what you will – can be
• Inspirational
• Motivational, and
• A spur to action and
that Mr King would do well to approach the subject a tad less sceptically.

Our experience as facilitators of such groups – both online and face to face – suggests that if a number of cautions are borne in mind, writers can derive real, practical value – and have one hell of a lot of fun as they go – from writing seminars. Whether you’re a writing instructor – or a writer contemplating the mountain of your first major writing project – these pointers can help.

Here are the cautions for face to face groups:

• Get the size of your group right. We’ve found that less than six is too small, more than twelve unmanageable.

• Make sure the individual members of the group are more or less on the same rung of the skills level.

• Get the composition of the group right. A good mix makes for the best and most productive discussions. One recent group we guided featured a talk show host, a dedicated environmentalist, an IT entrepreneur, a midwife and a publisher. Each was in the process of writing a book – both fiction and non-fiction – or on the brink of starting.

The same cautions don’t apply to online groups. Interactive groups, with discussion forums and contact and feedback with facilitators, can work well with any number of people, all at different skill levels – and from different sides of the earth. (Isn’t nature wonderful!)

And here’s what great workshops, whether online or face to face, should do:

• Workshops should provide solid intellectual stimulation. Something for the participants to get their teeth into. Something designed to be useful to them in the writing process. Something practical. How to choose the most appropriate point of view. The nuts and bolts of creating memorable characters. How to structure scenes. How to add steel and fibre to avoid a sagging middle.

• Workshops should be structured around a series of challenging writing exercises. Challenging, that is, but not so hard as to be intimidating. Exercises need to be fun. People should be dying to try them. They enable wannabe writers to apply their new skills to the sort of problems they’ll face as they drive their projects forward. (And, in our experience, they love doing them!)

• Participants should work in an atmosphere of creative freedom, where they are encouraged to share their problems and their achievements.

Finally, what we’ve learned is that a relaxed but focused approach yields the greatest results. And nothing helps that as much as a bottle of soft red wine to wind up the evening. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a universal truth, but it’s worked for us. And perhaps that’s why Stephen King’s a little jaundiced. He’s on the wagon, poor sod.

That’s the only difference between face to face and online courses. There’s no cyber-wine. (Of course, there’s nothing stopping you opening your own wee bottle and toasting us somewhere out there, wherever you are. For the rest though, our online courses have the same advice, which we try to present in the same personal style, sharing our experiences and the mistakes we’ve made along the way. We hope participants will get to know us through our various courses, and feel they’re in conversation with us. We give feedback and interaction, just as we would to our face to face groups, and participants can get to know their fellow writers and share problems and experiences.

Richard Beynon and Jo-Anne Richards run face-to-face writing courses in Johannesburg and online romance writing courses on allaboutlove.net

Read On Writing by Stephen King

Advice from Stephen King

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September 8, 2009

Characters – beyond the cardboard cut-out

A friend of mine is a fine writer, whose first book was a great success.

His characters were beautifully drawn and tugged us into a poignant memoir. But he had always longed to write a novel. I couldn’t wait to see it.

When he showed me a draft, I couldn’t believe it. The characters were cardboard stereotypes.

“But where are the kind of characters you had in your first book?” I asked.

“But that was non-fiction. This is a novel. I have to make them up.”

But you see, you don’t. You can, but you don’t have to. If you work from real life, think of a real character and lie. Change them to suit your story.

That is important. Real life is fine as inspiration. But don’t stick so closely to the real model that you lose sight of the dramatic imperatives of your story.

If you make a character up from scratch, don’t think of them merely as “the tough game ranger” or the “prostitute with the heart of gold”. Everyone has quirks, inconsistencies and contrasts. Everyone has hopes and dreams, fears and heartaches.

Characters don’t exist in isolation. They are the sum of their history, experiences and personality.

You need to work out far more about a character than will ever actually appear on the page. If you don’t know how someone grew up and what relationship they had with their parents and siblings, you’ll never know how they’ll react to older men, younger women – in fact, to anything at all.

You need to work out how someone appears to others – what they look like, what they do, their work, hobbies and everything else that make up their public self. But everyone has internal characteristics too. You need to know how they feel, what makes them tick, their likes, dislikes, fears and favours.

Don’t forget what they look like and how they feel about themselves.

You need to be able to see and hear your character – to know intuitively how they’ll react. If you say to yourself: “Hmm, what should I make this character say now, they’ll never sound real.
For more about characters and lifting them beyond the cardboard, join our one day Character Development Course on 24 October 2009 in Parkview, Johannesburg.

Jo-Anne Richards is the author of four novels. Her latest is My Brother’s Book, published by Picador.

She lectures in journalism and writing skills at Wits University, besides running workshops in literary skills, narrative journalism and Romance writing. She supervises Masters students in the Creative Writing Masters programme at Wits.

She is co-founder of allaboutlove.net. The site runs interactive online writing courses in romance writing.