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    Writing courses, free resources and webinars, and developmental editing Writing courses, free resources and webinars, and developmental editing
    • Home
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    Tag Archives for: "how to write a scene"
     Monday Writing Motivation: Memory and the creative writer
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    By Richard Beynon
    In All About Writing, Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted March 4, 2024

    Monday Writing Motivation: Memory and the creative writer

    The experiences and memories we accumulate over time are not unlike leaf mould. Year by year, just as the leaves of a million trees rain down upon the ground, so an infinite number of sensory [...]

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     Monday Writing Motivation: Don’t be a worrywart
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted November 13, 2023

    Monday Writing Motivation: Don’t be a worrywart

    Writers of all stripes and levels of experience have something in common. It’s not necessarily a particular love of words. Some writers, after all, are moved more by a love […]

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     Monday Writing Motivation: Provoke your reader’s curiosity
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    By All About Writing
    In How to write a book, Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted April 12, 2021

    Monday Writing Motivation: Provoke your reader’s curiosity

    Covid has provided us with a real-life example of something critical to every form of creative writing. It has shown us how, when things stop happening, time becomes muddled and […]

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     Monday Writing Motivation: Banish cliché, seek surprise
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    By Richard Beynon
    In How to write a book, Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted March 15, 2021

    Monday Writing Motivation: Banish cliché, seek surprise

    I remember, many years ago, catching the eye of a pretty girl at a party we’d thrown at our student digs. I realised that her interest in me matched my […]

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     Monday Writing Motivation: I’m a character and I want to get out
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    By All About Writing
    In How to write a book, Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted February 15, 2021

    Monday Writing Motivation: I’m a character and I want to get out

    We meet Alexander musing moodily about the impending dissolution of his marriage. He wonders whether there isn’t any chance of rescuing it. He agonises over the effect of the breakup […]

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     Monday Motivation: Chasing rabbits in the Dark
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Monday Motivation, Richard Beynon's blog
    Posted July 20, 2020

    Monday Motivation: Chasing rabbits in the Dark

    I’ve been watching Dark, the fabulously complex story of time travel and alternate universes, on Netflix – and am currently drowning in that very complexity midway through the third season. […]

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     Writing Secrets: Big writers pay attention to the “small”
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Jo-Anne Richard's blog, Tips for Writers
    Posted April 22, 2020

    Writing Secrets: Big writers pay attention to the “small”

    I love it when good writers give advice on “small issues”. When would-be writers sit at the feet of writers they admire, they’re often looking for pointers on the grand […]

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     The art of writing great scenes
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Creative Writing Courses
    Posted January 20, 2018

    The art of writing great scenes

    The building blocks of drama We all recognize the scenario. We’ve got the story – or at least the beginning and the end – in our heads. We know our […]

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    INSTAGRAM
    The many jobs that the setting of your story can d The many jobs that the setting of your story can do Tip 4/14 Cultural context: The setting provides essential cultural information that shapes characters' behaviours and choices. Take this passage from Arnold Bennett’s Anna of the Five Towns, set in the pottery-producing heartland of Staffordshire: “Everywhere the view was bounded by furnaces and chimneys; they were innumerable, of all shapes, heights, and colours, and each had behind it a mountain of earth and slag, its own excretion. The narrow strip of black sky was cut by hundreds of vertical steam-jets and the black silhouettes of pitheads.” Throughout the novel, this industrial setting shapes Anna's life and choices. It influences her father's business, her social status, her romantic prospects, and her outlook on life. The oppressive yet familiar environment of the Potteries becomes almost a character in itself, embodying both the opportunities and limitations that define Anna's world. Consider how the setting of your story – whether it be the kitchen of a large hotel, the working stopes of a gold mine in South Africa, or the workshop of your Venetian mask-maker – will affect your protagonist. #StorytellingTips #WritersRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #StorySettings #Venezia
    Writing Wisdom from Venice 4/16 Once you’ve map Writing Wisdom from Venice 4/16 Once you’ve mapped out the time for writing, make it a habit simply to sit down - without thinking. Because, yes, your mind will tell you that you can’t write today, you have no ideas, no inspiration. Just do it. #WritingRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #Creativity #AmWriting
    Getting ready for a day of writing. Best way to st Getting ready for a day of writing. Best way to start the day. #earlymorningwalk #venicewritingretreat
    The many jobs that the setting of your story can d The many jobs that the setting of your story can do Tip 3/14 Personification: The place itself becomes a character, with its own personality and influence on the plot. Think of The Overlook Hotel in King’s The Shining. It’s much more than a setting – it’s a malevolent character with its own desires and agency. "The Overlook faced it as it had for nearly three-quarters of a century, its darkened windows now bearded with snow, indifferent to the fact that it was now cut off from the world.... Or was it?" The Overlook is depicted as a grand, isolated structure in the Colorado Rockies. King describes it as an imposing presence with a long and troubled history. The hotel is portrayed as more than just a building - it seems to have an evil consciousness of its own. Its corridors are maze-like, its rooms full of dark memories, and its very walls seem to breathe with sinister intent. Whether you’re writing the most frivolous of romances, or something as dark and malignant as King’s Overlook, you can use your setting to galvanise and animate your story. . . . #StorytellingTips #WritersRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #StorySettings #Venezia #StephenKing #TheShining
    Writing Wisdom from Venice 3/16 Time for your wri Writing Wisdom from Venice 3/16 Time for your writing will not magically appear. Don’t wait till ‘next year, when I’ll have less on my plate’. Carve out time for your creativity and guard it fiercely. Lie, if necessary – if those around you don’t respect your creative time. #WritingRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #Creativity #AmWriting
    The many jobs that the setting of your story can d The many jobs that the setting of your story can do Tip 2/14 The place can reflect the character. The environment mirrors or contrasts with a character's internal state. A bleak, winter landscape might reflect a character's depression, for instance. In The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt’s character, Theo, is sent to live with his estranged sister in Las Vegas. Tartt describes the landscape as follows: "Desert, empty as the surface of the moon... Apartments and shopping centers and residential neighborhoods wholly indistinguishable from one another... Terero was a treeless place of temperature extremes, where dust devils danced in a constant slow whirl." This bleak, monotonous environment mirrors Theo's sense of loss, isolation, and emotional barrenness following his mother's death. There’s no need to say as much; after all, the landscape in which he is trapped, says it all. . . . #StorytellingTips #WritersRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #WriteInVenice #StorySettings #Venezia #donnatartt What can your setting say about your characters?
    Morning walk #venicewritersretreat Morning walk #venicewritersretreat
    This morning we did our 'Rialto Walk'. An hour and This morning we did our 'Rialto Walk'. An hour and a half soaking up all that Venice has to offer as it wakes and gets ready for another day. For a writer it's most definitely time used well. It sets us up for the day. Writing Wisdom from Venice 2/16 Time is like money: we value it more if we have less of it. That means you need never despair if you don’t have swathes of writing time. An hour, used well, can be just as productive as a five-hour stretch, in which we make six cups of tea and tidy the linen cupboard until inspiration strikes. . . . #WritingRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #WriteInVenice #CreativeSpace #AmWriting
    The many jobs that the setting of your story can d The many jobs that the setting of your story can do Tip 1/14 Create instant atmosphere with the weather: You can use the setting of your story to create a mood or atmosphere to enhance the story's themes. Dickens did this superbly. He opens Bleak House with a description of a London fog: "Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city..." It’s at one and the same time a literal description of the city, a metaphor for the opacity and confusion of the legal system; it creates a mood of gloom and claustrophobia; it foreshadows the moral and social obnscurity that the characters will have to navigate; and it immerses the reader in a sensory miasma… . . . #StorytellingTips #WritersRetreat #VeniceWritersRetreat #WriteInVenice #StorySettings #Venezia
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