Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • The Art of Story Writing

    Uploaded by

    Joey Torres
    18 views7 pages
    The document discusses techniques for crafting multi-dimensional characters in story writing. It provides writing prompts to help develop characters, including describing their appearance based on an image, answering interview questions as the character, and rewriting scenes from different character perspectives. The document also discusses varying the psychic distance or point of view when writing to shift the focus onto the character in different ways. Writers are given exercises to practice these techniques by developing characters and rewriting scenes from their perspective.

    Original Description:

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document
    The document discusses techniques for crafting multi-dimensional characters in story writing. It provides writing prompts to help develop characters, including describing their appearance based on an image, answering interview questions as the character, and rewriting scenes from different character perspectives. The document also discusses varying the psychic distance or point of view when writing to shift the focus onto the character in different ways. Writers are given exercises to practice these techniques by developing characters and rewriting scenes from their perspective.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    18 views7 pages

    The Art of Story Writing

    Uploaded by

    Joey Torres
    The document discusses techniques for crafting multi-dimensional characters in story writing. It provides writing prompts to help develop characters, including describing their appearance based on an image, answering interview questions as the character, and rewriting scenes from different character perspectives. The document also discusses varying the psychic distance or point of view when writing to shift the focus onto the character in different ways. Writers are given exercises to practice these techniques by developing characters and rewriting scenes from their perspective.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 7

    The Art of Story Writing: Crafting Multi-Dimensional Characters

    by SREEDHEVI IYER
    Writer-in-residence, Lingnan University

    A. CHARACTER

    WRITING PROMPTS FOR CHARACTER:

    1. Exercise: Looking at images, write:


    a) A description of their appearance
    b) What their job is
    c) What are they thinking of right now
    d) What their friend thinks about them
    e) If they could say something to you, what would it be?

    2. Character Questionnaire (Appendix 1)

    3. EXERCISE: For some reason, your character has suddenly


    become famous (won a reality show contest). All the media is going
    crazy about them. People want to know who they are, how they
    think and function.

    A media organisation interviews your character.

    List 5 Questions of what the media reporter would want to ask your
    character

    Answer these questions as if your character is speaking. Give each


    question one or two paragraphs of answers.
    B. POINT OF VIEW:

    WRITING PROMPT FOR POINT OF VIEW

    1. Your character goes to a job interview and thinks it goes great.


    The man who interviews him thinks it's a disaster. Spend ten
    minutes writing about the scene from the interviewee's point of
    view, and then another ten minutes rewriting the scene from the
    interviewer's point of view.

    Write one paragraph of each.

    2. Use first person to write scene with following requirements:


    “I” character is home alone and vulnerable in some way – for eg, in
    the bath, in a bed, a child, paralysed, trapped in a windowless
    room, on a high floor in a housing estate.

    “I” character hears the sound of someone trying to break into the
    house.

    Begin: First hint of danger


    End: The moment “I” character sees the intruder.

    Show your character’s emotions and perceptions and create as


    much tension as possible through use of details.
    PSYCHIC DISTANCE: HANDOUT

    5 degrees of psychic distance (yes, really)

    Consider the following sentences taken from The Art of Fiction by


    John Gardner:

    It was winter of the year 1853. A large man stepped out of a


    doorway.

    Henry J. Warburton had never much cared for snowstorms.

    Henry hated snowstorms.

    God how he hated these damn snowstorms.

    Snow. Under your collar, down inside your shoes, freezing and
    plugging up your miserable soul…

    With each sentence, all written with a third person point of view,
    the writer moves his camera lens closer and closer until he literally
    enters his character’s head to voice his thoughts. Very concisely,
    these sentences demonstrate some of the amazing and important
    point of view choices open to the writer whenever he/she starts a
    story.
    EXERCISE:

    Think of a person and a place. Give your person a fear, a problem


    or a challenge to face. Write 5 opening sentences, modeled on
    Gardiner’s, so that you begin the story at 5 different points of
    psychic distance. Then choose the one you like best and run with it.

    OPTIONAL EXERCISE:

    Revisit the intruder story written earlier.

    REWRITE WHOLE SCENE FROM INTRUDER’S POV.

    Use Psychic Distance to vary the zoom points of the intruder.


    Appendix 1

    Character Questionnaire:
    What is their…..?
    1. Age
    2. Race
    3. Country
    4. Name
    5. 2nd Name
    6. Family Name
    7. Hair colour
    8. Eyes
    9. skin
    10. size
    11. distinguishing features
    12. distinguishing marks
    13. How do they carry themselves?
    14. Medical health
    15. How does the character describe themselves?

    1. Name
    2. Race
    3. Country
    4. Eye colour
    5. Body
    6. distinguishing features
    7. Health
    8. Physical characteristics inherited from mother
    9. What do they see about their father in them?
    10. how big is their family
    11. is it important that she gets on with her family?

    Childhood
    12. Where grew up
    13. What childhood like
    14. events in childhood affected him deeply
    15. What sort of home did they grow up in
    16. what does father do for a living
    17. Father’s skills
    18. what talent of their fathers would the character like to have had
    19. Mother’s job
    20. skills of mother
    21. What about mother does the character admire most
    22. closer to mother or father
    23. when think of mother what does he/she think about
    24. What childhood pet
    25. what in childhood made him happy
    26. what made him angry in childhood

    Character as an adult:

    1. where do they live now


    2. what kind of place do they live in
    3. what do they do for a living
    4. how much money do they earn
    5. what conditions do they work under
    6. what friends do they have at work
    7. is there something else they’d rather do
    8. Hobbies
    9. Last book they read
    10. significant other?
    11. happiest moment of their life recently
    12. 3 famous people – alive or dead – they admire the most
    13. 3 significant truths they believe
    14. 3 things about your character that they brag about
    15. 3 secrets they have
    16. physical places they love to be
    17. 3 favourite possessions
    18. 3 things that stress them out
    19. wake up in the morning the first three things they do
    20. at a party 3 things they do
    21. 3 things values/virtues they esteem in others
    22. 3 things afraid of

    You might also like