Category Miscellaneous

May 31 2017

Writing Prompts/Exercises Continued: #11-20.

Here’s another 10 writing prompts/exercises for you. I have tried to keep them broad so they could fit with any genre. As I’ve been developing this list, I’ve realized that what I’ve got here are prompts and exercises that may help in strengthening your writing or later be folded into a complete story. If you’re working on a story now, try using these exercises with the characters in that story. If you’re not working on anything at the moment, try using these exercises to help you develop some new characters.

Again, write for only 10-30 minutes and no editing. Have fun and let your imagination run wild.

On the subject of sharing your results. I realized that since the instructions say no editing, many of you (and myself) may not feel comfortable sharing. That’s perfectly okay.

Prompts and Exercises

11.  Your character is interacting with someone who is: (Remember: show, don’t tell)

a.  Insecure

b.  Shy

c.  Narcissistic

d.  Depressed

e.  Happy

f.  Grieving

12.  Your character is chasing something/someone. (Let your imagination go for it!)

13.  Reverse #12: Your character is being chased by something/someone.

14.  Your character is talking about someone he/she is strongly attracted to, perhaps even loves, but is not really aware of the intensity of his/her feelings. Show this in the conversation.

15.  Write a short dialog, but do not use any sort of “he said/she said.” Make sure your reader can follow who is saying what. (Hint: use actions to identify the speakers.)

16. Write a short dialog, but do not use any sort of “he said/she said.” Make sure your reader can follow who is saying what. (Hint: use actions to identify the speakers.)

17. Your character is in a physical fight. Describe at least part of it.

18.   Write the lead-up to a sexual encounter. (SF writers have fun with this but be sure you understand the biology involved.)

19.  Write a sexual encounter for your character. It’s up to you how explicit. (Does your character really want this encounter?)

20.  Write the opening page of a story.

 

 

 

May 26 2017

Fiction Writing Prompts/Exercises

While this is not necessarily psychology related, I thought I’d post this for all of you. This list of prompts/exercises is being developed because I couldn’t find anything like it in the various lists on the Internet. I’ve been looking for prompts or exercises to get my must awake. However, most of those prompts on the net are very restricted and/or seemed to be prompts for stories. They also didn’t work for genre fiction. I wanted a list of short suggestions that at the same time could be used no matter what genre a person is working in.

The idea for this came from a high school creative writing class. The teacher had us write about a character walking. As I remember it, there was supposed to be something distinctive about the walk and it was to be from the point of view of another character who is observing. I loved the exercise. (I must have to recall it so very many years later, even if for the life of me, I can’t recall the teacher’s name.)

In constructing this list, I thought about exercises that would help me and you develop our writing skills. I would suggest that you spend no more than a half-hour on each, though ten minutes should be a minimum. No editing. Write in what that teacher of mine called “white heat.” Just go for it.

 

Prompts/Exercises 1-10

 

  1. Write about someone walking, from the point of view of someone watching. (This was from the high school assignment.)
  2. Write a scene in which the weather figures significantly.
  3. Write a scene about a character waiting for another in a bar
    1. The bar is in a casino/hotel
    2. The bar is in a poor or working class section of town
    3. The bar is high class
  4. Write a scene in which a character is visiting a historic landmark.
    1. He/she has been there before
    2. He/she has NEVER been there before
  5. Your character is fixing a meal
  6. Your character comes across a dead body (can be anything)
  7. Without dialog, show you character feeling:
    1. Bored
    2. Angry
    3. Sad
    4. Happy
    5. Anxious
  8. What does your character see outside his/her window?
  9. For some reason, your character is unable to see. Describe what he/she can perceive.
  10. Show your character interacting with a companion animal.

 

When I get one of these done, I’ll post the result here in comments. If you want to  post your results, please feel free. And, of course, if you have any questions or comments, I’d be happy to hear from you.

 

Aug 19 2015

On passing and grief

My mother passed away the end of last month. For the prior 16 months she had lived with me and I’d been her caretaker. Mother was 87 and suffered from COPD, among other problems. She died in her sleep and did not appear distressed. I called the Hospice people and they came out and took over. They also helped me contact the funeral home. The support and caring I received was wonderful. One of the magics of the day was that all of us here were women, even those who came from the funeral home. It seemed fitting. Women have traditionally been the ones to handle death and dying and this was no different.

Since then I’ve been feeling quite empty. Yes, some of that has to do with the ongoing depression I’ve been suffering for the past couple years, but it was more than that. I hadn’t realized just how much Mother had taken over my life during those 16 months. Although I often struggled against it, the truth is that she had been the focus of my life. And now she was gone. She is gone. I did some crying that day, but since then, I haven’t. I can’t really say that I’m grieving. My relationship with my mother had never been close. Maybe that’s why I don’t feel much pain with her passing. Just emptiness.

I don’t think I have anything profound to say in this posting. Just my experience. Is there anything a writer can take away from my experience? I don’t know. It does bother me when I’m watching crime shows on tv and the detective makes comments about people’s reactions to the death of the victim. My mother died of natural causes and maybe that’s partly why I haven’t reacted very strongly. Still, I don’t think it should be assumed that if a person doesn’t display strong emotion, then they become a strong suspect. Different people react to death in different ways.

Reactions to events depend on a variety of factors. What is the event? A death? How did the death occur? What, if anything, did the person see? I saw my mother laying in been, her mouth slightly open, looking much like she did the night before. I knew she was sick and dying, though I hadn’t expected her death so soon. So, if you have a character who had been expecting the victim’s death, perhaps he/she wouldn’t react as strongly. Also, if there are no signs of trauma, seeing the body may not be as distressing.

Perhaps the most salient factor in a person’s reaction to death is the character of the character. If you have a character who always tries to be in control and present as calm, intelligent, professional, then this character might not show much reaction. When I went to the funeral home a couple days later, I was calm, in control, etc. Just as I always try to present myself. There was a moment, however, when I became aware of this presentation and it cracked. Just for a moment. And then I was back to being in control.

Of course, the nature of the relationship is also important when contemplating how a character would react to the death of the victim. When my father died, I reacted much more strongly. I hadn’t expected it, wasn’t there. And my relationship with my father was emotionally much closer, even if troubled.

Bottom line? Beware of stereotypes of grief and the assumptions we often make. Let the reaction of your character flow from who he or she is.

Jul 17 2015

Impinging becomes onslaught

I know I haven’t been here very much, but things have been very difficult for me. My mother has COPD and various other ailments. After her last hospitalization a couple months ago, it was recommended that she be hooked up with hospice services. I did that and they’ve been really wonderful. The trouble is, Mother is really declining and I’m upset enough that I can’t think straight. And with all these feelings going on, writing about mental illness, particularly the article on depression that I’ve been working on…well, it’s just a bit too much for me. I know that things will chance with time and that someday I’ll be able to write about depression and various other issues for you guys. Maybe, in the interim, I’ll work on something not quite so close. We’ll see how that goes.

A character dealing with a dying parent would surely evoke strong sympathy in readers. Be sure you give such a character a strong support system or have her break down and become barely functional. There is the emotional toll that care taking a dying parent takes, and there’s also the physical demands.

More at a later time

Jun 18 2015

Little research on mass murder

Ever since the mass shooting on Fort Hood on 5 Nov 2009, I’ve been interested in the psychology of mass murderers. Being the kind of person I am, I turned to Amazon, searching for books on the subject. I found a lot on serial killers and some on school shooters, but almost nothing on mass murderers. I’m not sure I understand why. It is true that many of these killers are themselves killed before any interviewing or interrogation can be done. Still, I’d think there’d be at least some information, some research into what’s going on with these folks.

Just speculating, it seems to me that the motivations are varied. There seems to be one subset that includes individuals like the killer on trial right now in Colorado who is blatantly psychotic or at least extremely mentally ill. The Virginia Tech shooter seems to have fallen into this category as well.

Then we have the subset of killers who shoot up the work-place. Oddly, I’ve seen little research into what’s going on with these folks.

There has been speculation that Charles Whitman, who shot people from the bell tower at the University of Texas in Austin so many years ago, had some brain tumor. More recently, however, I’ve read that the odds are slim that this tumor had anything to do with his behavior that day.

And now we have the shooter in South Carolina who vocalized a desire to kill African-Americans. So, “it’s a hate crime.” Toss it off with an easy generalization and be done with it. But how does a 21 year old develop such hatred and anger to end up doing what he apparently did? Putting the label on him as “racist” doesn’t really tell us much. As a writer of fiction, if I had a villain who was a mass murderer of some racial group, but didn’t go any further than characterize him as a “racist”, I’d be criticized that my character is made of nothing but cardboard, a caricature. To do that villain justice, I’d need to understand how that hatred developed and I’d need to ground this in some sort of reality about racism (or whatever it is that motivate a mass murderer).

If any of you out there have any insights on mass murderers, please make a comment or contact me. I’d love to hear from you.

Mar 5 2015

What Do You Want To See?

This morning I’d like to try something different, my fellow writers. I’ve set up a poll so you can let me know what you’d like me to blog about. Do you have a Work-In-Progress (WIP) with a character who’s depressed and you’d like more information about what that’s like for the character? Do you have a character taking medications and wonder about the side-effects? (Remember, I’m not a psychiatrist.) Do you want to see more of my own writing (Gasp!)?