Believable Fiction Workshop 2

Believable Fiction Workshop 2

This month:  Learning to Pay Attention

"When you go searching for details that might be helpful to you, wherever you locate them, and however you choose to preserve them, remember this: Your job as a writer is to ultimately weave your unique real world observations into a piece of writing that will lift your readers up and situate them in a time and place of your choosing." *

This workshop includes some tips for sharpening your observation skills, and the  suggestion of keeping your own "pocket book" for writing down ideas/phrases/scenarios that you don't want to get away.  As a writer, you have to learn to pay attention constantly, not just when something appears to be coming your way.  For a writer, something is always coming your way.  You just have to be alert.

To be a good writer, you have to be a persistent and meticulous harvester of detail.  To put it less politely, you have to be a thief, pure and outright.  Some of your best dialogue will come from the people in line with you at the grocery store or from the teller at the bank or from conversations at other tables that you aren't intended to hear.  If you're smart, you'll write the details down, preferably in a pocket notebook you now select and begin carrying around with you--or on a napkin or a deposit slip or a business card.  You must gather seemingly unimportant minutiae from the world around you and then carefully place your detailed real-life observations in your writing, like perfect stones in a garden wall.

When you begin to look at everything with a stronger magnification, you'll end up with more bits and pieces of data than you will ever use.  Your "writing pocket book"  will finally become like that box of old albums/CDs in your closet.  You'll never need most of what you collect, but it's nice to have your own collection of personally observed details to draw upon.

This collection of observations and discoveries will serve you well.  These details will work their way into your setting and description--the characters that will people your story, the words they will say, the clothes they will wear--all have their genesis in the world around you, the writer.  What you have to do is have your antenna up, and when you find them, catalog them in some way, tangibly or mentally.  Trust me on this: Tangibly is better--something you can put your hands on.  Then, you can dip into your warehouse of details whenever you need to use them in your writing.

Some Things to Keep in a Writer's "Pocket Book"

~  outlines/planning

~  observations on how elements of storytelling work (or don't) in movies, novels, plays

~  borrowed (stolen) dialogue and dialect from the world you experience

~  situations you observe that might be worked into a story

~  physical characteristics of people that you might end up using to describe your own cast of characters

~  floor plans, maps, schematics for possible settings

~  title ideas (pilfer profusely from The Bible, the works of Shakespeare, and  poetry, historically the three most fertile sources for titles)

~  story ideas

~  possible first/last sentences

~  interesting or uncommon words

~  words that might not exist at all, but need to

~  a cliche` count (every time you come across one in print, in conversation, on television, in movies, or on the radio, jot it down.  Then avoid it like the plague)

~  life's little ironies (things that are not as they should be: people who should not be where they are

~  general notes regarding your fiction

~  lyrics to songs that catch your fancy

~  Details!  Details!!  Details!!! that you might use in your description and setting

The Prompt

Depending on your time commitments, you may choose to work at this prompt as an addition to your daily rountine, or if time and gas permit, take a 25-30 minute car ride (great if you have a driver so you can write), or bus ride, or leisurely stroll, and record some of your detailed observations in your "pocket book".


Here are some categories for things to look for on your quest:

useless things

outdated things

flawed (or broken) things

things you hadn't expected

the absence of things you had expected

things (or people) completely out of their element

Make sure you note things that you wouldn't normally pay close attention to. 

After collecting a plethera (a big enough bunch to suit you), write 2-3 descriptive paragraphs (300 words) that incorporate your observations.  Remember to include the five senses, colors, textures, and any other aspects that bring detail to your work.


For our group workshop purposes, please create your response as a Writing.com item  (with its unique number), and  then file it in two places:

     
  *    One copy of the item that is this month's response should be filed in your own portfolio, in a folder you need to create by the name of "UWW2 "; 

     
  *      A second copy of your writing response to the prompt should be posted in our group's forum so that the teacher and other interested parties can locate and read your work.

Please post your work here, and read what others have written..........

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                  If you have questions or need help
                    send an e-mail to [e-mail]


~Patrice Lauren, AKA a sunflower in Texas
  Former English, ESL, and history teacher for 13 lucky years

*  Please note:  This material has been liberally lifted from Chapter 2 of Ron Rozelle's book titled Description and Setting, of the Write Great Fiction Series, published by Writer's Digest Magazine.  Quotations have been omitted, but I want to give credit where it is due