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Please note the forum has two parts.
You are required to answer each part.
Please use the headings Part I and Part II in your answers.
When writing stories, it is necessary to create a scene which might include atmosphere, pace, and mood. Author Cathy Birch compares it to the atmosphere of a good party where you want to stay to the very end, or a party where you look for a reason to leave shortly after you have arrived. How you, as the author, create your scenes is vital to understanding what makes people keep reading…and according to Lisa Cron, readers’ feelings are EVERYTHING. Stephen King says that setting is like any other character and needs the same layers, distinctions, and variables to create one that is specific to the story. So…what’s in YOUR scenery?
Instructions for Part I :
1. Read any short fiction piece from the link below.
http://www.classicshorts.com/
Watch the following videos:
Elizabeth Gilbert on Writing
Anne Lamott on Writing
Answer these:
How did the writer of the short story you read create a scene or an atmosphere that makes the reader want to stay in suspended disbelief?Use lines from your chosen piece
Explain what the author did to create this atmosphere
What elements did s/he use to create a scene that evoked emotion from the reader?Adjectives?
Flowery language?
Metaphors or similies?
Pacing?
What made this story “good?”
Choose 1 or 2 quotes from each video and discuss what surprised you about it, what you learned, or how it impacted you.
Instructions Part II:
Now it’s your turn. In a paragraph of not more than 200 words, describe one of the following places using specific imagery that is transportive and not narrative. This means…say it with me…show don’t tell.
A haunted mansion
The surface of the moon
A rainforest
a cavern
a restaurant
the inside of a bus
a dentist’s office
the inside of a bubble
Stonehenge
an attic
the desert
a hair salon
a hockey rink
a hat shop
a park
Show don’t tell means…Don’t use abstract words. Abstract words are words that can be interpreted a million different ways…for example…if I wrote, “On my way to work, I saw this gorgeous woman walking down the street with her head held high in her colorful clothes.”
What are the abstract words? Gorgeous and colorful.
Why gorgeous? Well…did you, the reader, see a blonde? A red head? Was her hair long? Short? If it’s the writer’s job to take the image out of my head and put it in yours, did I succeed? If you didn’t see a bald woman wearing tie-dyed overalls, then the answer is no…I did not succeed. Abstract words are subjective:
beautiful, ugly, big, small, happy, soft, hard, quiet, loud, hairy, thin, wide, etc. These words do NOT create an image…and we are in the image-making business.
Description without purpose is telling…it is boring…it is unnecessary. Repeat after me: When a reader stops feeling, s/he stops reading.
So…make us FEEL something…even in your descriptions.
Keep me reading.
If I post…Not feeling it in reply to your piece…go back and edit your work. It means you failed to evoke any emotion from me.
If I post abstract in my reply to your post, it means go back and revise.
Have fun!
Discussion Guidelines
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