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[Writer's Exercises] [nancy fulda lives here] [Wen Spencer over here] [Wen's Writing Tips] [Diane Duane along here] [Sarah Hoyt] [liaden readers] [Tamora Pierce] [Tamora Pierce (unexpurgated)] [Wrede around here] [Howard Tayler] [Dave Freer] [sry lives here] Below are the 14 most recent journal entries recorded in the "mbarker" journal:

October 28th, 2009
08:49 pm [Link]	Writing Excuses Season Three Episode 22: Idea to Story Writing Excuses Season Three Episode 22: Idea to Story From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2009/10/25/writing-excuses-season-3-episode-22-idea-to-story/ Key Points: To turn an idea into a story: Look for the points of conflict. Look for the boundaries -- what kind of story is this? Consider plot, setting, characters. What is the ending? How will you resolve the story? Look for characters who are in pain. Check old ideas that didn't get used yet. Brainstorm interesting ideas -- set pieces, events, twists, interesting stuff. ( the nuts and bolts ) [Brandon] We're out of time. But let's go ahead and give you the writing prompt which is the same idea that we used at the beginning. [Howard] Insects have in some way evolved defenses against all of the poisons that we use to kill them and many of the chemicals that would work to just kill anything because they have somehow developed magic. [Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write. Current Mood: nodding Tags: boundaries, brainstorming, characters, conflicts, ending, ideas, plot, process, setting, story, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
October 29th, 2008
04:49 pm [Link]	Writing Excuses Season Two Episode Three: Characters with Brandon Mull Writing Excuses Season Two Episode Three: Characters with Brandon Mull http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/10/27/writing-excuses-season-2-episode-3-characters-with-brandon-mull/ Key points: make your characters feel real by understanding them. What are their personality quirks? What do they want? Quirks that are a little bit extreme help make the illusion real. Ask yourself, "Why can't this character fill this role?" Design imperfect characters who are interesting in that slot in your story. Know the three act format and remember that real heroes always fail twice (at least) before they succeed. ( Much ado ) Current Mood: sniffles Tags: characters, three act format, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
October 2nd, 2008
03:15 pm [Link]	Writing Excuses Episode 34: What the Dark Knight Did Right From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/09/29/writing-excuses-episode-34-what-the-dark-knight-did-right/ I'm Brandon, I'm Dan, I'm Howard . . . and I'm Batman ( here there be spoilers? ) Writing prompt Brandon: take an old piece of writing, one that you've been working on in the last year, and take a dialogue scene. Then take each line of dialogue up by half a notch -- make it a little more unexpected, evoke a little more of the character -- but it should mean the same thing. Howard: crank it all up, but have the dialogue end up in the same place as before. Current Mood: gothic Current Music: What Was I Thinkin', Dierks Bentley Tags: batman, characters, dark knight, dialogue, movies, side characters, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
September 25th, 2008
03:52 pm [Link]	Writing Excuses Episode 33: Side Characters Writing Excuses Episode 33: Side Characters http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/09/22/writing-excuses-episode-33-side-characters/ Key points: Give your side characters their own voice, sensible motivation, and unique aspects. Give them a good motivation and make them the center of their own story. If they are too interesting, promote them to a main character or cut them out. ( The Meatloaf ) Writing Prompt [confusion over how to take a side character without having written a main character results in Brandon suggesting]: Brandon: take a side character from the future, bring them back into the past, and write a story about them. Howard: thank you, and goodnight kids. Current Mood: sidelined Current Music: Independence Day, Martina McBride Tags: bit parts, characters, side characters, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
September 17th, 2008
04:40 pm [Link]	Writing Excuses Episode 32: Talking Exposition with Patrick Rothfuss Writing Excuses Episode 32: Talking Exposition with Patrick Rothfuss from http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/09/15/writing-excuses-episodes-32-talking-exposition-with-patrick-rothfuss/ Key points: don't start with info dumps. Avoid essays, police artist sketches, thesis statements, repeating. Use three good details, and characters in action. Toss readers into the world, and move the story and the characters forward. Arguments are good. Make every sentence do more than one thing. Give your readers a little tease, then wait. Make the exposition a payoff instead of an entry price. ( to da dump, to da dump, to da dump, dump, dump ) Take one thing that's unimportant and explain the heck out of it. Take something else that is very important and don't explain it all. Current Mood: croggled Current Music: In Color, Jamey Johnson Tags: characters, dialogue, exposition, world building, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
July 18th, 2008
02:21 pm [Link]	Now that's just fun Okay. One of the recent shows here was the All-Japan Quiz (or something like that). And among the players, Mitsuko pointed to one woman and said, "OH. That's a man. He's a New Half. You should watch him." ( Bits and pieces . . . ) Mitsuko says this man has been on several shows recently, apparently quite happily laughing with everyone. He's having a lot of fun with gender confusion, and that's okay. Subversive as all get out, but that's the way it should be. Laugh, and then wonder what the fuss was all about. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Put A Girl In It, Brooks & Dunn Tags: characters, gender bender, humor, japan, television (4 comments \| Leave a comment)
July 16th, 2008
10:08 pm [Link]	Insight from an odd angle Here in Japan, there was a TV special on about Tasha Tudor. She's the author of children's books (Corgiville Fair?) about 90 when the show was made, and lived in the Vermont mountains somewhere. Lots of fun bits about her life, but when they were complimenting her about her habit of carrying flower seed and scattering it, showing a field that she had planted over the years, she protested that she had learned that from Alexander Graham Bell. When the narrator asked what she meant, she smiled and said that Alexander Graham Bell always had a pocket full of Lupin seeds and planted it everywhere he went. And as a close friend of his daughter, she learned to do the same, although she uses other flowers. Alexander Graham Bell as a "Johnny Appleseed" of flowers. I wonder if that made the official biographies. Fun! Current Mood: Blooming Tags: act two slump, characters, japan, television, words (Leave a comment)
June 23rd, 2008
03:36 pm [Link]	Writing Excuses Episode 20: More Q&A from Conduit Writing Excuses Episode 20: More Q&A from Conduit http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/06/22/writing-excuses-episode-20-more-qa-from-conduit/ Guest writer: Eric James Stone The short and sweet? Do you need plot twists? Yep, but not necessarily always world changers. Speculations about the changing market. How do you make heroes as interesting as villians? Conflict and action! ( More details . . . ) And a voice announced, "We're all blimps anyways." Amidst a flurry of thankyou, thankyou very much, the podcast ended. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Better As A Memory, Kenny Chesney Tags: characters, plot twists, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
June 20th, 2008
10:54 am [Link]	Writing Excuses Episode 18: Questions and Answers At Conduit Writing Excuses Episode 18: Questions and Answers At Conduit http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/06/08/writing-excuses-episode-18-qa-at-conduit/ Guest Star: Dan Willis Distinct voices for characters, finishing your story, avoiding second act slump, and naming characters - you asked for it, you got it! ( Questions and Answers ) Current Mood: lethargic Current Music: Put a Girl in It, Brooks & Dunn Tags: act two slump, characters, writers block, writing excuses (Leave a comment)
February 27th, 2008
12:15 pm [Link]	Saturday's Rakugo (Feb. 23) Whoops. Forgot to finish up last week's story. Let's see. On Friday, we were left with Kiyomi on the phone, saying hello, yes . . . and looking around the table at the other students, Ako, and the new student, Yusuke, who seemed to duck. ( Lots of details . . . ) So Yusuke lies, and lies, but . . . we'll keep him! Couple more little scenes on Saturday. First, Soso is in the garden, and Kiyomi asks him if he is still thinking about Yusuke. He says yes, but at least he'll talk to parents. And there's a card in the mail. From an old lady in Senri, thanking them for student, talking about great teacher, good rakugo. Soso starts to smile, then thinks, and says, "Lies, right?" Kiyomi, "No, I think it's real." Soso, "Nah, lies, I think." Having a habitual liar around sure makes reality fray. Second, Kiyomi walking into the garden, and Ako at the gate. Kiyomi, "Sorry about all the fuss. I wondered about meeting you." Ako, "I'm going home. Get married." Kiyomi, "What? Who?" Ako, "Oh, anybody." Kiyomi, "Huh?" And Ako, "It's all lies. Because of you, my life is a wreck." To be continued! (Just to make sure we come back on Monday, I guess.) Current Mood: embarrassed Current Music: Find Out Who Your Friends Are, Tracy Lawrence Tags: characters, rakugo (Leave a comment)
February 24th, 2008
05:37 pm [Link]	Talk about a triumph of the creative urge The Japanese show is about a young man suffering from muscular dystrophy. At this point, his twin brother has died, he is on a breathing machine, and he has just a bit of control in his hands (not his arms). His mother sets him in his chair, connects up the breath tube, sets the table across his lap and sets his arms on towels, and . . . he draws. A pencil on the end of a long wand moves a bit, and they have set up controls so that he can move the canvas around to bring various parts to where he can add to the drawing. And, bit by bit, he makes pencil sketches that are quite good. He has done about 130, I think, and has commissions for 80 more right now (if I got that right). He used to paint, but his loss of muscle control has made that impossible. So he is doing sketches instead. Some people worry about lack of talent or ability, while other people just go ahead and do it. Current Mood: inspired Current Music: The Thunder Rolls, Garth Brooks Tags: characters (Leave a comment)
January 30th, 2008
11:40 am [Link]	How many characters can you keep separate? That's amusing. Apparently one of the fine points of rakugo presentations concerns how many characters are being juggled. These are comic monologues, and the basic stories are pretty much set. But in Manju Kowai, for example, one of the challenges that the teacher may give the student is to increase the number of characters - the base story is usually five, but try it with ten. How do you keep them individual, give them individual likes and fears, and make the audience enjoy the crowd? Might make a good writer's exercise, too? Take a basic story, and redo it - with more characters. What happens when the love triangle turns into a polygon? How many angles can you handle? Current Mood: puckish! Current Music: Boondocks, Little Big Town Tags: characters, rakugo (Leave a comment)
January 9th, 2008
09:57 am [Link]	Maybe there's another problem here? Odd news bit last night. As I understand it (this is translated through Mitsuko, and I wasn't particularly interested at the start, so you have been warned that it may be inaccurate), the story started with a description of a son who stays at home, and is unwilling to face people. But one night last year, for some reason, he started hitting his parents. Mom got beat up, and Dad ran outside. At which point the son calmed down and told his mother to leave, he didn't want to hurt her, but he thought there would be more violence. So she leaves. And (of course) the police descend on the house. Six policemen in search of the son. No answer. But they find him inside, and he seems quiet, so they ask him to please get in the police car, they have some questions. Somewhere in the process, he started hitting the police. So they put him in a hospital, and a mental health person works with him for six months. He tells a story of young life with a father who was tanshinfunin (working somewhere else, so not at home), mother doing too much for him, and no one would listen to him, creating frustration that has built up for years inside, until he just exploded. He's back home now. At this point, Mitsuko and I are making sage observations to each other about teenage life being hard, and so forth. And then they went to talk with him, and it turns out that the son is 37. His parents are in their 60s, and retired. He has never left home or worked. And because of his phobia about people, he rarely leaves the house. Current Location: under the sunshine Current Mood: amused Tags: characters (Leave a comment)
January 7th, 2008
10:52 pm [Link]	Odd thought Mitsuko, my wife, was telling me that they were interviewing the actor who plays Soso in the rakugo drama that NHK has. And that one of their comments was what an unusual character he plays. He's a big, sort of scary guy. His arms and legs are too long for his favorite suit, and he talks rough. But he's also got a big smile, and always seems to be trying to help. When I thought about similar characters, the first one I thought of was Gomer Pyle from Gomer Pyle, USMC. Sahprise, sahprise, sahprise. Same sort of naive winner through willingness. The county boy who makes good by smiling and doing it. But then I got stuck. Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster? Maybe Hoss from Bonanza, although I don't remember well enough to be sure. Little John from the Robin Hood mythos? Are there really few examples of the bruiser with a heart of gold? Or am I just tired? Current Location: In the living room Current Mood: thoughtful Tags: characters, rakugo (4 comments \| Leave a comment)

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