Let's kick off our 2010 at the Crooked Tree, 2pm till 4pm.
There's a great exercise in Stephen King's "On Writing" p170-173, he gives a premise, a required scene, and a starting point, you have to write 5-6 pages WITHOUT PLOTTING FIRST. I think that would be a cool exercise to work through.
So, who's coming? What are you working on? Did you write "The End" on your 2009 NaNo yet?
I'm in!
And an extra special thanks to Paul and Alison for keeping this going for the last three years and again to Paul for the discussion sight and domain. You guys rock!
From the book:
Everyone is familiar with the basic details of the folllowing story; with small variations it seems to pop up in the 'police beat' section of local newspapers ever week or so. A woman - call her Jane - marries a man who is bright, witty and pulsing with sexual magnetism. We'll call the guy Dick. Unfortunately Dick has a dark side. He's short tempered, a control freak, perhaps even (you'll find out as he speaks and acts) a paranoid streak. Jane tries hard to overlook Dick's faults and make the marriage work (why she tries so hard is something you will also find out; she will come onstage and tell you). They have a child, and for a while things seem better. THen, when the little girl is three or so, the abuse and jealous tirades begin again. The abuse is verbal at first, then physical. Dick is convinced that Jane is sleeping with someone, perhaps someone from her job. Is it someone specific? I dont know and dont care. Eventually Dick will may tell you who he suspects. If he does, we'll both know, wont we?
At last poor Jane cant take it any more and divorces Dick, gets custody of the daugter but Dick continues to stalk her. Jane responds with a restraining order. Finally after an incident which you will write in vivid and scary detail - a public beating perhaps - Richard is arrested and jailed. All this is backstory. How you work it in, and how much you work in, is up to you. In any case, its not the situation. What follows is the situation.
One day shortly after Dick's incarceration, Jane picks up her daughter from day-care and ferries her to a friend's house for a birthday party. Jane then takes herself home looking forward to a few hours of rest. Its a big house she's going to, despite being a young unmarried, working mother. How she came by the house and why she has the afternoon off the story will tell you (perhaps the house belongs to her parents; perhaps she is house sitting; perhaps something else entirely).
As she lets herself in, something pings at her, something that makes her uneasy. She tells herself it's just nerves, a little fall-out from her 5-year hell of living with Dick, who's under lock and key after all. Before taking a nap, Jane decides to have cup of herbal tea and watch the news. The lead item is a shocker: three men escaped from the city jail, killing a guard in the process. Two were re-captured but the third is still at large. None of the prisoners were identified but Jane (sitting in her empty house) knows without a shadow of a doubt that one of them was Dick. She knows because she has finally pinned down the ping of unease she felt - it was the smell of Vitalis hair tonic - Dick's hair tonic.
What I want you to do in this exercise is to change the sexes of the antagonist and protagonist before beginning to work out the narrative - make the ex-wife the stalker (and perhaps it's a mental institution and not the city jail she's escaped from) and the husband the victim. Narrate this without plotting - let the situation and that one unexpected inversion carry you along. I predict you will succeed swimmingly ... if, that is, you are honest about how your characters speak and behave.
I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone makes of this!
I'm planning on going.
How does it make sense to do this exercise? I lean toward doing it in our own time, and arriving with something in-hand as it will give us something to read, and talk about, plus we can talk about how we felt it went, pros/cons etc. Anyone have objections?
Yes, do the exercise, and swap when we meet. I have an idea, and I'm trying not to plot the thing out ahead of the writing time.
I have written something in response to the exercise and printed copies. I plan to be at the meeting. However, I now expect to be a little late. My little dog is having some issues, and the only time the vet was availalble was just before our meeting. If it goes quick and I hurry, I might be almost on time.
There's a meeting tomorrow (OK, Dale told me that on Wed), and there's HOMEWORK? *kerthud*
Um, is it worse to skive off or to come unprepared?
Tigger, please come! Prepared or not, we'd love to see you.
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