Tag archives for Writing - Page 9
Writing and Tension/Conflict
I've been working my way through the Big Red Book (BRB) that supports the Open University's A215 Creative Writing course. I've just got to the Chapter on structure and it has made me think about how to get tension and conflict into my stories. In particular I was thinking about how to write the sort of scenes that make you want to keep on reading and keep people up at night to see what happens next. I also found this writing resource post on tension vs conflict in writing. The thought process that these triggered reminded me of an incident from my late teens. Back in July 1991 I spent a couple of weeks on the Isle of Lewis with my UOTC on annual camp. One night we were sent out on an orienteering exercise in the dark (it wasn't…
Book Review – Story Design: Storyteller’s Handbook for Writers and Dream Merchants by SEAM
Story Design: Storyteller's Handbook for Writers and Dream Merchants by Shared Experience Art Machine My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an awesome resource for writers, providing a concentrated source of helpful advice and a thoroughly worked example of how to design stories and produce a good pitch to sell them. The book is born from the experience of a group of script writers, who recognised that it was better to sell lots of pitches and then write the accompanying scripts than trying to do write the scripts first. After all, if you want to earn your living by writing it is best to be sure you're going to be paid for it before doing it. The core of the book is an approach to designing your story before trying to write it. There is a 8 step approach…
Five Reasons for Establishing a Colony
In looking through my notes from previous story and game design ideas I came across some notes about the reasons why a colony might be set up. This was primarily for a set of scenarios for science fiction games. A group of us have been playing games set in Jim Wallman's Universe around the Full Moon each month since 1996. That said, they are based on actual historical reasons why people left the UK to live elsewhere. Not always to establish a colony on an uncertain and dangerous frontier. 1. Religious/Ascetic Freedom This covers people leaving to avoid discrimination as well as those that might want to live in a place where the temptations and 'polluitng influences' of modern life are not present. Examples of this include Amish and similar sects that avoid advanced technology (although quite why they'd get in a spaceship…
A215 Short Fiction: Daprav – A Creation Myth
As part of my Creative Writing course I need to write a short story for my next assignment. So rather than racking my brains about it I've been going back over stuff I'd written, but not finished, in the past for some inspiration. I also plan to do the exercises in the book to see what that sparks up too. Anyway I was looking through my role-playing archives and went through a fantasy game I used to run where I made up all of the setting myself rather than using a published one (there are about 17k words on this, and on top of that a stack of index cards). I was rather taken by the creation myth I wrote for the primary god in a theocracy. Daprav It is important to distinguish between Daprav Himself and the Church, which…
A215 TMA01 – Night Patrol
Here is the text I submitted for the Creative Writing assignment. The first and third parts are unaltered. I lightly edited Part 2 based on the feedback received (in net terms I added five words). Part 1 is a freewrite, intended to spark ideas based on a prompt. Part 2 is, in my case, a piece of autobiographical writing (my apologies if anyone recognises the events in question). Part 3 is a reflection on the process of doing the assignment. Part 1: Freewrite on prompt ‘Walking at Night’ Some of the most fun I ever had was wandering about in the dark. As a teenager I used to play outside at night, walking through the streetlights, with others playing hide and seek in the dark corners. It taught me to move silently and to use shadows to sneak back to…