Wednesday, 29 December 2021

Strange flight

 Fantasy, Light, Fractal, Balloon, Flight

Write an article, poem, script or story about flying.  Maybe you or your protagonist is flying for the first time.  Or perhaps this is some new sort of flying machine. Perhaps you go somewhere where you’ve never been before.

Article ideas

You could write about:

  • The history of flying
  • Fear of flying
  • The impact of air travel on the environment
  • The busyness of the airports
  • Tourism
  • Careers in the air travel industry

Structure your article

Think of forms you might use:

  • An essay
  • A newspaper article
  • A newspaper feature

Poem ideas

  • Imagine what it would be like to fly.
  • Write with the senses from a bird’s point of view.
  • What about a few haiku?
  • Capture the atmosphere of a busy airport.
  • What is it like if this is your first flight?
  • Can you get the rhythm of the engines into your poem?

Script ideas

  • What about a conversation amongst the cabin crew?
  • How would your characters deal with an emergency?
  • Pure fantasy: where does the magical flight take your characters?
  • Is there a tense situation about a failing airline or about one company taking over another?
  • Tell the story through dialogue of a nervous traveller.
  • Is there tension between the flight crew and the cabin crew?

Story ideas

  • Tell the story of the struggling flight engineers.
  • What about someone who grew wings and then could suddenly fly?
  • Tell the story of an alternative type of flying machine?
  • Create a world where humans fly.
  • What about a flying machine that can transport people to other worlds?
  • What about the metaphor of the fledgling leaving the nest?

Have fun writing about flying. If you can, make your flight strange.  

 

 

Sunday, 12 December 2021

Not quite as safe as houses

Home, Mountains, Fantasy, Floating, Lake

Your home or your protagonist’s is under threat .What is the threat? What happens? Do you manage to confront the threat and / or make it go away?

Establishing the home

What is the home like? Is it a house or a flat? In the town or the country? Is it super smart or a bit shabby? How long have your character(s) lived there? How will you show this without going into too much detail?

Establishing the characters

What are the people who live there like? Remember:

·         The physical

·         Emotional

·         Intellectual

·         Their greatest desires and greatest fears

·         Their motivation in this story

What is the threat?

Eviction?

Storm and tempest?

A sink hole?

Fire

Your plot

Remember to develop your plot through its stages:

Inciting incidents

Growing complexities

Crisis

Climax

Resolution

Style

Will this be a tragedy or comedy? Could you write a story that one of the homelessness charities could use?