Writing prompt: Grandfather’s chest

Your grandfather has died recently. You clear out his house and find an old chest full of photos, letters and memorabilia.  What do you find that surprises you? What’s the explanation? Tell his story. Feel free to use another relation if you prefer. 

There is an opportunity here for some fascinating research: 

·         Look at the era your grandfather lived in.

·         Which big events happened? 

·         Think about the family life he may have had – which mementos of that do you find?

·          Is this an excuse to visit museums, look for old post cards and letters, and visit old houses?

Think about the form you will write in:

·         Will your character find the box and tell the story from there?

·         Will you dive straight into a diary or a series of letters?

·         Will you just tell the story, using a first or close third person point of view?

Idea for your writing group:

Prepare cards with lists of about half a dozen items that might have been found in a grandfather’s chest. Each person has to write a story based on the information on their card.

 

Food for thought

Objects of their time often tell us much more than when people try too hard to rationalise. So, think in terms of a bus ticket, a cinema programme or the adverts that surround an old newspaper clipping.  Also, consider why the grandfather or other relative kept those particular items.    

 

Critique of Dance Lessons by Zoe J. Osik

 

Dance Lessons

You or your character are learning how to dance. What brought this about? Are they [GJ1] dancing with a partner? Is the partner a friend, a stranger, or an instructor? How do you or your character feel about this? What dance is being taught and how familiar is it[GJ2] ?

Inspiration

Are there any dances you like to watch or have always wanted to learn? Look at videos that can help you visualize the movements. Ask people you know about their experiences with dancing, or pull from your own! There are many dances to choose from—why not learn a new one, too[GJ3] ?

Diction

Diction plays a large role in the interpretation of our writing. Will you use technical language to be exacting, or will you use flowery language to capture the feeling? How would you or your character feel executing dance moves to a specific rhythm? Is it choppy or are the movements timed like clockwork[GJ4] ?

Pacing

Is this a slow dance or a rumba? Will it leave your character breathless or anxious? How does this affect the structure of your story? Is there time to show interactions between movements or is there hardly enough time to think?

Does the story end when the dance does or does it continue on[GJ5] ?

Form

Will you write a scene with descriptive narration, a poem with its own movement,[GJ6]  or a script that shows each character’s tension? Whose perspective will the story be told from? Will there be more than one point of view?

You could even write the story strictly from the perspective of the dance partner! This gives you the chance to observe how your character reacts to the scenario from an outside perspective[GJ7] .

Happy writing[GJ8] !

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 [GJ1]I find it a little odd how you change person. I actually think that the second person throughout would work rather well.

 [GJ2]Indeed, asking questions of the reader is quite effective.

 [GJ3]Inspiring

 [GJ4]This seems an odd change of topic.

 [GJ5]So, you are comparing dancing with writing. I think this needs to be made a little clearer.

 [GJ6]A key word – it belongs both the dancing and writing?

 [GJ7]A very good idea – and this does bring the two disciplines together.  

 [GJ8]The concept here is intriguing – comparing dancing and writing. You need to be bolder in saying this. There ae some good ideas but you are a little tentative. You make some good points. 

 

About the author

 After studying European literature and fairytales, Zoe J. Osik decided to make magic of her own. When not delving into a new book, she enjoys illustrating, cooking Italian food, sewing stuffed animals, and binge-watching her favorite shows with her husband and their bunny.

Dialogue – how it works

 

Writers are curious creatures.   A good job too – or they wouldn’t know what to write about. Your curiosity may have prompted you to listen to conversations in cafés, on the bus or at the bus stop or in the shopping queue. This sort of eaves-dropping may provide you with some rich snippets.  It may also clarify that a lot of time is wasted on small talk.

There is no place for small talk in a script or in a piece of fiction. Therefore, dialogue shouldn’t sound too natural.

On the other hand, it should sound like the person who is talking. Would they use those words? Do the words they speak reflect what is in their head?

Dialogue is an important part of narrative balance. But it must earn its keep. Therefore it must:

·         Push the plot forward

·         Represent the person who is speaking

·         Create an atmosphere

·         Preferably do more than one of the above at a time – and in some cases all of the above.

 

What about dialect, accents and swearing?

If you try to replicate an accent completely you may make your text virtually unreadable. Just a few words here and there may be enough to suggest the accent. Dialect words can give a clearer picture but make sure that you give them enough context so that the reader can understand what they mean – particularly the first time they meet them. And does your character swear? Well go ahead and put a few expletives in your text. However, you probably don’t need to make them swear as much as they would in real life.

 

A couple of things to try

 

BBC Writers’ Room

Go to BBC Writers’ Room: https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts and download a script. Look at the balance between a slightly stylized speech and the words sounding as if they belong to the character.

 

Test out your own dialogue 

Is it true to each character? Take all tags out of your dialogue.  Print you work out in a large font. Cut up the speeches and hand them to a writing friend. Can they work out the order of the speech? Can they work out what each of the characters is like?  

 

Manipulation - prompt

 

We all know about cookies when we visit Internet sites. It’s feels totally uncanny how Amazon and Facebook know what we’re interested in. Advertising in the media influences us enormously. It’s probably highly logical.  

Is AI taking this further?

Here’s a spooky example. A friend died recently and I made a note of his address so that I could send his widow a card. I actually wrote the address down on paper with a pen.  I did have a printed copy of it elsewhere and this had been created as a spreadsheet on the computer of someone with whom I often exchange emails. A few days later, when I was using the newly created Greater Manchester BEE app to find the next bus that would take me home a Google map appeared, showing me the bus route to his house. His house as well as his street was shown.

Perhaps a little more simple and understandable is that I keep getting junk email about investment possibilities. I have recently sold some properties’ and decided to invest the profit. I’ve been using the internet quite a bit to look for possibilities.   

But what happens if this goes to extremes?

Write an article, poem, script or story about someone who falls prey to this and maybe how they get out of it.