Fiction Workshop 2

Recipe for a story

Create four characters or reuse the four characters you created in Workshop 1:

Protagonist

Friend

Enemy

Mentor

Put the protagonist with the enemy. See what happens. The story usually comes out of the tension between protagonist and the enemy. But the friend sympathises and the mentor advises.

Can you describe your story in a couple of lines?

E.g. Cinderella does go to the ball despite the best efforts of her step-mother and sisters; there she meets the man of her dreams and her life is transformed.     

Now decide how the story will begin and end.

Number 1 -6

At number 1, put the beginning

At number 6 put the end

At number 2 put what happens after the beginning – make this a growing complexity.

At number 5 put the crisis point – what is that happens that changes everything?

What happens after 2? Make this 3?

What happens before the crisis point? Make this 4.

What happens between 4 & 5?

If you do this in a Word document you can expand the list as much as you like. You might have the crisis point much further on if your story becomes complex.   

Note: some fiction writers are “pansters” – they write by the seat of their pants and don’t plan at all. At the other extreme you have people who put everything on to index cards and spread them over the whole house. Most people are somewhere between the two.  Whichever you are, keeping in mind that two line description of your story is a useful way of keeping you on track.   

Use the button below if you would like feedback, pay £5.00 via the button below, send your work as word attachment to gill dot james at btinternet dot com. Put the PayPal transaction ID and the name of the exercise in the subject line.  In the body of the email, just say "Hi" and remind me who you are.

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