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…emotions are what make people human – and 3D… …interrogate your
chosen elements… …make it a
practised art… …a simple
storyline doesn’t mean a rigid storyline… …keep tossing
in the hand grenade What if..? |
Linda Acaster WRITER, TUTOR,
COACH
Connections, Connections ©
“Where do you get your ideas from?” It’s the perennial
question asked of any published writer, and for the writer it’s the hardest
to answer without sounding dismissive. Everywhere may be correct, but
it’s hardly helpful. The truth is, writers with an enviable track record don’t
reach out to pluck fully formed ideas from thin air; they have trained their
senses to be alert for disparate elements that can connect and fire the
imagination, and this is what novices must do, train their senses to twitch
at the merest whiff of a connection. Two and four might be lone
elements, but adding them together produces six. Or, in the case of a
good imagination, seven, or even eight. Fiction isn’t
arithmetic. There is no ‘correct’ answer. The end result, the resolution and
reader reaction, either works or it doesn’t. Gender Age Emotion Setting Catalyst 1. male child revenge garden communication 2. female
20/30 worry home gift 3. female 80+ love game interloper 4. male teen anger eatery health 5. male 60/70 sadness holiday bottle 6. female 40/50 enjoyment shop music The fiction grid shown is
a short, simple affair to illustrate how connections work for the short story
form. 99% of all stories are about people, hence Gender. As this
person is alive, he or she must have an Age. For the story to work
there must be a problem of some kind to which this person reacts, enter Emotion.
To make it easier to decide on the scene, there is Setting, and to
ensure the story begins to move there is a spanner to throw in the works, the
Catalyst. Don’t accept the obvious
as the only option, especially in these two final lists. An eatery can
mean anything from a hotdog stand in the gutter to your own kitchen to The
Savoy’s Grill. A communication can be anything from a message on an
answering machine to an office rumour to an invitation to a grand ball. Let’s
give it a try. All we need is a disinterested party without sight of the grid
to call out five numbers: 3, 6, 2, 1,
5. female * 40/50 *
worry * garden * bottle And from this a story can
be made? No. From this several stories can be made. Now is the time to
start looking for connections. Who is this woman? What does she
look like? Why is she worrying? Where is this bottle from? How
does the garden fit in? When is this set? Who, what, where, when,
how and why are asked of every connection that appears, and every answer is
subjected to the same set of questions. When a couple of likely alternatives
arise, the hand grenade of what if..? is tossed in to shake things up.
A long and drawn out
system? It only seems so because it is not yet a practised art. The more it
is used, the faster it works. Published writers who say they get their ideas
from everywhere are doing this constantly, if subconsciously, throughout
their day. Their fiction square doesn’t consist of words in a grid, it
consists of walking to the shops, listening to the radio, researching
work-in-progress, swimming in the local pool. It is a mental system which is
never switched off, which is why writers wake in the middle of the night with
an idea. But
let’s return to our woman in her 40/50s who is worrying about a bottle in a
garden (read in conjunction with article Structuring Short Fiction).
Visiting
her student daughter at university, pushy 42 year
old divorcee Angela (focus character) notices a box of empty bottles in the garden
by the dustbin (set scene). She’s worried
that her daughter is turning into an alcoholic (problem). Her daughter says
she’s had friends round for a party, but Angela has seen such a box on a
previous visit. Tidying up she finds a demand for rent arrears (complication
1), and then learns from others in the house that money is going missing
(complication 2). Angela questions her daughter and there is an explosive
argument. Her daughter is now an adult and wants to be left alone (crisis 1).
Angela makes enquiries at the university (resolution 1) and discovers that
her daughter is being sent down (crisis 2). Despite a possible rift, she
confronts her daughter again (resolution 2). Instead of another argument her
daughter confesses that she can’t cope with the studying but was afraid of
letting down her mother who has worked so hard to get her to university.
Mother and daughter are reconciled and Angela accepts that her daughter’s
health and happiness is paramount (resolution 3 and wrap up). It
might not be the greatest literature ever suggested, but it is a complete
story. Even here, mentally created as it was being keyed in, half-steps of
crisis and resolution are becoming apparent, so don’t take the simple
story structure as meaning a rigid story structure. But is it
bordering on a cliché? A
bad idea never becomes a cliché. A decent idea becomes a cliché due to
overuse. Just because you are using a pre-set fiction grid doesn’t mean that
you have to opt for pre-set plots. When you find yourself in this position
throw in the hand grenade of What if..? What if the daughter is being
blackmailed? A whole new vista opens if this signpost is followed. Subject it
to plenty of who, what, where, when, how and why. A lone mother is no longer
just trying to protect her daughter from herself, but from an outside menace,
and the cosy atmosphere of the original storyline has been shed. From
these chosen elements I came up with another five storylines. How many can
you produce? The imagination needs room to manoeuvre and the creative juices
need time to marinate. This is an exercise where practising is beneficial, so
don’t give up at the first obstacle and pick another set of numbers. Keep
tossing in that hand grenade what if..? What if… you prefer to
write, say, Fantasy, and the fiction
square given omits half the elements that genre utilizes as a norm? The
fiction square given is merely a sample to show how connections are made so
as to encourage the writing of full pieces of work. Fiction squares can be
developed that are dedicated to any genre you wish to write – Crime, Western,
SF, Historical – all it needs is market study to select the elements. Your mission, should you
wish to take it, is to write a short story a week for a year. Go on, call the
numbers and give it a try. You never know where it might lead. © Linda D Acaster A longer version of this article appeared in the UK magazine Writers’ Forum | Home | FAQ
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