Show don't Tell

Point of View

I'm really enjoying Ted Stanley’s Creative Writing Course. It’s challenging, stimulating, interesting, and good fun.'

‘The tips for generating story ideas are brilliant.'

'The two-hour session flies by. Can't believe four of the six classes have gone already. I hope more are planned in the pipeline?’

'Can we write it? Yes, we can. Inspiring, helpful, extremely intensive ( Phew!) course. Brilliant !'

SUMMER 2017

Club Spa Kenwick Park

April/May AN INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING

Reviews

The  Walled Garden Baumber

As Writer in Residence at this fascinating and beautiful venue, I will be providing visitors with a range of creative writing workshops over the summer months. Sponsored by Hammond House Publishing, they offer great value for money and the opportunity to have their work published.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING

New six-week course starts 3rd August 2017-  £90

The walled Garden, Baumber is near Horncastle in the beautiful Lincolnshire Wolds.

To book a place or for more information Contact Sonia Elton 01507 578763

More information is available at:  

http://www.walledgardenbaumber.co.uk/creative-writing/4593714036

INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING 

TEN WAYS TO GENERATE GREAT STORY IDEAS

Early memories

Think of your earliest memories. Write about them. Develop into a story - truth or fiction.

Find a powerful image of a person

Imagine what they are saying; thinking; feeling; seeing.

Find an image of two people. 

Imagine their conversation. Write a story about them.

Pick any object- and Imagine its story.

Scan the newspapers

Look for unusual and interesting stories and develop them as fiction.

Use your Notebook – Jot down overheard conversations. Develop them into stories.

Choose a book 

      Open it at a random page. Pick a sentence. Develop it into a story

Emotional change

Using an image of two people, choose an emotion the image evokes (eg happy) Choose another emotion (eg Angry).  Using dialogue, take the characters from one to the other.

Twist the familiar

Choose a familiar setting (eg dinner party) Write about it. Introduce a twist

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THE STRUCTURE OF STORIES

WORKSHOPS on Acting or Writing provide the opportunity to really get involved in the process, test your ideas and develop new skills.

TALKS (after dinner or to local interest and community groups) Entertaining thought provoking and inspirational ideas

Request full details 

INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING- New course starts 3rd August 2017 in the beautiful setting of the Walled Garden Baumber 

For more detail contact

Sonia Elton  Tel : 01507 578763

Email :

ACT 1

MAIN ELEMENTS

Setting

Hook

Introduce main character

Inciting incident

Challenge/problem

Hesitation

Challenge accepted

OTHER ELEMENTS

Setups

Foreshadowing

Red herrings

Opening lines

EXAMPLES OF OPENING LINES

CLASSIC

“Call me Ishmael" - Moby Dick

Herman Melville 1851

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair – Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877).

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin –

Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (1915).

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again – Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca (1938).

It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen – George Orwell, 1984 (1949).

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the gulf stream and he had gone 84 days now without taking a fish.  The Old man and the Sea.  Earnest Hemmingway 1951

MODERN

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.  -  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die. -   Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

It began as a mistake - Post Office Charles Bukowski

It was the day my grandmother exploded-  the crow road Iain Banks

ACT 1

Main elements

Setting

Hook

Introduce main character

Inciting incident

Challenge/problem

Hesitation?

Challenge accepted

Other Elements 

Set-ups

Foreshadowing

Red herrings

Opening lines

DON'T TELL ME, SHOW ME! 

TELL- The moon was shining.

SHOW- That night they walked along the beach gazing at the light shining off the vast ocean.

Checkov- ‘…a fragment of broken bottle flashed like a small bright star.’

Exercise 1 - Try expressing each of the following in three different ways  e.g. ‘Despite her heavy coat she shuddered as she stepped out onto the pavement.’

It was cold

It was hot

The rain was heavy

The car was loud

She was clumsy

He was fat

The room smelled unpleasant

The chair was uncomfortable

Her drink was sour

His meal was delicious

SHOW DON’T TELL

Exercise 2

Describe a party from the point of view of a soldier who is home on a short leave from the war. Don’t mention the war or the fact that he is a solder.

Describe the same party from the pint of view of a child. Don’t mention that he/she is a child.

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POINT OF VIEW

Mary found the whole thing distressing, cupboards emptied, drawers turned upside down the contents strewn all over the floor. Who would do such a thing she wondered as she began to tidy up.   She found the workshop manual under a pile of magazines. Why would john need a workshop manual? she thought. Just then she heard the front door go and john calling hello. Instinctively she hid the manual behind her back. 

‘Jesus what happened’ gasped john as he came into the room.

‘Someone must have broken in said Mary.’ 

“What were they looking for? asked John.

‘I don’t know,’ replied Mary, still holding the manual awkwardly behind her back.

1. From who’s point of view is this passage written?

1. Rewrite this passage in the first person from Mary’s point of view

1. Re- write it again from John’s point of view.

TENSE

1. What tense is the story written in?

2. Re-wright it in a different tense