The title of a story is often one of its linchpins, something that gives the writer and reader a grip on it and makes it hold together. Creating a vivid title can be a challenge. For now we're going to skip that part and let somebody else do the work. Titles can't be copyrighted, after all, so they're fair game to play with. We're going to do an exercise in divergent thinking.
1) Choose a great title from a well-known work such as famous books, famous movies, or famous songs.
2) This is now the title of your piece. You are going to change everything else. At a minimum, that means changing the format (movie to fiction, book to poem, etc.), genre (literary to Western, etc.), plot (mystery to romance), focus (story of idea to milieu story), and setting (you can leave it in the same country if you wish). Make up all new characters. And the way you do this is...
3) Ask yourself what else the title could mean, aside from what the original one meant. Let's use "Star Wars" as an example. Change movie to fiction, science fantasy to soap opera, action to court intrigue, character story to plot-driven story, and setting to Hollywood, CA, Earth. Not stars in the sky, but stars on the stage, being their angst-ridden selves and fighting endlessly.
4) Write at least a scene's worth of this piece, though if it's a short format you can write the whole thing if you wish. Check it back against the original to make sure you remembered to change all the important parallels. Revise if necessary to fix any accidental overlaps.
Note that this really is an exercise, because while you might wind up with something that stands on its own ... nobody would EVER be able to find it, unless you changed its title. The original would spam every search a potential reader might turn toward locating your piece.
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- Elizabeth Barrette (
ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
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Saturday Writing Exercise: By Any Other Name
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September 5 2010, 05:08:16 UTC 10 years ago
HOWEVER, I do NOT know how to write fiction...if you have somewhere to start or someplace to look so I could learn...I'd be greatful because this is an brainworm I just want to get rid of. (I'm a technical writer by trade and I think the last time I wrote a fiction story was like kindergarten or first grade.)
Thoughts
September 6 2010, 03:18:40 UTC 10 years ago
That sounds cool.
>>I might write it up...but it seems to pull too many themes from the song when I try to plot it out. I even have 2 people that could give me first-hand information about what it was like on the day and in the place I'd set the story (my mom and a friend of my family).<<
That's another exercise, really -- taking a song and turning it into a story. It works pretty well, though for market purposes, better to use something that isn't under copyright. I've drawn inspiration for some of my stories from traditional ballads (and in fact, I wrote a followup ballad to "Tam Lin" called "Come Midwinter at Carter Hall").
>>HOWEVER, I do NOT know how to write fiction...if you have somewhere to start or someplace to look so I could learn...I'd be greatful because this is an brainworm I just want to get rid of. (I'm a technical writer by trade and I think the last time I wrote a fiction story was like kindergarten or first grade.)<<
Okay, let's see. First you can use a lot of your technical skill when you shift over to fiction. Mostly what you'll need to learn is how to make stuff up (or meet characters so you can write down what they do). There are artistic-minded and technical-minded approaches; I suggest that you experiment with both.
Unfortunately you're a step down from where I've aimed my reference shelf and my recommended reading lists. I have good books on individual aspects of fiction writing. I haven't found a really awesome book on where to start writing fiction. I'd say go to your local library or megabookstore and browse until you find a basic intro that makes sense. I do recommend Writer's Digest as a publisher: they have released many brilliant how-to books.
Some books I've found particularly useful include:
The Fiction Writer's Silent Partner by Martin Roth. Writer's Digest Books, 1991.
The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon with Hal Blythe and Charlie Sweet. 1994.
1,818 Ways to Write Better and Get Published by Scott Edelstein. Writer's Digest Books, 1991.
Characters & Viewpoint: How To Invent, Construct, and Animate Vivid, Credible Characters and Choose the Best Eyes through Which To View the Events of Your Short Story or Novel by Orson Scott Card. From Writer's Digest "The Elements of Fiction Writing" series, 1988. *Note that the rest of the books in this series are also well worth a look, covering other parts of storytelling.
The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova. Writer's Digest Books, 1994. *The closest to general-writing guides that I collect are actually genre-writing guides. If you happen to be interested in writing speculative fiction, I can add more. I've got a few on romance and erotica and mysteries too.
I hope this helps. If you have other questions about writing, feel free to ask.
Re: Thoughts
September 6 2010, 03:48:41 UTC 10 years ago
Genre: Mystery - Cold Case
Setting: Chicago - 1968 Democratic Convention Riots and Modern Day
Plot: A body is found when renovations are made to the one of the local governmental buildings. How did this woman die? Why? Why was it covered up? And *who* covered it up? Or, was it a frame-up?
Re: Thoughts
September 6 2010, 07:27:19 UTC 10 years ago
Re: Thoughts
September 6 2010, 08:55:28 UTC 10 years ago
Try this...
September 6 2010, 16:42:07 UTC 10 years ago
Explains subgenres, plot, atmosphere, heroes, murderers, suspects, victims, pace, clues, suspense, climax, titles, and marketing. Useful for learning suspense techniques, but especially for articles or stories driven by mystery-type motifs.
I highly recommend Writer's Digest's "Howdunit" series, of which I personally have these titles:
Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries by David W. Page. 1996.
Describes the concepts of field care and first aid, specific traumas by organ system, unique traumas like snake bites, temperature extremes, diving accidents and altitude sickness, sexual assault and domestic violence, organ donation, etc.
Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons by Serita Deborah Stevens with Anne Klarner. 1990.
Examines the classic poisons (arsenic, cyanide, and strychnine) in detail, household poisons, poisonous plants and fungi, snakes and other living things, drugs, pesticides and industrial poisons, plus methods for inventing fictional poisons. Splendid appendices list poisons by method of administration, by form, by the symptoms they cause, by reaction time, and by toxicity rating. Don't poison your characters without this book. [I once reverse-identified a poison by observing character symptoms and then looking those up in this book.]
Murder & Forensic Medicine by Keith D. Wilson, M.D. Writer's Digest Books, 1992.
Covers terminology, medical and legal procedures related to death, distinguishing between murder and suicide, crime and punishment, accidents, sudden natural deaths, chronic disease, and controversies like euthanasia. More clever ways to bump off your characters.
September 6 2010, 00:16:55 UTC 10 years ago
"Gone With The Wind" A disaster movie (a la Earthquake, Volcano, Flood, etc.) about a mega-monsoon set in India. Done Bollywood style.
Main character is a scientist who had gone to the US to be in tech then came home (the sucessful, but burned out and bitter, "prodigal son" trope) who has developed a way to predict Monsoons. Love interest is a woman from the "wrong" caste. Villain is corrupt government official who doesn't want to sound the alarm, and the storm itself.
The city to be smashed is a "tech miracle" on a coast somewhere that is still vulnerable to storms if they come for a certain direction. On the outskirts of the "renewed" city still exist the slums that were there before the tech miracle, and no one cares to warn, or help those people, even when the storm warning finally goes out. Woman, of course, has family in said slum who they try to persuade to shelter in a high tech building to be safe. Grandmother is adamant about staying, lots of drama.
You can see how this would be a fertile ground for a "epic" style flick, done seriously yet with so many subtle in-jokes that it could be almost corny.
Wow!
September 6 2010, 01:18:50 UTC 10 years ago
Re: Wow!
September 13 2010, 02:00:04 UTC 10 years ago
The issues that it touches are, of course, global warming, global labor shuffling/body shopping, Indian modernization, Indian caste issues (especially among the new technical elites) and corruption.