Kate

Wow. That went fast!

I’m happy with the timetable you suggest @woolleybeans and equally happy if anyone with a busier Christmas than mine wants to take it even slower. I’m getting a lot out of this and don’t see any need to rush!

Thanks for staying on top of it WB

Hi all.

Technically, we’re at the end of the 3 weeks for Class 2.

I, for one, am kind of all over the place. I’ve read all the core reading, shared my gleanings from Class 1 at my IRL writing group, done some exercises with them, but not done the exercises for Class 2 at all or really got going on the other elements. I was also meaning to join…[Read more]

Brilliant, thank you @squidge!

Ha! Thanks @Squidge for the Julie Cohen notes, and I see I commented on your blog back in 2013,
(tho’ never went to one of her workshops) But immediately, with this, I see the beginnings of a character emerge. Admittedly, built onto the murderer I was groping for with the various questionnaires, but certainly growing.

I seem to be following @katemachon round the den and repeating everything she says. So once again… Thanks @squidge. It was a great blog. That Julie Cohen is a very clever person.

Thanks @squidge – a great blog.

OK – here’s the link to Julie’s workshop at York (back in 2013! Yikes…) https://squidgesscribbles.blogspot.com/2013/09/playing-at-being-god-creating-characters.html

In this post is the link to a more creative – literally tear and stick version – way of answering questions about plot, characters etc. At the end of the post……[Read more]

I’d be interested too @squidge.

I’ll try and dig them out later today. Think I might even have blogged about it, but we’re going back a few years. Also got something that might trigger the unconscious brain into devising your character…

@squidge I’d be interested in seeing those notes too.

I agree with you both about using the character questionnaire and other exercises at the early stages. It isn’t helpful for me. I need to write stuff and let them emerge. However at the end of first draft stage (which is where I’m at) I am finding it very useful for pinning down things about…[Read more]

@Squidge ooh would you mind sharing those notes? I keep hearing about Julie Cohen and her post it notes etc! And I think Kate’s talking about the Toni Morrison excerpt from ‘Recitatif’, towards the end under the Action section.

I find that whole character analysis thingy quite daunting, frankly. At the early stages I just don’t KNOW all the…[Read more]

Wonder if it’s worth doing Julie Cohen’s character idea from York? I’ll have to dig out my notes – it shows the character in action more than anything by posing a series of questions.

Starting to wonder if I read the right bit of Burroway, as I can’t remember reading anything about a waitress! Must revisit…

I’m glad it wasn’t just me who read the wrong bits! Some of the suggestions in this chapter are quite subtle and may be beyond my sledgehammer approach. 🙂 Was interested at the example of the waitress and how she was characterised by her actions while the customers were characterised by their looks.

I shall have to give this questionnaire some…[Read more]

Afraid to say I find Burroway a bit wordy – which is ironic, given that I’m often too wordy myself! Still not had a chance to play with the characters yet…

She’s good that Burroway, isn’t she? I’m guilty of one-trick dialogue so that’s something that I’m going to work on. (I too read the whole chapter, oops). I’ve never fully explored a character before writing, just a few bits to get me going, so that’s a new way of working for me too. Though I also like the look of the Distinguishing Features exercise.

@JaneShuff – I haven’t even started the book yet, just 300 words of random scenes … but glad to hear it works for you.

Ah another person in search of their murderer. I wrote 90% of my first draft before I identified mine!

I too found it fairly alien until recently but it works for me in a weird way, nudging my unconscious to sort problems out if that makes sense.

Like Squidge, this is an alien way of working for me, but … I need a murderer. One who isn’t immediately identified as such. (And while I know the (probable) victim I don’t know why or how) so I’ll be attempting to discover him (probably him) with this approach.

Just getting to this today & realised after reading this thread that I was reading the beginning of the chapter too! In my defence, it’s interesting!
I might try the exercises on my winter challenge story being as I’ve only got the vaguest idea about my characters in that… wish me luck!!

I am absolutely loving doing the character questionnaires, using the characters from the splurgy and shapeless first draft of my current WIP. Like @squidge though, I am not sure if I would get so much out of doing it before I had written extensively about them. It would feel like inventing a character rather than discovering one. Has anybody tried…[Read more]