Terrie

I’ve been very bad and not even finished the reading assignment. Things keep cropping up to divert me. We are off on a cruise at Christmas with several sea days so I will catch up on all reading then if not before.

Sounds good @woolleybeans.

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.

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…

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…

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

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.

I haven’t finished this chapter yet, but I’m already fascinated. Love the Sloane rule that speech ‘must do more than one thing or it is too inert for the purposes of fiction.’

And the example of the argument about sinking the oil rigs was an eye opener – to engage us emotionally in a disagreement, the characters must have an emotional stake in…[Read more]