Storytelling Discussion

[Artemisia]

Just to let everyone know, I'm having to do the wrap up on my practicum report, so I'm going to have to post a short questionnaire asking you all how the experience was. I'll do that this weekend.

[Artemisia]

Alright...time to get this done since I have to get this mailed off on Saturday-

1) Were the prompts creative?
2) Were the prompts inspiring?
3) Did the prompts help with practicing writing?
4) Was it helpful to be encouraged to write?
5) Was the overall experience positive or negative?

[Dirty n Evil]

Artemisia, did you want these answers PM'ed to you, or did you want them publicly posted in this thread? Just being cautious before I do something that I shouldn't.

[Artemisia]

If you feel more comfortable, you can message them to me directly.

[Artemisia]

Someone recommended that I might consider continuing to post prompts. If you guys want to join in, please do And if you want to post stories from past prompts, I would love it.

Next prompt:

There's a lot of stuff in fandom out there about gender swapping. I thought it would be interesting to write a scene where you take one or two of your favorite characters and gender swap them and then write a scene about how they are fairing in the world they are from.

[mikbuster]

http://fav.me/d6ovpy9
Since I already followed that prompt once, and enjoyed how it turned out, here's a link for others ;)

[Dirty n Evil]

I hope nobody takes offense, but I might actually bow out for a little while on the writing exercises. For a good reason. Between the practice that I've had getting back into the swing of things as well as long conversations with my friend Ben who's getting his own book published... I'm throwing my efforts into trying to write a novel again.

I really want to credit these storytelling exercises as the largest part of getting me back into the habit, though. It forced me into the practice of writing with any regularity or frequency, to think about stories and what sorts of stories I want to tell. If I stall out or find myself needing a slight kick start, I might jump in for the fun of it. And they have been fun, Artemisia.

But right now, I'm writing in the evenings while at work I'm stealing a minute here or a minute there working on the outline. I'm trying something interesting... I've always been fond of the author Charles DeLint, who likes the more folktale pattern of stories that are more about the journey than simply having the story wrap up once major conflict is resolved. I'm fond of fantasy stories, and I'm finding that trying to build a fantasy story that bends to the "journey traveled" model is a very odd thing. Odd... but not bizarre. It's still a work in process, though, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[Artemisia]

I hope you don't mind me relaying this to my advisor

And I don't mind at all. This just went very informal. I'm using the prompts to think of things and if anyone wants to join in, they're welcome

[Dirty n Evil]

Please relay it... I'm quite happy with the experience of these writing prompts.

It's my experience that writing is like exercising. If you're not doing any, it's so difficult to get any momentum to do so frequently. But once you develop a habit of it, it becomes easier. It's not a chore anymore, you don't have to push yourself to get through it. After a while, you look forwards to it.

Ages ago, I read in one of Roald Dahl's books where he talked about his own personal method for writing - he said he would sit down every day and approach it like a job. Whether he saved what he wrote or not, he wrote for several hours. Well, I never had "several hours" to commit to this, but I found that when I sat down with any regularity and tried writing for at least an hour each time it was far easier to get into the "writing mindset". Dahl had looked down on the "waiting for inspiration" writing method, and after trying this I had to agree. I think it's the Pavlovian response - the learned, unconscious behavior. If you develop a pattern of doing certain things before writing, when you follow those patterns your mind falls into the proper way of thinking in which to write.