COLA III Meeting Recap for 06/08/2021
12 of us made it to the meet. 7 read for critique:
We haven’t had twelve writers in attendance since the end of 2019, but we did last night. Seven of us read as you can see in the table above, including a nice effort from Phil, our newest writer. The rest were good as well, but we did become pressed for time during our last hour.
It has been a long time since we’ve had so many reading, so I think we forgot the time discipline required. For that last hour we did time our critiques (thanks Chris), keeping them to two minutes. This worked and allowed us to get our last two writers critiqued with some fifteen minutes to spare.
After a little discussion, we decided to go back to time-keeping our critiques (Carolyn will be our timekeeper), especially if we keep having more than six readers. I suspect that for six to ten readers, this will work fine. Beyond that, we may have to consider reducing the word counts for our readings or some such.
But it was a nice meeting and everyone seemed to enjoy our critique work, fellowship, and the stimulation of our procedures discussion.
The 2021 edition of Catfish Stew (the SCWA anthology) is now available for purchase on Amazon. It is $15 for the printed copy (161 pages). There is no Kindle version at this time (I think there should be). Also, this 2021 edition is not linked in Amazon to the 2020 edition. That’s because they did not match the Author fields (South Carolina Writers Association) in Kindle Direct Publishing. I think they could still associate them as a series. They really should try to do that.
I am waiting for my contributor’s copy of the anthology. When I get it, I’ll do a review of it for my website. And SCWA still says they will host a “virtual release party date where each author will do a 3 minute reading of their CS piece.” When I get the details on that, I’ll pass them on to you. I did post a little blurb about this on my blog. You can find it here.
COLA3's next meeting is scheduled for June 22nd.
Ray
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ELEMENTS OF THE WRITING CRAFT CHALLENGE
PART I: STORYTELLING
LESSON: 22 REALIZATION
PRINTED BOOK PAGES: 28-29
READING EXCERPT: Leaving the Land by Douglas Unger
I let the lamb go. It just lay there awhile. I had to kick it gently a couple of times before it stood up on its own. It cried to its mother. The old ewe came running, letting it hide under her body. I tipped my hat brim up and let the wind cool my forehead. I tasted blood on my lips, spitting, already feeling tired. I looked around. There were a lot more undoctored sheep than it seemed. My face and eyes burned from the Sioux’s holy sun. I knew at that moment this was not my future—not this farm, this labor, not this whole sphere of human toil. I would do anything I had to do to get away.
MY NOTES ON THE LESSON
Realization is a strong device in our literary toolbox. It is akin to revelation, and can advance a scene, act, or story as surely as a poignant action. In this lesson, Mr. Olmstead noted the building of dramatic pressure within a character, seen in simple acts he finds repugnant. The relation of the acts to character-in-turmoil are not apparent. There is a background to it that requires an entire story to build, implement, and digest.
This is the case in the reading excerpt which is taken from a novel. In it, the character is sick of farm life and determined to leave it. This is her point of realization of the firmness of her determination.
In the exercises, I pulled from one my own short stories where a character had had enough and suddenly dropped what had been tormenting him for a long time. Consequences be damned!
MY ANSWERS TO THE WRITING POSSIBILITIES
1. Think of a job or task that you know well, such as weeding a garden, paying bills or washing dishes. Write five succinct, precise sentences that lay out the sequence of the procedure.
Sitting at my computer, I began my day with the “new user setup” procedure. Following the information from Human Resources, I created a bare-bones network account. I assigned an initial password with the requirement it be changed upon first login. For the sake of personal file storage, I created a network-accessible subdirectory and bound the new user account to it. Then I created an email account for the user. Lastly, I added the user’s network and email accounts to those groups providing the resource accesses deemed needed by HR.
2. Now describe what cannot be seen. Start with one of the senses. For example: The water is too hot for my hands. I feel them redden and swell.
My left eye twitched and the dull throb resumed its beat in the forehead space above it. Barely a half-hour’s work and the carpal tunnel had numbed my fingers. I leaned back in my adjustable-chair-with-lumbar-support and closed my eyes. At these times, the fluorescent lights hurt my eyes.
3. Continue, telling what your character would not do.
This was the last simple-minded task I would do for high pay. From this point forward, I would not continue to suck-up prestige from trivialities, nor continue to suck-up to those lesser than me just to survive another day. A boat was waiting for me.
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WRITING MY NOVEL
Constructing Scenes: Ext & Int Value Progressions
I have covered a lot of ground in reviewing the process I follow in constructing scenes for the dramatic backbone of my novel. At this point, I’ve filled out half of the Scene Sketch template for some critical mass of my scenes. For any given scene, I should have a pretty good idea of what happens and what is being accomplished to tell my story.
The second half of the scene sketch is support and elaboration on what I’ve figured out so far. What I’m focusing on today is the concept of “value progression.” This is a way of judging dramatic movement within a scene.
Once again, here is my scene sketch template:
Scene Sketch
What we want to consider is “External Value Progression” and “Internal Value Progression.” These are terms I am taking from Shawn Coyne’s book, The Story Grid. The values they refer to are those that are dealt with by the primary dramatic arc and/or protagonist of a scene. Think of them like this:
External Value: That person, place, thing, or concept the drama for this scene turns on. It might be life itself in a war story. It might be family or marriage in a romance. It might be a valuable ancient artifact in a thriller. It is generally a mostly concrete thing desired/needed by the story’s characters.
Internal Value: This is a less concrete thing that a character needs (but not necessarily wants). In a war story it could be honor or bravery. In a romance it could be self-esteem or the capability for love. In a thriller it could be some realization, like discovering the spiritual side of life.
So our task is to identify these two values in a scene, usually for the POV character, and determine how our scene turns, or changes, these values. For the span of the action (i.e., the scene’s dramatic arc), there should be movement for each value.
As an example, let’s take my second “Prologue” scene in my novel-in-progress, Legacy of the Ancients. The POV character is Fennec. He is a prisoner of the Corbyn army and has been flogged and tied to a tree. For this scene, I have identified Fennec’s external value as “Life/Death.” I see his internal value as “personal liberty” (the desire to live free).
Bear in mind that the scene’s “story event” is “Loam cuts Fennec’s bindings and urges him to flee.”
So here’s how I entered the progression values for this scene:
Ext value progression: bound prisoner TO freed (life/death) - / +
Int value progression: despairing TO hopeful for escape (personal liberty) - / +
For each value, I placed the identified value in parenthesis. I follow that with polarity indication of the value’s progression (i.e., from positive to negative or negative to positive).
Value progressions can maintain the same polarity but increase it (- / - - OR + / ++). Yes, you can have a scene where the external and/or internal values do not change, but that should be rare. It indicates nothing happened. Something should happen (whether big or small) in every scene.
Now external and internal values are important for every dramatic arc contained in a story. Don’t get hung up on tracking them, however. You should be aware of the concept of external/internal values, but don’t agonize over them, just spot them. In time, identifying them will become second-nature.
The reason you should track value progressions is that they indicate MOVEMENT in your scenes (and in every dramatic arc and in the global story). Movement (external and internal) is vital to telling a story that works. The degree to which you can create movement in your story is the degree to which your story will be (at least potentially) successful. Tracking value progressions is how you verify that your story actually moves.
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For a deeper examination of value progressions in fiction, I refer you to Shawn Coyne’s book, The Story Grid. I have learned much from this book but it does require some digging and study to get the good out of it.
Mr. Coyne has since written other books that seem to cover the concepts of The Story Grid in a more accessible manner. I have not read them but I will look at the Kindle samples and then maybe get the books. Meanwhile, you can check them out for yourself here.
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ARTICLES AND OTHER WORTHIES
Here are a few articles, podcasts, and videos that might inspire and lift your spirits.
Write On SC shownotes
Episode 146: White Writers, Diverse Characters
On June 5th, Kasie and Rex took on the topic of writing characters outside of their own white, hetero experience.
Yak Babies
153- Good Books You Hate
The pals discuss books that are generally lauded but they hate. What books do you recognize as good books, but just don't like or don't get why they are so beloved?
Write By Night
Discussion questions: In what way(s) do you self-sabotage as a writer? How do you avoid self-sabotage? Those times when you can’t manage to avoid it, how do you set yourself right again?
My Reply.
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CALENDAR
COLA3 Meetings for 2021:
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