An update from the thirtieth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday March 5, plus some of the output published below We began this week’s workshop with an exercise; first, we chose a character from a story or novel we had been writing and then made up a new character in our minds. Once we had this new character envisioned, we wrote 3-4 sentences describing this character. From there we entered into a discussion centered around the question, “how does description work?” The answer: when a writer transforms a physical or psychological reality into written language. Our first literary example was the novel Anna Karenina as it is a classic example of a well-wrought character, however based on the book What We See when We Read by Peter Mendulsund, we found that even with a plethora of character descriptions it is difficult to create a true image of the character. This observation led us to our first basic “rule” of character description: behavioral descriptions are more effective than physical ones. We then read a few specific examples including this sentence, from Don Delillo’s White Noise, “He moved with a loser’s hunch.” Other examples came from Anna Karenina, East of Eden, and The Sound and the Fury. The second “rule” was that minimal description makes for easier visualization, that a good description withholds as much as it reveals. One such example of this came from Jonathan Safran Foer in the sentence, “He looked like nothing special.” Another, from Barbara Kingsolver: “There she was. Her elbows stuck out like wings.”The third and final “rule” of the day was that good description teaches us how to pay attention, best exemplified in this sentence from Guy de Maupassant: “He was a gentleman with red whiskers who always went first through a doorway.” The Participants: Zar, Penelope, Nova, Emma, Sophia, Alice, Josh, Amelia, Ellie, Gwynne, Chelsea, Quinn, Anna The Challenge: Write a full scene in which you describe the character(s) without naming his/her physical traits. To watch more readings from this workshop, like Sophia’s below, click here. Sophia, 12
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How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #25: How to Make a Character
An update from the twenty-fifth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday January 29, plus some of the output published below This week, Conner enumerated what makes a great character, the most important attributes being that a character should be flawed and be put under stress so that, according to Charles Baxter, “the story goes forward, [and] something in the situation or the characters is forced to reveal itself.” Some famous characters we discussed were Don Quixote, Hamlet, Odysseus, Jo March, Anna Karenina, and Maleficent. During the workshop, we learned that oftentimes the best jumping off point for a character is ourselves. Before completing the prompt, Conner had us get in the mind of our character by finishing these sentences as if we were them: I spend my time worrying about…, What I want most in life is…, My biggest regret is…, My biggest secret is…,I believe in…, and The thing I do when no one else is watching is… And then we wrote! The Challenge: Write a short story, a chapter, or a poem in the voice of your character in a situation under pressure. The Participants: Nova, Amelia, Quinn, Emma, Alice, Zar, Penelope, Ellie, Josh, Lina, Gwynne To watch more readings from this workshop, like Amelia’s below, click here. Amelia, 11
Flash Contest #37, November 2021: Write about a character who has everything you’ve always wanted, but still isn’t happy—our winners and their work
Our November Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #176 (provided by Sage Millen, former Stone Soup intern), which asked participants to create a character that had everything they’d always wanted, yet still wasn’t happy. Again, we received a massive influx of submissions, all of them worthy of recognition. Interestingly, this prompt also gave rise to more poetry submissions—a welcome sight. The work we read ranged from complex narratives involving time travel to an existential search for ice cream to inspiring poetry surrounding the nature of perfection. In the end, we decided there was too much good work to limit our Honorable Mentions to just five writers, and so highlighted a sixth! As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! In particular, we congratulate our Winners and our Honorable Mentions, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “Natalie’s Wish” by Josephine Alpert, 13 (Cambridge, MA) “Allison!” by Quinn Brenner, 11 (New York, NY) “Perfection by Sierra E., 11 (Mountain View, CA) “Gone” by Scarlet He, 10 (Scarsdale, NY) “Hole of Debt” by Emily Tang, 12 (Winterville, NC) Honorable Mentions “Realization” by Kimberly Hu, 9 (Lake Oswego, OR) “The Bird and a Boy” by Jeremy Lim, 9 (Portland, OR) “Dare to Dream” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “Pride” by Nova Macknik-Conde, 10 (Brooklyn, NY) “Boredom” by Liyue Sally Wang, 10 (Newton, MA) “A Month of Awakening” by Eliya Wee, 11 (Menlo Park, CA) Josephine Alpert, 13 (Cambridge, MA) Natalie’s Wish Josephine Alpert, 13 Every child of Lisren city was allowed one wish from the Wish Maker. No matter how impossible or crazy, they were guaranteed their wish to come true. Many kids wanted to use their wish right away and regretted it as they grew up. Things like an infinite supply of the “best best best chocolate in the whole wide world!” as Natalie’s little cousin had wished. Some wished for powers, like the ability of flight or time traveling. It only made their world more chaotic and confusing, but it was within the rules of the Wish Maker. Her mother had already made a wish for infinite money and so there wasn’t anything Natalie could think of that she really wanted. She chose to be teleported to the future. She could see what their planet would become. Would there be flying cars? Houses on Mars? Gravity boots? Something she had thought of as a kid of course. In her wild imagination an idea existed that was impossible. What if in the future there existed boots where you could reverse your own gravity. “You could bounce around like you were on the moon!” She had told her mother. Now she was going to see it all. Standing there, the Wish Maker in front of her. “I want to see a glimpse of the future. An hour of it preferably.” “Your wish will be made,” said the Wish Maker, and suddenly, swirls of colors began to surround her. She felt like she was being lifted off the ground, and, in curiosity, reached out to touch the colors. They felt like cotton candy, like she imagined how the clouds felt in fairytales. She was soaring through a portal of colors that her eyes could not comprehend. She never saw them before and it was so hard to take in after she came down to the ground with a THUD. The portal of colors closed behind her and Natalie was afraid to look up. For what would be in front of her would be the future of her planet. She was in a torn up building; in the distance, rubble had caved in and light poured from the crumpled ceiling. The ground was a dusted white. If it wasn’t for the light from the ceiling she would be in total darkness. Why was there no power? Wasn’t this the very advanced future? She stood up and walked around the space. It seemed to be an office, but the chairs and desks were strewn about laying on their sides. Pencils and papers littered the floor. What had happened here? Certainly this was just a small accident and the amazing world was just outside. If she could only find the door. Minutes later, after searching and searching, she came across a stairwell. The stairs were not ordinary. Not some escalator, but a small platform the size of a dining table was there. It wasn’t an elevator, certainly, but the flashing blue button made her want to try it out. She stepped on the platform and pressed the button and a rush of wind came up. The platform was plummeting down at an amazing speed. Was she going to die? Fall to her death? She screamed but it ended as quick as it started, and she floated above what looked like a large fan. She could tell she was on the bottom floor because of the light from outside passing through the huge glass doors. Her feet dangled above as she flailed to get back to the ground. Her feet touched the ground and she ran to the doors. This was it. She noticed the glass of the door was broken when she opened it. Outside, buildings were collapsed and the streets barren. Fire crackled in the distance and she was speechless. A man limped by and caught a glimpse of her. The man attempted to run away but he only slowly limped. “This . . . this can’t be possible.” She walked along the streets. The longer she walked the more her shoulders slumped and her high hopes plummeted. Was this really the future? It couldn’t be. A small girl about 10 was sitting on the ground holding her knees to her chest. “Are you okay?” Natalie asked. “A-another p-person?” The girl stuttered. “What happened?” “What do you mean? There’s a w-war.” “Where are your parents?” “I-I-don’t . . . know” “Can I—can I help you find them?” Natalie asked. “Maybe . . .” The girl stood up.
