An update from our seventy-fifth writing workshop A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, November 19 In this workshop, the participants learned how to base characters on core temperaments. William explained the ancient Greek concept of four personality types: phlegmatic (calm and anchored; associated with earth), choleric (hot-headed and leaderlike; associated with fire), sanguine (happy and sociable; associated with air), and melancholic (thoughtful and deep; associated with water). Today, this idea has been expanded on by psychologists, and it can also be used to create characters. William used examples such as Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist by Dickens (choleric temperament), the title character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (melancholic temperament), and an orchestral work called The Four Temperaments by Paul Hindemith, which contains one movement to express each temperament. As a mini-writing challenge, the participants had five minutes to create a character based on one core concept—“earth,” “fire,” “air,” or “water.” The Challenge: Create one or multiple characters around the idea of a core temperament. The Participants: Anya, Ava, Celia, Crystal, Greta, Pearl, Rachael, Yueling
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How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #50: Flash Fiction
An update from our fiftieth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, November 19, plus some of the output published below This week, Conner focused on the art of flash fiction. To begin, he talked about how influential Ernest Hemingway was during the 20th century, which led to a discussion of Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory”: the deeper meaning of the story should not be evident on the surface. If a writer knows what they’re doing, they should omit certain details and the reader will understand it just as well if they were there. This invites a reader to be involved in the creative act of interpretation. Conner then defined flash fiction as a fictional work of extreme brevity that (usually) mimics the conventions of short stories. With this definition in hand, we read the following works of flash fiction: “A Little Fable” by Franz Kafka. “Dog and Me” by Lydia Davis. “Unhappy People” by Lydia Davis. “The Old Woman” by Daniil Kharms “The Dinosaur” by Augusto Monterroso The Hemingway baby shoes story The Challenge: Write 10 one-sentence stories or write a one-paragraph story. The Participants: Emma, Anushka, Penelope, Anna, Allie, Savi, Zar, Alice, Samantha, Madeline, Tate, Josh, Ella, Arjun, Russell Five Works of Flash Emma Hoff, 10 Lamp An eye, glaring at the wall with tears welling up in its eyes and spilling over, extinguishing what could have been and creeping inside every corner, until a hand reaches out and undoes all the hard work. At the Table On top of the tablecloth sits the untouched chicken, as, out of politeness, the people have been waiting for their guest — he is hidden in the closet. For Sale The grass holds the sign in place, the dirt protects it, so, no matter how hard they try, their words and their colors and their smiles will always be for sale. Diagram He stood up and got dressed and looked at the poster on the wall and mumbled some nonsensical things to himself before looking in the mirror to give his hair a name and label his fingers. Cactus So many eyes and toes – all kinds of spikes and all flavors of needles — like an ad for toothpaste.
Weekly Creativity #229: Write a Backstory for a Supporting Character from a Novel You’ve Read
Write a backstory for a supporting character from a novel you’ve read.
