Setting as a Storytelling Tool

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Last week, my classmates and I studied the topic of setting. Now, you might be wondering why a college course--especially one called "Writing Character-Driven Prose"--would devote a week to studying setting. After all, setting is an easy aspect of writing to master, isn't it? Can't you just pick your story's location, describe it like you would the area you're currently sitting in, and be done with it? 

Well, I used to describe story settings by doing just that, and it went very poorly. I primarily used this technique when writing an initial draft of my novel, which is set in a fantasy world. Unfortunately, this technique caused me to include a plethora of unnecessary details in my writing, such as whether objects were located on the character's right or left. While these details made it somewhat easier for me to envision my setting, they also bogged down my story and made things overly complex for my readers. 

So, if that method of describing setting doesn't work, what is a method that does? To answer that question, one must first remember that every sentence in a book must do something to further the story. This doesn't mean that every sentence has to be plot-related; rather, it means that every sentence should convey something about the characters, their world, or their conflicts. Therefore, every provided detail about a story's setting needs to be relevant. 

There are plenty of ways to make a detail about a story's setting relevant. For example, if a setting is described from a particular character's point of view, then the details that the author includes indicate what the character notices or finds important. This can be quite revealing of a character's personality. Alternatively, setting details can be used to foreshadow future plot events, as outlined by the Chekov's Gun principle (the idea that a gun presented in the first act of a story must go off in a later act). In some instances, a setting can even serve as an additional character, provided it offers the story's protagonist a trait to identify with and/or an obstacle to overcome. 

Setting, therefore, is much more than a detailed description of a place. It is a storytelling tool, just like characterization and plot, that must be carefully used to sculpt a story's overall narrative. 

Thanks for reading!

Abby Bethke

Writing Advice: Eliminate details that don't serve any purpose in your story--especially extraneous uses of the descriptors "left" and "right." 

On Memoirs and Memory

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In my previous post, I promised that I would use this post to share my thoughts on autobiographies and memoirs. Never let it be said that I don't follow through on my promises. 

So, for class last week, my peers and I listened to two chapters of the abridged version of Maya Angelou's second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name. Unfortunately, I have not read or listened to any other pieces by Angelou, which means that this work is currently the only source of information I have about her personality, demeanor, and writing style. And I have to admit, Gather Together left me with a largely negative impression of her. Angelou's retellings of the events during her teenage years are blunt and unapologetic, but because many of her actions at that time were of dubious morality--such as conning a pair of lesbian prostitutes--she often comes across as a cocky braggart. Now, to be fair, the tone of the piece could have been slightly affected by the abridgments made to it. However, because the piece was composed of direct excerpts from Angelou's autobiography, I suspect the book itself contained the same cocky, self-righteous tone. 

When I brought this up in class, one of my classmates made an interesting point: most authors include moments of remorse or reflection in their autobiographies, but Angelou did not.  This led to a debate about the purpose of autobiographies and memoirs. Should they recreate past events as accurately as possible, including the author's past opinions? Or should they serve as reflections that demonstrate how the author and their world have grown? 

I, personally, am inclined to support the latter for two reasons. First of all, memory is fallible. Psychological studies have proven that memory can be influenced by suggestion and other events; therefore, it is nearly impossible for someone to recount their memories with complete accuracy. Secondly, I feel that memoirs--like other forms of nonfiction--are meant to encourage learning and showcase personal growth. Accordingly, I believe that they should use the author's current position to reflect on past behaviors and events. After all, memoir writers write through a current lens, even if they like to pretend that they don't. 

Yet as much as I disagree with the idea that memoirs should strive to objectively report past events, that is exactly what I found myself attempting to do when I tried writing an autobiographical short story. In a desperate attempt to remember the details of the day I first picked up a sword and met my fiance, I dug through all of the memorabilia I have from that day--including pictures, a post-it note describing the memory, and a map detailing the layout of the renaissance faire where we met. I even messaged my sister to ask if she recalled the first words my fiance said to me! In short, I sought concrete, objective details that I could use to accurately recreate that day. 

But the truth of the matter is, that day is forever gone and exists only in the memories of those who were there. Therefore, there is no way for me to truly relive the first time I held a sword or experience again my first impression of my fiance. This means that when I recount that day, I will always do so through my current perspective, which is a fact I should acknowledge in my writing. 

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Writing Advice: The "true" past always differs from one's memory of the past. Therefore, the history of your story's world should differ from your characters' accounts of it. Keep this in mind when developing worlds and characters. 

Excerpt from The Admiran Chronicles

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The Writer's Retreat is technically over and my classmates and I have moved on to discussing memoirs and autobiographies. I will delve more into that discussion later; for now, I'd like to share part of the work that I produced during the retreat. 

As I touched upon in one of my previous posts, I recently began using the Pomodoro Writing Technique to write the novel that I outlined during my fall ASE tutorial. I have been planning, writing, and rewriting this novel since I was thirteen years old, but this is the first draft that I've felt might truly be worth someday submitting to a publisher. For the first time, I feel that I have a concrete grasp on my characters, setting, and plot. Of course, it's not my opinion that will determine the success of my writing--it's the opinions of my readers. Therefore, I would sincerely appreciate any and all comments on the below excerpt. But even if you don't have any opinions you would like to share, please know I am extremely grateful to you for taking the time to read my writing. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One

All of the students at Ashfield Middle School knew that the patch of woods behind the school was full of ghosts and fairies—all but one, that is. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Magi had read enough about magic to know that the forest was as plain and ordinary as gum on the sole of a shoe. But that didn’t make it useless.

Thunk.

“Ow.”

Thunk.

“Ow.”

Elizabeth blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes and glared at her sore knuckles. The blanket she had wrapped around the oak tree wasn’t padding the trunk as well as she’d hoped it would. Experimentally, she threw another punch at the tree, aiming for a spot where the blanket bunched over a bungee cord.

Thunk.

“OW.”

Shaking the sting out of her right hand, Elizabeth sank into the long grass and reached for her backpack. Not the battered emergency one—that was tucked safely under the thick needles of a nearby pine—but her school one. As she fished out her steel water bottle and downed its contents, she eyed the training post she had set up. She really needed to get a mattress pad, or something similar. Something thicker than that raggedy old blanket. Maybe the Foresters wouldn’t notice if she…

“Elizabeth? Elizabeth, I know you’re in there! Mom says you have to come home, now!”

“Yeah, you better come out or you’re gonna be in trouble again!”

Elizabeth growled under her breath. Of course Jada and Violet would show up now, just when she had finally gotten into a groove. She glanced over at the pine tree that sheltered her emergency pack. The urge to run was strong, and had been getting stronger every day—but Elizabeth was wise enough to know that this was not the time. Sighing heavily, she stood, shouldered her school backpack, and stalked out of the woods.

Her foster sisters were waiting for her at the very edge of the treeline, arms crossed and wearing identical scowls. “There you are,” Violet, the older of the pair, spat. “Come on, you were supposed to be home two hours ago. I don’t see why you spend so much time in that creepy old overgrown lot anyways.”

“Yeah, what do you even do in there? Play with your imaginary friends? That’s for babies,” Jada jeered. She was eleven, two years younger than her sister and Elizabeth, but she very much wanted to be older. She would have looked like a miniature copy of Violet, except her hair was brown and her ears were bare because the Foresters had ruled that piercings and dyed hair were for girls thirteen and older.

“Maybe, but talking with ghosts isn’t,” Elizabeth replied. Violet scoffed and rolled her eyes, but Jada cast a nervous look at the forest. As Elizabeth shoved past the pair and started off towards their foster home, she allowed herself a small, victorious smile.

That smile faded during the journey across town and was completely gone by the time the girls reached the Forester house. Mrs. Forester was waiting for them on the porch, foot tapping impatiently.

“Look who finally decided to grace us with her presence,” she frowned at Elizabeth. She shook her head as she spoke, making her short gray hair quiver like an indignant dead rat. “And you’re all filthy too. You’d better wash up before you join us for dinner. And be quick about it, otherwise you might find there’s nothing left for you!”

Elizabeth brushed past her into the house without bothering to reply. She took the stairs two at a time, tossed her backpack in the direction of the room she shared with Jada and Violet, and shuffled into the upstairs bathroom. As she washed her hands and assessed herself in the mirror, she grudgingly admitted that Mrs. Forester was right about one thing: she was filthy. Rivulets of dried sweat crisscrossed her forehead and her cheekbones, and her curly red hair was matted with bits of forest debris. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to take care of it all; Elizabeth knew that Mrs. Forester would follow through on her threat if she didn’t hurry. So she swiped a damp washcloth across her face, yanked the most noticeable twigs out of her hair, and rushed back downstairs.

Jada was the only one who looked up as Elizabeth entered the room. Mr. and Mrs. Forester were busy listening as Violet told them about the recent drama that had taken place amongst her friend group—most of which, Elizabeth noted as she sat down and filled her plate, was being embellished. Still, she was grateful for the drivel, as it meant that she could eat without having to speak to her foster family.

She was just swallowing her last bite of meatloaf and peas when Violet ran out of tall tales. The silence that fell around the table was deafening. Elizabeth glanced up and made the mistake of catching Mr. Forester’s eye. The stout, grizzled man was staring at her with the intense look of a terrier on a hunt. Uh oh.

“Can I be excu…” Elizabeth tried to ask.

“Just you wait a minute girl,” Mr. Forester interrupted her. “Your mother and I want to know why you’re getting home so late from school.”

            Elizabeth rankled at his words. Mrs. Forester was not her mother—nor was Mr. Forester her father, for that matter. She had two perfectly good parents, and one of them was still out there somewhere. Her real dad wouldn’t have had to ask her why she was home late from school; he would have been helping her learn how to fight. In fact, she knew that once she found him, he would do just that.

            “No reason.” Elizabeth replied, fidgeting impatiently with her fork. Mr. Forester raised his eyebrows.

            “So you’re coming home late for no reason? Ignoring your chores to prance around in the woods for no reason? Avoiding your sisters, your mother and I for no reason?”

            “She’s not my mother!” Elizabeth spat back, launching herself to her feet. “And my life is none of your business!”

            Jada and Violet’s eyes went wide and Mrs. Forester looked stunned, but Mr. Forester projected nothing but sternness as he said “go to your room.”

            “Gladly.” Having managed to get in the final word, Elizabeth marched away, not bothering to clear her plate.

               Upstairs, she flopped down hard on her bed and glared at the room around her, wanting to hit something but knowing it would be unwise to dent the ugly lilac walls. For a long while, she lay still, letting her anger grow and roil in her stomach. When she couldn’t take it anymore,  she rolled off her bed and went over to the small bookshelf in the corner. Most of the books it contained were worthless—picture books and cheap fairytales that Mrs. Forester had gotten from the local thrift store—but one or two of them were decent adventure stories. Elizabeth grabbed her favorite and shoved it into the pocket of her baggy blue hoodie. Then, she snagged a flashlight from atop her dresser, crossed to the open window, sat upon the sill, and swung her feet out into nothingness.

            It took her a few seconds of groping about, but soon Elizabeth managed to find her regular hand- and foot-holds. With practiced ease, she planted her left foot on a jutting brick, grasped a crack with her left hand, and pivoted until she was clinging to the wall like a spider. For a second, she hung there, savoring the empty space beneath her and letting her anger leak away. If I let go, she thought, a bit breathless, I bet the air itself would catch me and lift me up to the stars. But then her hand cramped painfully, shaking her out of her conceit, so she began to climb...

Thanks for reading!

Abby

My Writing Process

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What is this? Two posts in as many days? What's happening? Is the world ending? 

Well, yes, but not right at this exact moment. What's happening at this exact moment is that I'm belatedly acting on my tutor's excellent suggestion to analyze and blog about my writing process. Fear not, for this post--unlike my last one--will be short and sweet. 

My writing process, much like some of my previous blog posts, is long and a little scattered. Each of my stories starts off as an idea for either a character or a fantasy world. For example, the novel I'm currently working on began with the concept of a world where elves, dragons, and unicorns live in close proximity to each other. Once I have the initial idea for a story, I begin fleshing it out. This "fleshing-out" process can take several different forms, including but not limited to: 

• Naming my characters and filling out character profiles,
• Conducting thought experiments where I brainstorm facets of my world and/or characters,
• Determining scenes that will be absolutely necessary for the story to make sense,
• Writing down story notes everywhere, from my planner to the backs of old homework assignments to the palm of my hand, 
• Drawing characters, settings, and even abstract magical concepts, 
• And/or researching a variety of topics that I think might be relevant. 

Once I feel that I have enough material to begin my story, I start writing. Although I frequently have scenes planned out for the middle and the end of the story, I always start at the beginning. I prefer to write my stories as they will be read, as this makes it easier for me to visualize where the characters are and where they need to go. Throughout the writing process, I frequently return to my brainstorming notes, both to use them as references and to revise or add to them. In addition, I usually edit my writing as I go, as I just can't help but correct my typos when I notice them. 

And that about sums up my creative writing process. I can acknowledge that it is flawed in some ways; as I mentioned above, I know that it is very long and scattered. However, I am making substantial progress towards better organizing my process and my notes. The tools that my tutor has introduced me to, including Pinterest mood boards and story timelines, have helped me immensely with this. In addition, my process is strong in that it offers me plenty of room for invention. Thanks to the randomness of my process, I rarely find myself getting overly attached to one thought, which means I have the flexibility necessary to make my stories as compelling as possible. 

As I have grown as a writer, I have learned a great deal about the creative writing process and how it varies from writer to writer. That being said, I still have plenty to learn, and I would love to hear thoughts about the writing process from fellow writers. So, if you have any opinions about the writing process, or if you would like to share the steps you follow when you write, please feel free to comment below. 

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Writer's Retreat Reflections

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Before I get into the heart of today's post, I'd first like to share one of my favorite pictures from over in the UK, both because I'm feeling nostalgic and because I find long, picture-less blog posts boring: 

Sunrise in Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's Birthplace)

Now that that's out of the way, to business. This week, my classmates and I embarked on a Writer's Retreat, where our tutor provided us with a host of writing and creativity resources and encouraged us to explore whatever caught our fancy. I experimented with several different techniques and tools, some of which worked really well for me and some of which didn't. Below, I've created a list of the activities that I tried this week from least helpful to most helpful. Please note that this list is entirely subjective, and is only meant as a commentary on how useful these activities were to me, not an assessment of their overall quality. 

7. Google Earth: In order to get inspiration for a future story setting, I spent some time playing around with the Google Earth app. Unfortunately, I found the program to be clunky and relatively unhelpful. 

6. World Anvil: For those who have interacted with wikis before, World Anvil is essentially a site where writers and roleplayers can create wikis for their own worlds. In other words, it allows worldbuilders to write and share articles about their worlds' characters, settings, important historical moments, and much more. For the Writer's Retreat, I created a World Anvil page for the fantasy world from the novel I'm working on. I haven't added any articles to it yet--in part because I'm wary about sharing my characters and settings on the internet. However, the website seems promising, and I hope to explore the possibilities it offers more thoroughly in the upcoming weeks. 

5. Meditation: After reading an article about how meditation can enhance creativity, I decided to start meditating daily. At around 2pm on each of the past two days, I have blocked out time to listen to a four-minute-long guided meditation video. I'm not sure if this has directly impacted my creativity, but each meditation session has significantly reduced my stress levels. Therefore, as I write much better when I am not stressed, I can concretely say that meditation has helped me as a writer. Accordingly, I plan to keep doing it!

4. Pinterest Boards: As I may have mentioned in previous posts, during my fall Creative Writing tutorial, my tutor helped me create Pinterest mood boards for the characters and settings from my novel. This was extremely helpful for me, as it enabled me to better picture my characters and their settings. Therefore, this week I decided to create Pinterest mood boards for another story idea that I have. As expected, this helped me to better picture my characters and provided me with a great deal of inspiration for my future story. 

3. Character Questionnaire: During our first class, my tutor provided my classmates and I with a questionnaire we could use to explore characters' appearances, backgrounds, hopes, and fears. The original purpose of this questionnaire was to help us create characters for a short assignment, but this week, I decided to use it to chronicle important facts about the characters from my novel. Although I have only filled it out for my main character thus far, it has already been incredibly helpful, as it has allowed me to arrange my thoughts about the character in a clear and organized fashion. 

2. Character Walk: When I first read through the list of activities that I could try for the Writer's Retreat, one particularly stood out to me: going for a walk with a character and having a conversation with them (much like one would with an imaginary friend). Although this activity sounds a bit bizarre, it called to me, and I knew that I had to try it. So, yesterday, I went for a walk with one of the side characters from my novel. Not only did I learn more about him than I'd ever hoped to, but I also learned a great deal about my story's world. This was, hands down, my favorite activity from the Writer's Retreat. 

1. How to Write Every Day Video: Although the Character Walk was my favorite Writer's Retreat activity, watching this video was by far the most useful one because it actively inspired me to write. I have always struggled to write regularly, so at the start of the Writer's Retreat, I decided to watch this video by Quotidian in hopes that it would help me develop better writing habits. It offered several excellent tips and tricks one can use to write daily, but the one that stood out most to me was the Pomodoro Technique: writing for four 25-minute intervals with five-minute breaks in between. On Wednesday, I decided to use an abbreviated form of this technique and ended up writing for 45 minutes; the day after, I wrote for a full 50 minutes. Given that I have done minimal "fun" writing since the start of the spring semester, this was huge for me. The Pomodoro Technique worked wonders for my writing productivity and I hope to keep using it daily. 

All in all, the Writer's Retreat was extremely beneficial for me. That being said, the activities described above are only a small portion of the resources that my tutor shared with me. I suspect that there are many more tools out there that I can use to improve my writing, and I greatly look forward to discovering them. 

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Writing Advice: Go for Character Walks with all of your characters. You'll learn more about your characters, setting, and story than you ever expected to. 

I'm Back!

Hello Internet!

Thanks to a series of rather fortunate events, I am once again taking part in the Advanced Studies in England program, which means I will once again be updating this blog regularly. However, both my ASE experience and this blog are going to look a little different this time around. More specifically, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this summer I am taking an ASE online course from the comfort of my own home. This course is called Writing Character-Driven Prose and is being taught by my tutor from last fall, whom I am extremely excited to be working with again. To make sure that we gain as much as possible from this class, my classmates and I are expected to blog about our thoughts, opinions, and experiences surrounding our coursework. Therefore, my blog posts from here on out will be very text-heavy, though I might throw in the occasional picture from my time in England to spice things up. Additionally, I plan to include concrete writing goals or advice at the end of each post, as I feel that doing so will be beneficial for me.

So, now that I've clarified what exactly I'm doing here, let's get into the meat of things, shall we? For class this week, my peers and I were instructed to watch two TED Talks: "Tales of Creativity and Play" by Tim Brown and "Your Elusive Creative Genius" by Elizabeth Gilbert. In "Tales of Creativity and Play," Brown discussed how his design company, IDEO, uses several techniques to facilitate worker creativity. These techniques include encouraging employees to make prototypes of their ideas, asking for quantity instead of quality during brainstorming sessions, and allowing space for play. Ultimately, although this video was enjoyable to watch, it mostly rehashed lessons that I learned from a Psychology of Creativity course that I took two years ago. Therefore, it didn't particularly catch my attention.

In contrast, "Your Elusive Creative Genius" caught my attention in a big way. To explain why, I first need to reveal a somewhat embarrassing secret about myself: I often let fear prevent me from writing. This fear can take several different forms; sometimes it appears as anxiety that my writing will never be published, other times it materializes as the worry that even if my work is published, no one will enjoy it. Most often, however, it takes the form of the fear that I've lost my creative spark. Regardless of the shape this fear takes, it frequently paralyzes my hands and my mind, blocking my ability to write. In turn, this inability to write makes me feel guilty and fearful that I've lost my touch, which paralyzes me even further. It's a vicious cycle, but fortunately, Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk offered me advice on how to break out of it. Gilbert argues that a lot of creativity comes from an outside source--a muse, of sorts. In order to create, you have to show up and put in the effort, but you also have to trust the muse to do its part. But if the muse doesn't visit you for a while, don't worry; it's simply off inspiring someone else, and will visit when the time is right. This may seem like a nonsensical, fantastical idea, but as someone who engages with fantastical ideas on a daily basis, I quite enjoy it. Regardless of whether or not it is objectively true, the idea that creativity is a sprite that visits on its own terms is reassuring to me, as it means that I am not to blame when my creativity disappears for a while. Therefore, I don't have to feel guilty or fearful when I'm feeling uninspired, so long as I show up and do my part--i.e. put words on the page.

So, that was rather long and rambling, but hopefully it made at least some semblance of sense. If not, or if you have any suggestions or thoughts about writing for me, please feel free to comment down below.

Thanks for reading!

Abby

Writing Advice: Challenge the muse. If creativity strikes at a moment when you physically cannot write (e.g. when you're driving, when you're in class, etc.), tell it to come back later. Similarly, if it refuses to appear when you want to write, invite it in. In short, acknowledge that some aspects of creativity are external and engage with those external aspects when you're struggling with your writing.