Creative Writing Lesson 2: Wound your Protagonist
Identifying and demonstrating your character’s key flaw is an essential part of a good story. But what is a character flaw? Where does it come from?
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Creative Writing Lesson 1: Writing Ugly
Writing is a beautiful, complex, challenging art.
However, writing commercial fiction that sells starts with a set of steps that are as old as Artistotle (or rather, as old as when Artistotle wrote The Poetics.)
A modern summary is:
- Someone is living their normal life, in which a personal quality makes them unhappy.
- A problem arrives that threatens their normal life.
- They attempt to solve the problem but fail because of the personal quality.
- This makes things worse. They realise that this is because of their personal quality,
- They overcome their defect and, trying again in worse circumstances, overcome the problem.
- Their personal defect resolved, they are now able to live a happy life.
This list is the fundament of a good story. If you have these elements, there’s a decent chance you’ll produce something entertaining. So lets test that theory.
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Free Creative Writing Lessons with About Writing
What is the course all about?
Would you like to write better stories? Create compelling characters? Bring your scenes to life?
If am offering a free creative writing course via this website, and the Achievement Unlocked “guild” from the Habitica Productivity App.
The course is made up of a series of challenges. In each I explain a key concept of creative writing and invite you to respond with a short piece of fiction. I will provide feedback to every person who posts a response. I will post the first two lessons directly after this one. You can find all the lessons via the lessons page.
We will cover plot& structure, character & development, writing effective, attractive prose, editing your work, and whatever else I fancy.
How do I take part?
There are two ways to take part.
First, you can simply comment on the posts in the blog (find the links at the end of this post). Once you have written your answer just hit “comment” below the question. You are also encouraged to respond to other people’s writing (provided your comments are positive and constructive).
Second, if you want to expose your writing to a broader community, you can join the Achievement Unlocked Website by following the instructions on the site. You will find all the writing exercises in the “creative writing” forum, along with feedback from other members.
Don’t be put off if the website seems complicated (I run several projects through AU). All you need to do is look at the “Site Map” on the left, and open the links “Community Member” and “Creative Writing.” The instructions there will tell you exactly what to do.
There is also a book club, logic, and physics lessons, should that pique your interest.
Free? Really?
Why am I offering a free course? Well, as per usual for this blog, it is pedagogic: trying to explain the key concepts of effective storytelling will help me understand them better.
[Although if you fancy buying one of my books, that would be lovely!]
I have edited hundreds of plays running Little Wonder, published (at the time of writing) two novels, and have been published in scholarly journals and newspapers including the Economist. I hope that sharing my experience with you will encourage you to share your experience with me.
As a side note, I am afraid I am not available to read your novel manuscript or edit your play. I just do not have the time to provide free (or paid) editorial services.
Join in an help us all become better writers
I do hope you will join in and have fun! If you want to keep up to date with the exercises as they are released, I recommend subscribing to the site to get email notifications.
Review: Bain J, Winning Casey (Brass Ring Sorority), Romance, (Totally Bound: 2017)
Links: Amazon, Goodreads, Price: £10.24
Archaeologist Casey is dedicated to the search for hidden treasure and ancient artefacts, so much so that her responsibilities as an academic and any sense of law and safety quickly go out of the window when she is on the hunt. When she finds herself teamed up with the new head of her department, she is sure he will close-down her investigation and block her tenure – but soon romantic sparks begin to fly, and danger lurks around every corner.
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Review: Silver N, “The Signal and the Noise”, Non-Fiction, (Allen Lane: 2012)
Link :Amazon, Goodreads. Price: £9.40
Predicting the future – from whether it will rain today to whether we should cross the road – is an essential part of our everyday life. Yet, as a rule, we are exceptionally bad at it, and routinely fail to foresee hugely significant events. In this book Nate Silver, the man who successfully predicted the results in every state for the 2008 US Presidential Elections, explores and explains the art of prediction, visiting hundreds of experts to learn from their techniques and how we can consistently be less wrong.
(more…)Books by Keith
