Developing ideas: Garth Nix
Garth Nix, sci-fi and fantasy author
These ideas are offered as workshop adaptations of Garth Nix's '9 stage in writing a novel' (blog post 12.3.2014) You might also like to try the idea 9 in Quick writes: Longer structured exercises derived from Ernest Hemingway's famous six-word story: 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn'
1. 9 snapshots (observations/ideas recorded in your journal) -
2. Now imagine a scene featuring one of the snapshots above; imagine an overarching mood or feeling (frustration, fascination, fear, anticipation, contentment), and write 9 sentences. As you mull over your ideas, let your mind track backwards, forwards, inwards and outwards from the chosen 'snapshot' - some questions which might excite more thoughts or story-patterning ...
3. The snapshot is accompanied by an illustration/film clip. What are the colours/angles/the sound effects/the mood music? What details are in the foreground - and what, in the background, has significance? What will be the consequences of this scene?
4. Revisit the same scene through the eyes of another character - if you have adopted first person move to third; if you have told this in the present, move to the past. The idea is to dig over the ground of your idea until you have a fine tilth, ready for the planting of a story.
5. Write a list of 9 other characters who might feature in this story - named characters are fine: 'Sofia Renato - a single mother of 2 children, living in the flat upstairs' ; unnamed characters are fine: 'the fisherman in his boat on the lake'.
6. Choose one character and list 9 things that they have in their pockets/ in their suitcase/ in their room; 9 places they have been to in their lives; 9 memories of significance (or collect 9 objects which will feature in the story ... or write a 9-line monologue by that character.)
7. Draw a map of a town/place in this story and find 9 names for roads, rivers, buildings,features and places first from the words you have used - and then from 9 related words: 'Rose Avenue', 'Disappointment alley', 'Whisper brook', 'The Rock building' ...
8. Now find an intersection/cross-roads/place that interests you on your map and write the conversation of 9 lines between two characters who meet there.
9. The book/novel is completed: write the blurb/ the introduction/the acknowledgements or the interview with the author.
10. Now devise the title(s) and 9 chapter headings.
Simon Wrigley
Outreach director
12.3.2014
1. 9 snapshots (observations/ideas recorded in your journal) -
- a person's behaviour you've noted recently
- a distinctive sound that you've heard
- a piece of technology
- a scene from history/ the radio/TV/internet news
- words or a scene from a book that you've read/ a sign that you've seen
- something someone else has told you about
- something that you can imagine
- a landscape
- a town you've visited recently
2. Now imagine a scene featuring one of the snapshots above; imagine an overarching mood or feeling (frustration, fascination, fear, anticipation, contentment), and write 9 sentences. As you mull over your ideas, let your mind track backwards, forwards, inwards and outwards from the chosen 'snapshot' - some questions which might excite more thoughts or story-patterning ...
- what had happened the day/month before?
- how did this remind her of a scene from her childhood - or what her mother had said?
- how did this echo events in the 'real' world?
- how would this reappear, distorted, in his dreams?
- who 'took' the snapshot/ who saw or heard this and what were they doing/feeling at the time?
3. The snapshot is accompanied by an illustration/film clip. What are the colours/angles/the sound effects/the mood music? What details are in the foreground - and what, in the background, has significance? What will be the consequences of this scene?
4. Revisit the same scene through the eyes of another character - if you have adopted first person move to third; if you have told this in the present, move to the past. The idea is to dig over the ground of your idea until you have a fine tilth, ready for the planting of a story.
5. Write a list of 9 other characters who might feature in this story - named characters are fine: 'Sofia Renato - a single mother of 2 children, living in the flat upstairs' ; unnamed characters are fine: 'the fisherman in his boat on the lake'.
6. Choose one character and list 9 things that they have in their pockets/ in their suitcase/ in their room; 9 places they have been to in their lives; 9 memories of significance (or collect 9 objects which will feature in the story ... or write a 9-line monologue by that character.)
7. Draw a map of a town/place in this story and find 9 names for roads, rivers, buildings,features and places first from the words you have used - and then from 9 related words: 'Rose Avenue', 'Disappointment alley', 'Whisper brook', 'The Rock building' ...
8. Now find an intersection/cross-roads/place that interests you on your map and write the conversation of 9 lines between two characters who meet there.
9. The book/novel is completed: write the blurb/ the introduction/the acknowledgements or the interview with the author.
10. Now devise the title(s) and 9 chapter headings.
Simon Wrigley
Outreach director
12.3.2014