From zero to one hundred in four months

So my life has taken a major leap in the past few weeks. For the four months before April I was jobless, demotivated with time stretching before me in a long and potentially lifeless line. Thankfully, I got a job at my old school working their alumni office and it's really turned things around.

I feel more motivated for one, which is helpful because I have so much going on. Especially writing wise which is why I have come to talk to you lovely people again. You missed me, right? Admit it. You've been crying a little bit.

How I imagine all your sad little faces have looked.

So back in September of last year which is 8 months ago now (whaaaaat? where does the time go?) I signed up for radio play writing class. Unfortunately the class was full so I forgot all about it but in February I got another email from Allfm saying that they were having another class and was I still interested. So of course I said yes and we started a couple of weeks after that.

 It really doesn't feel that long ago that we started but we're all on our last working drafts of our scripts now and I'm really impressed with everyone's progress. Especially mine, of course. I'm waiting to hear about award nominations as we speak. (Not really, that was a joke. In case you hadn't twigged.) But anyway, we did some really interesting writing exercises when we started which I thought I could share with you guys seeing as this is what this blog was supposed to be about in the first place.

The first of which was simply called 'What if?' and is pretty much what you'd expect. It's an ideas game specifically designed to generate some inspiration and get some ideas flowing (I think it's best done in a group because it's great to see what others come up with but you can just as easily think about it by yourself and write it down.)

We did this exercise sitting around the table and going around in a circle finishing the sentence 'What if...' our answers ranged from interesting "What if I could speak every language?", to unusual "What if my bones were made of glass?" to confusing and slightly worrying "What if I was my own dad?" but I think it helped everyone to just start the creative juices flowing. Whether we used what we'd come up with at all didn't really matter it was just getting inspiration. I think this exercise is particularly useful if you're finding yourself at a bit of a loss at where to start. When you're sat in front of a blank page and you know you want to write something but you just don't know what.

Sometimes it helps to turn the piece of paper into a chicken!
(but not always)

Another of the exercises we used was describing a character. The first person in the group would come up with a name and then we'd each in turn say a fact about this person. Again, the answers were varied and usually escalated to the ridiculous. (e.g "He's secretly a spy for the Russians. He's keeping a cow in the cellar!) but at points it could be really insightful into things that could be useful for your character but that you might not neccessarily ever have to mention in the course of your piece of writing. (e.g. "He used to be a teacher but became disillusioned with the career." or "She likes to collect hats. Lots of hats.") Again, this is probably a technique you could adopt as a solo thing. Simply come up with a name or find one online or in a newspaper/magazine/catalogue/shoebox and start generating random facts that you could attribute to that character.

After a while playing this, Ed who runs the sessions for us introduced the practice of shouting "I don't believe it!" a la Richard Wilson when a fact got too ridiculous or when it didn't fit with facts that had already been said so we were kept on track about creating a character that was believable (even if they existed in an unrealistic context.)

"I don't BELIEEEEVE it!"

This exercise is best used for character development if you need to flesh out an exisiting character or create a new one but it's also great for figuring out what direction you want your story to go in. Say, if you seem to be generating facts that pertain more to fantasy or sci-fi than the real world then maybe you want to think about basing your work in one of those genres, for example.


There were lots of other exercises but the last one I want to talk about isn't a game like the previous two, it's more of a technique to help set out a story. We worked in pairs to do this but again this is one that's definitely transferable to solo work. You take your characters and you strip them down to their basics.
Which character is your main protagonist? Which is the antagonist? (if there isn't one, then think about  whether your story has enough conflict to hold interest. If so, then work with two protagonists or whatever you have) What are their main wants? What are their main needs? (Yes, these two things are different.
The character may well want something but remain completely oblivious to what they really need. For example, your main female may want Mr Right to stroll on by, but what she needs may be self-fulfilment or a really good biscuit.) What is the main obstacle to their wants and needs? If you have all these elements then often that means you have instant conflict and as such, instant drama.


Of course, all of these exercises were used in our sessions to directly relate to the radio plays we would be writing but I think they're transferable to all mediums and I'll definitely use them myself in future to work out the bones of plots and get them creative juices flowin'! (This is what no longer being allowed caffeine does to you, people. YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED.)

Baby chickens, a responsible alternative to caffeine!

Another writing endeavour that came my way in the past month or so was writing a sketch for my amateur dramatic group's annual sketch show. But I'll write about that in my next post which should be up tomorrow, all things going to plan (I am writing, directing, starring and making the poster for this extravaganza- because I am just that talented...and masochistic.) So any of you reading this better at least attempt to show up! If not, I'll trying and drag a recording of it out of Annie after it's been done.

Til the morrow, adieu!




sad chicken picture courtesy of Aaron Jansen
paper chicken courtesy of origami-kids.com
angry chicken courtesy of urbanfarmonline.com (flat cap added by me)
baby chicks in a teacup courtesy of bugschicks.blogspot.com