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So for the last couple months, I've been working my way through Ursula K. LeGuin's book Steering the Craft, which has exercises to help a writer work on the actual craft of writing. The exercises involve such techniques as sentence length, repetition, and so on. One exercise asks you to write a descriptive scene with no adjectives or adverbs, for example.
The two exercises I'm sharing from today are Point of View and Voice related, Exercises Seven and Eight in the book. Here's LeGuin's preface to Exercise Seven:
LeGuin later says that the same situation can be used for Exercise Eight, which is what I did. The situation I came up with involves my TRON/Pacific Rim crossover, which I've been poking at since 2019 or so? One of the stories in this crossover involves TRON character Quorra's quest to become a Jaeger pilot. This little scene follows a couple weeks after Quorra has a disastrous first Drift with another solo Ranger candidate, Ari Mendoza (an OC). Meanwhile, another candidate, Eddy Dickinson (also an OC), has been harboring a bit of a grudge against Quorra. He's young and a bit of a hothead and is convinced that Quorra's bad Drift with Ari means she's not fit for the program.
So. Here we go.
Exercise Seven, Part One: Two Voices: First: Tell your little story from a single POV, that of a participant in the event. Use limited third person. Second: retell the story from the POV of one of the other people involved in it. Again, use limited third person.
( First: Quorra )
( Second: Eddy )
Exercise Seven, Part Two: Detached Narrator: Tell the same story using the detached author or "fly on the wall" POV.
( Read more... )
Exercise Seven, Part Three: Observer Narrator: If there wasn't a character in the original version who was there but was not a participant, add such a character now. Tell the same story in that character's voice, in first or third person.
( Ari observes... )
Exercise Seven, Part Four: Involved Author: Tell the same or a new story using the involved-author POV. Part Four may require you to expand the whole thing, up to two or three pages, 1000 words or so. You may find you need to give it a context, find out what led up to it, or follow it further.
( Read more... )
Exercise Eight: Changing Voices, Part One: Quick Shifts in Limited Third: A short narrative, 200-600 words. You can use one of the sketches from Exercise 7 or make up a new scene of the same kind: several people involved in the same activity or event. Tell the story using several different viewpoint characters (narrators) in limited third person, changing from one to another as the narrative proceeds. Mark the changes with line breaks, with the narrators name in parentheses, or with any device you like.
( All together now... )
Exercise Eight, Part Two: Thin Ice: In 300-1000 words, tell the same story or a new story of the same kind, deliberately shifting POV from character to character several times without any obvious signal to the reader that you're doing so.
( Read more... )
That's all from me! Thank you for indulging my nonsense, such as it is.
The two exercises I'm sharing from today are Point of View and Voice related, Exercises Seven and Eight in the book. Here's LeGuin's preface to Exercise Seven:
Think up a situation for a narrative sketch of 200-350 words. It can be anything you like but should involve several people doing something. [...] It doesn't have to be a big, important event, though it can be; but something should happen[...] Please use little or no dialogue in these POV exercises. While the characters talk, their voices cover the POV, and so you're not exploring that voice, which is the point of the exercise.
LeGuin later says that the same situation can be used for Exercise Eight, which is what I did. The situation I came up with involves my TRON/Pacific Rim crossover, which I've been poking at since 2019 or so? One of the stories in this crossover involves TRON character Quorra's quest to become a Jaeger pilot. This little scene follows a couple weeks after Quorra has a disastrous first Drift with another solo Ranger candidate, Ari Mendoza (an OC). Meanwhile, another candidate, Eddy Dickinson (also an OC), has been harboring a bit of a grudge against Quorra. He's young and a bit of a hothead and is convinced that Quorra's bad Drift with Ari means she's not fit for the program.
So. Here we go.
Exercise Seven, Part One: Two Voices: First: Tell your little story from a single POV, that of a participant in the event. Use limited third person. Second: retell the story from the POV of one of the other people involved in it. Again, use limited third person.
( First: Quorra )
( Second: Eddy )
Exercise Seven, Part Two: Detached Narrator: Tell the same story using the detached author or "fly on the wall" POV.
( Read more... )
Exercise Seven, Part Three: Observer Narrator: If there wasn't a character in the original version who was there but was not a participant, add such a character now. Tell the same story in that character's voice, in first or third person.
( Ari observes... )
Exercise Seven, Part Four: Involved Author: Tell the same or a new story using the involved-author POV. Part Four may require you to expand the whole thing, up to two or three pages, 1000 words or so. You may find you need to give it a context, find out what led up to it, or follow it further.
( Read more... )
Exercise Eight: Changing Voices, Part One: Quick Shifts in Limited Third: A short narrative, 200-600 words. You can use one of the sketches from Exercise 7 or make up a new scene of the same kind: several people involved in the same activity or event. Tell the story using several different viewpoint characters (narrators) in limited third person, changing from one to another as the narrative proceeds. Mark the changes with line breaks, with the narrators name in parentheses, or with any device you like.
( All together now... )
Exercise Eight, Part Two: Thin Ice: In 300-1000 words, tell the same story or a new story of the same kind, deliberately shifting POV from character to character several times without any obvious signal to the reader that you're doing so.
( Read more... )
That's all from me! Thank you for indulging my nonsense, such as it is.
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