Writing Assignment: Ch-Ch-Changes
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- 8/5/2010 |
- 10:00 am
It's back-to-school time. Pretty soon the leaves will be turning, the winds will deliver cooler air, and it will even smell different when you walk outside. Fall is almost here, and it's a good opportunity for you to practice writing about change.
Most writing instructors will tell you that every good piece of fiction will feature a change in the primary character. They either learn something, or they develop new feelings, or they physically change; however it plays out, the reader should notice an evolution.
It doesn't have to be a huge shift, and your reader might not even consciously make a big deal out of it. While it might not jump off the page, it will still add to the satisfaction that your story brings. In my Galahad book series, you can subtly detect changes in many of the primary characters, not only within the pages of each individual book, but throughout the series as a whole.
So, this is your chance to work on change within your stories. This month you should sit down and craft a short story, maybe five or six pages long, and figure out how your lead character might evolve. Pencil a quick outline of the story, and then look back at how the plot progresses; you should be able to come up with a pretty good idea of how the events of the tale will affect that character. Then it's simply a matter of writing that change into the story. Again, it can be very noticeable...or not.
This is much simpler than you think. If it helps, think of events that have happened in your own life, and reflect on how they affected you. Are you a different person because of it? Did you learn something? Do you have a new appreciation for something or someone? Your characters will go through the same shift.
This will take you up a notch in your writing. Good luck, and have fun!
