The Writers’ Nook is a place where we, as a group, can provide a safe and positive environment in which to encourage one another and hone our own writing skills.
Our Theme for this meeting is Character-driven vs Plot-driven stories, the importance of balance.
TO PREPARE for this meeting, please download, print and read the Handout, Character-driven vs Plot-driven. Bring it with you to the meeting. It outlines our Theme for this November 25th meeting, and poses a Challenge for the next meeting on December 9th.
Our next meeting on December 9th is our annual Christmas Party. It will be a little different this year — see the bottom of the handout.
Our Challenge for this meeting is to write a short story or poem that is driven by both the plot and the characters AND/OR…
Identify your all-time favourite book. Was it plot-driven or character-driven, or both? What appealed to you about it; why did you like it?
Submit your response to the Challenge well ahead of the next meeting. Contact us if you are not sure where to send it.
RESPONSES to the November 25th Challenge:
Excerpt from “Life-Changing Events” by E.A. Briginshaw
The Heist by Joyce Adrian Sotski, a potential foreword to work in progress, “The Silver Dollar”
Ruth was Restless by Phillis Jeffrey, another story about Ruth following the story from the November 11th challenge.
SEE FEEDBACK AND THOUGHTS BELOW:
You are encouraged to provide feedback of your own.
PREVIOUS MEETING: November 11th
The Handout: Your Heroes Emotional Journey
The Challenge: was to write a short story, poem or article before this November 25th meeting that not only outlines the story, but also enlightens us as to your Hero’s Emotional Inner Journey — it might be interesting to revamp one of your own stories from a previous meeting. If instead of participating in the Challenge, you prefer to share something else that you’ve written, feel free to do so. (Contact us and we’ll tell you where to send it.)
Responses to The Challenge follow: The purpose of posting your work here is to receive feedback from others. You are encouraged to read the work of the other participants and provide your feedback in the same manner that you wish for others to respond to your work. Use the Leave a Reply form below.
RESPONSES to November 11th Meeting:
Receiving by Karen Bissenden,
My Hero’s Emotional Inner Journey by Phillis Jeffrey
Max’s Choice rewrite for Inner Journey by Shirley Bigelow DeKelver
Pandemic by Joyce Adrian Sotski
SEE FEEDBACK AND THOUGHTS BELOW:
You are encouraged to provide feedback of your own.
RECEIVED: The woman’s inner thoughts of anger, fear, and means of obtaining revenge, are interwoven throughout the story. Accepting her friend’s advice in hiring a woman lawyer and “letting go” allowed her to proceed with the divorce suit, eventually accepting the outcome.
Karen, Receiving: You have such a way with words, unique phrasing. I like how you’ve taken us, the readers, through her journey from anger and hurt, to resentment and wanting to get even, to something like acceptance and the tenacity to carry on and enjoy life in spite of everything. That’s a journey — and a ride for the reader too.
Phillis, My Hero’s Emotional Journey: I liked Ruth and she certainly is involved in an emotional journey. It’s amazing that she would still have a strong mind but that nobody knows, even the nurse? It makes me feel for her. I think there are one or two places in your story where you could have italicized the words to show that these were her actual thoughts — for example: if you would have italicized the sentence, Interesting words, that would have indicated that she actually said these words to herself. Or you could have changed a sentence to the first person by saying and italicising, My wings are not so powerful anymore and the bottom is coming ever nearer. This may have made them stand out as her own verbal thoughts and may have been more powerful — maybe. But I apologize because I’m going ahead of you. This is what we were discussing at our last meeting. We’ve been learning how to portray the hero’s actual thought words by putting them in italics in this way. I think your story has powerful feeling in it and I enjoyed the read.
Thanks for your critique Joyce. I was not familiar with the use of italics to give internal dialogue more impact, but I like it! I look forward to trying out this concept to improve my writing.
Hi Joyce. I liked your story about the pandemic and I can see how italics helps accentuate the inner thoughts from the spoken word. I like the recounting of the Spanish flu pandemic and how we remember it today. I wonder what people will say 100 years from now about the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020?
Phyllis,
I feel like you have tapped into the loneliness of dementia and no visitors accurately. The world floats around her tapping into the other zones at will. Kindly done. It is quite accurate that dementia is so varied that indeed your protagonist could have clear function in some areas and poor cognition in others.
It’s my eyeballs, but paragraph breaks might have been helpful. Perhaps you were going for pure stream of conscientiousness?
The story keeps its warmth throughout and kept the reader on the journey.
Hi Karen. Thank you for your suggestions of paragraphs. I’m going to pay more attention to that in future. I have an idea where I would like to take my story, I just haven’t figured out how to get it to sit comfortably on the page 😂
Hi Shirley. Well, you took me on a journey with an unexpected ending. I like the way you used italics to enhance Max’s inner thoughts. Your use of descriptive words allowed me to feel the cold Max experienced in the cardboard shelter. Well done 😊
Shirley, Max’s Choice: I think your inner dialogue was very effective alongside the actual story. I felt his fear and his thoughts “you make a mistake, you’re good as dead” clued me in to the fact that he wasn’t for real ‘on the streets’. So even if I hadn’t read last meeting’s story I would have realized that he’d already made one choice to join the police force and another one to go undercover; and his emotional journey as he meets the street people is apparent. So I conclude that his next choice will be about getting to know the pretty girl better? or to help her get off the streets? Maybe this is a series of stories and we wait to find out.
Joyce, Max’s Choice. Thanks for the input. I purposely left the ending hanging as to his choice, maybe Max will return.
Shirley I will look forward to Max’s return.
Joyce, Pandemic.
Your fears and doubts are expertly woven into your story and thoughts regarding the Pandemic; what do we do, what should we expect in the future, and how will it end? It was well written, and at times I felt as if I had written it myself, so closely does it echo my own concerns. Well done.
Ernie: the excerpt from Life Changing Events is an interesting choice to use as an example. I am reading it and because I’m not familiar with the rest of the story, I am left wondering if Heather and Murph are also characters in the story or are their past actions simply part of the plot. It’s almost as though there’s a fine line between character-driven or plot-driven, because it’s Heather and Murph’s characters that are driving the story behind this story — at what point do their actions become events (i.e. plot)? As I think about this I realize that this is probably true in many stories when characters ‘outside the realm of this story’ create incidents that affect the plot; and is that then character-driven or plot-driven?
Phillis: I like this segment of your story. It gives me a feeling of the safety in childhood memories and games — and yet I am wondering why they caused anxiety to Ruth. Good use of inner monologue here.
Thanks for the feedback Joyce. I have an idea for a story and I’m just throwing things on the page to see if they feel right. Ruth is loosely based on my maternal Grandmother and a story I was told many years ago by my mother. We’ll see if it goes any 😊