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This sample includes pages from:
Story Starters
The Complete Character
The Paperclip Method: The No-Outline Novel Workbook
This is only a sample.
Download the complete workbooks at http://paperclipmethod.com
Happy Writing!
Fiction Attic Press Story Starters: A Workbook for Writers
by Michelle Richmond
©Michelle Richmond, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the author. No part of this book may
be posted online or digitally distributed.
If you would like to use this workbook in your classroom, please send an email to
bayareabookdoctor@gmail.com to learn about special pricing for bulk purchases of the
printed edition.
Fiction Attic Press
Table of Contents
How to Use This Workbook .....................................................................................................4
About the Exercises .............................................................................................................................6
About the Self-Assessment .................................................................................................................8
A Note About Red Balloons...............................................................................................................9
Part One: Days 1-25..................................................................................................................10
Halfway There Self-Assessment..............................................................................................70
Part Two: Days 27-50 ...............................................................................................................76
I Finished the Workbook…Now What? .............................................................................133
About the Author....................................................................................................................136
Exercises by Type
Craft-based .....................................................................................................................................
Setting & Description...............................................................................................11, 13, 15, 17, 79
Characterization ...........................................................................................19, 46, 50, 52, 54, 77, 79
Dialogue .....................................................................................................................30, 34, 48, 50, 77
Point of View ................................................................................................................ 27, 36, 46, 115
Dramatic Tension ...................................................................................................38, 54, 56, 77, 113
Pacing............................................................................................................................................. 40, 44
Free flow ..................................................................................................58, 60-69, 99, 107-111
10-minute prompts............................................................................................ 58, 60, 107, 122
Flash fiction assignments .............................................89, 91, 93, 95, 97, 102, 105, 113, 115
S t o r y S t a r t e r s : A W o r k b o o k f o r W r i t e r s HOW TO USE THIS WORKBOOK
S
ometimes the hardest part about being a writer is putting the first words on the page.
Story Starters: A Workbook for Writers, is designed to banish writer's block by
sparking your imagination and providing endless opportunities to make stories out of
thin air. Each day, instead of opening your notebook to a blank page, you will open it to a
possibility.
Use this book every day for fifty days. Choose one prompt per day, and write for at least
twenty minutes. Half an hour is even better, and 45 minutes is better still, but I want you to
make this promise to yourself, right now:
For the next 50 days, I will write for at least 20 minutes each day.
Go ahead, say it out loud. You'll be amazed how much you can accomplish in 20 focused
minutes. Suddenly a sentence will turn into a paragraph, a paragraph into a page. Fifty days
from now, you will open this workbook to find something wonderful: pages and pages of your
own words--written, I hope, with an eye for detail but also with a sense of creative abandon. It
won't look like a novel, not yet. It's not supposed to. But it will look like a solid body of
original work. Some of the pages may look like the beginning of a novel, or the ground from
which a novel will grow.
And somewhere in this workbook, after you are finished, there's a very good chance you'll
find a great short story that just needs a bit of revision before it's ready to be sent into the
world.
D
on't think too much, at first, about where the story is going. The exercises in the
first half of the workbook are designed to be open-ended. Instead of beginning
each exercise with the thought, "Now I'm going to write a story," begin with the
idea, "I'm going to see where this takes me." This is especially true with Free Flow Exercises
(more on that later).
Any one of these exercises may be adapted for fiction or nonfiction. If the prompt is "write
about a time when you were angry," you may write from memory, or you may write about a
fictional character in a moment of anger. If you find the same character, real or imagined,
popping up in various exercises, go with it; you may have found the protagonist of your future
novel or memoir.
You may skip around among the prompts, or you may follow the structure outlined in the
workbook, consecutively from Day 1 to Day 2 to Day 3, all the way to Day 50. The first few
exercises are intentionally sense or emotion driven, designed to help you get your pen moving
quickly and ignite the creative impulse. I recommend beginning with these before moving on
to the more complex exercises. Please note that some prompts are meant to follow upon the
previous day's exercise; follow-up exercises are always marked as such.
ABOUT THE EXERCISES
C
raft-based exercises focus on the fundamental building blocks of narrative:
dialogue, point of view, characterization, setting, dramatic tension, etc. If you're in
the mood to work on your characterization skills, for example, you can choose one
of the exercises specifically marked characterization.
Free flow exercises are about moving the pen. They are about writing until your hand hurts.
They are about finding the magic of inspiration. They are about feeling the words, not making
sense of them. Free flow exercises, like all of the exercises in this book, can be done more
than once. Each time, they will render wildly different results. If you are like most writers I
know, you have days that seem too overwhelming to get a single word down on paper, days
when you feel uninspired, days when your inner critic says, "I'll never be a writer." I
recommend the free flow exercises for these days. I've used them for years in my creative
writing classes, and as the pens scratch across the pages, I can't help feeling that the Muse has
landed. Free flow exercises help you get back to the joy of writing.
Ten-minute exercises appear periodically throughout the workbook. "But," you protest,
"you made me promise to write for 20 minutes a day!" Yes, I did, and I'm not letting you off
the hook. But sometimes, no matter how committed you are to writing, you simply cannot
find more than ten minutes. Even as a full-time writer, I have those days. I recommend saving
the 10-minute exercises for days when you're so overwhelmed that you're tempted not to write
anything at all. There is a great value in honoring the promise you made to yourself write every
day, even if you don't write for as long as you would like.
F
lash fiction assignments appear in the latter half of the workbook, beginning on
Day 33. Up to this point, you have primarily focused on writing scenes and flexing
your literary muscles. Now, you'll find exercises that ask you to write a complete
story. Don't panic. You're not expected to churn out 12 pages in a day. When a prompt says,
"Write a story about," think in terms of a very short story--750 words or so. I've included
these exercises because my students over the years have responded resoundingly well to flash
fiction exercises, and have often published the stories that came out of these exercises. Writing
a very short story allows you to complete a narrative arc in a short period of time. It also
allows you to enjoy the process without too much pressure, which is what this workbook is all
about.
Several of these exercises are based on stories in the anthology Flash Fiction (edited by James
Thomas, Denise Thomas, and Tom Hazuka, and published by Norton in 1992). I have taught
from this anthology many times and have always found my writing students in both
undergraduate and graduate level courses to be particularly responsive to these tiny narrative
gems. It is by no means necessary to read the stories that inspired the exercises before you
complete them, but you're welcome to do so for examples of some very short stories that
push all the right buttons. I would recommend purchasing the book, but reading a particular
story only after completing the corresponding exercise.
While doing the flash fiction exercises, you may well find yourself writing beyond the 750 or
1000 words that we typically think of when we talk about flash fiction or "very short stories."
That's fine! In fact, I encourage it. Sometimes you can tell a story in 750 words, but often, it
takes much longer. The goal of these exercises is to inspire you to write a complete story, be it
three pages or 30.
ABOUT THE SELF-ASSESSMENT
O
n Day 26, you will find the Halfway There Self-Assessment. If you're doing the
prompts in order, you'll naturally come upon this page halfway through your 50
days of writing practice. If you're skipping around in the book, please head
directly to Day 26 after you have completed 25 days of prompts. Please take time to follow
the instructions for the Halfway There Self-Assessment. Don't worry if it takes you a few days
to complete. The Self-Assessment is designed to help you identify your strengths, celebrate
your best work, and face your writing fears.
R
A NOTE ABOUT RED BALLOONS
emember to favor the concrete over the abstract. Red balloon is more memorable
than balloon. Chocolate cake is more likely to stir the senses than dessert.
That said, remember that you don't have to use every adjective you can think of. Choose your
details wisely. Red balloon is not only better than balloon; it is also better than red helium striped
balloon. And, in writing (if not in life), a simple chocolate cake is often better than a three-layer
German chocolate cake with vanilla piping and raspberry filling ,unless your character happens to be a
pastry chef, in which case you can pile on the culinary details with abandon. Context is
everything. If you find yourself writing about a rose-colored paisley sofa, ask yourself if those
rose-colored paisleys add anything beyond window-dressing to the story.
Now, before you begin the exercises, use this simple list of words to generate a few concrete
details. Simply write a sentence for each word, using sensory details to transform something
general into something specific and memorable.
the girl
a bus
a house
a table
snow
Part One
Days 1 - 25
"Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before,
get up and bite on the nail." Ernest Hemingway
Day 1
setting & description
T
here's a great Tom Petty song called "Southern Accents," a song about identity, and
about home, and about the things that remain even long after we have left our place
of origin.
I got my own way of talkin' but everything is done
with a Southern accent where I come from.
Where do you come from? Maybe you stayed, or maybe you left long ago. Either way, where
you come from matters deeply to a writer.
One of the biggest things you can do for your writing in terms of subject matter is to find
your Yoknapatawpha--the place that formed you, the place your stories will always, somehow,
come home to. Faulkner's was Mississippi. Richard Yates's was suburban New York.
Sherwood Anderson's was Winesburg, Ohio. Mine is Alabama's Gulf Coast, place of my
childhood.
Today's exercise is really an exercise for every day, because the more you write, the more you
will find this place cropping up in your stories.
Write about where you come from. Make the place real for the reader by using all of the
senses.
"Good writing is like a windowpane." George Orwell
Day 2
setting & description
W
rite about the kitchens of your childhood. Who populated them? What are
your sharpest memories of the kitchens and their inhabitants? It's okay if
the description and characters veer from reality. One of the great joys of
writing is allowing the real places and events of our lives to take an
imaginary turn, in which we control the story.
"Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream." Mark Twain
Day 3
setting & description
W
rite about something that took place in the middle of the night. Allow the reader
to experience night without ever using the word “night."
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
Anton Chekhov
Day 4
setting & conflict
N
ow write about something that took place in the heat and brightness of midday.
Begin by describing the setting, and then place a character in the setting. How do
the oppressive heat and light influence the character's actions?
For an excellent example, see chapter 6 of The Stranger, by Albert Camus.
Published by Fiction Attic Press
San Francisco, California
Copyright ©Michelle Richmond 2013
No part of this book may be copied or redistributed
in any way without the permission of the publisher.
No part of this book may be posted online
or digitally distributed.
If you would like to use this book in your classroom,
please contact fictionatticpress@gmail.com to inquire
about bulk discounts for educators.
CONTENTS
Why Character Matters
4
Kinds of Characters
5
Know Thy Character
9
The Character Dossier
10
Part 1: The Basics
10
Part 2: Ice-Breaker Questions
11
Part 3: Getting Personal
15
Part 4: Setting
20
Part 5: Beliefs & Values
22
Part 6: Self-Awareness
25
Part 7: A Few More Things
32
The Character Sketchbook
47
The Importance of Desire
55
The Big Picture
58
Digging Deeper
59
Character & Point of View
62
Reveal Thy Character
69
Action
70
Dialogue
74
Appearance
78
Don't Forget Gestures
82
Trouble & Truth
84
Situation & Revelation
86
Minor Characters
92
Avoid the "but he's a real person trap"
96
Divorce Yourself
99
Additional Tips on Characterization
101
A Note about Naming
107
Examples from Literature
108
Points to Remember
113
Resources for Writer's Block
114
Additional Character Dossier
115
WHY CHARACTER MATTERS
T
he driving force behind every great novel, short story, or memoir is
character. You can have the most fascinating plot in the world, but if the
characters that move through your story are not complex and interesting, the
plot falls flat.
Characters aren't just ornaments to hang on a predefined plot. Characters create
plot. That's not to say that your characters will speak to you (although they
might)—but that your character's natural motivations and desires will drive the
conflict, and their reactions will shape the events of the story.
When you begin your novel, it's less important to know where it's going than it is
to know who your protagonist is. It's easy to start a story without thinking out
the events that will occur, but it's almost impossible to start a story without
considering who will be at the center of those events.
Think of your character as the sun in the solar system of your story. Without it,
all of the other elements will freeze or burn up or hurtle into space. Without
strong characters, your story cannot sustain life.
This workbook is all about creating dynamic, complex characters. You will read
about the different types of characters and why they matter. You will create a
character dossier, learn about the four primary ways in which character is
revealed, and complete exercises to help you practice different techniques in
character revelation. In the character sketchbook, you will draw aspects of your
character's environment and think about how the environment impacts the
character.
By the end of this workbook, you will know your character from the inside out—
her motivations and desires, the obstacles she faces, and the way or ways in
which she changes. You will create explore both major and minor characters,
populating your novel with memorable characters who will be capable of moving
the story forward. You will have written a number of scenes to incorporate into
your novel.
Let's get started!
ROUND OR FLAT?
THE TWO PRIMARY TYPES OF CHARACTERS
In literary parlance, there are two kinds of characters 1: Flat characters, also known as static characters (Think two-­‐dimensional) 2. Round characters, also known as complex characters (Think well-­‐rounded) A
round or complex character embodies the kinds of contradictions that make us all human. He is flawed. He is neither all good nor all evil. He has both strengths and weaknesses. His desires and experiences drive his actions in ways that make sense psychologically. A round or complex character is not simply one that has been described well. A round character is one who undergoes a significant change through the course of the story or novel. And by change I do not mean that he goes from being poor to rich, or rich to poor, or married to widowed, or young to old. Although there will likely be changes to the character's external circumstances, the kind of change that makes a character complex is internal. By the end of the novel, she is different in some fundamental way. She has a new level of self-­‐awareness or a new way of looking at the world. Anna Karenina is a complex character. So is Lolita. So is Harry Potter. So is the protagonist of John Cheever's chilling short story, "The Swimmer." Neddy Merrill begins the story confident and at ease, and by the end of the story he is a broken man, aware that he has lost everything. Name five characters from books or movies that have moved you, characters that you found yourself thinking about after you closed the book or left the theater. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. I
n Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster writes that "the test of a round character is
whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises, it
is flat. If it does not convince, it is a flat pretending to be round. It has the
incalculability of life about it—life within the pages of a book."
Think about the characters that you listed on the last page. In what ways is each
character surprising? In what ways is each character convincing? Jot down a few
notes here.
Surprising
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Convincing
C
hances are, every one of the characters you listed on the previous page
underwent some fundamental change by the end of the story—a change
that felt completely believable, or, in Forster's words, convincing.
Now, think of a character that falls flat. What is missing from that character? If a
character from literature doesn't automatically come to mind, look to movies,
even television.
A great deal of the success of HBO's groundbreaking series The Sopranos had to
do with the complexity of the characters. Carmela Soprano, played by Edie
Falco, is a different woman by the series end than the person we see in the first
episode—stronger, more independent, more self-aware. Likewise, Sipowicz from
NYPD Blue goes from being an incredibly brash and unlikable person to being
sensitive yet grizzled. Mad Men's Don Draper appears to have the world in the
palm of his hand, but as the seasons progress, we see a man increasingly
tormented by his past, a man who is genuinely tender toward his children even
as he is incapable of being a good husband, a man who fights, not always for the
right things. (The series is still going as of the time of this writing; I'm eager to
see how Draper's character arc plays out over the course of the series).
In contrast, think of Dr. Bombay and Endora from Bewitched—both of whom
end the series almost exactly as they started. Both are mischievous pranksters
who don’t care much for Samantha's poor mortal slag of a husband, "Derwood."
The Three Stooges are classic example of static characters; they never really
change.
We'll be going into more depth about characters behaving in surprising but
convincing ways later in the workbook, in the section Situation and Revelation. You
may go there now if you want to explore this further (page 77), or continue on
to page 6.
DO ALL CHARACTERS HAVE TO BE COMPLEX?
Y
our protagonist must be complex. Secondary main characters—anyone who
gets a lot of page time or plays an important part in the story--should also
be well-rounded, although their change will not be as integral or important to the
story as that of your protagonist.
You will also have minor characters that your protagonist encounters at various
points in the plot. While minor characters should be detailed enough to be
interesting, don't devote too much time to their backgrounds and motivations.
When a minor character becomes a long tangent that takes us away from the
protagonist's arc, he is likely to be viewed as a nuisance by the reader, an
unnecessary distraction.
That doesn't mean that a minor character couldn't or shouldn't be memorable.
The grocery bagger might mention his degree in electrical engineering, and the
old friend whom the protagonist bumps into on the subway might be wearing
provocative shoes, on the way to visit her dying ex-lover. It's amazing how much
significant detail you can get into a couple of sentences, how much history you
can suggest with a few lines.
When writing your main character, you are using a broad brush, thinking in
terms of his or her history, the big picture that made her who she is, the subtle
or not-so-subtle ways in which he changes.
When writing minor characters, you are using a much smaller brush: think of
one or two significant details that will make the minor character stand out. KNOW THY CHARACTER!
One useful tool to use in the pre-writing process is the dossier. You'll be using
the next few pages of this workbook to compile a dossier for each of the major
players in your story.
Begin with the basics. First, note the things that would be obvious about your
real-life character upon first meeting him or her: name, sex, age, ethnicity.
After writing down the most obvious traits, ask the ice-breaker questions—
questions your reader might have about this person if they met at a dinner party:
occupation, background, attachment (single? married? divorced? widowed?
married but looking?).
Now your character is becoming clearer, but we want to know more: what is his
or her religion, political affiliation?
Okay, the conversation is really moving along now. You've gotten past small
talk. Time to get personal. What are your character's habits, best qualities, worst
faults? What makes him/her happy, sad, angry? Who/what does s/he love or
hate most? What is your character most proud of and ashamed of? What is
his/her secret ambition, darkest secret?
It isn't necessary for all of this information to make it into your written story.
What matters is that you have really thought about the people in your life, and
you know them well enough to introduce them to your readers.
Continue on to the next page to fill out your character dossier. A second copy of
this dossier is included in the appendix at the end of the workbook so that you
can use it for another character. If you're typing directly into the workbook, you
might want to print out several copies of the dossier in the index so that you can
use it multiple times.
THE PAPERCLIP METHOD
The No-Outline Novel Workbook
Fiction Attic Press
THE PAPERCLIP METHOD
The No-Outline Novel Workbook
©Michelle Richmond, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the author.
If you would like to use this workbook in the classroom, please email
fictionattic@gmail.com to receive a special discount for educators.
Fiction Attic Press
CONTENTS
Introduction
7
The Story Behind the Method
10
Embrace Fragments
12
Stacks
13
Patterning, Pacing, & Plot
17
The Central Question
18
Subplot
20
Secondary Question
22
What are Breathers?
23
Your Primary & Secondary
Plotlines
25
Your Breathers
26
Plot vs. Structure
32
Beginnings
34
What a First Chapter Should Do
29
Tone
36
Protagonist
37
Scope & Style
39
Your Contract
44
Setting
45
Conflict
47
Ground Rules
49
Theme
52
A Few Great Beginnings
53
Giants
58
Setting
67
Point of View
80
Protagonist
83
Conflict Part 1
86
The Stakes
87
Structure
89
Dramatic Tension
80
Action
91
Background
82
Types of Conflict
94
The Three Ds
106
A Note on Butterflies
107
Development
109
End
115
ABCDE
124
Your Final List
126
Laying Out the Pieces
127
Next Steps
129
INTRODUCTION
The first thing you need to know about writing a novel is that there are no
quick answers. The second thing you need to know is that it won't be easy.
There’s no magic formula. Every novel demands its own structure, its own
pace, its own way of looking at the world.
Still with me? Good. Because novel writing isn’t just a head-banging exercise
in utter frustration and despair (although, trust me, sometimes it is just that).
It’s also a deep swim into your own headspace, a really fun adventure, and
one of the most thrillingly creative things a person can do. It’s your world;
you get to make it, populate it, cultivate it, and bring all of the pieces together.
Maybe you've been waiting to write your novel until you have a complete
outline. Maybe you think you have to know where you're going before you
begin. Maybe you've read those books that say you have to draw the narrative
arc, complete with inciting action, rising action, climax, crisis, and
denouement, before you put the first words on the page.
Forget all of that. I'm not saying that rising action, climax, and denouement
don't matter. They matter very much. But there is a time for those things, and
the time is not the early stages of the writing process.
In addition to being a working writer, I have taught creative writing for more
than a decade. I created The Paperclip Method as a response to my writing
students, in graduate writing programs and private workshops, who seemed to
be stymied by notions of the proper way to write a novel.
If you remember one thing, remember this:
There is no proper way to write a novel.
Good novels cannot be written by formula. Each time you write a novel, no
matter how many you have written and published in the past, you begin anew.
I've published three novels and have another one coming out next year, and
yet, I've never written an outline for a novel. It's easy to get so bogged down
in all the stuff you think you're supposed to do before you can write the novel
that you never get around to the actual writing.
It is my experience that, while outlines may provide a comforting sense of
direction, they are also very limiting. An outline tells you exactly where your
novel is going, but a big part of the process of writing a novel is discovery.
The outline limits this discovery, sets you on a course that you may be
unwilling to veer away from. Some of the best moments in my own work
have come when I have veered away, when I have gone off into totally
unexpected territory.
The Paperclip Method is a more open-ended way of thinking about the
process of writing a novel. In this series of workbooks, I've taken the best
advice I've given my students over the years, the advice that has led to the
most exciting work, and laid it out in a straightforward manner.
The Paperclip Method is also quite personal for me, because it is the way I
write my own books. I should mention that I only came upon this name for
the process recently, four novels into my writing life. Only after examining
the way I go about writing a novel—the process that proves productive for
me, again and again—did I realize that there was a method to my creative
work.
These workbooks are geared toward the first-time novelist (if you've never
written a novel before, this means you) and the unpublished novelist—
someone who may have written a novel or two or three, but has been met with
rejection after rejection by agents and publishers.
Whether you're writing your first novel or you have a few hidden away in a
drawer, whether you've taken several writing workshops or none at all, The
Paperclip Method will teach you effective techniques for creating fragments
and mini-stories, finding meaningful connections among short pieces, and
weaving those pieces together into a coherent narrative.
This workbook is designed to be used in conjunction with Story Starters and
The Complete Character. I believe that you will get the most out of this
workbook if you complete the series in order. To that end, you will find
references to those two books within these pages.
However, this workbook may also be used alone if you can answer yes to the
following conditions:
1. I have a clear idea of what I want to write about.
2. I have already developed my characters in various pieces of short
writing.
3. I have completed a character dossier for my main character and at least
one secondary character.
4. I understand my characters' motivations and desires.
5. I've already written a few chapters or short segments that will be a part
of the novel.
Did you answer yes to three or more of these questions? If so, you're ready to
begin using this workbook.
THE STORY BEHIND THE METHOD
The title came from my own personal method of organizing everything while
I'm working on a novel: the humble paperclip. You may be wondering if the
paperclip is metaphorical. It is not. The Paperclip Method requires actual
paperclips, and it also requires a printer. Eventually, you'll be clipping
together the hard copies of the various sections of your novel. You don't need
a printer right this second, but you're going to need one before too long.
I never work in a linear fashion. Instead, I work associatively and
thematically. For example, The Year of Fog is, on the surface, a novel about a
missing child. The major plot line is the search for a girl who disappears, in
the very first chapter, on San Francisco's Ocean Beach. But the novel is also
about memory and guilt. And photography. And love.
As I was researching the novel, immersing myself in the story, I wrote a
series of small pieces, one to two pages each, about memory: memory case
studies, interesting facts about memories, information about how memories
are recorded and stored, etc. All of these items, I kept together with one
paperclip.
My work on photography included quotes and research from Henry
Horenstein's classic text, Black and White photography, memories of my own
time spent in darkrooms as a college student, notes on the camera that my
narrator, Abby, used (the Holga), etc. Another paperclip.
There were numerous scenes involving Jake, the narrator's fiancé. A
paperclip. There were sections about Abby's childhood on the Gulf Coast, and
paragraphs about her first lover. Another paperclip. There were, of course,
sections about her search for the missing child.
All of these paper-clipped sections went into stacks. The first page of each
stack is just a blank white page with a handwritten identifier: Photography,
memory, the search, Jake, Emma. Eventually, all of the stacks went onto the
dining room floor. I laid them out, moved them around, worried over them,
and rearranged them. For a while, my dining room was a big mess. For a
while, we were literally tiptoeing around my novel.
Eventually, I got the arrangement right. In time, the stacks of papers came
together, and they became a novel that completely surprised me.
Which is to say that, what looks like nothing does become something, if you
just have the patience to see it through. For the longest time, as I was working
on that novel, it didn’t look as though it would ever come together. For the
longest time, I was ready to give up. But then, in the end, it did come
together. So too did my next novel, No One You Know, and my next one,
Golden State. I am currently in the middle of another novel, and I'm doing the
same thing (only different), all over again. As they say, don't fix what's not
broken.
The Paperclip Method is a process I believe in. For me, time and again, it has
paid off. I think it will pay off for you too.
The basic premise of The Paperclip Method is simple. Today, write two or
three pages about something that matters to you. Tomorrow, write another
two or three pages. Keep at it. Eventually, you’ll have enough pages to spread
out across your dining room floor, or the bedroom floor, or the kitchen table.
If your living space is tiny, use the wall. The point is to get the pages into a
kind of visual grid, so that the order, eventually, becomes clear. Then you can
begin to fill in the gaps, to understand what’s missing, and what is
overabundant, and what is brilliant, and what is destined for the recycling bin.
Eventually, you'll be ready to walk out of the forest, with a novel tucked
under your arm.
That's what The Paperclip Method is about: getting the words down on paper
and shaping them into a novel. The best novel you can write. A novel that
surprises you, a novel that is filled with discovery, a novel that encompasses
your best ideas and your finest writing.
Let's get started!
EMBRACE FRAGMENTS
Don’t be afraid to write a paragraph here, a page there. Not everything has to
be a full-fledged chapter in the early stages. If you have a scene in your head
that you know you want to write, go for it. But if you sit down at your
computer and feel flustered and uncertain, allow yourself the freedom to think
in small bits.
Tell yourself, “Today I’m going to write 500 words about where my character
lives,” or “Today I’m going to write 500 words about what’s troubling the
narrator,” or “Today I’m going to write the last paragraph of the novel.” That
last one is kind of weird, right? But the point is, you don’t have to write in a
linear fashion. You can piece your novel together later. For now, get some
stuff on the page.
In Story Starters, you did just that: you got a lot of stuff on the page. Go back
and read your work from Story Starters now. Pull out anything that you
believe might find a place in your novel. Begin thinking thematically. Do you
notice certain themes emerging? For example, do you have several pieces
about loss? If so, group these pieces together (this is the time to get out your
paperclips). Do you have several scenes involving a particular character,
setting, or event? Put these together in a stack.
Now, lay out the stacks. How many do you have? If you have only three or
four, that's fine. You have already, perhaps, found your primary subject. If
you have more than seven, try to narrow them down by grouping ideas.
You did a great deal of exploratory writing in Story Starters. Much of what
you were doing in that workbook was finding your story, identifying your
passions. Not everything that you wrote will make it into your novel, of
course. Now is the time to think about what will.
STACKS
List the subject of each stack here. A one-sentence description, or even a
simple phrase, should do.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Which stacks intrigue you? Where do you find your best writing? What
subjects, among these stacks, do you feel passionate about? Take a minute to
write about that now.
"To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about,
but the inner music that words make." Truman Capote
Did you enjoy this sample from The Paperclip Method series workbooks? Download the workbooks now at http://paperclipmethod.com.