Author: Terry Connelly

Terry Connelly is a retired high school English teacher. She earned her BA and Single Subject Teaching credential from California State University of the East Bay, in Hayward, California. Her short story "The Visitor" was published in the Noyo River Review after winning first place at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference in 2019. Another short story, "Swept Sway" is in the CWC Literary Review. She taught for 18 years at Newark Memorial High School in Newark, California. She was gifted to work with both College Prep students and those with learning disabilities.

Searching the News

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Politics makes good fodder for storytelling. Think about what’s happening in the news right now.  All over the world you can find stories that need telling.

For example, if writing about war and conflict is your thing, choose any of the war-torn countries as the beginnings of your story. You most likely will have to do some research first to sort out the issues and sides, but as soon as you have a basic understanding of what’s going on, create some characters and put them in action.

If famine or flood or other natural disasters interest you, then seek out reports that cover those topics. Find one that interests you. For example, right now California is being pounded by a series of storms that are causing flooding, road collapse and fallen trees. Think about the stories you can tell with just that information!

Meanwhile southern California is experiencing continued drought. Think of water wars, hoarding of water, stealing water, transporting water and so on. Fodder for stories!

Within the political world, you just have to check Twitter to find quips that can be turned into stories. Take one or two, change the wording and reformulate the writers, and you’ve got a story that needs to be told!

Your task is to search the news and find something that peaks your interest. Do some basic research, if needed. Then write a short story that has your characters responding to or causing whatever storm you have brewing!

Have fun with this one.

 

Family Story

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How many times have you heard that you should write about what you know? And what do we know most about? Family, of course.

We’ve got quirky aunts and uncles, feisty grandparents, argumentative siblings and overly protective mothers. Maybe. In your family it could be that mom was standoffish, dad was aloof and unconcerned, and that your older sister ran the household.

No matter the formation of our family, it is something that we share in common. Even if we don’t have an uncle who sat a little too close or an aunt who baked the most delicious apple cake, our family is unique and therefor interesting.

It is through our family unit that we figure out where and how we fit in and who we are as a person. This is something that all of us can identify with, and so it becomes fodder for our writing.

If you are intimidated by the prospect of writing about family, then construct memories  that are similar but not identical. Change names and appearances. Make someone older while another is younger. The clingy one becomes strong and dominant while the dominant one becomes shy.

Your task is to take a family story and write it. At first keep the details as is. Even the names. The setting is your hometown, the house the one you lived in. The bedroom you shared with a sibling. The fights you had when someone took your toy. Your joys and sadness.

After you have written this story, then sit back and reflect. First of all, what are the easiest things to change? Names, personalities, appearance. Start there.

Next alter the setting so that it takes place in a completely different time and place. When you think of the house, make it an apartment in a high-rise building. Instead of an inner city bungalow with a tiny yard, move it to a sprawling ranch house in the heart of farmland.

If you wrote about your school, change it in physical appearance as well as in perception. If the school was small, make it huge. If the teacher was warm and welcoming, make him a bit of a grouch. Change your best friend to someone with darker/lighter skin, longer/shorter hair, taller/shorter than you.

After you’ve rewritten your story, does it still reflect what actually happened and how it impacted you? Hopefully it does. If not, then what needs to be changed?

Do this over and over until you have a story that resonates.

Have fun with this one.

Love in the Story

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Love manifests itself in many forms.

We understand like from a very young age. We like ice cream, listening to stories, running around the yard. We like school, the playground, learning new things. We like boys if we’re male and girls if we’re female until we become adolescents and then it’s no longer the “in” thing to like only same-sex friends.

We also learn love. Love of family. Love of our dog or cat. Even love of turtles, elephants, unicorns. We love specific foods and colors. We love styles of clothing. We love our electronics devices and spend countless hours before them.

At some point in time we feel love of the other for the first time. A true, heartfelt desire to be with the other forever and ever. Because of this love we are willing to make sacrifices, to change our lives, to try new things, all to be with this love.

Whoever your character is, then, he must have loves in his life. He probably has a gazillion likes, but he should have one true love. If not, then it’s time to give him one.

Think about your character’s personality and what types of people she feels a kinship to. Does she like tall, muscular body builders? Thin, reedy intellectuals? Those with blue eyes and blond hair or dark brown eyes and tight curls that encircle the head.

Once you’ve discovered the type, then create the person that she will fall in love with. Figure out how they meet. Is it at work or in a coffee shop? At a ballgame or in line to buy the latest Apple product?

Your task is to write the falling in love scene. Remember that even the most villainous of us love something or someone, so don’t be afraid to have your evil character find love.

Put them in the place of meeting. Have them exchange glances, smiles, shrugs. Let us see inside one of their heads so that we know what he is thinking. Is it love at first sight or simply intrigue? What things do they say, do? How do they find out each other’s name and contact information?

Take us to the point where one of them knows it is love.

Have fun with this one.

 

Hero’s Journey, Revisited

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Once before we thought about the Hero’s Journey and how to put it into play in our writing.

If you still have questions, pick up a copy of Nevada Barr’s Destroyer Angel.

The heroine, Anna Pigeon, is a park ranger on vacation with friends in the woods of Minnesota. Anna floats down river, relaxing as she looks about her. Suddenly she hears a sound that is unexpected.

In just a few pages, we have established the heroine’s natural world, the forest and camping with friends, and then given her the call to act.

If she chooses to answer the call, she’ll beach her canoe and investigate. If she decides to ignore the call, she’ll continue floating about.

The hero’s journey is not an even uphill path. So it is for Anna, who must time and time again face challenges, come up with plans, and then execute.

Because I don’t want to give away the story, that’s as much as you’re going to get.

The important concepts are the first two steps: establishing the natural world, be it in a different world, in the past or contemporary, and people it with friends and coworkers. Secondly there must be some sort of impetus, something that wakes up the hero and challenges the hero to choose between two different paths.

For an exciting story, our hero chooses to come to the rescue. To seek the golden chalice, rescue kidnapped friends, destroy an enemy battleship.

Your task is to write the first two stages of the hero’s journey.

Create a character or choose one that you would like to develop further. Make a list of those things that are in that character’s world. You might not use them all, but it gives you a variety of choices from which to pick.

Now make a list of potential challenges or risks that the character might face. Choose only one or two, but make sure that one of them is compelling enough to spur the character to action.

Begin writing. Allow the reader to step into your character’s world. Let us hear the birds singing, the wind whispering in the trees, the children’s voices in the playground. Fill our nostrils with scents of cooking, broken branches, the damp of rotting leaves.

Keep in mind that it does not have to be an idyllic world. In fact, it can’t be if our hero is going to have to stand up and get going.

And that’s what comes next. The call. Somehow the character must become aware of a challenge, such as a home invasion, missing person, stolen item. Like a detective, then the character is spurred on to action.

When you finish, go back and reread. Look for places where you can strengthen the demand.

Have fun with this one.

 

The Comfort Zone

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I am terrified of heights, so you’d never find me zip lining over the rainforest canopy, standing on the precipice of a canyon or climbing the side of a mountain.

But what if my life was threatened by rapidly rising waters? Would I climb a tree to save my life? Most likely I would, but not without first trying to come up with other less risky options.

What are the parameters of your character’s comfort zone? Is she so terrified of spiders that she freezes when one lands on her? If a snake slithers across the trail, will he turn around and go back to the car?

You need to think about this. Begin by making a list of possible scares that fit within the parameters of your character’s personality. For example, someone who loves flying might be willing to bungee jump off a bridge, but would never swim in the ocean.

Try to come up with at least five things that fit within the comfort zone and at least five that do not.

Now, write a scene in which your character must face her fears. Make the stakes high enough that the story is intriguing. No if I do this I win a candy bar stuff, but rather if I don’t do this my friends will tell everyone that I’m a wuss, further damaging my already fragile relationships.

Or even make it life threatening. If I don’t jump out this window, I’m likely to die in the fire or be shot by the robbers or be bitten by the frothing-at-the-mouth dog.

When you are finished, reread, adding tension whenever it is appropriate.

Have fun with this one.

Illness

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There are times when we fall ill.  It’s hard to raise a child without recurrent bouts of ear infections and colds, and as adults we are susceptible to a variety of germs. Think of all the possible ills: bladder infections, pneumonia, cold sores, viruses.

If we are lucky there are medical treatments to help us recover. Children often go through antibiotics like adults go through booze. We suck on throat lozenges, spray sore throats, guzzle cough syrups and rub on any variety of ointments to ease sore muscles.

Your characters are exposed to disease as well. You have to decide what types and for how long they suffer. What medications or courses of treatment they follow. How they handle being ill. Does he tough it out, refusing to let fevers and chills slow him down or does he fall into bed at the slightest indication of illness and stay there, being miserable, until it passes?

These are things that you must decide.

Your task is to write a scene in which at least one of your characters gets sick. Before you begin, make a list of possible ailments. Go online and do some research, looking for symptoms and cures.

Once your list is established, narrow it down to those things that you feel most comfortable writing about. You might stick to those things that you have personally experienced.

Then write. Have your character fall ill. Based on her personality, have her react in a logical way. Send her to the doctor or hospital. Put her in bed. Give her reactions to the course of treatment.

Who will tend him, providing food, clean clothes and nurturing?

Who holds her hand and places cool clothes on her brow?

These are all the things you must consider as you write.

Now, make your character sick!

Have fun with this one.

Setting Aside Time to Write

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I’ve read countless times about how important it is to set aside time, every single day, to write. Some advocate writing in the morning before work. Others say as soon as you get home from work. And then there are those who write after the kids go to bed.

This is a particular problem for me. I think about writing every day, topics rolling around in my head, being rewritten several times over before finally committing to paper.

Considering that I’m retired, you’d think I’d have whole days before me, but that’s not true. I’m busier now than I was when I worked!

So what works for you? Are you a morning person? Do you get up extra early, turn on the computer and type away? Or can you only squeeze in time once dinner is over and the dishes put away?

I do think it is important to read every day in your genre and to think about story as you read. To analyze story beginnings, middles and ends. To examine how characters are introduced and developed. To look at major plot points, how story surges forward and then falls back.

Have you done this? If not, this is your task for the week.

Pick up a book you’ve been dying to read. From the first word on the first page, think critically. If it will help, take notes. What happens on page one? Ten? Twenty?

How does the author end each chapter? Begin the next? How do the characters interact? What kinds of things do they do together? Apart? When they are together, who is dominant and how does that impact their relationship?

For example, who decides where they go for dinner, what movie to see, which party to attend?

So, your work for the week is to read and take note, thinking all the while how this will impact your own writing.

Have fun with this one.

Establishing Setting

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I’ve always had a hard time getting the introduction of setting on the first page. I realize that it’s important that readers know when and where a story takes place, but how do you insert the details without being pedantic?

I’ve tried beginning with a description of the scene, such as John  Steinbeck did so well in both Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. What seemed to come naturally to him is forced from me. Steinbeck was able to set the scene so well that you could almost hear the wind blowing through the trees and smell the smoke from the cook fire.

Science fiction writers have to describe a whole new world in such a way that the reader understands exactly what’s going on. Many might begin with a map, naming places and drawing boundaries in such a way that readers will feel at home as characters pass through the different areas.

Stories set in the past have to establish historical accuracy from the get-go. This includes foods, dress, language, environments and so on. It requires a great amount of research to make sure that this world depicts the way things were.

My stories tend to be contemporary in my world, which means in the San Francisco Bay Area. I do this on purpose. First of all, it’s a world I know and understand. Secondly, I don’t have to use too much imagination to place my characters in the world and set them in motion.

So how do you establish setting? I recommend looking at authors that you respect. Reread the first pages of many different books. Take notes. Imitate what you read, down to the sentence structures, replacing a noun for a noun and a verb for a verb.

Do this over and over until you feel comfortable working on your own.

This is your task. Think of a story that you want to tell.  Using one of the models that you have created as a beginning, tell the story. When you are finished, go back and reread. Does the setting work? When you start reading, do you know the time period and the place or do you have to guess?

If you, the writer, don’t know, then neither will your reader. In this case, go back to your models and try again. Repeat this process until your setting works.

Have fun  with this one.

Coming Home

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Your character has been away from home. Hopefully the trip has gone well. No fights with family. Interesting things to see and done. Good food shared. Nieces and nephews played with and hugged. A wonderful time.

All vacations come to an end and the travelers must return home. What emotions go through them at this time? Do they sense impending loneliness and so don’t want to leave? Is a loved one ill and they fear they this individual might die?

Or do they yearn for the solitude of their own home? I believe that most people love going home, whether that home is a deluxe mansion or a tidy studio apartment. It is theirs, filled with their things, a space that is special to them, no matter how poor.

It is time to bring your character home. As they pack and say final goodbyes, what goes through her mind? We want to know for it tells us quite a bit about the character’s relationship to significant others in her life. But don’t tell us, show us in her tears and words.

As he travels home, whether by plane, train or car, what goes through his mind? Is he missing his dog/cat? Is he dreading going back to work? Is he already missing the places he has gone and the people he has seen?

This is a hard one not to just share with us. You could use phone conversations or texts, but for the most part, for this part of the scene, we will have to be in the character’s head.

Your task is to bring the visit to a close and put your character on the road. Also include the arrival home and the emotions that she feels. What are the first things she does when she arrives? We want to experience this with your character.

Have fun with this one.

Going Home

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Your character has been traveling to new places and having interesting experiences, but has she been thinking of home?

Does he miss his dog, wondering how lonely the poor animal is?

Does he dream about home? Being among her possessions and having a variety of clothing options?

It’s time to bring her home. Plan her route home.

Think about what goes through his mind. The emotions he experiences.

Write the story of her longing for home and how she gets there. What goes through her mind as she nears home.

Describe the emotions he feels when he walks through the door and is greeted by his cat.

Have fun with this one.