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.

The Evil One’s Story

On By Terry ConnellyIn Uncategorized, Writing prompt1 Comment

Not all characters are likeable.  In fact, some are downright despicable. Yet for some readers, such characters are compelling. The reader wants to know what motivates the character and what he will do next.

Perhaps the character has been a victim of emotional abuse since childhood. She is quiet and shy, prefers to be alone and fears crowds. She has few, if any, friends. She never leaves the house. Yet something happens that forces her out of her protective shell and into the world.

Readers might enjoy seeing how this character interacts with the world and whether or not she is changed by her experiences.

What about the abuser? Why kinds of things has he done to the victim? Is the abuse emotional, physical, sexual or all three? For how long has the abuse been going on? What happens when the victim fights back?

Think about the serial killers you see in television shows such as Criminal Minds. Each week another one is set loose in the community. She picks her victims sometimes by random, sometimes with intent. Perhaps the color of the hair triggers a strong emotional reaction. Maybe it’s the shape of the face or the size of the feet. Perhaps she hates all teachers because she was once bullied by a teacher.

Your task is to create a situation in which your protagonist is not likeable. He fits one of the profiles above, or maybe one you’ve been thinking about for a while.

Give your character at least one victim and then put him in action. Let the reader see what he does, in rich detail. Do not hesitate to include gore, if that’s what turns your abuser on. But be careful. Too much gore when not important to the story might turn off your readers.

This will be a challenging topic. I’d like to close in my usual way by saying have fun with this one, but it does not feel appropriate.

Good luck!

Another Look at the Past

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Storytellers and memoir writers have to keep in mind that telling what happened in the past can affect how a person looks at the present.

One effective way of detailing the past is through the form of letter writing.

Address the letter to the main character or to yourself. Begin:

Dear Mattie,

And then write notes that encourage the character to overcome past occurrences, emotional distress or offenses committed against self or others.

For example:

“When you were a little girl, you were stuck between a brother who was worshiped by your mother and a sister who could do no wrong. This put you in a precarious position that was none of your doing. No matter how hard you tried, you could never be as perfect as your brother nor as needy as your sister. You tried to garner your mother’s attention by being shy and retiring.”

And so on.

Do not hold back. Speak about the things that the character/you did that got you in trouble or lead you down the wrong path. About those things that you could not control but that shaped who you later became. About those things that you did well for which you earned promotions, degrees, letters of accomplishment.

Do not try to cover the entire life in one letter, but rather construct a series of letters as information pops into your head.

After you have written a letter, think about how you can turn the details into a story. Construct likely dialogue and interpersonal interactions that might have happened. Do not worry about being exact as that will hold you back.

Your task is to write at least one letter either to yourself or to a main character. Make it at least 4 paragraphs long. Touch on emotional issues that motivated you/your character to react. When you are finished, do not put the letter in your story. Turn it into a series of scenes, including dialogue, that are interesting to read.

Have fun with this one!

Good luck.

Dealing with the Past

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In Karen White’s contemporary novel, The Sound of Glass, the secrets of the past are interwoven with events of the present. As the story unfolds, the strings binding together families slowly unravel, revealing a disturbing proclivity that is spread across time, place and generation.

This novel reminds us that a person’s history is built by a series of events that influence the development of character.

A classic example is that of an abusive parent or spouse, who abuses the children of the union, who then grow up not knowing any other path of relationship building, and so repeat the pattern of violent action on a new generation.

Likewise a family that is created by love, kindness and caring raises children who feel the warmth, grow up understanding how love binds together individuals and so build new relationships based on mutual respect.

When designing a character, the writer must take into consideration that individual’s past. While the past might not be described in the text, but it does influence how an individual sees and responds to the world.

One way to do this is to write a character sketch of a defining moment in that person’s life. It could be a remembrance of being held in the father’s arms, snuggling with a sibling in a hammock strung between two strong trees, talk around the table during dinner.

Imagine how differently the individual sees the world if he is smacked across the face for speaking during a meal, pushed against a wall for dropping a toy that shatters into pieces or is whipped with a belt for forgetting to pick up dirty clothes.

Your task is to create the background for a character that already exists in one of your stories. You can do this either by writing a scene or by making a list of bulleted points.

Once you have done this, reread your story and look for places where the individual’s reactions would be influenced by the past. Make corrections in order to build consistency.

Have fun with this one.

Good luck.

Differentiating Peoples

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Victoria Aveyard’s novel, The Red Queen, follows seventeen-year-old Mare Barrow, a common girl who is drawn into the king’s palace through a chance meeting. Aveyard’s futuristic world is divided by blood—there are those with Red blood who are doomed to serve those with Silver blood. The assumption is that those who bleed red have no special talents and actually enjoy a life of servitude and drudgery. Those who bleed silver are gifted with superhuman abilities and so deserve to be held in high esteem.

The driving force behind the novel is the acknowledgement that not all people are the same. Some have natural-born talents to do amazing things, while many of us will go through life barely scraping by.

When you write a story, you people it with characters large and small, wealthy and not, intelligent or slow, able or disabled. Because our world consists of varied peoples, your world should also in order to mirror reality.

It is not an easy task to cover a spectrum of humanity without making it look fabricated or trite. Choose wisely, always thinking of those you meet as you go about your day.

For example, there is a wheelchair-bound man who sells snacks and cold drinks outside the metro station. A computer genius lives next door and you turn to him whenever something goes wrong. On the other side is a handyman who can fix almost anything. How about the autistic teen who loves to take apart electronic devices and make them work once again? The woman who climbs telephone poles to install fiber optic cables and drives race cars on the weekend.

Your task is to create a scene in which your character interacts with a variety of people. Choose one in particular to become an important supporting member of the cast. Let the others be chance encounters who enrich the character’s day.

After you’ve finished, reread to make sure that you have not stereotyped by race, gender, sexual preference or ethnicity.  Look to see if each moves, thinks, speaks in a unique way. Reach for a natural flow for the action/movement of the story.

Have fun with this one!

Good luck.

 

Why Hire an Author Coach

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Have you spent hours editing your work just to find, during one more run-through, typos and grammatical errors? Incomplete sentences? Unfinished thoughts or scenes? Repetitive phrases? Missing info?

Has your reading group offered help, but not substantial critique? You ask yourself why, when you so badly want their help, do they leave things dangling?

Maybe it is time to look for an Author Coach.

What does an Author Coach do? Your coach can help with editing, but can do so much more for you than that. Your coach can encourage you to brainstorm additional ideas or motivations for your character, can mentor you when you are stalled, and assist you with tracking your goals.

Let’s say that your plot isn’t moving along as smoothly as you would like. This is something an Author Coach can help solve. Maybe one of your characters is flat and you can’t see a way to round her out. Your author coach can do that.

In my case, my manuscript was finished but I needed an objective opinion. I wanted someone who was not my friend to read without bias, who could see places where the story bogs down as well as spots where not enough descriptive detail was provided.

I met an Author Coach as the San Francisco Writer’s Conference in February. Yes, she charges a fee. Yes, I signed a contract. What was awesome was that within a month she had read my manuscript and provided me with 16 pages of ideas!

She found inconsistencies. For example, in one scene my character said that her mom did not own a cell phone, but in a later scene mom used it to take a call. Small potatoes, but something that missed my own review.

Another service that she provided was reading my rough draft of a query letter. She helped with wording, with my “credential” and with something as simple as the greeting. After spending an hour with her going over the query, I made the corrections and mailed it out. Two hours later an agent requested to read my manuscript!

One other problem area for me was the one-page synopsis that agents require. I had never shared mine with anyone before and so did not know if it was what agents look for. My Author Coach read it and offered suggestions that were logical.

Prior to going to the conference I had never known that coaches existed. Now I am a strong advocate of hiring one. She helped me see the things that most needed correction. She was respectful and kind, yet strong enough to make me believe that her ideas would polish my manuscript in ways that I could not do alone.

Your task is to consider going outside your comfort zone. Think about whether or not this is a step that you feel comfortable taking.

Good luck!

Career Path

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Everyone has a job to go to, no matter how young or old. Babies have a lot to learn in their early years. School children hopefully learn something new every day and then do work to demonstrate mastery. In high school, students take classes to prepare for college or career.

Some might not consider this learning work, but it is. If you are writing a book for young people, you need to take into account that a portion of their day must be spent encountering new things, being exposed to lessons not yet learned.

Beginning with the teen years, many students have after-school jobs. They might work in an office, sell jewelry at a boutique or do basic maintenance on cars. How do they like their jobs? Do they yearn for something more, and if they do, what is it? Do they wear a uniform at their job? Is it mustard-yellow or sky blue? Does it fit snuggly or bag around the waist?

In college, many students work for professors. They run workshops, correct papers, help prepare students for tests. Some work in the bookstore while others in the cafeteria. Some are lucky enough to not have to work, but join fraternities and sororities that take up much of their time.

When you write about college students, their jobs affect how they look at life, what they are able to do during their free time, and who their friends are.

Most adults work. Yes, there are the disabled and homeless who are unable to find jobs that they can successfully master. There are the emotionally damaged and those with physical challenges who cannot work, but their jobs are healing, getting stronger, overcoming fear and loss.

Even into retirement, adults keep busy. They go to the gym, join organizations and attend meetings, volunteer at schools, teach classes part-time and attend workshops. They work for the Census when the time arises and staff polling places during elections. They help at their church or with scouts or around the house, making improvements and keeping up with yardwork.

Your task is to create a scene in which your character has a job to do. It might not be the job of her dreams, but it is a job. Write about her feelings as she prepares to go to work. Tell what she sees, hears, smells as she brushes her teeth, combs her hair, drinks her coffee.

Describe her commute. Is the train crowded and stuffy? Does she get stuck in traffic that creeps along? What does she do while commuting? Catch up on email? Listen to an audiobook? Read? Talk to a friend?

Once at work, what does he do? Imagine walking in his shoes and doing what he does. Is there any point during the day when he has to complete a task that he hates? What is it? Why does he hate it?

How does she feel when her work is complete and she gets to go home? Is she exhausted? Relieved? Still thinking about unfinished tasks?

Walk us through the day, from beginning to end.

Have fun with this one.

Good luck.

Going Places

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People seldom stay home all day long, day after day. They go to work, out to eat and shopping for food, clothes and other necessities.

They travel by foot, car, bus, ferry and train. If they are lucky, they fly around the world visiting relatives, seeing exotic places and attending conferences.

When they travel, they encounter others, like the homeless woman who sleeps on a bench inside the train station or the drug-influenced young man who stumbles about the ferry banging into passengers.

No two trips are alike. Each day brings a new adventure, some more interesting or frightening than others.

Your characters must also go places and have encounters every day. This presents a challenge to the writer. How to make a journey unique? Using descriptive phrases that incorporate the senses allows the reader to walk next to your character.

Your task is to write a scene in which your character goes somewhere and experiences something unusual. Think about what she sees, hears, smells and tastes.

Have fun with this.

Good luck.

Loneliness is a Powerful Emotion

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We’ve all known someone who is lonely. It could have been a parent, isolated due to age, inability to get about or having outlived all other relatives.

It might be a coworker, who appears on time, every day, puts in a full day’s work, completes tasks without complaint, but yet doesn’t socialize with others. It does not mean that the person is narcissistic, but rather that the individual doesn’t know how to initialize conversations or feels that he has nothing to contribute. Or maybe no one has every approached him and invited him to come along on an evening’s jaunt.

Walk into any classroom and you will find one lonely child. Sadness covers her face, which she keeps pointing down toward her desk. She never works with others on projects, never plays with others on the playground and always eats alone in the cafeteria.

Our stories are usually peopled with the more socially adjusted. Why? It makes for a happier read. We cannot just write romances or fairy tales in which everyone lives happily ever after. Our stories need to be about those on the margins of society. The left-out. The lonely.

Your task is to write a short series of scenes in which the main character has no friends, no family, to close coworker to turn to. Figure out whether or not others reach out to this individual, and if they do, what is the reaction. Decide how this character feels about the situation and if she takes any steps to rectify it. What happens if she does? Is she turned away or welcomed?

Good luck with this one.

Have fun.

Don’t Forget Tech

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Today’s world is filled with all kinds of gadgets, from cell phones that act as cameras to low-energy appliances that do our laundry and dishes. Almost every day we read of new advances in technology, many meant to improve lives and expand capabilities.

If you are writing contemporary literature, your characters must interact with the technology of the day. Consider everyday activities such as stepping on a digital scale, loading the dishwasher, turning on the computer. Watching HD television and carrying around thousands of our favorite songs. Reading books on hand-held devices. Playing video games in 3-D and even exercising along with animated creations that run, jump and bicycle in time to your movements.

People love their devices and cannot imagine quality life without them, so include them in your stories. They check their phones constantly for emails and texts. They walk around with ear buds, barely paying attention to where they are going. Players go to competitions in which masters compete against monsters on the screen as well as against each other.High schools have robotics teams that build, compete and destroy other machines.

Your task is to write a scene in which your character uses at least five different modern pieces of technology. Be creative. Don’t put them all in one paragraph, but find a way to logically place the tech in the scene. Don’t be afraid to use cutting-edge tech to accomplish tasks that have yet to be programmed.

Have fun with this one.

Good luck.

A Safe Place to Live

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We’ve heard the stories of refugees who leave war-torn countries in search of a peaceful place in which to live. They yearn for jobs, food, and a relief from fear. They pack what belongings they can carry, and walk mile after mile, experiencing countless hardships along the way.

Our hearts go out to them, even when there is little we can do to offer comfort.

What about the refugees closer to home? The shopping-cart people who get up every morning and begin pushing up and down streets, hoping to find someplace out of the weather that also offers some degree of privacy.

The homeless man, sound asleep leaning against a shopkeeper’s wall in downtown San Francisco. If he’s lucky, he has pieces of cardboard on which to lie and a blanket as cover. He is dirty, ragged and hungry.

Standing on many corners are street beggars. Signs in hand, they speak of wanting a few cents to buy a meal, a job that can give them money for a place to stay for at least one night, or maybe medicine for a sick child.

It is easy to write stories in which the characters are comfortable in fancy home, in tree-lined neighborhoods, with two working parents and new cars in the drive.

It is much more challenging to speak for the speechless, to tell their stories with compassion and understanding.

Your task is to choose a refugee and place her in a scene. Give her a voice. Listen to her heart. Interact with her, in some way, either in first person or as an omniscient narrator.

Wake up with her in the morning, walk about with her in the day, sleep with her at night. Eat meals with her. Follow her as she searches for a bathroom in which to wash up. Be with her, not as a sympathetic ear, but as an equal. Walk in her shoes, even if just for one day.

Good luck with this one.