Starting Write Club and thinking out loud
It’s day one of Write Club, and day 8 of #challenge30days. As I mentioned in my post yesterday (You too can participate in Write Club), I’m going to complete the 30 day writing challenge while participating in Write Club, possibly against better judgment. I tell you, once I’ve locked onto a commitment, I’m like a pitbull!
Some of my posts during this time may be really quite brief, like “Help me! I can’t believe I committed to this deadly Write Club boot camp! Over.”
But for now I’m in the blissful early stages of the 16 weeks. I feel fresh and ready, and creatively charged up. So I thought I would write a little about the process, and how I’m launching into it, and the ideas I am mulling over for my first story. By tomorrow I intend to start writing.
The image I picked to illustrate this post may make sense a few paragraphs below.
Mulling over the writing prompt
So, Ms. @tanglebranch gave us the first prompt yesterday. And it’s awesome. The idea is based on an O. Henry story, The Gift of the Magi. It harkens back to the well-known bible story and plays out the story of a married couple who each sacrifice something to give each other a special Christmas gift.
Her directive was as follows: “My only requirement is that in your story there must be a gift given, and it must cost a lot. Not in an expensive way, but in a sacrificial way. On your mark, get set, GO!”
So today is all about plotting and planning. What follows is a look at where I am in my thought process as I prepare to get started.
Potential plots
Coming up with a worthy conflict and storyline under these circumstances should not be too difficult. Someone must sacrifice something! The conflict could be about fear or reluctance. It could be that the recipient of the gift must not know it is a gift, or must not know who it is from, because they would be wounded by it in some way. There are so many possibilities.
To collect my thoughts, I began sketching them out as loglines. (You can read my logline post for more information on loglines as a writing mechanism.)
A few of my ideas:
- A woman gives up a kidney so the husband who abused her can live.
- A child who reluctantly goes to sing carols at the children's hospital, decides to give his favorite toy to another child who has nothing.
- A woman who has been estranged from her domineering mother for 20 years, fights through anger to go to her mother's deathbed and forgive her. (Forgiveness is her gift.)
- When a father and his son are caught in a terrible snow storm during a winter camping trip the father insisted on, he gives up his heavy coat to save his son….
So, there you have it. A sneak peak into what I’m mulling over, as I get ready to start writing. I’m not saying I’m picking one of the above storylines, necessarily. And I’m not saying I’m not! (Should I keep the real one a secret??)
Thanks for reading!
If you are a writer seeking community and support, you can find editors to help you at The Writers’ Block on Discord.
Go, go go! All my support, looking forward to reading your outcomes!
Many thanks! I will accept all the support I can get. While challenging, it is sure to be the creative adventure of a lifetime.
Dude, this is gonna be so lit. If you're alive by the end of it, like, I dunno, cool.
Oh we will survive! I’m counting on you. You’ve got this, and I’ve got this, and six other writers have got this. In 110 days we will be walking toward the sunset in the soft glow of evening light, mist surrounding us as we leave the scene in slow motion, the deed done.
110 DAYS???
When you say it like that, it sounds like foreverrr.
Also, I broke my slow motion back in High School, so I can't use it anymore.
Ha ha, yeah. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, particularly when mathematics are involved, but my trusty calculator tells me that 16 weeks times 7 days is 112. We are two auspicious days in. So here we are! 110 days and counting down.
@tanglebranch's prompt is great. I like her requirement of 'sacrifice' (I tend to write a lot of self-sacrifice into my stories) because its so wide open, and I like the set of ideas you are toying with. A wide range of interpretations there. I admit I'd personally probably go with the 'giving up the heavy coat' direction, since it potentially can weigh so strongly on the dramatic and sad.
Press on, and good luck!
I agree, and now you know why I picked that image. That logline is my favorite, and at some point the story must be told. I’m building a logline spreadsheet so they can ripen for the plucking as needed. But for the story I must write in the coming week I have something else in mind. Bwah ha ha.
I will write the father-son tale perhaps when I have not very recently experienced a string of real life losses. Or perhaps when these things are fresh and raw it is the best time to write a tale of sadness. What think you?
Ah, that's a hard question. I find I write a 'better' story when I'm writing something I have seen or heard or felt myself. So, to me it feels like the story would be more powerful and genuine when those emotions are still fresh and strong in your own self.
Taking that a step further, it might be harder on yourself to write such a story LATER, in large part because you would have to dredge up all those memories and emotions you had forgotten and allowed to slip towards the back of your head. You'd have to drag them all to the forefront again. Not sure if that would feel good either.
Still...everyone is different, so that's just my opinion.
Hmm, yes to all that. I do sometimes wish I had written some things closer to when they happened, when their power was palpable. To write of them when their edges have softened is harder. I no longer worry about having to deal with the reliving of them as they are too far in the distant past, but the richness with which I may have been able to fictionalize them is perhaps no longer available to me. Sigh. There is never any “right” answer in these things, is there?
Definitely no right answer, but looking into my past at times when I was overwhelmed by sadness, I don't think I'd be able to write a coherent story. Gotta wait at least a little bit for your mind to settle.
So true. On another note, I think you may have been traveling when they picked the current Write Club victims—er, participants. I see you doing this in a future round, don’t you?
I certainly wouldn't mind doing it in a future round. Far too crazy over the holidays though, with traveling and other stuff. For now I shall watch from the sidelines as you all suffer.
I envy you this. The level of commitment to your writing. The being able to be in write club. I almost decided to screw my health and sign up when Muxxy said yes, just to do it with him, but I realized it wouldn't be fair to the person who didn't get a spot, when most likely I wouldn't make it to the end because of my usual issues.
You made the right choice, my friend! We need you to take care of yourself. I hope the inspiration and collective creative power of this experience inspires everyone who is not or could not participate this round for whatever reason. “A rising tide lifts all hoats”
Good idea @jayna
I like those topics, how can i partcipate because am still a newbie here
Follow the link to Tangle's prompt, which is available to anyone who wants to use it. You can't get into the hard core of write club, but you can write a story to fit the prompt and you can even join The Writers' Block to run it through our queue in the fiction-workshop and get help making it the best story possible.
We also help with brainstorming, if needed.
Also, the top link in this post goes to the post that describes how to participate. Good luck, @juliusjamex!