The Ultimate Writer's Manual

[phantasm]

Okay, Sabrina, guys, I just gave myself a pretty good flash of insight here. This thread may have to be moved from the General Poetry section to a more practical location. But I want to get this started.

This thread is for talking ABOUT writing, in every possible technical way. This is about learning to write effectively, in any genre. It could be for a screenplay, an epic poem, a short story, a novel, or a series of novels or short stories. This is about anything under the banner of fiction. Under this banner we can gather all sorts of insights, writing tips, writing prompts, Q & A sessions, as well as pointing people to books they may not be aware of on this subject. I don't know if anyone else ever tried this concept here. But this thread could refresh dialogue.

[phantasm]

Here's an example from me to get this thing off the ground.

It's easy to muddy the waters when we start talking about "story." It is an oversimplification to say no two stories are identical or alike. There is however, a great way to start thinking about the problem of what makes any two stories similar or dissimilar.

There are four essential elements in a story:
1) Milieu
2) Idea
3) Character
4) Event

This comes out into a nice little acronym: M.I.C.E. All stories have all four elements. If you've got M.I.C.E. in your head, you may well have a story. But at least one element may dominate all the others.

MILIEU is the world, the society, the town, the family. All the elements that come up in the world-creation phase. If you're grounding your story in the present or in the historical past, you have much of your work already cut out for you, as many basic facts have already been established in reality. For example, if you're telling a story in 21st Century America, you don't have to invent a fashion of clothing. Same goes for most any historically-minded story, weather Ming Dynasty China or 18th Century England. But if your story is happening in the future on Earth, or if it's happening on a different world or planet, you have the opportunity to invent fashion, as well as all the other elements of a society.

IDEA stories are about the quest for knowledge of some kind. They are driven by the acquisition of knowledge. They are about answering a question. The plot may begin with the raising of the question. The plot ends when the question is answered. There may be obstructions in the form of false knowledge or leads. There could be a character in the role of a guide. The complexity of the story is based on the complexity of the idea at the heart of the story.

CHARACTER is something all stories depend on, on some sort of minimal level. Character may depend on a character arc, a movement of the personality of a character from being one kind of person to another. Or the story, less often, may be dependent on a character remaining who he/she is throughout the story as challenges are dealt with.

An EVENT is the occasion for the story. Something is often wrong in the world and it must be made right. Disorder may be obvious, or it might be subtle. An object might be discovered, a new person has been met, a new place discovered, a dead body found, a weapon deployed, a spell cast. They often are about arduous journeys through tough terrain and other challenges met on the trip.




I am indebted to Orson Scott Card's The Writer's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy for the categories of M.I.C.E. I took some of the concepts from a section of the book and tried to put them in the familiarity of my voice. I have tried not to give much of Card's own material or examples away. Most of the examples I cited are my own. If anyone cites a thought they know for sure they ran across in a book, please be kind to the author. Do not dump umpteen paragraphs verbatim into this thread.

[anirbas]

I like this, Phant. Most likely I will move it to a different board, that is a better fit for the subject matter.

[phantasm]

Quick addendum-- anyone can contribute to this thread, in case that wasn't clear.....

[anirbas]

I have a few books to suggest upon the subject at hand, Phant. However, first I must find them...There are books all over the bat cave...But, find them, I shall. And when I do, I will post them here.

I like this thread on writing, you've created. And it already has inspired at least one poet here, to try her prose wings. (Heartfelt)

[anirbas]

Some "self-help" books that have been re-read by me over the past several years, are as follows:

!. A Memoir of the Craft-On Writing by Stephen King.

2. No Plot? No Problem! A Low-stress, HIGH-VELOCITY Guide to
Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty.

3. Poetry for Dummies by John Timpane, Ph.D. with Maureen Watts.

I realize the last is about poetry, and this is a thread concerning prose. However, I have found it invaluable in reminding me of all the things I'd forgotten about poetry and the writing of it since high school.

Number 2, I read through and then penned Hunger Pains following some of it's fabulous guidelines. It is more about how to get the rough draft down. How not to get bogged down in the details that can contribute to cooling the lava flow of first thoughts...Hunger Pains, though featured in the Short Story section here, still needs to be final drafted. It's one hot mess, I realized, re-reading it, after skimming through Phant's second post...

[phantasm]

Thanks for the reading list, Sabrina. I'm fairly flexible here, esp. since it's the only thread in this section for the moment. Maybe you could move one or two other threads that might belong in this category to fill out the board.


To continue with my content earlier on, the M.I.C.E. acronym is a great way to get started thinking about writing a fictional story of any possible kind you can dream up. Within this interpretive lens, you can frame what kind of story you want to tell.

Maybe you had a flash of insight and invented a character with nothing or no one to ground him or her into a story. That would be a character story.

Maybe you find yourself constantly fantasizing about the explorers of the Polynesians as humanity explored the South Pacific for the first time. That's a milieu story. Or, depending on how you wish to write the story, it could be an Event story.

These categories are by no means lock boxes. Can you think of a story that embraces at least two of these categories?