Ely Writers meeting 5, August 2022: review

Thank you to everyone who came to the meeting last night.

Free writing

This evening, we did some more scribble chatting1. This time, instead of asking our character about their name, we asked them about their favourite and least favourite weather:

  1. What is your favourite weather?
  2. How does it make you feel?
  3. What does it make you want to do?
  4. What is your least favourite weather?
  5. How does it make you feel?
  6. What does it make you want to do?

Then we discussed whether we’d learned anything new about our characters as a result of the scribble chat.

Sadly, Caity didn’t learn a huge amount about the character she chose, although I did find out he gets snippy if asked for the same information twice. Well, that’s what happens when he answers question 4 in question 1!

Elmore Leonard’s first rule of writing2 is never to start with the weather, unless you’re Barry Lopez writing Arctic Dreams3, where telling the reader about the weather serves a purpose.

The first sentence of Arctic Dreams reads:

On a winter afternoon – a day without a sunrise, under a moon that had not set for six days – I stand on the frozen ocean 20 miles off Cape Mamen, Mackenzie King Island.

Arctic Dreams

It tells us that the narrator is in a desolate place, standing on the ocean in the winter, when the nights have drawn in so much, they’re never broken by the sun. It shows us where the narrator is.

Another acceptable purpose for starting with the weather is show the effect it has on a character (ideally the main character), so we start to get to know that character straight away.

Outing

We have an outing to look forward to!

One of our members has written a pantomime. As many of us as possible will go and watch it in January to show our support.

The pantomime is Beauty and the Beast, and has been rewritten from the original story by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

Readings

We had one reading today. Constructive criticism was invited concerning a scene where a character was descending into the depths of the Earth, so we discussed how the text could be improved.

The advice given was largely to move the action closer to the start by moving more detailed description to a later point, including all the senses, and, most importantly, add how the character felt as he descended. The point of view was good, with no lapses into other characters’ heads.

References

  1. Caity 2018. Ely Writers Meeting 4, July 2022: review at Ely Writers.
  2. Leonard, Elmore 2001. Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. Illustrated by Joe Ciardiello. New York: Harper Collins
  3. Perez, Barry 1986. Arctic Dreams: imagination and desire in a northern landscape. New York: Scribner Book Company