We will complete the last 2 pages of Lovecraft's story "The Colour Out of Space", check in on his advice, then switch over to discussing Stephen King's advice on writing in "On Writing".
After our discussion, let's take a look at some more advice about how to succeed in a project:
Philosopher's Notes: On Writing: 5 Big Ideas in Stephen King's On Writing
Stephen King's Writing Tips (from Latenight)
Creative Writing Tips from Stephen King
Stephen King Biography: The Man Who Almost Didn't Become a Writer (16 min.)
and for those of you who can't get enough...H.P. Lovecraft: A Titan of Terror (21 min.)
22 Lessons from Stephen King on How to Be a Great Writer (article)
And then get writing. Use the prompts and exercises we have tried and begin writing your horror draft. If you get stuck, instead of bothering your neighbor, read your homework (see below) or watch the 2 biography videos we didn't watch in class.
1. Choose one of your fears or a disturbing image. For a fear, personify that fear or use the fear as a metaphor for a "monster" or threat in your story. And/Or: Place the disturbing image as the end of your story. Then walk back to the events that might have occurred before the horrible/disturbing image. Write that first. Put it to the side.
2. Go back and start your story. Write only the scenes you can--if you don't know your beginning scene, skip it for now. If you don't know your middle, skip it for now...etc. Once you have an idea, write what you can. Skip over the scenes in your story that you can't imagine yet.
3. Or use Lovecraft or King's methods to write a short story.
After our discussion, let's take a look at some more advice about how to succeed in a project:
Philosopher's Notes: On Writing: 5 Big Ideas in Stephen King's On Writing
Stephen King's Writing Tips (from Latenight)
Creative Writing Tips from Stephen King
Stephen King Biography: The Man Who Almost Didn't Become a Writer (16 min.)
and for those of you who can't get enough...H.P. Lovecraft: A Titan of Terror (21 min.)
22 Lessons from Stephen King on How to Be a Great Writer (article)
And then get writing. Use the prompts and exercises we have tried and begin writing your horror draft. If you get stuck, instead of bothering your neighbor, read your homework (see below) or watch the 2 biography videos we didn't watch in class.
1. Choose one of your fears or a disturbing image. For a fear, personify that fear or use the fear as a metaphor for a "monster" or threat in your story. And/Or: Place the disturbing image as the end of your story. Then walk back to the events that might have occurred before the horrible/disturbing image. Write that first. Put it to the side.
2. Go back and start your story. Write only the scenes you can--if you don't know your beginning scene, skip it for now. If you don't know your middle, skip it for now...etc. Once you have an idea, write what you can. Skip over the scenes in your story that you can't imagine yet.
3. Or use Lovecraft or King's methods to write a short story.
- Start with a mood, idea, or image and mull it around in your brain a bit.
- Create a list of plot occurrences of basic events that COULD happen in the story. Write the order of the plot events. This happened, then this happened, etc. Connect the dots. Use the outline you create, but start your story in a different place than a chronological order of events. For ex. the surveyor narrator in "The Colour Out of Space" is the second to LAST event that happens in the story, yet Lovecraft starts the story with him arriving in town and meeting Ammi Pierce.
- Write out your story rapidly. Then fix it later.
- Tell the truth as you see it. Don't fixate on "scaring" anyone. Instead, use suspense and good writing tips...(see blog posts below on how to create suspense)
- Don't be afraid to rewrite...
- Remember that all stories should have a beginning, middle, end.
- Length does not matter. Your effort does.
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