Weekly Summary, Exercises 176-182
Monday, Apr 8 through Sunday, Apr 14, 2024
These posts are now unlocked for everyone including free subscribers.
In a few days this newsletter will celebrate six months of daily writing exercises. It has been a good bit of work so far, but also fun. And I feel my own writing ability improves with each exercise I complete.
This week we dove into description and details. Writing is a distillation or reality. In fact, one can say it’s a distillation of perception which is itself a distillation of reality, which makes it a bit like whiskey. So it’s important to select the right details to create your world.
We looked into how anthropologists collect details about people acting in their environments, and how the details of an environment reveal character. We then explored how perspective changes the details we write about and how to use iterative narrative to step outside the constrained viewpoint of the here and now.
Then on Friday we ran through a gauntlet of short challenges to write more active description, while Saturday we learned how to describe action from different focuses of attention. And we ended the week looking at different ways to describe characters beyond their face.
These are all exercises that have a lot of reusability. Feel free to run through them a few times and build up the power of description.
Monday, Apr 08, 2024
AEIOU and Me
Exercise #176 Collecting Observations Like an Anthropologist
Strategy: This exercise employs the AEIOU framework, which stands for Activities, Environments, Interactions, Objects, and Users. By using this framework to observe and describe a scene, writers can create more comprehensive and insightful descriptions that capture the essence of a place and its inhabitants.
Tuesday, Apr 09, 2024
The Space We Inhabit
Exercise #177 Describing Characters through Setting
Strategy: This exercise focuses on developing descriptive writing skills by using a character's personal space as a canvas to reveal their personality, history, and emotional state. The goal is to teach writers how to use setting and objects within a space as metaphors or symbols that subtly indicate aspects of a character's life or psyche. This strategy encourages attention to detail and the employment of show, don't tell techniques in narrative writing.
Wednesday, Apr 10, 2024
Delving into Perspective
Exercise #178 Describing from a Viewpoint
Strategy: This exercise aims to help writers practice describing a subject from a specific point of view. By considering how perspective influences the details that are emphasized or minimized, writers can create more nuanced and engaging descriptions.
Thursday, Apr 11, 2024
Always, Sometimes, and Never
Exercise #179 Capturing Character Habits
Strategy: Iterative narration is a useful tool for fiction writers to convey background information, characterization, and the passage of time without disrupting the narrative flow. By describing habitual actions or events, writers can efficiently provide context and depth to their characters and settings. This exercise aims to help writers practice using iterative narration to capture character habits and routines.
Friday, Apr 12, 2024
Active Description Gauntlet
Exercise #180 Writing More Active Descriptions
Strategy: This exercise aims to help writers practice creating dynamic descriptions by quickly generating examples of various techniques, such as describing actions, capturing changes in nature, showing character development, describing the evolution of settings, and using active verbs. By working through these challenges in rapid succession, writers can develop their ability to create engaging, immersive descriptions on the fly.
Saturday, Apr 13, 2024
Attention to Detail
Exercise #181 Shifting Attentional Focus
Strategy: This exercise aims to help writers practice describing the same action from three different attentional focuses: internal, external, and holistic. By shifting the narrator's focus between bodily sensations, environmental objectives, and the overall quality of movements, writers can create more nuanced and immersive descriptions that capture different aspects of the character's experience.
Sunday, Apr 14, 2024
More Than Just a Pretty Face
Exercise #182 Brainstorming Character Details
Strategy: This exercise focuses on generating a list of potential details to describe characters using various techniques such as distinctive features, figurative language, personality indicators, gestures, viewpoint, and sensory details. By brainstorming these details separately, writers can practice creating vivid and diverse character descriptions that they can later incorporate into their stories. Keep in mind we’re not describing a single character, but brainstorming potential details.
Our next weekly theme will focus on finishing projects.