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A weird thing happened at the library that changed how I start stories
I was at the downtown branch last Tuesday, just looking for a quiet spot. I saw a guy at a table with maybe fifteen library books stacked up, all different colors. He was writing in a notebook, but not from the books. He was just watching people walk by the big window and writing one line for each person. I got curious and asked him about it after a bit. He said he does it to find his characters, that real people are weirder than anything he can make up. He showed me one line, 'woman in green coat checks her watch three times in one minute.' I tried it myself right there. Instead of starting with a plot, I wrote five lines about people I saw. It gave me a person to write about first, which feels way easier now. Has anyone else tried finding a character before figuring out what happens to them?
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seth_wells4921d ago
Nah, that method would just leave me stuck.
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charlie_roberts8720d ago
Try a different angle then.
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sage529d ago
That library story is actually a solid method (way better than staring at a blank page). The thing is, it's not really about finding a character before the plot, but finding a person who already has a tiny plot happening. Like that woman checking her watch, she's already in the middle of some kind of stress. It gives you a question to answer, which is where the story starts. Charlie_Roberts87 has a point about trying a different angle, and this is a good one because you're working from a real, observed detail instead of just a vague idea. It takes the pressure off making something up from nothing.
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