AJStrout

Artist, writer, indie filmmaker, editor, activist, feminist, cyborg, queer, complicated, zombie apocalypse expert, dub step connoisseur. No judging.

[demonprincex]

FREE LIT MAG GIVEAWAY!

I have a story in Issue 2 of THEM Lit! You know what that means!

I have 2 free contributor’s copies and I’d like to one pass along to you!

Reblog this post by Friday, May 22 to enter!

I will use a random number generator to select a winner, who will receive a free (non-licked) copy of this magazine, along with a hand-written Place Portrait, penned by me, about your mailing address.

[floofybitch]

OK but what if we want the licked copy???

[demonprincex]

u can get the licked copy, i trust you with my dna

[yeahwrite]

the licked copy

[ajstrout]

Character Development: How does your character see the world?

A fascinating plot and an interesting world are definitely important aspects of great story telling. Well developed characters, however, are what drive a story. Characters push the narrative forward, make decisions that turn events, and provide the reader with a conscious mind to identify with. So why have I stumbled across so many stories where the main character’s view of the world is inconsistent or, worse, invisible? I’m not just talking about the character’s inner monologue. Anyone can write what a character is thinking, though I wouldn’t suggest it. It’s not particularly interesting, to me at least, constantly receiving cues from the author through character thought. It seems like cheating. Dare I say it’s lazy writing?

Instead, my suggestion here is that writers pay close attention to how their character feels about the world. The personality, demeanor, and life experience of a character will shape their view, so having as many details about the character fleshed out as you can, is your first task. After you know your character, though, it’s important to let the descriptions of the world and its events come through the character’s lens. This is especially true if you’re writing in a close 3rd person perspective. In close 3rd person, the author is nearly indistinguishable from the character. So rather than describing the mountain their climbing from a god’s eye view which includes everything the character can’t see, feel, or know, write the mountain from their persona, demeanor, and experience. It’s not just a rocky mountain with luscious golden flowers that your depressed but hopeful character is traversing...

It’s a fucking endless mountain sprinkled with jagged rocks that are begging to slice some skin. One fall, just one, and it won’t matter that he’s half way there. Everyone on the other side of this heap of nothing will have more reason to laugh. Especially Marla. She’d love to see him fail, wouldn’t she? That smug smile of hers, akin to the Joker’s, smears across her face every time he falls short. Fuck it. Going back isn’t an option. He wants to smother Marla with envy.

James looks around. Those aren’t rocks he’s moving over. They’re the faces of everyone who’s ever let him down. He clenches his fists. He kicks the marigold flowers growing in the cracks and watches their heads launch into the air. He stomps on Marla’s face, uses it for solid footing, and thrusts himself up toward the next rock. This one’s Jim. That smug bastard who swiped his promotion. He spits on him as he glides past, landing on Mark’s bald head, which glistens with sweat. It’s almost as shiny as the horizon, whose clouds have made way for afternoon sunlight.

[ajstrout]

Handmade Books!

Who says you have to publish with a commercial press? Make your own books and leave them in public spaces for anyone to enjoy. You never know who might stumble across your work. Be sure to put your contact info inside.

[literarystarbucks]

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis tries to go up to the counter, but as soon as he opens the inner door of the Starbucks, he is no longer inside a coffee shop - he has been transported to a snowy wonderland. It doesn’t matter. This world has Turkish delight in it, and that’s what he really wanted, anyway.

[ajstrout]

Free Association Writing Prompt

Using the following words as a starting point, make an impulsive list of themes, places, and events. Once you run out of ideas, go through the list and write a poem or short story using as much of the list as possible.

Holes

Idiosyncratic

Infinity

Carnival

[ajstrout]

Writing Prompt: Travel the New Experience

I've said it before, I'll say it again. There's nothing better for writer's block than getting out there into the world. New experiences are good for generating new brain cells and improving our writing. Why? Because who the hell can write the awesome from inside their drab office? That's why. Being that I just returned from a week long trip in Seoul, South Korea, my ideas are flying as fast as the subway system there. It's your turn! Even if you can't fly half way across the world for inspiration, a local coffee shop, book store, library, park, restaurant, cafe, or bus stop will do. I challenge you to get out there and observe the world around you. Give it the attention it deserves. Even the small things garner interest. Children play with rocks when they're bored. What's there for you to pay attention to?

While you're out and about, think of new ways to describe your environment. Use all your senses. What do the people around you look like? What do they sound like? Whining whales? Angry bees? Beyond them, what other sounds are there? Birds, Planes, Street traffic. When it all passes, can you hear the wind moving through the leaves in the trees? it seems there are layers of sight and sound to a space. How does it smell? What colors fade into the background that you haven't noticed yet?

Get cracking and happy writing!

[ajstrout]

Screenwriting challenge: Table read that sh**

Alright. So you've developed your characters and your outline is solid yet flexible. Everything is going as it should be with your screenplay. So why does your dialogue sound like crap? Probably because the voice in your head is isolated and insular. It lives on the inside of you...alone. All that loneliness makes for a dull, awkward voice, doesn't it?

Fear not! There is a remedy for bad dialogue that's simple and fun. Table reads! If you don't know, table reads are live (but not memorized) readings of your scenes. They're necessary and extremely helpful. But don't half-ass it. Make a fun night out of it. Print copies of EVERY problematic scene--one copy for each character. Invite friends who won't flake out on you--cast each one of them. Don't skimp by having people play more than one character. It's best to have someone different for each character in your screenplay.

Before you start, tell each person a bit about their character. Tell them to also give you feedback based on character motivation and goals. Does the dialogue reflect the character's motives? Goals? Personality traits?

Serve snacks and beverages. Keep your event enjoyable but also serious. Ask your "actors" not to over do their parts. They should put the words out there to start. Encourage them to make notes on their copy of the script for you. Also--allow conversation to take place each time you finish a scene. Be open to suggestion and take notes on your feedback. If the lines get tripped over or sound like crap out loud, they need work. You'll start hearing "better" versions in your head as they're said out loud.

If multiple people agree on particular lines being bad--change them! If only one person dislikes something, ditch the advice. Enjoy!

[ajstrout]

The Logline Challenge

The logline can be used for pitching, keeping your story on track, and hooking your readers. It is, essentially, a one sentence plot summary for your screenplay though it can, of course, be applied to any writing. Your logline should be entertaining, catching, and open ended. Check out this one for the Wizard of Oz.

Your challenge today is to write ten versions of your logline. Why? Because writing a logline in and of itself, is an art form. The perfect logline requires lots of practice. So give it a shot! Take whatever you're writing and write a bunch of loglines for it. As you move through your story, be sure to amend/improve/transform your logline to reflect any changes you've made along the way.

[ajstrout]

Writing Prompt: The Gentle Beast or Writing the Impossible

Not all writing tropes are cliche. There's a million ways to spin a great tale that already breaks the rules and conventions of the human world. The story of a magical, friendly beast who develops relationships with children and makes their imaginations soar is an example of a rule-breaking trope. Boy meets girl is not because it's typical and totally possible. It happens every day.

Writing the impossible is a great exercise for stretching your imagination. Give it a try. Write about an interesting, gentle beast with a big personality. Be sure to give this beast a major goal or need. What is it that your beast wants to accomplish? Is she/he from this world? From another world? From deep underground in a space that is now being dug up for resources? What does it want from the people she/he encounters? Keep it fresh and be sure to give your beast lots of character.

For more inspiration, watch films about gentle beasts. The 80s are chalked full of them! For example, E.T., The Goonies, and The Neverending Story.

[ajstrout]

Kill the Cliche: A Prompt in the Uncommon and Strange

If you haven't heard it by now, memorize it. Kill the cliche. Avoid writing what has been written before. Boy meets girl, the scorned woman bent on revenge, the bad guy who takes down the city whose agents shamed him. Bore me! Where's the novelty?

Plot is not the only area of writing where cliche should be avoided. Tag lines, prose, and composition are also areas that can do without the usual. She said/He said are common tags for pushing dialogue. Drop them and try something else. If you really need to identify who is speaking try describing their body language following their line. Or simply try it without tags altogether and see what happens. Remember--your reader is smarter than you think.

As for prose--try words you wouldn't normally use. Expand your vocabulary and shake it up. Experiment for effect. Think about this line: He stabbed him in the pie and watched his bright red filling spill out until there was nothing left but crust. Silly right? In the right context surrounded by excellent prose, this line prompts a whole new world of visuals for the reader. Screenplays are no different. The key to getting your whole screenplay read is not just a compelling plot. It's exciting writing that keeps the reader turning pages. Break the rules!

Prompt: For the sake of recognizing and eradicating the cliche, write a brief paragraph about the most cliched story you can think of. Nerd girl gets make over and gets boy. Super villain is taken down by nice, normal hero. Kid finds out she's adopted, goes to find birth parents. Whatever it is, write a descriptive paragraph summarizing the entire plot. Then tear it up. Take your typical main character and make her/him someone/something else. Rather than a sweet, white-bread hero, make your hero a talented rapper whose super power is a voice with sonic energy. Kill your nerdy character before she gets her make over. Have your boy meet girl only to figure out that he's gay and has a fetish for construction workers. Kid finds out she's adopted? What about a kid who CHOSE to be adopted.

The sky is the limit. Write as many cliched summaries as you can and subvert the norm in every one. Kill the cliche and happy writing!

[theparisreview]

“The audience is not as rigid as you think, and certainly not as rigid as the people paying for the movies to get made.” -Matthew Weiner

[ajstrout]

Writing Prompt: Reappropriate

You ever hear the phrase, "You can't copyright an idea?" Well, for the most part, this is true. Even as the Millennium Act continues to be a battle ground for capitalistic wars between consumers and big business, reappropriated material continues to thrive online.

Today's writing prompt is about re-using random material. Search for a document, e-book, or a journal online. Make sure it's a random search--don't go for something you're in love with. It's much less challenging and the outcome is usually not as poetic. Rather, grab something drab and out of print. See what words and phrases you can draw from the piece. Making it your own will happen with or without your permission--in other words, the piece will begin to morph and take shape into something completely different than what you started with.

Keep in mind that if you're going to use someone else's fiction to draw from, you absolutely must transform the piece away from it's original use. Don't steal characters or plots. It's dishonest and you can be sued. Instead, use it as a jumping off point. Here's an example of my writing inspired from a book of short stories:

The original text: She stood there a minute. Then she sat beside him. They owned an expensive record player. They were listening to Bach. She said to him, Talk to me a little.

My new text: She was dizzy. It felt as if she were standing near him and sitting next to him at the same time. The room wanted to spin but she wouldn't let it. Shah always composed herself. She was a blade of grass with no wind to sway in. Especially around Deak. She wanted to know him, own him, own things with him. They could buy an old record player and listen to it together. They didn't need a fancy place or fancy things. Just what was necessary to be. To simply be.

Now, normally I never write this kind of nonsense. But imagine what else I can do with this text. Perhaps it belongs to a new character I'm developing--say a writer who doesn't have any experience writing. Yeah, a writer who wants to write but doesn't know how. I can see it. She's struggling to pay the bills, she can't afford school, but she's got something that shines in her--she's awkward and introspective and clumsy.

Happy writing! Get started!

[ajstrout]

Writing Prompt: Rage and Revenge

If you want to write well, there are two sure-fire ways to practice. First, read A LOT. Keep up with what's new in fiction. Second, write a lot. Having dozens of shorts sitting around is good for momentum. You can always go back into your pile to rewrite and rework old pieces. Once they're polished, take a crack at submitting them to online literary journals or other competitions.

To get your pile of short stories or scripts started, write a about a raging character. You know--someone who outwardly appears to need a strait jacket. But here's the hook. If art mimics life, then you want your raging character to have depth. There is no angry living being who is without reason. That's where revenge comes in. Be sure to give your raging character a solid back story that defines their rage, their anguish, their violent nature and what they're going to do about it. Keep in mind, however, that depth is not just about logic. Add quirks to your character. What specific things sets them off? Traffic? Melting ice cream?

Go beyond just their rage, too. Perhaps they have evil habits like tripping kids on skateboards or stealing from someone's grocery cart while they load the back of their vehicle.

To recap: Write a character who has been done wrong in the past and is now a raging fool bent on revenge. Perhaps they were raised in the foster system as a child. Maybe they grew up with a violent, abusive sibling. Or perhaps your character was born with a naturally angry temperament and they simply cannot handle having their favorite object taken from them. Here are some more ideas to get you started:

A teen who is pissed about being raised on a slaughter farm

A child who witnessed a family member's murder

Someone whose been rear-ended a dozen times in the past year

A clown who grew up poor and is now sick of being kicked at parties

[ajstrout]

Writing Prompt: Subverting Expectations and Practicing Tone

Whether you're interested in writing a screenplay, short story, or a book, it's good to get some practice in before you begin. This is especially true if your creativity seems to be running dry. Like mine is right now. I can almost feel my random inspiration shriveling into an over-cooked bean.

Write a piece that begins with a particular tone. A few pages in, divert the story into something unexpected. Your tone, your character's demeanor, and perhaps even the diction you use changes as a result of the unexpected event. For example...

Your main character is taking a lovely stroll through the park. Your tone is set to cheerful, your character has hopeful, personal thoughts running through their mind, and your imagery description of leaves dancing in the wind reflects this. A page or two in, however, the entire scene is flipped. Something unexpected happens and the world you've created is now headed in another direction entirely. Perhaps something has descended from the sky and transformed the landscape into a blood red storm. Or a group of hair fairies enter the space through a portal and exact their revenge on humans by transforming their hairdos into hair-don'ts.

The point of this exercise is to practice your ability to control mood through tone and description. Pay close attention to the affects of your writing. What words work best to set a particular tone? Need more to go on? Create a list of adjectives to use for each tone you wish to set.

[ajstrout]

Keep It Light is a video I produced in my undergrad studies to reflect the way I feel about the treatment of entry level workers, the waste that our restaurant industry creates, and what drives the whole shibang--capitalism. It was originally a video installation.

[ajstrout]

Writing Prompt: Developing Character. And salads.

"It's nice to be away from my writing. I eat my salad slowly so that the dressing doesn't splash in my face. She's staring at me like I'm some shaved almond drowning in Italian. And then I think maybe I'm a nut job. My idiosyncracies glisten on the surface. They're cranberries shimmering in sauce and she's looking around to find the light switch so she can turn them off to save face. Why am I so neurotic? Why did I pick such a swanky restaurant?"

You've heard it before: Know your character in order to write your character. It's definitely good advice, but it's not enough. By far. Knowing your character may help you decide on some of her/his behaviors and reactions to the world around them but it won't help you get inside their head. You can't just know your character. You should try being your character.

Knowledge will only take you so far because just knowing your character still requires a distance between you and her/him. Being your character is an act of doing. It is embodiment. And although you can't literally become your character, you can certainly get close to it.

Go out into public as if you are your character. Sex difference doesn't matter. Give it a shot. Try out acting techniques to see if any of them work for you when you interact with the grocery clerk, the mail man, and the dry cleaners. Adler and Stanislavsky have written many books on the topic, so there's no excuse. You could also have some fun doing it

[ajstrout]

Earth Day Writing Prompt

In honor of Earth Day, I thought it would be fitting to conjure up an Earth Day Prompt. This one will be quite simple but simple can lead to great results. Here are some ideas to get you writing about our big, blue home:

The planet is a big place but your short story doesn't have to reflect this. Nature can be the focus of your piece. Write a story about a character who needs to get away from the pressure of the big city and discovers how important it is to honor nature. Perhaps she/he goes on a mountain retreat and sees the decimation of a once-favorited camping site. Perhaps she/he comes across an eclectic group of environmentalists who are determined to stop the mining of a particular area.

Want another Earth-y prompt? Think about making the planet your character. If Earth could write us a letter, what do you think she/he would say? Or go bigger. How would Earth communicate with the rest of the galaxy if she/he could? This could be a great opportunity for a kind of cryptic message. Earth as a character with much to say. Earth as a character who has experiences like we do. What does it sound like when the planet is personified? Something like...

Many of them want to do the right thing. People. But they're also very childish. They have considerable desires, many which come at great cost to us all. Measures of me are acid bath. Burned, blackened, receding hairlines. I've decided I need respite. All the system has agreed. The frozen planets are most eager to change position, warm up, and let their dormant materials live again. I, on the other hand, will take my new place near the Jovian planets. We have no idea what will come of my relocation.