Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Arts:Books
Prompt: Today’s Write The Book Prompt concerns setting. How can a writer describe setting in such a way that it informs readers about a character’s or narrator’s state of mind? Consider the following two excerpts from works by Sydney Lea:
From his essay, “Alone With Friends: A Journal Toward Springtime”
… Landy and I sat for a spell on the tailgate, staring at the clean dark that walked at a human pace up the mountains, feeling a flake or two of snow on our wrists and faces, noting a heron who came languidly flapping out of a back pond, roost-bound early.
From his poem, “The Author in March”
Remnant, rank corn snow
. perspires like dirty dough.
What few drab birds there are
. don’t fly up very far,
So hard do the clouds bear down.
. Not much to this splotch of a town—
Flue smoke, smalltalk, clutter.
. Last autumn’s leaves clog gutters
Here’s this week’s prompt. Imagine a place in a poem or story you’re writing or are thinking about writing. Using minimal description, make a list of several things—five or six details—that exist in that setting. Now rewrite the list, describing those same details as seen from the perspective of a character who is upset, frustrated or depressed. Then write the list one last time, describing these same things from the point of view of a character who is happy, optimistic or excited. Don’t change the actual details of place, but the lens through which they are viewed. Good luck with this exercise and please listen next week for another.
Music credits: 1) “Dreaming 1″ - John Fink; 2) “Filter” - Dorset Greens (a Vermont band featuring several South Burlington High School students)Stephen Elliott - Archive Interview (4/12/21)
Neil Shepard - Archive Interview (4/5/21)
Angela Patten - Archive Interview (3/29/21)
Blending the Tangible and the Ineffable in Fiction: Steven Wingate and Maxim Loskutoff (3/22/21)
Matthew Salesses (3/15/21)
Jakob Guanzon (3/8/21)
Andrea Williams - 3/1/21
From the Archives: Howard Norman (2/22/21)
On Writing for a YA Audience: Sharon G. Flake and Bill Konigsberg (2/15/21)
Claudio Lomnitz (2/8/21)
Setting: A Conversation with Susan Conley and Lauren Fox (2/1/21)
From the Archives: Kathryn Davis (1/25/21)
Ryan Scagnelli (1/18/21)
Plotting the Literary Novel: A Conversation with Margot Livesey and Jill McCorkle (1/11/21)
Ally Condie (1/4/21)
David Jauss - Archive Interview (12/28/20)
A Message from Shelagh: Happy Holidays!
Dawna Pederzani (12/14/20)
Martin Puchner (12/7/20)
Matt Fried - Archive Episode (11/30/20)
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