Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello. Welcome to my virtual classroom
if you don't know me. Hi, I'm Max. I also write under the pen name Emma Tate,
as well as my own name. I wrote these and I read more than is
probably healthy for me. If you want longer form
classes on writing technique, I do have those on offer. But if you clicked
on this course, then I'm going to
assume that you've done that kind of work already. You have an idea for a novel
and you're mostly just looking for quick exercises
to help kickstart your novel. Or to give you the kick
in the pants that you need to keep working
on an ongoing project. These exercises are
also really great. If you are done
with a first draft, you've stepped away and now
you need to get back into the right mindset to edit
and further develop a story. That's actually
where I'm at right now on my current project. I'm working on the edits
for a novel myself. Right now it's a Rom com
loosely based on Shakespeare's much you do about nothing.
It comes out this summer. I'm actually going to be working through these exercises right along with you and I'll talk through that process
lesson by less. Throughout this course,
we'll cover exercises to strengthen your understanding
of your characters, your descriptions of
the setting your story takes place in the
plot of your story. Really breaking it
down into an outline. We're going to
cover the dialogue that your characters speak with. And we're also going to cover
overall tone of a story. And we're going to do
individual exercises to help work through each
of those elements. Let's get into it. I'm
so happy to have you.
2. Exercise 1- Character: Lesson one is character. For me, a good story always
begins with character. If you've been around this page in my classes for
a little while, you already know what
I'm going to say. But as far as I'm concerned, the primary thing you
need to be worried about before you get to appearance
or vocal idiosyncrasies, or your character's
weekend habits. You have to figure out
their drive, you have to figure out their motivations. This exercise is the
simplest way to get there. Start with a blank piece
of paper or a note card, or an empty dock in your ipad or in your scrivener
file or whatever. I'm going to use this posted, you're going to write
down, you're going to write down your
character's name at the top of the page. The one that you're
going to focus in on. As I said, I'm doing a much
ado about nothing retelling. I'm going to talk
about Beatrice. You're going to write down
the following questions. What do they want to, what is stopping them from
getting what they want? Number three, how far would they go to defeat the answer to number two in order
to get what they want? What do they want?
What's stopping them? How far would they go? Those are your three really
important questions. In my case, I'm dealing with a modernized
Shakespeare character. My version of Beatrice used
to be on a kids TV show. Now she's a grown up, she's trying to make it on Broadway. What does she want? She wants to leave behind her kids TV era and earn a
name for herself as an adult, doing serious things
on her own terms. What's stopping people who only see her as
the infantilized, teeny bopper neon and sparkles nepo baby
that she used to be. It's even worse for
her when those people are hot and she has
to work with them. Number three, what does
she do and how far would she go to get past the naysayers
and get what she wants, which is to be taken seriously. She works with them. She
tries to prove herself by working as hard
as she possibly can. She's not afraid to take
off the wrong people in the process of
getting a good cast. Listing that right there tells me so much more about
my version of Beatrice than even reading the
character background in my Folger Shakespeare library
copywoodells me at here. It tells me at her core what decisions this
character makes. She's a fighter, she's
a little bit rash, and she's not afraid
to make a scene. Of course, she's more than that. I can add whatever extra
character notes I want. She loves her cousin Elizabeth, who is my stand in for hero. She has a strained relationship
with her uncle land. She's close friends
with my stand in for Don Pedro, whatever,
whatever, whatever. None of that actually
matters that much in terms of how I write
her these questions. Tell me my character's
trigger points. They tell me her
emotional weak spots. If I were her and somebody
accused me of having weird or ugly hair,
I would be offended. But it wouldn't be
like a fracture point in my relationship
with that person. But if I were her and
somebody told me that I was a bad actress
who can't sing and only got where I am because
I have a famous parent that would make me so angry
that I would flip a table. And that's why
that's so important as the starting point
for any given character. Knowing what their
trigger points are, knowing how that affects their
character relationships. That is why we start
with these questions. Go ahead, grab your
piece of paper, jot down your questions, figure
out your answers to them. That is exercise number one.
3. Exercise 2- Setting: Exercise number two. Now
we're talking about setting. Especially if you're
doing an adaptation of an archetypal form. The way that I am
setting is really, really key to making
a story your own. My academic background, as
I'm sure many of you know, is in history and anthropology. To me, setting itself
might not be everything, but I do know that it
influences everything. That's why Westside Story, and Romeo and Juliet
and Chloe Gong's, these violent delights feel
so fundamentally different, even though they're pretty
much the exact same story. Say like me, you're doing a Shakespeare adaptation with a huge ensemble
cast of characters. It's modern day, so that's easy. I want the book to have a
fun summer romance feel. So it's set in June. I need a reason for
these characters to all be in the same
place at the same time. And that is where
it gets tricky, because if I just
set it in New York, then that's a huge city. These characters
aren't all going to organically know and run
into each other frequently. But if I set it in, say, a small town where they all
have to run into each other because there's only
one coffee shop, or there are two
coffee shops and one of them doesn't
sell good pastries, everyone goes to the other one. Then I've got a setting that is ripe for character
interaction. Let's say you've already
chosen a location. It's totally different
than the small town, summer villa vibes
that I'm working with. We're still going to treat this exercise the
exact same way. First things first,
I want you to make a list of all
of your characters. Just list them out. And you
can even put them all on one piece of paper
and just space them out in one big circle. Then you're going to
draw lines between them. Yeah, we're basically
making a crime board. You can even color
code it if you want. Sibling relationships
are one thing, parent, child relationships
are another color. Romantic relationships are a third completely
different color. Yes, this is why we did the
character worksheet first. Then you're going to circle the crossover point that has the most crosses in the
web that you've made. Character A knows character, character B knows character
C but character A doesn't, character character
D are friends. Then your crossover point
is going to be break here. In my case with my book, my characters are all actors. They're all connected in
some way to a theater. Even if they're not
connected to each other, they are all
connected to a show. In your case, maybe you're
writing a culinary drama, maybe they're all chefs who
are all connected to cooking. Whatever that case may be, that intersection point
gives you the place where most of your
character interactions are going to take place. Number five, you're going to
go through all five senses. Picture in your mind the place where that major
intersection point happens. Yes, the physical
place, in my case, it's a beach house
where a bunch of actors are all rehearsing
for a summer stock show. In no particular order, things taste like greasy pizza, salt from the ocean,
the little honey pistiles that some singers use
to keep their vocal fresh. And I don't know, lemon
scented cleaning spray. Number two, things
smell like the ocean, like sunscreen, like
faintly dead fish because that's what the ocean smells like in the summertime. Maybe like sweet tea as it's
brewing in the kitchen. How do things look? They look
bright and sunny and open. It's a very wealthy
guy funding the show. I can extrapolate on
that. It's a big house. There's lots of light raw wood, lots of big paintings, huge spiral staircase, big dining room that I can picture the whole
cast fitting around. Number four, what can
my characters hear? They can hear the ocean, They can hear seagulls. They can probably hear
somebody doing vocal warm ups. Because if you ever hung
out around a bunch of theater kids, because
it's the beach, I can probably hear
the sound of somebody playing beach volleyball or
table tennis or pickle ball, depending on which side of the villa they're
hanging out on. How do things physically feel? They feel hot and
sticky like sunscreen on a 90 degree day,
in 99% humidity. Okay, that's what this place feels like to all of our senses. Now we can start mapping it out. You can draw physical map
out, if that helps you. In my case, I'm modeling the
house after a guest house that I stayed in when
I went on a trip with some friends. Right. You know, kids, I can literally use that house floor map as
the basis of what I'm doing. But if you're setting
as a farmer's market, maybe you can make
a list of which stalls are where and which
ones are next to each other. If it's a restaurant, you can sketch out the basic layout. I just think it really helps to have a basic representation of how big the space you're talking about is,
how it's set up. Really just how much room
your characters physically have to move around and
interact with each other. Like if it's really crowded, like a market in a park
in New York or LA. Your characters are
going to have to elbow each other out of the way. They're going to be in
really cramped space and they're going to
be yelling at each other because it's
noisy around them. If it's a movie
set, they're going to be shoving the way
around the equipment. They're going to
have to shush while people are recording
certain things. If it's a fantasy castle, don't underestimate just
how big a castle is. It takes a ton of physical
effort to move around. Your characters are
either going to be confined to a three
to four room space, or they're going to be in
really good shape because it takes effort to move up
those big stone stairs. Take those things into account. I hope that this helps you figure out the setting
for your story. Just think through
those questions. Think through the tactile
feel of what that space is.
4. Exercise 3- Plot Structure: All right, let's
talk about plot. If I have one piece of advice
when it comes to plot, it's to outline
the major pieces. But don't bother doing that with the minor pieces because your own subplots
can surprise you. I like to joke that my
characters run off into the margins and do whatever they want to do when I'm
not paying attention. That's a little bit
true. Some people will say that a three act
structure is the way to go. Some people will say that
it's more important to use the plot pyramid or
the plot triangle. Personally, I prefer
to map things out in terms of how much space
and time they take up. In my case, my plot takes
place over roughly two weeks. When I was writing the first
book, the first draft of it, I mapped out five acts with four chapters each swapping narrator points of
view in each chapter. That's not the length that the
final book ended up being. I ended up having more chapters in that, but it
was pretty close. Why did I do five acts? You might guess two reasons. The first is that I only have two weeks worth of stuff
happening in the plot. I didn't really want to build it out too
much more than that. But the second reason is
that I didn't want to have to detail every single thing that happens over the
course of those two weeks. I want to break it up
into just five sections. I don't care that much about what happens when somebody is brushing their teeth or making
lunch or taking a shower, unless they're doing things that are relevant to the plot. In the process, my five sections
are as follows Act one, it's the first couple of days where I establish
the characters. I establish the setting, I establish the routine
that the characters have. I establish the dynamics
between the characters, right? Act two, the second
half of the first week, where people are
starting to settle into a set way that they
interact with one another. You're starting
to get a sense of where there is
potential for conflict. Number three is the
weekend between those two weeks where the
plot starts to thicken, the relationships
get significantly more tangled and more strained. Act four, the first
half of the second week after the weekend where
the tensions that are at their absolute
highest act number five is the second half of the second week where most
of the resolution happens. Because I write Romcoms
and romance novels, I do usually end up adding in an epilogue just because it's
the easiest way to do it, happily ever after ending
within that story structure. Your story can
totally take place over way more time than
while I'm working with. But I would still
recommend figuring out how much time each
act takes up for you. I like a five act structure. It's what works
really well for me. If you're really stuck on how to structured out,
try working with, you're also going to
want to figure out how many chapters or points
of view you want per act. As you're breaking it down, if you're working with a
five act structure, act one, you establish
your characters, their motivations,
and your setting. All of that hard
work that we did in the first couple
of exercises, the most of that
goes into Act 12. That's where your
conflict emerges. That's where you
either keep or lose your audience when it comes to the consumption
of your story. Because it the space that has room to be the
most boring section, but you can make it interesting
through characterization. Act three. This is
where your conflict can really peak or you can hold
off a little bit longer. I like to do a small
conflict here, like a misunderstanding
or a small obstacle, which brings the characters
closer together. Right In time for act
four, the big conflict. This is going to be the highest point of
tension in your story. It's where you'll have
the most intrigue, there's the most tension
in the character dynamics. These are the biggest obstacles that your characters
have to face. Those all happen in act.
Then in act five resolution, there has to be a
point to the story. The best writing
advice that I ever got was that the story
has to go somewhere, the characters have to end up somewhere different than
where they started, whether that's physically
or emotionally. If they don't, then they'd
better have gone through hell and back to be back
in that same place. Anyway, go ahead
and try mapping out your story into those five acts, or however many
acts works for you. Just keep in mind how
much time your story is spanning and try to keep the pacing
appropriate to that.
5. Exercise 4- Dialogue: Time to talk about dialogue. In this case, the exercise
is really simple, and if you've already
taken my realistic dialogue class,
you'll recognize it. But I still think that
it's really helpful, especially when it's paired with the rest of the exercises. In this class, we're going to do the entirety of this exercise
using just two characters. Only two characters. That'll keep things relatively
simple and you can always go back and repeat all of this for a larger cast of characters. Later on, step one, you're going to answer
those three questions for each of your characters. What do they want?
What's stopping them? And how far would
they go to defeat the answer of number two in
order to get what they want? Remember this, my little
question sheet for Beatrice? You're going to do
that for each of your characters in this
scene. Just the two of them. Now, part two of this, you're going to put those
characters into any setting that would enable them to meet up and
have a conversation. That can be a bar, that can
be the middle of the woods, that can be a dance at a ball. I don't really care. Then
you're going to let them talk. Why are they there? How did they get there?
What do they want? How do they feel
about each other? Let the conversation direct
itself a little bit. You can let it flow as
naturally as you possibly can. If you feel stuck, you can always redirect it to
the basic questions. Who are, what are they afraid
of? What do they want? What are they willing to do to get what they want?
What's in their way? You can even break
it down to what does their conversation
sound like. If you want to give yourself
an even bigger challenge, you can try to do this
as a conversation that your narrator is overhearing
from behind a door. Or maybe listening through
a glass to the wall, which really forces you to
write without any visual tags. Or to make it easier,
you could try transcribing a scene
from an episode of TV, preferably something
that is totally similar to what you're trying
to produce in your writing, Like don't use One Tree Hill, if your plan vibe
is less teenagers in love triangle and angs, maybe go for something
closer to Lord of the Rings if you're working with Hobbits and Bread and Dragons. In my case, I've got my version of Benedick and Beatrice who if you know the play then you know they have a pre
existing relationship. They used to know each other, they used to love each other. It ended badly for
this interaction. I would write their
breakup scene, which takes place over a year before the novel that
I'm writing starts. I have to account for all of the following. What
does each of them want? Why are they not getting it? How can they possibly hurt
each other so much that they're in such a bad place
by the time the book starts? Where and when does
the conversation take place? What are
their surroundings? What level of maturity are
they at? How old are they? How established in their careers were they when this
conversation happened? This is just an exercise, but it's the exercise
that can turn into a deleted scene or a
flashback sequence, or even just something that
I can borrow from later on. As I continue to establish what these character voices are
through further edits, you don't have to use the
dialogue that you write. But I do recommend doing this before really sitting
down and working with your story so that
you can figure out what do your characters sound like at their
most natural, what do their interactions sound like inside of your head? Good luck with
this. I think that it's a really fun exercise. I think that it's fun to sit down and work with
your characters. I hope that you enjoy
it as much as I.
6. Exercise 5- Tone/Atmosphere: Okay, final exercise before
the big final project. For a lot of people, tone is the trickiest thing to get
right about storytelling. So we're going to work on
that. Let's break it down. Tone is just the mood or the vibe of the story
that you're telling. It's atmosphere.
That's all it is. If you were a film director, tone is what you would establish through lighting and music, and role shots and set dressing. But you're not a film
director and neither am I. If I was the Saphia
really different video. We don't have music or
lights or a fancy camera, but as writers we have our
words, that's our currency. What I would recommend is borrowing a page from the
playwrights playbook. When you write a play, you
write the equivalent of establishing shot and it goes right at the top
of the first page. Let's do that for our
book. Describe it all. Describe the weather,
describe the buildings, describe the space,
Describe the characters. Are they cramped together as everything bright and
open? Is the tension high? If you're struggling, you can
always start by doing this for a piece of media
that is not your book, but that exists within the
same genre as your book. For me and my BT Romcom, that could be anything from the David Tennant
Katherine Tape. Much ado about nothing
production to an episode of 9021 or even just my photos from a trip to South
Carolina that I took last year with
my significant other. But here's the catch.
We're not going to use any complete sentences,
just adjectives. And verbs only come up with the descriptors
and nothing else. In my case, we're going to use words like bright and open and soaring and angry and ambitious
and attractive and hot. Sweeping, lithe, muscle bound, airy, blithe, gravelly, melodic. None of these words are in themselves descriptors
or even a set mood. But if I were to write an establishing shot for my
story and for my characters, I would be using
all of those words. This feels like
arrivals to lovers, romance with a
beachy background, or at least it does to me. I don't have to use all of those words in the first
few pages of my book, but I can use all of them
as recurring descriptors to paint a clear picture of
the scenery for my readers. As they get through my book,
go ahead and give it a shot. Come up with some words
that can turn into recurring descriptors for your
book, or recurring motifs. When in doubt, go ahead and come back to your basic
list of words. I hope this works out for you, and I will see you all in the video for the final project.
7. Course Wrap Up and Final Project: Congratulations, you
have done five fairly in depth exercises and
now you are ready to fully outline your story
and write your first chapter. Your first chapter does not have to be the first
chapter of your book, it just has to be the first chapter that
you start writing. You don't have to use all of the pieces that you've been working on throughout
this course. But they should help ground
you as you take your story from vague concept or
idea to fully flushed, outline and work in progress. Likewise, this works
for a draft too. You can write in
a deleted scene, you can write your way back into a scene that you've
already been working with. The final project for this
class is pretty simple. Take a look at the outline that you made in
the plot section. Pick part of it
that you think you would be comfortable
turning into a chapter. For me, that's almost
always chapter one, but I know that not everybody's
brain works that way. Look over your mood words. Look over the dialogue
that you wrote. Look over your character
descriptions, and go from there. Remember, perfect is often the enemy of good.
To help us all. Remember that I've included as my example for this project, a chapter for my current work in progress from my
very first draft. Because I did all five
of the exercises that we covered in this class before I put that first chapter together, we're basically just
writing chapter one. Pick up a pen, get
something down on paper. Don't push it. Don't rush it. Just let it flow naturally.
You've got this.
Maxxe Riann, Author|Artist| Student
