Posts Tagged setting
Craft Chat: Describing Setting through Character’s Eyes
The Chico Writer’s Group will be hosting a Craft Chat Saturday, September 12, 2009 on the topic of how to describe a setting through the character’s eyes. This is a free event, writers of all walks, all levels of experience, are invited to attend.
Craft Chat and Critique Workshop
| Date: | Saturday, September 12, 2009 |
| Time: | 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. |
| Location: | Butte County Library, Chico Branch |
| Address: | 1108 Sherman Avenue (cross 1st Ave.) |
| Chico, California | |
| Public Meeting room directly across breezeway from the circulation desk. | |
| What to Bring: | Pen/pencil, writing tablet or a laptop/notebook |
| Agenda | |
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1:00 – 1:20 PM |
Free write. Using prompts, writers will be given the opportunity to write for fifteen minutes, then share what they’ve written to the other members of the group.* |
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1:20 – 1:30 PM |
Craft Chat: What are some effective ways to describe the setting in your fiction through different character’s eyes that is unique to the character’s own voice? We’ll explore this question, exchange ideas, and review resources available to add to our writing toolbox. |
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1:30 – 3:00 PM |
Critique Workshop: Members in good standing will be offering critiques to authors of assigned manuscripts which are distributed prior to the meeting. Members: Please attempt to use the critique worksheet, available for download, when reading the manuscript, complete it and bring it with you to the meeting. |
| About: | Closed sessions are still open to the public, we just ask that anyone interested in this segment enters prior to the session, understands they are only there to observe, and may ask questions, enter into a conversation with the members after the session concludes (however, after session discussions should be conducted outside the meeting room). Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a parent at all times due to the nature of the conversations that take place. If, however, the authors do not feel comfortable having their manuscript reviewed in the presence of minors, we reserve the right to ask anyone under the age of 18 to please leave the room. |
| *Sharing written free write work | This portion of our group meeting is not critiqued. Other writers are encouraged to give feedback, provided it’s positive. The free write portions of our group meetings is meant to inspire, challenge and bring about new and exciting ideas about the written word to those participating. While you are not required to read your work aloud, this is an invaluable opportunity to hear the differences in points of view and often quite enjoyable both for the writer and the members of the group. Alternatively, provided your writing is reasonably legible, you may always invite another member to read your work out loud to the rest of the group. |
Coming Saturday, September 26, 2009: Writing Conference Review. Chico Writer’s Group members who have attended writing conferences over the summer will be sharing useful information with us. This is also a free event, open to the public. If you are interested in attending this special presentation, please contact us (you may leave a comment here, just be sure to provide a working email address so we can reply. Email addresses are never published publicly.) as space is limited.
The Chico Writer’s Group, is not affiliated with the Meetup Group with a similar name.
Describe This
Here are just a few pictures snagged from Flickr.com of living rooms. You can check out more by going here. Your assignment is to write a description of the room you pick. Try to evoke some emotion as you describe it. Remember to include two to three senses when you describe the room (touch, taste, scent, sight, sound).
Physical Description of Setting Exercise
Try describing a room from three perspectives: through the door, looking in; from inside the room for the very first time, and then from the perspective of being an active participant in the room’s use on a regular basis, maybe focusing on a couple particular elements within the room.
Next, interject a character at the three different points.
How does the room’s view change the character? The mood? Does it affect the relationship between the character and the reader? If so, in what way?
Exploring these aspects will help you, the writer, engage or disengage your reader as you so desire. This is a useful tool to learn and master!
Good luck and, as always, write on!
Saturday’s Craft Chat Blurb
" When we’re telling a story, we need to tell our readers something about where it takes place. How do we bring the reader into the story’s space? What kind of physical details are important? What’s best left to the reader’s imagination? "
For more information, check out the previous post announcing our upcoming meeting this Saturday, January 24, 2009.
Describing the Physical Setting
The topic of our upcoming craft chat (Saturday, January 24, 2009) is how to describe the physical setting in your novel. Over the next two weeks, we’ll attempt to post prompts and challenges along with some helpful tidbits about this topic here.
One thing that seems to be overlooked when writing a scene is using several senses. Draw your reader in by including at least three of the five senses: smell, touch, taste, sight, and sound. Thinking about the five senses, how could you describe an artist’s studio? Try playing around with the five senses, using a different set of three each time. How does it change the feel of the room?
Interact: Weaving Events and Places
Stories can take place all within a matter of minutes or, span out over years, lifetimes. They can remain in the area of a square foot, encompass the entire planet, or reach far beyond into outer space or even beyond the mind. As the writer, you must chose how you want the story to unfold, where the characters are located and paint the picture so your audience can visualize the setting. Or, settings. You might want the reader to be far removed, looking down from the clouds as the characters move about. Or maybe you’d like the audience to be seated right next to your protagonist — possibly become the protagonist or, better yet, antagonist!
Recently a couple of our writing group members met for coffee. During the casual conversation, the discussion evolved to one about place and setting. How appropriate seeing our upcoming craft chat will be about just that: place and setting. The frustration one writer was experiencing was borne from moving rapidly back and forth in the story, jumping from one part of the nation to another, sometimes having events occurring simultaneously yet in different chapters. How, the question surfaced, do you keep your audience engaged? The idea of placing time and location stamps throughout the story was suggested.
What ideas do you have? What have you done in your own stories? What have you seen other authors do in similar situations? What worked for you or didn’t? Take a moment and share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link. Remember, your email address will not be published, however it is necessary; otherwise our spam detection bot will toss it into the trash.
Craft & Critique Workshop: Place & Setting
Event Info
Host: Chico Writer’s Group (Link leads to our Facebook Club page where members can RSVP. *)
Time and Place
Date: Sunday, September 7, 2008
Time: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Empire Coffee Shop
Street: 434 Orange Street
City/Town: Chico, CA
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Contact Info
Please use the comment form below and be certain to use a valid address so that we may respond. Your email address will not be published.
Meeting Info
If you’re new to the group, please come by at 1:00 p.m. where you can have the chance to meet us, ask any questions you might have and share with us a bit about you.
2:00 PM Share and discuss writing exercise
Exercise will be published on here when the information becomes available and will be sent out to current members with the reminder email.
Note: Writing exercise from our meeting 8/16 may be worked on, but for time and space considerations, if you’d like to share and discuss, please do so via email or after the meeting Sunday.
2:30 PM Craft Chat: Topic is Place and Setting
The specifics will be published here when it becomes available. Current members will receive an email with the information prior to the meeting.
3:00 PM Critiques
Currently R. will be leading the critique of Kathie’s piece from 8/16 (manuscripts will only be shared between current members for privacy and copyright concerns)
Members wishing to have their work critiqued must email it to Kathie by Sunday, August 31st. The earlier, the better as this allows members ample time to read and make notes for the discussion. If you require more information regarding our guidelines, please refer to the following articles:
- About the Chico Writer’s Group
- Critiquing Tips, Hints and Guidelines
- The Ten Commandments of Critiquing
Also, please refer to the links in the navigation column here on this site for useful information.
*About Facebook Club Page: If you aren’t a member of Facebook, consider joining. It’s free and a great way to keep abreast of upcoming events, activities and other features of the Chico Writer’s Group. There are two Chico Writer’s Group pages online at Facebook. Make sure you are adding to the CLUB and not the FAN page as the FAN page will most likely be closed down in the very near future. Once you’ve added the club page, navigate to the Administrator (Kathie) and add yourself as a friend (maybe add a comment you’re a new member of the writer’s group) so that you are receiving invitations.
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