Category: Checklists

Checklists · Handful of Course Work · Point of View

POV Planning + Checklist

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POV Checklist

 

The writer should be aware of the narrative distance between the telling narrator and the experiencing narrator.

 

  • The tone of voice in the narrator, the story depends on his trust and wisdom.
  • Remove filtering words, (saw, heard, felt, etc)
  • Be direct and immediate!
  • Use the tone of voice to pull readers into the plot
  • Sensory: what the character see’s, feels, hears, smells and tastes
  • Don’t name emotions, instead describe what the character feels through sensations or thoughts
  • Summarize current locations for the reader to remember what they are in the story.
  • Tell rather than show processes.

 

Process:

  • My POV story is going to be challenging for me, I always immediately write in first or second person and writing neither as well as describing the pov through a person will be hard, but I am going to try and make it work.
  • The idea I had for this story was weird, I’m going to have a bright young boy pass out during school and during his fainting spell, he is going to experience something weird. He is going to shrink down to a pea-sized version of himself and be placed in between the pages of an older mom (who never reads) book. He won’t be freed until the pages are opened.
  • I am going to have multiple POV’s through the boy and the woman and it will go back in forth between them. I plan on really focussing on describing emotions and feelings rather than strictly naming them.
Checklists · Handful of Course Work · Setting

Setting Planning + Checklist

MaddieStewartLeave a comment

How To Build A Fictional World Ted Talk

  • Authors of science fiction/fantasy build their own worlds which sprout many stories, so readers can understand the worlds better, sometimes more than the real world.
  • Books make us feel emotions
  • Your imagination is all you need to write a novel
  • How does the world shape the individuals who live in it?

 

Key question:  What knowledge and skills do I have, so I think I need, to best tell a story?  Voice, literal and physical and figurative

  • Start with a basic place and time
  • What do they eat, treat things, what lives there, who lives there
  • Ask yourself about your own story first – so you can strengthen it = reader will not be confused
  • Make timeline – from character’s pov or from the beginning of that universe
  • Decide time (past, present, future) and then expand – flashback?  Time travel ….
  • Make laws, govt, formal structure of this society
  • What does society value?  The people value? (individuals)
  • Demographics – race, religion, creed
  • Inhabit your world – figuratively live in your world

SETTING

  • Genre – science fiction, fantasy
  • Figure out when (time specific, era past present future)
  • Weather
  • Who is in control – govt, society ‘s set up
  • How the world was created
  • Relationships
  • What conflicts will arise for characters in this world because of the elements of this world
  • What does this world, society value
  • What the inhabitants are doing
  • Animal mineral plant
  • Urban-rural
  • Atmosphere
  • Goes along with the plot
  • Details to show accuracy
  • Weather
  • Time
  • Date
  • 5 Senses (what can be heard, felt, or seen?)

 

Process:

For my unit 2 summative for the setting I really want to have a place that is full of surprises, details and things to describe. Sounds, Smells, Textures, etc. Because to me, the setting is all about what’s around you and how it fits into the story.

For this particular story, I want it to be a ‘cabin in the woods’ type of feel. The ones where wood lines the walls and floors..yet it is so nice and decorated with items that fit the particular character’s attributes. I am going to have a couple, going away on a retreat to get some time away from their parents during winter break whom they both still live with, as they wanted a cheaper place to stay for university.

I plan on describing so much, from how the place looks, the weather outside to the date and time. I also want this story to end with a nice, happy and joyful ending as I feel like my previous stories do not.  

 

Character · Checklists · Handful of Course Work

Character Planning + Checklist

MaddieStewartLeave a comment

Name, Sex, Race, etc

Hair, Eye, Skin, colours

Tattoos? Glasses? Scars?

Family, Friends, Pets?

Personality Traits (Mean, Nice, Kind, Evil, Rude)

Quirks

Attitude

How they view themselves (self–perception)

Gestures

Actions

Clothing

Overheard conversation’s

Accents

Facial Expressions

Necessary to identify who is speaking at the time

Pay attention to the level of diction

Sentence Structure

Rhythm

Idea of place

Signature phrases

Present mood and purpose

Techniques to reveal your character to the reader:

  1. What you tell the reader directly
  2. What he tells about himself, or thinks
  3. What others in the story say about him or her
  4. What actions and reactions you supply so readers can come to there own conclusions

Process:

The setting my character is going to be living in will be a graveyard. It is where my character goes to find a peace of mind and silence, she loves hanging out there so she moved there. This graveyard is located in a town called ‘Rutherglen’, and the town is as mysterious as it sounds. The town is always dark, gloomy and every animal living there is bigger than normal aka 10x the size of humans, this had never been a problem for my character until one day in the graveyard.
My characters name is Alex Williams, she is 18 years old. She is a what you would call ‘emo’ character. She is very shy, yet evil on the inside. She loves everything gothic and to wear black, watch horror movies and try to summon demons. She has a pale complexion covered by two full sleeve length tattoos as well as a face tattoo. She also has many ear, nose, lip and eyebrow piercings. She has deep green eyes and long brown hair. She is anything but religious and she moved out at 16 years old all by herself so her family disowned her and she has no friends but her white cat, Chilly. She is a very rude person, she does things how she likes it which can be very selfish at times, she hates people and hates interaction, she has a snobby, no-it-all attitude and views herself as the smartest, best person in the world.