I often find myself staring at the blank page wondering if I should pursue one of the projects I have saved in some folder on my desktop (like that half a novel that is still rattling around in the back of my mind), or maybe I want to read one of the ten books I have in my to-read pile, or, or, maybe I just need an assignment: a task set out for me that I can see through to completion.
This weekend, as Canada celebrates 150 years (though, this is indeed a land that’s been inhabited by Indigenous peoples for millennia), I’ve been thinking about the places that I’m from – the city I live in now, the small town that I grew up in… These sorts of connections to place, that are a part of who we are, lend us story material.
So, if you’re like me, and sometimes just need an assignment to get you started, I’d like to share with you one that I created (from scratch) for a creative writing course that I teach. I’ve modified it (since, I’m not grading you and you certainly are not restricted by genre or work count); I hope that it inspires you to write.
I’d love to know what you think of the assignment, and if you’re a teacher and want to use it in your classroom, by all means, but I would appreciate if you credit me.
WRITING PLACE
Getting Started (some writing ideas)
Perhaps your place-based story will invite readers into a landscape that you know intimately (in the way, for instance, that Alberta writer Robert Kroetcsh invites us onto the prairies, or into a seemingly never-ending winter). Or, perhaps your place-based story will be an exploration narrative (following a long history of texts by writers like Mungo Park who travelled the interior of Africa). Or, maybe you’ll write a fictional place, a landscape you’ve fashioned that is just as real as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (or the place that you are from).
Maybe you’ll use a map that you unfold before us. Maybe you’ll take us to the world’s largest triple island in Nunavut that Jeopardy-famous, Ken Jennings details in his book Map Head (that is, the world’s largest island in a lake on an island). Maybe you’ll incorporate Google Maps. Maybe the place you write will be the Internet. Maybe you’ll take us off of Earth, and you’ll write a place somewhere else in the universe. Maybe you’ll write about the Mars One Project—a one-way trip off our globe—and imagine what it would be like for those first inhabitants of the red planet. Maybe you’ll write a travel story—real or imagined—where you explore your history (a family history, perhaps) or a history (for instance, of a particular group’s food or music). Maybe the place you write will be a bedroom, a kitchen, or inside of a car. It is entirely up to you.
For this assignment, place should not simply be inserted as a location (or an empty stage for the action to unfold), but rather it should be developed as an essential element to the story.
Below are some questions aimed at writing place that I’ve used so often I may have worn holes in them; you may find some or all of these useful to answer for yourself before you begin. If you are more of a “write to discover” kind of writer, ignore the questions and get typing.
To ensure that your selected place is a central element, ask the following question: if the same character(s), the same plot points, and the same conflict(s) existed in another location, would this story become a different story? If you answer is “yes,” then continue to polish your story. If your answer is “no,” that’s okay: while revising your first draft, focus on developing your place and integrating that place into the narrative.
In your early drafts, give yourself permission to explore.
Five Place-Focused Pre-Writing Questions
- If you were posting a photo of this place to an online album, what would your caption say? How would you frame it (i.e. what would you deliberately leave out)?
- Thinking in story terms… what kind of conflict does this place lend itself to? Character vs. nature? Character vs. character? Etc.
- What bodies of water belong to this place, and how do they interact with the landscape?
- Consider audience. If you gave your place story to five people, who would they be? Why would these particular readers be interested?
- Consider genre. What form should this place story take? Does it lend itself to fiction? Non-fiction? Poetry? After you’ve made your selection, explain why.
THE ASSIGNMENT
Write a place-focused story. Place (real or imagined) should be a central element, i.e. your piece should convey a strong sense of place that is more than just a backdrop/setting, but is integral, in some way, to the story.
Before you get writing, I’d LOVE to hear what place you’re going to write about and why. Where are you from? What's interesting about it? Happy writing!
Well awesome, I will keep these things in mind when I write about arriving on an asteroid mining outpost. I’m not very far on my story. I put out a short 500ish word blog about the start of it so I would feel more committed to getting it done one day. I’ve not written anything since then but this will stick into the back of my mind. Until, my random threads of thought come together and start weaving the next part of my story.
Thank you for sharing this.
Hope it's useful!
It’s interesting to have this part of the story now down on paper but nothing yet leading up to. I will be interesting if I find having to change anything down the road.
“Arriving at asteroid mining outpost XXXXXXXI C you could feel and see the broken backs of man’s’ sprit. The way the asteroid belt rotated around the sun--half the outpost remained in forever darkness. This is where resident’s slept never getting to see a sliver of hope of sun ray. The Compound itself was nestling between two giant asteroids whose main compassion is copper. But you could not tell that by looking at these ridged black and dark-brown rocks the size of Texas. These asteroids where riddled with pockmarks, and holes that seemed to go on forever as the company went on its endless pursuit of copper. Trillions of Small shards of ice and brown rock floated everywhere escaping the never ending blasting and drilling operations carried out year round.
The main outpost itself had very few windows and no paint on the bare cold metal. This place was not built with elegant design in mind just pure function. Everything just consisted of rectangle size rooms. Some tall enough for a man who was shorter than six foot two could fit in. Other rooms who exceeding twenty stories tall to fit mining ships and other equipment into docking bays. The only objects breaking up the silhouette of rectangle rooms where: cameras, rusty hatch openings, and antenna arrays. Outdoor lights where these massive ten by ten foot flood lights that blinded me as I approached the delegate landing pad. The landing pad itself was the only thing that had any paint on it, and even that was worn away and darkened by the passage of time. Just the remnant of a dark yellow circle to outline where ships where to be parked on the outside.”
Now, you will have to complete it as you perked our interest.
This is such a cool concept to help people find a focus, especially if they are experiencing writers block!
Thank you!
@jessicakluthe, Thank you for teaching us how to develop a story. I have in my mind to write a story on a small bunch of people, say a tribe now. That's my next blog. I shall use your advice here as a template and see how the story develops.
I shall provide you a link of my blog when it is posted here. Thank you.
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