#fastandfurious | The Ink Well Fast and Furious Festival - Day Four

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(Edited)


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Hello Everyone,

Welcome to Day 4 of The Ink Well's Fast and Furious Festival! Good to have you here - have you signed up on the Launch page yet? Pop over and leave a comment.

Remember to vote for this post and follow @theinkwell.

Twenty days of fast and furious writing, reading, commenting and having fun. Every day for twenty days, there will be a new prompt focusing on a different aspect of writing each day from character development and dialogue to setting and style and everything in between.

You can join the Festival at any time during the twenty days and respond to as many of the prompts as you want (prizes for completing all twenty), and do all your comments in one day each week if you want to - it's up to you!

DEADLINE FOR ALL POSTS AND COMMENTS: 9 FEBRUARY 2021

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Day Four Prompt - Story Arc

CHECK THE LAUNCH POST FOR RULES OF ENTRY

When talking about the structure of a short story, we tend to talk more about story arc than about plot. The reason for this is ... your story must include an arc to be effective and to leave the reader satisfied that the time it took to read your story (vs. the thousand other things he or she may have chosen instead) was worth the journey.

That parenthetical statement above is really important. People are busy, distracted, presented with numerous attention-grabbing online amusements and these days we are just not all that patient.

Readers don’t want to have to do a lot of hard work to sort through muddy character descriptions and lack of story progression, or the dull thud that happens at the end of a story that did not resolve a conflict or transform a character. We must have conflict and character transformation.

(adapted from Writing Tip #25: Do Short Stories Have To Have A Plot?)

In the above writing tip, @jayna suggests a way you can practise developing story arcs and gives some ideas. We're going to use that for our task today!

Task One

A. My main character is:B. My character's problem is:
An old manUnable to recover from a loss
A young girlDisturbed by something seen by moonlight
A street vendorUnsure of the meaning of life
A police officerWorried their spouse is having an affair
A rich yacht ownerTrying to return to their homeland before dying
A grieving manSuffering from COVID-19
An unhappy womanLiving on the street
A bartenderAfraid there is going to be an alien invasion
A musicianTrying to find their keys
C. My character is living with, encountering or at odds with:D. The thing preventing my character from solving their problem is:
Best friendA painful skin condition
SpouseAlcoholism
NeighbourFear of ghosts
Ex best friendThe weather
Ex spouseLack of money
Mother-in-lawOther people's irritating opinions
High school flingThe car is out of fuel
BabyBeing in quarantine
Local politicianA broken leg

Choose one item from each section: A, B, C and D (you can select them or write them on slips of paper and randomly select one item from each pile).

Now you are equipped with everything you need to develop your story: a main character (the protagonist from A) with a problem (from B), a secondary character (possibly an antagonist from C) and the seemingly insurmountable obstacle (from D) to overcoming or coming to terms with the problem.

In your story, show us how you get from the beginning to the end, how the main character is thinking about or dealing with the problem, the other character and the obstacle, including the resolution to the story's conflict.

Feel free to try more than one - or write a second post another day!

You can find more resources about plotting and creating a story arc in this writing tip.

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Finally ...

  • aim for twenty-five minutes writing.
  • select your tags wisely.
  • link your post in a comment below.

And then, look for other posts to enjoy and comment on.

Remember - have fun! 😁

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We would like to invite lovers of short stories to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and run by @shanibeer and @stormlight24 with support from moderators @carolkean, @jayna and @agmoore.

Read The Ink Well Manifesto for Writers, Readers and Investors.

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18 comments
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(Edited)

The writing of this Day 4 story took me 45 minutes. I utilized my notes and photo from Day 2 assignment.

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@justclickindiva/the-arc-fusing-all-4-elements-of-a-story-together-or-the-ink-well-fast-and-furious-festival-day-4


MY COMMENTS (DAY 4 AUTHORS)

  1. @soyunasantacruz
  2. @jayna
  3. @morey-lezama
  4. @dwixer
  5. @gilliatt

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS


ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON 1/29/21:
@young-boss-karin


ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON 2/4/21:
@marcybetancourt

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What a wonderful exercise. This makes the logic of story structure clear. When we begin as writers we like to think of an open page as a "free ride"...we can do anything we want. But we can't, not if we want readers. We have to follow the logic we would use in any conversation: a begin, a middle, and an end. Most of all, a reason to speak--that's the conflict, that's the crux of the story. How did the conflict begin, and how does it end? How did we (or the main character) manage to resolve the conflict.

Your grid (that's how I see it) of choices is a guide that gently leads writers to a successful story exercise.

Thanks. I'll see what I come up with, and am eager to see what other participants create.

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