Visual Tools for Writers

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a stick figure sample storyboard showing visual tools for writers

A stick figure sample storyboard.

Storyboards are illustrations placed in sequence to help visualize a scene or narrative. Used for 80 years or more in film and animation studios, they have a lot to offer writers. While some storyboards for movies are regarded as works of art in and of themselves, drawing ability is not necessary to use storyboards. Stick figures are characters too.

I tend to use storyboards when I am writing complex actions. It’s easy to get caught up in the words and have the actions lose their gravity. By sketching the scene, even in the most basic form, I can track movements and consequences. It grounds the action, making it more believable. The reader can follow the action without backtracking to figure out what’s happening to who, where and when.

a stick figure sample storyboard showing visual tools for writers

Storyboards can help writers with pacing. A quick sketch of the basics of each scene can show slow spots. Five consecutive scenes of two talking heads smoking cigarettes in coffee shops? Might be exactly what you’re after. Or it might be worth revisiting…

Storyboarding on Post-it notes is an effective way to play with your narrative sequence. Seeing your whole story in a single glance helps you build coherence. It’s wonderfully easy to explore options as you move scenes around. Doing this with pictures, rather than written notes, gives the process immediacy. You can see more of your story with one look and you can evaluate options faster.

For writers, storyboarding is a thinking-and-doing tool, not a work of art. Don’t stress about your artistic ability.

If you are interested in learning more about using visual tools please consider attending my Graphic Facilitation Workshop Saturday April 28, 2012, from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Handmade in America offices in downtown Asheville.

 

Lynne Barrett’s Plot Workshop

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On 
Sunday, 
March 
25,
the 
Flatiron 
Writers 
sponsored
 a 
three‐hour 
workshop 
by
 Lynne Barrett
 on
 Plot 
followed
 by 
a 
reading
 from
 her 
latest work, 
Magpies.
 Lynne
 is
 an
 incredibly
 talented
 teacher 
and
 an 
acute reader 
of fiction, 
and
 three 
of 
our
 Flatiron members
 are
 lucky enough
 to have studied 
with her.


For her presentation, she
 took
 apart the
 structure 
of
 the 
Hansel 
and 
Gretel fairy
tale,
 mapping
 it 
out
 visually
 to
 show
 the various elements
 that
 are used, 
such
 as the
 basics
 of 
the
 plot; the 
catalyst
 that 
activates 
the plot,
 which 
must 
be 
resolved; the
 power
 various 
characters 
have 
or 
haven’t;
 the 
boundaries and
 thresholds
 of the
 story;
 the
bright
 and
 dark
 spots
 in
 the narrative;
 strategies 
used
 by
 the
 characters 
to
 achieve 
their goals; 
and
 so on.

The rendering 
of 
the
 fairy 
tale
 into its 
various 
parts was 
Awesome
 (to use 
our
 grandson’s favorite word).
 But
 what 
was 
most
 significant
 for 
me
 was
 her
 discussion
 of
 the
 power
 structure
 in
 the 
piece.
 I
 have 
been stuck
 in 
a
 short story for 
a 
month.
 It
 took
 me
 five
 tries 
to 
find
 the right 
opening 
and, 
usually, once 
I 
have 
that, 
the
 rest 
of
 the 
story
 flows.
 Not
 this 
time. 
The 
story was 
flat 
and I 
couldn’t 
figure
 out the
 problem 
until
 I saw Lynne’s 
mapping 
of 
the power structure
 of 
the
 characters.
 There
 it
 was
 in front 
of 
me.
 I
 had 
no 
power structure
 in the 
piece, therefore
 no 
one
 character
 dominated.
 There 
was 
no 
one 
to 
fight
 against and 
overcome,
 because by
 the
 end 
of 
a
 story,
 the
 power 
structure
 must reverse.
 The
 example
 in 
Hansel and
 Gretel:
 at
 the 
beginning,
 the
 stepmother
 has 
the
 power
 and 
is 
at 
the 
top, 
while 
Gretel
 is
 powerless 
at
 the 
bottom; 
at 
the 
end,
 Gretel 
has 
the 
power 
and
 is 
at
 the
 top,
and
 the
 stepmother
 is 
dead.

There 
was my
 solution. 
As
 soon
 as 
I
 sign 
off, I’m
 going back
 to
 that 
story and
 figure
 out
 the
 power
 structure 
I 
need
 to 
successfully
 complete the
 story.


 

Plot: The Map of Your Story- Workshop & Reading by Lynne Barrett

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UPDATE: This workshop is completely full! Thanks to everyone who signed up, we look forward to seeing you on Sunday. Everyone is still welcome to come to the reading at 6:00 p.m.

The Flatiron Writers are delighted to announce that author Lynne Barrett will teach a workshop: Plot: The Map of Your Story, and read from her new book Magpies, winner of the Florida Book Awards Gold Medal in General Fiction, on March 25th in Asheville.

WHEN: Sunday, March 25, 2012: Workshop 2-5 PM, 5-6 PM Social Hour, Signing & Mingling, 6 PM Reading.

WHERE: Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar, Asheville, NC, Grove Arcade (1 Page Ave.), Asheville, NC 28801.

COST: Workshop $30 Preregistration/$35 at Event. Reading at 6 PM is FREE and open to the public.

HOW TO PRE-REGISTER: Email Barrett@fiu.edu to be sent pre-payment information & confirmation.

ABOUT LYNNE BARRETT

Lynne Barrett’s book Magpies has just been awarded the Gold Medal for General Fiction in the Florida Book Awards. Her other story collections are The Secret Names of Women, and The Land of Go and she co-edited Birth, A Literary Companion and The James M. Cain Cookbook. Barrett has received the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe award for best mystery story and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. Her work has been published in Blue Christmas, Delta Blues, Miami Noir, One Year to a Writing Life, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Written Wardrobe, The Southern Women’s Review, and many other anthologies and magazines. She lives in Miami, where she is a professor in the M.F.A. program at Florida International University. You can learn more at www.LynneBarrett.com

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP: PLOT: THE MAP OF YOUR STORY

Writers are often daunted by plot, but understanding it can help you find the core of your story. This workshop will cover the fundamentals of plot and structure with an emphasis on revision strategies, scene, significant action, the roles of characters, complication, movement, and satisfying resolution. The concepts apply to all forms of fiction and are useful for narrative nonfiction and memoir.

PRAISE FOR MAGPIES

“Sentence for sentence, Barrett is a superb writer…But what separates her from many contemporary short fiction writers is her consummate storytelling ability.”
—The Rumpus

“As eerie as it is richly imagined.”
—Publishers Weekly

 

Barney Rosset

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I was deeply saddened this week to learn of Barney Rosset’s death. This “most dangerous man in publishing” probably made a huge difference in your reading life, whether you know it or not. Here is what he meant to me:
I guess I was about thirteen when, in the storage shed behind our house among my father’s moldy piles of Crawdaddy and Bilboard and MAD Magazine, I came across a few issues of Evergreen Review. I don’t remember exactly what I read in those pages, and most of it I probably only pretended to get, but I do remember thinking: I want to be the sort of person who reads this sort of thing. In college, while writing a research paper on censorship, I rediscovered Evergreen Review and Barney Rosset. By then, I had read D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Nabokov and most of the beats (these from my mother’s piles), and I was being introduced to Beckett, Stoppard and Pinter—I was a theatre major after all. I learned that for all of these, I had Barney Rosset to thank.
At 39, I wrote my first short story—about eighteen months ago. Well, that’s when I finished it. Writing it had taken me many months—stealing time at home during kids’ naps, or in waiting rooms typing entire paragraphs on the tiny keyboard of my blackberry, or scribbling on a legal pad in the grocery store parking lot à la Jill McCorkle. When the story was done, someone told me the next step was to submit it. Okay, whatever that means. So—before googling “short story magazines” and randomly selecting a few of them, based on the criteria that the name sounded cool and that they took electronic submissions (the effort of a bunch of printing and post-officing would mean that I was taking this seriously, but if all I did was push a couple of buttons, it could still be considered a whim, therefore rejection would be less painful)—yes, before I did that, I googled Evergreen Review and was surprised to find that the risk-taking, rule-breaking Mr. Rosset was still at it. So I took a little risk of my own. I pushed the buttons and sent my story through the interwebs to this icon of quality counterculture. What the hell, right? And—lo and behold—they took it.
On the phone with Aliya Tyus-Barnwell, the managing editor, I was beside myself, “You mean THE Barney Rosset himself actually read my story?”
“Of course,” she said, “he read it, and he wants us to publish it.”
Last January Evergreen Review published Sidewalk, my first story—and thereby gave me permission to take this seriously. Without that validation, I may not have had the confidence to keep writing. As it is, I can’t seem to stop. Thank you, Barney Rosset, for everything, and may light perpetual shine upon you.
In addition to Evergreen Review, A.K. Benninghofen’s stories have appeared in Connotation Press and Necessary Fiction.

 

Writing Life Workshop Happens

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On February 11, the Flatiron Writers and Papershine co-sponsored their first workshop: Creating Your Writing Life. Despite the snowy weather, twenty brave souls joined us at the Unitarian church in Asheville for the daylong workshop. The seminar focused on helping people develop the commitments and habits necessary to realize their writing goals. It was a wonderful and productive day.

Heather Newton welcomed everyone and served as the moderator for the entire day. Margie Klein discussed the importance of your writing space and environment. A.K. Benninghofen spoke about the rituals and routines that support the writing life. Maggie Marshall then talked about the writing process and ways to approach new projects or those that have stalled. Heather filled in for Geneve, who was feeling under the weather, and led a conversation about the importance of a supportive writing community. Marc Archambault graphically recorded the entire workshop on a gigantic poster. At the end, we all gathered in small groups to identify things we’d like to change in each of these areas and committed to making these things happen. After the workshop was done, everyone enjoyed wine and cheese and hopefully connected with other writers who will be able to support their writing goals.

Special thanks to Jeremy Bacon for all his help making the day happen.

Download a printable version of the graphic notes from the workshop. (2.3 MB)

Stay tuned for our next workshop!

 

On Finding A Writing Community

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In preparing for my presentation, Community, for the Flatiron Writers workshop, February 11, I thought about what community has meant to me over the years. I was surprised to find that, while community has always been important to me, the most important community turned out to be my writers’ community.
My early experiences with community were similar to most kids. I attended Sunday school and, through my church, joined the Girl Scouts. In high school, I joined a group of girls who called themselves a sorority. That, in turn, led me into a sorority in college.
My first job out of college was as a copy editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, BHGB (before Helen Gurley Brown). It was a small-staffed magazine that published excellent fiction and quasi-sensational articles (revelations by a wife and mother whose minister husband made her sleep in the hallway outside their bedroom door; the alarming rise of teenage suicides). Working there was like being part of a close-knit family. The editors handed off movie reviews to the copy department, which was my first taste of critical writing. I also was given the job of writing synopses of the articles in each issue for the publicity department. I left to become a free-lance writer, doing articles for the magazine—until HGB became editor—at which point I found a niche in reference book work where I wrote articles for encyclopedias on various subjects from world drama to mystery writers and subjects like (geographical) place names. But the pay was dreadful and I was unhappy with the isolation of the work, and I don’t mean loneliness. I’ve never been bothered by the loneliness of the writer’s life. What I wanted and needed was a community of other writers. So I left free-lance work and got a job as assistant to the editor of a small business magazine and eventually became managing editor. Once again, I had found a small community where co-workers became family. I wrote and edited articles, edited crossword puzzles, and created acrostics. I was there for some ten years when, once again, a change of editors made me rethink what I wanted. The answer was that I wanted to write fiction.
I returned to free-lance work, and started trying out various workshops. The turning point came when an ad in Poets and Writers listed openings in a fiction workshop to be given at something called the Writers’ Community. I couldn’t possibly resist that. I applied and was accepted, along with eleven other women who were starting out as writers. When the workshop was over, eight of us continued as a peer group that lasted almost ten years. Marriages and relocations ended the group. I joined other groups, but none was right for me. During that period, I had found writing space for rent at a small, private library. There I became friendly with another woman, who in turn introduced me to a writing workshop run by Philip Schultz—an award-winning poet and, at that time, head of the MFA program at New York University. In the forge of Phil’s stringent, at times acerbic, criticism, I became the writer I am today.
When my husband and I moved to Asheville in 1992, I looked for a group to join. I visited several, but didn’t find one that was right for me until 1993. It was then I became part of a group, of which Heather was a member, which met in the Flatiron Building. The group provided support, astute criticism, and respect for one another’s work. Membership in the group turned over. New members came and went, until Toby, in 1995. He came and stayed and formed, along with Heather and myself, the stable core that allowed the Flatiron Writers to continue. We have since added writers who share the Flatiron Writers’ goals of providing support, astute criticism, and respect for one another’s work. We also demand of one another that we be the best writers we can be.
In writing this, I see how predisposed toward Community I was and how happenstance helped me along: an ad for a workshop that in turn led to being part of a successful peer group; meeting a woman who introduced me to the workshop that in turn forged me as a writer; and, finally, coming upon that writing group in the Flatiron Building that has defined my writing life for nineteen years. But predisposition and happenstance aside, it was finding out who I wanted to be as a writer, and looking until I found the right people to work with, that led me to be the best writer I can be.

 

Creating A Writing Life Seminar

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Flatiron Writers Present “Creating Your Writing Life”

On Saturday, February 11th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. the Flatiron Writers and Papershine will present “Creating Your Writing Life.” This all-day seminar, moderated by novelist Heather Newton, is designed for those who want to want to make regular and sustainable room in their lives for writing. The workshop will focus on Routines and Rituals, Space and Environment, Writing Process, and Community. A social hour will follow from 4:00 to 5:00 for participants interested in connecting with others to form or join critique groups.

When: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Saturday, February 11, 2012 followed by social hour at 4:00
Where: Sandburg Hall, Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville, One Edwin Place, Asheville, NC, 28801
Cost: $55 per person

Click here for more information and to register.

 

Used To Could

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A friend who recently read my novel, Under The Mercy Trees, laughed at the part where I have my character Bertie describe the place she got married: “in front of this porch, by the steps where a butterfly bush used to be.” My friend, who is from the north (bless his heart) said that only in the south would people describe things in terms of what is no longer there, as in, “turn left at the house that used to be orange.”
I wonder if it really is just a southern thing, this need to reference things lost. Or if it’s a trait shared by cultures who have experienced a military occupation. Or if all humans do it, just because our supposedly advanced brains let us remember and yearn for things.
If all parties involved remember the same thing, references to what used to be make perfect sense. When I give directions to my law office the first question I ask is, “do you know where Max’s Deli used to be?” Max’s Deli closed years ago but no other restaurant that has rented that space since has lasted more than a few months, so Max’s it is to most people. When my siblings and I visit the Pamlico river where our grandparents lived when we were young, we collectively remember the huge magnolia my mother planted in the yard when she was a girl, and we avert our eyes when we pass the McMansion that now towers where house and tree used to be. Last month I visited my parents in Raleigh and took a walk around the neighborhood where I grew up. As I passed our old house two little boys and their mother were returning home, the youngest one running ahead to be the first to the front door. I said hello to the woman as I passed and almost told her, “this is the house where I used to be.”
I think the only danger in referring to things that no longer exist is that they may never have been real at all. In one of Bertie’s chapters in my novel I write: “As she stepped up to the door she heard them start Are You Lonesome Tonight, a Carter Family song that always called up in her a false memory, sad but sweet, of somebody she had lost, but when she stopped to think who it might have been she realized there never was anybody and she was looking back at nothing.”
Those advanced brains of ours can trick us, making us nostalgic for what never was, keeping our eyes turned backward instead of on the road ahead.

Heather Newton is the author of the novel Under The Mercy Trees (HarperCollins 2011). Visit her website at www.heathernewton.net.

 

What to Wear, What to Read, What to Say

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My novel, Under The Mercy Trees, comes out in two months, so it’s time for me to start thinking about upcoming book events.
There is, of course, the question of whether anyone will come to my readings. Remember that line in Spinal Tap? (I’m paraphrasing) “If I told them once I told them a thousand times–it’s Spinal Tap first, then Puppet Show.” Fortunately, the appearances my publisher and I have set up so far are all in cities where I have family and friends, so I don’t have to worry too much about no one showing up.
Then there’s the decision about what to wear. My dad does have a black beret and matching turtleneck I could borrow, but then I’d have to find someone with a bongo drum to accompany me. My mother, who is also a writer, likes to poke gentle fun at lady writers who wear “author clothes”–usually flowy, flouncy skirts and scarves, and the largest dangly earrings their lobes will support. I don’t really own anything suitable and wouldn’t know how to accessorize properly if I did. My wardrobe includes two types of clothing. I wear business suits when I have to look like a lawyer. At all other times I wear ripped jeans and comfortable 100% cotton shirts that don’t touch my body at any point. And fleece. I like fleece. Maybe Santa Claus will bring me an outfit for Christmas that strikes a happy balance between my Boston Legal look and my dug-it-out-of-a-trash-can look. I am grateful for one indispensable item of apparel I recently acquired–my bifocals, without which I wouldn’t be able to read at all.
Then we get to the reading itself. Some people have wonderful reading voices. My Flatiron Writer friend Maggie is one of them. She was an actress before she began writing, and her voice is mesmerizing. In comparison, my own native North Carolinian speech is somewhat nasal and flat. I thought about hiring Maggie to come with me on the book tour. I could take along a screen for her to hide behind, like the Wizard of Oz, and let her read while I move my lips. But I doubt I could afford to pay her what she’s worth. So any of you who come to see me will just have to put up with my lack of dramatic ability. I promise not to go on too long.
The choice of what passages to read will be interesting. Sex scenes are out, I suppose, as are scenes that give away the ending. When I read at a church there’s a handy Baptism chapter I can use. When I go to Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill (January 27th at 7 p.m.) I can read an excerpt that takes place on the very street the bookstore is on. The rest I’ll have to wing.
The final, and perhaps most challenging, part of the author events will be the audience questions. I have been to many readings in my time, and inevitably someone in the audience asks, “who are your favorite authors” or “what are your favorite books?” Given the zillions of authors and books I love, how will I choose which ones to list? I’ll feel guilty if I leave one out!
Someone asked me this week whether I was nervous about the book events. I’m really not. Are you kidding? Put me in a room with lots of people who love books and let me talk to someone other than my husband about my novel? I can’t wait.

Flatiron Writers member Heather Newton is the author of the novel Under The Mercy Trees (Harper Paperbacks, Jan. 18, 2011). You can find a list of her upcoming book signings and other events on her website at http://www.heathernewton.net.