Toolbox: P.O.V.

• What three things does your character see, feel, taste, smell, hear? They have senses. Use them.
• First, second, or third tense (if one doesn't work, switch gears)
• Language in context with the point of view character
• Don't head-hop. Keep the "camera" in the point of view of one character per scene.

(sorry, I didn't have that much in my notebook this time. That's why I need your comments!)

Toolbox: What NOT to do

• Cliches
• Cool factor
• archaic narrative / dialog
• similar sentence length
• Absurd and unreasoned names you can't even pronounce
• Writing what you don't know about
• Describing simply
• Distracting tags and adverbs
• "very"
• head-hopping (keep it to one POV per scene)
• White Room Syndrome
• Switching tenses
• Passive voice (was, is, to be - followed by -ing verbs)
• Breaking the rules you set for your story
• Waking up scenes
• Unimportant transportation
• Unimportant dialog

Be sure to...

• make sure people interact with the rules
• keep characters IN character (don't let them live your fantasy or be/do what they never would)
• give your characters flaws
• make sure painful things hurt (continuity)
• RESPOND!

Comment! Keep 'em coming!

Toolbox: Preparation / Inspiration

• Bring your lightning rod in case lightning strikes! (always have at least a pen on hand at all times!)
• If you don't have paper, maybe you have a napkin, a place-mat, a receipt... anything you can get your thoughts onto (and take with you when you leave).
• Unwire! disconnect from your appliances (iPod, internet, cell phone) so you can connect with the world.
• Play music
• Zone out
• Meditate
• Walk around
• People watch!
• Look at pictures / watch tv
• READ READ READ READ READ READ!
• Change. If one place you're writing isn't doing it, switch seats, or go somewhere else all together. Switch from inside to outside, switch from writing one story, to taking a break to write something else, or to read... Keep your mind fresh.

• Above all else, DON'T WAIT FOR INSPIRATION TO HIT, JUST WRITE!

Comment to add more!

Toolbox: Tension

• Two things that you wouldn't put together (although, it worked for Reece)
• Dialog broken by surroundings
• Juxtaposition
• Mystery
• Misinterpretation
• Miscommunication
• Passive-aggressive behaviour
• Behaviour that contradicts belief
• Give them something stupid to argue over
• Mismatched colours
• Volume (whispers, screams...)
• Unmet expectations (by character or reader)
• Proximity, boundaries (personal bubble, too close to bomb, spider, person of desire...)
• Being in two places (by phone, internet, tv...)

Comment to add more!

Toolbox: Setting

• Develop characters and worlds
• Create rules for worlds
• Avoid White Room Syndrome!
• Interact with settings, don't just describe
• What's wrong with your setting? What's weird or out of place?
• Change the weather (pathetic fallacy?)
• Describe things - one of which is not from our (the author's / reader's) world
• Use all five senses (smell and sound are big ones)
• How clean, dirty, tidy, or cluttered is the room?
• Would you walk barefoot in these streets?
• Can you see the sunset on the horizon from where you are (or do you have to get out of the forest, or go up on the rooftop of a skyscraper)?

Comment to add your own!

Toolbox: Plot

• Character coping
• Cartesian Circle (character, plot, character, plot, character, plot...)
• Moment of Change!!!!!
• Encompasses all characteristics of a story
• Make your character suffer (give 'em what they want, then take it away, or just DON'T give them what they want)
• What can go wrong?
• Take your character out of his natural setting
• Juxtapose (fairies, unicorns, nuclear bombs)
• Throw in unexpected characters
• Don't overthink it- go with the flow
• Give them a new desire
• Give them booze, fire, diarrhea
• Focus on an important object. Why is it important?
• Add a perspective that questions the status quo
• Heroe's quest; call to adventure!
• Try the tarot card trick
• MICE Quotient
• Think of the tropes
• Influence from other stories (steal something)
• Influence from life
• Kill someone (or remove them some other way). Continue without them, or be haunted by them.
• How do you get from A to B to C?
• If it's not working, go in the opposite direction

Comment to add your own!

Toolbox: Dialog

• Tag to let us know who is speaking (if needed)
• Broken phrasing (you talk in complete sentences all the time? Doubt it)
• Interact with the surroundings while a conversation is happening (people don't usually just sit/stand there while they talk. They cough, adjust their glasses, sip coffee, lean against something... if they really are just standing there while they talk, maybe one of your characters has to pee. How do they get that point across without being rude?)
• Are there words/phrases your character won't say?
• Connect in disconnected ways ("Check out this screen-cap!" "Fuck, you crashed the internet!" *totally related in my house, but the untrained eye wouldn't get it*)
• Internal monologue vs. external
• Find questions to ask about objects
• Manipulation of desires
• describe!
• Don't forget setting
• Have external world break up dialog

Comment to add your own!

Toolbox: Character

• Where is your character from?
• Where is he now?
• Where does he want to be?
• Friends, family, loner?
• Traits, quirks
• How do they speak?
• How do they dress?
• Hobbies
• Likes / Dislikes
• Flaws
• What do they want / need (and how will you NOT give it to them)?
• What makes them happy / unhappy?
• Happiest and worst memories?
• Fears
• Medical problems?
• What kind of cereal do they like best?
• How do others see him and how does he see himself?
• How does your character react to his surroundings and to others?

• Pathetic fallacy - give your character an external reality. Personality in terms of objects.
• Authorial summation - put in a paragraph about your character if you need to
• Give your character an interview
• Don't forget archetypes of fantasy and science fiction.

Comment to add to this list :)

Toolbox Introduction

The Toolbox is a digital (or you can put it on note cards and index them into a file if you want) reference guide to help you out when you're stuck.

The toolbox will come in separate posts, free for you to comment on with additional ideas in these categories:

• Character
• Dialog
• Plot
• Setting
• Tension
• Preparations / Inspirations
• What NOT to do
• POV

Personally, whenever I think of the toolbox, I think of these cards called Oblique Strategies created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmitt back in the late '70s, meant to spark dilemmas or move things along. I first read about this deck 14 years ago on the website of a friend-of-friend-of-friend. He posted all of them. And thanks to the power of the Wayback Machine, I will share them all with you (I have no guilt in posting this, since I didn't originally post it, and £30 is rather a lot for a deck of cards, no matter how cool they are). You can find over a hundred Oblique Strategies here.

Individual toolbox posts to follow... after I make cupcakes.

The MICE Quotient

A la Orson Scott Card:

Milieu

Idea

Character

Event

Milieu - 3 places. Character starts in place A, then goes to place B (where he learns something important to carry with the rest of the story), then either returns to place A or goes on to place C. Think Wizard of OZ, Coraline or Alice in Wonderland.

Idea - Ends with the revelation of what it's really all about. Think Shutter Island or Fight Club.

Character - The character's world changes. Think Office Space or Amelie

Event - The pivotal point that disrupts the balance or brings order or continues in chaos... This all builds up to the big ending. Think Independence Day or Heavenly Creatures.

Fantasy

Fantasy breakdown

Characters

• Sad lead
• Lovers
• Deity
• Anthropomorphic personifications
• Seeker (quest-taker)
• Heroes
• Mentor (the wise one)
• The Chosen One
• Dragons / Fairies / Elves ............
• Desire personified
• Fear personified
• Bard/writer/artist
• Sage/scholar
• Soothsayer
• Evil mother/witch/monster...

Good vs. Evil

• Evil - Right idea, wrong process
• Good - no ideas, just there to stop evil
• 2 ideal worlds contrast and battle.

Plot

• Truth
• good vs evil
• human vs nature
• espionage
• quest
• true love
• other worlds (dreams, multiple...)
• art/words
• family/school
• exchange
• morals/ethics/psychology... what are we?
• transformations
• (several of these can be one in the same)

Science Fiction

Breaking down science fiction's tropes

Characters

• Mad scientist
• The guy who had it right all along
• The guy who died before the story began (this can also be the right guy above)
• The Others (robots, aliens...)
• Creator / Pioneer / Scientist who makes the breakthrough
• Detective
• Interspecies (cyborg, human-like animals, animal-like humans...)
• Corporations / Gov't Agents
• Hyper-intellectual
• Bifurcate identities (splits, downloads)

Forces

• Metagovernment
• aliens
• time
• physics
• art/artifice
• marriages/marital problems
• religion
• nature

Plots

• contact
• espionage
• apocalypse
• invasion
• government conspiracy
• cold war
• coming of age
• starting anew / reset
• mutation

Other considerations (with lists that go on forever)

• Setting
• Rules...