Openers – Week 1

Written assignments must use:
– Present Tense
– 3rd Person
– A Visual Voice ( Write visually, which you can see it, not in the head. / descriptive, imaginative, when a reader reads it he or she must be able to imagine it.)

3rd Person / Present Tense

A character is ‘narrating’ the story as it is happening

Example:
Mark picks up the gun and holds it in his hand. It begins to tremble, as if alive.

Voice Over narration (V.O)

eg: ‘Desperate Housewives’ ( The beginning and ending), heroes…

Commonly used in:
– Screenplays
~ The story/film unfolds as we read it
~ Fosters a more urgent and immediate feel to the story
– Thriller and suspense genres

Passive VS Active Voices

Passive Voice
– Uses weak verbs
– Tells what’s happening in the character’s head
– Creates a distance between the reader from the story

Active Voice
– Uses strong action verbs
– Shows the action
– Uses an immediate sentence structure
– Conveys the story in a lively manner

Beauty of telling a story is to create anything.

Tips for writing

– Everyone has NO PROBLEMS coming up with a list of excuses for procrastination.
(Don’t Procrastinate!)

– The BIGGEST problem is GETTING STARTED.

– Getting started is the hardest, once begun…ideas will being to trickle and eventually flow.

– Being with a short description of your story.

– When you have a writer’s block, take a break, find inspiration then continue until you derive solution.

– All writers sleep better when they solve the problem in their stories, sleeping on the (writing) job is a NO NO!

– Don’t be too hard on yourself, what you write at the beginning is seldom good but eventually…

Exercise 1A – Openers
– Begin with the opener
eg: Leonard walks towards the box.

* Story must always open with a high note.
* Start story with the start of an action

Ask yourself:
– Whose story am I telling?
– What is the point of this story?
– How can I engage the attention of the audience?

Cliff Hanger
~ Makes the audience want to continue watching the show
~ Make audience want to find out what happened after the commercial break.

Story Comments
– It’s credibility ( make it believable)
– Passages drawn from reality or experience ( makes me feel like I’ve gone through the experience)
– Passages created artificially to keep the narrative flowing. ( exaggerate, make it real, funny etc…)
(Dramatize it to make it more interesting.) ( add in lots of things to make it interesting)

HOME WORK!

– Write 12 opening phrases in your blogs under the openers page.

example:
– Sally keep glancing at her watch.
– Joe opens the battle and takes a whiff.
– May closes her eyes and jumps off.
– James paces around the empty hall way.
– Mel opens the envelope, her hand shakes.
( Give a variety)

– One reflection about anything of the lesson, the day etc…