Shock Passenger
This is the twelfth workout you have attended. Well, it is if you started Author Gym at the very beginning and did all the sessions to this one. It would be great if you could share a few paragraphs of your work with us. Even better, if you found the exercises useful, could you share a brief note about that journey?
Field Notes:
On a train, plane, boat, train a mystery is unfolding. This time our character — finds, overhears, smells, reads, whatever — a clue that places them in what they perceive as grave and imminent danger. Their worry is the journey is nonstop for at least twelve hours. They know no one they can trust, or is there an unexpected passenger? Danger lurks. Make sure you ride on the chosen mode of transport with this task in mind. Do not think, for example, “Oh, I know all about trains, I can get stuck straight into the workout.”
There must be one or more critical moments of danger and a surprising rescue by someone our threatened character had long lost contact with. Does the danger turn out to be real or is there a different twist? Was the past connection romantic, business or other relationship? How do you insert the twist you create?
WARM UP
10 minutes
Create a link between two of the passengers. Think of the past relationship and how to work it in. How is the threat discovered? Does the apparently endangered person confront or hide from the perceived danger? What is the twist in the story clip? There is much to decide.
Your Field Notes will help to prepare for writing.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to create scene where the instigation to action is when a secret is discovered. There must be an unexpected twist in the ending.
WRITING
30 minutes
Write to a target of 350 words without interruption. This is a target only. Now you should be looking for both quality and quantity. There is a lot of overlap between the two. Achieving both at the same time is a curious juggle. Write copiously, then add quality.
COOL DOWN
10 minutes
Chill in a chair or somewhere comfortable in your cool down zone. Think of yourself as a reader, not the writer of the piece you just put down.
Will a reader be jolted at a key moment? For example, by the twist that was inserted.
Would the danger and personal interactions take a reader by surprise?
Did you like the way the writer portrayed links to the past?
Which sentence turned the reader’s thinking around? Can you make it even stronger?
Are your novel writing muscles and skills growing? Do you see yourself writing and publishing regularly?
Use these and other exercises to maintain muscle fitness. They will soften without regular working out.
We hope your novel’s writing is powering ahead. Be sure to share your experiences.
See you soon.
Damon
