by Bryan Patrick Avery Well, Spring is finally upon us. As the flowers begin to bloom in our gardens and parks, this is a good time for our stories to bloom as well. This month, I’d like to walk you through an exercise that might help get your creative juices flowing and, hopefully, plant a few seeds for stories that can grow in the coming months. 1. Find three books that you have easy access to, have read previously, and remember. These can be on your bookshelf at home, at the library, or anywhere. I chose James Ponti’s CITY SPIES, Stuart Gibbs’ TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS, and John Dickson Carr’s THE THREE COFFINS. 2. Scan through the three books quickly and re-familiarize yourself with the story and the characters. 3. Choose three characters from the books they resonate with you and make you think “I could write about a character like this”. Try to make sure that they come from at least two of the three books. I choose Dr. Fell from THE THREE COFFINS, Summer McCracken from TYRANNOSAURUS WRECKS, and Rio from CITY SPIES. 4. Take the three characters and make them your own. For example, I choose Dr. Fell because he’s a brilliant logician. He is however, an adult, and in a the middle grade novel I’m planning, a brilliant adult would stifle the kids (who are the main characters). Let’s rename Dr. Fell. I love a good locked room mystery, so I’d love to pay homage to Dr. Fell. How about “Professor Pitched”? It works for now. I can always change it later. In addition to a new name, let’s change him slightly. Instead of being brilliant, Professor Pitched will be a little less than sharp. Like Dr. Fell, he’ll still pontificate endlessly but will often be wrong and even more often forget what he was talking about in the first place. Do this for all three characters. 5. Think about how and why these characters would interact. Why would my middle grade characters need to talk to Professor Pitched? In my case, I decided Professor Pitched is a physics professor and a neighbor of one of the kids. When they need information on what the multiverse theory is, and how it works, they seek him out, not realizing that he’s not a very good physicist. This will introduce conflict when they can’t get the information they need from him, but also can’t get him to stop talking. Maybe I’ll even have him stop by one of the kids’ houses putting a secret they’re keeping from their parents in jeopardy. It’s that simple. This short exercise can be done in about 30 minutes but you’ll end up with three characters, a little bit a conflict, and (hopefully) some seeds for a new story or two. Well, that’s all for this month. Happy reading (and writing) and have a magical month. ![]() Bryan Patrick Avery writes picture books, chapter books, middle grade and graphic novels. His middle grade story, “The Magic Day Mystery”, was published in June 2020 in SUPER PUZZLETASTIC MYSTERIES, an anthology from HarperCollins and the Mystery Writers of America. His debut picture book, THE FREEMAN FIELD PHOTOGRAPH, will be published in April 2021 by Clearfork Publishing/Spork.
21 Comments
Mira Reisberg
4/26/2021 10:54:49 am
This is such a great technique to create an inspiring hybrid character. If it was a humorous book, you could call him Dr. Whasupp. Love your posts. Thank you.
Reply
5/8/2021 04:58:53 am
Your web log isn’t only useful but it is additionally really creative too.
Reply
8/16/2021 01:15:43 am
Thanks for sharing such great information, I highly appreciate your hard-working skills as the post you published have some great information which is quite beneficial for me, I hope you will post more like that in the future
Reply
10/21/2021 05:30:13 am
Extremely helpful information specially the last part I care for such info a lot. I was seeking this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.
Reply
10/21/2021 05:30:55 am
There is a lot of information here that can help any business get started with a successful social networking campaign.
Reply
11/15/2021 11:09:39 pm
Thanks to this article I can learn more. Expand my knowledge and abilities. Actually the article is very real.
Reply
12/5/2021 10:58:55 pm
Thanks for the information, I will try to figure it out for more. Keep sharing such informative post keep suggesting such post.
Reply
12/30/2021 08:10:31 am
I highly appreciate your hard-working skills as the post you published have some great information which is quite beneficial for me, I hope you will post more like that in the future.
Reply
1/24/2022 01:09:52 am
Thanks for the information keep sharing such informative post keep suggesting such post.
Reply
2/6/2023 10:45:12 am
Stones and Cabinets City delights our customers and makes them proud of their houses by making the complex simple. Our expert designers are dedicated to producing layouts that ensure your design is distinctive to our clients’ liking as well as functional.
Reply
2/6/2023 10:48:58 am
Maintaining the safest driving records on the road, our drivers are the company's most valuable assets and the reason for our growth and success.
Reply
2/6/2023 10:52:37 am
I-Cell Station identify your cell phone issues for free so that we can offer you the best possible solutions. We have expert-level solutions for all damaged cell phone devices, from screen replacements to charging ports and batteries, cameras speakers, back glass to motherboard level repairs.
Reply
2/6/2023 10:56:00 am
A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page
Reply
2/6/2023 10:58:13 am
Click on the Order Online tab above and we'll deliver right to your office. And be sure to make use of our advance order feature to ensure that your food is delivered exactly when you want it.
Reply
2/20/2023 10:37:15 am
SEO Company Services Houston: We are a leading SEO agency in houston, providing complete SEO company services houston solutions to ecommerce websites form across the globe.
Reply
2/25/2023 06:52:01 am
People spend countless hours trying to polish their style, make sure they look best, spend insane amounts of money in trying to pursue the best brands
Reply
3/19/2023 02:29:55 pm
SEO Company Services Chicago: We are a leading SEO agency in houston, providing complete SEO company services chicago solutions to ecommerce websites form across the globe.
Reply
5/18/2023 06:27:53 am
A very awesome blog post. We are really grateful for your blog post. You will find a lot of approaches after visiting your post. I was exactly searching for. Thanks for such post and please keep it up. Great work
Reply
5/22/2023 10:16:53 am
Very interesting blog. A lot of blogs I see these days don't really provide anything that I'm interested in, but I'm most definitely interested in this one. Just thought that I would post and let you know
Reply
6/5/2023 05:37:23 am
It was a decent post to be sure. I completely delighted in understanding it in my lunch time. Will definitely come and visit this blog all the more frequently. Much obliged for sharing.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
We are so excited to be mixing things up at CBA, beginning with some delicious additions to the Blogfish. Meet our awesome bloggers!!
Here's our lineup: 1st Mondays begin with awesome multi-published former student Shirin Shamsi who will be focusing on Muslim and cultural kidlit. 2nd Mondays will feature super smart Melissa Stoller whose career is taking off with several new books. 3rd Mondays will feature Bryan Patrick Avery, published writer, man of mystery, and professional magician among other things. 4th Mondays will feature STEM, STEAM & SEL obsessed author Kourtney LaFavre sharing delightfully dorky, quirky, and fun info. And 5th Mondays we'll be taking a break Archives
May 2023
|