Tag: Travel Writing classes

The Self as Character: Writing in First Person Point of View

First person point of view remains one of the trickiest strategies for any writer, as well as one of the most effective and popular ways of telling a story. This class will provide key insights into writing in first person: thinking of yourself as a character in a story; changing your point of view in the course of the story; reaching a meaningful conclusion that will interest readers. We will discuss first person point of view in memoir, travel pieces, humor, and other genres.
1) THINK OF YOURSELF AS A CHARACTER – The first person you assume in the story is a selection, not your whole personality, and you want to select carefully so that the aspect of yourself that you highlight works well within the entire narrative.

The part of yourself that you emphasize will depend on the kind of story you’re planning to tell. In one story you may want to emphasize your competence at croquet, in another your incompetence at softball. But remember that you’re choosing a selection of yourself, not necessarily the whole person. In first person, you’re assuming an aspect of your personality, and turning that aspect into a persona, a character who fits within the larger story. The narrator is a part of you, not all of you.

In his essay, “Natural Narratives,” Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, advises using first person strategically.

“The key is to realize that once you’ve made the decision that you’re writing a first-person piece, you’re not done. There’s a second decision: Which first person? You have many identities when you’re writing. For example, I could approach a piece as a gardener. Or as a Jew. Or a son. Or father. As someone who lives in Berkeley, Calif. As any number of identities. When you’re writing in first person, you’re not using your whole identity. You’re choosing what is useful to your story.

With “Power Steer,” I wrote as a carnivore. This was an important choice. Because if I’d written about the meat industry as a vegetarian, nobody would have read what I wrote. I needed to start where my reader was. And odds were that my New-York-Times reader was a carnivore. It’s also much more interesting to find out what happens to a carnivore after he’s gone into the heart of darkness of the modern American meat industry than what happens to a vegetarian. Because you know exactly what would happen to a vegetarian: He’d say, “See, I told you so.” That’s not very interesting.”

I’ll be discussing additional strategies for first person writing on my blog in the days ahead. Please follow if it’s useful and forward to others. This is one of the many techniques I teach in my Seattle writing classes. Visit my website for more.

Begin at the End: An Effective Strategy for Leads

BEGIN AT THE END

Ever notice how many books begin with a marriage or a funeral? You wouldn’t think that knowing how things turn out could generate much suspense, but in fact such openings beg the question of HOW and WHY such things happened. This is the source of suspense for scenes that begin at the end.

On the day that Pablo Escobar was killed, his mother, Hermilda, came to the place on foot. She had been ill earlier that day and was visiting a medical clinic when she heard the news. She fainted…. -From the opening of, Killing Pablo, by Mark Bowden.

Bowden tells us immediately that Pablo died, but the opening also raises many questions: how did he die? Who was involved? How would his family react to it? These questions generate plenty of suspense, indeed, it’s nearly impossible to put the book down once you’ve read the first ten pages.

This is just one of the many techniques I discuss in my Seattle writing classes. Let me know if you’d like to sign up.

The List or Inventory: Another Effective Lead

THE LIST OR INVENTORY

Bangs manes bouffants beehives Beatle cap butter faces brush-on lashes decal eyes puffy sweaters French thrust bras flailing leather blue jeans stretch pants stretch jeans honeydew bottoms éclair shanks of elf boots ballerinas Knight slippers, hundreds of them, these flaming little buds, bobbing and screaming, rocketing around inside the Academy of Music Theater underneath that vast old moldering cherub of a dome up there—aren’t they supermarvelous!

“Aren’t that super-marvelous!” says Baby Jane, and then: “Hi, Isabel! Isabel! You want to sit backstage—with the Stones!”

The show hasn’t even started yet, the Rolling Stones aren’t even on the stage, the place is full of great shabby moldering dimness, and these flaming little buds.

From “The Girl of the Year” by Tom Wolfe in New York Magazine, 1964

The list works best when the items on it are unusual. The rapid-fire staccato pace of the list with unpredictable words and phrases surprises and pleases readers. Alliteration is often used as a kind of glue to bind the list together. The inventory is an old technique; Homer used it in the Iliad and the Odyssey, but it’s still highly effective. This is one of the techniques discussed in my fall Seattle writing class.

Scenic Leads the Key to Suspenseful Storytelling

SCENIC LEADS

These leads attempt to grab the reader through use of graphic detail and gripping suspenseful storytelling. These leads do not attempt to tell a complete story as do anecdotal leads, but they give the most appealing, eccentric or dramatic part of the story.

NEW YORK – Caprice Benedetti stared fixedly at herself in the mirror, surveying her beauty, and saw that her color was just not right, so she repaired that deficiency quickly. She daubed on a touch more lipstick. Self-absorption is expected of a model. It was late in the day, and she had already changed clothes and make-up a half-dozen times, piling new look upon new look. “OK,” she said. “I’m the next me.”

She bounced out of her apartment building in Manhattan, the doorman nodding to this latest version of her. Quickly, her long legs propelled her into the humming convoy of pedestrians, those who had uncomplainingly lived with the same look all day long. “Some days, I’m changing my face and changing my clothes 10 times,” she said. “I’m elegant. I’m casual. I’m chic. I’m downtown. I’m sexy. I’m theatrical. I begin to wonder ‘Who am I?’ I’m 10 different people. Where’s the real me? You have an identity crisis. Who is this?”

As she wove through the crowds, there were, as always, covetous stares, but no sense of recognition. For hers was not a face that many would know.

Caprice, as she is known professionally, is an average fashion model. She is not Cindy Crawford or Naomi Campbell or Niki Taylor, and never will be. She is one of “the other girls.” While she makes abundant money, never does her face decorate the covers of Vogue or Elle or Harper’s Bazaar. Never has she been the Clairol girl or the Revlon girl. She wallows in the vast anonymity of fashion, her scrupulously made-up face blurring with thousands of others.

From “Fame Can Elude Models Who Are ‘Just Average’” by N.R. Kleinfeld in The New York Times.

Anecdotal Leads: Tell a Compelling Story Quickly

ANECDOTAL LEADS

Anecdotal leads tell a compelling story quickly and succinctly, a story which illustrates the larger point that the piece is making. These leads do not employ a lot of scenic detail, but instead rely on describing an action which makes clear the writer’s point. Use only strong, succinct stories for anecdotal leads.

“When I went off to college, my father gave me, as part of my tuition, fifty pounds of moose meat. In 1969, eating moose meat at the University of California was a contradiction in terms. Hippies didn’t hunt. I lived in a rambling Victorian house that boasted sweeping circular staircases, built-in lofts, and a landlady who dreamed of opening her own health food restaurant. I told my housemates that my moose meat in its nondescript white butcher paper was from a side of beef my father had bought. The carnivores in the house helped me finish off such suppers as sweet-and-sour moose meatballs, moose burgers (garnished with the obligatory avocado and sprouts), and mooseghetti. The same dinner guests who remarked upon the lean sweetness of the meat would have recoiled if I’d told them the not-to-simple truth: that I grew up on game, and that moose they were eating had been brought down, with one shot through his magnificent heart, by my father—a man who had hunted all his life and all of mine.

From Brenda Peterson’s essay, “Growing Up Game.”

Write on the Sound: Quest Narratives

Write on the SoundI had the pleasure of speaking at the annual Write on the Sound writers conference in Edmonds, Washington, yesterday. I talked about Quest Narratives, one of the oldest and surest ways of telling a story. Here’s some of my advice about how to organize a quest narrative.

Writing a quest narrative

  1. Describe the object of the quest and why it’s important. You don’t have to start the story with this statement, but it should come near the beginning, explaining why you’ve arrived in New Guinea, for example.
  2. Set out on the quest. What do you bring? How do you prepare? Who goes with you?
  3. Describe the journey and the difficulties of achieving it.
  4. Describe whether you achieve the goal or not.
  5. What did you learn from it? Don’t have to achieve the goal, but have to say something interesting about failing to achieve it. For example, Peter Mathiessen’s The Snow Leopard is a quest narrative, about his trip to the Himalayas, to see a rare snow leopard. He never in fact sees one of the animals, but through his journey there learns something important about himself. This is a kind of Zen ending to the quest narrative, but he certainly carried it off as The Snow Leopard won the National Book Award.

This is the kind of approach I take in my Seattle writing classes, Travel, Food and Wine writing classes, or online writing classes.

Rafting the Salmon River

Salmon River raftingI had the pleasure of rafting on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River this summer. Working on the story now. Here’s a preview:

It’s a rock dodge. I point the red 9-foot kayak toward Orelano Rapid on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. The rapid is rated a III (on a scale of I – VI, from easy to hazardous), putting it at the limit of my abilities as a kayaker. Earlier rapids have boosted my confidence, but I hope they haven’t lulled me into a false sense of security.

I enter the rapid on the right, weaving past one rock and then another, relishing the feeling of dashing through the boiling cauldron. A boulder looms ahead. I glide past it, but overcompensate, turning my kayak to the side. The current smashes it against a large boulder, high-centering it on the top. I dig on the paddle, trying to free it.

As I try to shove off, the current catches the underside of the kayak, flipping me into the drink. The water is cold, fast, and powerful. I clutch the boat and pin the paddle between my knees. The river surges past me, threatening to knock me over. I remember the guide’s advice about staying calm, facing down river and releasing the boat if necessary, but I keep fighting and drag it over to the bank. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I assess the situation…

For more, check back in when I know where I’ll publish it.

There’s still room in the fall writing class, Revising Your Life. For more, take a look at my website.

Ode to Travel Writing Cliches

Kelly Wisecarver, one of the students in my Travel Writing in Tuscany class, wrote this very funny little send-up of the clichés in Travel Writing. Let me know if you have favorites of your own that you love to hate!

Ode To Clichés (May 22, 2015)

You might say we’ve crossed one journey off of our bucket list. Embarking on an adventure to this sun-drenched Tuscan village, where colorful locals trump hordes of tourists, we frolic with new friends. Monticello is an undiscovered gem where glasses of Brunello wash down heaping platters of pasta. For our last night, we feast at a ristorante nestled into the side of the ancient city walls. We’ll savor scrumptious secondis such as toothsome wild boar, cinghiale, quaff gallons of vino rosso, and nibble decadent sweets to die for. Perfect for individuals or groups the Travel Writing in Tuscany class, led by adrenaline junkie Nick O’Connell of The Writer’s Workshop, boasts off the beaten path destinations for foodies and free wi-fi.

A Winery to Watch

Chris Peterson
Chris Peterson pouring at Taste Washington

The Writer’s Workshop Blog highlights my adventures teaching writing classes, writing stories, articles and books, leading travel, food and wine writing classes to France and Italy, traveling the globe, promoting my books including the novel, The Storms of Denali, and other aspects of the wild and crazy world of writing and publishing. Writing and publishing are changing enormously and I hope this blog will help keep you up to date on some of the changes.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2014 Taste Washington, a food and wine extravaganza in Seattle. I always uncover a lot of great stories at this event. One of the highlights was tasting Chris Peterson’s wines from Avennia. They are made with native yeasts, giving them a sharp, bright profile with a superb finish. Check them out!