How To Write, With Victor Hugo

[melannen]

Occasionally in lesmiseres chat I encourage people to turn their fanfic into epic historical digressions or side stories about minor characters and say I'm learning how to write good by studying the Brick.

I think they think I'm kidding. But actually I greatly admire the Victorian writing style where nobody ever shoved "show don't tell" in authors' faces, and not everything was about focusing claustrophobically down on "the meat of the story". And they can't have had it all wrong - they were the ones who turned the novel into the linchpin of popular culture, after all.

So here, for your delectation, are the first two weeks' worth of writing exercises in a program I've been working up for myself. ^_^ I'm seriously thinking of setting up some kind of community for working through these... (If anyone wants the blank Scrivener file with this set up in it, I can upload that too...)

ETA: I should note for people coming in without context that these are just chapter-by-chapter summaries of the novel Les Miserables - I didn't put a lot of effort into carefully crafting them!

1     1.1.1

Tell a character's entire life story (1500 words or less)

2     1.1.2

Show a character's personality by describing their household and household budgets (2000 words or less)

3     1.1.3

Describe a character doing their job well (800 words or less)

4     1.1.4

Demonstrate what a character does by telling us things they have said (2500 words or less)

5     1.1.5

Give a typical day in the life of a character, hour by hour (1000 words or less)

6     1.1.6

Describe a character by writing about their house and its contents, room by room (2500 words or less.)

7     1.1.7

Give an anecdote about a time a character did something that everybody advised them against that turned out well anyway. (1500 words or less.)

8     1.1.8

Two acquaintances with fundamental disagreements discuss them (1500 words or less.)

9     1.1.9

Someone who loves a character describes them to someone else (1500 words or less.)

10     1.1.10

A character has a deathbed conversation with a stranger (5000 words or less.)

11     1.1.11

Describe how a character's political views have affected their daily life (2000 words or less.)

12     1.1.12

Describe a character's career ambitions (or lack thereof.) (1500 words or less.)

13     1.1.13

Tell what a character believes in as articles of faith (religious or otherwise.) (1500 words or less.)

14     1.1.14

Tell how a character thinks, how much they value learning and philosophy. (1000 words or less.)