Natacha's Little Writing Workbook

JUST SAY NO
By Gary Provost (pages 140 to 145)
“The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing”

Hard-working Ted had a crush on Patty. One night at the Moose Lodge, Ted-though limping slightly from a hockey injury-asked Patty to dance and she said yes. Then he asked if she’d like to go candlepin bowling sometimes and she said yes, that would be splendid. Ted got more and more infatuated with Patty, so he asked her to go steady and Patty said yes.

Before long, Ted and Patty were in love. On a drizzly Tuesday afternoon at the coin laundry, Ted got down on his knees and asked Patty to marry him.

Patty said yes.

Ted said he wanted to live in Elgin, Illinois, and he asked Patty if that would be okay with her. “Yes,” she said “Yes, yes, Ted, I love you more than anything, including chocolate-covered cherries, and I want us to have three babies, Okay?” Ted said “Yes”.

So they moved to Elgin, where Ted applied for and got a job at the rope factory, and they had three healthy kids and lived happily ever after.


THE END


The Ted-and-Patty story is dull because nobody ever says No. Without No, there isn’t any tension, any conflict, any excitement – and there isn’t any story, at least not a publishable one. For your fiction to work, continous opposition must be trying to push back your character as he tries to push toward his goal. This resistance can be seen as a series of people, things and situations saying NO! to your character, or your character saying “No” to them…

On the next page, copy and paste the TED-AND-PATTY story and cross out any one of my “YES”s. Replace it with a “NO” and watch what happens… Your interest level rises. You ask questions: How is Ted going to get Patty to change her mind and go out with him? What if Ted doesn’t want any kids? Are Ted and Patty going to end up getting divorced over this Illinois thing?

On the following page, see how many yes’s there are…
JUST SAY NO
BY GARY PROVOST
Pages 140 – 145 “The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing”

Hard-working Ted had a crush on Patty. One night at the Moose Lodge, Ted-though limping slightly from a hockey injury-asked Patty to dance and she said yes. Then he asked if she’d like to go candlepin bowling sometimes and she said yes, that would be splendid. Ted got more and more infatuated with Patty, so he asked her to go steady and Patty said yes.

Before long, Ted and Patty were in love. On a drizzly Tuesday afternoon at the coin laundry, Ted got down on his knees and asked Patty to marry him.

Patty said yes.

Ted said he wanted to live in Elgin, Illinois, and he asked Patty if that would be okay with her. “Yes,” she said “Yes, yes, Ted, I love you more than anything, including chocolate-covered cherries, and I want us to have three babies, Okay?” Ted said “Yes”.

So they moved to Elgin, where Ted applied for and got a job at the rope factory, and they had three healthy kids and lived happily ever after.


'''The End '''
On the next page, change all the yes’s into NO’S


Feel free to knock yourself out with these exercises and also feel free to mail them to me at tashygirl80@live.ca I won't judge or steal your ideas, I have too much respect for writing to do that!!!
If you want an honest opinion of your writing, I'll be more than happy to take the time with you!!!