The star of the story is an object

by Anthony Doran
7th February 2016

Has anybody ever written fiction where the star of the story is AN OBJECT (i.e. a tennis ball)?

What's the secret of success in this kind of exercise?

PS message to Adrian Sroka - The Maren Elwood book has turned out to be a true winner!

Replies

Sorry for the delay in replying. Thank you to everyone for your answers. I'm slowly getting my head round this exercise. In poetry there are several examples of an object being the focus, the obvious one being the famous daffodil poem by Wordsworth. To Sylwia, the person who set the brief for the story simply said 'make the object the star of the story.' It's a bit vague. I've tried personifying the object but it didn't work well. Thank you, also to Adrian. I'll reply on his other 'page.'

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Anthony
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Anthony Doran
09/02/2016

Anthony, I'm glad you found the Maren Elwood a useful tool.

I know its subjective regarding creative books on-writing, but below are my top 10.

1. Aspects of the Novel - E M Forster. (Passage to India, Howards Way, Room With a View).

2. The Elements of Style (Fourth Edition) by William Strunk jr. and E. B. White (Charlotte's Web).

3. The Art and Craft of Novel Writing – Oakley Hall

4. How Fiction Works - Oakley Hall.

5. Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters by Barnaby Conrad. (Each year, Barnaby runs a weekly creative writing course in Santa Barbara).

6. The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction - Barnaby Conrad.

7. Sol Stein on Writing - Sol Stein. (Sol and his friends set up the actors studio in New York. Sol was a publisher, editor, best selling author and award winning lecturer on creative writing at American Universities. Famous authors attend his lectures. Sol was also a friend of Barnaby Conrad).

8. Solutions for Novelists - The Secrets of a Master Editor by Sol Stein.

9. Characters Make Your Story - Maren Elwood. (Creative writing teacher).

10. Write the Short Short - Maren Elwood. (For writers of the Short Story).

Check the reviews on Amazon. You can get cheap second hand copies.

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Adrian Sroka
08/02/2016

Are you talking about the personification of the object? There are many poems/stories/novels about 'an object' which is personificated and is the main plot of the story, for example H. Andersen tale 'Daisy' (and many others).

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07/02/2016