Writing in a Chocolate Shop

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The day certainly starts with promise.  The autumn colours and a sunny blue sky put us in a good mood. We all actually find a space on the car park and as some of us arrive early, we actually have time to go into the dining room and sample the wares upfront.

Slattery, just like may other chocolate cafés, do always give you a medallion of chocolate with your tea or coffee. We were not disappointed.  Already we could tell that the food and the ambience were going to be exquisite.

By shortly after ten all the delegates have arrived. The first task is to try to define the Bridge House short story. That is not easy. The Bridge House short story is somewhat elusive. Voice can be a strong component. That must be convincing. Some of our stories have an intense  atmosphere. Others have a very unusual content. It runs away from you. As always, the only thing you can actually do is read, read, and read. 

So, can the delegates find a voice for the Bridge House story? Doesn’t that come from who is talking to whom?  Does the author have a personality? Or is s/he completely suppressed and neutral? What is going to be the best tense / person to use for this particular story? Maybe we should try several combinations before we settle on one for anything we write.

Fine thoughts indeed, but then it is coffee-time and what a distraction that is. Absolutely fabulous biscuits – some of them chocolate but not all of them.

We plough on. We look at structure. Is the Golden Segment in story structure? Are there really only seven stories? Maybe there is only one story form. But the secret is it not to adhere to it to rigidly, to skew that shape a little. Somewhere between two thirds and four fifths of the way through the story comes that crisis point and the climax is made up of the gap between the crisis and the resolution. This little bit is the hardest to get right. It has to be convincing but it also has to create enough tension.

I set a character exercise over lunch. Lunch is almost too enjoyable, though. The sandwiches are delicious and the salads are mouth-watering. Plus there are some more cakes. There is every danger that we will be too full to concentrate on our writing. The chat is good too. And there’s a chance to visit the chocolate shop. Manchester has become dull and true to form, so the nearby park is not such an attraction. Yet by the deadline of 2.15, everyone has created their scene between two characters. If you know your characters really well, you can convey all that there is to know about them in the little that you write. It can be truly magical. 

The pace slows, but it’s not just the after lunch lull. It’s because we’re now really into what we’re doing. What do we understand of each others’ characters? Have we managed to create characters that portray the rest of their reality through a sort of DNA which they carry with them? Is it not like that with all writerly research?  We shouldn’t give our readers everything we know or we overwhelm them.

This exercise takes longer than we had anticipated and leaves me less time than I would have liked for discussing openings and editing. But no matter: what we do discuss is relevant and the participants do go home with their heads spinning. Our productivity is not helped by another generous helping of refreshments which include much chocolate. Our sense of well-being, however, is complete.

Our last half hour is spent looking at marketing. That is so important these days. Our marketing officer has prepared some really good material.

Job well done?