toolkits for emerging writers 02 - write worlds your readers wont forget by Stant Litore

Author:Stant Litore [Litore, Stant]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Westmarch Publishing
Published: 2017-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Exercise 21

Come up with:

A kind of relic that might surprise and startle the reader.

A reason that explains why that relic exists and why that relic is important to the main character.

What would it mean to the main character if the relic was lost or destroyed?

Two ways in which a plotline might hinge on this relic.

Neglected ruins

What monuments, roads, statues, or monasteries have been left in ill-repair and ruin, in your imaginary world? Whose stories does this civilization wish to forget? Are the ruined monuments those of a conquered or exterminated people? Or those of past conquerors, since ousted? The people whose monuments these were—are their descendants around? If so, what names do they have for these ruins? Are these different from the names that are in more popular use? Do these descendants visit the ruins? Do those who are not descendants visit the ruins, too? As tourists? Is a local ruined castle a favorite spot for lovers’ trysts? Do the lovers etch their names in the old, mossy stones? Do they chip off pieces to take back with them? How do the descendants of the castle’s original builders and occupants feel about this?

Here is something else to think about: One of the reasons that neglected, decaying ruins are so compelling is that their existence calls into question the permanence of our own homes. These past homes did not last; why should we think ours will, either? On the other hand, those past homes have left traces behind; ours might, too. Your characters might approach ruins with a complexity of emotions. Remember Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”:

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