#WriteCBC tip and task from Amita Parikh
BY Katie Smart
2nd Feb 2023
Welcome to our February edition of #WriteCBC. I hope you’re ready to be inspired by our latest writing challenge! If you haven’t taken part in a #WriteCBC Twitter competition before, we’re excited to welcome you to our writing community – and you can quickly get up to speed by reading this blog with information about how to play and the prizes on offer. It’s a lot of fun, and you might just win a free place on one of our six-week online writing courses.
This month’s special guest is former student and novelist Amita Parikh. Amita took our six-month Writing Your Novel course in 2014. Her historical debut novel The Circus Train was been published in multiple territories last year, including HarperCollins in Canada and G.P. Putnam's Sons in the US, and is already an international bestseller. The Circus Train was published in the UK by Sphere in Jan 2023.
Amita’s tip:
- Put your characters in different scenarios. How would they react to a rainy day? What would they do if they found a $100 bill on the ground? Write out their behaviours. Remember: actions often reveal more about someone's personality than dialogue.
In Amita’s debut novel the setting of World of Wonders, Europe’s most magnificent traveling circus, is integral to the plot as is the historical setting. We learn a lot about the characters based on how the react to the magical atmosphere of the circus, the prejudices they face and the struggles of the rapidly approaching Second World War.
The protagonist Lena often feels out of place within the circus, even though she is the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist. Lena is smart, curious, and passionate about the real-world magic of science and medicine, despite her father’s overprotection and the limits her world places on her because she is disabled. She often feels left out as the other children her age are all able to perform in the circus. In spite of the prejudiced views held by some of circus Lena always puts herself out there extending the hand of friendship to popular performers and a young French orphan Alexandre.
The stakes are raised when the circus performers are contracted to work and perform in a model town for Jews set up by the Nazis. This new reality and difficult situation forces Lena to make her own way and discover what she believes in. The situations Lena faces strengthens our understanding of her character, we learn that she is smart, resilient, and protective of her friends.
Placing your characters in different scenarios can help you determine their personality and test out their reactions to difficult or exciting scenarios with varying levels of stress involved. Doing experimental writing exercises like seeing how your protagonist reacts in rain or to finding money is a great way to get to know your character – even if the scene doesn’t make it into your final novel or story – the way they behave will help inform their decisions, motivations, and reactions when it comes to your main plot. You’ll work out if they’re generous, greedy, impatient, carefree or anxious.
Amita’s task:
- Write a mini-scene set during the mid-point of a journey. Use mannerisms, gestures and unspoken subtext to convey your character’s personality and mood. Are they impatient? Or nervous to arrive? Show us how they are feeling.
We’d love you to write a tweet-length response prompted by Amita’s task. Here are few more tips to inspire you:
- Once you’ve decided how your character is feeling think about how you’re going to convey that to readers. A character that is kind and caring will react differently to a character who is selfish, even if they are both impatient to arrive. Does your character lash out at others, or themselves? How might this come across in their actions, or thoughts, or dialogue?
- Remember to think about what isn’t being said. Even in a dialogue heavy scene there should always be discernible subtext bubbling beneath the surface conversation. Check your dialogue for obvious statements of how people are feeling and cut them. Show us how they’re feeling instead and create that extra layer of meaning.
- Every gesture your character makes offers an opportunity to convey their personality and get vital information across to the reader – every habit, every twitch: The way someone bites their nail; the way chew food; the way the ends of their sentences turn upward, like a question.
For more advice on characterisation, check out this blog: How to show character
We can't wait to read your responses to Amita’s task! Tweet @cbcreative with your tweet-length scene and you might win a free six-week course place. Competition closes Fri 3 Feb, 10am (winner announced at 11am). Find the rules here.
Congratulations to this month’s winner, Laura McDonagh @LauraMcWrites
- Dad’s elbow rests on the glass of the lowered driver window, fingers drum-drum-drumming the Transit’s metal flank. As we roll off the ferry onto Irish soil, he half-closes his eyes and takes an exaggerated, theatrical breath. “Smell that air!” he commands us. #WriteCBC
Laura’s scene really captured the nostalgia and anticipation of a homecoming journey. The dad’s finger drumming and overexaggerated inhale of Irish air shows the reader that he is both excited to arrive and slightly filled with a nervous energy, this tell the reader a few things: he wants his children to have a good time in Ireland, to feel the same connection to the ‘Irish soil’ he does, and perhaps he is also anxious to return for his own reasons. Well done, Laura – you get a free place on a £220 online course.
And this month’s runners-up – each getting a £50 course discount – are Rachael - Whimsical Art 7 @Art71Rachael and Deborah Siddoway @debsiddoway. Congratulations, both!
To redeem your prizes please email help@curtisbrowncreative.co.uk
Brilliant fun – hope you all enjoyed it and see you next month. #WriteCBC will be back on Thursday 2 Mar.
Order your copy of The Circus Train.