Dear Abby: Writing Exercise

Khanh Ho is writing the first Vietnamese American Detective Fiction ever.  Why?  Because being the first is a power trip.   In Commemoration of Dear Abby—aka Pauline Friedman Phillips—who filled his childhood with so much pleasure, Khanh created this character exercise.  He often gets asked to pass along Creative Writing exercises.  That makes sense:  Khanh was a Creative Writing Professor.

 

Dear Abby…

 

I know my boyfriend is downloading internet porn with our rent money.  I’m afraid that my mother-in-law thinks I’m low class because she suspects her son is not the real father.  How can I tell my best friend that she needs to pay her fair share when we go out? 

Who hasn’t had a delicate question that burned to be asked? Who hasn’t been ashamed to do so?  For many years, Dear Abby was at the center of American consciousness and she fielded all sorts of questions—from etiquette to morality to good taste—that baffled us in this modern American world that was constantly changing, morphing, evolving.

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This exercise forces you to think of character and, through the back door, moves you into plot.  It’s simple, really.  All you need to do is think about a burning question that your character—major or minor—needs to ask.  What embarrasses them?  What causes their lives to feel empty—unfulfilled?  What do they want revenge for?  What are they too afraid to ask of their lovers, friends, family?

You got it?  If you haven’t been thinking of these things, than you’re probably not thinking very deeply about your character.  This exercise, then, is an exercise of engineering; it’s putting all the stuff into the character that will allow him to appear fully realized.

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Now, here’s the kicker.  Write a letter to Dear Abby.  You know the form of the Dear Abby letter—short and sweet and direct—explaining the problem and seeking advice.  Try to see if you can get the voice of the character in a missive that paradoxically is supposed to be cut and dry (i.e. boring) and also interesting.  Kind of hard!

Here:  I’ll give you an example.  I’m writing a mystery novel about a guy who’s a deliveryman in the garment industry of LA.  He’s kind of a loser—an alcoholic who graduated Columbia University—who has been paralyzed by his addiction, ever since his own sister was murdered five years previously.  The novel opens up with the murder of a girl—a one night stand—who works in one of the design studios he makes deliveries to.  As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that there’s a serial killer out there, mutilating the beautiful young things who work in LA’s fashion industry.  Now, Robert is compelled to find the killer in memory of the girl he once had sex with and the girl he loved and will never forget—his sister.

Dear Abby,

Ever since my sister died, I’ve been wanting to get revenge on the world and been taking it out on myself.  I know that this is unhealthy.  And this alcoholism thing has been damaging my liver but I can’t see my way out.  Part of me says I should try to get into therapy but the other part says that I’m not really hurting anyone.  Is it okay if I’m not hurting anyone?

Yours,

Counting Empties in Los Angeles County

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The final thing that you should realize about writing this small exercise is that engineering character also leads to engineering action.  If you write this—it’s short so write it good!—you should begin to divine the main conflicts.  You’ll also see the crisis.  And you’re gonna get a front row seat for the major plot points.  So, get your pen out and get ready to spill your guts.

 

Did you like this? Make Khanh’s day:  Share on Facebook.  Tweet your friends.  Leave a comment.  Here’s a question to get you started:   how did Dear Abby impact your life?  

8 thoughts on “Dear Abby: Writing Exercise

    • I’m glad that you like it, Margot. Your last post was so insightful, it actually made me rethink one of my Creative Writing exercises that will appear in a forthcoming guest blog. I actually mention you in it!

      But I did not mention this key point in my post: this particular exercise–the beauty of it–has a hidden genius: you’ll probably have to think through more than one personality trait and therefore numerous plot possibilities as you compose this short letter…

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    • Thanks for looking at the website. There are several exercises interspersed throughout, so if this helps, check the rest.

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