What Can Happen at a Tea Party?

Hello everyone!

What can happen at a tea party?  Lewis Carroll already took a crack at answering this question.  A tea party can be bizarre, romantic, tragic, comedic…It all depends on three things: characters, situation, and setting.

Characters

Who is at this tea party?  The guests will shape the events.  For example, a tea party where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty are both attendees will have a very different feel, and level of dialogue complexity, from one hosted by Pollyanna for her friends.

Situation

Something has to happen.  For any scene to be interesting, the protagonist must have a goal that he/she can succeed or fail at.  The goal could be as simple as hosting a tea party that goes off without a hitch (anyone who’s planned a party will tell you that’s not so simple) or as complicated as charming a malicious ruler into sparing a loved one’s life.

Setting

Where is the tea party, in an English garden or on a spaceship 1,000 years in the future?  At what time of day does the tea party take place?  How many guests are in attendance?  The setting needs to affect the protagonist in some way (e.g. he/she grew up here, he/she thinks this place is haunted, he/she has always wanted to see inside of this location).  Descriptions of the setting should be given through the five senses and enhance the emotions stirred up by the situation.  One way to do this is to compare and/or contrast the description of the location to the protagonist’s or antagonist’s physical appearance, emotions, or personal preferences.

Example Scenario

The day before her rehearsal dinner, the bride-to-be is invited to a formal tea at her fiancé’s family’s country club.  It is a tradition in her fiancé’s family for the mother of the groom to give the family heirloom, a diamond bracelet, to the bride before the wedding rehearsal, but his mother does not think the bride is good enough for her son and has announced that she won’t give her the bracelet.  The groom is very upset and the bride is worried that he might be having second thoughts about marrying her.  This tea party is her last chance to earn his mother’s approval, get the bracelet, and save her wedding.

Prompt

Your writing challenge is to write a scene or short story that answers the question “What can happen at a tea party?”

Have fun, drink tea, and happy writing!

Katie

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Sensational Settings

Hello everyone!

Have you ever read a story and had trouble visualizing where it took place? Did you ever skip a paragraph because it was just description and you didn’t care enough to read it? As a writer, you must walk the fine line between setting the scene for your reader and giving too much detail.

This three-part exercise is to help you learn what details about your setting are essential to share and how to seamlessly work them into your story.

Part 1: Observation

1. Go outside. Close your eyes. What do you feel? What do you hear? What do you smell?
2. Now open your eyes. What do you see? Walk around. Is the terrain uneven or level? Touch a tree, the grass, the side of a building. What is the texture like?
3. Now shout. Whisper. Speak at your normal volume. Sing. Does your voice echo or disappear?
4. Write down your observations. Try to write a minimum of three for each sense.

Part 2: Write a Scene

• Write a short scene that takes place in the location you observed in Part 1. Use sensory details to describe the setting. Be careful to work the details into your story instead of dumping them on the reader in one or two description paragraphs. If someone wanted to read paragraphs about trees, they’d study forestry.

Example of a well-set scene:

Stephany walked onto the front porch and looked across the street to where Mrs. McGuire was putting her flower beds to rest for winter. A gentle breeze chased dried leaves across the sidewalk and played with the stray wisps of hair that had escaped Stephany’s messy bun. She wrapped her hands around her mug and smiled. As she sipped her coffee, the delicious steam warmed her nose.

(The action begins in the next paragraph.)

In that paragraph, the reader has been given basic information about the neighborhood, time of year, and even a little about Mrs. McGuire and Stephany.  The reader can picture where he/she is and is ready for the action to begin.

Part 3: Use the Setting to Enhance the Mood

1. Choose a problem for a story.
2. Write three crucial scenes in the location you observed. Use the details you share about the setting to help set the mood for each scene.

• Beginning: introduce key characters and the baseline for their lives
• Middle: the problem has been introduced and the protagonist is dealing with it
• End: how it ends and how the characters have changed

Example:

Problem – The protagonist’s spouse is cheating on him/her.

Beginning – The protagonist doesn’t know his/her spouse is having an affair. The weather is good, and I only mention beautiful or pleasing things about the setting.

Middle – The protagonist knows about the affair and is trying to decide whether to ignore it or confront his/her spouse. I draw the reader’s attention to things that need fixing or to weeds in the yard or flower beds. The sky is cloudy.

End – The protagonist has just signed the divorce papers and is moving out of the house. It is cool and partly cloudy. The house is barely mentioned, and when it is, the stated features are either imperfect ones or ones that make the protagonist feel nostalgic. The focus is on the road, especially the point where trees block the protagonist’s view of it.

*Remember, this is an exercise. You do not need to write the entire story unless you want to.

Happy writing!

Katie