Writing Assignment #6 Context: Where, When, What & Why

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

The best storytelling creates an atmospere, a feeling, and sense of time and place. 

Pick one of your chapters or characters and simply write a few paragraphs that set the scene. 

Take a moment to get into the head of your character and describe what they were likely experiencing. Think about context like what was happening in their location at the time politically, economically, and socially. Consider the birth and death dates of their closest ancestors like their mom and dad and grandparents. Look at when their children had been born as a clue as to what stage in their life you are writing about. 

The key to great context writing is adjectives:  "a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it." 

A boring example: "Howard was 8 years old in 1919 when the Winnipeg General Strike happened. It was right after World War I and things were supposed to be good. And then the Great Depression began in 1929."

A more interesting example. "The future Major Howard Claude Bretz was just 8 years old when the tumultuous Winnipeg General Strike happened in the spring of 1919. It was right after the determined Allies had just beaten Germany in the Great War to end all wars and politicians were saying that lavish prosperity was coming. Winnipeg is a dusty prairie town smack in the middle of Canada and at that time totally dependent on the cyclical grain trade but with a growing industrial sector.

The grim reality for weary soldiers returning home from war torn Europe was living wages were low, living costs were rising, employment was unstable, immigrants faced nasty discrimination, and housing and health conditions were poor or non-existent. Among the frustrated workers there was resentment of the enormous profits enjoyed by employers during the war. Soldiers returning from the war were determined to see improved social conditions and opportunities after their harrowing experiences overseas. After mistreatment and a failure to get anywhere with contract negotiations union members had had enough. On May 15, 1919 more than 30,000 workers walked off the job and effectively shut down the city of Winnipeg. After 6 weeks the strike ended in arrests, violent bloodshed and defeat, but in the long run it contributed to the development of a stronger labour movement and the tradition of social democratic politics in Canada. 

For eight year old Howard he saw first hand how the power of determined people could change the world and it left him inspired and hopeful."

You'll notice that the story becomes more engaging and visual with adjectives in front of almost every noun.