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Articles about craft.

Quick Links: Most Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 51: One-Dimensional Characters

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

K.M. Weiland post comes down to two things – show don’t tell – and make the details of your characters count. In the Harry Potter stories, Harry is known for his lighting bolt scar on his forehead, but J.K. Rowling doesn’t beat us over the head with it. Instead you will find Harry being self conscious about it, or it causing pain as a warning. It adds to Harry’s character but doesn’t define him.  Read the full details over at Helping Writers Become Authors.

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Most Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 51: One-Dimensional Characters

Characters should be at least 3d, unless it is sci/fi and then you can add 4d
Characters should be at least 3d, unless it is sci/fi and then you can add 4d

June 13, 2016

K.M. Weiland

The most magical moment in writing is when you sit down with a new batch of characters, turn them loose on the page, and… they come to life. They spring up from that flat, white expanse of page, and they’re real. They’re dimensional. They’re organic. They’re compelling and interesting and wonderful. Except, of course, for when they’re not. Sometimes the magic doesn’t work out like that right off the bat. Sometimes you sit down, start typing, and what comes clunking onto the page are one-dimensional characters who are just going through the motions of the story.

The term “dimension” gets thrown around a lot among writers. We hear it and nod our heads sagely, “Oh, yes, we must have three-dimensional characters. One-dimensional characters are so dreadful.”

Honestly, it’s kind of a vague concept. “One-dimensional characters” is really just code for “bad characters.” But saying a character isn’t well written doesn’t do much to help you know how to write a better character.

Good news! That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

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Quick Link: Going Beyond the Default in Your Worldbuilding

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World building is the frame that holds a story together. If you have ever gone to a Disney park, you will find yourself in another world. The whole park is framed to provide an unique and delightful experience for the guest. And Walt knew what made this concept so important was the details.  Every nook and cranny of the parks is filled with whimsy that continues to pull you into the world that is specifically Disney.  That is the concept that Juliette Wade is discussing at Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, how to make your story’s setting uniquely yours.

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Going Beyond the Default in Your Worldbuilding

Welcome to NotMcDonalds, here is your McWorld.
Welcome to NotMcDonalds, here is your McWorld.

June 15, 2016
By Juliette Wade, @JulietteWade

Part of the How They Do It Series

Creating a rich world makes for a great novel, no matter if that world is based on fantasy or the world we know. But all too often, we rely on the default setting for our genre–such as medieval Europe for fantasy–and we rob ourselves of the chance to craft something unique. To share some tips on creating interesting world, please help me welcome worldbuilding guru, Juliette Wade.

Juliette hosts the Dive into Worldbuilding show on Google Hangouts, where she uses her academic expertise in anthropology and linguistics to take discussions of worldbuilding topics beyond the default. Her short fiction explores language and culture issues across the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has appeared in Clarkesworld, Fantasy&Science Fiction, and Analog magazines.

If you’re a fan of worldbuilding and want to take your skills further, you can also become a part of the Dive into Worldbuilding workshop. Join Juliette’s Patreon and get brainstorming prompts, research links, exclusive peeks into research topics, or even get Juliette to help you with your work directly. https://www.patreon.com/JulietteWade

Take it away Juliette…

Janice asked me to come by and talk about going beyond the default in your worldbuilding. So what exactly does that mean?

To answer that question, let’s start by talking about what “default” means. On your computer, it means an application that your computer opens automatically, without you having to do more than click. In your brain, it means the idea that you go to first, without having to think.

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Quick Links: How to Finish Your Book in Three Drafts

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Reworking drafts is a big struggle with me. I would much rather the excitement of a new story! So when  wrote a post on how to finish your book with only three drafts you bet my ears perked up!  So head on over to Jane Friedman‘s and check out the process.

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How to Finish Your Book in Three Drafts

by Stuart Horwitz

Clarity in a three step program
How many drafts to finish your book? Like how many licks does it take to eat a tootsie lollypop the answer is three.

Have you ever asked yourself while writing, “How many drafts is this going to take?” That may seem like a question that can’t have an answer, but I would like to propose that it does. And that answer is three. Three drafts, provided that each draft is approached in the right spirit and we take the time we need between drafts.

Some writers assume that the difference between a first draft and a final draft is a few revisions and a solid copy edit. What I am talking about here is a process that requires more patience.

It probably already makes intuitive sense to you that you can’t work on more than one draft at a time. But here is the mantra for the process as a whole:

Know what draft you’re in.

Each draft plays by different rules, and knowing what draft you’re in can help you avoid writer’s block.

There is a literary myth that Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road in one draft—one Benzedrine- and marijuana-fueled draft—over a twenty-one-day period. It is true that he created a 120-foot roll of paper so that he wouldn’t have to stop to feed more paper into his typewriter, and wrote one of his drafts that way. But it turns out that he was working from a draft he already had in his journals. Also, if you look at that typewriter scroll closely, you can see all kinds of corrections; those corrections are, in effect, his third draft.

Three drafts, not one. Also: three drafts, not forty-nine. You may have heard this cute story about Oscar Wilde: His host asked him how his writing was going, and he said, “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma.” “And in the afternoon?” “In the afternoon—well, I put it back in again.” That doesn’t count as a draft. What you are trying to do is tackle your book, not tinker with it. Because—are you ready?—the point is not to go through life writing the same book the whole time.

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Quick Links: Let’s Get Sensory: Powering Scenes Using The 5 Senses

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Steven King is one of my favorite writers, not just because he writes great stories, but because of how he writes. I grew up in New England, where he often sets a scene. While reading his stories, I can picture the scene so well I can almost smell it. He doesn’t just describe the environment but has the environment interact with the character.  Angela Ackerman agrees as that is one of her tips over at Elizabeth Spann Craig

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Let’s Get Sensory: Powering Scenes Using The 5 Senses

Angela Ackerman
Kids are great at using all their senses. As soon as no one is looking, the leaves are going in their mouth.
Kids are great at using all their senses. As soon as no one is looking, the leaves are going right in their mouth.

There isn’t a writer alive who doesn’t believe description is important. We know that the key to pulling readers into our fictional world lies in how well we can describe each scene, giving it color and texture, and infusing it with emotion and substance. And one of the very best ways to achieve this is to use sensory detail: the sights, smells, tastes, textures, and sounds that our POV character or narrator experiences.

Emotion factors heavily in sensory description because the mindset of the POV character influences what they notice (which also determines what details the reader is privy to). A character sitting by a river to enjoy a happy, reflective moment after graduating university may be drawn to clusters of green shoots along the muddy bank that slant in the direction of the sun.  She might note the sharp, clean scent of pine needles and how each breath makes her feel renewed. The give of moss, the gentle breeze, and the sound of the water chuckling across stones…all of these details may lull her (and the reader) into a sleepy state of satisfied bliss.

However, a character dropping behind an uprooted tree along the riverbank to hide from her enemies would focus on different details: the poke and scrape of wood against her back and arms as she presses tight against the fan of roots. The cold river water seeping into her shoes as they sink in the mud which reeks of decay. The snap of branches, the shouts of her pursuers, the squeezing rush of her own shuddering breaths.

As writers, we can do so much with sensory detail, adding tension and painting each scene with emotion and mood. Choosing the right sensory description not only helps readers feel like they are drawing breath alongside the protagonist, it also triggers their emotional memories. A well-placed sensory detail will cause a past moment to surface, a time when the reader felt the same sensations and emotions as the character. This powerful “shared experience” is what we want to strive for as we describe, because it lays the groundwork for empathy.

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Quick Link: Ten Clever Ways To Keep Your Reader Enthralled

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The Wicked Writing Blog is actually very helpful with tips by Sue Coletta on tweaking your writing to pull your reader further into your story. Check it out.

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Ten Clever Ways To Keep Your Reader Enthralled

by Sue Coletta
June 10, 2016

en·thrall - verb capture the fascinated attention of.
en·thrall – verb
capture the fascinated attention of.

We all know how to inject pace into our stories, don’t we? Just drop in a lot of exciting moments and space them with ‘scene hangers’. ‘Little did I know that my life was about to change forever’, and the like.

But hangers are clichés. Sure, they’re useful but not right for every story.

So what else can we do to keep the reader enthralled? Turning our every page? And wholly immersed in our story?

Top crime suspense writer Sue Coletta reveals ten tricks of the trade. We can adapt them to any genre!

1. Language itself is the subtlest means of pacing.

Throw away those passive expressions. ‘His head was hit by something sharp and cold.’ Yawn...

Think concrete words.

Concrete words are nouns that we experience through our senses. Example: smoke, mist, iceberg. Use active voice plus sensory information that’s artfully embedded. If you write long, involved paragraphs, try breaking them up into shorter ones.

‘Hail pounded his head. Icy water down his spine. He drew his collar round his throat and shivered.’

Drop in lots of white space.

 

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Quick Link: In the Flesh: Fleshing Out Flat Characters

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Janice Harding always has great advice. This time it is about how to change some less than memorable characters into more dynamic integral parts of the story.

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In the Flesh: Fleshing Out Flat Characters

Friday, June 10

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The only flats in a story should be these or a tire.
The only flats in a story should be these or a tire.

This week’s Refresher Friday takes an updated look at fleshing out flat characters. Enjoy!

Characters play just as many roles in the writing process as they do in the novel itself. Some characters spark the very idea of the story, others show up when needed to suit plot, and others are doomed to life as nothing more than spear carriers. Most of the time, by the end of a first draft you’ll have too many, and some (if not all) will be flat as cardboard. Now’s the time to start bringing them to life.

Get Real, People

Characters will pop in and out as you write, even if you aren’t sure what to do with them or how they fit. After you’ve figured out which to keep and which to cut, you’ll likely want to develop them more and make them as rich and three dimensional as your main character. Or, you might be the type who prefers to flesh out everyone after the first draft is done and you see how the story unfolds.

Look at what role each character plays in the story. Not their “the protagonist’s best friend” type role, but a thematic role. For example, in my fantasy novel, The Shifter, Aylin is the voice of reason. She’s the practical one when Nya gears up to dive headfirst and full speed into something she believes in (she’s  a bit of an idealist). Knowing this, as I edited the draft I kept Aylin’s role in mind. Her style and behavior reflected her personality and role, both as the best friend, and as the voice of reason. Her actions also reinforced this.

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Quick Link: How Writers Can Develop Emotional Connections between Reader and Hero

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We all want to tell our story and as writers we want someone to get our story, to fall in love with our characters. Patrick Cole at Live Write Thrive, shares with us his tips on how to connect the reader and the characters.

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How Writers Can Develop Emotional Connections between Reader and Hero

June 10, 2016

Even though she was on her way to marry David, she knew in her heart no one could compete with Mr. Darcy
Even though she was on her way to marry Norman, she knew in her heart no one could compete with Mr. Darcy

by Patrick Cole

Today’s guest post is by Patrick Cole: 

When I first met Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, I was in high school and certainly not yet “fully baked.” In fact, my major emotional connection to the novel was not with Sydney Carton but with Lucy and Charles. They were so in love, and I just wanted there to be a romantic happy ending for them. Dickens did not disappoint me.

Of course, since that time, I have reread this novel two more times—once in college for an English Lit. class and once more because there is much to learn from Dickens’s writing.

To me, now that I am closer to coming out of the oven, Carton as a redemptive figure is one of the best in literature. And while many fiction writers do not have “Christlike” characters in their novels, the methods used by Dickens to establish that emotional connection are timeless and universal. Here are things I have learned that you can learn too.

  1. What’s the Backstory?

Readers cannot develop connections with characters unless they have the backstory that got them to where they are at the opening of your piece.

Backstories can help to establish empathy, understanding, and credibility, as long as they are done well.

Before you ever develop your protagonist in his/her current situation, spend some time developing a history that logically leads to the emotional and behavioral state in which they find themselves today. Never do this through a narrative. Provide that history through thoughts, behaviors, words and interactions with other characters.

It’s easy to see Sydney Carton’s backstory by his behaviors in the beginning of the tale—he is a drunk who feels worthless and inept, despite his stellar legal history. He has “fallen” and, though would like to redeem himself, cannot muster the strength and courage to pull his life together. He has no purpose.

 

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Quick Links: 5 Tips for Editing Dialogue

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Over at Writers Digest, Arlene F. Marks has some great tips about writing and editing Dialogue. Check it out and tell us if you have any handy tips for managing dialogue.

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5 Tips for Editing Dialogue

By

"Frank, do you have clean underwear on?" "Depends"
Matilda was curious. “Frank, do you have clean underwear on?” she asked inquisitively. “Depends” he replied curtly.

Here’s a guest post from Arlene F. Marks, author of From First Word to Last: The Craft of Writing Popular Fiction and The Accidental God, in which she shares her tips for editing dialogue. If you have a great idea and would like to contribute a guest post of your own, please send an e-mail to robert.brewer@fwcommunity.com with the subject line: Guest Post Idea for No Rules.

*****

Dialogue is the writer’s equivalent of the Swiss army knife. What other storytelling tool lets you reveal character, advance the plot, establish the setting, and deliver a theme, all at the same time? Well-written dialogue is a fast and easy read. Ensure that the character conversations in your story will hum right along by catching and repairing the following “dialogue fumbles” at the editing stage:

1. Wooden dialogue

It’s important to read dialogue aloud while editing it, because the words you put into your character’s mouths need to sound natural and spontaneous coming back out. At the same time, unlike real people who often stammer and repeat themselves when conversing, fictional characters are expected to “talk edited.” Here are two culprits in particular that make dialogue sound stiff and rehearsed:

Radio talk: In the heyday of radio drama, scriptwriters peppered the actors’ dialogue with narrative details to help the listener picture each scene more clearly:

“Lucinda, why are you raising that hammer over your head?”

As you go through your manuscript, remove or revise speeches in which a character is doubling as narrator.

Unnecessary naming: Unless there is a good reason for doing so, including the name of the person being addressed can also make dialogue sound wooden:

“Congratulations on your promotion, Bob.”

“Thanks, Janice.”

“Are you planning to celebrate with your wife, Bob?”

“Yes, Janice. We’re going out for dinner.”

As you read through scenes of dialogue, be alert to excessive or unnecessary naming and trim it out.

 

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Quick Links: The Best Ways To Root Out A Cheesy Villain

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Having a great protagonist is very important but like my t-shirt says “every great story needs a great villain”.  The quality of the bad guy is what makes a story. So at Stand Out Books, helps you to root out a cheesy villain and make your story awesome.

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The Best Ways To Root Out A Cheesy Villain

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Sometimes extra cheesy is a good thing!
Sometimes extra cheesy is a good thing!

Ever wondered how to tell if your villain is cheesy, or how you can make them more realistic and engaging? In this article I’ll be looking at exactly that, but instead of offering advice to authors, I’m going to the heart of the problem…

In a cloud-shrouded castle he waits, plotting the demise of all who would oppose him in his quest for unlimited power. Outside, lightning streaks through the fell air, punctuating his cackling laughter. Silence falls and, in the distance, he hears the distant tinkling of a bell.

“Who dares enter my presence?” he booms, waving one perfectly manicured hand – an indication that his hulking assistant should go and fetch their midnight caller. A few moments later his visitor is ushered in, trailing behind him a motley assortment of brigands and rogues. There’s a serial killer, clutching a bloodied hatchet and a well-thumbed holy book. Behind him there stands a gorgeous woman, quite clearly hiding some kind of knock-out drug behind her back. Further back, a bulbous-headed alien is engaged in hushed conversation with a poorly built killer robot. The visitor, clearly leading this strange group, smiles at Dark Mage Kardak.

“Who are you?” asks the dark mage.

“I’m the editor,” says the visitor, “and I think we’ve got a problem.”

 “What kind of problem?”

“I think…” the editor hesitates. “I think you might be a bit cheesy.”

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Quick Link: 5 Sentences Requiring Hyphenated Phrasal Adjectives

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Another great post from Daily Writing Tips explaining when to use hyphens. I know I learned something.

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5 Sentences Requiring Hyphenated Phrasal Adjectives

Hyphens - grammar's Tinder.
Hyphens – grammar’s Tinder.

By Mark Nichol

When two or more words team up to describe something, they’re usually hyphenated to make their symbiotic relationship clear. Each of the following sentences contains a phrasal adjective that should be linked with one or more hyphens; each example is followed by a brief discussion and a revision.

1. Their affair wasn’t exactly the best kept secret.

This sentence refers to a secret that is the best kept, not a kept secret that is better than any other, so link the phrasal adjective together: “Their affair wasn’t exactly the best-kept secret.”

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Quick Link: 5 Faulty “Not Only . . . But Also” Sentences

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Grammar time! Mark Nichol from Daily Writing Tips helping us again, this time with sentence structure and the pesky “not only – but also” sentences.

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5 Faulty “Not Only . . . But Also” Sentences

"Stop! It's Grammar Time!" duh, duh duh, da duh duh duh
“Stop! It’s Grammar Time!” duh, duh duh, da duh duh duh

By Mark Nichol

 Often, when a sentence expresses a point and a counterpoint with the phrases “not only” and “but also,” writers have difficulty constructing the sentence in the correct syntactical order. Each of the following sentences demonstrates various erroneous ways the “not only . . . but also” construction can be misused; discussions, followed by revisions, explain how to repair the damage.

1. Moving to the cloud had not only improved security but had also reduced the risks they faced prior to implementation.

Had can be shared by both the “not only” phrase and the “but also” phrase: “Moving to the cloud had not only improved security but also reduced the risks they faced prior to implementation.” (If had is to be used twice, it should follow “not only” and, when repeated, should follow “but also”: “Moving to the cloud not only had improved security but also had reduced the risks they faced prior to implementation.”)

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Quick Links: 5 Words Often Mistakenly Used in Place of Others

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At Daily Writing Tips, they are covering some of the words that often get confused with each other. Check it out to make sure you are not making the same mistake.

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5 Words Often Mistakenly Used in Place of Others

Words unless you are Stephen Colbert on the Late Show, in which case it is "werds".
“Words” unless you are Stephen Colbert on the Late Show, in which case it is “werds”.

By Mark Nichol

When writers, amateurs and professionals alike, employ words or phrases they have heard spoken but not seen written, they often mistakenly use a homophone or near homophone of the intended word. Each of the sentences below includes a word that is often used erroneously. A discussion and revision accompanies each example.

1. Given punk rock’s innate tendency to flaunt convention, the style fits the subject matter in its own roughshod sort of way.

Flaunt, a verb meaning “show off,” is frequently confused for flout, a verb meaning “show disregard for”: “Given punk rock’s innate tendency to flout convention, the style fits the subject matter in its own roughshod sort of way.”

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Quick Links: Botched Beginnings—Common First-Page Killers

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You already know that the beginning of your book needs to be strong. This is your opportunity to grab the reader and pull them into your story. The ever entertaining Kristen Lamb covers some of the pitfalls that will block your reader from engaging.

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Botched Beginnings—Common First-Page Killers

by Kristen Lamb

She read the first line "It was a dark and stormy night" and then fell soundly asleep for eight hours.
She read the first line of the story, “It was a dark and stormy night”, and then fell soundly asleep for eight hours.

We can Twitter ’til we flitter and Facebook ’til we face plant and that won’t matter much in the greater scheme of things if we fail at our single most important job—writing a great book. Our single greatest challenge is to hook the reader hard enough to buy (and then read) our novel.

Sales ultimately are impacted by reviews and if no one reads and no one finishes?

Exactly.

Yes, covers are important and social media is vital, but those sample pages can mean the difference in No Sale and Big Hit.

One writing book every writer should have is Hooked by Les Edgerton. I think this was the first craft book that truly woke me up and showed me all I really didn’t know about writing.

As a new author, there were far too many elements I believed were important when in reality? Not so much. Additionally, because I was focusing on the wrong “stuff” I was failing to develop the “right” stuff.

What I love about Hooked is how Les demonstrates how all the factors that go into making great beginnings don’t just evaporate. These are tactics we must keep employing throughout the work to keep the reader engaged and turning pages. Our job is to obliterate sleep, to send our readers tired and grouchy and over caffeinated to work…but ultimately satisfied.

Let’s talk about some common ways beginnings fall flat.

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Quick Link: A Look at the Second Pinch Point in Stories

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Pinch points are important and I will admit a new idea for me. But basically they are where the action takes place that leads up to the main climax. It is something that I recognized intuitively but did not have a name for. On her blog, Live Write Thrive, C.S. Lakin continues her series on pinch points.

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A Look at the Second Pinch Point in Stories

May 30, 2016

by C.S. Lakin

Can't you just feel the excitement?
Can’t you just feel the excitement?

Last week we took a look at the first pinch point—that moment in your story that comes after the hero’s goal is set and before the midpoint appears (in which the character has some important choices to make about the tough obstacles he’s facing).

Pinch points are mostly about the opposition. If the first pinch point reveals the strength of the opposition, the second one showcases the full force of it. If your character faces the edge of a hurricane at sea at the first pinch point, showing him what he’s truly up against, the second pinch point is going to be the battle for survival with the full brunt of the storm.

This isn’t the climax, but it’s building up to it. It’s preparing the stage for the final attack or onslaught or challenge your character will have to take.

As I said in last week’s post, I cringe when I have to do math and force my story into something like “the second pinch point comes 5/8ths into the story, at the 62% mark, exactly between the middle of the story and the second plot point—the middle of the third act.”

Can’t we just say this pinch point comes a little before the climax, to ramp up the stakes and make things start to look impossible for your character. I’m good with that. But hey, if you need to do the math and put everything on just the right page number, go for it.

These Pinch Points Are Key Developments

This basic structure fits every genre. Even a children’s fairy tale will show the wolf making inroads in the forest, confronting Little Red on her way to Granny’s at the first pinch point. And what happens at that second pinch point? Little Red is noting those big teeth Granny has, followed by the sinking realization it isn’t Granny lying in bed in that cute nightgown and bonnet.

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Quick Link: 5 Ways to Combine Sentences

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One of my better English teacher taught me that varying sentence size and structure made for better reading. You shouldn’t have to many long sentences, nor to many short ones. Mark Nichol at Daily Writing Tips shows us how to fold sentences into a more concise form.

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5 Ways to Combine Sentences

How sentences join together....
How sentences join together….

By Mark Nichol

Writers and editors should be alert to opportunities to improve the flow of content by combining consecutive truncated sentences that refer to a single topic. Here are five approaches to folding one one sentence into a preceding related statement.

1. A gray Cadillac hearse pulled into the ranch Saturday afternoon and left about 5 p.m. The hearse came from the Alpine Memorial Funeral Home.

Often, as here, additional information about something introduced in one sentence is relegated to a subsequent sentence when it could easily be integrated as a modifying phrase into the first sentence: “A gray Cadillac hearse from the Alpine Memorial Funeral Home pulled into the ranch Saturday afternoon and left about 5 p.m.”

Read the full post on Daily Writing Tips

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