writing tips

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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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: How To Create Memorable Characters: 8 Little-Known Sleights of Hand

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Write to Done‘s John Yeoman gives us tips on how to take a character to the next level and give them added depth.

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How To Create Memorable Characters: 8 Little-Known Sleights of Hand

by: John Yeoma

That's 394 feet in 'merican deep.
That’s 394 feet in ‘merican deep.

Do we always have to create memorable characters?

No.

It depends on the genre.

In an all-action thriller focused on pace and plot, everyone but the key players can be wafer-thin. They’re disposable.

The same is often true of detective fiction, even the quality sort. In John Dickson Carr’s famous ‘locked room’ mysteries, the only rounded character is the sleuth, Gideon Fell, and he’s larger than life. All the other players are pawns on a chessboard.

But what if we do want to bring our characters alive–make them colorful?

Here are eight tips that will help you to create memorable characters.

 1. Use Character Labels

Do we remember characters who are introduced with a bald description?

‘He was a short man, stubby, with a protruding chin.‘

Probably not.

So why mention those details at all, unless they’re important to the story?

Because we can use them later as labels.

‘His face appeared at my elbow‘; ‘The stubby man entered‘; ‘He poked his long chin at me.’

And so on.

However, characters who are identified by labels alone have no personality. That’s just as well if they quickly vanish from the tale or meet a nasty end.

But what of the others?

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Quick Link: Why Everything You Think You Know About Dialogue Is Wrong

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Paula sighed as she glanced at the blank screen. “This introduction on dialogue won’t write itself…”  “Meow” said Haldol the cat, while attempting to climb into Paula’s lap for the umpteenth time. “Thank goodness John Yeoman from The Wicked Writing Blog is here to assist writers with great points on dialogue” Paula cheerfully exclaimed! “Meow.” This time Haldol succeeded in climbing into her lap where he settled down purring.

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Why Everything You Think You Know About Dialogue Is Wrong

by John Yeoman

Friday, May 20, 2016

Truly brilliant dialog, if you speak cat.
Truly shattering dialog, if you speak cat.

‘Dialogue’ is what happens when two or more people talk to each other. Correct? No. Dialogue is almost any speech act. Consider monologue. The dictionary defines it as a long speech by one person, usually boring. Yet it’s still dialogue.

Why? Somebody is listening and responding, if only to tune it out.

But suppose nobody is listening? Maybe it’s ‘interior monologue’ – a person is thinking privately, by themselves, to themselves.

That’s still dialogue.

How come? When we think, somebody listens. Always.

Don’t they? At least, our alter ego does.

Virtually all forms of speech or thought are dialogue because each speech act implies – to use a stuffy academic term – an ‘interlocutor’. That’s another person or entity, imaginary or not, who is inherent in the act.

I said ‘virtually all forms’. If a radio, unattended, broadcasts a speech in an empty desert is that still dialogue? Probably not (short of a sentient camel). But the theory holds, in principle.

Sorry for that pedantic Definition of Terms. Are you still with me? Then we’re sharing a dialogue! Yes, the theory does work.

How can we use these truisms – boring, I agree – to write better fiction?

Once we realize that ‘dialogue’ is, in essence, almost any speech act we are free to experiment with its forms. Let me show you just ten ways, but there’s no limit to them:

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Quick Link: How to Create a Complex Moral Argument for Your Theme

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When the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” came out, there was a rumor going around that someone went up to the Coen brothers and said “oh you made a movie based on Homer’s Odyssey.” Being the clever people they were, the Coen brothers said “Oh yes, of course” and then proceeded to pretend that was their intent all along. The point being is that I agree with K.M. Weiland from Helping Writers Become Authors, that even the simplest of stories is saying something with a moral argument. The truly great stories, have a complex moral code woven within them.

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How to Create a Complex Moral Argument for Your Theme

May 27, 2016

by K.M. Weiland

A complex moral argument should not be this easy to tell apart....
A complex moral argument should not be this easy to tell apart….

On their surface, stories are nothing more than entertainment. They’re fun little ditties about cool people doing interesting things. But that’s not all stories are. Even the simplest of stories are saying something–they’re positing a moral argument about the world we live in.

Cool, right? Even when we don’t intend to share a “message” with readers, we are. The outcome of the story–the choices the protagonist makes–the way he is rewarded for some choices and punished for others–all of these things are presenting a moral world view, however subtly, for the readers’ consideration.

But it gets even cooler. Because if you can take conscious control of these elements, you can raise even the most entertainment-driven story to far greater heights of purpose, resonance, and meaning.

How Not to Create a Complex Moral Argument

Be ye warned, however. This is not a road for the faint-hearted or the flippant. Execute your story’s moral argument with something less than finesse and you might end up distancing readers by making them feel preached at (and this is so whether they agree with your “message” or not).

So what’s the secret to finessing a complex moral argument?

The key is the word “complex.” If your thematic premise comes across as too simplistic or one-sided, readers will inevitably feel like you’ve rigged the jury. You’re not presenting them all the facts, which means you’re not trusting them to make up their own minds, which means you’re representing yourself as smarter than they are, which means they’re not going to like you (or your story) very much.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: 4 Tips For Creating Bad Boys & Villains Readers Will Love to Hate

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Creating a great bad guy is a fine line. You want them to be bad but not so bad that they become one dimensional and have nothing that the reader can identify with. One way is to identify their motivations for their actions. Everyone is a hero in their own story. Jamie Lanister from Game of Thrones is a brilliant example. It doesn’t hurt that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the actor that plays Jamie, is very easy on the eyes. But Jamie also has a code in his mind that he follows. His actions make sense to his character. At Writer’s Digest, Magnolia Smith gives us tips for creating antagonists that readers will love to hate.

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4 Tips For Creating Bad Boys & Villains Readers Will Love to Hate

By: Magnolia Smith
Look at that ponytail... Evil! and he matched his shirt to his eyes!
Look at that ponytail… and he matched his shirt to his eyes! Evil!

As a romantic suspense author, I enjoy creating characters (both heroes and villains) that readers love to hate. Creating characters that verge on being anti-heroes is especially satisfying. Why? It makes for interesting reading and the experience become emotional for the reader when they can’t decide whether to root for a character or wish him a fiery fictitious death in a car crash (just kidding. Sorta.)

My new series The Black Orchid focuses on sexy Alpha assassins and the women in their lives. These are patriotic, dutiful guys bursting with personal integrity… who kill for a living… plenty of room for blurred lines, eh? This series is romantic suspense, so there are still conventions to be followed. In my novel TELL ME NO LIES, the hero Kael Brady (aka the assassin with a heart of gold – my favorite romance trope) is more of traditional hero than originally planned. As previously written my editor was concerned about his psychopathic tendencies, so for the sake of being a romantic suspense he was toned down, though he still retains some of his darkness.

For example, he’s grown weary of hurting and killing people as a part of his job – even when they deserve it—but he very much enjoys hurting women in bed. And he’s finally found a woman he wants to settle down with, he’d protect her with his life, do anything to make sure she’s never hurt… but then again, he does want to hurt her (in that Fifty Shades of Grey kinda way). It’s complicated, but it makes for fun writing.

I also enjoyed writing the villain in TELL ME NO LIES, who I think some readers will love and others will hate. He has a bit of the sadist about him, but then again… so does the hero.

While writing about sexy bad boys with both good and bad qualities, I decided to compile a helpful list of tips for creating characters that readers love to hate.

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Quick Links: How to Study Subtitles to Write Better Dialogue

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Andrew J. Stillman, guest blogging over at The Write Practice, has a great writing exercise to improve your dialogue that you can do while watching your favorite show! 

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How to Study Subtitles to Write Better Dialogue

Oh TV, is there anything you can't do...
Oh TV, is there anything you can’t do…

by Andrew J. Stillman

What if I told you that you can become a better writer and watch your favorite shows and movies at the same time—and all you have to do is turn on the subtitles?

Most writers agree that we should learn from watching film. How can we, as writers, study it to create more fluid and in-depth scenes?

We can start with the dialogue.

How Film Can Teach You to Write Great Dialogue

Many writers struggle with dialogue. We wonder how to make it real, make it believable, and make it stand out.

Of course, the words characters speak are vital. But as we get lost in finding our voice, we sometimes forget that it’s not only what characters say that matters: how they say it is just as important.

One of the great advantages of film is that the delivery is built right into the dialogue. Studying movies with the subtitles on can help you learn how to write powerful words and engaging scenes.

Try it yourself: choose one of your favorite television shows or movies and throw on the subtitles. As the scene progresses, pay attention to the intonation, tones, and expressions the actors use to convey their lines.

The subtitles alone often look boring or bland, but paying attention to the way the lines are delivered can help you fine-tune dialogue of your own.

3 Steps to Practice Writing Great Dialogue

Let’s try an example together using the show Gilmore Girls (expected to re-launch on Netflix before the end of the year, just in case you didn’t know), which is known for its clever dialogue.

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Quick Link: How to Write a Lead Paragraph that Wins Readers’ Attention

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Attention spans are short! So it is very important that you grab your readers attention as soon as possible! So without further words, here is a sample of post from The Write Practice on how to write a great attention grabbing lead paragraph.

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How to Write a Lead Paragraph that Wins Readers’ Attention

by Jeff Elkins
Businessman screaming via megaphone to another man
“Read my story” he whispered quietly

You’ve spent countless hours pondering the plot, creating the characters’ voices, and building the perfect twist at the end that will leave readers speechless. Once everything is as good as you can make it, you publish your writing and wait. . . .

But no one reads your masterpiece.

Unfortunately, in our content-saturated age, if you don’t grab people by the throat, pull them in close, and yell, “Pay attention to me!” with your first paragraph, they won’t stick around to read the amazing story you’ve crafted.

Your Opening Paragraph Is Vital

When I was editing submissions for Short Fiction Break, if the first paragraph didn’t hold my attention, I rarely kept reading. I’m an avid reader looking for things to read. If a story didn’t keep me engaged, it had no chance of catching the attention of the average internet reader.

A scroll through my Facebook feed illustrates the problem. Here are some of the titles vying for my attention:

  • 21 Bacon Recipes for When You are Trying to Eat Healthy
  • This Game of Thrones Theory Blames Bran for Everything!
  • 15 Times Super Heroes Kill People
  • Amazing Movies Streaming Right Now!

That blog post you just published? That’s what it is competing with: bacon, super heroes, the entire movie industry, and Game of Thrones. I see the Game of Thrones headline and neurons in my mind begin to fire. “Yeah,” I tell myself. “I bet the whole crippled thing is just a clever ruse. Damn you, George R. R. Martin! Damn you and your ever-twisting plot!”

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: How to Write Mind-Blowing Plot Twists—Twisting is NOT Twerking

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Don’t you hate it when the surprise twist is some character who was never really involved at all? Or that had no real motivation for their actions, which were really out of character?  I always thought that was cheating. Kristen Lamb explains it better than I can, and helps you to twist your plot instead of twerking it.

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How to Write Mind-Blowing Plot Twists—Twisting is NOT Twerking

Kristen Lamb

Imagine what MacGyver could do with this!
Imagine what MacGyver could do with this!

Okay so on Monday I talked about 3 Mistakes that Will Make Readers Want to Punch a Book in the Face. One of the mistakes involved the twist ending. Very often a writer believes she has written a twist when in fact, it is NOT a twist at all, it is a twerk.

Twisting the reader? YES. Twerking the reader? NO.

You’ve heard the literary term MacGuffin? For the sake of a simple analogy, I’m adding a new one and it is called a MacGyver😛 .

How is a MacGyver a twist?

We know MacGyver is in a bad spot and he has two choices. The obvious one. A gun. Blast his way out. Or he has is det-cord, glitter, and coffee stirrers.

OMG! How can he ever survive?

MacGuyver uses what he is given and fashions the glitter, det-cord and coffee stirrers into a small incendiary device that creates the right distraction for escape. How? Because he paid attention in science class and knows that the components that make up glitter include copolymer plastics, aluminum foil, titanium dioxide, and iron oxides. He also knows the burn rate of det-cord and the tensile strength of coffee stirrers.

The cheap ones. Not the good ones we steal from Starbuck’s.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Creating Setting and Subtext in Your Fiction

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I am just going to quote from the article to give you an idea of why you need to read this. “Subtext is not what we say in our story but how we say it. It’s the secondary messages we give our readers.”

It is the cilantro and lime of a story, the content that makes the readers emotions pop. So I give you Mary Buckham great article over at Writers Digest.

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Creating Setting and Subtext in Your Fiction

Lots of spice is very nice
Lots of spice is very nice

By: Cris Freese

The following is a guest post by Writer’s Digest author Mary Buckham, author of A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings. She is also the author of the USA Today bestselling Invisible Recruits series, which has been touted for its unique voice, high action, and rich emotion. Mary lives in Washington State with her husband and, when not crafting a new novel of her own, she travels the country researching settings and teaching other writers.

Subtext is not what we say in our story but how we say it. It’s the secondary messages we give our readers. The ones we want them to understand without telling them directly. Subtext adds depth and complexity. It builds an experience that remains in the readers’ awareness.

Subtext is the underlying message. Dialogue or action may tell you that all appears to be fine, but the reader understands from previous events that the subtext is saying something else. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back,” indicating he’ll be returning; the subtext: it’s a threat.

As readers, we most often see subtext used in dialogue, when a character says one thing but their body language or internal dialogue is giving a different message. This adds conflict and increases tension on the page, raises questions, and compels the reader to keep turning pages.

Many writers don’t realize the power of subtext in setting. It’s an underutilized tool that can add enormously to the reader’s experience of a story.

How?

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link:Keeping Your Characters Compelling Beyond the First Draft

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Are you one of those people who starts off a rough draft so excited about your characters and your story, only to plow through to the end and find that it has lost its charm? We should start a club together.

Sometimes it is because familiarity rubs the shine off, but you still have a great character and a great story. Other times the character you thought was deep enough to carry the plot turns out to be as deep as a sheet of paper and really can’t live up to the role. Janice Hardy’s Fiction University to the rescue! Learn how to tell if it is you or your character that needs changing.

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Keeping Your Characters Compelling Beyond the First Draft

Wednesday, May 25

By Janice Hardy

It is either you, your character, or his evil twin…..
It is either you, your character, or his evil twin…..

Before I dive in…I had lunch with reader Carol Baldwin and did a little Q&A. That interview is up on her blog now for those interested.  Come on over and say hello when you’re done here.

We’ve got a bit of a theme week going, looking at a few “beyond the first draft” issues writers run into. Today, it’s keeping a character as interesting and compelling as we thought they were when we first created them.

Characters often evolve as we write them, and it’s not uncommon to have a character we loved while we were planning a novel or writing that first draft feels a little, well, meh when we go back to revise. Now that we’ve seen them in action, we wonder why anyone would care about this person at all.

Sometimes this is just us second guessing ourselves and the character is still good, but other times our instincts are right on target. The character is boring. We created them and even we don’t care anymore.

Is it You or Them?

It’s possible you’ve lost the love because you’ve been living with this character for a while, and what was new and exciting is now old hat. You know how their story plays out, you’ve figured out all the twists and secrets, and knowing that makes the character less mysterious and fun.

It’s time to analyze the issue and find where the problem lies. Take a close (and hard) look at the character and ask:

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: Creating Setting and Subtext in Your Fiction

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

Great Stories have depth and evoke emotion in the reader. One way of adding depth and emotional connection is by creating setting and subtext in your writing. Mary Buckham, on Writers Digest, has a brilliant article on how to achieve this.

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Creating Setting and Subtext in Your Fiction

By:
M
With the right subtext, this could be a murder plot
With the right subtext, this could be a murder plot

The following is a guest post by Writer’s Digest author Mary Buckham, author of A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings. She is also the author of the USA Today bestselling Invisible Recruits series, which has been touted for its unique voice, high action, and rich emotion. Mary lives in Washington State with her husband and, when not crafting a new novel of her own, she travels the country researching settings and teaching other writers.

Subtext is not what we say in our story but how we say it. It’s the secondary messages we give our readers. The ones we want them to understand without telling them directly. Subtext adds depth and complexity. It builds an experience that remains in the readers’ awareness.

Subtext is the underlying message. Dialogue or action may tell you that all appears to be fine, but the reader understands from previous events that the subtext is saying something else. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger says, “I’ll be back,” indicating he’ll be returning; the subtext: it’s a threat.

As readers, we most often see subtext used in dialogue, when a character says one thing but their body language or internal dialogue is giving a different message. This adds conflict and increases tension on the page, raises questions, and compels the reader to keep turning pages.

Many writers don’t realize the power of subtext in setting. It’s an underutilized tool that can add enormously to the reader’s experience of a story.

How?

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: Write a Sequel That Doesn’t Disappoint: Part I

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Total confession time. I have been know to binge read a favorite author until I just can’t read any more and have to switch genres.  I don’t think that is what Kaitlin Hillerich means when she talks about disappointing sequels. It is especially true with eBooks, that volume can get you noticed. But Kaitlin’s issue is more about planning and writing a sequel if it makes sense for the story, not because dollar signs are flashing.  Read the post at Inks & Quills.

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Write a Sequel That Doesn’t Disappoint: Part I

Kaitlin Hillerich

I have a confession to make, friends: I’m getting worn out on series.

I’m not sure when or how it happened, but in the last couple of years or so I’ve been seeking out more and more stand-alone novels and even writing my own. Which is weird, considering I used to snub my nose at stand-alones, and all of the stories I wrote (and planned to write) were plotted out as trilogies.

So what changed? Well, my theory is that I’ve come down with something I’ve dubbed “Sequel Disappointment Syndrome.” One day it struck me that I’ve read very few series that are actually well-executed and deserving of their 3-7+ volumes. To be honest, the majority of series I’ve read have a fantastic first book, but the sequels fall short in comparison and disappoint.

I can’t tell you how many series I’ve come across where I think to myself, “This really would have worked better as a stand-alone.”

And honestly, I would rather read a fantastic stand-alone than a trilogy where book 1 is amazing but books 2 and 3? Um…not so much.

These days, it seems like every book is a trilogy, if not part of a longer series. I can’t help but look back at the wealth of classics like Pride and Prejudice, Dracula, and Wuthering Heights just to name a few, and wonder if their authors were onto something by making them stand-alones. When did we start feeling the need to make everything a trilogy? If these books had been written today, would they have been series instead? And would their sequels have been as good as the originals? One has to wonder.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: How to Write a Binge-Worthy Book Series

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Have you decided that your novel should be a trilogy? Or even a series? Jenny Bravo from Blots & Plots to the rescue! She gives out tips to help write a great series, even if you are a pantser.

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How to Write a Binge-Worthy Book Series

by Jenny Bravo

arrow-vector-series_z1fIUetO_LIt’s stressful enough to plan one book, let alone a whole trilogy. As a pantser, the idea of sitting down and mapping out an entire world for several books makes me want to give up right then and there.

And yet, here I am, writing a trilogy. So, what’s the deal? First of all, you should know that I didn’t plan a single second of this. I wrote my novel, These Are the Moments, with the intent to wrap it up in a nice bow and be done with it.

But what I didn’t expect was how much story was leftover for my secondary characters. Two powerhouse women characters with major flaws and big, unfinished stories – Reese and Vivian – were ready to step up to the stage. So, I’m letting them.

How can you write a binge-worthy book series? Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

Know The Heck Out of Your Characters

The first thing that popped into my brain when I thought about writing a trilogy was my cast of characters. Here are a few questions to ask yourself before we dive a little deeper:

  • Have my characters completed their arc?
  • Where is there room to grow for these characters?
  • Will the story continue with my current main character or will it shift POV’s?
  • How can I build on what I’ve already created for these characters?
  • How will the relationships shift and change?

For me, I decided that my series lent itself best to the idea of a new main character with every book, that way I won’t get bored, and hopefully, the reader won’t either. How can you make decisions about how to continue with your current characters?

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Links: Writing for Kindle Worlds – the Good and the Ugly

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We all fantasize about being in the stories we love, and with Kindle Worlds, you can legally explore that fantasy and share with others. Kindle World writer Toby Neal knows, and she shares with us the good and the bad about writing fan fiction.  Head on over to How-To For Authors to learn more.

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Writing for Kindle Worlds – the Good and the Ugly

Toby Neal

connected-world_Mksak_quMay 14, 2016

Toby Neal has her own Kindle World with 35 (and counting) books starring her characters, and has written two for others’ Worlds.

Whatever you feel about Amazon, they are cutting-edge as a company, and one of the most innovative programs they’ve come up with in publishing is Kindle Worlds. According to Nick Loeffler with Amazon, “Kindle Worlds is the first commercial publishing platform to enable any writer to publish fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters while earning royalties for doing so, and sell them in the Kindle Store. Until the launch of Kindle Worlds, selling stories based on copyright-protected material had been difficult.”

Not to mention, illegal!

Kindle Worlds has changed all that, by contracting with authors and other writers to legalize use of characters in a “World,” and providing parameters within which other writers can play. All benefit from this—writers get to entertain through known settings with their own stories, and readers get more of the characters they love.

Developed in 2013, Kindle Worlds includes graphic novels, TV shows, and of course, bestselling book lines. Kindle Worlds is licensed fan fiction, in a nutshell, and it captures the urge of writers since the dawn of time to write about characters they’ve fallen in love with as readers, and for readers to be able to enjoy storylines and characters they’ve become attached to long after original creators have stopped writing a popular series.

The Kindle Worlds site provides a quality assurance process that protects authors, and an easy review process that helps readers find the best of the bunch. I was nervous when my Lei Crime Kindle World launched in April 2015, wondering if readers would be willing to try new works by others using my characters—but I needn’t have worried. The Lei Crime Kindle World novellas, varying in genre from mystery to magical realism, have become some of the top-rated works in Kindle Worlds. It’s been a blast to read the expansion of colorful minor characters (as well as my main ones) into stories that I would never have imagined or had time to write.

What’s GOOD about writing for a KindleWorld?

  1. KindleWorlds is an opportunity to show your stuff and hook an established reader base. This is an excellent reason to try writing a story or novella in Kindle Worlds—you have a chance to attract an established reader base to take a look at your back list! The back matter of your KindleWorld book can be linked to your other books, email list, and more, and if readers like it, they’ll follow you. Mystery/romance author ML (Mary) Doyle says, “Readers who liked my Kindle World novella went on to buy my entire mystery line, and even try my romances.”

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Quick Links: The Delicate Art of Character Folding

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

I will confess to being a big Game Of Thrones fan. One of my best friends just can’t get into the story. Too many characters, plots, and subplots to follow. Different strokes for different folks! But a good writer should look honestly at their first draft and see how many characters, backstories, and subplots they are making their readers deal with.  See if one or two can be combined or done away with, as Rebecca Makkai at Aerogramme Writer’s Studio explains.

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The Delicate Art of Character Folding

Rebecca Makkai

People crowd7 June 2016

You probably knew, when you started writing, that you’d signed on for murder. I was warned well in advance: One of my favorite childhood books was Lois Lowry’s The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline, in which the title character finds the notebook of the man her mother is dating. “Eliminate the kids,” one note says. She and her brother swing into crime-fighting mode, only to discover in the end that this man, a writer, was talking about editing characters out of his work-in-progress.

Later, as I studied writing, I’d hear authors lament the characters they’d had to erase from draft two, the ones who “felt like real people” to them. Or they’d talk about the ones they kept around because, despite the fact that they served no real purpose in the narrative, they’d become old friends.

In fact, our first drafts are often overpopulated. There’s a reason: Your character needs a boss, so you invent a boss. He’s a typical boss. He wears a suit and does boss-like things. “Get me those numbers, Stan!” he says. You need someone to overhear the nighttime argument, so you invent the nosy neighbor. She’s always trimming her azaleas, of course. Naturally, she’s a widow in her sixties. Your character can’t get over someone, so you invent the ex. A cruel, beautiful ex who appears only in flashback, saying belittling things about your guy’s manhood. By halfway through a novel, you’ve got enough fictional characters to fill a cruise ship.

And how could you possibly cut any of them? If you lose the boss, you lose the whole storyline at work. You lose the neighbor, and all the pressure goes out of the fight scene. So you keep them all—which is often the wrong answer. Or you bite the bullet and have a stiff drink and sit down to cut those people, cut those scenes. Which is quite possibly the wrong answer too, and almost definitely unnecessary.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.