Category Archives: Writing Craft
Change of Scenery
I’m writing this post in the middle of a 12 day visit to England, because it reminded me of a valuable tip to bring perspective to our writing.
Most of us are very busy with day jobs, families, houses and other responsibilities, and we fill every spare hour with writing. It is all too easy to get into the rut of the daily grind, and challenging to clear our heads when we sit down to write. Whether you write at the same desk or comfy armchair, or at Starbucks, in the garden or at the beach, what we all need is a real change of scenery. For this you need to leave town, preferably your State or county, and better still, travel to another country.
Why? Perspective. People are different the further you travel from your home. They speak “oddly”, use colloquialisms and peculiar mannerisms, eat bizarre food, and if you travel far enough, they look or dress differently. The landscape or weather might be unusual compared to home Now look more closely. Houses are not the same everywhere, nor street signs, and you eventually notice trivialities like the traffic lights at intersections might be at the corner, or overhead on gantries. Do they hang vertically, or, like in hurricane-prone states, horizontally. Naturally, hundreds of items spring to mind when you visit another country, even one as similar to the US as England.
What does this teach us? First, that we can return home with a fresh perspective that can spice up our book. What if I made that character English, and they drank tea with milk instead of coffee? A cliched example, but you get the idea. How would that chain-smoking European fare in American cities and bars? What if my protagonist imported Curly Wurlys from England and chewed them when he got nervous. (A long thin candy that tastes like Milk Duds). How unique would it be for our hard-boiled P.I. to drive a right-hand drive Alfa Romeo instead of an American muscle car?
Secondly, while we all know the value of people watching, being ultra observant of how even the tiniest details vary per region is great mental training, and can hone our descriptive skills. Adding unique flair to mundane items brings richness to our books.
Make time to travel and see things in a different light. Take a trip or vacation. Oh, the things we have to endure in the name of research. 
What insights into your writing do you gain when returning home from an extended trip?
Wait… I’m not done after one book?
I recently reached one of the many milestones that budding authors stumble across, the realization that even after completing our first book, we have only set foot on the long road to learning our craft.
I see accomplished authors nodding their heads. I also see writers on their first book staring at me in terror. Say what now? You mean even after I struggle through this enormous project of my first book, after years and years of agony and revising, you say I’m not done, not master of my craft?
OK, so none of us, myself included, actually believed this, but there definitely seems to be a wall right here. Your baby is written, polished to shine, gleefully dispatched to agents, you feel relieved and elated, and success is just around the corner… Wait, a rejection? Bound to happen, don’t worry. Another, soon to be a pile.
That’s when the doubt sets in. Should you have used an editor? Almost certainly. Was your beginning compelling enough? Obviously not. Were your characters strong, your plot a masterpiece? You probably winged it, read a few books, knew enough to avoid obvious stereotypes and clichés, deus ex machina, etc. You know about these things, because you’re a writer… right?
You were prepared for this. You knew that first books rarely sell. No problem. Put your firstborn aside and start the next. I did this, but started to worry that my characters weren’t unique enough, that my setting was too complex. I spent ages constructing an intricate plot of twists and sub twists, where nothing was what it seemed, and the reader would gasp at my cleverness. Crash! That’s the sound of my house of cards plot falling down. The nagging doubts of my first book were making me try too hard, tempting me to write beyond my abilities. Oh no. I’ve lost it. I can’t write after all.
Ok, relax. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. I realized that I had learned enough of the craft of storytelling and the mechanics of writing, that I could now look objectively at my work and see my (inevitable) shortcomings. Much of what I did in that first book was good, but I achieved it mainly on excitement alone. I finished a novel. That’s not easy! Inherently, I’m now a better writer. I know what I did wrong, but I’m forging ahead without taking the time to ground my empirical experience with appropriate theory. I messed around with cola and mints and made a cool bottle rocket, and now I want to build a solid-fuel, multi-stage booster without studying physics.
So, no, we’re not done. Time to take it to the next level. Back to college. Now is the time to work with an editor on that first book. Even if you don’t resubmit it, you’ll learn a lot about sentence and paragraph structure, writing tight prose, POV, show don’t tell. Read more books about plot and characterization. (Plot vs. Character by Jeff Gerke) Map out your main characters’ Goals, Motivations and Conflicts ahead of time, so you know how they relate to each other, and what drives the tension and drama in your book. Learn how to outline properly, so that you can master pace and suspense, and how to make each scene flow seamlessly to the next, and the next. (Outlining your Novel by K.M. Weiland) Learn the basics of structure, to build yourself a steel and concrete plot framework that won’t come down like a house of cards. (The Anatomy of Story by John Truby) These are the things I am currently embarked on, what about you?
Please comment and tell me about your experiences (good or bad) after finishing your first book? Surely I’m not alone at this milestone?
Can a setting be a character?
Sometimes you read a book where the setting is so rich, so beautifully described and original that you feel right there beside the characters. I believe that the setting can be as compelling as the characters, particularly in a series.
You know, that feeling when you itch to read the next book as much for the world setting as for the characters. My favourites include: Pern, Castle Gormenghast, The Shire, Mordor, Narnia, Leiber’s Lankhmar, Brust’s Adrilankha, the USS Enterprise.
In many cases, the setting grounds the hero. The two become synonymous. Batman wouldn’t be so sophisticated without his mansion and hi-tech bat cave; Han Solo would be just a scoundrel without the Falcon. When Bond visits Q, it isn’t Q that fascinates us, but his vault of secret and deadly devices. Moreover, no old-school horror story can exist without the mountainous, lightning-struck castle, or the ivy-covered abandoned house, or the midnight fog in the graveyard.
We should be inspired by the examples above, to bring an extra dimension to our worlds and locations, to make our characters react to their environment with the same emotional fervor as they would toward another character. The character should feel genuine fear, hatred, disgust or a sense of sanctuary, relief or relaxation. The setting enhances the characters. It’s damn spooky that we are led to believe that River becomes at-one with the Serenity in Firefly, but we do believe because the characters are so at home in that tiny ship. We would never look upon Picard, Data, Worf and Riker as a family if there were no Enterprise, no binding force to hold them together.
What are your favourite worlds and what measures do you take to turn your settings into another character?
Don’t enjoy that book, study it
Ok, so I don’t mean that literally. Of course you should enjoy a book, that’s its purpose.
As a writer, we can evolve our craft and style by studying the work of others more successful than ourselves. We’re all apprentices until we have a collection of books to our name, and even then I don’t think any of us ever stop learning. A great way to learn the finesse of writing software, for example, is to look at other people’s code. Look at the elegant way they handled that case. Oh, that was a creative solution. I never thought of using that function that way. The same goes for most crafts. I learned a handful of techniques for soldering neat circuit boards from watching pros. Writing is the same, of course.
Go to your book shelf and pull down one of your favourite books, especially one by an author whose style you admire (and secretly model yourself after perhaps?) Seriously, do that right now.
If you’re like me, you’ve read it a dozen times, so you know the plot. Now read it objectively, cover to cover. Or pick a sample chapter or favourite scene.
I bet there’s something about that scene that you relate to above and beyond the story itself. Maybe it’s the prosaic narration, or the genius of the dialogue. Perhaps it’s how the author builds tension, or transitions from scene to scene. You choose. It’s probably the author’s distinct style, so drill into the paragraph and sentence construction to find the essence of that style. It’s amazing what you can learn doing this. Some examples:
- Many authors have distinctive phrases that they re-use. One of mine is “eye-corner”, a compact alternative to “corner of his eye” that I learned from Fritz Leiber. I’m not suggesting you plagiarize these sayings, only that when you start to notice them, it will open your mind to alternatives in your writing.
- Dialogue: I’m a sucker for punchy dialogue. I love to see whole pages of dialogue without a single (or few) action beat, and no indication of the speaker. If the dialogue is true to the character, you can tell whom is speaking. Learn how the masters do this. You won’t do it with all your dialogue, but it can serve for a quick-fired argument or witty exchange.
- Scene transitions: One of my weak points. After studying several novels, I learned a lot about masterful transitions that don’t rely upon either going to sleep or “housekeeping narrative”.
- Construction: I never used to give much thought to sentences or paragraphs other than trying to keep one idea per paragraph. Then I learned that you can change the pace and tone by varying sentence length. Actions scenes usually require short, snappy sentences. Chop out a single sentence into its own paragraph, and see how dramatic it is.
For more advanced homework, break your chosen book into a list of scenes. Ask some questions:
- Is the scene short or long? What difference does it make?
- How does it transition from the scene before to that after?
- What is the point of the scene? Boil it down. Is it action, backstory, flashback, character development, foreshadowing? It might serve more than one purpose, but why is the scene here?
- Is it narrative, pure dialog, or a mix? How different would it be the other way, e.g. changing a descriptive scene to a conversation?
- Where does the scene take place? Is it static, like a coffee shop, or is it dynamic, e.g. a conversation in a car chase or climbing a mountain? Are the locations minimalist, like a stage play, or do we romp around the world, like a Mission Impossible movie? How does the author use the location in the scene, or it is just background or eye candy?
- Is it fast or slow paced? Does the book start slow and rise to a crescendo at the climax, or is it more of a roller-coaster of ups and downs?
- POV: Why do you think the author chose his POV? How different would it be written from another POV, or multiple POV’s?
We all study “how-to” writing books, but don’t forget you can learn as much from studying your peers or masters. Genres carry their own styles and tricks too. The reader expects a certain amount of these, but introduce your own flavour into the mix, and try to give the reader a style he hasn’t seen before.
What do you look for, when you read a book objectively?
Writing: Am I done yet?
How do you know when you’re finished with your book? When will your m/s come out of the oven at the perfect temperature, wonderfully seasoned, beautifully plated and ready for consumption by an agent?
Never. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.
I spent a year planning this book, another three years writing it, and another year editing it. It’s been round my writing group chapter by chapter. Twice. I’ve had several beta readers comment on my “final” draft, which of course led to more editing and polishing. Just when I thought it ready for submission, I decided to run over it one last time to find those few loose ends.
Few? Who was I kidding? I committed myself to several weeks of poring over every single page, correcting dozens of issues on each. And I thought it was ready to sell! However, I’m glad that I found all those issues and not an agent.
A m/s is like a painting, in that’s there is no definition of done. We creative types will never be completely happy with our work – there’s always one last change, one last tweak. It’s just up to us to decide when to let go, when to let our babies fly the nest.
My advice is don’t sell yourself short. Do as many edits as you can stomach. Then put it aside and take a break. Bring it out and edit it some more. Agents are busy people with little time to assess your m/s, so the last thing you want is them judging your wannabe masterpiece by the number of typos or poor grammar.
Top 10 of what I look for in the final edit(s):
• Spelling mistakes (don’t rely on the spellchecker!)
• Bad grammar (read a good grammar book, or Grammar Girl is a fantastic podcast
• Awkward or clumsy sentences
• Superfluous words (especially fillers like almost, just, about)
• Passive Voice
• POV shifts
• Dialog (read it aloud! Would someone really say that? People usually speak with brevity, and rarely refer to the name of the person they are speaking to)
• Punctuation (Use those commas! Mind the exclamation points!)
• Consistent use of terms and jargon (more important in sci-fi and fantasy)
• Telling not showing
I bet you can think of dozens more things to look for, but this is a start. It assumes you have no larger issues such as plotting, pacing, tension, scene transitions etc.
Print your “final” draft on paper and mark it up away from the keyboard. You see things differently on paper than on the screen, don’t ask me why. Read your m/s aloud (my cats make a great audience), it gives a fresh perspective.
A lot of authors and agents advise enlisting the help of a professional editor. Expect to pay $500 and up for a m/s, returned marked up in Word. Find a credible editor of course, so seek personal recommendations.
Don’t be in a rush to submit to agents. Yes, it’s exciting to finally finish your novel, but don’t waste years of work for the sake of a few solid months going over it with a fine toothed comb. Several times. An agent isn’t going to invest their time on your book if it’s obvious you didn’t think it worth the time to polish it. No one wants a half-cooked, under-seasoned turkey! Good luck!
When do you find time to write?
This is probably the 2nd most common question non-writers ask me, after “Where do you get your ideas from?”
These want-to-be writers claim that their life is too busy. Most writers I know have the most challenging and hectic schedules known to man. Until we make it, we are all carrying a day job; most of us have families, houses, and chores. I am personally astounded by how many writers juggle small kids on top of everything else!
My answer is always: If you really want to write, you’ll find or make time. That’s true of every hobby, personal study or passion, right? If it’s important, then we’ll find a way to make it happen. My response rarely satisfies them; I think they were looking for something more spiritual and, well… useful.
Well, dear want-to-be writers, it really is as simple and as complicated as that. Either squeeze in time to write among the racing, swirling, myriad paths of your life, or simplify your life and create time. You want to write? Watch less TV. Play less video games. Get up an hour earlier. Opportunities abound for carving out a slice of time, if you really do want to write. If it’s a sincere burning desire, a yearning, a calling, then you will feel crabby and upset if you aren’t writing.
Then you will find that you generally fit into two categories of writer:
The first are true opportunists. They fill every spare five minutes writing a paragraph or two. They write at lunch at their desk, on the train, in a queue, sitting in bed, sitting in traffic. No time is wasted. Their advantage is a constant immersion in their story and a consistent, if small, daily word count.
The second are the marathon runners. They need plenty of time to sit down, collect their thoughts and ease into writing, but when the muse strikes, they work for eight hours straight, or longer. They might only write once or twice a week, but when they do, 8-10 thousand words may fly by.
Technically, it’s not binary. I like to write every day but require an hour or two to concentrate, and I may clock 700-1000 words a day. I’d love to write thousands, but I burn out quickly.
What really matters is:
• Accept your type and don’t fight it
• Write consistently, preferably daily
• Rework your life’s schedule to create holes that fit your writing type
Most important of all: Just find any free time and write! If you have a passion, don’t waste it.
Avoid writing in a vacuum
Don’t make it hard on yourself. Without feedback, one of two things will likely happen:
- You’ll think your first draft is so wonderful and perfect that you’ll send it out, not realizing you have terrible grammar, spelling and/or serious plot and characterization flaws.
- You’ll think your writing is the worst piece of junk, second guess yourself, give credence to your fears, and never write again.
Despite the image of the hermit writer holed up in his study, churning out masterpieces, humans are gregarious creatures that need feedback from our peers. Here are some ways to get balanced opinions of our work:
- Join or start a writers group. Look for a group of writers of similar experience. If you’re editing that final draft of your first (or second) book, you aren’t going to get much help from someone brand new to writing. Their m/s will be full of basic errors, or crummy dialog or plotting (we were all there once!), and they’ll probably be too shy to critique your work properly. Newbies lean towards praise rather than honesty. Similarly, if you’re working on your first ever draft, attending a group full of bestselling authors (wow, how did you get so lucky?), their polished, professional work might discourage you more than inspire. I’ll blog about writers groups again soon, but get a handful of people, not so many that no one gets time to critique, but not so few that you end up canceling if one or two can’t make a session. Places to look: craigslist, meetup.com.
- Find a critique partner. Find a fellow writer, again at about the same experience level, and regularly swap chapters or scenes. You can do this face to face at the coffee shop, or by email. The advantage to email is that you can mark each other’s m/s up in Word, not only edits but suggestions too. You can also offer encouragement, hold each other to deadlines, etc.
- Join a professional critiquing group. Critters is a good example of this. You’re likely to get a large number of people reading your scenes, and the feedback is going to be brutally honest, since most people don’t know each other. Like all groups though, you have to give as much as take, and online groups typically enforce this by validating that you critique other people’s work before they can see yours.
- Use beta readers. You don’t need writers for this one, just people willing and interested in reading your m/s. They may take an entire copy, or may want you to feed it to them chapter by chapter. You’ll probably get better feedback with the second method. Remember that they aren’t writers, and probably not good critiquers or editors either. Don’t expect your chapter back all nicely edited up in Word. You’re looking for big picture items here: Was it interesting or boring, was the plot flawed, the characters believable? Consider avoiding friends and family. More often than not, they are over-nice to avoid hurting your feelings, and you won’t get an accurate assessment of your m/s.
- Use an editor. At the end of your project, get it professionally edited. It will make all the difference. You might be lucky to have an editor friend, but otherwise expect to pay, and make sure you find someone reputable. Ask around. You can opt for a pure copy editor if you are confident about your plot and characters.
In all of the above, seek a mix of people in and out of your target genre/audience. A good story should impress someone even if they don’t read your genre. If you’re writing cyberpunk, for example, obviously other cyberpunk fans can provide excellent feedback on your tech, jargon and genre plot; but that historical romance writer will be forced to look beyond that to how well your dialog works, or your scene structure, pacing, etc.
Finally, look for a balanced critique that includes not only the nuts and bolts of grammar, spelling and craft, but also the big picture; the overarching plot, subplots, tension, protagonist vs. antagonist etc.
And remember, it’s always more fun when you’re not battling your m/s alone. Good luck.
The great ideas list
Do you have a huge list of novel ideas? My list totals about 100. I’m assuming that is a normal amount for most writers. I’ve spent my life accumulating ideas for books of all genres. I don’t mean a one-line snippet about a setting or character or a what-if; I mean semi-outlines of a book plot with key scenes, characters, plot twists, world background, etc. Typically, mine run from a half page to ten pages, with 1-2 pages being the average. That’s normal, right? I have them gathered into paper folders, word docs, text files, and all anally indexed in a spreadsheet.
The good thing about this resource, is that I could write a book every year for the rest of my life, simply pulling from my files. Over the years, I’ve weeded out most of the terrible, amateurish ideas, though I’m sure many still remain that aren’t tenable for a published book, but I still think I have a pretty solid collection. I’ve probably been lucky in that it’s much easier to generate ideas for fantasy and sci-fi than say, a political thriller, which no doubt is a dozen times deeper and involves considerable research. That’s the neat thing about speculative fiction: almost anything goes!
The bad thing, is that I’ve given myself too much choice. I started writing in my teens and it’s only in the last 10 years (I’m 46) that I actually finished a full novel draft. I have files and folders full of half-finished first drafts. For a long time I was convinced this was because I had too many ideas. Halfway through a manuscript, I’d get bored and want to write one of the other “great” plots in my portfolio. Now I’m wise enough to realize that I simply lacked discipline. I still yearn to get started on the next book, but I know now that published authors stay the course and spend as much time editing as writing, often more.
As I put the finishing touches on this manuscript and send it out for representation, I’ve been agonizing over which of my many ideas to write next. How do other authors handle this? I’ve narrowed it down to five with a current favourite. I’m sure they’ll all prove fascinating to write and I hope of course that all five will eventually see print. I feel safer knowing that whichever one I choose, I now have the discipline to complete it. To misquote Edison:
Writing is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Am I alone in this dilemma? Do other authors make the same choice, or am I just making it hard on myself? Comments please?
Chapter length and name
How long is a chapter, and should I give them names? I’ve had this question several times now, and I’m sure established authors have a million times, but I always enjoy answering questions from first time writers like myself.
How long is a chapter? It’s so tempting to reply “how long is a piece of string”, but that doesn’t really help, does it? Well, it depends on your preference and style of course. Many authors have long chapters of 10,000 or 20,000 words, or sometimes no chapters at all. They probably don’t want to break up the pace. Others, like Dan Brown in “The Da Vinci Code”, keep a tight pace by breaking every 1000 words or less; an interesting device that gives the novel a more frantic, exciting pace. What effect are are you going for? A popular choice is to break every time you switch between characters, particularly if you are shifting point of view. If your plot follows a tight sequence of time, you could break every hour or every day. If you are shifting between disparate locations, like countries, or time periods, the chapter break is a useful mechanism. Somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 words is typical.
The only real rule is to make sure that your chapter break makes sense. Readers like a neat place to put down a book, so a frequent break allows them to read a chapter or two in a spare moment. Some readers are happy stopping wherever they happen to be, mid-page if necessary, but I’m sure a lot of people are like me, and feel psychologically safer stopping at the end of a chapter. After all, that’s exactly where the author intended a break, right?
Personally, I like to end most of my chapters on some kind of cliffhanger or hook, so that the reader eagerly awaits picking up the book again. Frank is dangling over the cliff and the rope is shredding! Try to avoid ending the chapter with the character going to bed. It sounds logical, but it doesn’t leave the reader wanting more. It’s also tempting to get to the end of that fight or chase sequence before breaking, but it’s a lot more dramatic to stop right in the middle at a pivotal point. The hero spins around just as the assassin throws the knife, aimed between his eyes. I mark my chapter breaks on the second draft, and try to split the book into roughly equal parts. My goal is 3,000 to 4,000 words.
So what about naming your chapters? I think it’s safe to say that the majority of novels don’t, but naming does seem to be more popular with YA or younger. I like chapter names; they’re fun. The secret is to say just enough to intrigue the reader but not enough to give the game away. If you want your reader to be shocked by a ship’s mutiny, clearly don’t name the chapter Mutiny! You can even make it cryptic and let the reader figure out how the chapter got its name. A fine example is Shortcut to Mushrooms in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. By the end of the chapter, you get it.
I like to anticipate what the reader wants to know next, and use the chapter name as a hook, e.g. you’ve had a mysterious black-hooded stranger asking around the village about the hero. When the reader reaches the chapter, The Stranger Unveiled, he knows the secret (or part of it) is about to be revealed. Traitor! is a popular one when you have a group of characters. While you have apparently ruined the surprise that there is a traitor, you have actually amped the suspense; which one of them is the traitor? Can the reader guess? Hopefully, he pauses to review the story so far, excitedly looking for clues. Everyone loves to solve the crime; after all an entire genre is based upon that premise.
Have fun with the names, and remember that the length can be whatever makes sense for your book.
Are your scenes Active or Passive?
Does your protagonist drive your plot, or is he just along for the ride? It’s usually easy to spot: the plot or other characters advance the story and the protagonist simply reacts to events.
This is ok in moderation. We can’t expect the hero to do everything. Often, he isn’t in control of events, certainly isn’t omniscient, and ends up in reactionary mode from time to time. You can still write a dramatic scene around this. Sometimes, secondary characters get to make the discoveries or decisions, get to move to center stage so that we can develop their character. No, I’m talking about those times when the hero can lead the scene, but doesn’t, due to an oversight or laziness on the author’s part.
I’ve been reworking scenes in which I failed to seize opportunities to show my hero in action. The protagonist, and maybe one or two other main characters, should carry the bulk of the action, since the reader has the most invested in them. No one cares about the minor character to stage left that says his piece and leaves, or dies horribly to heighten the risk to our hero. Now rewritten, my scenes are considerably more interesting, and advance the plot more dramatically, when my hero leads.
As an example, I just rewrote a scene in which a dead body is discovered by a secondary character, who proceeds to protect my heroine by pushing her away, sheltering her. What was I thinking? I thought this a believable act on his behalf. In reality, I just lost a ton of terror-filled drama. In the rewrite, she stumbles over the corpse. The reader is deluged with a torrent of raw emotion: shock, disgust, terror, loss. Then she fights attempts to lead her away, chiding her friend for treating her like a baby, and both of them narrowly avoid becoming victims to the killer. Which version would you prefer to read?
Sounds easy, but I have read a number of books or manuscripts where the author seems content with a passive plot. Put your hero on the edge, put him in danger, make him emotionally vulnerable, let him be hurt and get back up. He should disagree, argue, go against the grain, or have his own agenda. An active plot means so much more than physical action.
Take a scene which you consider slow, on the cutting block, or one in which your protagonist is reactionary. Now rewrite it centered on the hero. Let him make the first move, make the discovery, take control. This is an effective way to spice up one-sided, information dump conversations. Avoid your hero simply taking it all in, nodding his head, asking passive leading questions. Instead, let him ask awkward questions, interrupt the speaker, challenge him, argue, contradict. Try it. The results are totally worth it.
