writing
Hello Again
It’s been over two years since I last posted. So here’s a little recap.
For a while, I took a break from writing. No inspiration was coming and I was struggling with some learning problems and writing was too taxing on my brain for the moment.
Then, I started outlining an novel idea I’d been having for about a year and wrote the first 50 pages of that story. In December, I send those first 50 pages to Ellen Brock, an editor (who I really recommend). She told me it had promise but needed some major structurally overhauls.
Basically, this was the problem:
My main character was pretty pathetic and most of her ‘conflicts’ she created for herself and there was no clear motivation behind her actions.
My antagonist wasn’t antagonistic enough.
This created a story without conflict and story without conflict is no good.
So, I was discouraged for a bit. Then I decided to revamp my story, but keep some of elements I liked most about my original story. I forced myself not to write anything for at least 9 weeks as a I outlined and ironed out all my plot problems and figured out why my characters were doing what they were. I cut some scenes, I changed some scenes. I made some of the main characters more minor and took some away completely. I also decided to write in third person limited with two POV characters instead of first person.
So it’s been about 7 weeks now, and I have a pretty good plot plotted out. I have a list of scenes that follow the goal, conflict, consequence pattern. My main character, Rebecca, has more personality and a definite reason for her actions. It’s really amazing what focused time each day can do for a writing project!
So my next goal is to write my the first 50 pages of this story and send it to the editor again. I’m hoping she sees improvement. After that, I will continue writing (or re-plot if she feels that’s necessary). Of course I’ll be discouraged if she still sees flaws in my story, but I want my debut novel to be as good as it can be because you only have one chance to be a new author in the industry. I want to make an impression.
Rounded Characters
Recently, I’ve really been struggling with finding my protagonist’s motivation and core need, two vital ingredients for likable, believable characters. I think that to find this, you must look at the character’s whole personality. Today, I tried a new approach for character development that worked very well: mind mapping. I use a free software called XMind. This created a picture of my protagonist’s complete personality: strengths, weaknesses, fears. To start, I put his name in the center. Then, I made a main topic for each of his personality traits. Then, I created subtopics off of the main topics. These are examples of the personality trait or how it affects their life.
Example:
Main topic: strong
Subtopics: he likes to exercise, he’s a good leader, he’s calm under pressure.
Click to see my protagonist’s mindmap
I learned two things today. First, find your character’s motivation and core need before you figure out the rest of their personality, and second, use a mind map and a character development worksheet. This forces you to think about your character in two different ways, it uses different parts of your brain.
My Writing Binder ~ Part 1
I find it very helpful to keep a writing binder for each of my story ideas. This keeps all my papers and notes from getting lost or wrinkled. I divide my three ring binder into different sections ex. characters, plot, setting, research with page dividers. I always have a regular lined notebook to write down random ideas or to brainstorm with my binder.
Here are the things that are in my ‘character’ tab:
- Each of my main and supporting character’s sketches.
- Each of my main and supporting character’s inspiration picture so I can envision them more clearly.
- K.M Weiland’s blog post on character archetypes.
- Any other helpful blog posts on creating or developing characters.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you what’s in my ‘plot’ tab!
Using Review in Word
I found a great way to edit a novel or short story in Word. I found it because a few days ago, one of my friends asked if I’d read a short story she was writing and give my opinion on it. I was so excited to be able to critique someone else’s work. I used review in Word to make comment bubbles to put my notes in. This is helpful for either putting notes in someone else’s work and emailing it to them, or putting notes in your own work to look at for the next writing day.
Here’s a super easy tutorial showing how to use review in a Word document.
1. Open a word document.
2. Click on the tab that says ‘review’ at the top of the document.
3. Highlight the word or words you want to add a note about.
4. Click on the ‘new comment’ icon.
To delete a note, first click the note, then click on the icon that says ‘delete’ next to the ‘add comment’ icon.
Viola! Enjoy adding notes into your Word documents:-)
Short Stories
Recently, I’ve been writing more short works. Fanstory has helped me write more because of the daily prompts and contests.
I personally really like short stories. They are good practice for novelists, because a short story is built similarly to a novel. I’ve also used a short story to ‘get to know’ my character if I don’t have a clear idea of how they should be. Short stories also make great blog posts, and if they are long enough, they can be a part 1, part 2, which creates suspense for your followers. I found a blog post that works you through the steps of writing a short story, all the way from inspiration to the rough draft.
The author, Paul Alan Fahey, is an accomplished writer and has published several short stories and novellas.
This post was so helpful for me, and I now better understand how to create a short story. I hope to write a short story soon and post it on this blog.
Flashbacks in your Writing
Flashbacks can be a valuable technique in writing, if placed strategically. I’ve found that books without them typically have less depth and are less interesting. The Divergent series is an example of this. These books don’t have flashbacks and I thought the characters were not very developed as they could have been. I’m currently reading a book that has many flashbacks and the characters are more human and I am able to understand their motives better.
Here are some benefits of having flashbacks in your writing:
- Helps your readers sympathize with your character more.
- A flashback can be gripping way to show some life-changing event in your character’s life.
- Can show readers what formed your character and why he believes what he does.
- Can help the reader understand the current conflict better.
When not to add a flashback:
- If the flashback doesn’t add anything interesting to the story.
- The event in the flashback wasn’t significant or life-changing.
- If the flashback doesn’t strengthen the current conflict.
Do you like using flashbacks in your writing?
Great Writing Resource
I recently found a really great writing resource. It’s called Fanstory.
Fanstory is a website that lets you publish your work and get feedback from other writers (varying in skill level) on how to improve your writing. They also offer daily contests that you can win either member money (you can promote your writing and join more contests with member money) or real money, depending on the contest.
I’ve had an account on Fanstory for about two weeks and it has been such a blessing. I have a problem with procrastinating and the time sensitive contests force me to get writing;-) The solid feedback has been so helpful as well. So far, I’ve won two contests.
I’d suggest Fanstory to anyone who wants to improve their writing skills. If you decide to buy a membership with Fanstory, I’d love if you did it here, or by clicking the Fanstory widget on my blog’s sidebar . For every member who joins because of my link, I’ll get 1o member dollars on my account:-)
Happy writing!
Twitter Fiction Contest
There is going to be a Twitter Fiction contest from March 12-16 2014. During these days, you tell any kind of short story through a series of tweets.
Submit your story idea here by February 6. After you sign up, the judges will pick the story ideas that they are interested in and if you are picked, you’re in the contest. But, you can still write a story during the contest, even if your story idea wasn’t picked, but it won’t be judged by the judges.
I think this is such a cool, unique way to tell a story. Diversity in writing is such a skill for a writer to master and I think this is a good way to practice. I’ll be sure to let you know if my story idea is picked!
Flowering Keyboard 