The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 14: Getting Emotional

I'm betting your story is off to a good start by now; the plot is rolling along, the setting is coming to life, and your characters sparkle like the unique snowflakes they are. But you feel like there's something missing. The story feels clinical, lifeless. So, what's wrong?

It might be that your story is missing a heart. The bad news: even the coolest concept and the wildest, most original plot twists won't make up for this lack. The good news: you can totally fix it. Writing character emotion is hard, especially if you're a beginner, but like most things, it gets easier with practice. For me, it still takes a few drafts to get it right.

So how do you find your story's heart?

It's usually pretty obvious once you start looking. Your main character is a good place to start. What's at stake for her? Are the stakes personal enough? Say the fate of the world is at stake in your story. Pretty massive stakes, right? Well, that's fine, plot-wise, but that's not where the story's heart is: it should be something that has to do with relationships between characters, like maybe the loss of a loved one, dealing with pregnancy, getting revenge, losing one's job, something relatable. Big emotions like love and hate are great for powering a story. Odds are that the story's emotional core is closely related to your message or theme or the argument the story is trying to make. If you know one of these you're off to a good start. 

Sometimes the problem isn't a lack of heart but the way you're (not) conveying it. Does it feel like you're holding the reader at arm's length? The deep point of view technique can be helpful here (More on that later), and sometimes just adding more internal monologue and tapping into the character's stream of consciousness fixes the issue.

But what if you notice that your character is actually pretty bland and is just wandering through the story world so you can showcase your cool ideas? Well, you might consider going back to the drawing board with the character and giving her a secret or a handicap. What's her greatest fear? Can you adjust the story so that she has to face it? Make sure the stakes are big enough and that the decisions the character must make are truly hard, almost impossible. There must be consequences, painful ones; if they aren't devastating, you're not thinking big enough.

Once you discover the story's heart, think of ways to showcase it on a metaphorical level. Maybe tinkering with the setting, adding a recurring simile, or a subtle use of mood and theme could work?

Readers love character emotion. Even if the story doesn't have much else going for it, realistic portrayal of character emotion can make it successful. Why do you think people buy those dollar store romances? We're naturally interested in relationships, and having the protagonist get the girl (or guy) gives us a thrill and a certain feeling of satisfaction on an emotional level. Think of a book you really loved. It probably resonates with you, emotionally speaking.

Find your story's emotional core and remember, it's never too late for a heart transplant.

Oh, and don't forget to do your 350 words today. Once more, with feeling!

  

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 13: Speaking Metaphorically

Let's get a few definitions out of the way: a simile compares one thing with something different (usually has the word "like" or "as" in it), while a metaphor is a direct comparison that isn't true on a literal level. So "the clouds hung low over the school, like dirty cotton balls in Masie's mop bucket" would be a simile, "the dirty cotton-ball clouds" would be a metaphor.

Similes and metaphors are a way to play with language and make your voice stand out; you just have to come up with your own. When we think of a way to describe something, the first thing that comes to mind is the same old thing that we've heard over and over again, maybe "strong as an ox," or "lightning fast." Those aren't bad, but they're not exactly original. Well, how to be original, then?

• Come up with your own. There is a trick to this, though: you have to have a certain sensitivity to what works. You can't compare things that are too similar (the cat was as soft as a kitten) or things that are too different (the cat howled like a dishwasher). The things have to make sense on some level, as in if you use a word for sound, then the comparison should fit that. The dishwasher thing fails on that level too, as the sound a dishwasher makes could maybe be described more accurately as a hum or a sloshing sound, maybe). Unexpected comparisons are great and make the best metaphors, but they have to make sense on some level. You can experiment with this, though. Think about what the reader expects and play around with some other options.
• Twist a worn metaphor or simile to make it your own. "Strong as an ox" might become "strong as a pitbull on steroids," maybe.
• Synesthesia is also a great way to come up with interesting stuff. It means using a different sensation to describe something else, like tasting a colour or hearing a sensation. "A burnt-velvet whisper," or "the cool, green tang of lime," for example. 

Don't overdo it, though, or your prose might begin to sound unintentionally comical. For a fantastic book on the subject, check out Word Painting by Rebecca McCalahan.

Bonus: It's not really a metaphor or a simile, but zeugma is a useful instrument to have in your toolbox of descriptive writing. It means using one word to modify two others in a different way, like "She lost her watch, then her temper."

In todays 350 words, try to include one original metaphor or simile and use zeugma at least once.
 

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 12: The Dialogue Dilemma

So, now that you've written a few hundred words, chances are that you'll have some dialogue in there already. Bad dialogue can make the reader groan and stop reading, while well-crafted dialogue zips by and manages to convey information, build character, and entertain all at once. But how to manage that? Here are a few things to consider:

• Do all your characters sound the same (like you)? Is there a way to make them sound more individualised? Think pet phrases, accents, slang, and, most importantly, what they say and how they say it. Let their personalities show. If you cover up the dialogue tags, can you tell who's speaking? That's what we're aiming for.
• Speaking of accents, don't overdue it. Accents and dialects written phonetically are a pain to read, in my opinion. Less is usually more.
• Is the dialogue too "on the nose"? Is there a way to make it more subtle. Characters don't have to give straight answers to direct questions, in fact it's usually better for the story if they don't.
• Dialogue is a good way to convey exposition, but you have to be subtle with it. You can have  one character explain how something works to another, but the other character shouldn't know that information beforehand, otherwise you've got an "As you know, Bob" type of situation. (As an aside, I kind of love Jim Butcher for thumbing his nose at the whole AYKB thing by inserting a "talking head" Bob the Skull into his story. Bob is an ancient spirit who knows a lot of stuff that he's always discussing with Dresden, but it never feels like clumsy exposition.)
• Is the dialogue consistent with your time period? Are you using words that feel too modern, for example? But don't take it too far in the other direction, either. Reading real 1600s dialogue would be really annoying and confusing.
• Have you taken the character's age into account? Kids are really tricky to write, at least for me.
• Sometimes what's not being said is the most important part. What can be read between the lines? (Subtext, baby!)
• Sometimes your characters just want to talk and talk and talk. That's fine, but maybe cut the three pages of discussion about what to have for breakfast before submitting the piece?
• Writers are always saying that dialogue should sound realistic. Note: realistic doesn't mean real. You can cut all the ohs and umms and get right to the point. For great dialogue, check out Gilmore Girls. Nobody's actually that witty in real life, but the dialogue flows effortlessly, and it's usually doing at least three things at once.

Okay, that's all for today. If you have more tips to share, do post them in the comments, and that goes for all the posts in this series, of course.

Now go do your 350 words (of dialogue)!

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 11: An Awesome Opening

Yay, it's finally time to start writing! As we're aiming for 3,000 - 5,000 words, about 350 words per day should do it. Have trouble getting started? Set an egg timer for thirty minutes and just start writing. You'll probably end up with more words that that, easy, especially if you're writing in English. (Finnish is a lot harder, no articles or prepositions to beef up the word count.)

You can start anywhere in the story, but I tend to start at the beginning. Your opening is maybe the single most important bit of the story, because you need to hook the reader so she'll bother reading the rest of it. Here are a few things to think about before you start writing:

• Are you starting at the beginning? As in where the story begins, not with what your main character had or breakfast or something like that?
• Are you opening with action?
• Is your first line interesting, surprising, and original?
• Do you introduce your protagonist in the first paragraph, or even better, the first sentence?
• What about the main conflict, you should probably get to it as soon as possible?
• Does your first scene contain at least one hook, preferably several?

Okay, that's pretty much it. Ready, set, Write!

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 10: A Matter of Style

Okay, so tomorrow we'll start writing, but first, a few words about style. You have a voice of your own of course, all writers do, but have you thought about the fact that you actually use several writing styles? At least for me, my style changes to accommodate the story I'm writing: prose poem stylings won't do for a sci-fi adventure, and plain but functional prose might be frowned upon in a literary piece. The story should of course still sound like you, but just the version of you that fits this particular story.

So, take a moment to think about your story. Is there something you need to take into account, style-wise? As we discussed yesterday, point of view is a part of this process as well, especially for a first person narrative when you're filtering the story through the mind of a character.

Genre also presents some restrictions. You don't want your Gothic romance to sound too modern or your cutting edge cyberpunk tale to sound twee, and having your teenage protagonist sound like a sixty-year-old curmudgeon probably won't work too well. And who is your target reader? Will he be able to handle all those big words you're throwing his way?

This is also a good time to take note of any personal stumbling stones that tend to crop up in any story you write. Do you use too much passive voice? Do you have a tendency to keep the reader at an arm's length with unnecessary sense words (we'll talk about this more when we discuss writing deep point of view)? Are you sensitive to flow, or does your prose get clunky or overly complicated if you're not paying attention? Do you easily slip into clichés instead of coming up with your own metaphors? Are you overly fond of the word "obsidian"? (Yep, most of these are or have been mine at some point.) You can fix all this when editing, but it can save you a bit of work if you keep it in mind while writing and try to avoid going there in the first place.

You're writing the story first and foremost for you, for your own pleasure, but if somebody else reads it, you don't want your style to mess with the reading experience but rather to enhance it. (Unless you're James Joyce. I'm pretty sure he took a perverse pleasure in messing with people's heads.)

So, show us your style!

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 9: Points of View

You're pretty much set to start writing your story now, but there's still an important decision to make: which point of view are you going to pick?

You can't go wrong with third person limited (he/she). It's probably the most popular choice. It gives you the intimacy of getting in the protagonist's head, but still retains a bit of distance. You can get away with a bit more regarding the character's voice with third person than with first person, and the majority of books are written in third person, so it might feel familiar and easy to write. To avoid head-hopping, third person limited is probably a better choice than third person omniscient, though it might feel familiar from a lot of classics and children's books. It's tricky to do well, though. If you have a very strong voice as a writer, the best way to showcase it might be third person omniscient, where you're acting as a kind of narrator to the story.

The other mainstream option would be first person (I), which has the advantage of being easier for some writers, because you're automatically in one person's head and point of view and it's easier to convey that person's thoughts and feelings when you're writing first person. The tricky part is that character voice matters a lot more in first person narratives, and it's easy to slip up if the character voice is very different from your own.

Second person (you) . . . Well, go there at your own peril. Not the easiest sell, and tends to annoy readers and editors alike.

Once you've settled on a point of view, you also need to pick a tense, past or present. Past tense is the more common of the two, but present tense can go well with first person narratives.

Not sure which point of view to pick? Do a practice run. You can always change it later.

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 8: Do Your Research

So, you've got your characters, a rough outline of the character arcs and story structure, and maybe an idea of the story title and theme. It's almost time to start writing, but do you know enough about the subject matter to write the story?

Check your outline. You're doing a short story, so you don't really want to spend weeks and weeks on research. To avoid wasting time, come up with specific questions that you need answered. Do you need to research the protagonist's profession? Maybe she does a specific operation that you need to know more about, or if you're writing science fiction, you might need too brush up on how black holes work, for example. Time to hit Google, or maybe the local library. Or, if you're writing about lion tamers and you happen to know somebody who happens to be a lion tamer, go pick their brain, maybe even ask them to read the finished story later if they're willing. (Be sure to follow this up with cake or pie or maybe some movie tickets unless they're your critique partner and you can pay them in kind.)

Sometimes you can't find the info you need. It might be easier to circumvent the problem by changing the story, if the issue is a minor detail. Think about your options, just don't get stuck. If an issue comes up while writing, just make a note and keep going so you don't lose momentum. Much easier to figure out that detail later.

While doing research, pay attention to interesting details and anecdotes. Those help make your story feel more real and unique.

If you're writing a period piece or setting your story in a foreign country, don't forget to research the language stuff. You don't want your 16th century knight to talk like a modern emo kid, now do you?

Museums are pretty great for research, too. Many have informative websites that you can browse even if you can't manage a visit.

And above all, have fun!

Previous posts:

Day 1: The Big Idea
Day 2: Cool Characters

Day 3: Plot Play

Day 4: A Stunning Setting

Day 5: Structural Integrity

Day 6: Arc-ane Knowledge

Day 7: Thinking Thematically