The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 17: Feeling Conflicted

You're probably getting close to the midpoint of your story, congratulations! This might be a good time to go over what you've got so far and think a bit about conflict. Every story needs conflict, be it external or internal, preferably both. Here are a few things to consider:

• Do you have your main conflict figured out? Is it powerful enough? How does the main character resolve it? Is the solution interesting and unexpected?
• What about internal conflict? Does it work with the story's external conflict on a thematic level? Is resolving the protagonist's internal conflict key in solving the external conflict?
• Are your scenes structured properly? Scene is composed of goal->conflict->disaster, the following sequel of reaction->dilemma->decision. Basically this is all about action->reaction. Watch out for displaying the reaction before the action that causes it, both on a micro (sentence) and the macro (scene) level. Here's K. M. Weiland's excellent post about scene structure if you want to read more
• Is your protagonist getting off too easy, just sailing through the story and clearing every obstacle with ease? You probably need more disasters. Basically, nothing should go smoothly for the poor protagonist: even if she by some miracle accomplishes her scene goal, she should be in more trouble because of it (the yes, but -approach)
• Is there a personal, emotional component to the conflict? Maybe add one?
• Think about the story's climax: in what order will the conflicts be resolved? Are you going from minor to major and impersonal to personal?

In today's 350 words, write a scene that's structured properly and enjoy the results.

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 16: Beware Captain Obvious

Ahh, Captain Obvious, he's ruined countless perfectly fine stories with his annoying, rub-your-face-in-it ways. The stories he's touched have that same issue: a lack of subtlety. (You can have the opposite problem also, but that's not as common.)

And how to spot if Captain Obvious has visited your story?

The worst part is that we writers tend to be blind to this in our own work, so that's another good reason to have a beta-reader or a critique partner read your stuff. There are some tell-tale signs, though: on-the-nose dialogue, overly insightful characters, wordy description that leaves nothing to the imagination, repetition of information, and stating the story's message outright multiple times so the reader can't possibly miss it.

And how to fix it?

A lot of information is clear from context, and readers actually like filling in the blanks with description: don't waste valuable word count on obvious, banal description, but pick a few interesting, original, and meaningful details to show. The reader will fill in the rest. Regarding your message or theme, it's most powerful when it remains unsaid. Don't make your subtext a text, let it your characters make your point for you, and don't forget to balance it with an opposing view.

Subtlety is always better, in my opinion, and that goes for backstory, too. Give the reader only what she absolutely needs to know. Beware long paragraphs of exposition and pointless flashbacks, especially at the beginning of your story. Odds are that the reader doesn't care about what happened to your protag's dog when she was five, at least in the first scene. If the dog's fate figures in the story and you absolutely need to show it to the reader, leave the flashback until later, when the reader has gotten to know your character and is invested in her fate.

Talking about exposition, have you met Captain Obvious' annoying cousin, Bob? Full name: As You Know, Bob. Where there's exposition, there's Bob, ready and willing to discuss info he and the other character already know for the reader's benefit. Again, subtlety goes out the window. There are other ways to insert the information into the story. Drop a chunk here, a tidbit there. Filter the info through character, use internal monologue, etc. Dialogue is fine, too, as long as it doesn't slip into a science lecture. It's also a good idea to think about how much the reader needs to know. Is all that information necessary?

Today, go over your story for these issues and give Bob and the Captain the boot. It'll be worth the extra work, I promise.

The Write-A-Story Calendar Day 15: The Deep End

Today I thought we'd discuss writing deep point of view. For me, understanding this technique was a real game-changer. I've always had trouble with conveying character emotion, and this really helped. 

So what is deep point of view?

Basically it means writing in a way that the reader can really get it the character's head and feels like she's living the story, not reading it. 

To achieve this effect, the idea is to pay attention to distancing words and to eliminate them entirely. These include:

• Sense words like "saw," "felt," "heard," etc. Simply state the sensation, or see if you can rephrase the sentence.
• "thought"  or "wondered"

Here are a few more tips:

• Avoid passive voice
• Stick to the limits of the character's POV, so no head-hopping or omniscient POV
• Utilize internal monologue and try the stream-of-consciousness technique
• Remember to show, not tell
• Keep the character's voice consistent in internal monologue also
• Filter description through character observation and emotion

You can find a lot of resources about the technique online, but a book that helped me understand this was Rayne Hall's Writing Deep Point of View, if you want to check it out.

Today might be a good day to skip writing your 350 words and to go over your story and eliminate  most of these distancing words. Is there anything else you can do to achieve a deeper point of view? Does it work for your story?

  

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!