Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.



 
PortalHomeGallerySearchLatest imagesRegisterLog in
Log in
Username:
Password:
Log in automatically: 
:: I forgot my password
Poll
Is the phrase "Once upon a time..."
Overused
Articles on Writing! Empty33%Articles on Writing! Empty
 33% [ 1 ]
Underused
Articles on Writing! Empty67%Articles on Writing! Empty
 67% [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 3
Monthly Writing Prompt
For this month's writing prompt write a scene using the following sentence to start;

The streets were deserted. Where was everyone? Where had they all gone?

Writing Tip
Our monthly writing tips are written by our very own TerishD. You can read more in Terish's Blog located in "The Abstractions" area of the forum.

Look Back

When not able to write ahead, it helps to look back. In my case I had written a paragraph ahead of the story. What I needed to do was add a section of exposition (talking) presenting some facts. In going back, I realized that I could insert a section where a 'tour' of the surroundings could be done. This allowed for character interaction, story development, and other things that enabled me to present the facts in an entertaining manner.

One should not face a writer's block with the mentality of bursting through it. I have found in my own experience that a writer's block is usually due to my mind indicating that it has a problem in 'channeling' the story. One reason might be a re-imagining of certain story points. Another reason however is that there is a problem in where you are at in the story, so you need to look back and find out the problem with the 'journey' that prevents the tale from advancing.

Latest topics
» Abduction to Elfland: Part 4 (19)
Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeAugust 14th 2020, 6:22 am by TerishD

» Abduction to Elfland: Part 3 (13-18)
Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeAugust 9th 2020, 6:41 am by TerishD

» Abduction to Elfland: Part 2 (7-12)
Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeJuly 10th 2020, 6:30 am by TerishD

» Abduction to Elfland: Part 1 (1-6)
Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeJune 10th 2020, 6:33 am by TerishD

» To Know Sweet and Sour - Part Seven (35 - Epi)
Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 11th 2020, 6:38 am by TerishD

Top posters
oskar (2320)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
TerishD (1441)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
HYdraMStar (1170)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
Kellycakes (1136)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
Snacker (818)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
Urs (569)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
fleamailman (400)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
Leaka (334)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
JuJu (287)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 
alexandra (198)
Articles on Writing! EmptyArticles on Writing! Voting_bar2Articles on Writing! Empty 

 

 Articles on Writing!

Go down 
2 posters
AuthorMessage
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 5th 2012, 11:58 pm

I love, love, love reading, and reading articles about writing only comes in second to writing. So I wanted to start a thread where I can share with you some of the more interesting articles I've read.

This should be fun, feel free to offer your opinion on any of them. I did not write them. I have written a few but hold no authority on the craft of writing. Much respect to those who do!
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 6th 2012, 12:00 am

As a novelist and writing instructor, I’ve noticed that three of the most vital aspects of story craft are left out of many writing books and workshops. Even bestselling novelists stumble over them.

But they’re not difficult to grasp. In fact, they’re easy.

And if you master these simple principles for shaping great stories, your writing will be transformed forever. Honest. Here’s how to do it.

Secret #1:
CAUSE AND EFFECT ARE KING.

Everything in a story must be caused by the action or event that precedes it.

Now, this sounds like an almost embarrassingly obvious observation, and when I mention it in my writing seminars I don’t often see people furiously taking notes, muttering, “Man, are you getting this stuff? This is amazing!” But humor me for a few minutes. Because you might be surprised by how more careful attention to causation will improve your writing.

As a fiction writer, you want your reader to always be emotionally present in the story. But when readers are forced to guess why something happened (or didn’t happen), even for just a split second, it causes them to intellectually disengage and distances them from the story. Rather than remaining present alongside the characters, they’ll begin to analyze or question the progression of the plot. And you definitely don’t want that.

When a reader tells you that he couldn’t put a book down, often it’s because everything in the story followed logically. Stories that move forward naturally, cause to effect, keep the reader engrossed and flipping pages. If you fail to do this, it can confuse readers, kill the pace and telegraph your weaknesses as a writer.

Let’s say you’re writing a thriller and the protagonist is at home alone. You might write:

With trembling fingers she locked the door. She knew the killer was on the other side.

But, no. You wouldn’t write it like that.

Because if you did, you would fracture, just for a moment, the reader’s emotional engagement with the story as he wonders, Why did she reach out and lock the door? Then he reads on. Oh, I get it, the killer is on the other side.

If you find that one sentence is serving to explain what happened in the sentence that preceded it, you can usually improve the writing by reversing the order so that you render rather than explain the action.

It’s stronger to write the scene like this:
The killer was on the other side of the door. She reached out with a trembling hand to lock it.

Cause: The killer is on the other side of the door.
Effect: She locks it.

Think about it this way: If you’ve written a scene in which you could theoretically connect the events with the word “because,” then you can typically improve the scene by structuring it so that you could instead connect the events with the word “so.”

Take the example about the woman being chased by the killer:
She locked the door because she knew the killer was on the other side.

If written in this order, the sentence moves from effect to cause. However:
She knew the killer was on the other side of the door, so she locked it.

Here, the stimulus leads naturally to her response.

Of course, most of the time we leave out the words because and so, and these are very simplified examples—but you get the idea.

Remember in rendering more complex scenes that realizations and discoveries happen after actions, not before them. Rather than telling us what a character realizes and then telling us why she realizes it—as in, “She finally understood who the killer was when she read the letter”—write it this way: “When she read the letter, she finally understood who the killer was.” Always build on what has been said or done, rather than laying the foundation after the idea is built. Continually move the story forward, rather than forcing yourself to flip backward to give the reason something occurred.

One last example:
Greg sat bored in the writer’s workshop. He began to doodle. He’d heard all this stuff before. Suddenly he gulped and stared around the room, embarrassed, when the teacher called on him to explain cause and effect structure.

This paragraph is a mess. As it stands, at least seven events occur, and none are in their logical order. Here is the order in which they actually happened:

1. Greg sits in the workshop.
2. He realizes he’s heard all this before.
3. Boredom ensues.
4. Doodling ensues.
5. Greg gets called on.
6. Embarrassment ensues.
7. He gulps and stares around the room

Each event causes the one that follows it.

Your writing will be more effective if you show us what’s happening as it happens rather than explain to us what just happened.

With all of that said, there are three exceptions, three times when you can move from effect to cause without shattering the spell of your story.

First, in chapter or section breaks. For example, you might begin a section by writing:
“How could you do this to me?” she screamed.

Immediately, the reader will be curious who is screaming, at whom she is screaming, and why. This would make a good hook, so it’s fine (good, even!) to start that way. If this same sentence appeared in the middle of a scene in progress, though, it would be wiser to move from cause to effect:
He told her he was in love with another woman.
“How could you do this to me?” she screamed.
The second exception is when one action causes two or more simultaneous reactions. In the paragraph about Greg, he gulps and looks around the room. Because his embarrassment causes him to respond by both gulping and looking around, the order in which you tell the reader he did them could go either way.

And the final exception is when you write a scene in which your character shows his prowess by deducing something the reader hasn’t yet concluded. Think of Sherlock Holmes staring at the back of an envelope, cleaning out the drainpipe and then brushing off a nearby stick of wood and announcing that he’s solved the case. The reader is saying, “Huh? How did he do that?” Our curiosity is sparked, and later when he explains his deductive process, we see that everything followed logically from the preceding events.

Secret #2:
IF IT’S NOT BELIEVABLE, IT DOESN’T BELONG.

The narrative world is also shattered when an action, even if it’s impossible, becomes unbelievable.

In writing circles it’s common to speak about the suspension of disbelief, but that phrase bothers me because it seems to imply that the reader approaches the story wanting to disbelieve and that she needs to somehow set that attitude aside in order to engage with the story. But precisely the opposite is true. Readers approach stories wanting to believe them. Readers have both the intention and desire to enter a story in which everything that happens, within the narrative world that governs that story, is believable. As writers, then, our goal isn’t to convince the reader to suspend her disbelief, but rather to give her what she wants by continually sustaining her belief in the story.

The distinction isn’t just a matter of semantics; it’s a matter of understanding the mindset and expectations of your readers. Readers want to immerse themselves in deep belief. We need to respect them enough to keep that belief alive throughout the story.

Let’s say you create a world in which gravity doesn’t exist. OK, if you bring the world to life on the page and through your characters, the reader will accept that—but now she’ll want you to be consistent. As soon as someone’s hair doesn’t float above or around her head, or someone is able to drink a cup of coffee without the liquid floating away, the consistency of that world is shattered. The reader will begin to either lose interest and eventually stop reading, or will disengage from the story and begin to look for more inconsistencies—neither of which you want her to do.

All else being equal, as soon as readers stop believing your story, they’ll stop caring about your story. And readers stop believing stories when characters act inexplicably.

When I’m shaping a story, I continually ask myself, “What would this character naturally do in this situation?”

And then I let him do it.

Always.

Why?

Because the reader, whether he’s conscious of it or not, is asking the same question: “What would this character naturally do?”

As soon as characters act in ways that aren’t believable, either in reference to their characterizations or to the story’s progression, the reader loses faith in the writer’s ability to tell that story.

In a scene in my first novel, The Pawn, my protagonist is interviewing the governor of North Carolina, and the governor is responding oddly. Now, if my hero, who’s supposed to be one of the best investigators in the world, doesn’t notice and respond to the governor’s inexplicable behavior, the reader will be thinking, What’s wrong with this Bowers guy? There’s obviously something strange going on here. Why doesn’t he notice? He’s a moron.

So, I had Bowers think, Something wasn’t clicking. Something wasn’t right.

Then the reader will agree, Ah, good! I thought so. OK, now let’s find out what’s going on here. Rather than drive the reader away from identifying with the protagonist, this was a way of drawing the reader deeper into the story.

So when something that’s unbelievable or odd happens, don’t be afraid to let your character notice and respond: “I never expected her to say that,” “What? That just doesn’t make sense,” or, “Obviously there’s more going on here than I thought when I first found the necklace.”

If a character acts in an unbelievable way, you’ll need to give the reader a reason why—and it’d better be a good one. Remember: Always give the reader what he wants, or something better. If you don’t give the reader what he wants (believability), you must satisfy him with a twist or a moment of story escalation that satisfies him more than he ever expected.

Secret #3:
IT’S ALL ABOUT ESCALATION.

At the heart of story is tension, and at the heart of tension is unmet desire. At its core, a story is about a character who wants something but cannot get it. As soon as he gets it, the story is over. So, when you resolve a problem, it must always be within the context of an even greater plot escalation.

As part of the novel-writing intensives that I teach, I review and critique participants’ manuscripts. Often I find that aspiring authors have listened to the advice of so many writing books and included an engaging “hook” at the beginning of their story. This is usually a good idea; however, all too often the writer is then forced to spend the following pages dumping in background to explain the context of the hook.

Not a good idea.

Because you’ve killed escalation.

This is also why dream sequences typically don’t work—the protagonist thinks she’s in a terrible mess, then wakes up and realizes none of it was real.

So, things weren’t really that bad after all.

That’s the opposite of escalation—and the death of the forward movement of the story.

Tension drives a story forward. When tension is resolved, the momentum of the story is lost. I’ve heard writing instructors differentiate between “character-driven” and “plot-driven” stories, but the truth is that neither character nor plot really drives a story forward—only unmet desire does.

You might include page after page of interesting information about your character, but that won’t move the story along; it’ll cause it to stall out. Until we know what the character wants, we don’t know what the story is about, and we won’t be able to worry or care about whether or not the character’s desires are eventually met.

Somewhat similarly, plot is simply the casually related series of events that the character experiences as he moves through a crisis or calling into a changed or transformed life. So you might include chase scene after chase scene, but eventually the reader couldn’t care less that one car is following another down the street. Until we know what the stakes are, we don’t care. A story isn’t driven forward by events happening, but by tension escalating.

All stories are “tension-driven” stories.

Now, to create depth in your characters, typically you’ll have two struggles that play off each other to deepen the tension of the story. The character’s external struggle is a problem that needs to be solved; her internal struggle is a question that needs to be answered. The interplay of these two struggles is complementary until, at the climax, the resolution of one gives the protagonist the skills, insights or wherewithal to resolve the other.

To some extent the genre in which you write will have expectations and conventions that’ll dictate the precedence of the internal or external struggle in your story. However, readers today are very astute and narratively aware. If you intend to write commercially marketable fiction, you’ll need to include both an internal struggle that helps us empathize with the protagonist, and an external struggle that helps drive the movement of the story toward its exciting climax.

So, as you shape your novel, ask yourself, “How can I make things worse?” Always look for ways to drive the protagonist deeper and deeper into an impossible situation (emotionally, physically or relationally) that you then eventually resolve in a way that is both surprising and satisfying to the reader.

The story needs to progress toward more and more conflict, with more intimate struggles and deeper tension.

The plot must always thicken; it must never thin. Because of that, repetition is the enemy of escalation. Every murder you include decreases the impact that each subsequent murder will have on the reader. Every explosion, prayer, conversion, sex scene means less and less to the reader, simply because repetition, by its very nature, serves to work against that escalation your story so desperately needs.

Strive, instead, to continually make things worse for the protagonist. In doing so, you’ll make them better and better for the reader.

All three of these storytelling secrets are interwoven. When every event is naturally caused by the one that precedes it, the story makes sense. As characters act in ways that are credible and convincing in the quest for their goals, the story remains believable, and the deepening tension and struggles keep the reader caring about what’s happening as well as interested in what’s going to happen next.

By consistently driving your story forward through action that follows naturally, characters who act believably, and tension that mounts exponentially, you’ll keep readers flipping pages and panting for more of your work.


(Written by Steven James)
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 6th 2012, 12:09 am

Now I woke up this morning to my husband watching a Christmas movie, yes a freaking Christmas movie. When I asked him why he was watching a Christmas movie he replied; "it was on". Touche' Anyway I thought about this article that I read and wanted to share it with you. Although I encourage writing exercises and I believe these are nice ideas but that is not the point. My gripe is that these exercises should be put into play all the time. This is how we learn people. We need to practice, that means writing everyday. That means if an idea comes to you while your are walking down the street. Stop, grab your pen --if you are a writer you will always have a writing instrument -- and jot it down. It's that simple. We are all busy people, some of us more than others, but we have to hone our craft in order to excel in it.


My kids and I like to sing the “12 Days of Christmas” throughout the month of December. This got me thinking: What if instead of getting lousy gifts like lords a-leaping or calling birds (colly birds if you’re English), you received useful gifts like books on writing or a check for a million dollars. While I can’t offer a million dollars, I do have something I can offer to help keep you writing during the time-crunched holiday season: a 12-day plan of simple writing exercises to help you keep your creative juices flowing. Without further ado:

The 12-Day Plan of Simple Writing Exercises

Day 1:
Write 10 potential book titles of books you’d like to write.

Day 2:
Create a character with personality traits of someone you love, but the physical characteristics of someone you don’t care for.

Day 3:
Write a setting based on the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen.

Day 4:
Write a letter to an agent telling her how wonderful you are.

Day 5:
Write a 20-line poem about a memorable moment in your life.

Day 6:
Select a book on your shelf and pick two chapters at random. Take the first line of one chapter and the last line of the other chapter and write a short story (no more than 1000 words) using those as bookends to your story.

Day 7:
Write a letter to yourself telling you what you need to improve in the coming 6 months.

Day 8:
Rewrite a fairy tale from the bad guy’s point of view.

Day 9:
Turn on your TV. Write down the first line that you hear and write a story based on it.

Day 10:
Go sit in a public place and eavesdrop on a conversation. Turn what you hear into a short love story (no matter how much you have to twist what they say).

Day 11:
Write the acknowledgments page that will be placed in your first (next?) published book, thanking all the people who have helped you along the way.

Day 12:
Gather everything you’ve written over the previous 11 days. Pick your favorite. Edit it, polish it and either try to get it published or post it on the Web to share with the world. Be proud of yourself and your work.

(Written by Brian A. Klems)
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 6th 2012, 12:13 am

I might have share this particular article here before. I am too lazy to go and look for it, but it is one of my all time favorites. A general list of what I believe to be good advice.

In a thought-provoking ThrillerFest panel, four popular authors shared what they believe to be the deadly sins of the writing craft. Here are seven of their offerings. Have you committed any of them?

1. Laziness
(David Hewson, author of the Nic Costa series)
Intellectual laziness is something all writers are prone to: as in writing the same type of book, and doing it annually. “I think you really have to fight against laziness and constantly keep challenging yourself.” Like great art, books aren’t ever finished—they’re abandoned. (In other words, don’t just finish writing your first draft and call it a day.)

2. Trying to be a good student
(Lisa Gardner, author of The Killing Hour)
Gardner said it’s a thrill to rope a lot of cool forensic facts in the research process. But the danger is in going home and regurgitating all of them in your novel—“When really thrillers are all about entertaining. …” Keep that story moving forward.

3. Marching down the outline
(John Sandford, author of Buried Prey)
This occurs when you sit down to write and follow your outline exactly. Sandford said some people use an outline like a frame, and merely embroider within it. Outlining is fine, but sticking too closely to it can stifle your story. “If you do outline, you have to be aware of the problems that that kind of thing can cause.”

4. Denying jealousy
(M.J. Rose, author of The Hypnotist)
“I try to not allow myself to be jealous of other writers and the books they’ve written,” Rose said—but in fact, she believes it’s a good thing to let some of that jealousy seep through. So don’t bottle it up. “I think it’s really healthy to let yourself have the full range of emotions.”

5. Focusing too heavily on the business
(Sandford)
One of Sandford’s friends obsesses over the business end of writing—his friend writes a book, and then gets lost in all of the trappings of business and promotion … “to the exclusion of actually writing novels.”

6. Not reading books
(Rose)
Reading is essential for writers. Rose cited a study that said that 23 percent of people in the United States want to be writers. If all of them read 10 books a year, Rose said, “We’d all be doing a lot better.”

7. Imitation
(Hewson)
There is a difference between imitating a book, and being influenced by a book. Hewson added that it’s valuable to figure out why you think certain things work in the books you read, and why others don’t.


(Put together by Brian A. Klems, written by a bunch of people. HA!)
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 6th 2012, 12:17 am

Here's an article on Chapter Ending. This particular article takes me back to the basics of sentence writing, learning it that is. When I was taught how to structure a sentence and then put those sentences together to create a story I was completely amazed!! This is the point where it all started for me.

Enjoy the article..


At some point in writing your novel, you have to start thinking about “chaptering,” the process of deciding exactly when and where your chapter breaks will go.

This is one issue for which you should not turn to the classics for help. In the days of Dickens and Tolstoy, the first few pages of each chapter served to get the reader ready for the events to come. Have you ever been to an elaborate theatrical production during which the curtain remains up through intermissions so you can see the workers shifting and turning the huge sets on their groaning sleds and rollers? That’s what I’m reminded of when I start a chapter by Melville or Hugo. Nowadays readers have less patience, and the novelistic curtain stays down during intermission as the reader leaps from chapter to chapter without being aware of all the whirring gears and pulleys we have so adroitly hidden from view. Or so we hope.

Thoughtful chaptering is more important than ever. By starting and ending in the right places, your chapter breaks alone can serve the powerful function of building suspense and keeping your readers reading. Unlike sentences or paragraphs, which have rules, chapters are artistic decisions; there are no rules. Here are three simple, essential techniques that can help you make effective chapter pauses.

1. FOCUS ON THE WRITING FIRST.
In deciding where to insert their breaks, some writers make chaptering part of their initial outline, but I find this method constrictive. In my experience, the most effective chapter breaks are born by writing first, and evaluating the structure second.

Try this: When you begin working on your book, structure your outline by episodes and events, not chapters. Only as you begin actually writing the novel should you give any thought to the chapter structure. When you come to a point that jumps out at you as a possible good place for a break, put in a “#” as a spacer and move along. When the draft is done, use your word processor’s Find function to go through them all, deciding which ones (usually 20 or 25) make the best chapter breaks. Most of the rest can remain as scene breaks, or be replaced with a transitional paragraph or two. This technique has worked for me going on 30 years.

Of course, there are two more specific areas in the writing process that make chapter breaks both obvious and organic …

2. BREAK CHAPTERS WHEN YOUR STORY REQUIRES A SHIFT.
Changes of place, changes of time and changes of point of view are all excellent places for chapter breaks. Sometimes, our stories necessitate them. For example:
END OF ONE CHAPTER:
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, took one last squinting look up at the flat, brassy African sky and straightened his limp, damp jacket as well as he could. “We’re done here,” he told Howard. “Let’s get to the airport.”BEGINNING OF NEXT CHAPTER:
Maine. Cool, misty, green. A pewter-colored sky …


A chapter break like this underscores the fact that there’s been a significant change of some kind—of place, of perspective, of point of view, of plot direction. It jogs your reader’s mind, telling him that it’s time for a reorientation, a retaking of his bearings. It can also refresh your reader’s eye after a long interval in one setting or situation. These chapter breaks lend continuity and pacing—both of which are essential for balancing suspense—to your story. And if you want even more suspense …

3. BREAK CHAPTERS IN THE HEART OF THE ACTION.
A good rule of thumb: Ask yourself, How can I end this part so that the sleepy reader is compelled to keep the light on, if only to see how some crisis turns out or how some crucial question is answered?

When shooting for this can’t-put-the-book-down effect, there’s one principle that’s as close to a surefire technique as can be: the good old cliffhanger, a term that dates back to the 1930s and ’40s, when Saturday movie matinees always included a serial—as a matter of fact, as kids we called them “chapters”—in which Tarzan, or Buck Rogers, or the Green Hornet would be left literally hanging by his fingernails from the crumbling edge of a cliff. The idea, naturally, was to make sure we were back in the theater the following week, and that’s the way it works for novels, too.

Effective as it is, there are a couple of caveats: First, you don’t want to end every chapter this way, or even most of them. It becomes predictable, which is something you don’t ever want anybody to say about your novel. After a while, this tactic loses its punch. Suspension of disbelief can go just so far. Second, for the technique to be most effective, it needs to be an integral part of the overall story, not a gratuitous invention inserted just for effect.

Also, note that a cliffhanger ending to a chapter doesn’t have to be an action scene. As long as it leaves the reader “hanging,” you’re in business. For example:
END OF ONE CHAPTER:
Nan’s normally rosy face was the color of putty. “There’s something I need to tell you.” Her eyes were fixed on the floor. “Something you don’t know about me.”BEGINNING OF NEXT CHAPTER:
It had all started, she said, tight-lipped, when her mother’s brother moved in. She’d been 12 …”

Use techniques like these to keep that novel curtain drawn tight during intermission, and you can rest assured your sleepy reader will be fighting to keep his eyes open all night, page by page, chapter by chapter, book by book.

(Written by Aaron Elkins)
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
TerishD

Articles on Writing! ScribblesModerator-1
TerishD


Male
Number of posts : 1441
Age : 64
Location : Ringgold, Louisiana
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Thinki10
Registration date : 2008-07-21

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Reply   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 6th 2012, 8:23 am

Good articles, but not my problem at all. Most of these are motivational, and I have NO problem with motivation. I completely enjoy writing. Just spent slightly over a week banging my fingers upon another story that just had to come out of my head. If I am not writing stories, I am doing gaming stuff. Thus, my Writers Tips are mostly on construction, as that are the problems that I have.

That last article on chapter endings was nice. I have a similar problem due to posting stories to the internet. About 2,000 words has been found to be a good length. However, the story does not usually flow so well. I thus write what I can, then look for the best place to break.

One would think that going long would be good. I however have found that I do not work on those sections to 'punch' it. If it is short, I study the characters and scene to see how I can enhance it to improve the emotion, provide details that have become 'lost.' and generally improve the section without simply adding words. Most of the same techniques would help a long section as well, but I don't feel a need to check it. Only from dedicated effort have I trained myself to give all sections the full treatment.
Back to top Go down
http://www.terishd.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 15th 2012, 12:42 am

I really don't understand why word count is such a big deal in the industry. If the story is straightforward then there isn't much point in treking the reader all the way round the world, only to get just a few paces ahead. That was once a problem. I was apart of a different forum and one of it's member's suggested I provide more scenic detail, which I complied but after going through the story again I ended up junking it. Everything I added amounted to a totally different story being told at the same time as the other. If they don't mesh well then the storylines shouldn't have been merged. But said is the writer's life?

I queried my novel 'The Rite of the Angel' last year and recieved a lot of positive feedback. Nothing was noted about my story that could have been improved, only that it wasn't a good fit. I highly believe that 'good fit' is code for there aren't enough words. I was close to 60k for that novel (which I'm currently rewriting) and that doesn't provide much room for editing (highly paid editing) therefore once it goes 'to the cleaners' -- is what I like to call it -- the storyline/plotting and character building would all have to be redone. A fickle industry indeed.
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 15th 2012, 12:44 am

5 Things To Do In Your First 3 Paragraphs
(Cat Rambo) Loving this lady's name!!


1. Engage the senses. You don’t have to hit every sensory stop – but it sure helps. Vivid visuals are great, but they are even better when backed up with visceral, precise taste or touch or sound.

2. Hint at the conflict. The majority of great stories provide the reader with some clue to the conflict driving the story within the first three paragraphs. Here, for example, is the first paragraph of Kelly Link’s marvelous “Travels with the Snow Queen”:

Part of you is always traveling faster, always traveling ahead. Even when you are moving, it is never fast enough to satisfy that part of you. You enter the walls of the city early in the evening, when the cobblestones are a mottled pink with reflected light, and cold beneath the slap of your bare, bloody feet. You ask the man who is guarding the gate to recommend a place to stay the night, and even as you are falling into bed at the inn, the bed, which is piled high with quilts and scented with lavender, perhaps alone, perhaps with another traveler, perhaps with the guardsman who had such brown eyes, and a mustached that curled up on either side of his nose like two waxed black laces, even as this guardsman, whose name you didn’t ask calls out a name in his sleep that is not your name, you are dreaming about the road again. When you sleep, you dream about the long white distances that still lie before you. When you wake up, the guardsman is back at his post, and the place between your legs aches pleasantly, your legs sore as if you had continued walking all night in your sleep. While you were sleeping, your feet have healed again. You were careful not to kiss the guardsman on the lips, so it doesn’t really count, does it.

Holy cow, talk about grabbing the reader with bravura and effortlessly stuffing them full of story. Second person is such a wonderful and reckless choice and it works here in a way not all second person narratives do. There’s physical pain, the bare bloody feet, and sensory beyond the visual with lavender and high-piled quilts and pleasant aches. And beyond that there is both an external conflict, the enforced journey, the drive in her dreams, and an internal conflict, a shame that, because the narrator is so careful not to look at it, makes us achingly aware of its existence: You were careful not to kiss the guardsman on the lips, so it doesn’t really count, does it. (The rest of the story is even better, and Link’s collection Magic For Beginners is worth picking up for its craftsmanship as well as the enjoyment its fabulous stories offer.)

3. Display your command of language. It’s worthwhile for a writer to think about poetry, and all its devices like assonance and alliteration, metaphor and allusion, internal rhythm, even meter. Save scraps of speech that you like, stud those paragraphs with wonderful things and spend with wild abandon from your store, because this is the make or break moment, when your reader decides whether or not to continue. You cannot lavish enough attention on your reader in the form of these paragraphs.

Look at how Carol Emshwiller’s “All of Us Can Almost…” begins, with a fancy hook made of punctuation attached to the title, like an elaborate latch on the door opening into the story:

…fly, that is. Of course lots of creatures can almost fy. But all of us are able to match any others of us, wingspan to wingspan. Also to any other fliers. But through we match each other wing to wing, we can’t get more than inches off the ground. If that. But we’re impressive. Our beaks look vicious. We could pose for statues for the birds representing an empire. we could represent an army or a president. And actually, we are the empire. We may not be able to fly, but we rule the skies. And most everything else too.

That conversational tone doesn’t come easily – it’s beautifully wrought, wonderfully precise.

4. Intrigue the reader while establishing the rules. Thomas M Disch’s “The Wall of America” sets the tone, narrative distance, and time frame (now to near future) while establishing a question (what’s the Wall?) that makes the reader want to keep going:

Most people got more space along the Wall than they could ever use, even the oddballs who painted leviathan-sized canvases they couldn’t hope to sell to anyone who didn’t have his own airplane hangar to hang their enormities. But if you did work on such a scale, you must have had money to burn, so what would it matter if you never sold your stuff? The important thing was having it hung where people could see it.

5. Use interesting, active words. You can never go wrong with this. Here’s James Tiptree Jr. at her best, full of poetry in “Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled Of Light!”:

Hot summer night, big raindrops falling faster now as she swings along the concrete expressway, high over the old dead city. Lightning is sizzling and cracking over the lake behind her. Beautiful! The flashes jump the roofs of the city to life below her, miles of cube buildings gray and sharp-edged in the glare. People lived here once, all the way to the horizons. Smiling, she thinks of all those walls and windows full of people, living in turbulence and terror. Incredible.
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
TerishD

Articles on Writing! ScribblesModerator-1
TerishD


Male
Number of posts : 1441
Age : 64
Location : Ringgold, Louisiana
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Thinki10
Registration date : 2008-07-21

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Comments   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 15th 2012, 7:49 am

Kellycakes wrote:
I really don't understand why word count is such a big deal in the industry. If the story is straightforward then there isn't much point in treking the reader all the way round the world, only to get just a few paces ahead. That was once a problem. I was apart of a different forum and one of it's member's suggested I provide more scenic detail, which I complied but after going through the story again I ended up junking it. Everything I added amounted to a totally different story being told at the same time as the other. If they don't mesh well then the storylines shouldn't have been merged. But said is the writer's life?

I queried my novel 'The Rite of the Angel' last year and recieved a lot of positive feedback. Nothing was noted about my story that could have been improved, only that it wasn't a good fit. I highly believe that 'good fit' is code for there aren't enough words. I was close to 60k for that novel (which I'm currently rewriting) and that doesn't provide much room for editing (highly paid editing) therefore once it goes 'to the cleaners' -- is what I like to call it -- the storyline/plotting and character building would all have to be redone. A fickle industry indeed.
Word count is how everyone gets paid. On the writer's end, it is simply the more words the larger the check. On the publisher's end, the larger the book the more they can charge for it (so the more money they can make).

As a reader, I often seek large word counts as I want to escape for a long time. Short works are for when my life is hectic, so I do not have the time.

Also, as a reader, I want to immerse myself in the world. I want to feel that I could explore this world and find it to be real. If the writer does not give me a feeling that there is more to the reality than the events in the story, I don't trust his narration. You are not 'treking the reader all the way round the world,' but letting him know that there is a solid reality. I will hit writers with simple truths. If a character picks up a book -- did the author provide substance for the book being there? or the table it is upon? or even for the room existing? Many newbie writers do not bother with such minor details, wanting to write a 'straightforward' tale, but in doing so provide no road for the story to follow (straight, crooked, or wherever it is to lead).

The other detail that I look for in the story is emotion. Did the author concern themselves with the mood? How do I feel when I read the passages? Am I just following a step by step accounting of actions, or is there a motive and opportunity for the action? Finally, do I get the impression that the main character has opinions? Those 'poetic passages' in the added section do set good mood (which is obviously big in the mind of this editor), and something a writer should concern themselves with. Besides mood, little word choice in descriptions can tell the reader what the main character likes, dislikes, and certain beliefs that might be held sacred.

Note that I was brought up under the direction that one's first novel should be about 80,000 words. Today the longer novel is usually desired. 60k thus would come up as 'not fitting' as it is too small. You might want to read your novel again and find an entertaining diversion that would add a good bit to the size of the manuscript. Surely YOU are interested enough in the characters and drama that YOU want to explore their personalities and their world more (if you are not, why should your readers?).

Writing is something that people do in their spare time for free. If you thus do not find it fun, but a lot of work and trouble, find another occupation. Step aside so those glad to put out the effort can gain some deserved recognition.
Back to top Go down
http://www.terishd.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 17th 2012, 3:24 am

Quote :
Word count is how everyone gets paid. On the writer's end, it is simply the more words the larger the check. On the publisher's end, the larger the book the more they can charge for it (so the more money they can make).

I never knew that word count is what actually fuels the craft. Thanks for pointing that out.

Quote :
As a reader, I often seek large word counts as I want to escape for a long time. Short works are for when my life is hectic, so I do not have the time.

I love reading almost as I love writing so a great long work is more my desire, but I wouldn't diminish a small piece of work because I think being able to tell a great story without so much hoopla is quite an amazing feat itself. Just my opinion.

Quote :
Also, as a reader, I want to immerse myself in the world. I want to feel that I could explore this world and find it to be real. If the writer does not give me a feeling that there is more to the reality than the events in the story, I don't trust his narration. You are not 'treking the reader all the way round the world,' but letting him know that there is a solid reality. I will hit writers with simple truths. If a character picks up a book -- did the author provide substance for the book being there? or the table it is upon? or even for the room existing? Many newbie writers do not bother with such minor details, wanting to write a 'straightforward' tale, but in doing so provide no road for the story to follow (straight, crooked, or wherever it is to lead).

No no maybe I haven't express myself correctly in this, I've read a lot of stuff in novels that seemed to me mind you, very unnecessary. The sun is hot, readers know the sun is hot, the writer can tell me the sun is hot anyway, but the writer doesn't have to tell me how hot the sun is. The writer is suppose to bring the reader into the story with comanding details not irrelavant ones. Again, just my opinion.

Quote :
The other detail that I look for in the story is emotion. Did the author concern themselves with the mood? How do I feel when I read the passages? Am I just following a step by step accounting of actions, or is there a motive and opportunity for the action? Finally, do I get the impression that the main character has opinions? Those 'poetic passages' in the added section do set good mood (which is obviously big in the mind of this editor), and something a writer should concern themselves with. Besides mood, little word choice in descriptions can tell the reader what the main character likes, dislikes, and certain beliefs that might be held sacred.

No doubt. I agree fully.

Quote :
Note that I was brought up under the direction that one's first novel should be about 80,000 words. Today the longer novel is usually desired. 60k thus would come up as 'not fitting' as it is too small. You might want to read your novel again and find an entertaining diversion that would add a good bit to the size of the manuscript. Surely YOU are interested enough in the characters and drama that YOU want to explore their personalities and their world more (if you are not, why should your readers?).

That is exactly what I am doing. No matter what you write, there are always going to be improvements that can be made, hence the editing process. I've never really had any support system with my writing, therefore I have only the foundation that I have built myself with the craft. I learn by reading and learning and doing. If I fail then I try again until things start moving forward. So word count standards in my opinion still shouldn't rise above quality, but I have a thick enough skin to work through these type of restraints. Adding extras to a story isn't a problem, I just find it unnecessary.

Quote :
Writing is something that people do in their spare time for free. If you thus do not find it fun, but a lot of work and trouble, find another occupation. Step aside so those glad to put out the effort can gain some deserved recognition.

I do find it fun. Maybe you misread my post. I have nothing against the craft, in fact I feel so strongly for it that I would feel lost without my pen and paper. I've never claimed it to work for me or trouble and I put forth plenty of effort as this is what I want to do.

Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
TerishD

Articles on Writing! ScribblesModerator-1
TerishD


Male
Number of posts : 1441
Age : 64
Location : Ringgold, Louisiana
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Thinki10
Registration date : 2008-07-21

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Reply   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeMay 17th 2012, 7:52 am

Kellycakes wrote:
No no maybe I haven't express myself correctly in this, I've read a lot of stuff in novels that seemed to me mind you, very unnecessary. The sun is hot, readers know the sun is hot, the writer can tell me the sun is hot anyway, but the writer doesn't have to tell me how hot the sun is. The writer is suppose to bring the reader into the story with comanding details not irrelavant ones. Again, just my opinion.
You probably have a valid point here, but I know that I will put in such details at time to stress that they have importance to the story. I live in Louisiana. It gets hot. It is now the time of the year when we can tell the natives from the Yankee immigrants. They are the ones presently going around saying that it is hot. The temperature is getting up in the 80s during the day, but I know that it will soon be regularly in the 90s, if not 100s, and there will be nights when it stays in the 80s. When people thus tell me that it is hot, I simply reply that 'no, it is not hot yet.' Thus, something like the sun being hot is subjective to the character, and if the character feels the burning pain of the sun, it should be mentioned.

There is also the problem of the reader being in a nice air-conditioned room or even in a heated room in the middle of winter. When I read a sentence like 'the sun is hot,' I feel the writer is in some comfortable place and having to remind himself of facts about the sun. Thus, while you know the sun is hot (I am certain that living in Arizona will stress that fact to people), that really cannot be a truism to all at all times.

Thus, don't get bothered by those trivial details. I often critique stories, and I have learned that what bothers me does not bother others. State them, as you have a right to your opinions, but you have to also allow others the right to their opinions, even the writer of that horrible story you just read. What really strikes my nerves is that some editor thought that terrible (in my opinion) piece of literature was worthy of publishing while mine was not (it was actually such an experience that had me turn independent long ago). Anyway, such is life, and we just do with it what we can.

Keep writing, Kellycakes. I agree that it is fun. I also know that it brings me more pride to have a few hundred words added to my story than a few more thousand experience points to some character in a game.
Back to top Go down
http://www.terishd.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeJune 2nd 2012, 3:10 pm

50 Tips on How to Write Good

The contents of this post are an alphabetical arrangement of two lists that have been circulating among writers and editors for many years. In case you have missed out all this time, I’m sharing here the wit and wisdom of the late New York Times language maven William Safire and advertising executive and copywriter Frank LaPosta Visco.

Quote :
1. A writer must not shift your point of view.
2. Always pick on the correct idiom.
3. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
4. Always be sure to finish what
5. Avoid alliteration. Always.
6. Avoid archaeic spellings.
7. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
8. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
9. Be more or less specific.
10. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
11. Contractions aren’t necessary.
12. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
13. Don’t indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
14. Don’t never use no double negatives.
15. Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!
16. Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
17. Don’t use commas, that, are not, necessary.
18. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
19. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
20. Employ the vernacular.
21. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
22. Eschew obfuscation.
23. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
24. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
25. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
26. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
27. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
28. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
29. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
30. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
31. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
32. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
33. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
34. No sentence fragments.
35. One should never generalize.
36. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
37. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
38. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
39. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of ten or more words, to their antecedents.
40. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
41. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.
42. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
43. Profanity sucks.
44. Subject and verb always has to agree.
45. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
46. The adverb always follows the verb.
47. The passive voice is to be avoided.
48. Understatement is always best.
49. Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed.
50. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
51. Who needs rhetorical questions?
52. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

Oh, and let me add one tip: If your article consists of a list and the title refers to the number of items in the list, count the number of items in the list carefully.

It's a pretty clever article, I was especially happy to see a writer who recently posted this article received a few dozen emails chastising her for using the word 'Good' instead of the word 'Well' in the title.
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
TerishD

Articles on Writing! ScribblesModerator-1
TerishD


Male
Number of posts : 1441
Age : 64
Location : Ringgold, Louisiana
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Thinki10
Registration date : 2008-07-21

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Reply   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeJune 2nd 2012, 4:08 pm

As usual, some I agree with, and others I do not. Some I have trouble convincing others about their truth, others I find myself and others breaking feeling proud of ourselves for doing what we did.

Will probably comment on a few of these, Kellycakes -- later. It is a good list for conversation.
Back to top Go down
http://www.terishd.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeAugust 21st 2012, 10:50 pm

In a article written by someone working for Writer's Digest, an author discussed his hatred of cliches'. The title of said piece '12 Cliches All Writers Should Avoid' wasn't an article at all but a list of tired old cliches, that I agree should be at all cost avoided.

Cliches drive me bonkers, especially when it comes to writing. They are boring and abused and about as fun to read as the instruction manual of a Dustbuster. Writing is supposed to be a creative process, and there’s nothing creative in rehashing some trite phrase that is so old it was probably used by Moses as he parted the Red Sea.

1. Avoid it like the plague
2. Dead as a doornail
3. Take the tiger by the tail
4. Low hanging fruit
5. If only walls could talk
6. The pot calling the kettle black
7. Think outside the box
8. Thick as thieves
9. But at the end of the day
10. Plenty of fish in the sea
11. Every dog has its day
12. Like a kid in a candy store

And those are just the tip of the iceberg (oh wait, there’s bonus cliche #13). Are there any other cliches that you could think of and possibly share with us?
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
TerishD

Articles on Writing! ScribblesModerator-1
TerishD


Male
Number of posts : 1441
Age : 64
Location : Ringgold, Louisiana
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Thinki10
Registration date : 2008-07-21

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Nothing is cliche'   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeAugust 22nd 2012, 8:05 am

I am sorry, but what is tired and cliche' is someone saying that they are tired and cliche'. I went and saw "Explendables 2" this weekend. I sat and enjoyed aged action stars go through their stunts, having fun with their catch phrases, and basically doing one more time what they have been doing. It was fun and enjoyable. The same with these phrases. If they fit the story, use them.

I mean, let me make another cliche' list. This one is cliche' plots.

1) Girl needs rescued, man goes saves her
2) Man is bumbling idiot around women, but ends up getting lovely one to fall in love with him.
3) City in peril, hero saves the day.
4) Ruler being a tyrant to population, people get hero to save the day
5) Monster rises, aged man who knows history gets youngster to do what is necessary to stop monster
6) Someone finds wealth/magic, brings them trouble, they have to lose wealth/magic to restore dignity

That is enough. Now, would you want any of these plots to go away? Would you really want to NOT see these plots developed again?

Things get cliche' because they are encountered too often. Songs get cliche' when the radio plays them over and over and over again (or you play them over and over and over again on your music device). You finally get tired and move on. Then, later, you hear/see/read the thing again, and you find out you missed it. Cliche' is thus just a momentary thing. You get over it. Worse, what is cliche' for you, might be new and wonderful to another (as most who deal with children learn). In the end, EVERYTHING is cliche', so stop worrying about it.
Back to top Go down
http://www.terishd.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeSeptember 2nd 2012, 3:53 pm

I agree Terish, if it fits, use it. Sometimes it's necessary to fall back on old sayings that the writer believes the reader knows and understands. (Of course I didn't realize this until you pointed it out.) Everything becomes a cliche' soon after it's birth.
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeSeptember 2nd 2012, 3:56 pm

The 7 Rules of Picking Names for Fictional Characters


Choosing a character name for your novel is as pressure-filled as picking a name for a baby. It has to suit the character’s personality, makes sense for the era and, most important, be super awesome (sorry friends, the awesome name of Brian A. Klems is already taken by this guy). Names like Harry Potter, Holden Caulfield and Stephanie Plum are memorable not just because of the amazing stories they navigate, but also because these names “fit” those characters so well. You need a name that “fits” your character too.

I stumbled upon these seven great rules for choosing character names offered up by popular mystery writer Elizabeth Sims (the Rita Farmer Mysteries). When developing characters—no matter what sort of characters you’re pursuing—heed common sense and consider each of these tips before choosing a name.

1. Check root meanings.
It’s better to call a character Caleb, which means “faithful” or “faithful dog,” than to overkill it by naming him Loyal or Goodman—unless you want that for comic/ironic purposes. Some readers will know the name’s root meaning, but those who don’t might sense it.

2. Get your era right.
If you need a name for an 18-year-old shopgirl in a corset store in 1930s Atlanta, you know enough not to choose Sierra or Courtney, unless such an unusual name is part of your story. Browse for names in the era you’re writing. A Depression-era shopgirl who needs a quick name could go by Myrtle or Jane; it will feel right to the reader. Small public libraries will often have decades’ worth of local high school yearbooks on the shelves. Those things are gold for finding name combinations from the proper era.

3. Speak them out loud.
Your novel might become an audiobook or an e-book with text-to-speech enabled. A perfectly good name on paper, such as Adam Messina, may sound unclear aloud: Adam Essina? Adah Messina?

4. Manage your crew appropriately.
Distinguish your large cast of characters by using different first initials, of course, and vary your number of syllables and places of emphasis. Grace Metalious (a great name right there) demonstrates this in her blockbuster Peyton Place, as do any of the successful epic writers like James Michener and Larry McMurtry.

5. Use alliterative initials.
Employ this strategy to call special attention to a character: Daniel Deronda, Bilbo Baggins, Ratso Rizzo, Severus Snape.

6. Think it through.
You might notice that in most crime fiction the murderer rarely has a middle name or initial. Why? Because the more you explicate the name, the more likely there’s a real person out there with it. And reading your story they might become upset and try to sue you or come after you some night with a bayonet.

7. Check ’em again.
When writing my novel The Actress, I needed a name for a Japanese-American criminal defense attorney, and the name Gary Kwan burst upon me. I loved the name and used it in the book. Only thing was, as soon as the thousands of copies of hardcovers were printed and shipped to stores, I heard from a reader who pointed out the simple fact that Kwan is a Chinese surname. I cursed loudly and decided: a) that I would ALWAYS check name origins, and b) that Gary Kwan had a Chinese grandfather who adopted a Japanese orphan who became Gary’s father. Or something like that.

Naming characters just right is a challenge, but give it some time and thought, and you’ll start to find the fun in it. Study the names great authors have come up with, let your mind loose to play, do your research, and above all, trust your ear.

And if worst comes to worst, here’s hoping you’re like Oates and lucky enough to just bump into your character in a dream—where you can ask him yourself.
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
TerishD

Articles on Writing! ScribblesModerator-1
TerishD


Male
Number of posts : 1441
Age : 64
Location : Ringgold, Louisiana
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Thinki10
Registration date : 2008-07-21

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Reply   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeSeptember 2nd 2012, 4:19 pm

These are good rules. The only one that I usually add is --

8) Make certain the name will fit the locale
It is funny and annoying to be presented with a new and strange world only to have the people there named John, Adam, Steve, June, Anita, Penelope, etc. This was a tough argument when I began writing ages ago. Back then such situations were common. Since then exotic names have become common with REAL people, so you can now use almost any combination of vowels and consonants without an editor caring. Writers however should think about the culture and what names would be common.
Back to top Go down
http://www.terishd.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeSeptember 16th 2012, 7:10 pm

Some of the most intriguing words in the English language are what linguists call fossil words, so named because they are artifacts from another era and survive only in isolated usage. Here is a list of some of our language’s fossil words with definitions and the idiomatic phrases in which they appear:

1. Ado: bother over unimportant details (“without further ado” or, more rarely, “much ado about nothing”)
2. Amok (or amuck): in an uncontrolled manner (“run amok”)
3. Bandy: hit, pass, or toss around, or discuss lightly or employ off-handedly (“bandy about”); bowed (“bandy-legged”)
4. Bated: restrained or deducted (“wait with bated breath”)
5. Batten: lumber for flooring or for sealing or strengthening a joint or a flexible object such as a sail (“board and batten”); to provide or fasten with battens, or to fasten (“batten down the hatches”)
6. Beck: summons (“at (one’s) beck and call”)
7. Bygones: what has passed or is in the past (“let bygones be bygones”)
8. Craw: stomach or crop (“sticks in (one’s) craw”)
9. Deserts: excellence or worth, or what is deserved or merited (“just deserts”)
10. Dint: force or power (“by (sheer) dint of”)
11. Dudgeon: indignation (“high dudgeon”)
12. Eke: accomplish or get with difficulty (“eke out”)
13. Fettle: state of health or fitness (“in fine fettle”)
14. Fro: away or back (“to and fro”)
15. Hale: sound or very healthy (“hale and hearty”)
16. Hither: near or adjacent, or to this place (“hither and yon”)
17. Immemorial: before memory or tradition (“time immemorial”)
18. Jetsam: what is cast overboard from a ship (“flotsam and jetsam”) — distinguished from flotsam, a word denoting what floats from the wreckage of a ship (that term is used elsewhere than in the phrase “flotsam and jetsam” and so is not listed separately here)
19. Ken: range of knowledge, perception, or understanding, or view or range of vision (“beyond (one’s) ken”)
20. Kith: friends, neighbors, or relatives (“kith and kin”)
21. Loggerhead: blockhead (“at loggerheads,” meaning blocked, or stalled, by stubbornness); also, a type of turtle
22. Mettle: quality, or vigor or strength of, temperament (“test (one’s) mettle”)
23. Neap: a weak tide (“neap tide”)
24. Offing: the near future (“in the offing”); also, the deep ocean as seen from the shore
25. Petard: a container of explosives for breaching or breaking a barrier (“hoist by (one’s) petard”)
26. Shebang: everything that is pertinent (“the whole shebang”)
27. Shrift: confession (“short shrift,” with the idea that a condemned person is given little time to confess sins)
28. Sleight: stratagem, dexterity (“sleight of hand”)
29. Thither: more remote, or to that place (“hither and thither”)
30. Turpitude: depravity (“moral turpitude”)
31. Ulterior: beyond what is openly expressed (“ulterior motive”); also, farther, or more distant, or what is on the farther side
32. Vim: robustness (“vim and vigor”)
33. Wreak: bring about or cause (“wreak havoc”)
34. Wrought: manufactured, ornamented, or shaped, or excited (“wrought iron”)
35. Yore: the far past (“days of yore”)

Do you have any more fossil words that you believe aren't being used in today's work?
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Kellycakes

Articles on Writing! ScribblesQueen-1
Kellycakes


Female
Number of posts : 1136
Age : 46
Location : State of Thankfulness!
Current Mood : Articles on Writing! Th_wel10
Registration date : 2008-07-17

Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitimeDecember 11th 2012, 5:04 pm

7 Types of Misspellings (Basic Grammar E-Book)

Most misspellings can be categorized in one of seven groups. Here are some examples for each of those types.

1. Incorrectly Repeated Consonants
In some words, consonants are awarded extraneous twins, such as a doubling of the first t in commitment or of the r in harass (the latter perhaps from confusion with embarrass, in which r is doubled. Other common erroneous doublings including the n in inoculate (perhaps because of innovation and other words in which n is doubled), the s in occasion (many words, like expression, do have a double s), and the c in recommend. Note that in many of these words, there’s already a twin double consonant, which may also confuse writers. (One word that does have two twin consonant pairs, accommodate, is often misspelled with only one m.)

2. Wrong Vowel
Using an incorrect vowel is a common problem, leading to such misspellings as definately (or the bizarre variant definatly), dependant, privelege, rediculous (a heretofore virtually unknown mistake, prompted by emphatic pronunciation of the first syllable, that has gone viral as more people are exposed to it online), and seperate. The correct spellings are definitely, dependent, privilege, ridiculous, and separate.

3. Wrong Consonant
This type of error is less common than those of the vowel variety, but two of the most commonly misspelled words in this category are consensus (in which the first s is replaced with a c) and supersede (in which the second s is replaced with a c).

4. Reversed Order of Double Vowels
Many words with two consecutive vowels, especially those with a pairing of e and i, look odd no matter which order the vowels appear in, so for many writers, it’s a toss-up as to which is correct. These words are all spelled correctly: gauge, niece, pharaoh, receive, weird.

5. Extra Letters
One word that is often given an extra vowel is mischievous, perhaps because it is often mispronounced as if it were spelled mischievious. Some words ending in -ly, such as publicly, are often erroneously given an -ally ending. Judgment and acknowledgment, spelled in British English (and, well into the twentieth century in the United States) with an e after the g, omit the e in American English.

6. Missing Letters
Coolly and woolly are often misspelled with only one l. Incidentally and other words with the -ally ending, in a reversal of the problem commonly seen with misspelling of publicly and the like, are frequently mistakenly spelled with -ly endings. Liaison often lacks its second i, prerogative is sometimes seen without the first r, and rhythm may lack the first h.

7. Confusion with a Similar Word
The most common type of misspelling, perhaps, is that in which the wrong word in a homophonic duo or trio is employed, such as forward in place of foreword or site (or, rarely, sight) instead of cite.


I personnally have issues with the misplacement of vowels but quickly correct myself. Do you have any of these issues while working?
Back to top Go down
https://scribbles.forumotion.com
Sponsored content





Articles on Writing! Empty
PostSubject: Re: Articles on Writing!   Articles on Writing! Icon_minitime

Back to top Go down
 
Articles on Writing!
Back to top 
Page 1 of 1
 Similar topics
-
» Challenges of Writing
» not a writing day
» 8 Rules of Writing
» Writing Poll
» Writing Advice

Permissions in this forum:You cannot reply to topics in this forum
 :: The Lounge (Chit-Chat Forum) :: General Discussions-
Jump to: