5 Tips for Beginning Writers

As someone who has been writing novels, short stories and non-fiction for years, I am often asked how to get started or what it takes to write a book. I wish there was an easy answer. Unfortunately the answer is to write, write, and write some more. And then keep writing. But where do you start? Actually the answer to that is to you can start with your story in a variety of different ways. Here are five different things you can do to start working on your story.

1. Start with a simple idea.  This is often where beginners start. They want to write a book about their uncle who was a cowboy, or they have an idea that revolves around an event. But you need more than idea, you will need to think about where you're going with that idea. What will happen to that cowboy or what happens at that summer picnic that is interesting?

2. Come up with characters. NO story is going to be read if it doesn't have characters that grab and hold the reader. Cardboard people are not going to hold anyone's interest.  Write up a character sketch or use a character profile that will allow you to show that character and who she or he is over the course of your plot.

3. Provide a problem for that character. That is where you begin to develop your plot. Do you want your character to solve a murder, take part in a caper, fall in love? What do you want your character to do and from there you can start to work on the plot of your story.

4. Don't forget to add dialogue.  Your characters need to speak.  Just telling the story is not going to be interesting. You need to make certain you are including dialogue in your scenes or you are just telling the story. We want you to show your story, not tell it, and dialogue shows what is happening.

5. Make a plot list so that you see the scenes you have in your story. You need an opening and that can have several scenes, but what happens?  Building a plot list can help you keep your story organized. Now if you don't know where to go after the opening scene, think about what you want your ending to be. Where do you want your characters to end up? Write that down as your last plot point and then start filling in the middle. What else do you know should happen? Keep listing those things until you have a semblance of a plot. You can always change as you go along.


And once you have decided to write a story, then get busy. Start getting scenes, character sketches, ideas down on the written page.  Go back to that original premise. If you want to write a story, you have to WRITE, WRITE, WRITE!

5 Tips to Writing Dialogue

 As writers we all know we will need to write dialogue sooner or later. We can't avoid it. People are going to speak in your books and that is what dialogue is--the characters having a conversation. Writing dialogue should be simple for writers. We all have to do it ourselves on a dialy basis and we have all read it. Dialogue should be simple to write, but when you get right down to it, there are certain rules and guidelines you need to follow.  Here are five easy tips to consider as you write dialogue.

1. Make your characters sound different. Nothing is worse in a book than having all the characters sound alike. First of all, it is not realistic. Listen to the people around you. No one talks or sounds just the same. So how do you do that? How can you make them sound different? Again, listen to the people around you. Notice the different ways they speak and then use that in your story. Just as an educated teacher is going to sound very different from a high school student, a duchess or duke in the past would have spoken very differently than the kitchen maid.
2. Keep in mind your character’s sex.  There has been a lot of talk about the differences in how men and women speak. Many writers I know say men are much more blunt in their language than women. They’re more used to giving orders or just expecting their wishes to be carried out. I’m not sure that works anymore. Many women can be just as blunt as men and are just as forceful. But pay attention to some of those small differences as you write and keep in mind possible differences in how men and women sound.
3. Don’t get too carried away with dialects.  This is one I have had to watch myself. Overusing dialect can sometimes make it difficult to follow a story. Look for ways around the overuse of dialect. You don’t want to completely get away from it, especially when setting stories in certain times and places, but don’t over use it to the point of turning off the reader.
4. Don’t forget your tags.  Tags come in several ways. They are the simple – she said that follows the line spoken. They can also be used to tell how the sentence is spoken. She shouted is definitely going to be different that a simple said.  But you can also over use the tag too. Watch out for falling into the trap of using said on every tag. Sometimes you can do without any tag at all. And at times you can use an action tag that tells how she said something. 

“Don’t go in there!” The use of the exclamation point and even the warning can tell you she is probably sounding anxious or perhaps shouting. You might not need a tag here.

5. Don’t lose sight of who is speaking. Sometimes in a group of characters speaking you do need tags after many lines to indicate who is speaking. If you have three or more people you need to make certain that the reader knows who is saying what. Again, this can be handled with an action tag at times, but don’t let your readers get lost in long periods of dialogue without making certain they know who is talking.

If you are uncertain about whether your dialogue is working, read the passages aloud. See how your characters sound and then let them keep on talking.  

 

 

5 Tips to Setting Your Story Mood

This past weekend I attended a workshop on making video trailers for fiction books. Having spent so much of my life mixing words and video in TV news and public relations, I was intrigued. I know how to put together a news story visually and features that show a story or person, but how do you make a trailer that would show visually what a book was about?  Part of it has to do with showing the mood of the story.  That got me to thinking about how to show some of that mood inside the story itself.  Here are five tips to consider as you write your story to show location, mood, and ambience. These can all make your story stronger.


1. Consider the setting. This is self explanatory.  If you're writing a dark, gothic type story setting it in an old, dark castle or house seems natural.  But what if you're writing a dark story that is set in the tropics, or on a summer vacation?  Use that setting to make the case.  For instance, that bright tropical setting can hold lots of dark, hidden secrets in either glaring sunlight or in unusual shadows in unexpected places.  A dirty alley where the heroine gets lost as she goes home from the sun drenched beach with plenty of shadows and perhaps a scary stranger can set the mood for a darker future to come.


2. Look for just the right words to set the stage for the mood. If you're setting the story in the middle of winter, go beyond just describing the cold, make the characters feel it with chilled hands, frosty breath, numb fingers, or cold rooms.  Bring the cold even into the heart of a warm house or car, and then make the characters feel that coldness from their skin to their souls.

3.  Show contrasts. Use contrasting imagery to make the shadows darker, the light spots brighter. Take the reader from one extreme to another so that when the mood shifts, the reader's mood can shift with the story. Light moments mixed with dark can shift the mood as well.  Think about the difference of a green mountainside as compared to the charred, emptiness of a burned forest.

 4. Consider sounds. Just like with mood, light and temperature, remember the sounds that can set the mood and tone of a book.  In one of my stories I'm trying to catch the feel of a summer morning. Out of nowhere I suddenly heard a video my sister made at sunrise while walking the Colorado plains. She was trying to capture the morning sunrise and did video as opposed to still shots, but when I heard the birds as the sun topped the edge of the horizon, I had what I was looking for. Describing what I heard in that video helped me craft that early morning scene.

5.  Don't be afraid to experiment.  Play with the scene and try writing it in several different ways and then see what makes it most effective. Do you write it in first person? Does it work better from a certain character's point of view? Does it make it better if you describe the scene or if you let the character give their own impression?


All these methods can work and can help you capture the setting which in turn will make each story unique.  Good luck!

5 Tips for Knowing When to Re-write

We all have to do it, even if we hate the thought of it--rewriting. Sometimes there is no way around it. Even the best plotted story can run into a roadblock, or the story written into the mist can hit a hall before you even know what is happening. Suddenly you  can't move forward. Suddenly the characters are not cooperating. We'll look at how to rewrite the story in coming weeks but for today let's look at how to figure out when you've hit a roadblock and there is no other way around it but to re-write.

1. The characters are not cooperating.  I listed that above, but that is a big way to realize that you are heading in the wrong direction. If they don't seem to work in the scenes you are writing, you may be taking them in the wrong direction. Look over what you wrote earlier, look over your character profiles, and look over the characters themselves.  If they aren't working, then you need to re-think where the plot is headed for these people. You may need to do a little re-writing that will send those characters back in the right direction.

2.  You just don't want to write. Sure, there can be many, many reasons for not being able to just sit at the keyboard and having the words flow. But often the problem is that you've hit a point in the plot where the story is going nowhere. You may need to read over your plot again to make certain that it is going where you want it. This might be a good time to re-evaluate your plot and whether it can work in the way you originally planned. It might be time to consider re-writing some of the earlier pages or planning changes in the plot.

3. The story is going in some totally foreign direction and you aren't sure why. Again, this may be

that your plot is not working. This is a good time to try re-writing a few pages and perhaps trying a new direction to see whether you like the re-write better than the original. If you do, then keep heading in that direction.

4. The villain is getting more important than the hero. This might be a function of not having the write characters in the right roles. Again, it might be time to make that hero stronger, or to change the direction of the villain. And if you're going to have a super-villain, great!  Just make certain you are setting up the story that way. That might mean a re-write of some of the earlier pages, but they might also be fun to write with this new bad guy.

5.  The motives are not coming through. Perhaps what you have your characters doing doesn't ring true. They wouldn't take those sort of risks for no reason. Perhaps you need to re-write those motives to make them stronger, or to make those changes in your characters to make them want something more. Motivation is a big factor for your characters' actions. You need to make them strong enough.

If you do find you have to do a re-write, don't despair. Next week, we'll look at how to make those re-writes work for you to come up with a stronger story.

5 Tips for Re-energizing your Writing

We all have the problem from time to time as writers... getting the blahs and going days without writing or even wanting to write. Some people call it writer's block, some find excuses for why they can't seem to get going on a project or finish a story.


Whatever the reasons might be we all face the difficulty of getting back on track every so often. So what can you do to get yourself jump started or to get going again. Since I'm just back from a trip to one of my favorite places I can tell you that a trip certainly helps. I'd been floundering myself with my writing, mainly because I need to do a whole lot of editing and that always slows down the process.


So what can you do to get back to the joys of writing.


1. Take that trip. Go some place you have been wanting to go. Yes, I know that trip you wanted to take around the world might be out right now, or even that prolonged drive across country. But try something quick, something short, something fun. In the past I've often done weekend getaways to re-energize myself and my writing. I've gone off to hotel rooms only half an hour away and spent a weekend sitting in my room writing or exploring the area during the day and writing all night. Whatever the location, just getting away can sometimes be a good way to re-energize your writing.


2.  Take a class.  I teach lots of classes so I have to admit I had a stake in that. However, I find that sometimes the ideas I get from other students gives me plenty of ideas for my own writing. Not that I copy their ideas, but I do listen for their writing tactics or pay attention to what works for them. I also find that sometimes their complains or problem areas get me motivated again. Sometimes I will take a class myself, just to get myself back into the student mode and learn something.


3.  Take a walk.  This is a good way to get the creative juices awakened. Sometimes a morning walk can give you time to think about your latest story and where it is going right or where it might be headed in the wrong direction. It's also an opportunity to clear your head so that you can come back to the keyboard ready to right away.


4. Take break. Sometimes it's not a walk or getaway that you need but just a break from your daily routine.  Give yourself permission to take some time off and spend it just watching a movie or playing games. Look for story ideas online or read a book.  Find again some of the old excitement in old pleasures you used to have. Recently a snowy day kept me inside all day and I sat down and worked on a jigsaw puzzle. But as I worked on it I also found myself thinking about my current story and how it might go in a new direction. By the end of the day the puzzle was nearly finished and I was ready to go back to work.


5. Take a bath.  If you're not into bubble baths, then find something else that relaxes you. It's like that suggestion from above about taking a break. But make this one something that is totally relaxing, whether it's sitting in the dark at a movie theater or walking around the block. Do something that is not related to your writing so that you have time to clear your head.


Mostly don't take it too seriously. Find time to think and reflect. But then don't let yourself lose sight of the overall goal and get back to work.