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Goal, Motivation and Conflict, Language usage, Point of View, Showing vs. Telling
 By Lynn Dean, on September 16th, 2011
A guest post by Sandra Orchard
Do you scratch your head when someone tells you that you need to “show, not tell”? It’s the key to writing compelling commercial fiction, but an often difficult concept to grasp in all its nuances. Today I’m going to share with you some simple ways to…
“Show” emotion without naming it
The trick is in word choice. Each scene in a piece of fiction should be from the point of view (POV) of one character. That character should have a goal, face obstacles to that goal within the scene, and ultimately end up at an impasse where a decision needs to be made.
What I want you to do is look at a scene or story you’ve written and define the mood of your POV character.
Stop reading this post, pull out some of your writing, and try it. Is your hero angry, irritated, frustrated? Is your heroine confused, excited, panicked?
Now, write down some strong nouns and verbs that convey that mood. I emphasize nouns and verbs, because strong writing doesn’t need many adjectives and adverbs.
For example: a character who is angry won’t walk across the room. He’ll storm across the room. He won’t glance at the person he’s talking to. He’ll glare at her. He’ll jab the numbers on his cell phone. He’ll slam the car door.
Next, look at your setting details. Word choice in setting descriptions is a subtle, but powerful way to enhance the emotion of the scene. If your hero is angry, thunderclouds may be piling up on the horizon. If your heroine is wary or confused, dark clouds may bruise the sky. See how the italicized words subconsciously convey a mood?
Here’s one of my favorite examples (from the opening of Deep Cover) of how I use scene description to convey the hero’s mood:
A lone backhoe loomed on the horizon, silhouetted against the steel gray sky, its tires caked in mud. Too bad the machine wasn’t big enough to dig him out of this mess.
Notice how the final sentence is backloaded with the word “mess”.
In the next lesson we’ll look at how to use metaphors and the five senses to empower your writing.
A Challenge
Learning a new writing technique won’t help you if you don’t apply it. So if you want to become a stronger writer try this exercise.
Exercise:
- Read through a page of your writing and underline all the nouns and verbs. Now, go back and try to replace the weakest ones with stronger words that also convey the mood of the POV character. If you have an adjective helping to describe the noun, or an adverb helping to describe the verb, strive to make it obsolete.
- Share your favorite before and after examples in the comment section.
- One more hint for extra power: Look for the strongest word in your sentence. See if you can rewrite the sentence with that word at the end for a stronger emotional punch.
Bio:
 Author Sandra Orchard home educated her three children from kindergarten to grade twelve. Her youngest daughter has followed in her footsteps, writing award-winning short stories and articles for The Canadian Horse Journal and CinchMagazine.com, an Ezine which she also co-edits. Sandra took her first writing course after her first baby was born but for many years wrote only curriculum for her personal use and articles and book reviews for a local homeschooling newsletter. Then, as her children’s learning became increasingly independent and a back injury sidelined the home renovations that had usually filled her free time, she began writing novels. Sandra received news of her first book contract with Love Inspired Suspense (formerly Steeplehill) on her “home school graduation day”—her youngest daughter’s first day of college. What an exciting launch to this new phase of life!
 Deep Cover, the debut novel in Sandra’s Undercover Cops series released in early September. Shades of Truth will follow in March 2012. Passionate about helping aspiring fiction writers strengthen their writing, Sandra judges writing contests and is active in several online writing groups such as ACFW and The Word Guild. Her website www.SandraOrchard.com features reviews on numerous topnotch books for writers, as well as inspiring stories of authors’ writing journeys that encourage aspiring writers to persevere in pursuing their writing dreams and to find joy in the journey.
Goal, Motivation and Conflict
By Naomi Musch, on September 9th, 2011
Protagonists, by story-telling nature, are the ones who are in a dilemma.
Sometimes that means they’ve been put upon, taken advantage of, hurt, haunted, or chased after. But occasionally, when we write about their situations, we start to accidentally create such a passive character that we’re really the only ones who are excited about what is happening to them. Others might find them to be, um… well… boring. It’s simply too hard for a reader to establish a long-term, committed relationship with a character who is nothing but a victim.
The key to creating a non-passive character doesn’t mean doing away with the problems they’re faced with. It simply means giving them the power to act on what is happening.
When your main character faces The Big Trouble, whatever it is, that is not the time to have them go off and wallow in self-pity — not for more than a few moments anyway. That is the time to make them do something. In fact, whenever possible, avoid things happening to the character. Instead, have the character act as the catalyst for what happens next. The character’s response to their crisis should come in some physical as well as emotional way whenever possible. Did they get bad news? Have them act out on it. Have them rage, cry, run, write a letter, plot revenge, spy — something.
Did one character just see his best friend wounded in battle? What is he going to do next because of that? Did another just overhear her parents speaking about a possible divorce? What is her reaction? What will these characters do that will cause their stories to spin forward and lead to even deeper conflict?
The point of creating non-passive characters is to intensify possibilities for conflict while causing readers to engage with their personalities — to care about them.
Exercise:
- Think about the latest dilemma your character has stumbled into. What can he or she do next to try to get themselves out of it, only to make matters worse?
Announcements, Personal Motivation, Plotting, The Writing Industry
By Lynn Dean, on September 2nd, 2011
I’ve referred in past posts to Larry Brooks’ excellent book, Story Engineering. 
As I read this book the principles of plotting finally clicked–probably because Larry explains them in architectural terms, and I am a building designer by trade. Suddenly both the rules and the reasons for them became clear, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Winners of this year’s NOVELWritingSite Writing Contest received gift copies of this book. Many of my posts this year will deal with skills I learned from this book. If you haven’t guessed by now, I highly recommend THIS BOOK! Find it in paperback or ebook from Amazon HERE.
 Larry also writes a most informative blog, Storyfix, and I’m a fan of that, too. So are a lot of other folks, apparently, because Storyfix was the #1 Best Blog for Writers this year! Today I’m honored to guest post over at Storyfix and talk a bit about how writing, like architecture, blends art with the science of structure. You can also read a snippet of historical fiction I wrote about what can happen when we ignore the rules of structure. Click HERE to check it out!
Did you click? I’ll wait until you get back.
Cool, huh?
I’m supremely psyched about the skills I’ll be introducing this year as well as the ones coming in from our other contributors. We’ll have some new faces, too, so be sure to register, subscribe to RSS feed, add us to Google Reader on your iGoogle homepage, or whatever you need to do to make sure you join us every Friday. Writing prompts and exercises will start next week!
In the meantime, if there are specific writing skills you’d like to work on, we’re always open to ideas and suggestions. Please leave a comment!
The Writing Industry
By Lynn Dean, on August 19th, 2011
That’s what my professor said as he ripped miniature trees from my architectural model–the one I’d been up all night completing.
I dreaded project juries. We hapless wannabes, sagging with exhaustion, would attempt to communicate our grand vision, knowing in our heart of hearts that the finished product failed to live up to those concepts perfectly and that those shortcomings would, in short order, be pointed out as the review board “critiqued” our work. Our creation would be criticized. WE would be criticized. We explained the difficulties that confronted us, begged for time to make the suggested improvements, but in the end the best we could hope for was to endure without tears until the moment we could escape with our creation to lick our wounds in private.
Not personal? From where I stood, it felt VERY personal!
It seemed unfair. We paid to be taught, not ripped to shreds. But as one professor explained, his job was to prepare us for a profession, and being a professional includes dealing with people who don’t understand, people with unreasonable expectations, people who are sometimes insulting. To THEM it isn’t personal; it’s just business. My job was to learn to pour myself into the creative process and yet maintain enough emotional distance to analyze, improve, and defend the finished work.
That training has served me well not only in my day-job as a building designer but also in writing. Not every project turns out as well as I hope. Not every critique partner, editor, or agent understands my vision. Though we bypass some judgements when we choose to self-publish, our writing will still be vetted by readers who write reviews. Ultimately, we need to learn how to analyze our own work impartially and allow others to take from it what they will.
Here, then, are some tips for weathering criticism and rejection:
- Understand that what passes for brilliant talent may, in fact, be more a matter of tenacity. Few of us succeed on the first attempt. Each time we try, we get a bit closer to the mark we’re aiming for, and we learn something in the process.
- You are not alone. Most wildly successful stories were rejected repeatedly before they found that one publisher who “got it.”
- There are “doers” and “reviewers.” Learn to humbly heed the comments of people who are doing what you hope to do. If, however, criticism comes from someone who does not excel at what you’re trying to accomplish, their comments may be of limited benefit to you.
- Dare to ask questions. Instead of automatically defending your work “just the way it is,” turn criticism in a positive direction by asking for suggestions. Your reviewer will likely be honored that you asked and may respond by extending respect to you as well. Their suggestions will help you see a) how to do it better or b) that they have a totally different perspective that will not be particularly useful.
Instead of letting criticisms batter my heart, I try to create a “comment box” in my imagination. If the review is rough, I put a lid on the box and do not open it until I can do so in a detached and rational manner. Eventually I sort through the responses, enjoying the positive feedback and weighing the merits of any criticisms. Some comments I throw out.
Come to think of it, that’s pretty good advice for ANY situation.
Hooks
By Lynn Dean, on August 5th, 2011
Start by going to the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) page and opening an account. From that point, publishing your story is as simple as following the instructions, but I also downloaded AmazonKindle’s free ebook, Publish on Amazon Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing.
Of course, it helps to have your ducks in a row before you take the plunge, but there are very few ducks to line up. Here’s what you’ll need:
Your manuscript, of course–as good as you can make it, but you can edit and update it at any time, even after it’s posted. You can upload your Word document (.doc or .docx) directly, or “Save As” a filtered web page (.html).
Your cover, if you have one. A good cover makes a great showing. A poor cover screams “home job.” A thumbnail of your cover is the first thing browsers will see, so make your best effort or get help from someone with good graphic skills. I created mine using Gimp, a free photo editing program you can download to your computer. By layering photographs and experimenting with fonts and special effects, you can create a creditable image. Save it as a jpg.
A catchy description of your story. Remember our discussions about hooks? If you had to describe your story in 25 words or less, what would you say to catch a reader’s interest? Lead with that. You have a generous space to go into detail with a full “back cover blurb,” but when browsers look up your book on a Kindle dedicated e-reader, the first 175 characters or so are what’s displayed.
After that, it’s basically a matter of filling in the blanks.
I will say that I hit one minor snag. When I uploaded my manuscript as a document file, the kdp conversion process tended to lump short paragraphs into one indented block. Uploading the manuscript as an html filtered web page solved that problem, but this process could not read the black and white image of my cover that I used as my first page. I went to the Kindle Community–a support forum that you can access after you open a KDP account–and learned how to fix this by saving the cover image and html manuscript in a zipped file. There are all sorts of helpful discussion threads on the loop, and other writers tend to reply quickly with encouragement.
After you self-publish your first book, you can track your sales through your Kindle Direct Publishing account. Coming up: some ways to spread the word about your book!
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