Tag: Writing & Editing Advice & Tips

This tag identifies blogs tagged by writer Cortni Merritt as related to writing and editing advice and tips.

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How to Outline Your Novel or Nonfiction Book

Woman editing a stack of papers by hand to demonstrate how to outline your novel or nonfiction book.

In my years as a developmental editor, ghostwriter, and book reviewer, I’ve come across a few tricks to breaking down a good story, and a few tips for assembling one. Maybe you’ve been told before how to outline your novel or nonfiction book, but hopefully this blog will have some new information for you. 

In the discussion about different types of writers — “planners” vs. “pantsers” — I tend to come down closer on the side of “planner.” I look at it like having a road map that helps you know what direction you’re heading, but it doesn’t mean you can’t take detours or stops or double-back along the way. 

Writing is a journey, and here’s a few tips to help you get through it.

About Outline "Rules"

Many writers say to begin a plot or nonfiction book with an outline. You’ve probably done different kinds of outlines repeatedly since the seventh grade.

I wholeheartedly agree that you should outline your novel or nonfiction book, except two things:

First: You’re not in school, so don’t think your outline will be graded. It’s for you, to organize your thoughts. So don’t use Roman numerals or complicated tiered systems if they don’t work for you. Regular ol’ bullet points work just fine.

Second: Take a step back to something even more basic than the outline. First, take three blank pages and plot out your book’s beginning, then the end, and then figure out the middle. One page for each.

First Tip to Outline Your Novel or Nonfiction Book: Begin at the Beginning

The beginning is often the easiest to write. You have figured out where to start; you have a lot of information and world building and context to put in.

Limit yourself to only one page to summarize the most important points for the beginning of your outline. You will expand on it later. No doubt.

Answer Me These Questions Three

The beginning of your story should answer three questions, so you want to address them on the first page, and use them to build the first section of your outline.

  1. What’s the story about?
  2. What does the reader need to know to understand it?
  3. How much does the reader know already?

Your first two chapters should set up the context. Maybe a preface or introduction if you can squeeze it in. But really, you don’t have long to get the reader invested. When you want to outline your novel, include specific points and details about how and where you will hit these points in the narrative. 

Assume your back cover copy has gotten the reader to open to page 1. They’re primed for you to “wow” them. Use a barbed hook to pull them along through the opening pages. Show them that they made the right decision to crack the cover — because you’ve got something to say, you’ve got a story to tell, and you’re talking straight to them.

Getting them hooked is one thing. Interested is another. But really getting the reader to the point where they can say to someone “I’ve read a couple chapters, and I really like it so far” — that’s the first solid milestone.

Give Readers what They Need & Build to Outline Your Novel or Nonfiction

You want your book’s readers to understand the context for the book right away. Weigh in the first page they should clearly know the main theme of your book. Not the thesis statement of it, but what’s at the heart. They should be able to immediately see themselves living inside it for hours.

You want readers to figure out quickly that they have some idea of what’s going on. Don’t overload the beginning, keep them walking through the introduction to the topic or the characters’ world, and give them a few pages to put together familiar pieces. Connect with things similar to what readers have heard or seen before.

The beginning of your book can namedrop or allude to references, and it should convince the reader you know what you’re talking about. Both for fiction and nonfiction.

Keep the Reader Guessing

Although it will be tempting at the beginning, don’t reveal every secret. Don’t list off everything that makes your book different. Let your readers discover why your book is different and tell you when they’ve finished it. Instead, focus on letting them see how the knowledge they bring from their experience as a reader is going to pay off for them in your book.

Then, when they think they have a handle on the topic at hand and the world you’ve created for your characters, drop the first bomb on them. Shatter something the reader took for granted, something they thought they knew and understood. Put something familiar in a new light, and you’ll get them passed the beginning of the book and into its middle.

Second Tip to Outline Your Novel or Nonfiction Book: When You Get to the End, Stop

Next in the outline of your novel or nonfiction book, consider the end of your book. Your ending has to stick, if you want anyone to leave an online review or tell their friends about you. Too often I see writers really dig into the beginning and lose steam by the end. So, outline your book’s ending before its middle.

Use one of your three sheets of paper to brainstorm the answers to the three following questions. 

  1. Where does the reader end up?
  2. How do they feel?
  3. What should they do next?

If you plot the end of your book with clear intentions of the results you’re aiming for, you are more likely to hit them. Consider both issues of plot structure and resolution for character arcs, as well as the emotional ripples you’ll be sending through your readers’ souls. Do you want readers to be better prepared for something in the world? Do you want them to have an emotional reaction? 

Again, considering how your book’s outline functions like a road map, this is your general idea of the destination you want to reach and the welcome you expect on your arrival. 

Outline Your Novel to Avoid "The Curse of the Dragging Middle"

The middle of your book will likely comprise approximately 40 to 60% of your overall content, depending on how thorough you are with your first and final sections. And, I would reckon that “somewhere in the middle” is where 40 to 60% of readership lose interest.  

This is the “meat” in burger that is your book. So your outline can’t “yada yada” past this important section. It may be tempting to rush it, but take as much time considering how to avoid making your middle “drag” as you did with brainstorming how to engage the reader in the beginning. 

Avoid a sagging middle section in your book by addressing four questions:

  1. How do I get the reader from where they are to where I want them to go?
  2. What are the 3 most important things I have to tell them (in 2 sentences each)?
  3. What order should I release this important information?
  4. How can I capture readers’ hearts and minds?

Don’t underestimate the value of having a road map to get you through this important section. If you want people to finish your book, think ahead about the course you’ll guide them along. 

Of course, this first outline isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, and the draft will change. But you’ll know where you’re starting, where you want to end up, and have a vague way how to get there if you outline your novel or nonfiction book.

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Ad Copy & Poetry: Kissing Cousins

Depictions of billboards at a busy intersection to relate ad copy and poetry

In writing for businesses, I frequently hear marketing directors/executives/creative team leaders say something to the effect of “Make every word count. We want them to feel, not think. Lead their thoughts with your words.” This is at the heart of ad copy. 

It’s poetry, commercialized. (Oh, and dumbed down to the LCD). People marketing to you expect to you read, feel, and react at about the level of a thirteen year old. Don’t think they respect your intelligence. They think the buyer is “smart” and “savvy”, not knowledgeable.

In my most humblest of opinions.

So, what can we learn here, about this crucial fact of both genres of perhaps the least-read words on the planet? (Think about it: lower but more dedicated readership numbers for poetry vs. a widespread yet fickle audience in advertising.)

“Impact” and “retention” are the names of the games in both.

Impact is Instant in both Ad Copy & Poetry

Whether it’s poetry or sales copy, you need to land with an immediate impact. No, not immediate. Instant. Where in a novel, a reader may give you a whole page to sufficiently hook them, and in a short story the reader might allow you at least a paragraph to breathe magic into words, readers of ad copy and poetry give you about three words.

Three. Friggin. Words.

In no time flat, you have to trigger the reader into some kind of reaction. Get them through to the end of the sentence. That’s your first goal.

All the advice you’ve heard about eliminating adverbs? Now is the time.

You will find a difference in the use of adjectives in poetry vs. ads though. In poetry, you want sensory images and specifics that come with detailed nouns. In ad copy, adjectives can be useful to trigger emotions. You want the reader to be able to picture the product in their hand and their life.

With that being said, some of the same rules apply. Alliteration. Cacophony. The old school literary devices that you “need to know“, all show up in poetry and ad copy.

Retention Depends on Goals

Consider your end goal when writing. 

If you want readers to feel, perhaps reflect and think very deeply, then you’re writing poetry, and you probably can keep someone who reads the first line engaged enough to read the first stanza. From there, it’s up to you to keep them engaged in every line.

If you want the reader to feel something within three words and take action by the end of a single sentence, then you’re in ad-copy-land.

For either type of writing, thinking about the goal of your words will lead to retention of your readers. If your goal is to entertain and inspire, and you focus your words on that, not only can you engage the reader for the entire poem or advertisement, but you have a higher chance of grabbing their attention in future encounters.

Ad Copy & Poetry: Concise. Clear. Compelling.

It’s what both ad copy writing and poetry must be.

Need editing for poetry or ad copy?

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Tips for Consistent Quality Writing

tips-quality-writing

There’s a problem with doing something well: Once is rarely enough. When you do something (like producing quality writing) well, two things can happen:

  1. Other people begin to expect more of you, and
  2. You begin to expect more of yourself

For a writer, this can be great. A well-done piece deserves the admiration it receives, and you should be proud when an article, poem, essay, story, or book comes together.

But unless you’re one among the rare breed of author — and I mean really, really rare — who can launch a career from one great piece, a single successful publication will not a sustainable income make.

Setting Unreasonable Standards

So after your first great piece, you sit down to write the next one. Immediately the demon of comparison shows up on your shoulder.

What if it’s not as good as your first published thing? What if you don’t live up to the expectations for quality writing you’ve set for yourself?

On some level, you try to tell yourself, “Everything will be okay if it’s not ‘perfect.'”

So you let something slide. Relax a little on your vigilance to push the quality to its extreme.

But if your first high-quality product was noticed by the public, you can bet that any dip in quality will be noticed, too. You set a high standard that others now expect to see in your work, and when they don’t see it, they will let you know.

Setting Reasonable Writing Expectations

What’s the lesson here? How do you keep yourself from being caught in an endless loop of writing better and pushing yourself to the limit every time?

Well, you don’t.

Some people think they can avoid this challenge by settling for a lower quality piece and set low expectations at the beginning. But ask yourself: Why would you expect to get readers if you lower your standards?

Readers have fairly low tolerance for writers who treat them like fools. If you’re offering mediocre or low quality, they won’t be back for more.

With lower quality writing, you’re less likely to engage as many people to begin with or bring back the ones you engage with the first time.

So what to do?

Quality Writing Tip #1: Do your best.

One man’s trash is another’s treasure and all that. If your prose is clean and error free, and your plot is well structured with thought-out character arcs and a solid narrative, readers may forgive historical inaccuracies, use of clichés or bland characters and world building.

Do your best, and be prepared to hear that your best wasn’t “perfect.”

Present the reader with a polished package, and they may overlook some areas where it could be improved. Or, at least you’ll receive feedback on what to improve for your next piece.

Quality Writing Tip #2: Use feedback.

Don’t just “receive” feedback, use it.

If you received praise from readers, and you want to know why they thought your book was high quality — ask!

This might take the form of social media polls, reading your reviews and comment threads, or sending out reader copies  of your work and asking for specific advice.

Use what your readers say to recognize at least four things your readers generally agree was high quality about your writing or the book in general, and identify at two areas where you can push the quality to higher levels in the next poem or manuscript.

Quality Writing Tip #3: Look for quality to emulate.

Maybe you really admire colorful metaphors or quirky descriptions and world building. Maybe tight and minimal sentences are what you strive for.

Read books from some of the great writers in your genre or historical time period and pick out examples of what you think makes their writing great.

Work to structure your sentences the same way, use metaphors or descriptors similarly, or mimic the dialogue style that you find engaging. Whatever it is that you enjoy about reading their work, use as a model for your own craft.

Quality Writing Tip #4: Be patient. Quality takes time.

Be prepared to tackle your manuscript in multiple revision iterations.

Maybe one day, you revise the entire thing with a focus on word choice. Then, the next day, you do a read-through and edit to focus on historical accuracy. Stay focused on the areas you’ve marked for improvement and special attention. Be patient.

You might be midway through your outline and realize you need to do additional research or watch a movie that people recommended as a reference. Do it.

Don’t let the pressure to put out a follow up to your first well-received work push you to a hasty release of the next piece.

If you’re honestly working to improve, you must work as hard as you did the first time, so you can reach the level of quality you’ve already set for yourself. Then, push at least 25% past that. Work harder than you’ve ever worked before; the improvement will show.

Once you become recognized for your skill, enjoy it. But don’t stop.

No one wants to be a one-trick pony, and compromising on your writing quality ensures you will be.

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On Intransitive Emotions: Emotional Writing Practice

Pink blooming flowers on the branch of the bush. To express emotional writing and intransitive verbs.

Where Do Emotions Go?

Do feelings have direct objects? Many do. Most of the time.

We do not feel an emotion like love if it is not directed toward some thing or someone. We don’t usually feel anger without a source, a thing that is the reason for our anger. Whether or not anger and love are ultimately directed toward the correct thing is a separate issue. But overall, they are not objectless. Not without an objective.

But what about gratitude? Or loneliness? Or freedom? Or even anxiety?

Some human emotions, like some verbs in the English language, may not need to act upon a direct object. Some things we, as humans, simply feel without it being directed toward a specific thing. Regardless of who caused the emotion or where it came from. Or what we plan to do with it.

I have heard it said that grief is love with nowhere to go. How beautifully tragic. You have so much love, but no object to direct it toward. You’ve lost someone or something you love, and what’s left is this love with no object to love. So it is transformed into grief. And then what do you do with it?

If you can learn to harness and develop your most emotional writing, you may be able to direct these emotions and express their universality to others.

Emotional Writing Is about Range

Consider: It is easy to write about emotions that come from an obvious person or can be directed easily outward or inward toward some manifestation. It is easy to show through emotional writing that a character is angry based on his or her reaction to the circumstances.

But your writing can grow from learning to express the intransitive actions and feelings of life. The things we all simply feel. The things we can’t necessarily explain or simply express.

Consider the sentence: He ran.

The verb does not need to act on anything. It stands alone. No object. This is what makes it an intransitive verb.

What emotions might your character have that run by themselves? What emotional state does your character default to? What might be some of the intransitive emotions that your character feels but which don’t have an object? 

How can you express something like a character’s gratitude for the wind on her face with emotional writing? Is the character grateful to someone or something for the wind, or does she simply feel the gratitude without having anywhere to put it? 

Does your character’s emotion need an object? It can have one, sure, but it may not be necessary. Just like he can run quickly. Or he can run on the pavement, your character can be grateful to someone or something. Even if it’s ineffable.

And if you, dear writer, can make your characters’ actions and intransitive emotions tangible, you will lead readers into a much richer world through the emotional writing that draws readers in and makes characters come to life.

This may be something to incorporate into your own self-editing and revision, as well as an item to address with your creative editor to ensure you’re working together to make your emotional writing as creative and expressive as possible. 

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Eye Care for Writers

eye-care-writers

Working indoors, sitting and staring at a computer for many hours per day, is not what humans evolved for throughout history. But our big brains have led us here, and we’ve developed a society where some people have to look at screens for many hours per day, which requires eye care. 

Studies have shown, and it is well documented in the research, that a sedentary lifestyle, including working at a computer, can have serious physical effects and can be harmful to a person’s body and their physical health. 

In particular, if you are like me—a writer or other professional who stares at a computer screen for hours on end—you need to know how this can affect your eyes.

Screens Kill Your Eyes

The results are in: The blue light from your computer, television, and mobile device screens is killing the cells in your eyes. 

Blue light contributes to macular degeneration, which means the breakdown of cells. Researchers also believe that an indoor lifestyle can contribute to a lack of vitamin D, another contributing factor to cellular degeneration. 

On top of this, people who naturally are a risk of lower levels of vitamin D, such as people with darker skin tones, who absorb less natural light, may be at a greater risk.

So if you have more melanin in your skin, work indoors, and stare at screens all day, you are at a higher risk of having your eyesight fail at a younger age. 

Blue-Light Filtering EyeGlasses—Do they help?

The results are still out: I don’t know. But, it seems, most of the results out there are anecdotal. Research isn’t required for eye wear, and the effect may very well be placebo. 

But, I was experiencing eye strain. Bluriness and bleariness. Difficulties reading and focusing after many hours on the screens. 

For months, I have kept the blue light filter mode set “On” at all times on my phone as basic, minimal eye care. This is part of the usual “night mode” settings that are often built in—reducing the blue light after a certain time to help offset the upset that screentime can have on a person’s Circadian rhythm. But for me, I’ve just had the blue filter “On” on my phone for months anyhow. 

I think it helps. I have thought it helped for months. Often, once my eyes get tired on my computer—which has a TV screen that doubles as my second monitor—I’ll switch to my phone because it’s easier on my eyes. 

My First Pair of Blue-Light Filter Glasses

So for Christmas 2019, I was excited to receive a pair of ICU Blue Light eye glasses. They’re cute, and easy enough to wear. I’ve never worn glasses for reading or general eye problem—only the sunglasses I need to protect my vampirism—so it’s a new experience for me to wear glasses indoors, as part of a normal eye care focused look.

Of course, the day after Christmas, it was back to work to push toward my end-of-the-year deadlines on projects, and I was doubly excited to give my new glasses a try. 

The results after only one day? The jury is still out. 

It was a long day—10+ hours looking at the TV, computer, and phone screens—but I do feel like the eye strain was less. There is a noticeable difference, looking at the screens with the glasses on vs. looking at them with the glasses off. When the glasses are off, I can see how much more blue the screens look. It’s a similar effect that I’m used to when I turn the blue light filter on and off on my phone. So, it’s nice to see that I can at least see a difference immediately when putting on the glasses. Expect an update and full review after a few weeks of trying them out. 

Writers—Eye Care & Eye Strain Tips

  • Give your eyes a break. Schedule yourself to look away from your screen at regular intervals. Consider using the Pomodoro technique to organize your day, and during your 5 minute eye care breaks, spend your time looking at something without a screen.
  • Hang a landscape picture. Looking at a “distant object” gives your eyes a break. If you are near a window, great! Every 20 minutes or so, look out the window for 30 seconds at something far in the distance. If you don’t have a window, hang a picture or image of a landscape, with a house, waterfall, or other object in the distance. By gazing at the picture for 30 seconds or so every 20 minutes, you can give your eyes the same relaxation from staring at something up-close for so long.
  • Genetic eye enhancements. Consider getting upgrades for your eyes from GeneCo., the leading dystopian sci-fi corporation that can provide you with tireless, mechanical eyes that never need eye care. Embrace the future, chase the morning. 

Ready to discuss your manuscript?

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29 Words to Cut from Your Novel

tips-words-novel

Each writer lives in a special, unique mind. Each can combine words into glorious chains, never before seen by human eyes. Yet, each writer is also a flawed human, who is liable to trip on the same rubble on the path to beautiful writing as every other writer. (And no writer wants to hear that there are words to cut from their writing…)

Now, first drafts are supposed to be messy. Second drafts, less so. But it’s not easy to clean up the first draft to turn it into the second. Nor is it simple to revise the second draft into the third. As an editor, I know. I’ve been there with my own writing and the writing of others.

Behold! A Video to Help!

Vivien Reis is a writer, editor, and YouTuber. 

I’ve had this video saved for a couple of years, and I keep referencing it when editing my clients’ fiction and nonfiction. 

When I thought about writing a blog on the topic of editing for word choice, I started to make my own list of words to cut. Then I realized: Why re-invent the wheel? Vivian’s done a spectacular job to begin with.

Instructions for Word Choice Edits & Which Words to Cut

Generally, I suggest writers do at least one edit through their manuscript for “word choice.” As you watch this video, take notes on which of these writing habits you’ve gotten yourself into, which of these words to cut you think might show up in your work. 

Then, open your manuscript. Let’s take a look at the current status. 

Do an automated search for the first word or phrase in question. In MS Word and Google Docs, you can Find specific words or phrases by pressing CTRL + F (or Command + F on Mac) on your keyboard. When you have the results, record the number of appearances in your notes. 

Search for all the words or phrases, without making any changes. First, you’re just gathering info. 

Making Changes

First, let me say: I do not advise that you use “Find + Replace All”.

I advise that you find all instances of a word or phrase, then examine each to determine the necessary action.

Yes. It is tedious. I understand. I have two points for you to consider: 

  1. Writing the book was tedious. You did that though. You can do this part.
  2. If you don’t do it, you can always pay your editor to edit these out for you. 

The reason I do not advocate that you simply “delete all” uses of a word or phrase, is that it will cause additional unintended effects. Trust me. Especially if what you Find & Replace can sometimes appear as part of another word. 

Instead, work your way through the words and phrases you’d like to cut or revise, search for each individually, then examine each occurrence and make a decision about how to handle each of them.

Some Words to Cut / "Big Offenders"

In the video, Vivian points out some of the biggest offenders that have become littered across contemporary writing. These are words — typically, adverbs — that can easily be removed, and generally when they are, your sentence will lose no meaning. 

Here is my “Big Offenders” list of words to cut. I commonly see each of these, and spend a significant amount of time and energy making sure to reduce their use.

  • very
  • just
  • that
  • “began” or “started”
  • “a bit,” “a little,” “a lot,” and other imprecise amounts
  • “kinda,” “sorta,” “almost,” and other hedging words
In particular, I see “just” frequently used, so I’ll pick on it as an example. Unless you’re discussing the concept of “justice,” limit the use of “just.” Just is just one of those words that just works itself into a sentence just about anywhere.

Bonus Thoughts on Words to Cut from Your Writing

What else do I look at when editing? Two other things I notice frequently that I suggest you examine in your manuscript: 

  1. “Parallel action”: You can find this by searching for the use of ‘as’ in your writing. It usually appears in dialogue tags, as in: she said as she walked or he thought while grabbing his hat. Of course, you will need to use this sometimes. Remember to vary your sentence structure.
  2. “Extreme hyperbole”: Examine your fight or action scenes. Do your characters often overexert themselves? I often see phrasing like as hard as she could or with the last of his strength, only to have the character continue to escalate the action after that phrase. Consider how to build tension Show the exertion, rather than tell about it.

Maybe these aren’t words to “cut,” but they are certainly things you want to be mindful of. 

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Using Personality “Tests” in Fiction

Depicting different colored wooden chess pieces to demonstrate how personality tests can be used in fiction writing to develop characters.

Understand Personality to Connect with Audience & Write Strong Fiction Characters

Who are your readers of fiction? Who are your characters in fiction?

How do you connect them?

In essence, this is the challenge of the fiction writer — replacing real people with believable ones, and then somehow making them real for the real ones.

The connections? Personality.

(Not even “humanity” because even non-human characters need to have a personality.)

Personality Is Not Persona

Let me distinguish here between personality and persona. The personality is the inside — the character’s core and true self. The persona is the outside — the reflection and projection of who the personality is in the exterior world. 

The personality may drive the fictional character to have an entirely different persona, and as the writer you must have a clear understanding of both. What’s even better is when you can give the reader the same clear connection. The same dual perspective. This is especially cool when executed well with a villain.

Personality Inventories

Real life personality inventories are often inaccurately called “tests.” Let’s distinguish here: tests are things you can pass and fail; they’re a scale of knowledge. There’s no such thing as a personality test, because no one can fail to have a personality, even characters in fiction.

Psychologists who study personality use inventories, which simply categorize and group types of people according to certain traits. Much like how, if you were the grocery store manager, you would organize your inventory according to food types — produce, meat and seafood, dairy, etc.

There are many theories of personality, its development, and how to understand people according to their basic types. Each of these has its flaws, and each can be useful for fiction writers in their own ways

Pace Pallette Personality Inventory

For more than 20 years, the Pace Palette Personality Inventory method of categorizing people by their communication styles has been used by sales and marketing companies, along with professionals in other industries, to better connect with their clientele.

For full details, order the kit, but the questionnaire reveals personality traits that group people into one of four color types/palettes: red, yellow, blue, and green.

Red people are high-energy, type-A, bottom-line-first, and action-oriented.

Yellow people value rules, structure, and routine. They are often community-oriented and generous, while also being highly regulated and strict with themselves.

Blue people are intuitive, free-spirited, and can be incredibly creative.

Green people are curious, analytical, and puzzle lovers.

While everyone has traits of one “type” or another, one color tends to dominate the palette and “color” the person’s understanding of the world. Use this as a general guideline for how your fiction world might be colored by different people.  

Sally Hogshead "How to Fascinate" Personality Test

Writer and motivator Sally Hogshead has developed a questionnaire called “How to Fascinate” that helps reveal to the taker what his or her personality “archetype” is, out of nearly 30 options. In particular, this system is touted as “understand how the world sees you” so that you can capitalize on your strengths through your interactions with other people.

As a self-promoting writer, you can use this to get your readers “fascinated” with you — help them understand your unique strengths, appeal across different personality types, and explore how to connect with others who are like and unlike you.

As a creative writer, you can use this to enhance your characters and their interactions. What makes your protagonist uniquely special? Why do you want your readers to be sucked into this or that character?

Understanding the unique fascinating aspects of different personality types can bring readers back to their favorite characters again and again — storylines and scenes they can’t get out of their heads. That’s what you want, isn’t it?

The Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory

The classic, yet somewhat controversial, Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory has gone through multiple iterations over the past 50 years. Based on a series of questions and scenarios, a person is rated across 4 personality categories, and the unique combination can reveal insight into how someone processes information and makes decisions, which is invaluable when building your fiction characters.

Meyers-Briggs Categories

Extroversion vs. Introversion

This scale describes someone’s “attitudes” and how much time they prefer to spend “inward facing” or “outward facing.” How much importance does someone place on their relationships with others vs. their relationship with themselves? Extroverted people draw energy from action, and introverted people draw energy from reflection and the internal world of ideas.

Sensing vs. Intuition

This scale describes how someone gathers information, how new information is understood and interpreted. Does the person seek out information about the world and other people in a logical, empirical sense, or by an intuitive gut instinct? How much emphasis does the person place on the importance of the source of information?

Thinking vs. Feeling

This scale describes how a person makes decisions. Does a person prefer to make decisions from a logical standpoint, or do they come to a decision by empathizing with the situation, looking at it “from the inside,” and considering the harmony of all involved? 

Judgments vs. Perception

This scale describes how the person combines and applies their other personality traits to the outside world and toward everyday life. People who have a “judging type” tend to show the world their preferences for judging, thinking, or feeling. They can come across as experts who “have matters settled.” It is important to them that others see them as knowledgeable and informed.

People with a “perception type” show the world their sensing or intuition and prefer to “keep decisions open” or leave opinions as “TBD,” dependent on more information. It is important to them that others see that they are open to learning about the world.

Fun fact: I’m an INTJ! It’s one of the rarest personality types, making up only about 2% of the population!  

Connecting with Fiction Readers

If you’re an established fiction writer who has a fan base already, you want to know who they are. Not just the age and location demographics — although that helps — but understanding their motivations and emotional reactions allows you to write in a way to connect with them on deep levels.

If you actively engage with your audience on social media, run a social psych experiment with them.

Look at the various inventories and think of creative ways to find out more about which categories your readers fall into. 

For example, on the Pace inventory, blue types are commonly animal lovers. Run a poll to ask your readers if they own a pet. Green personality types are highly curious, so ask your readers on a scale of 1-10 how bad it bothers them if they can’t find the answer to a question. Or, think of a character in literature who represents each personality type and poll your audience to find out which they love most. (Hint: Sherlock Holmes is green.)

Not only can you use these personality inventories to create characters in your own fiction, you can use the information within them to connect better with your readers, reaching them in deeply personal ways with characters and plot lines custom-tailored to their enjoyment. 

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Write like the Greats: Charles Bukowski

write-greats-bukowski
“Understand me.
I’m not like an ordinary world.
I have my madness,
I live in another dimension
and I do not have time for things
that have no soul.”

Writing like Bukowski

I don’t know much about Charles Bukowski. I know his reputation of being a … less-than-pleasant person. As Modest Mouse said, “God, who’d want to be such an asshole?“

But I know poetry (like ee cummings). I know good writing. Every now and then, I stumble across some writing from Bukowski, and it slaps me across the face. 

Bukowski’s writing is raw.

His style is known for being no-frills. Bare-bones. And somehow, as in this example, there is strength in his vulnerability. There is grit ground into his wounds that seem to have scarred over, but he has never forgotten. 

There is anger in these words. But is there not determination? And hope? And a promise for tomorrow? 

The Beginnings

Look at how he begins each line of this poem — as a bold statement about himself. A declaration of truth. 

First, he demands of the reader what they will do. An unapologetic demand that the reader do better, try something different — understanding. Then, he explains what he is (and is not) in a single line, and continues to tell the reader what he has and how he lives.

All these truths command the reader to follow his initial demand. You will understand the straightforwardness of his words, if nothing else. If you understand nothing of what he says, you know by the end what he thinks of you. 

The Last Word

Then, look at the last word of each line. Each thought ends on a noun. A thing. Something real that you can sink your teeth into. Each of these — me, world, madness, dimension, things — evokes an image. Evokes a texture, sound, or feeling. You can picture them in your mind, you could describe them to someone else if you needed to. 

And here is where Bukowski’s vulnerability comes to its head: he needs you to understand him. He needs you to hear what he has to say. Dismiss it when you’ve reached the end, if you want, but for a few sentences, he has made you do something different. He has made you think not only about him and what he is, but perhaps he has made you think about what and who you are as well. 

As tough as he may have appeared, Bukowski needed this connection. With you. He needed you to understand for a moment. And he does not ask this of you — he demands it. 

Bukowski Poetry Tip of the Day:

The heart of your poem (or even, your fiction) is what you’re demanding from your reader. Do not ask them for their attention — command it. Do not ask them to let you show your vulnerability, slice your heart open on the page and make it so they can’t look away. 

Because that is the soul of this poem, isn’t it? We all need to be understood. We all am things, have things, and live … but Bukowski reminds us that we do not have time. 

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On Drinking, Smoking, & Drugs in Fiction

drink-drugs-fiction

Writers: Make sure if your fictional character is doing these things (drinking, smoking, and drugs) the reader has some sense of how it affects them. What’s their experience level with the substance? How do we know? Writing drinking and drugs in fiction can be a challenge, but with a little planning, you can get it right. 

A reader considers themselves to be “a good judge of character.” He or she also (generally) considers him/herself to be intelligent, not easily fooled,  and a good judge of truth.

You can be the judge of your readers’ ability to judge. I’m not here to judge that.

That being said, readers will notice when a writer mentions that a character is drinking, smoking, or doing drugs, but the character is not acting as if he or she is actually doing those things. If a character is supposed to be experienced at trying certain substances, but doesn’t use the terms that users use, or can’t explain how to ingest the drug and what effects to expect to a new user, the reader will call bullshit before the end of the page.

Writing Tip of the Day: Be Prepared to Go Gonzo, a la Hunter S. Thompson

If your characters are going to drink, prepare to make them drunk dial. If your characters are going to get stoned, prepare to make them lose track of large chunks of time and consume mass quantities of chips. … Jokes aside: your readers need to be able to see themselves in your characters. There needs to be the realism that alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs in fiction all have a relatable effect on the characters.

If your character has knocked back multiple double whiskeys and isn’t slurring his words or stumbling over his feet, the reader will need a reason to understand how your character has such a high tolerance.

If your character is sparking up a cigarette in every scene, then immediately snuffing it out in the next paragraph, your readers who smoke will roll their eyes. “At least, if you’re going to have the character light the damn thing, incorporate it for a reason.”

If your character is trying different types of drugs that give different highs, someone who has chased one type of high or another in real life will know. (Drugs in fiction can be especially questionable or unrealistic.)

It’s part of what made Thompson so powerful: he lived the experiences. He could write about the life he was living.

Not that I’m advocating any single one of you pick up any of the lifestyle choices (drinking, smoking, drugs, etc.) mentioned here: simply that, if they are not a part of your lifestyle, you will need to talk to people who have lived it, you will need to research what it is like to actually live the lifestyle in order to accurately relate it.

You have to be prepared to take it to a Thompson-esque level for your character when incorporating drinking and drugs in fiction. You have to be ready to make the character’s experience believable for the reader. Or else, by the time your character “sobers up,” your reader will already be home and in bed with another book.

Photo credit: Antoine Douglas at Concrete Rose Films.

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Chance, Luck, & The Deus ex Machina in Fiction Writing

chance-luck-deus-ex-machina

Fiction writers: It’s easy to be lazy. When you’ve gotten your characters into a difficult situation, you might think you can quickly move them to another location or give them what they need by including “as luck would have it” or “by chance,” and that explains how your characters saved themselves. 

Don’t be lazy. Move the plot with character motivations, and use chance and luck in realistic ways, to make the story more engaging and believable for the reader. 

What is the difference between ‘chance’ and ‘luck’? 

Chance is when your characters are in the right place, at the right time. Luck is how the ‘magic’ of their world affects them when they’re in the right time, at right place.

Let’s dig a bit deeper: Many people believe there are forces that pull on people’s lives. Untraceable energies, but persistent, energies like tides that move a person through their destiny.

Many other people believe that there is a force inside a person that attracts or repels other forces, making each person a more active participant in their own destiny.

Many people believe in a combination of both.

Forgive my oversimplifications and bear with me. My point is:

If you, as a fiction writer, understand how the elements of chance and luck work in life, you’ll understand how to use them to move your story’s plot.

Your Characters, the Deux & Destiny

In a narrative, consider the distinction between chance and luck. Consider whether your characters take chances or make luck for themselves.

Your characters will need to be moved from one place to another. It may be convenient for you, as the writer, to have coincidences occur – chance meetings, moments where “as luck would have it” – the character is in the right place at the right time. Or has the right weapon. Or snatches up the dropped item in the nick of time.

None of these are chance or luck. They are you putting a God in the machine to ‘magic’ away a problem.

Tone back the chance and luck. Save it for the best moments. Don’t make things easy on your characters. People who luck their way out of everything don’t grow, and frankly, are boring.

Fiction Writing Analysis & Example: Sean of the Dead

Remember in Sean of the Dead when Sean and his group are heading to the pub, and they run into Sean’s ex and her group of friends? That was a chance meeting. Logically, smart people familiar with the area would use the same unpopular escape routes and happen to meet up with each other along the way.

No information that saved the day was exchanged. No sacred items were passed or last messages left or dramatic rendezvous planned. It just so happened, two people who knew each other — but didn’t influence each others’ stories much — ran into each other. A chance meeting.

On the other hand, luck is when something that Sean and his friends needed happened to be in the right place at the right time, right when they needed it. While there are several moments throughout the film that could qualify, one obvious moment is the working gun at the Winchester saloon. After some dialogue earlier in the film about the rifle, as luck would have it, it was a ready-to-use weapon, with ammunition within reach.

Here, that lucky advantage is offset by a series of hilarious circumstances that oppose the characters and prevent them from taking advantage of the luck. None of the characters are willing or able to shoot the rifle. And once they figure out a method, a bumble with the ammunition quickly renders useless the most valuable, luckiest weapon they’ve come across.

This film is an example of good fiction writing keeping chance and luck believable, even in the most extreme of zombi-pocalypse circumstances. The plot moved forward through luck, then the luck was undermined; luck didn’t come through to save the day either. Although the writers had a chance to give the characters an advantage, they didn’t. They balanced good luck with bad, which kept the tension high in every scene.

The God Who Distributes Luck When It’s Not Needed

Fiction writers have the ability to distribute luck and chance on their characters at will, and often, many default to a position where they throw a lucky bone at a character in a moment of need. It’s trite — when will the character’s luck run out? The reader may begin to expect that nothing will happen to the character, which means nothing will happen in the plot. An overly lucky, unbelievable moment can throw a reader into a shrug and frustrated grunt, as they close the book or turn off their e-reader. 

Instead, be a different kind of fiction writer. Be the god who distributes luck when it’s not needed. Not in a malicious way, but when the character thinks they’ve found a solution, the lucky alternative presents itself. Or when your character is not looking for the chance encounter, it passes them by, but the reader sees it and understands what has just happened. 

Creating this kind of surprise interaction keeps the plot moving in fresh ways, and challenges the reader to guess what’s going to happen next, to keep up with the fun ride you’re taking them on. 

Keep your characters always needing something, and every lucky chance that presents itself getting them closer but not quite there, and you’ll keep your readers longing for more of the story of their eventual success. 

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Writing Challenge: Include Sensations of Movement

writing-challenge-movement

Any time you complete a writing challenge, you encourage your own best writerly self. In today’s blog, let’s discuss the challenge of using action-oriented verbs to describe motion, movement, and physical sensations.

Movement Is Special

The universe is in constant motion. This is my understanding of its oh-so-important laws of physics. Movement is as natural and as important to the world condition as anything.

Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, it’s important to address your characters movements through space. How can you describe the movements of people in their mannerisms and daily life? And, how do you express the physical sensation of movement?

To get a sense of writing the physical sensation of movement, try this verb-oriented writing challenge.

Writing Challenge: Capturing & Embodying Movement

Write in a moving car, or on a train or bus ride. Or on a plane. The point is to focus on your body’s sensations during the motion. What is the sensation in your fingertips? On your skin? In your guts? Would you describe it as a rush? A crawl? A tingle? Dive into it.

* Note: Of course, if you have motion sickness or this makes you ill, don’t complete this or any writing challenge that will be detrimental to your health.

For most people, spending a few minutes honing into this sensation with a dedicated writing challenge focuses their active verb choice. Make your mind aware that motion is tied to sensation, and you’ll put the reader inside the characters’ skin.

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Year-Round Writing Challenge Bonus: National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo)

Are you the type of writer who’s up for a year-round series of writing challenges where you can partner and support fellow writers? If you’re not yet a member/participant, check out National Novel Writing Month (known as NanoWriMo). The official month-long writing challenge takes place in November, with mini-challenges that occur in March and July. Join editor Cortni’s writing group! 

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Reading for Fiction Writing

reading-fiction-writing

How to Be a Better Writer...

You’ve heard it before: the advice that says, “If you want to be a great writer, be an avid reader.” Reading, they say, will improve your writing, nearly guaranteed. 

Of course, it’s true. But it’s also sort of redundant. You don’t have to tell most writers to read; they already know.

Instead, you have to tell them how to read if you really want to help them.

Expanding High School English

Symbols. Themes. Context. Plot devices.

Wait! Don’t have a high-school-flashback-related panic attack. Come back. It’s easier than it sounds.

So, we were taught a lot of things about how to read and write in high school. These lessons may have served you well, or you may have dismissed them. Either way, if you have a few tricks left over from what you learned reading MacBeth, what you can definitely do is expand on them.

Reading for Vocabulary

One of the things about reading is the exposure you get to different ideas, cultures, lifestyles, and languages. If you’re reading challenging material — like, not Dr. Seuss — you should see words and phrases in your reading that you’ve never encountered before. It may seem remedial, but it’s worth remembering — look up new words.

Some writers love to show off their extensive knowledge by busting out the expensive, precise, and complicated language. If you run across an obscure word that sounds super-duper fancy-pants, look it up. Write it down. Make a note. Teach yourself a new word.

Personally, I recommend the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as my favorite, but realistically, use any dictionary that is convenient and works for you.

You might, if you’re so inclined, even look more into the root of the word and how it connects to other words in its language family. Want to dig into the etymology (i.e., “history” or “genealogy”) of the word? I recommend the user-friendly app, Etymology Explorer, which makes it easy to #wordnerd out no matter where you’re writing.

Reading for Quirky Ideas

Creativity is the ability to connect two unexpected ideas in a refreshing or insightful way.

One of the best things about reading widely and well is the ideas you stumble across that you never would have thought to make. The comparisons that strike you like a belly-flop, the fresh perspectives you would never have noticed.

When you read, keep notes to yourself of quirky ideas that come up. Does a line inspire you to think of a new character? Does a description of a setting make you want to write your own scenes there? What is it about the writing you read that makes you think, and what does it make you think about?

Reading for Plot Holes

Do you ever read or watch something and ask, “Why did the character do that?” or think, “I would have changed the dialogue here.”

Well, critical reader, put that critique to use. When you notice a way in which you would handle the action of a story differently, write it out. You may be surprised how adding ideas spawned of critiques can enhance your scrap pile.

You also likely notice, because of your highly trained critical eye, holes in the plot that the writer missed. A loose end that isn’t tied up. A break in the character or problems with the timeline.

Noticing these problems in other writers’ work is a key first step to identifying them in yours. When your reading includes an eye for plot holes, you will learn to spot and avoid the same holes in your own plots.

🌹

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The Importance of Food in Fiction

food-fiction

Now, I am not a great cook. I am not a chef. I cannot tell you how to fully integrate the text of cooking and food in fiction writing — although I can recommend to you a few enjoyable reads that can.

What I am writing to you about here is the idea of how important it is to remember the basics of food in your writing:

The kitchen as a space. Food as fuel. The experience of eating.

Food in Fiction #1: The Kitchen as a Space.

Things happen in the kitchen. Kitchens are a valuable space — physical, mental, emotional, social, and cultural space — in a home, and always have been. It bugs me to read a scene where characters simply stand around in the kitchen. It’s not just “a room” — it’s probably the most valuable room to show your characters’ true selves.

What are they doing in the kitchen? How can what they do show who they are? They should open cabinets, put away dishes, wash off plates and bowls, gather ingredients to make a smoothie, make noise but try to be quiet, get out the bread and butter for toast, complain about spilled water on the floor or ants on the counter. Rearrange the items on the shelves unnecessarily. Find the remote in the freezer and the crab legs freezerburned. Again. When incorporating food in fiction, it’s not just about the food itself, it’s about all the ways it takes up space in our lives, represented by the physical room, the kitchen. 

Food in Fiction #2: Characters Should Live in Their Kitchen

Remember to make your characters move in the kitchen space, interacting normally as you or someone else might in the kitchen. Have someone absentmindedly wiping the counter, polishing an invisible spot as they daydream. Have someone forget to put away the leftovers and have to throw them out the next day. If kitchens are the hearts of homes, remember to show your characters’ lives by the way they interact with others through the shared space of the kitchen.

Kitchens are also places of memory. People spend time in kitchens with people they love, people they may miss, and this makes kitchens prime settings for flashbacks. Memories of food are intricately intertwined with memories of people, as are dramatic events that may have happened in the kitchen in the past. Remember: kitchens are not only in homes. Consider how working in a restaurant kitchen for years may have affected a character, if that’s his or her backstory.

Picture of fresh-baked bread. Several loaves piled on each other on a red background. Food in fiction is important

Food as Fuel

Don’t forget that your characters need to eat. Unless you’re writing superhero stories — and even then, really — your characters must break the action of their narratives to have meals. There simply must be food in fiction. I appreciate this about film — Quentin Tarantino’s films often include characters stopping the events of their crazy lives to eat, like “normal” people, and the joke about Brad Pitt eating in every film is part of what makes him a likeable character actor. Relatable people munch, eat, shove food in their mouths when they get a chance. TV shows about cops are good at this, too. Your characters should be.

In real life, meals often include other people. Not always, I understand, but frequently. The meal doesn’t have to be an event; write what you know. If it’s a situation you don’t know, start where you do and expand. Meal times are perfect small moments with the potential to move the plot; a comment during conversation sparks an idea that pushes the protagonist toward a solution to their problem, or a piece of information learned during the meal clues in the protagonist to a new path in their story. 

Food in Fiction #3: The Experience of Eating

Food is the ideal opportunity to indulge all your senses. You know that you should describe food thoroughly — Hemingway is a prime example of how to do this. Everything he eats in Moveable Feast, he delights in, relishes, enjoys with pure gusto. (Okay, so that book is nonfiction, and I know we’re focusing on food in fiction, but still, that book is an excellent example.) 

Remember that for your characters, the experience of food is unique to each. Every person has preferences; everyone has their own food quirks. And those small customizations change the food experience. For example, your character might add cinnamon to her coffee, which not only changes the taste but the experience of drinking it. When she inhales it, her memories won’t be the same; that first breath on her tongue will have its own history and future.

Another character might flavor his water with lemon. Another character may cook his broccoli in fish oil. Another character may dip her fries in mayonnaise. These small personalizations of food in fiction show character, give your reader a richer, more realistic connection with your character’s experience in your novel’s world.

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On the Bechdel Test: Writing Tip for Gender

Bechdel test -- women and gender in fiction

As the origin story for the Bechdel Test goes, a political cartoon from the 1970s depicted two women discussing a movie they had seen. One says to the other that there are three things she looks for in a movie in order to qualify it as a “good” movie: 

1. There have to be at least two women in it. 
2. They have to talk to each other. 
3. About something other than a man.

This continues to stand true. It is now a common litmus test for the issue of gender equality representation in film, commonly known as the Bechdel Test.

In general, ladies, we are taught to converse about many things, especially things which relate to men and having relationships with them. As a woman, I’ve noticed this more and more. I’ve kept track of how women relate to one another and the topics they choose to discuss around the lunch table, the water cooler, and the backyard, as it were.

To See A Difference, Do Differently

When I write, I think specifically about the world that I am building for my characters. Who do they interact with? Who do they relate to? What supporting characters populate and color their world? And, more importantly, who do they speak to and what do they speak about?

When writing, you must give yourself constant mini-Bechdel test checkups, to ensure you’re considering the realistic relationship between characters. Recently, while working on writing a developing relationship between two co-lead female characters, I sat and made a list of what defines their friendship.

How long have they known each other? What bonding experiences did they have that drove them together? How do they each see the other? And, perhaps most importantly, what do they talk about?

I wrote out a list of conversation topics — things they had in common or disagree about and keep circling back around to — things that didn’t include men or relationships with them.

For example, one of the characters owns a successful family business, while the other is trying to learn how to launch her own business, so they are able to often talk about business strategies and nuances of their industry.

They are both interested in natural healing and non-chemical cures for ailments, so they discuss plants, herbs, flowers, and they mix ingredients together to create their own formulas, like amateur apothecaries.

They are both interested in the history of the area where they live, and so they are able to talk about and visit together, places of historical interest. Of course, they gossip about the latest news from the British Royals, and they gush over clothing and lipstick colors on each other as they hang out and try them on, but it’s important to me to make sure that their relationship is real, dimensional, and about more than just tragedies in their lives, men, and tragedies that involve men.

What might your characters bond over? Keep your ideas in a scrap heap until you’re building specific people in a specific world.

Focus on Female Characters' Interests

Every (significant) character should have hobbies and interests that make them a believable, well-rounded person. And this might be doubly-true for female characters; traditionally, they are not expected to be much more than props in literature, and although a century of work against that means that the greatest novels include rich, lively female characters, there is still work to be done to ensure that future generations of female readers see women they admire talking about things they’ve never considered before.

Ideas. Perspectives. Personality. If a young female reader is first introduced to the concept of astronauts through female characters, imagine how that might teach her that women are more than pretty — they are the next generation of leaders.

Consider: How do clothes affect your characters? What is important about what they wear?

Reverse Bechdel Test

Less commonly discussed is something I like to call the “reverse Bechdel” test. Just like you want to have a fleshed-out cast of female characters who bring their own knowledge and non-male-oriented agendas to the table, you also want to have well-rounded male characters who are more than women-hating or women-obsessed.

I encourage you to apply a Reverse Bechdel test to a scene where you have two or more men talking — if they’re talking about women, is it in gender stereotypical way? Push yourself to examine your male-to-male conversations and how they talk about the opposite gender. 

Writing Tip of the Day: Write Single-Gender Conversations for Bechdel Test Mastery

As a writing exercise, write a scene where a group of male characters are sitting around a male-comfortable space (like a barber shop, bar, street corner, etc.), talking over a subject. In particular, don’t have any of them bring up women, at all. Nobody comments on a woman’s appearance, no one complains about their relationship, nobody talks about anything sexual.

It might be easy, it might be hard — depending on the story you’re telling. But make sure that at some point, if you want to show strong male characters who are not simple tools of their hormones, show an intelligent conversation between men about a topic that is non-women related.

Additionally, write a scene in which a group of men is discussing women, and make it as honest as you can. To prevent the men from becoming blurred together and indistinguishable, develop their personalities by the ways they talk about women. What women are they talking about? Why? And how?

If you can show the men’s true characters in four or fewer statements about women, the reader will truly feel like they know and understand those characters in any other scenes in which they appear.

Then, challenge yourself to write similar scenes but using only female characters. This exercise may not be a traditional use or understanding of the Bechdel test, but practicing gendered perspectives will develop your overall skills as a writer, undoubtedly. 

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Thoughts On Vampires: Death in Writing

vampire-death-writing

Two things are inevitable: Death and taxes. We know that Death does not discriminate. It does not favor. It does not forgive. And it is an eventuality that we each must face. Death in writing (fiction or nonfiction) is as certain as death in actuality.

“Every one of us will have to die alone.”

As I write this, I think, “Maybe I should save this for my Halloween post. It seems awfully macabre on a random Monday.”

But I can’t wait until some designated dia de los muertos to think about Death. It’s everywhere. It’s the other side of Life, of every moment.

Does this make it something to fear? Many people think so. Many people instinctively fear Death and avoid thinking about it. However, others actively embrace Death, actively embrace the macabre. Despite your attempts to avoid it, there is no escape.

What Do You Think of Life?

Death shows what we think of Life. Attitude toward the one reveals the attitude toward the other. The questions that a person asks, the questions that a person avoids, the beliefs that a person considers, rejects, or holds dear — all revealed in the questions:

| What happens after we die? and What happens before life? | When is the exact moment of death? and When is the moment life begins? |


mortal writing -- fiction writing death, mortality, ghosts, vampires

While a person conjectures, they also act in accordance with the beliefs they develop. As the world around them affects them, they develop their true inner character and viewpoints on Life and Death.

How to Write About Death

When writing a character, consider how they approach Death as a way to reveal their true personality. Their attitudes toward Death and their interactions with Death in their world display their deepest beliefs and the personality traits they consider core to their identity.

Considering how your character approaches Death should help you answer that ever-pressing characterization question: “What should this character do?”

There’s no one way, no wrong way, to write about Death.

Writing About Death Strategy 1: Protection Against Vampires

“The dead don’t bury themselves.“

When anthropologists analyze a tomb, burial site, or evidence of human burial rituals, they are able to uncover a great deal about those people’s beliefs and attitudes toward life. We can find out how they lived: what they ate, what they considered valuable, what they thought about vampires.

In every society throughout history, people have wondered what happened after death. And in more than one society (several, in fact, including peoples of ancient India, Colombia, and Greece — so sayeth the great Wikipedia) developed burial rituals to ward against the dead rising from their graves (including this fifth-century Roman grave where a child was buried with a rock in her mouth.)

Your character’s attitudes about Death will come largely from social influences. Who has your character buried, and who will bury your character? Those people are likely to be important, as they will influence your character’s core personality.

But more importantly, consider: How would your character prevent or protect against vampires?

Write a scene, or simply a detailed answer to the question. Consider, seriously, if your character believes that vampires are real, how would they handle that, and what would they do to prevent — or even, to support — vampirism.

Writing About Death Strategy 2: Childhood Memories

Children fear what they’ve been taught to fear, and its nearly impossible to release the fears of childhood once we reach adult status. 

The child’s fears of death become the fears that adults struggle with, live through, carry inside each day. 

To examine your characters’ attitudes about Death, consider what scares them. To their core. What keeps them awake at night? What do they run from?

Write a scene from your character’s childhood that shows and explains the source of their biggest fear. Whether it’s barking dogs or heights or butterflies. Whatever makes them cower, show yourself why. Then consider, how can this fear help my character feel alive? Is there another character who can embrace this terror and push it from fear of death to love of life?

Examining the deep-seated fears and flipping them into life-affirming opportunities both cracks open your character to reveal the child within, and shows you where the character can grow and heal on their journey.

Writing About Death Strategy 3: Go Goth

“I myself am strange and unusual.” 

Is your character unafraid of Death? Unwilling to look away when others shield their eyes. Uninterested in polishing over the unpleasantries.

When I think of characters who won’t look away from Death, I think of Lydia in Beetlejuice. The original 80s goth chick (I love you Winona Ryder!), Lydia is not interested in shielding herself from the “strange and unusual.”

When others don’t notice Death. When others choose to ignore, shake their heads, trivialize, or smile in the face of it, she is investigatory. Her curiosity, which replaces the fear we see or expect in others, is childlike. Refreshing. And it’s honest.

writing goth fiction characters -- writing about deathWriting a “goth” character is not about making someone as “dark” as possible. It’s not about making someone be “obsessed” with Death and destruction (although yes, I have seen these people in real life. These characters can work in fiction as well) — it’s about the wholesome, open embrace of the rotten, the frightening, and the abnormal, with a healthy level of fear, respect, adoration, and appreciation.

For a less funny exploration of this same idea, may I recommend Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil? Nearly 200 years later, “A Carcass” is still cringe worthy.

If you think otherwise about Lydia: Go ahead. Fight me. 😉

Writing About Death Strategy 4: Death as a Character

So that’s great — an idea of how some people might approach Death, even when they encounter it. “But,” you might think, “what if my character is fairly normal? How do I write their attitude toward Death and life?”

A practical writing tip for writing about death:

Treat Death as you would another character. Give Death a physical manifestation, a voice, a hair color. You don’t have to do a full character sketch, but a basic outline would be good.

Then, put your character in a diner and have Death sit down and strike up a conversation. About the food at the diner, or the weather, or something trivial. As this is the only scene like this, don’t think about keeping Death’s identity secret. Let Death reveal him/herself in the first couple lines of dialogue, if the character doesn’t immediately recognize Death when it sits at their table.

A single conversation here. Death is not here to take your character, just a casual get-to-know-you conversation. No sense of threat.

How does your character act? With reverence? Joy? Awe? Respect? Relief? Sorrow? Fear?

Let them talk for two, maybe three pages. Then, Death has to go. After you see how your character acts toward this ancient, immortal, potentially terrifying presence, you might discover how they react toward the rest of their life.

For some ideas on how different characters interact with different manifestations of Death, may I recommend Neil Gaiman’s American Gods to you? Novel or TV show. Choose your poison.

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Editing for Creative Writing

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Questions I Ask Writers

What makes a creative writer, creative? What can we really call “creative” these days? When editing for creative writing, what should I be most focused on for you, as the creative writer? 

Are you avant garde? Would you want to be? Should you experiment with form, substance, and format? Should you talk to your editor about pushing boundaries? Why?

What makes a fiction editor different from a nonfiction editor? What makes someone more or less helpful with “creative” writing? Why should you look for an editor who suits your style, your voice, and your unique stories?

How do you self-edit for creativity?

Editing for Creative Writing & Creativity

True, I haven’t known every creative writer in the world, but I’ve known a few. In my experience, they tend to be passionate, driven people, who can become emotionally involved with their work. No writer who prides themselves on creativity wants to hear negative feedback from an editor, but if presented the right way, any feedback can truly help the writer thrive.

Reader Experience

One of the duties of an editor is to make sure the writer doesn’t look foolish, cliche, or trite. Especially if the writer is seeking to push into experimental formatting, narrative structure, or media delivery. An editor should be supportive of a writer’s vision and message, while also helping the writer make sure the connection to the readers is solid.

A creative writer may assume that their ideal reader will “get” what they’re doing, immediately and without explanation. An editor should help make the writer’s work easy for the reader to “get.” So during the editing phase, the editor needs to be particularly aware of how to enhance the readers’ experience and understanding of the text.

Perhaps the writer can add references or clarify terms in the opening statements. Maybe the text needs stronger or more nuanced language to clarify a context or theme. Whatever it is, an editor should be able to help the writer spot the need and supply potential approaches to including the new information or wording.

Word Choice

Editors for creative fiction may need to be particularly sensitive to word choice, including things like appropriate descriptive language of scenes and characters, consistency of descriptions and characteristics, and strength of verbs used to impart action or a sense of urgency, when needed for a pacing pick-up.

A basic editor will grammatically correct a sentence. A creative editor will unlock something in the restructuring.

Creative Paint

Its like refurbishing an historic home. The layers underneath are gorgeous, if not looking their best. The editor designs the new look of the text, fixes and patches any broken areas, and thinks of ways to bring new life to the existing building, while completing the look and livability for the readers who will sit down and live inside those pages.

Editing for creative writing may help you put on the final decorative touches, once you’re ready to put your book on the market.

Editing for creative writing must be creative.

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The Importance of Footwear in Fiction

footwear shoes fiction -- writing editing

If your fiction has human characters, they likely have feet. And so, footwear, that daily triviality, becomes a massive connecting universal that nearly every reader understands. Footwear in fiction matters. 

At the heart of all good writing is the ability to capture details and universal experiences and translate them into the story on an intimately personal level. As creator and controller of your fiction characters’ minds and lives (easy there, Dr. Frankenstein), you are responsible for translating their life details (like clothing!) so that the reader vicariously experiences them.

Shoes are a great way to do this.

Shoes connect people. Throughout time, in most societies, across classes. Footwear in fiction not only signals to other characters (and the reader) a number of details about the wearer’s life, shoes also remind the wearer of their own circumstances.

Shoes affect your day. Comfortable vs. too-tight, inappropriate vs. worn or damaged. Like you, like your reader, your fictional characters’ footwear impacts their health, dexterity, speed, comfort, safety, and overall mobility. Untied sneakers with the soles flapping and popping at every step are not the same as designer flip flops with rhinestone studs, which are a different experience than wearing weathered cowboy boots.

Fiction Writing Tip of the Day: Walk in Your Character's Shoes

Got an idea who a character is? Put on a pair of shoes that reflects that character when you write about him or her.

As a writing exercise, I recommend visiting a department or large shoe store and trying on styles that you think fit different characters. Then, write your experiences of wearing the shoes.

Write the sounds they made, the feel of the fabric, the tender spots they create on your feet. Write them in your character’s voice, if you can. If you don’t have a specific character in mind, then write a detailed, objective account so you can fit the details of your experience into the right voice when it comes along.

Think about the feet’s connection to the rest of the body. Your character might practice reflexology or have a detailed pedicure routine. Or your character might have nail fungus and callouses. Regardless of what they are like, there is a why they are that way.

The why largely has to do with footwear, and in fiction, it can be the key to your characters’ lives that allows your readers into their minds.

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Apps to Make You a Better Writer

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Writer Apps Beyond Note Taking

If you’re a writer, you probably already have your favorite note taking apps or apps to help you manage your writing process. I’m not talking about those.

I’m talking about apps that, if you’re a day-in-and-day-out, I-work-with-words-every-moment-I’m-awake kind of writer, should improve your daily life.

** Note: these reviews are neither paid nor solicited and are my honest opinions after using these apps for at least one year each. I am not affiliated with the developers or anyone affiliated with them.

Writer App No. 1: Desk Stretch

I have carpal tunnel. It’s a constant thing. I wake up in pain, and I go to bed in pain, and I just try to manage it every moment between.

Desk Stretch helps me do that. Choose from a series of wrist and hand stretches, set a time interval, and let the app help ease the pain in your day. Every so often (I set mine for an hour), you’ll get a notification reminding you to break for 5 minutes. Then, the app leads you through the stretches, which can greatly reduce the tension that builds up throughout the day.

I used to have an app called “Handsaver” that was even better, but I can’t find it in the app store anymore. Moment of silence.

On Google Play

Writer App No. 2: Etymology Explorer

Why do we raise cows but eat beef? And we raise sheep but prepare mutton. But then, Why are fish and goat the same words for both the meat and the animal?

English is weird. Very weird sometimes. And, appropriately, it’s considered the most difficult language to learn, next to Mandarin.

Sometimes, as a writer, it can be helpful to look up the root origins of words. Because English is a Germanic language heavily influenced by French (which is Romantic – coming from ancient Roman, aka Latin) as well as the many localized languages absorbed around the world through trade and colonialism.

Consider: pyjamas is a Turkish word. But most English speakers never think where the words for their pjs came from. Of course, pjs aren’t the same as lingerie, which is a French word with different context. Although, if you were a non-native speaker, you might think, “Well. They both mean ‘sleep clothes’, right?”

Etymology Explorer is a writer app that helps you find out where words come from, and how they might be related to other words. Connections between pieces of language tell their own stories, and a picky writer learns how to choose words to layer storytelling into each sentence.

On Google Play

On iTunes

Writer App No. 3: Power Thesaurus

If you’ve written or edited more than a few hundred pages, you will have noticed the shortcomings of thesaurus.com.

Don’t get me wrong. It works fine most of the time. But maybe you’re looking for that $5 word, that esoteric, academic word; or maybe you’ve got a phrase that describes something, and you know there’s a single word for it, but you just can’t think of it; or maybe, you’ve got the feeling of the word you want, but nothing is quite hitting home.

(Is it just me? Am I the only person who battles the thesaurus this way? 🤯)

Power Thesaurus is a better app for writers. Especially if you have the time. As an open source software, it has its drawbacks, but overall it’s user friendly and never fails to provide hundreds of options for whatever you type in. The results are alphabetical, which can help you stumble across that “aha” moment if you have the time and patience to scroll through hundreds of synonyms in alphabetical order. (Beware of chasing the dragon: “the perfect one will be on the next page…”)

It also has an antonyms listing, and it’s easy to glide from one concept to the next.

On Google Play

On Apple Store

Writer App No. 4: Orphic

Orphic means fascinating or entrancing. And it is. This app is full of weird and wonderful words. What more can you ask for? This app offers a Word of the Day that is truly off the wall and an easy accessibility to search for quirky, elusively rare, and overly precise words. Say no more.

On Google Play

Boost Writing Power, Boost Productivity

The golden state of productivity is a daily dream. A humming moment of focus, when the muse sits on your shoulder and the words appear on the page with very little effort. It’s sublime.

I hope these suggestions of apps for writers can help you get there.

Editing makes me happy.

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Writers Are Weird — YouTube Shout Out

writers are weird -- jenna moreci -- writing tips

Writers need to stick together. Like barnacles.

Strange creatures that we are, we mingle best with our own ilk. Well, maybe that’s not even true. Maybe we mingle with many types. Maybe not. But, no matter your exact experience, you have to admit that writers are weird.

YouTube Shout Out: Jenna Moreci

I love Jenna. An animated, quirky, off-the-cuff, lovable genius. Her entire channel is entertaining, helpful, and provides advice on a range of topics that give new writers hope and keep experienced writers motivated.

Check out: The Nine Weird Habits of Writers

This video tells the sordid tale of a writer and her own mind. By the time Jenna got to number two or three, I was crying with the giggles and sharing the link with my boyfriend so we could laugh together about the fact that I wasn’t the only crazy writer out there.

What’s so weird about writers? Well, according to Jenna (and seconded by me), writers can be smelly, coffee-swilling, hungry, night-dwelling, emotional, isolationist, laptop-clinging weirdos. We might like to be left alone — to watch people, but not to interact with them. We treat not-real people like they’re real and real people like they’re an inconvenience. We may push people away while we crave connection.

If you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, or you need a good laugh, check out Jenna. You’ll find that you’re not the only one.

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3 Questions to Focus Your Writing Time

3 questions to focus writing & manage time

The Power of Focused Writing Time

Focus. The elusive trait that is tied to success or failure, to production or abandonment, to clarity or confusion.

Focus.

Can you do it? How do you do it? What does focused attention really look like, for you?

These are rhetorical questions. Oprah gets it. A remarkably successful businesswoman, Oprah knows that foucs is a nearly impossible intangible to harness, but when leveraged, there’s nearly nothing more powerful in any endeavor.

Recently, I read that Oprah begins every meeting with 3 questions. This pattern not only provides predictability for everyone — on all of her multiple entrepreneurial, production, and management teams — but it also brings incredible clarity to each of her interactions that support the meetings.

When I read it, I thought, “Well that’s great. For people who have meetings and are bringing together multiple people and projects.” Sounds like it works well in business. But:

  • What if you’re a writer?
  • What if you hold regularly scheduled, work-focused meetings with yourself?

The truth is though — it doesn’t matter. The Queen of Media began her reign as a professional communicator, and the questions that she uses to focus her team to maximize their efficiency are the same questions that anyone can use in good communication — even with themselves.

How to Save Time and Write More

There are only-so-many hours in the day. There are only-so-many words you can put down in the limited time you have to write. Since the days of etching into clay and stone tablets, writers have struggled with efficient documentation.

Whether you schedule time to write or write on the fly, write efficiently by asking yourself the same questions at the beginning of your writing session that Oprah asks to kick off her meetings:

  1. What is the intention?
  2. What’s important?
  3. What matters?

1. Focus: What is Your Intention?

dedicate to focused writing time for better writingWhat is your intention during this writing interval? Are you intending to plot the action of a specific scene? Do you intend to brainstorm on a particular character description? Do you intend to tackle a particular difficult dialogue exchange? Are you dedicated to revising a previous draft of a chapter for more powerful verb choice?

By choosing a specific outcome to focus on during your writing time, you can drive yourself toward a particular goal — be it stronger poetic description, discussing gender in a chapter, the conclusion of a scene, or if you write until all the ideas are out of your head.

Your intention may change. Your focus may shift. When it does, preset yourself with the same three questions to take on a new goal or topic.

2. Focus: What's Important?

Once you’ve chosen a specific scene, character, dialogue, chapter – even when you want to focus in on a particular sentence – ask yourself what’s important.

If the most important part of your writing time is merely to get the word count on the page, you’re selling yourself short, cutting off your potential, shooting yourself in the foot … etc.

The importance will vary. Sometimes, the scene will need more details. Sometimes, the important thing about the dialogue will be that it needs to convey the right emotions. Sometimes, the paragraphs or sentences in the chapter will need to be reorganized and reordered to better connect ideas in a way that makes sense.

tips from oprah to focus your writing time; tips to write better

Sometimes, what will be important is making it shorter; other times it will be important to elaborate or clarify and make it longer. But if you focus on “word count” or “length” as your sole focus for the writing period, you’re missing out on attending to what really will improve your craft.

You should focus on the most important thing first. You know your intention for your writing time, and once you choose what’s important, it only makes sense to tackle it first.

3. Focus: What Matters?

While it sounds the same as “What’s important?”, use this third question to focus your writing time by examining your own writing from a slightly different angle.

You’re focused on a particular scene, character, plot point, etc., and you’ve looked at what’s important to move toward the outcome you’ve set as a goal, so now, critically, ask yourself:

If this were removed, how would it change the bigger picture? If the reader never knew this ‘important’ detail, or you hadn’t ordered the scenes in this way, would it make a difference to the overall story? Would it ‘matter’ in the world of your characters?

Your knee-jerk reaction may be to say, “Of course it matters! I’m the writer, and I put it there, so it matters!”

But, dear Writers, I tell you – and not without some regret – that effectively, the author is dead (long live the Author!). When you release your creation into the world, your intention does not matter.

Whatever story you think you’re telling is only as real as what the reader interprets from what you’ve written.

So I ask you again – what matters in the world of your characters?

If you take the time to polish the word choice of a particular section, because you want to show distinctly the characters’ thoughts on class and society, then also consider – why?

Is the character motivated by status? Is the world highly structured, or wildly unstructured according to class or arbitrary social divisions or unity? Is there some reason the dialogue takes places between these characters, at this point in the story, in this particular setting?

(I mean – if the conversation could take place in a hallway or a park and be the same words, is it really the same conversation, though?)

If you can honestly begin to analyze scenes, characters, dialogue, order of ideas, and word choice and answer, “Yes! It matters, and here’s why!“, then Congratulations. You have successfully evaded a number of plot holes and inconsistencies, and you’ve probably established a very believable world with personable characters that readers can relate to.

Job well done.

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Creative Fiction Writing: The Importance of Animals in World Building

using animals in fiction world building -- fiction and novel writing tips

Most creative fiction writing (and nonfiction books) revolve around and portray human life. Typically, people are a big part of people’s lives and the world we live in.

You know what else makes up your world? Animals. A lot of them.

Write a Realistic, Creative Fiction World

From pets to pigeons in the park to sneaky spiders slinking along behind your refrigerator while you sleep, life is full of creatures. Don’t neglect adding them into your stories for action, rich description, and a change of pace.

Why do animals matter? Where do they fit in your story?

Animals add texture, sounds, tastes, smells, and characterization to a story, and they can fit into nearly any scene.

Writing Animals Exercise 1: Pets

If your character owns a pet, consider not only how the ownership of the pet enhances the human’s characterization, but consider how the animal itself becomes a separate character. Pets have emotions, respond to and interact with their humans, and add something to human life. Not only will your character reveal what type of person they are by how they treat their pet, but the big picture of their life or their society can be shown through the thoughts, actions, choices, or personality of their pet(s).

Consider how the pet will affect the person’s life constantly—dog hair woven into every article of clothing that the character deals with throughout their day, or a cat who marks your character’s suit jacket and although the suit’s been drycleaned, the smell sticks to him. Consider how people with pets often rearrange their schedules, priorities, and finances to accommodate these animals.

Writing Animals Exercise 2: Meals

If your character is an omnivore, consider how animals—the sight, smell, taste, or thought of them—affect their meals. If vegetarian or vegan, your character may be very consciously aware of the presence of animals during mealtime.

Whatever their food preferences, you as the writer can consider how the presence or absence of animals during mealtimes shapes your characters.

Writing Animals Exercise 3: Outdoors

And, depending on location, consider indigenous animals that give zest to places around the world. In some cities, monkeys swing through trees, or parrots fly overhead, or oxen are a common sight. As natural and unassuming as the wind, animals give life to the world.

No matter where your character goes—except maybe in space—there will be animals. In the fields, there are insects chirping, birds flying overhead, and snakes slithering underfoot. In the city, there are rodents that scamper along building walls (remember: squirrels are rodents too!), and neighbors who keep strange exotic pets.

Creative fiction does not need to be in a “real” world, but it does need to be realistic. If realistic, your fiction writing will be believable. A written world is not a believable world if it disregards animals.  

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Write Like the Greats: ee cummings

writing poetry, fiction and nonfiction -- some grammar techniques

To show that you are one of the greats, you must first show that you know all the rules. You can’t break them, unless you’ve proven mastery over them.

A set of rules we all bemoan, but all continue to abide, are those dogmatic principles of punctuation. The sticky-and-unchangeable truths of indicating truths about words through capitalization and formations of dots on a page that convey these truths in touches to your psyche as subtle as a feather’s efforts to change your direction.

Think I’m being dramatic? Commas are argued over in court, and at least one man is said to have been “hanged on a comma” when the placement of this crucial punctuation mark contributed to his judges’ decision toward an execution. (I once had a teacher claim that the Vietnam War was “caused” by a poorly placed comma, but I can’t confirm this.)

All of which brings me to, perhaps, the greatest punctuation master of the last century: ee cummings.

While adhering to some of the most critical aspects of punctuation that convey meaning, cummings chose when and where to apply them, carefully. Like a painter enhancing the image with touches of gold leaf on the highlights. He ignored spacing where appropriate, used enjambment to his delight (it would seem), and de-emphasized the “proper” by equalizing all wording through use of entirely lower-case letters.

In one of my favorite of his poems, “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in” you can see this immediately, from the first letter. The “I” – the narrator – is instantly stripped away – placed on equal importance with the poem’s subject. Or, in grammatical terms, the subject of the sentence becomes equal with the object it acts upon. Seems strange that they both could be subjects, no?

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go,you go,my dear,and whatever is done. . .“

From these lines, notice how his mastery connects the subjects – the “i” and the “you” – at every opportunity. Notice how there is no space, how there is constant connection of these equals. Notice how the parentheses – which should be used to interject thoughts in a complete sentence, like a side-whisper during a larger conversation – speak like an enhancement to the main narrative? Notice how they are placed in and around the central story?

cummings repeats this frequently. In this poem, and, of course, others. It’s a rumble in the middle of the message. A footnote too important to miss.

In his “Christmas Poem“, cummings uses the mighty parentheses only once, further emphasizing it as a schism.

After a stanza describing the “prodigious”, “gifted”, “humble”, “kneeling” images of worshipers to a “new babe” on this holy eve, cummings shatters the outward with a single punctuation mark that divides his mind from the surroundings:

“. . . humbly in their imagined bodies kneel
(over time space doom dream while floats the whole

perhapsless mystery of paradise)

mind without soul may blast some universe
to might have been,and stop ten thousand stars. . .“

His life has changed, in this moment. He has shown us how here, between the parentheses, there need be no commas, spaces, or words that exist outside. Only the words that need to be there are there.

It’s hard to put into words why ee cummings moves me so. His careful, yet seemingly carefree, use of the common linguistic rules that we all take for granted reads as a deep truth.

Perhaps, it’s best left to his own words. I present to you, the final stanza of “somewhere i have never traveled gladly beyond“:

“(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands“

More of this stanza is within than without. The last line ends on what he would say to her, if he could know what it was. And notice – there is no period at the end. There is no “final stop” to this declaration of his love for her.

Oh! What punctuation can do to the heart.

🌹 🌹 🌹

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The Importance of Fashion in Fiction

A pair of blue tinted sun glasses sit on top an open book. Book editing and beta reads. Use fashion in your book for realistic fictional characters.

Clothes Cover Our Actions

The clothes don’t make the man. But they do change his mind. That’s why using fashion in fiction writing and worldbuilding can greatly impact your reader’s experience.

Our appearance changes how we think, how we act, how we present ourselves. Think of yourself as a character in a play, and your clothing choices as costume changes.

We perform our personality – our inner thoughts about who we are – through our actions. When we want someone to think we are a certain way, we present ourselves that way; we perform actions that we think will make others perceive us a certain way. (Note: I’m using “performative” here more loosely than Butler, focusing not only on gender but on personality as a whole. Personality – if you didn’t know – is a very tricky field of psychological study. I mean performative more akin to Ahern’s discussion here.)

You know this. It’s why you dress the part for job interviews – and why you probably button up your language along with your suit jacket. It’s why you might feel more “girly” when you wear something pink and sparkly. It’s why you might seem to feel more confident behind sunglasses, where no one can see your eyes.

Writing Tip of the Day: Use Fashion in Fiction Writing to Dress Your Characters

Characters in novels, or even non-fiction manuscripts, are not much different than characters in a play or movie. They need different costumes for different events, and what they wear should affect who they are, on some level.

When you introduce your characters, describing their choice of clothing and general style should indicate to the reader a great deal about the way your character performs their inner vision of themselves.

As you put the character into each subsequent scene, jot out what they are wearing, and how it affects their body language. You might not include a full description of every outfit, but to help yourself set the scene, a list of the character’s “look” might be helpful. You can always throw it in the scrap pile during editing.

Writing Tip #2: People Move in Their Clothes

Accessories may make a woman move more awkwardly than she would otherwise; a man might be constantly yanking up pants that need a belt but don’t have one. Maybe the woman is self-conscious about her jangling bracelets and clattering necklaces and trying not to draw attention, but the man is oblivious to his crude, sloppy appearance.

Whether it’s what they always wear and the way they always move, or it’s outside of their normal fashion range and makes them nervous or uncomfortable, the reader should see your characters perform (as themselves) in their clothes. Don’t merely show the reader the color or shape of your characters’ clothing, but the ways fashion in fiction affects the people themselves.

🌹 🌹 🌹

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On Writing Accents: How to Write Authentic Character Voice

Blurred teenager in background, lying on back with hands casually behind head. Silver, old-fashioned radio with bent antena and cassette player in foreground. Radio can help writers capture unique voices and accents.

It's Hard to Write Accents that Sound Like Real People

One of the joys of reading is using your imagination to enhance the scene on the page. Some characters have very distinct voices; the writer gave them an accent or speech pattern that’s different than the others. Distinct voices can create their own poetry. However, if the writer has left any wiggle room for what the character might sound like—if the character sounds generic—the reader can expand in whatever direction they choose.

As a writer, if you want your reader to hear a specific, distinct accent or speech pattern in their head for a particular character, you may want to take the additional time and craft to put that voice into the character. You will want to make it obvious, so your reader is enraptured with the sounds of your characters’ voices.

Writing Tip: Listen to Local Radio, TV Ads, & News

Now, you can always start with the easy method of writing an accent: using specific dialogue tags, adverbs, and adjectives to describe the character’s speech.

“Howdy, ma’am,” he drawled with a thick Texas twang.

Let’s say you even have it written that way in your first draft. No worries. Maybe you’re not sure in the early days exactly what the character sounds like or how to write their voice. But, when you conduct your first round of creative editing and revision, you may want to replace those lines of dialogue with a voice that’s more authentic to the ear.

If you want to make your reader really hear that drawl, you’ll need to practice listening to a Texas drawl, then transcribing it phonetically.

So, go to Texas, sit somewhere in public, and practice quietly typing up the exact sounds of the people you hear talking around you.

Okay, you don’t have to go to Texas to hear Texas.

In today’s age: everything is a quick search away.

You want to hear what Texans sound like?

  1. Look up a Texas radio station and live stream it for an hour.
  2. Put on a country singer from Texas and go to town for an album or two.
  3. Dig through YouTube (or iSpot.tv—see below) for  TV ads from small local businesses in different cities in Texas, and settle in to take notes.

Practice spelling out the words fo-nay-tic-alee until you can hear the voice in your head and write it out consistently. The emphasis, the missing letters, the places where people pause—all are important when writing an accent.

Listening to local radio (or watching local news or commercials) is a good way to pick up on localized slang as well, or quirks of word usage in a particular group. This can be especially helpful when you’re trying to capture the sound of a group of which you’re not a member.

But do not only passively listen: you must train your fingers to write accents, as well as your ears. You must make sure that the sounds your ears hear are the words your fingers type or write.

As you listen, attempt to mimic. Pause and ask yourself the best way to authentically spell out what the person said in the exact same sounds they made when they said it.

It could end up being any number of trials before you find the spelling or language tricks that truly reflect your character(s) and allow you to write their accent, but when you get it right, you’ll know readers will hear the same voice in their head that you did in yours.

Writer Tools for Writing Accents

Radio.net

Search 60,000 radio stations worldwide for free on radio.net. 

logo for radio.net. Green lettering on black background. To help write accents.

iSpot.tv

While designed for advertisers to monitor the success of different campaigns in different markets, you can browse TV commercials from many advertisers at the database on iSpot.tv. 

iSpot.tv logo. Black and green letters on white background. To help writers write accents.

Editing Can Enhance Voice

SRD Editing Services Beta Reading, Developmental Editing, and Line Editing Services all include comments on character voice…

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The Importance of Writing in Space

writing-space

Your whole novel takes place in your head. As easy as it can be to forget that fact, you (dear, Writers), must remember that your reader cannot get into your head and see where people are moving around. You must keep in mind how you’re writing in space that the reader must follow you through.

While it seems obvious that the events you narrate in your novel must take place in some space, it can be amazingly easy to forget. With a line of summarizing transition, you can seamlessly sweep a character across a room or a galaxy. But in reality, the reader’s mind can’t always keep up. The reader can get lost in the jump.

Poor descriptions of space can leave your reader lost in the character’s house, bumping into walls or walking through them. You can even leave your reader at another location when you forget to mention that the character got out of the car, or left the lakeside, or went into the casino.

Writing tip of the day: Remember to write in space

Write the space into your scene, and write the characters in that space. It doesn’t mean you have to describe every step they take through their entire journey, but it does mean that, like a film director setting up a shot, you need to create an atmosphere around your characters based on their interactions with the spaces in their lives.

It does mean that you need to make sure that the room stays consistent and that the reader moves with the character. Think of it like a camera lens — as the writer, you are like a film director. It is the director’s job to see what the viewer is going to see: that is why they stand behind the camera or watch the viewing screen during filming; it’s why they oversee the special effects; it’s why they make their first cut along with the editors.

As a novelist, you get to do one better; you get to put your readers into the minds of your characters. You put the reader into their memory, into their history, into their desires. The director (and the screenwriter) is limited (always) to the exterior, but the novelist goes where no one else can: into the heart. This is why writing in space is so important.

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