Writing & Editing

Books about the Writing Life

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Do you love to read books about writing and life as a writer?

Ann Patchett has just released a series of essays on her life as a writer. Now, I’ve only read three of the essays and think they are fabulous.

In This Is A Story Of A Happy Marriage, Patchett writes about how she started writing, her life as a child, her life with dogs, diverse. It’s personal and well written, so I thought I’d share here in case you are interest.

Patchett’s books include:

  • The Magician’s Assistant
  • The Patron Saint of Liars
  • Bell Canto
  • Truth & Beauty: A Friendship
  • State of Wonder

And now This Is A Story Of A Happy Marriage.

If you have any suggesting for books by writers writing about their life, let me know.

Thanks for reading . . .

Setting the Scene: Template for A Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Last week I wrote about my template for writing a scene. One of the questions I asked in that template was:  Is the setting the best place for emotional impact?

How do I answer that question? I use another template. For each setting, I ask myself:

What is the Setting Role in Story:

Who are the Related Characters:

Season:

Unique Features of the Setting:

Description:

Sights:

Sounds:

Smells:

Notes:

 

This allows me to determine if I’ve described the scene in a vivid manner. If I can’t answer most of the questions,  I don’t think the scene is the best place for emotional impact. I don’t believe sight, sound and smell have to be in every scene, but there should be something there.

The real purpose of the template is to make myself think about the scene in a structured way. If you have a way to do this, I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for reading . . .

Scene Development

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

Writing is an endless process of revisions and editing, at least for me. So how does a writer know when a scene if finished? I use a template, shown below, to make me ask myself some hard questions. Once I can fill in the blanks below, I feel like I have a working draft of a scene.

I also have templates for settings and a detailed spreadsheet to keep track or dates, when a character is introduced, weather, etc., but template below gives me a sense of whether the scene has done its job in the context of the novel.

My template keeps growing and changing with each novel, but here it is in it’s current format.

Beginning = Hook:

Middle = Development:

Climax = Disaster:

Action (Scene or Sequel):

What does POV Want:

Outcome if POV fails:

How Does Scene Move Plot Forward:

How Does Scene Builds on Previous Scene:

How Does Scene Leads to Next Scene:

What’s Happening Between Characters That’s Not Spelt Out:

Is Setting Best Place For Emotional Impact?

Do you have anything you could add to the template?  I like to add new items that I can think about.

Thanks for reading . . .

Are Your Characters Likeable?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Do you find this hard to answer?

I’ve been reading Elements of Fiction Writing by Orson Scott Card and am finding it helpful. It’s an in-depth book that is giving me a lot think about.

In real life, a person might only see the best in their friends and family and ignore the flaws. This can happen in fiction too. A writer might not notice if a character is annoying, whiny, obnoxious etc. But how to you judge your own characters?

One thing I like to do is put my writing away for a while, then when I re-read the scene I ask myself: do I like this character. I’m using like broadly, in the sense of am I interested? do I want to keep reading about them?

The other question to ask is: Does the character have a motive? And what is there strongest desire?

When I meet a person, again in real life, I tend to be interested in them if they are interested in something. When a person talks about their passion, the light goes on, the eyes sparkle, the voice trembles, the tempo picks up. This is what I try to do with a character.

There is so much written on this subject, so I thought I’d mention Elements of Fiction Writing in case you’re looking for tips by an expert.

Please share your thoughts, if you know of a good book on the subject of characters.

Thanks for reading . . .

Character Development

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

Anyone else out there spending the holidays thinking about their characters in a novel instead of real people? A hazard of being a writer, I’m afraid.

Introducing new characters, especially if you are writing a series can be a challenge.

Do you ask yourself:

  • What did the character do before the start of the novel?
  • How did they enter the protagonists life?
  • What motivates them?

I find even if I ask these questions it’s not enough for build a well-rounded character.

I use Scrivener to write, and I add a section for scenes that happen before the novel starts. When introducing a new character I ask myself, what was the character doing one month before the novel started, 6 months before and sometimes well back into their youth. Then I write a scene from this time frame. Something dramatic that happened in their lives that changed them usually works. This helps to fill out the character and know them before the story has even started.

You don’t have to do this before you begin writing, sometimes I do this after the first draft. Once I discovered a character fit the criteria of a sociopath. After writing the first draft, then writing scenes that happened prior to the opening,  the sociopath opened up some interesting story lines. These, of course, found their way into the second draft.

For me, it’s not enough to ask questions about my characters, I need to write about them to understand them.

What about you?

Thanks for reading . . .

 

Opening Your Story

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

Do you read books on how to write?

The latest I read talked about opening a story and checking for four criteria.

Does your opening start with:

  • the protagonist,
  • conflict,
  • movement,
  • setting?

This is a lot for an opening, and I’ve been studying novels to check if authors do this.

The first point, the protagonist, doesn’t seems to happen consistently. There are books that start with the protagonist, the villain, a minor character, or a character that doesn’t appear in the rest of the novel at all. I like all of them. So I guess on this one, you have to decide for yourself if your protagonist is the best place to start. I do agree the protagonist should appear early in the story.

Conflict: This one seems more consistent. Sometimes the conflict is quiet or subtle. Sometimes it’s a full-out battle, but it’s there.

Movement: I find books with no movement boring. Even if the character is walking, it’s better than sitting still, or worse yet, if there’s no mention of what the character’s doing.

Setting: This might only be one word, one line, one paragraph or this could be more. To me the setting it important at the beginning. I like to know where the character is. Are they in a city, in the country, on a mountain or in outer space? This helps me figure out what kind of story I’m reading.

Do you follow any guidelines for opening your story?

Thanks for reading . . .

Scrivener and Setting Summaries

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Scrivener is still helping me write.

In Scrivener and Scene Summaries, I wrote about using a template for asking a series of questions about a scene to ensure I making the most of the opportunity to engage readers in the story.

I’ve added a second template where I ask myself the following questions about the setting of the scene.

  • Role In Story
  • Related Characters
  • Unique Features
  • Description
  • Sights
  • Sounds
  • Smells
  • Objects
  • Notes

This helps in several ways.

  1. I keep track of how many times a use the same setting. Sometimes it’s easy to write about the same setting, but maybe that’s a lazy way to write. i follow this up by asking myself, could be the scene be set somewhere else that would further the plot and make the story more interesting?
  2. If I use a setting more than once, this is a memory aid for keeping the descriptions consistent and for not repeating details.
  3. If I don’t fill out enough of the points, I haven’t put enough effort into describing the setting.
  4. I use the notes section to remind myself of how I want to use the setting later in the novel, Perhaps I’ve used setting for foreshadowing and I want to remember to follow through later in the story.
How do you ensure your settings work for you and move your story forward?
Thanks for reading . . .

 

Tips For Writing a Synopsis

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

There seems to be a common thought that writing a synopsis is difficult, and I have to agreed.

In my post, How To Use A Spreadsheet For Your Synopsis, I give tips on how to use a spreadsheet to help you write your synopsis. But I have more to say on this subject. Like all things to do with writing, there is a lifetime of learning associated with talented synopsis writing.

Today, I want to talk about word limits and how they can help you improve your synopsis.

Publishers, agents, writing competitions usually ask for a synopsis and they usually give a word limit.

To make meeting the word limit easier, cut the limit in half. Yup, you heard me. If the limit is 1000 words, write a synopsis in 500. Don’t go over the 500 words. When you are satisfied that you’ve written the best possible synopsis in under 500 words, then and only the, can you start adding words.

Now you have 500 words available to improve your synopsis.

You may find you have room to add a subplot or show how you develop a character. You may find you want to delve deeper into the setting. You now have 500 words to do this.

It’s amazing how much easier it is to work your way up from 500 words to a 1000 than to try and cut from 1500 to 1000 words.

Please let me know if you have any tips for synopsis writing.

Thanks for reading  . . .

Scrivener versus Word: Spellchecker

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 7 Comments

Since I’ve written about Scrivener before, I wanted to share something I discovered today.

I think Microsoft Word has a better spellchecker.

I ran the spellchecker in Scrivener and found no issues. Just out of curiosity, not sure why, I decided to compile the document as MS Word and then run the spellchecker in MS Word.

MS Word found an error: Barreling.

MS Word wanted to change this to: Barrelling.

I have my software set to Canadian English, hence the difference in spelling. Being cautious, I checked the Oxford English Dictionary, and sure enough barrelling with two r’s and two l’s is the correct form.

Now I’m going to check spelling in both types of software before submitting to my agent.

Anyone else had this problem?

Thanks for reading . . .

For another review of Scrivener, see MQAllen.com.

Why Blog About Something You Want To Learn?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

I had a friend in medical school who told me when she was learning a new medical procedure she was taught:

  1. Learn one
  2. Teach one
  3. Do one

I think this process can be applied to learning grammar and punctuation. When I’m unsure about a rule, the first thing I do is check my grammar books and read about it. This is the Learn One phase.

Next, I blog about it. If I can explain the rule, then I probably understand it. This is the Teach One phase. If you’re doing this, be careful to use your own words. Don’t cheat and look at the grammar book for help. You need to be able to explain the rule without any aids. Sometimes I don’t blog about the rule, but I do try to write the rule in my own words. Even if it’s on a scrap piece of paper, it helps me remember the rule.

Lastly, I write using the rule. This is the Do One phase. You can edit and proofread to ensure you’re using the rule properly too. I consider editing part of the Do One phase.

I figure if this is how medical students learn, it must work for other areas of knowledge too.

Do you have any tips for learning?

Thanks for reading . . .