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Articles about craft.

Quick Link: How Not to Crash-land an Ending

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

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How Not to Crash-land an Ending

Endings are my nemesis. The first indication came during The Call. After my agent-to-be went on at length about how much she loved my debut—hey, I wasn’t going to stop her—she asked if I might reconsider the ending.

“Of course.” At that moment I would’ve changed my gender, if she’d asked.

“It needs to be a little less tidy.”

“Rookie mistake. I’m embarrassed.”

“Don’t be.”

I rewrote the ending and she was happy. A year later, we spoke on the phone after she’d read my second novel.

“It’s wonderful,” she said, “but I’m wondering if you’ll reconsider the ending.”

“Too neat?”

“I’m afraid so.”

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Quick Link: How to Finish Your Book

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Do you need a final push to just get your book done? At Pub Crawl, author is facing a publishing deadline and she shares how she manages to set a schedule to just get’er done

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How to Finish Your Book

By  
Hi all! I’m currently on a deadline with my publisher, so I find myself thinking a lot about productivity these days. My deadline is for a first draft, so my focus at the moment is on creating a quality draft without bogging down, getting off track, or falling behind schedule.

In the meantime, I’ve had the opportunity to meet lots of aspiring novelists in the past few months, and many have asked for advice on finishing their manuscript. A common issue raised to me is the challenge of getting to “The End” without shelving the draft as a failed attempt and starting over with something new.

As I compared the challenges involved in creating a quality first draft under contract (and turning it in on time!) with the challenges of seeing a first novel through to completion, I realized that my advice for both is a lot the same. So if you are pushing through a first draft and you fear you will never finish it–never type “The End” and be able to say you have completed a book–here are the tips that work for me:

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Quick Link: Should You Give Up On Your Novel and Write Something New? – by Janice Hardy

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Usually, the problem for me is to ignore the shiny sparkly new story that is begging to be written, but I recognize that not everyone is as impulsive as me (thank goodness!).  So when is the right time to give up on a story and move to something new? Janice Hardy from Romance University has some tips to help you decide.

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Should You Give Up On Your Novel and Write Something New? – by Janice Hardy

How many unfinished and abandoned manuscripts do you have? Author and blogger Janice Hardy shares her insight on the dilemma all writers face.  

Right after my third novel was published (2011), I hit a bad patch of writing. My muse had gone vacation, every sentence I typed was a battle, and writing became a chore I dreaded. Although it felt like giving up, I shifted my writing focus to nonfiction until telling stories became fun again. Eventually it did, but it took years.

I wrote a lot of so-so novels during that time. Every single one had an idea I loved, but they need a lot of revising and overhauling to make them work, and I’m not sure if revising them yet again is a good idea or not.

Idea #1 frustrated me for two and a half years of revisions. Idea #2 took another two years of my life. Idea #3 was a NaNo project that actually made writing fun again, but then languished when I wasn’t sure what to do with it next.

I want to make these novels work. The stubborn side of me needs to make them work–it’s a grudge match at this point. But going back to them risks me falling back into that same bad patch of frustration.

The end of last year, I picked up Idea #3 again. It was the novel that reminded me why I loved to write, and the one that had the least emotional baggage attached to it. It needed serious gutting and revamping of both the plot and the characters, but the story was sound and the idea excited me.

Last month, I sent it to my critique partners and beta readers, and it’s getting the kind of glowing feedback I haven’t seen since I sent them my debut novel (The Shifter). I’m overjoyed, and it’s given me hope that those other two ideas are indeed salvageable.

However…

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Quick Link: Acknowledgments: Make Them Awesome

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My wise old granny always said have an attitude of gratitude and as authors, it is important to acknowledge those who help us. But as an author, you are already creative so make them cool. Head over to Books & Such and read Janet Kobobel Grant’s post to learn more.

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Acknowledgments: Make Them Awesome

Janet Kobobel Grant

I wrote this post in 2015, but I’ve added a snippet at the end that’s actually an announcement tied to acknowledgments. So read on!

I love to read book acknowledgment pages. I feel as if I’m peeking into the Who’s Who in the creation of the work. But the acknowledgments I like best are those in which the author shows that he/she has the mojo to cast a creative eye on this page that often tends toward the unimaginative.

In actuality, acknowledgments are a great place to stretch your writing muscles. Allow your voice to be full-throated.

Would the Acknowledgments Fit with Any Book?

My mind turns to such stellar acknowledgments as Cynthia Ruchti’s resounding commendations in her An Endless Christmas novella. Her approach was original and wouldn’t fit any other book she’s written. Let’s take a look at what she did as a lesson in how to write awesome acknowledgments.

Establish a theme

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Quick Link: Are You Ready to Conquer Writing Overwhelm?

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Kristen Kieffer, on her blog well-storied, breaks down steps to help you from being overwhelmed.  The big takeaway for me was about focus. Because the more focused you are on what your goals are, the clearer your path becomes.

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Are You Ready to Conquer Writing Overwhelm?

By Kristen Kieffer

Let’s face it: writing isn’t always easy. Sure, it’s fun when we’re in the zone, when we have a brilliant idea in mind and the words just seem to flow. But most of the time?

Most of the time, writing is hard.

We battle tricky plot holes, the urge to edit as we write, the monstrous task of editing, scenes that just don’t seem to have any direction, the hell that is proofreading, and so on.

And oftentimes, we lose our battles, letting the overwhelm of tackling tough writing problems or goals turn us to procrastination rather than productivity. So how can we flip the script?

That’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today!

Why clarity is your new best friend…

One of the reasons I wanted to create my new free resource, Write With Purpose, was to teach writers how to get clear about what they want and how they plan to get it.

Because you can’t make a plan if you don’t know where you’re headed, and if there’s anything that’s going to help you overcome overwhelm, it’s having a plan. Why?

Well, most writing overwhelm is caused by one (or more!) of a few things:

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Quick Link: The blank page – conquering your fears. And a couple of writing prompts

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Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to start. Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel understands and has kind words to help you overcome.

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The blank page – conquering your fears. And a couple of writing prompts

By Roz Morris

Hum the theme from Rocky if you need to.

‘So you don’t find the blank page worrying?’

Creative writing teacher Jane Jones was interviewing me as part of her women writers’ summit (watch this space). Actually, we recorded it multiple times because of tech catastrophes so a lot of our discussion never got saved. (Moral: don’t use untried software. Also, Zoom helpdesk are the embodiment of patience.)

Anyway, one of Jane’s topics was how we start writing. I said I’d always felt at home talking to the page. When I was a kid, I simply loved to write – letters, stories, reactions to books I’d read. At the age of 13 I discovered science fiction fanzines and sent them articles and reviews, which I really hope have fallen into landfill. Why science fiction fanzines? Chiefly because they accepted copy from teenagers writing in their bedrooms. I was shy and awkward in real life, but in manuscript I was a right chatterbox. I could think in ways I didn’t in verbal time; be inventive, confident. The page was a welcoming place.

Which is when Jane brought up the subject of the scary blank page.

The young me, typing to the world, never had a moment’s stage fright. Because I always started with a purpose in mind.

And this is where we pinned it down. The frightening thing is not the blank page. It’s the blank mind. And I find the blank mind as paralysing as anyone.

So what can you do about it? Here are some suggestions.

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Quick Link: How Strong is Your Skeleton?

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You need a strong backbone to be a writer. You need one to actually sit and write, and yet another to hold your story straight. A new site to check out, Two Drops of Ink: A Literary Blog. There Michelle Gunnin discusses ways to keep your story skeleton strong.

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How Strong is Your Skeleton?

By: Michelle Gunnin

One Halloween during my childhood, I was waiting in our backyard to go trick or treating. I was dressed as a scarecrow.  This was in the days when you made your own costume from what you had readily available. Our backyard had grass and straw, so I was literally stuffing myself when I looked up and saw a skeleton climbing our back fence.  My heart skipped several beats.  I froze.  My eyes were glued on the glowing bones which were rapidly coming towards me.  I was squinting in the darkness to try to get my mind to understand what I was seeing; my mind felt that I should run and instructed my legs to do so.  In tears as I raced into the house, I was about to tell my entire family to hide from the skeleton, when the back door opened and in walked one of my brother’s friends.  My skeleton had a name.  Randy.  His costume was store bought and therefore, the coolest one around because it glowed in the dark.  I was embarrassed that the terror I felt came from my belief that the skeleton was real and dangerous.

I tell you this little story to illustrate a point.  When you write, you start with your skeleton.  Your story has to have strong bones so that you can put some meat on them.  Many writers I know are afraid of skeletons.  They brainstorm their ideas, but then they jump right into the writing without a plan of any kind.  They fear the structure will dampen their creativity, and that somehow they should run from skeletons.  However, in hindsight, they will realize that there is no need to be afraid because a skeleton is your friend.

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Quick Link: How to Just Start When it Comes to Writing

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I have been a big fan of the Pomodoro Technique for a long time. The short version is that you do your best work when you are refreshed, usually in the first 15 – 30 minutes of a task. So by scheduling short breaks, you give your brain a rest and then can come back to your task with renewed energy.  John Lee Dumas uses this technique to help him with his writing. Head over to Goins, Writer to learn more.

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How to Just Start When it Comes to Writing

by John Lee Dumas

There’s nothing more frustrating than the bright, white glow of an empty screen and the constant, blinking reminder from your cursor that you’re not making any progress.

Writing a strong piece – one that’s valuable to your readers and that you feel great about – isn’t easy.

But what if I told you there’s a simple formula you can follow to get more writing done in a single day than you did all last week?

A simple formula for real progress

You already know the toughest part about writing is getting started. If you can get the first sentence down, then the rest will follow.

Of course you’ll do re-writes, have edits to make, and you might even go back and add a thing or two. But doesn’t it feel incredible to just start?

Just starting the writing process is progress in and of itself, not to mention what follows: strong momentum, or what some refer to as “the flow”.

This simple formula for real progress is made up of two parts and will help you just start every time you use it.

The two parts are: “Focus Time” and “Refresh Time”.

If you’re familiar with the Pomodoro Technique, then you probably know where I’m headed with this. The idea is that you give yourself a specific amount of time to accomplish X, start a timer to hold yourself accountable, and FOCUS on X until your timer runs out.

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If you liked this article, please share. If you have suggestions for further articles, articles you would like to submit, or just general comments, please contact me at paula@publetariat.com or leave a message below.

Quick Link: The Secret of a Successful Mystery: Making the Reader a Participator

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Although this article on Writers Helping Writers is geared towards the mystery genre, the wisdom that is shared really applies to all types of stories. The best reads are the ones that suck you in and won’t let you out until you find out what happens because you are rooting so desperately for the protagonist.

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The Secret of a Successful Mystery: Making the Reader a Participator

by Writing Coach

A lot of great stories have a mystery in them. The mystery may not be the primary focus; it might be the secondary, or the mystery might be so minor it lasts only a few chapters. But whatever the case, it should draw readers into your story and keep them turning the pages. That only happens, though, if it’s done right.

As an editor, I see a lot of unpublished work. One of the most common problems I see when an author includes a mystery is that the whole mystery seems to happen on the page. The author plants “clues” of course, but then focuses too much on them, making sure the reader “gets it,” or she has her character wonder for paragraphs upon paragraphs, with speculation that is often vague, uninteresting, or leads to conclusions that are far too predictable.

In cases like this, the reader becomes a spectator.

But just as emotion is more powerful when the reader experiences it himself, mysteries are more powerful when the reader is a participator.

The narrator (which in some cases is the viewpoint character) is the readers’ guide. The narrator draws focus to certain aspects of the story, and leaves others in the background. The narrator offers an emotional tone that helps the reader interpret a scene. The narrator suggests themes and ideas and judgments on the story and characters.

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Quick Link: The Basics of Show Don’t Tell

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I know, I know. We share a lot of “show don’t tell” posts. But in my defence, I think it is one of those subjects that seems easy until you try and do it and this is a really great post by  at Pub Crawl. She has some excellent examples.

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The Basics of Show Don’t Tell

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Hi all; Julie here! Today’s post goes back to basics with a discussion of Show Don’t Tell. (For other approaches to this rule, you can read JJ’s piece on balancing the mix of showing and telling, Pub Crawl alum Susan Dennard’s post on using showing and telling on macro and micro levels, and Kat’s approach to when to show and when to tell.) There are few rules of craft that can be applied to a draft that will lift the level of the writing with the same effect as this simple rule. With every first draft I write, I find I fall into the lazy habit of telling, and with each revision, I look for places I can show more. Some basic rules are basics for good reason. 🙂
Let’s start with the real nitty-gritty. What does it mean to “show” or “tell” in your writing?One simple way of thinking about it is this:

  • Writing that “shows” creates a mental image and lets the reader draw conclusions about what’s happening.
  • Writing that “tells” explains what’s happening and provides the writer’s own conclusions.

For example:

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Quick Links: Lesser-Known Character Archetypes

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There are certain characters you need in a story. You need a protagonist and antagonist of course, but you also need supporting characters as well.  Over at Writers Helping Writers, Becca Puglisi shares some other character archetypes that can add to your story.  What are your favorite archetypes?

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Lesser-Known Character Archetypes

 by BECCA PUGLISI

One of the biggest pitfalls for writers is falling into cliché, and some of the biggest clichés happen with our characters. While the common archetypes work and are typically necessary, there are others that can be utilized to add interest, uniqueness, and dimension to our stories. Jonathan Vars is here today to talk about some of these characters and how they might be of use to you.

Every story contains certain character archetypes—custom molds, if you will, that carry with them certain recognizable traits. These types are instantly recognizable, the most famous being the hero and villain matchup. Other favorites are the sidekick, the mentor, and the love interest.

While these archetypes are perfectly acceptable, writers should be aware that there are literally dozens of others, all of which contain valuable assets to thicken the plot of a story. Here are three lesser-known archetypes that writers should become familiar with and consider adding to their toolbox:

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Quick Link: How to Keep Readers Happy When Your Character’s Unlikeable

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Have you read or seen Gone Girl? That is the kind of character you kind of like to hate. It is a different type of character but one that can be really interesting if done well. Holly Brown shares her thoughts on unlikeable characters and how to incorporate them into your story. Head over to Writer Unboxed and check it out! 

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How to Keep Readers Happy When Your Character’s Unlikeable

Please welcome Holly Brown as our guest today. Holly is the author of Don’t Try to Find Me, A Necessary End, and—just this month!—This is Not Over. In addition to being a novelist, she is also (in no particular order): a wife, mother, marriage and family therapist, poker enthusiast, resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, member of the SF Writers Grotto, lover of some incredibly shameful reality TV, devotee of NPR (she owes a debt of gratitude for inspiring more than one novel), and a believer that people should always be willing to make mistakes and always be the first to apologize for them. As a writer, she tends to be inspired by contemporary events and phenomena. She likes to take an emotionally charged situation and then imagine the people within it. That’s where her background in human dynamics comes into play, and where the fun begins.

I like unlikable characters, dammit! Always have, even before I was writing them myself, and they can always use a champion.

Connect with Holly on her blog, Bonding Time on Psych Central, and on Facebook.

How to Keep Readers Happy When Your Character’s Unlikeable

Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl broke the glass ceiling by allowing female characters to be as unlikeable as males have often been in fiction. For too long, women writers in particular were hamstrung by the need for relatability, which could lead to muted characters, dulled at the edges, your stereotypical women in jeopardy, more acted upon than acting. Here are some ideas on how to build vivid, complex characters who are as satisfying to read as they are to write.

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Quick Link: Ten Crazy Realities About Writing a Sequel

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Do you write with the knowledge of a possible sequel in your head or are you one of those authors that waits to see if there is some success with your story and then worry about a sequel? I believe that you really have to think about a series or sequels just to get enough traction to gain a decent size audience.  What are your thoughts?  At Jenny Bravo Books, Jenny shares her experiences with writing a sequel.

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Ten Crazy Realities About Writing a Sequel

by Jenny Bravo

Friends, family, coworkers, and strangers who found me on Pinterest: here are a few things you should know before we dive into this post.

1. I wrote a novel. And as of last week, I wrote a second one. That Was the Year will be making its debut into the world in the near-ish future, so until then, you should probably check out These Are the Moments, aka novel #1, aka #TATM.

2. Writing a novel is a strange process. It’s kind of like giving birth, except from your brain. (Okay, that’s a weird analogy. Let’s pretend this didn’t happen.) If you’re looking for a place to start diving into your writing adventure, there are tips over here.

3. And the last thing you should know is that I need to go to sleep, but I wanted to write to you instead. I don’t know why you need to know that, but there it is.

Okay, let’s begin.

1. You still don’t know what you’re doing.

I’ll be honest with you: it was really hard for me to start this second novel. In this book, there were way too many possibilities of where the story could lead. But also? I didn’t know what I was doing. Maybe I’ll never know what I’m doing. I’ll just keep writing and pivoting and filling the pages.

So, don’t beat yourself up. The trick is to admit that you’re not an expert, then work like crazy to make words happen.

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Quick Links: Ultimate Guide: Structural Editing For Your Novel

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Can you over edit a manuscript? I mean I am sure it is possible but most of the time the problem is not enough editing, and not enough of the right kind of editing. Author Helen Scheuerer from Writer’s Edit helps with the ultimate guide for structural editing.

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Ultimate Guide: Structural Editing For Your Novel

If you’re an author who has finished a manuscript, chances are, you may have seen the term ‘structural edit’ floating around. Perhaps you’ve even been told to have an editor look over your book for ‘structural’ issues.

In this extensive guide, we’ll take you through: what is a structural edit, why your book needs one, and what you can do yourself to identify and address structural issues in your fiction.

What is a structural (or developmental) edit?

It may come as a surprise to those of you who are new to the industry, but there are actually three different types of editing: structural (or developmental) editing, copy editing (also sometimes called line editing), and proofreading.

In this article, our focus will be the structural edit.

The structural edit is the process that comes first, after a manuscript is completed. It involves looking at the ‘big picture’ elements of the narrative and characters, and examining which of these elements are working and which could be improved, cut or changed altogether.

A structural edit focuses on literary devices such as:

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Quick Link: 5 Reasons Why You Should Write a Novella

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Novellas are becoming very popular as they don’t take quite the commitment of a full-length novel for the reader or the author. Over at Ink and Quills, Kaitlin Hillerich gives her best five reasons why you should write a novella!

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5 Reasons Why You Should Write a Novella

 Kaitlin Hillerich
Novellas – giving you time to read and take a cat nap

Over the past several weeks or so, I’ve been experimenting with a form of fiction I’ve never tried before: the novella. If you don’t already know, a novella runs between 20,000 and 40,000 words, and can be read in a couple of sittings. It’s like a longish short story for writers who suck at keeping short stories short (aka me).

Writers usually avoid novellas because publishers typically don’t want them. Not because there isn’t a market for them, but because they’re not as cost-effective for the publisher as a full-length novel. And as we all know, at the end of the day publishing is a business.

But with the advent of self-publishing and the digital age, the publishing world is changing. Writers can now bypass traditional publishing houses and publish novellas themselves inexpensively in the form of e-books. This means we can now target that market of readers who enjoy novellas that we couldn’t reach before.

And that’s pretty cool, especially since novellas are growing in popularity. Still not convinced? Read on to learn the benefits of writing a novella, and maybe you’ll even decide to write one yourself!

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