writing tips

Quick Links: How To Make Multiple Antagonists Shine In Your Story

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Want to really ramp up your story? Make your antagonists multidimensional.  Want to take it to the next level? Have more than one antagonist – check out ‘s post at Stand Out Books for all the details! 

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How To Make Multiple Antagonists Shine In Your Story

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In Kung Fu Hustle, the hero starts off with multiple antagonists
In Kung Fu Hustle, the hero starts off with multiple antagonists

Can multiple antagonists work in a story? The answer depends on the author, but that shouldn’t be surprising when the term is so loosely defined. There are people who’ll tell you that a truly great story shouldn’t have any antagonists at all, and some who’ll tell you that you need at least three to create a narrative worth reading.

What you’ll hear less often is how difficult it can be to write a story with multiple compellingantagonists. That’s a shame, because while it’s a difficult endeavor, it’s one worth pursuing for authors who want to create engaging, realistic conflict in their stories.

Happily, that’s exactly what this article is about – I’ll be touching on how appreciating the antagonist’s role in a story can help you incorporate more than one, how to ensure minor antagonists pack a punch, and how to use differences in ‘kind’ and ‘scale’ to craft multiple antagonists who pose unique threats to the protagonist. Before any of that, though, we have to start by defining a term.

What is an ‘antagonist’?

An antagonist is a character who opposes the protagonist. At first glance, it seems like a synonym for ‘villain’, but the differences between these terms are important. To start with, a villain is wrong or immoral, whereas an antagonist just opposes the protagonist. They’re someone who stands in the way of the protagonist achieving their goals, and that means that if the protagonist of your story is a villain, the antagonist might even be a hero.

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Quick Link: Three Ways to Build a Better Plot

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How are you NaNoWriMo‘s doing? Keeping up on your word count? Today’s offering is from Janice Harding’s Fiction University and might help.  Janice writes about three ways you can ramp up your plot. More & better plot = more words!

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Three Ways to Build a Better Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Building blocksPlot is how writers illustrate a story to their readers—which is why it’s so vital to craft a compelling one. It’s the foundation on which a story is built, and the weaker that is, the less likely the story will stand, let alone entertain. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a poor story idea, so it’s no wonder so many writers have trouble with plotting.

I love plotting myself, but even I’m always on the lookout for ways to make the process easier and more effective. Here are three things that I find particularly helpful when working on a new novel:

1. Know the Ending First

Since the whole goal of a novel is to solve the core conflict problem, knowing A) what that problem is and B) how that problem is resolved, makes it easier to plot it. Let’s look at a common way a novel’s plot is described:

Jaws is the story of a sheriff with a fear of the water who finds out a killer shark is terrorizing his beach during a major holiday weekend (the premise).

Next, let’s look at that same story with the ending as part of the idea:

Jaws is a story of a sheriff with a fear of the water who faces that fear to kill a killer shark terrorizing his town during a major holiday weekend (the general problem and how he solves it).

The premise version only gives the setup for the story. It doesn’t provide enough information to know what the sheriff does after this discovery. A large percentage of novels start out with this type of “plot” summary (I’ve done it, too), and it’s no wonder an equally large percentage of first drafts hit a wall around page 100.

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Quick Link: Four Major Stumbles by Newer Writers

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 at the Kill Zone site has some great insight into some common issues that new writers have. They are probably not what you think. Sure you have to be careful with grammar and sentence structure, but what really makes a good book is the story behind it. That is where it becomes complicated.  

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Four Major Stumbles by Newer Writers

Stuck in a bubblePosted on by

These four nasty little traps would still be weaknesses if they appeared in the novels of more experienced professional writers. But for the most part, those writers don’t commit these mistakes. Which defines the window of opportunity for newer writers – to understand what they’re doing and how they do it.

And how that differs from where your story is, at any given moment. Especially when you believe you are done.

It is important to remember that when you read a novel from a proven professional, you’re reading a polished, pounded upon, tested and fortified final draft. The story may have been riddled with problems in the early stages, draft after draft, so don’t assume these pitfalls are unique to the newer writer.

Established authors have agents and editors for this purpose, newer writers don’t. And they bring their 10,000 hours of apprenticeship to the task, which probably exceeds your resume by orders of magnitude.

A few workshops won’t get you there. Those 10,000 hours, along with the criteria-driven, modeled craft held up as the target, just might.

If I wanted to read fully realized, polished stories all day long, I’d be a book reviewer instead.

I do read a lot of work from folks who are terrific writers… if the composition of sentences and paragraphs is the benchmark for that description.

But the thing is, it isn’t.

Where writing novels is concerned, a terrific writer is judged by the story more than the prose. And because they are two different skill sets, one doesn’t necessarily beget the other.

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Quick Link: 8 Steps That Will Help You Start (And Finish) Your Book

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 has some great tips for starting and more importantly (at least for me!) finishing your books. Head on over to Stand Out Books for all the details. 

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8 Steps That Will Help You Start (And Finish) Your Book

From start to finish, child writing on white paperJULY 6, 2016 by ROBERT WOOD

Writing’s really hard. I don’t mean it’s hard to create something good, I mean it’s difficult to sit down and start writing. That may sound like lip-service, but the fact is that writing – especially writing a book – goes against every rule of self-motivation there is.

Generally, it’s not done to order, meaning that goals and deadlines are self-set and easy to break. It’s also rarely done in a focused, dedicated environment – even those lucky enough to have an office or dedicated writing space probably use it for other things, and utilize a device that’s also a primary source of leisure: imagine trying to do paperwork in your local pub or aquarium (we haven’t met, so I’m not sure what you like doing in your spare time). Finally, it’s ill-defined – ‘How long is a book?’ is the same question as ‘How long is a piece of string?’, but it applies to every quality of a finished work. How polished does your book have to be? How realistic should the dialogue feel? How many characters is too many, or enough?

These issues combine into a task that’s almost designed to not get done. Authors begin the writing process with no goals or parameters except ‘make a book’. What even is a book? Answers differ.

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Quick Links: Dudeology #2: Combining Genres

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I have noticed that there seem to be a lot more authors mixing genres. Just check on the Amazon subcategories when you try and upload your book! I think it is a good thing, that increases creativity.  Steven Pressfield explains why combining genres can be a good thing, and he is using one of my favorite movies The Big Lebowski. 

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Dudeology #2: Combining Genres

By STEVEN PRESSFIELD | Published: JULY 6, 2016

The Dude abides
The Dude abides

We were talking last week about The Big Lebowski being a film in the Private Eye genre. But what really makes Lebowski so inventive and so interesting is it’s a mixedgenre. It’s a Slacker/Stoner tale (like Dazed and Confused, Go, Clerks, or any Cheech and Chong movie) conceived, structured, and executed as a Detective Story.

What does this mean for you and me as writers?
It means that mixing genres is one of the most canny and fun tricks we can pull to come up with something new and fresh and exciting.

Mix the Private Detective genre with Sci-Fi and you get Blade Runner.

Combine it with a Geezer Pic and you get The Late Show, starring Art Carney and Lily Tomlin.

Blend it with historical fiction and you get The Name of the Rose.

But let’s dig a little deeper into The Big Lebowski. The concept of the film is this:

 

Let’s tell a story that hits all the beats [conventions] of a Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe Private Eye Story, but instead of having a hard-bitten detective as the hero we’ll have a sweet, lovable stoner.

 

How does that pay off for the writers, Joel and Ethan Coen? It pays off because this simple creative twist—stoner instead of film-noir private eye—makes every character and line of dialogue feel original and inventive. Each scene gives the filmmakers an angle to make a fresh point about America, about popular culture, about how things have changed in the past generation or two.

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Quick Link: How to Tap into Your Passion Every Time You Write

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My favorite part of writing is the beginning. I love the excitement of putting down a new story! But once the basic story outline is done and I need to fill in the details, it becomes more difficult to find that excitement. At Live Write Thrive, C.S. Lakin shares how to tap into that excitement every time.

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How to Tap into Your Passion Every Time You Write

Pedestrian in urban environmentJuly 6, 2016

Let’s say you have a great idea for an article, blog post, short story, or novel. You’ve brainstormed your main points and you feel the topic is fresh and interesting.

After a bit of work, you come to the moment when you are ready to write. You hope to infuse that initial excitement about your idea into your writing, but when you get down to the nuts and bolts of actually putting the idea down on paper (or typed into your Word document), it seems to fall flat.

You know it’s not the idea that’s the problem. Nor is it your writing ability; you have the chops to write well. So what’s the problem?

The Difficult Transition from Idea to Execution

Sometimes that transition from idea to execution causes problems. At times the story seems to be hovering over some lost horizon. You could be wandering a bit lost, and as the cliché goes: you can’t see the forest for the trees. And if you are working on something as enormous as a novel, it can seem like a huge forest with so many trees (elements) that your vision can get muddled and your eyes tired from trying to “see the big picture” all the time.

Kahlil Gibran said in his famous book The Prophet that “thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.” I memorized that line more than forty years ago because of its profound wisdom. Just how do we get our terrific ideas to “fly” in a cage of words?

We do so by tapping into our passion. Passion for our topic and passion for shaping words.

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Quick Links: Preface your book!

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Not sure what the difference is between a preface, foreword, introduction, or prologue? Over at the BookBaby blog, David Leonhardt explains the differences and why having one is key to setting the mood for your reader.

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Preface your book!

David Leonhardt

doodle_10036436-032114Whether it’s a preface, an introduction, a foreword, or a prologue, the text that comes before your first chapter is important for setting the stage for your readers.
Not every book has a preface. That’s OK, because some have an introduction. Or a foreword. Or a prologue. And some have several of these.

Whatever you call it (or them), the text that comes before your first chapter is important for setting the stage for your readers. So let’s take a couple minutes to cover the basics.

Your first question is probably this:

What is the difference between preface, foreword, introduction, and prologue?

That is exactly the question that was asked, and answered, on Quora. As you can tell, there is no hard and fast definition, although a foreword is typically written by someone other than the author, usually someone well-known and credible. This is a great way to help readers accept that a new writer has something worth reading.

An introduction is usually an explanation of what is in the book. This is ideal for non-fiction books, or for fiction books where the author wants to explain where he’s coming from. It can also let readers know how they will benefit from reading the book. The introduction is not part of the story.

A prologue is generally part of the story, but set apart. It sets the stage by bringing the reader into the story before it begins. Generally, a prologue is used for fiction.

So what is a preface? Well, now, that’s a good question. A preface could be an introduction. Or it could be a prologue. It is whatever you need to set the stage so that the reader can hit the ground running from Chapter 1.

Setting the stage is key

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Quick Links: But When I Do It, It’s Really Stylish

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I love this post by , first because I am a massive Red Dwarf fan, but also because Jo tells us to go ahead and take some writing chances, break a few rules. Go to Writer Unboxed to see for yourself.

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But When I Do It, It’s Really Stylish

July 2, 2016 By Jo Eberhardt

Girl In The Summer Sun Wearing SunglassesI grew up on 80s British comedy. (Which possibly explains everything you ever need to know about my writing style.) Yes, Minister taught me about politics. Blackadder taught me about history. Are You Being Served? taught me about… well, lots of things. And Red Dwarf taught me about science fiction.

In fact, Red Dwarf taught me a lot of lessons, and one of the ones I come back to time and time again is from the most feminist episode I’ve ever seen in any TV show ever: ‘Parallel Universe’.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of watching Red Dwarf, the two main characters are Arnold Rimmer, a socially awkward, sexually repressed hologram, and Dave Lister, a slobbish, easygoing lad’s lad whose skills include drinking lager and eating vindaloo spicy enough to melt through plastic. In ‘Parallel Universe’, they’re accidentally transported to a parallel dimension where everything is the same… except that women are the dominant gender. There, they meet their female equivalents who, obviously, try to get them into bed.

Hi-jinks ensue as the boys come to terms with being objectified and, in Lister’s words dealing with women who “think of men in the exact same way [we] think of women…. it’s disgusting.” But my favourite part of the episode is the conversation that takes place about female-Lister’s attempt to seduce male-Lister:

Lister: She tried to impress me by drinking six pints of lager and belching the whole of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Rimmer: That’s your party piece, isn’t it?

Lister: Yeah, but when I do it, it’s really stylish, man.

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Quick Links: Strengthen Your Writing with Rhetorical Devices

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Are you a little iffy on your rhetorical devices and want to add a little spice to your writing, no matter the genre? Jamie Gold has got you covered by helping you learn more about these literary tools and how you can use them to enhance your writing.

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Strengthen Your Writing with Rhetorical Devices

by Jami Gold on June 30, 2016

toolkit-lite-plus-icon_myuiqpuu_lSome in the literary community assume that genre writers don’t care about the deeper aspects of writing craft. While it’s true that literary fiction is more well-known for its use of figurative and lyrical language, genre fiction can use the same literary tools.

Now, if you’re anything like me, and your English or grammar instruction was less than ideal, you might not be familiar with the term rhetorical devices. I certainly wasn’t.

When I first heard the term, I assumed it had something to do with arguing or making a point, like a rhetorical question. Eh, in a way, I wasn’t too far off. But once I did learn about them, I quickly became aware of how using rhetorical devices can strengthen our writing—even if we’re writing genre stories. *grin*

What Are Rhetorical Devices?
Rhetorical devices are simply ways to use language to affect our audience. We probably use several of these methods without realizing there are other similar tools sitting right alongside them in the literary toolbox.

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Quick Link: The Right First Impression by Virginia Heath

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I am thrilled and overwhelmed over my reading choices these days, just like everyone else. So to narrow down my tr pile I will go ahead and start a couple of pages. You will be lucky if your potential readers give your story that much. So having a really good start is important to hook your reader and keep them going. At Romance University, Virginia Heath talks about how to make the right first impressions.

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The Right First Impression by Virginia Heath

Posted On June 27, 2016

The Yuri Gagarin monument. He was the first in space and never boring.
The Yuri Gagarin monument. He was the first man in space and never boring.

Sometimes, you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression, and that adage applies to the beginning of your story. Virginia Heath returns to talk about elements that factor into a line that will grab and keep a reader’s attention. 

Welcome back, Virginia! 

‘Jack Markham, lately christened the Earl of Braxton, brought his horse to a stop on the brow of the hill just as the first rays of the sun burnt through the hazy mist of the early…’ Zzzzzzzzzzz sorry I nodded off there!

Those were the uninspiring first lines of my doomed, never-to-be-published first attempt at a historical romance novel. If the reader had a convenient pair of matchsticks at the ready to prop open their drooping eyes, the story then went into a great deal of description about the fictitious place he happened to be riding in. I think the story actually started somewhere around page five. Five wasted pages where I should have hooked my reader and made them want to continue reading my book. I’ve come a long way since then.

My dreary beginning aside, there have been some cracking first lines in literature. “All children, except one, grow up.” I read J M Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’ from cover to cover when I was eight. He had me from the first evocative sentence. Even at that young age, his words hooked me and dragged me into his world. The concept of one boy remaining a child forever was beyond appealing. Since then, there have been certain opening lines which I will never forget. They all come from my favourite books, but there is one which I love more than all of the others combined. “Being dead didn’t make Jack Mercy less of a son of a bitch. One week of dead didn’t offset sixty-eight years of living mean.” These words were written by Nora Roberts in ‘Montana Sky’, the very first book of hers I read and consistently at number one on my top ten list.

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Quick Link: Breaking Funny

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I happen to have a very dry sense of humor but I love books that make me laugh. Even the ones with groaners – Piers Anthony I am looking at you. Ann Garvin guest posts at Writer Unboxed on why humor is important to a good story and has some helpful tips on how you can incorporate more humor into yours.

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Breaking Funny

It is a fact that humor is good for what ails you.
It is a fact that humor is good for what ails you.

June 26, 2016
We’re so pleased Ann Garvin has stopped by Writer Unboxed today! Ann is the co-founder of The Fifth Semester, ‘where writers are mentored from inspiration to publication.’ She is the author of the forthcoming book I LIKE YOU JUST FINE WHEN YOU’RE NOT AROUND and the founder of Tall Poppy Writers. You can learn more about Ann on her website, and by following her on Twitter.

Want to write funny but don’t think you’re funny? Ann has something to say about that.

Breaking Funny

I’ve been teaching writing for a long time now and I often hear some version of this statement, “I’m not funny so I don’t even try to write humor into my books,” or “My books are about very dark topics and I’m not sure humor would fit in the story line.”

I think the response to both of these statements is to try to infuse humor, even if you aren’t naturally funny, even if you are writing about very, very difficult topics. Here’s why.

I’m going to borrow from my history as a nurse and a conversation I had with a male physician about labor pain. He said, “I’ve never been in labor, but I did have a kidney stone once and I hear the intensity is similar to that of having a baby.” I was both pleased that he was trying to understand but also irritated, as any woman might be when a man compares a microscopic piece of crust to an eight-pound human, but that’s a fight for another day.

Since I’ve had both a kidney stone and two babies I’m going to prove him wrong and work to sell you on trying comedy in the worst of situations.

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Quick Links: First Chapter Blues: Tips and Fixes

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I love what Ruth Harris has to say about rewriting the first chapter once you get the story done. By then your story has settled down and is more cohesive. So then the first chapter needs a serious re-look.  She has a bunch more tips, so head on over to Anne R Allen‘s blog and check it out. How do you manage unruly first chapters?

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First Chapter Blues: Tips and Fixes

June 26, 2016 by Ruth Harris

All the hoping and wishing won't make it better.
All the hoping and wishing won’t make it better.

Someone waves a gun in the first sentence.

In the second sentence, Jim (or is it Jill?) is walking his (or is it her?) dog in the rain.

In the third paragraph, the dog gets loose, runs into the middle of a movie set where the handsomest/most beautiful/most famous movie star in the world falls instantly in love with the owner of the toy poodle/doberman pinscher/golden retriever.

In the last paragraph, Jim (or is it Jill?) is tied up in a cellar. She or he is getting fired/laid by his/her billionaire boss. Or s/he is in the kitchen making cupcakes. Or driving a Ferrari on the Grand Corniche while some people (good guys? bad guys?) are going somewhere in a truck/tank/bus/boat/private jet.

So what is this? A mystery? A thriller? A cozy? A romance? Urban fantasy?

Who the hell knows?

Certainly not the reader who by now is gone, girl, gone.

Basically, what we have here is a mess.

Of course I exaggerate but, based on a recent random reading of “Look Inside” samples, I didn’t completely make this up, either.

Your first chapter needs to be seductive, enticing, compelling and coherent. Getting it right is crucial—and it’s not easy.

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Quick Link: Eleven Sneaky Ways To Rescue A Failed Story

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It happens, the story you were originally so excited about has turned into a quagmire. No matter how you struggle to make it work, you just make the mess worse. Should you quit? No, go to the Writer’s Villiage The Wicked Writer Blog, and find some quick fixes that can help get your story back on track!

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Eleven Sneaky Ways To Rescue A Failed Story

Hey I can see your plot line here.
Hey I can see your plot line from here.

by John Yeoman on Friday, June 24, 2016

So your story ‘doesn’t work’. You’ve worried it to death. You’ve cut stuff out. You’ve put it back in again. Now you’re wondering for the nth time if that comma in line three should really have been a semi-colon or a full stop.

Stop!

Isn’t it time to junk the whole wretched tale and start again?

No. Your story might still be rescued, faults and all. Here are eleven sneaky ways. (‘Sneaky’ because they’re quick fixes and don’t pretend to be complete writing strategies.)

I’ll start with a typical story ‘fault’, listed in no particular order, then suggest a remedy or two.

1. You have too many scene shifts or ‘jump cuts’.

A proven way to ramp up your story’s pace is to shift quickly between episodes. End one scene on a note of rising tension then cut to a different scene entirely. Close that scene on a question, mystery or hint of imminent conflict.

Then shift back to the previous scene.

It’s a great technique. Problem is, the story becomes a ping-pong match. And the reader drops the ball…

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Quick Links: Time Markers: How to Keep a Reader on Track with Your Story

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Time markers are little hints that keep your readers oriented in your story. Often they are just little details but they help move the story along smoothly. I will admit that I never thought about it, but now that Mary Carroll Moore has brought it to my attention, I see the affect in my favorite stories. Head over to How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book to learn more.

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Time Markers: How to Keep a Reader on Track with Your Story

Business Background and symbolby Mary Carroll Moore Friday, June 24, 2016

A few months ago, I began exchanging chapters with a writer who has an incredible skill with something called “time markers.” I feel very lucky to have her reading my chapters with time in mind. She has caught my natural sloppiness the way a good editor might, saving me and my reader from going off track and losing the story thread.
Are you aware of time markers in your story? They’re vital in fiction and memoir, even in nonfiction. They’re the little mentions of where we are in place, time of day, day of the week, even season, so that readers slide effortlessly through the sequence of events.
Many professional writers use timeline charts as part of their storyboarding or outlining process. They take each person in the story, for instance, and write a timeline of their events in sequence. What time of year it happens (season), then what day, then what time of day. It seems nit-picky when you’re in early drafts, and I don’t usually pay much attention at that stage, but in later revision it’s essential.

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Quick Links: The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western

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Well howdy partner, rustle on up a stool and sit a spell. The reason why I picked this article to share with you is that it is more about writing a story with western spirit than an actual western.   There is really a lot of great information in this post, even if you never though of saddling up and heading out yonder to ride off into the sunset. Do yourself a favor and go read  excellent post at Standoutbooks.

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The 3 Golden Rules Of Writing A Western

Adding a smart aleck horse always helps, Wilbur.
Adding a smart aleck horse always helps, Wilbur.

June 22, 2016 by Robert Wood

Westerns are a strange genre of fiction. They’re generally set in one place, deal with one kind of character and utilize a specific but limited aesthetic language. At first glance, it seems like such a specific setup that this fully fledged genre should actually be just a niche interest. Cowboys on their horses always seem to belong to the generation before, yet the Western never really leaves, with constant new films, novels and video games published in the genre year after year.

Clearly Western fiction has something special to offer. By understanding what that is, authors can prepare themselves to write great Western stories. To that end, this article will cover the three golden rules of the Western, along with some advice on how to apply them to your own writing.

Rule #1 – It’s not about the cowboy hat

As I mentioned above, Westerns have an easily identifiable aesthetic (or ‘look’). The cowboy hat, horse, revolver and spurs are shorthand for a familiar, trustworthy character. In the Pixar children’s movie Toy Story, the writers use Woody the cowboy doll to support and introduce an outlandish world in which toys come to life. Dropped into this strange setting, children are greeted by the familiar and orientating presence of the dependable, recognizable cowboy.

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