dannedmind

WRITING TIPS: CHANGE THE SEASON

Time of day, month, year–all of this is as important as geography in your story. If you find yourself struggling with a story, sometimes it’s difficult to remove a doctor from a hospital setting or a lawyer from a courtroom.

Seasons bring weather differences and holidays which can add something extra to your story. Everyone seems to be in rush near Christmas and night comes quicker.

Summer usually means thunderstorms and longer days. Even if your story is presented inside, the weather outside can affect it. Holidays are conversational with your reader. It will evoke their feelings of that holiday. But its the same dressing as setting a story in a gothic manor or in outer space. Holidays and seasons create an aesthetic you can play into or play against.

Likewise, your feelings on the season will likely frame your story. Are summers hot and humid or a chance to get out on the beach?

If a story isn’t working in the original season that you set it in, switch it up, or focus on what makes that season help tell the story you want to tell.

WRITING TIPS: USE AI- VISUALIZE

As a person who loves drawing and painting, I’m not keen on the future for the arts with the use of AI. I do imagine art will evolve and become more personal to counteract the quick and easy tool of AI-generated works. But as far as writing goes, I’ve always liked having visuals. I’ll sometimes collect a view to keep around me when I write to set the mood or remind me of the tone I’m looking forward.

In the past, I’ve used photographs I’ve taken, sketches, screenshots from movies, video games, and comics. Anything to help me focus, but even with the help of Pinterest and Google Image Search, I hit a point where I’m not finding the details I want to visualize. With AI, I can quickly create the scene I want to visualize. I can alter the setting with the weather to see if I’m placing the scene at the right time of year or day. I believe the better we can visualize our location, the clearer it’ll be for the readers, especially if we hope they’ll imagine some fantastical realm.

As a proponent of using AI ethically, I would never want to use AI art in the finished product, but these visualizations can also be the prompts to hand artists to direct them toward a clearer understanding of what you are expecting, be it cover or interior illustrations.

As someone who briefly toiled in freelance graphic work, I found clients especially frustrating when they couldn’t pinpoint what they wanted. If someone handed me AI-generated art today, I’d be pretty excited to kick its algorithm square in the A, just to defend against this push towards AI art.

WRITING TIPS: USE AI – THE PITCH

I never got much out of writing prompt generators other than a laugh sometimes. I had fun with the Character Name Generators, but nothing ever stuck, and as a person who struggles with titling my stories, I was always disappointed by the title generators. But as AI has improved and is now invading most creative sectors, there are ways to use AI that will not encroach on the actual creative aspect that we, as writers, are most endeared to: surprising our readers.

Next time you have an idea for a story, ask an AI Bot to tell you that story based on your basic premise (not the whole plot or characters). I found it fascinating as it located every single trope I almost stumbled into naturally. It allowed me to rethink my premise and reaffirm my belief that the story I wanted to tell was different than what has come before.

Remember, AI uses what’s out there, not what will be to craft its answers. Hopefully this added step will be like a good friend’s advice that says, ‘Yeah, but I’ve seen that before.’

WRITING TIPS: COLOR DRENCHING

In interior design, color drenching refers to painting the walls, ceilings, trim, and even items like radiators the same dark color.

You can do with your writing. We’ve all seen it done with a dark room or the opposite, with the clinical bright white of an operating room. Choose colors that trigger a mood in readers by drenching the text with a single-color palette.

For reference, here is a list of colors and the examples of their psychological effects lifted from a quick online search:

Red: Passion, excitement, love, danger.
Orange: Happiness, energy, vitality, activity.
Yellow: Cheerfulness, joy, intellect, mental clarity.
Green: Abundance, nature, new beginnings, wealth.
Blue: Loyalty, honesty, reliability, communication.
Purple: Mysterious, noble, glamorous.
Pink: Soft, reserved, earthy.
White: Truth, indifference.

You likely have your own opinions on each. You can even create contrast by choosing a color like purple and making it the main color choice of a really tacky living room. Or setting the saddest scene of your story during an orange sunset.

Being mindful of how color choice effects most readers, will help you convey your scenes and set your mood.

WRITING TIPS: ASK WHAT THE READER WANTS NEXT . . .

While I work from an outline, especially on novels, there still comes a point where my heart isn’t in whatever even takes place next on my list. I find myself knowing what I need to write, but don’t really have interest in writing it, or can’t find the right words to jump start the session.

One of the only ways I’ve been able to break this particular writer’s block is to ask myself: “WHAT WOULD THE READER WANT TO READ NEXT?”

Suddenly, the outline doesn’t matter, it goes back to that last moment and what expectations I’ve set up in the story. Maybe the reader wants to know more about the mysterious character we just met, or maybe the cliffhanger from the previous chapter shouldn’t be delayed but resolved.

Either way, just remember your reader and you’ll likely help your pacing, no matter how perfectly planned your story is, being mindful of where the reader is experience wise can help you overcome any hurdles you are facing.