Category: Writing Tips

WRITING TIPS: LEARN TO BE CRITIQUED

One of the hardest things in life is taking advice.

There are many reasons we don’t want to take advice. The most common is:

THEY ARE WRONG.

Also commonly phrased as:

THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT

But even if you feel that way about advice given, especially if you asked for the advice from a peer or reader, you should look at why that advice is being given.

The why will help you understand whether or not that advice is worth taking.

When I first started writing scripts for short films, I’d exchange them with actors. I’ll never forget the one that was returned to me laden with curse words. Every line of dialogue had at least one. Sometimes multiple, with barely a word between them.

–-Not that curse words don’t have their proper place and time–

I threw out all that person’s changes. How could they be right about anything if their answer was to add the ‘f’-word to everything.

Later on, I learned the actor was a huge fan of Tarantino films, and it suddenly clicked. It wasn’t the f-word they wanted, it was the edge and wit. They just didn’t know how to do that because they were not a writer.

When you know where someone is coming from you can view their remarks through the proper lens.

It’s taken me a long time, but from my pool of early readers, I believe I know where everyone is coming from. And when I ask for a critique, I generally get back what I expected. I know what they’ll pick at–and when they don’t it means I did something right.

Of my 3 main early readers, I’ll sometimes send one a story first because I know they’ll help me get it to where the next reader will have less problems, or I’ll send it to the one that I think will tear it apart last–that way I don’t get entirely discouraged.

The thing with advice from others is that it can be a great tool to gauge your confidence. If you understand why they are saying something, maybe it reveals something you left out, maybe you didn’t ‘earn’ a moment in the story.

There is always some form of disconnect from what’s in your mind and what you wrote. People will react differently to lines. Trust their reaction.

Always think about who your reader is.

Interested in my thoughts on writing, well there’s more from the past months, but look for new WRITING TIPS every LAST WEDNESDAY of EVERY MONTH.

WRITING TIPS: FORMULAS ARE YOUR FRIEND: START AT THE END

You remember basic algebra, right?

3 x X= 18

Most of us, trying to be fair this is a site for writing and reading short stories, will know that X equals 6.

Well, writing a story is a lot like that equation above.

3 – is the idea we have

X – is how we tell the story

18 – is the ending.

When you know the ending, finding X is a lot easier than: 3 x X = ?

Knowing an ending creates momentum and incentive to our writing. Everything we write is building towards it.

Some endings manifest themselves and those are sometime the most rewarding ones. But sometimes, what stands in our way is not knowing where a story is heading.

If you know your ending before you start, it makes writing X a lot easier.

Want more Writing Tips? Check back every LAST WEDNESDAY of EVERY MONTH . ..

WRITING TIPS: FORMULAS ARE YOU FRIEND: HATCHBACK WOMAN EDITION

I practice writing. A lot.

I write throwaway stories. I write stories with goals to practice things like dialogue or action or group conversations.

The tales of THE HATCHBACK WOMAN began only as an exercise. I set a goal to write 10 short stories using a formula. Each story had to fulfill the formula in different ways.

The original formula to any HATCHBACK WOMAN tale was:

  1. Character receives an item from the HATCHBACK WOMAN.
  2. The item has a magical power.
  3. The use of the item changes the character’s life.

Pretty simple, but not when you have to come up with ten stories (or the ongoing case of HATCHBACK WOMAN, where I’m over 30 tales as of this writing).

For #1 I came up with: theft, found, given, left in new character’s possession, rewarded, demanded, offered a choice, given by a person other than the HATCHBACK WOMAN and a few variations, like dug up after witnessing her bury something.

For #2, I tried to think of different superpowers. Whatever I could think of, from invisibility to fire power and control over time.

For #3, I tried to vary how the item affected the character. Did it make their life better or worse? The character ended up deciding this each time. And it’s what I ended up loving about writing the HATCHBACK WOMAN tales. It was hard to know if she was good or evil or if it was the character’s choice.

I’ve written a few HATCHBACK WOMAN tales that failed. But practice makes perfect, and sometimes, I just needed to change up who the character was that received the item or how they received it.

Setting formulas gives us a chance to change up what we’re brainstorming.

Instead of trying to come up with an original idea, we’re asking ‘how do we make this different than what others have read?’

Want other ideas on how you could write? I’ve got more, every LAST WEDNESDAY of EVERY MONTH.

WRITING TIPS: FORMULAS ARE YOUR FRIEND- THE 3 QUESTIONS

No one likes formulaic writing. It’s a bad.

It’s what is the lowest form of television is.

It’s been there done that.

Yes.

But I’m not talking about those formulas. All stories are a formula. Some people break them down into acts. Some just say, beginning, middle, end. But I’m talking about asking yourself 3 questions to get your story started. From there, you can cut your own path . . .

  1. What has disrupted your character’s normal routine?

Do they always get to work on time, but today the alarm didn’t go off? Going off this example it tells us your character is punctual and responsible. But now, they’re panicked. By defining what their normal day is like, you define them.

2. Why is this important on this day?

Is today their yearly review? Did they hope to catch their crush at the coffee shop around the corner? Here you’re defining their goal now that the chaos of their broken routine is happening. You are telling us why this is important. How are they going to try and achieve that goal?

3. Why will they fail to achieve their goal?

Is there a monster around the corner? Did they arrive to find the coffee shop missing? Create another layer of conflict. Feel free to repeat this as often as needed to keep your plot engaging.

Now I used the word ‘fail’ above, and that should be on your mind, but it doesn’t mean the story ends that way. These three questions serve as prompts to let the character you defined in #1 achieve #2 (or not) by resolving of succumbing to #3.

Need more advice you’re not sure you asked for about writing that story of yours? You’ve come to the right place, there are older tips, but new ones arrive every LAST WEDNESDAY of every month.

WORDING: SUNSET, SUN SETS 

You can say “THE SUN SETS IN THE WEST.” 

Or you can say, “SUNSETS OCCUR IN THE WEST.” 

You can even say, “THE SUNSET OCCURRED IN THE WEST.’ 

SUN SETS is correct because it is referring to a single sun, you could use ‘A’ or ‘THE’ to make it so. 

SUNSETS is correct because it is referring to plural. 

But SUNSET still needed a verb since it is a noun, where as SUN SET is the noun and verb. You can’t say THE SUNSET WEST or THE SUNSETS WEST but you can say THE SUN SETS WEST. 

I probably use sunsets too often in my writing. Between them and a sunrise, they are things I’ve experienced, and have a feeling associated with them. Not all are breathtaking, but they carry a pretty universal symbolism to them. However, I always prefer to make the sunset active. Like “THE SETTING SUN CAST AN ARRAY OF ORANGE AND PURPLE.’ 

Technically, I could/should write “THE SUNSET CAST AN ARRAY OF ORANGE AND PURPLE.” 

Much like music, the slightest change creates a different tone. Every musician (that’s not a drum machine) plays differently, how will your sunset be cast?