Category: Writing Tips

WRITING TIPS: KEEP YOUR SHOES ON

Yes, fashion advice. From me. Of all people.

Not really.

If you’re having trouble writing, stop being so comfortable. Stop curling up on a couch with a blanket and your laptop.

Put on your shoes. Or, if you’re just getting home from you 9-to-5, keep them on until you complete your writing session.

If you treat it like you treat an assignment at work, as something you have to do before you can relax, you’ll get the work in.

A lot of writing (especially the long-distance marathon of a novel) is tricking our minds to want to be there typing away when we could be watching Netflix.

But it’s not for everyone. One thing I know, is that every writer is different–and every time I write something is different. Not every trick works every time. But when it does, you’ll swear by it . . . until it stops working.

Want more Writing Tips? Check back every month on the LAST WEDNESDAY and I’ll ramble on like I know what I’m doing . . .

WORDING: MUST

Let’s talk, if we must, about the word MUST.

It’s one of my favorite four-letter words because it makes the speaker sound so desperate when they say it, or even weak.

“It must have been someone else.” Always sounds suspect to me.

“We must complete the assignment or we’ll all die!”

It’s a word to be used when something is necessary or required. It’s a word I feel like I heard way too much as a kid. And it’s an ugly sounding word, kin to ‘musk’ and ‘uh’, like the antithesis of ‘most’ or the swamp cousin of ‘moist’.

But sometimes, ugly words are what MUST be used to get out point across.

One of my favorite movie titles and all-time favorite HAMMER HORROR film is FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED!

Have you seen it?

It’s the fifth in their series and unfortunately, spoiler, even though the fiery ending would lead us to believe the dastardly doctor has been destroyed, there was one more sequel (the Ralph Bates starring HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN being ignored, but not out of distaste, I adore that movie, that movie features one of my favorite endings of all-time–maybe I’ll write more on that later).

WORDING is an ongoing series of posts I’ll be making about words. I won’t always delve into proper use. depending on the word and what it means to me and potentially others there may be articles about words that trigger me, words I love, words that always look misspelled to me and more.

WRITING TIPS: GIVE YOUR CHARACTERS UNIQUE VOICES

There are a lot of ‘cheats’ to giving your character a unique voice. Word choice is everything, but it’s also very important to make your characters sound different so that the reader never has any doubt which one is speaking.

There are accents, although they don’t always look great on a written page, but there are certain ways someone from different parts of the UK will sound. Just as someone from New Jersey doesn’t sound like someone from South Carolina.

“Y’all know what I mean?“

But if your setting means every character has a similiar accent, you’ll want to use a different set of cheats.

Attitude is the easiest.

If someone is chipper and excited, they’ll ramble and shout.

“But you know exactly what I mean, don’t you? I mean it’s so obvious!”

But maybe they are direct, concise.

“Understand?”

There are subtle ways too, the create a specific cadence. Some people refuse to use contractions because of either pretension or a desire to be clearly heard.

“Do you not understand what I mean?”

There are other character ticks you can add. Perhaps your speaker never uses personal pronouns.

“You understand, don’t you?”

Or they use too many personal pronouns.

“I want you to understand me. Let me know if you don’t.”

Or maybe they talk like Starfire from TEEN TITANS GO!

“Do you the understand what it is that I am the saying?”

Give your readers an easy way to differentiate and you’ll save some finger energy not having to add a million speaker tags.

Want more writing tips? Check back every LAST Wednesday of every MONTH . . .

WORDING: START vs. GO

In reading UNDERSTANDING COMICS by SCOTT MCCLOUD, there’s a moment where he points out that a character facing the left of the panel presents a stop to the action because we read left to right. If the character is facing right, our eyes keep the movement going to the next panel.

If I said that wrong or it’s confusing, go check out his long-heralded study on the comic book medium. It’ll change your life. It reveals not only the workings of comics but of our minds.

So, with that idea in mind, if the way a character is looking can inform us of movement, so can words based on the sound.

START, because of the hard T sound at the end doesn’t move for me. The word START stops.

GO, on the other hand has the open mouth O sound that a singer could draw out. It doesn’t just stop it moves.

Maybe that’s why we don’t say ‘Ready. Set. Start!’

WRITING TIPS: REHERSAL

Sometimes I have the gist of a story. But that’s not enough to dive into writing just yet.

I’ve found that writing the summary of the idea over and over again helps.

Start with a few sentences of your story.

Character has to battle demons. Character finds out he’s actually a demon. Ends with a really cool action scene.

Then come back and write it with more interesting details

Bob is a demon slayer, it’s not his only job, so he’s constantly trying to hide that he’s a demon slayer. But things get worse when he finds out he’s actually a demon and has been serving the wrong master, they battle over a giant lava pit.

Then add more details.

And then more.

Rinse and repeat.

Keep expanding. Add more characters and the scenes you know will take place.

Practicing your storyline helps. You’ll notice the natural flow, and whether or not it is likely to stay interesting throughout of if you’ve scheduled a ‘lull’ in the plot.

I do all of this before eventually creating my plot outline, and the best part about rehearsing is you’ll end up knowing your story inside and out. When I’ve rehearsed enough, I can write without any pause as to what comes next. There are still things to discover though. Characters have a way of taking over . . . but that’s another topic.

Want more writing tips? Check back every last Wednesday of every month for a new tip.