Category: Writing Tips

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?

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 . . .