WRITING TIPS: WRITE WHAT YOU . . .

There are two ways to complete this sentence and you’ve heard both before, I’m sure of it. Somewhere someone sometime gave you the advice to write what you . . .

A) KNOW

B) WANT

They are rather similar even if you don’t think so right away.

Writing what you ‘know’ isn’t writing about a wannabe author trapped in his room all day wishing he could be rich so that all he had to do was wake up and write.

What you ‘know’ isn’t the story. It’s what you bring to the story. Your knowledge of emotions. Your recollections of the details of a scene or facts you researched. That’s what you ‘know.’ All those things you’ve observed other people doing, all those aspects of a summer’s day. Those are the things you know.

And this goes hand-in-hand with writing what you ‘want.’

Writing what you want isn’t just pulling that story out of your imagination. It’s knowing how to pull it out of your imagination. It’s wanting to know how to write it. It’s knowing the details that’ll make your fantasy world feel real to your readers.

You should research, especially if you are writing about a topic that’s not plucked from your imagination. And if it sounds daunting to learn a new subject, then it’s probably not what you want to be writing anyways.

If you want to right it, learning what you need to know will come easily.

BEHIND THE SCENES: THE HATCHBACK WOMAN

This year I’m sharing 12 short stories surrounding the mystery of the Hatchback Woman, aka The Lady. In 2022, I also posted 2 other tales of hers. So, I thought I’d give you all a peak behind the curtain in a new series (that’ll be rather irregular) that looks at the making of and my reasoning behind the stories. If you don’t like to see how the sausage is made, read no further . . .

The Hatchback Woman had to wait on the sidelines, wondering where she fit into the JIREverse when I first began collecting the stories that existed in the same universe. Because I had published her under another name many years before, I was just assuming she didn’t really fit in.

But she does.

And thankfully, it wasn’t even a stretch once I realized that her ‘oh so can’t be disclosed motive’ tied directly into some of the other key happenings in the JIREverse.

It wasn’t that she needed to be fit into the JIREverse–she had help construct it with her objects the imbue the users with strange powers.

Mirroring the some of the other entities I’ve introduced in short stories and novels, The Hatchback Woman is someone helping another one of the other dimensional entities cross over into our world.

Maybe that was a spoiler. But if you’re reading this BEHIND THE SCENES, you are interested enough in the inner workings of the stories to accept you’re going to read something that might spoil another story.

The conception of the HBW tales was a writing exercise. I created a formula for a series of stories:

  1. Someone gets a magical object (has to be different way each time)
  2. The object has a magical power (has to be different power each time)
  3. The object either makes their life better or worse

Pretty simple. And with that, I knocked out a dozen tales (a few weren’t good enough to see the light of day or were revised into something different). Another author I traded stories with became a big fan, and suddenly I found myself investing more time into the mythology.

There was a time when it was going to play out more like a novel, with a Mulder/Scully team tracking her down and there are remnants of some of those chapters and characters. But my test readers didn’t like this direct approach.

In truth, the mystery of her actions, is she good or evil, is part of the fun for me to write. Is she helping or hurting?

27 tales were published through 2016, while dozens more awaited either another collection or my final judgement call whether or not they steered the story in the direction I wanted. But while I moved onto other projects, I’d write at least 1 HATCHBACK WOMAN tale per year, always pleased to return to the formula/world.

Around the time of story #27, I remember thinking it would be cool to have 100 Hatchback Woman tales. And hopefully, one day there will be. I don’t plan to give up her story so easily.

Even though I know the end game and keep trying to complete the prequel story as a novel, she’s constantly evolving and by accepting a place in the greater continuity of the JIREverse, I’m excited to let her story unfold as it may in the background of other characters’ stories and how their interaction with her changes their lives.

To see the free-to-read tales, click here and begin the mystery if you haven’t already . . . and remember . . .

SHE HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

FREE STORY: THE BURNER

Dear Potential Reader,

Spider Hanson’s good sense would tell him it’s a good thing that people are finally doing what he wants them to do, only the way he communicates isn’t doing him any favors in this month’s free-to-read tales of the Hatchback Woman: THE BURNER.

CLICK HERE TO READ

Spider turns up a few times in other short stories, something about that name caught me early on and he became an important piece to the puzzle. This is his introduction to the Hatchback Woman, and it’s one of those ones that I hope makes you wonder whose side she’s on.

Now, do as I say and return every First Friday of Every Month in 2023 for another mysterious tale of the Hatchback Woman.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

WRITING TIPS: 4 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR CHARACTER’S WORLD OUTSIDE YOUR PLOT

A character always feels more real, no matter how much time they show up in a story, if there’s something else going on in their life.

We see this sometimes in cop shows when a character is being questioned and they can’t stop working or they dismiss the police to get back to work. That’s a silly stupid trope. All it does is tell us you’ve seen a formulaic cop show before.

But the point of giving your characters a life outside of the story is that is further develops them in the reader’s mind. It’s SHOWING instead of TELLING.

Here’s a 4 of ways to create your character’s life outside your story without having to pause the plot:

URGENCY – Like the suspect that just has to get back to work, giving your character somewhere to be other than where they are, creates a sense that there is more to their story. It can tell a lot about a character if they’re about to miss their orthodontics procedure. Are they vain or do they have a serious health issue? Follow up with another clue to direct your reader as to which it is. Maybe he keeps touching his jaw.

FASCINATION – People get hung up on things, like not tipping properly at a restaurant, or maybe they love the L.A. Dodgers beyond reason. Grammar police? A character that interjects their fascination into whatever is going on helps define the character, it can be used to reinforce cliches or reject them.

SCARS – Like a fascination, scars are things that are likely to give pause to your character. If they’ve been burned by love, they’re going to hesitate jumping in with the next person they meet. ‘Scars’ don’t have to be but can be physical. They can hint at adventures of old or of lessons learned. A character with a bad elbow from baseball, might mean a failed dream career has forced him into this other lifestyle. Giving your character a past without a flashback is a great way to keep the plot moving.

RUMORS – What other people say about your character says a lot about them. An off-handed comment can end up meaning the world. “She prefers wine.” That line is placed in the reader’s head and if she parties too hard or shows signs of regrets (scars) perhaps she has a problem. If She is only fascinated with the finer things, it might lean her toward upscale living.  But you’ll need to place more clues throughout the story to further the rumor in the direction you want the reader to go.

Want more tips on Writing? There will be a new one every last Wednesday of Every Month.

FREE STORY: THE BIRTHDAY

Dear Potential Reader,

In this month’s free-to-read short story, a man’s chance encounter with the Hatchback Woman at a gas station opens his eyes to his marital problems in THE BIRTHDAY . . .

CLICK HERE TO READ

One of the things about people watching is how clues lead us to create narratives surrounding their situation. Most people we see are probably not up to anything as strange as The Lady, but we all have our own stories, we’re all in the midst of something whether it’s dire or not. We’re not blank slates that appear for the sake of an NPC (Non Player Character) in a video game. It’s how these stories cross that can be interesting. Are we meeting people at the beginning of a chapter, the middle, or the end? And most importantly—what exactly is going on in their heads that we don’t get to hear?

Tune in every first Friday of every month in 2023 for a Tale of the Hatchback Woman.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE