Jerry B. Jenkins's Blog, page 19

5 Secrets to Writing Despite a Day Job

Odds are you’re not a full-time writer. Few are.

That means you’re writing during pockets of your precious free time, either very early in the morning or at the end of the day.

And what else competes for those blocks of time?

The kids
Your significant other
Errands
Chores
Your need to rest

You wonder, Where does anyone with my schedule possibly find the time to write?

I Hate to Break This to You…

…But you won’t find the time. You’ll have to make it.

You must chisel it out of your already packed schedule.

You may think, I’ve already tried. It’s no use. I’m way busier than you can even imagine.

I get it. Really, I do.

I’ve suffered the exhaustion that comes from holding down a full-time job and writing nights and weekends.

But let this inspire you: Of my 192 published books so far, I wrote the first 90 before quitting my full-time job.

Following these 5 critical rules made all the difference:

How to Balance Writing With Your Day Job
1. Establish rigid writing hours.

Tell the people in your life that your writing time is set in stone. And yes, it is important.

Prove this is not flexible time when you could help someone move, make a carpool run, or just hang with a friend.

Sorry, but how bad do you want this? Some things will have to go.

The people in your orbit won’t take your avocation seriously until you do. Set expectations for them and for you.

It’ll also serve as accountability. When you announce you’re committed to something, you’d better do it.

Block this time off in advance, and show up on time every time. Consistency creates habit. And habit propels you to produce.

2. Be prepared to stand firm.

Despite your best intentions and even clear announcements, some will try to lay a guilt trip on you. “C’mon, help a friend out!”

Have an answer ready, especially for the one who begins, “Hey—you’re not working…”

“Yes, I am, so, no, I can’t. Sorry.”

Does your job follow you home? Tell your colleagues when you’re available and when you’re not.

3. Work before you play, but play.

We all need downtime, play time. I enjoy TV and movies and spending time with my wife. You may enjoy surfing the net or doing yard work.

Play time is important. You need to recharge your batteries and do something fun that doesn’t take a lot of concentration.

Be sure to play every day, but make that a reward for getting your work done first. Have you noticed, as I have, that the reverse order doesn’t work?

“I’ll do my work after two online games,” or, “I’ll write after I listen to one more song,” or, “I just want to see these this list of the 21 Ugliest Sea Monsters You Won’t Believe Actually Exist.”

The problem is, playing disengages your brain, lets you wind down and relax. Reengaging becomes a chore easy to put off.

And before you know it, you have frittered away your writing time.

If the Internet is your nemesis, “Freedom app” allows you to restrict your own access to social media for as long as you choose.

Check it out here.

4. Write at the best time for you.

It could be that neither pre-dawn or the wee hours appeal to you, but believe me, one will work better than the other.

By now you should have an idea whether you’re a morning person or a night person.

Write when you think the clearest, can concentrate, feel freshest. You’ll find yourself way more productive at one time of day than the other.

5. Keep your family first.

When I was a newlywed, five different middleaged men told me—independently of each other—that their one regret was spending too little time with their kids when they were growing up.

I got the message and set a policy. Once kids came along, I would do no writing from the time I got home from work until the time they went to bed.

That forced me to write between 9:00 p.m. and midnight. But because I maintained my family priorities, I wrote without guilt and was as productive as I’ve ever been.

Your family will hear what you say, but they’ll believe what you do.

When to Quit Your Day Job

Be real, and wait.

Don’t get stars in your eyes and assume that if you write full time, the money will automatically follow.

Prove it first.

I waited until I was making 3.5 times my salary before I finally pulled the plug on my publishing executive job.

Why didn’t I make the move when my royalties and advances equalled what I was making on the job? Because there’s way more to consider than just salary.

When you go full time freelance, you and only you pay for everything. All your expenses. Travel. Insurance. Retirement. Office supplies. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

Make sure you know the money will be there (because you’ve seen it come in from your writing alone) before cutting your ties to a steady job.

How do you balance writing with your day job? Tell me in the Comments.

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How to Know You’re Finally Finished Rewriting: When Is Enough Revision Enough?

What’s handier—or more frustrating—than how easily we can rewrite?

In the old days when we used typewriters, every change meant erasing or whiting out words or starting an entirely fresh page.

These days we can recast any word, any sentence, any paragraph with an almost unconscious series of mouse clicks and keystrokes.

On the one hand, I love it!

On the other, I find it maddening.  

I mean, how is it that we can rewrite the same sentence five times, let it sit for a few days—or weeks—and find five more ways to write it?

When is enough enough? How do you know when a sentence is the best it can be?

It reminds me of when I was a kid and my mother asked me to clear the table. The final task was wiping down the surface to remove any food scraps.

Mom says that most of the time I did more rearranging than cleaning.

That’s how revising can seem. You start to wonder whether you’ve improved it or have just rearranged the mess.

Believe it or not, there are two ways of knowing when you’re done—when revising more would make it only different and not better.  

1—Trust your gut.

Knowing what sounds right, what reads best, is what being a writer means. You should be writing for yourself and believing there are myriad others out there just like you. When it reads the way that feels right to you, stop. You’re there.

2—Read it aloud.

When you hear it, everything becomes clear—whether you’re reading it to yourself or someone else. Any phrasing that causes a hesitation or a hitch in your delivery is a clue.  

This Is What It Means to Be a Writer

Knowing when you’ve gone from making a sentence better to making it only different is what makes you a writer. Make this decision with every sentence you write, determined to make your entire manuscript the best you can—even knowing you’ll be edited again at the publishing house.

Commit to submitting only your absolute best writing.

What does your revision process look like? Tell me in the comments.

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3 Simple Ways to Create Memorable Lead Characters

The best stories succeed because of memorable characters.

What makes a character memorable, and how can you create one?

Not by making him or her perfect, I can tell you that. Who can identify with perfection?

Identify? Is that important? You bet it is.

We love and remember powerful lead characters because we want to be them.

Make no mistake, they need to be flawed, but be sure those flaws aren’t repulsive. Your hero can be afraid of snakes, but they shouldn’t make him wet his pants.

Your heroine can be a contrarian, but she shouldn’t be whiny.

Heroic characters accomplish heroic acts, and to do this in spite of their humanity makes us want to rise to their example.

Trying to build an unforgettable character? Study the ones who moved you as a reader.

How to Create a Character Who Takes Your Story to New Heights
Be realistic

The best characters are relatable—so if you give your lead an unbelievable strength, accompany it with a glaring weakness.

Don’t let them look stupid

Be careful not to diminish your character in the reader’s eyes.

Don’t let a private detective forget to load his weapon or miss an obvious clue. Though flawed, he shouldn’t be a:

Wimp
Bumbler
Dunce
Give them forgivable flaws

Your hero needs a flaw readers can relate to and still admire him.

Who was your favorite fictional character and what was his or her greatest strength and relatable flaw? Tell me in the comments.

The post 3 Simple Ways to Create Memorable Lead Characters appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

How to Get Your Writing Noticed by a Publisher

The odds make it seem impossible.

Everyone tells you it’s hopeless.

Secretly, you fear they’re right.

“Getting your writing noticed by a publisher is a pipe dream,” they say.

But still, you spend countless hours at the keyboard, carefully crafting your powerful story, ferociously self-editing your work.

Because in your heart, you know you were made to do this.

Only problem is, when you do finish, most publishers don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts.

How are you supposed to get your writing noticed if publishers won’t even look at it?

Even the few publishers who do accept unsolicited manuscripts relegate them to first readers, often interns. Their job is to get through this “slush pile,” as editors call it, and see if there’s even one manuscript worthy of recommending to the publishing board.

I’m told that a good first-reader can often determine within the first page or two whether a manuscript is worthy even of further reading, let alone potentially publishable.

That sounds terrible, and unfair, after all the time and effort you put into the writing. But it’s a reality of publishing.

However, there is a way to get a publisher’s attention without wasting your time or theirs. But learning how to do that requires you to look at things from the publisher’s point of view.

Why Publishers Don’t Accept Unsolicited Manuscripts (and Why That’s Actually a Good Thing)

Publishers get manuscripts by the thousands. Even if they could review them all, the cost of that would not justify finding the one in a thousand that might be worthy of sending on to an editor.

Sad but true, it’s that rare for an unsolicited manuscript to get a look from a real decision maker at a publishing house.

They key, obviously, is to get your manuscript solicited so that when it arrives, it goes to an acquisitions editor and stays out of that colossal slush pile.

You do this with a query letter and a proposal (for a nonfiction book) or a synopsis (for a novel).

While proposals and/or synopses require a great deal of work, they save both you and the publisher a lot of time.

Why spend up to a year writing a book, only to have it languish in the slush pile, when you could get an idea whether a publisher likes the idea first?

What if they like it but want it written from a different perspective, in a different voice, or have ideas on a whole different angle? Better to know this before writing the whole manuscript, right?

What if it simply doesn’t ring their bell? No sense writing it until you find a publisher eager to see it.

How to Use This to Your Advantage

(especially from first time writers), naturally your goal is to get invited to send yours. Start by giving them exactly what they want—a proposal and/or synopsis.

Get a publisher to solicit your manuscript and you’ll increase your chances of getting your work noticed—and potentially sold.

The Competition Is Stiff, But You Can Still Get Your Writing Noticed

Landing a contract from a traditional publisher—getting paid to be published as opposed to paying to be printed—is hard, but not impossible.

Sure, if you’re a first-time author you will then likely be asked if you can send a complete manuscript before they make a final decision. But you’re still miles ahead of the slush pile. Your manuscript will have been solicited.

What’s been your experience with publishers? Let me know in the comments.

 

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All Compelling Stories Contain This Secret Ingredient

Is a scene in your novel boring you, so you just know it will bore your reader?

Or maybe you’re unhappy with a line of description or dialogue or characterization.

That’s good. It shows you’re thinking reader-first and realize all writing is rewriting. I still labor over every sentence, despite the decades I’ve been doing this.

This is what we do.

It happens to every writer.

That alarm that goes off in your head is crucial to your success, and it’s dangerous to ignore it.

Don’t try to convince yourself:

“Maybe my reader won’t find this boring…”

“Maybe it’s okay because action is coming soon…”

The fact is, your misgivings over your own prose are multiplied in your reader.

If you’re bored, your reader is asleep.

If you chuckle, your reader will howl.

If you choke up, your reader will weep. Robert Frost said, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”

So, what’s the fix?

Believe it or not, you’ll find the secret by watching the news.

The Secret Ingredient in All Compelling Stories

Why do news shows air an overwhelming amount of bad news?

Because it sells—it intrigues us and makes us want to know more.

That should be encouraging to you if you’re a nonfiction writer. A fiction technique that can enliven your prose? Conflict.

That doesn’t mean your story can’t be upbeat and positive. Overcoming adversity and conflict is always a great theme. But the reader must see the downside to appreciate the payoff.

Whenever you feel too little is happening and your scene seems to lie flat, inject conflict, opposition. Nothing is more boring than characters agreeing with each other.

Conflict Is the Engine of Fiction

Maybe a character says, “This is a great day, and I’m happy to be here with you.”

Frankly, that’s the kind of conversation I like to start in real life, and I love it when the other person agrees. Avoid the temptation to let that happen in your writing.

Rather, have the other character respond, “Oh, sure. You’d say that.”

That’s certain to get your reader’s attention.

The other character can’t let that go. Where did it come from?  “Are you being sarcastic? Why would you say that?” And the conflict has been triggered.

I’d keep reading, wouldn’t you? Get them arguing and all of a sudden, people are turning the page to find out what’s going on.

There are myriad ways to inject conflict, so don’t hold back. The more you inject, the more compelling your story will be.

Make Your Reader Wonder What’s Going On

In real life we want peaceful, easy relationships. But conflict keeps us reading.

Tell me in the comments how you plan to inject conflict into your work-in-progress.

The post All Compelling Stories Contain This Secret Ingredient appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

3 Tips for Featuring Multiple Main Characters in Your Story

Writing a novel with multiple main characters  can seem insurmountable. Who’s on stage when, and what do you do with the others at the same time?

When your top priority is crystal clarity for your reader, you must somehow weave different perspectives in a way that makes sense.

Common wisdom says you get one perspective or point-of-view (POV) character per scene, preferably per chapter, and usually per book.

My latest novel, The Valley of the Dry Bones, has one perspective character throughout. Though it’s written in third person, it’s limited to just my lead character’s perspective. He is the camera, so everything that happens on every page is seen through his eyes, heard through his ears, and any internal dialogue is his.

That’s the easiest, most direct, and clearest way to handle POV. Using more than one is not for the faint of heart. It’s complex and tricky, and only more so if you go beyond two. I first used two perspective characters when I wrote my novel Left Behind.

So why did I do it?

Because the scope of my story demanded it. I needed my airline pilot (Rayford Steele) to get around the world—and I told a cosmic tale that also impacted him and his immediate family. But meanwhile, I also needed my globe-trotting journalist (Buck Williams) to be where Rayford wasn’t. If your story likely requires more than one main character to make it work, it’s crucial you learn to deftly navigate featuring multiple main characters.

So what’s the secret? A few clear guidelines can make it work.

Here are three:

How to Successfully Feature Multiple Main Characters
1. Think Reader-First

You want nothing to stand in the way of the reader’s experience. She should know who your POV character is without having to re-read or ferret it out. When I began a scene Rayford Steele’s mind was on a woman he had never touched, there was no question he was the main character and that we would experience this scene through his lens.

For some reason, many beginning writers mistakenly assume that rendering a scene from one character’s perspective means it must be written in the first person from his or her point of view. As you can see from the example above, it can be done just as well in third-person limited.

Also, remembering that you get only one POV character per scene should keep you from head hopping—where readers get a peek inside the minds of others. Say Jim is your POV character and he notices Mary is scowling. You can say, “Jim thought Mary looked skeptical, so…” But you cannot say, “Mary was skeptical. She doubted Jim knew what he was talking about.”

If you do, you have hopped into her head mid-scene and have either switched the POV from Jim to Mary, or you have slipped into an Omniscient Viewpoint where the author is not limited to one person’s perspective. You know all and tell all, and unless you are a master like J.K. Rowling, you’re unlikely to sell such a manuscript.

I’ve written 192 books, two-thirds of those novels, and I wouldn’t even attempt such a thing.

In Left Behind, when I switched to my second POV character, I added double the space between paragraphs (and some authors or publishers also center a typographical dingbat like * * * between paragraphs, just to make things clearer) and introduced him this way:

Next to a window in first class, a writer sat hunched over his laptop. He shut down the machine, vowing to get back to his journal later. At thirty, Cameron Williams was the youngest ever senior writer for…

Handling it that way ensured that no reader could miss that I had switched from Rayford in the cockpit to Buck in first class.

2. Make Your POV Characters Distinct

In subsequent books in the Left Behind series, I used as many as five different perspective characters for one novel. That made it even more vital to make clear to the reader who my perspective character was whenever I switched.

But just as important, my individual perspective characters had to be crisply distinct from one another. I established Rayford as a middle-aged family man, while Buck was younger and single.

Another perspective character was female, another an elderly man. The more distinct the better.

Some novelists have multiple perspective characters speak from their POVs in the first person. That can make it easier to distinguish between characters, provided you work hard to give each his own voice, pace, vocabulary, and delivery.

3. Choose Carefully

The point of having multiple main characters is to allow your story to expand geographically. But you may find, as I did, that eventually your perspective characters wind up in the same scene.

Then from whose perspective do you tell it?

If one of your main characters is most main, if you know what I mean (in Left Behind Rayford and Buck were both strong leads, but Rayford was really the star), stick with that character. Otherwise, choose the one who has the most to gain or lose in the scene.

You Can Make This Work

As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when you try to tell a story featuring more than one main character, but if you’re careful and intentional and always consider your reader first, you can enhance a story this way and make it something special.

Our best writing often results from working through such difficult challenges.

Tell me how you’ve handled multiple main characters , or pose any questions raised by this post. Connect with me in the comments below.

 

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Why Backstory Is Better Than Flashback

If you’ve heard that the good ol’ fashioned flashback has fallen into disfavor with today’s reader, you’re probably wondering what to do about it.

Apparently our readers have the attention spans of gnats and won’t sit still for a sudden stop in the story so we can show how our character got where she is today.

Used to be you could invent something to remind her of her childhood or her relationship with her father or the first time she fell in love. Then you’d have her begin daydreaming and remember everything about some poignant incident from years past.

Well, I agree that got to be a clichè—and was always followed by someone somehow jarring her back to the present.

Regardless, resigned to writing for people who get most of their information from screens, I’ve had to get up to date. And so do you.

Tell Your Story in Order

Gone is the luxury of taking the character (and the reader) back and laying out the significant scene the way it happened. No, readers want to read chronologically, and they don’t want the present story to come to a halt for a flashback.

But we can’t ignore the past! No one has thrown character motivation out with the bathwater, and let’s face it: our characters are who they are and do what they do because of who they once were and what happened to them then.

So what do we do?

Good news! You don’t have to explicitly flash back to deal with your character’s past—you can do it in a way that doesn’t detract from the flow of your story.

The answer? Backstory is all the rage now, and I have to admit it’s better. It doesn’t slow the story, doesn’t force you and me to artificially create for our heroes a block of time so they can relive in their minds some powerful moment from their past.

What is Backstory?

Don’t mistake it for an abbreviated form of flashback. It’s more than that, and it can really make your fiction sing.

In its simplest form, backstory is everything that’s happened to your character before your novel opens. In essence you’re writing backstory when you identify a middle-aged man as “General so-and-so,” or a young woman as “Dr. so-and-so.”

Readers know such people weren’t born with those titles and the roles they imply, so immediately they realize these characters have pasts—and they can even start imagining what they were like.

Does your character have a scar? That implies backstory.

A limp? It will emerge whether it was congenital or the result of an injury or disease, but regardless, that’s backstory.

How to Best Use Backstory

Backflashes are obvious. They scream, “We’re headed into the past!”

But backstory sneaks up on you. The point of using it over a flashback is to fix the break in the flow of your story.

I’ve found the best way to manage this is through dialogue.

Example:

At an amusement park:

“You’re not getting me on that ride, Madison,” Suzie said, “Don’t even—”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Still having those dreams?”

Suzie looked away. “Not so much anymore, but once in a while.”

“You’d think after all these years…”

“I’d still rather not talk about it, okay?”

“Sure, sorry.”

See all we’ve learned from that otherwise innocuous exchange? Something years ago still causes nightmares. Naturally, we’ll eventually have to pay off on that set-up, but that’s what keeps readers turning pages.

Whatever the trauma was, you can hint at it like this more and more throughout the story, revealing more each time. Eventually something or someone from her past will show up and force the issue—and the whole story will come out.

But you see the difference? It’ll be onstage now, be recounted and explained now. Sure, it happened years ago, but it emerges as part of the current story.

That’s subtly using backstory without resorting to flashback.

One More…

One of the best uses of backstory I’ve seen is from the 2016 movie The Magnificent Seven.

Denzel Washington stars as Sam Chisolm, a bounty hunter and leader of the seven. Ethan Hawke plays Goodnight Robicheaux, a sharpshooter.

They’re strategizing to protect a town and avenge a woman who saw her husband shot to death. Robicheaux nods toward the woman and says to Chisolm, “She’d be about the same age as your sister, wouldn’t she?”

“Uh-huh.”

Robicheaux says, “Just want to make sure we’re fighting the battle in front of us instead of the battle behind us.”

That’s it. That’s the backstory. We don’t know what it means, but we know we’re going to find out. They’re not going to set up something like that and not tell us what happened. We’re going to find out that our hero, Sam Chisolm, was once a victim.

Is he really out to protect somebody out of a sense of honor, or is he out for personal revenge? That’s the perfect example.

Tell me in the comments below how you’ll use backstory in your work in progress. And feel free to share a favorite example of backstory you’ve heard or read.

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How to Describe Settings (Without Putting Your Reader to Sleep)

One of the toughest nuts for any novelist to crack is where to start.

How do I know? Well, two-thirds of my 192 published books are novels, so I’ve faced this dilemma nearly 130 times.

Trust me, it doesn’t get easier. But there are common errors to avoid. I know because I’ve made them. And because I love asking agents and editors what mistakes they see in beginners’ manuscripts.

Ready for the most common error?

The apparent feeling that you must start by describing the setting.

Setting is important; don’t get me wrong. But we’ve all been sent napping by novels whose covers and titles promise to transport us, and yet begin with some variation of:

The house sat in a deep wood surrounded by…

Gag.

Pro tip: Readers have little patience for description. In fact, they often skip it to get to the action. 

If your main question is how to describe the setting, I have a simple answer:

Don’t.

But, you say, I have to establish where we are and set the scene, don’t I?

Yes. Like any other reader, I like to get an immediate feel for where and when things take place. But we writers make a mistake when we make that—describing the setting—a separate element.

If you do it at the beginning, you should do it for every scene in a different setting, right? Sorry, but that will quickly transport your reader from slumber to death.

Well, you say, how do I set the scene without describing it?

You don’t. But you make description part of the narrative, part of the story. It will become almost invisible, because mentions of what things look and feel and sound like will register in the theater of the readers’ minds, but they will be concentrating on the action, the dialogue, the tension and drama and conflict that keep them turning the pages.

In the end they won’t remember how you worked in everything they needed to fully enjoy the experience.

Consider these examples:

Describing the setting before starting the action:

London in the 1860s was a cold, damp, foggy city crisscrossed with cobblestone streets and pedestrians carefully dodging the droppings of steeds that pulled all manner of public conveyance. One such pedestrian was Lucy Knight, a beautiful, young, unattached woman in a hurry to get to Piccadilly Circus. An eligible bachelor had asked her to meet him there…

I shouldn’t have to inform you that such an opening is all telling, no showing, and that the question of how to describe the setting has been answered, but not correctly.

Describing the setting by layering it in to the story:

London’s West End, 1862

Lucy Knight mince-stepped around clumps of horse dung as she hurried toward Regent Street. Must not be late, she told herself. What would he think?

She carefully navigated the cobblestones as she crossed to hail a Hansom Cab—which she preferred for its low center of gravity and smooth turning. Lucy did not want to appear as if she’s been tossed about in a carriage, especially tonight.

“Not wearin’ a ring, I see,” the driver said as she boarded.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Nice lookin’ lady like yourself out alone after dark in the cold fog…”

“You needn’t worry about me, sir. I’m only going to the circus.”

“Piccadilly it is, Ma’am.”

First, the location tag, flush left before the first paragraph, saves us a lot of narration which can be used to let the story emerge.

And yes, the second sample is longer, but that’s because we’re not telling, we’re showing.

The reader learns everything about the character from the action and dialogue, rather than from just being told through description.

So try the technique you’ve likely heard about since the day you decided to study writing:

Show, Don’t Tell

You’ll have to remind yourself of this daily for the rest of your life, but once you add it to your writing toolbelt, you’ll find it adds power to your prose and keeps your reader’s interest.

The key, as you can see from the examples above, is to layer in your description.

Maybe when Lucy meets her new gentleman friend, he grabs her and pulls her into an alley, saying, “Come here where no one will see us.”

There she might scrape her knuckles against a brick wall and wish both hands were free so she could tighten her coat against the wind.

Incorporating description that way—showing rather than telling—can alone revolutionize your novel.

Apply This Technique Immediately

…and see how it picks up the pace and adds power.

It will force you to highlight only the most important details, triggering the theater of your reader’s mind. If it’s not important enough to become part of the action, your reader won’t miss it anyway.

But you’ve read classic novelists who use description exactly the way I’m advising against. What gives?

Two things:

1—If those novels were written before TV and movies (let alone smart phones), they were aimed at audiences who loved to take the time to settle in with a book for days at a time.

2—If those novels were written in our generation and still succeeded with that kind of writing, it’s because the author is a master. If you can write at that level, you can break all the rules you want.

I can’t, so I’ll stick with what works for today’s readers. How about you?

Still confused about how to describe settings? Give me examples from your own work in the comments below.

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8 Steps to Writing a Perfect Scene—Every Time

Guest post by C.S. Lakin

You know how complex writing a novel can be.

You not only have to come up with a great premise, engaging characters, high stakes, and conflict that pushes the protagonist toward his goal, but you must also craft compelling scenes.

That is a lot harder than some think. Many writers spend a moment thinking up a vignette but give little regard to the scene’s purpose.

While a checklist can help analyze the structure, it doesn’t address the process.

Positioning

First: scene types vary depending on where each is placed over the span of a novel.

Opening Scenes should be loaded with character and set up your premise. That’s where you want to slip in important bits of backstory.
Middle Scenes carry complications, twists, and raise the stakes.
Climactic Scenes should build to a riveting climax, so they might be shorter and packed with action and emotion.
Genre

Second: there’s no “one size fits all” template for a perfect scene. The kind of novel you’re writing also dictates the style, length, and structure of a scene, so study novels in your genre.

A Scene-Writing Process

Progressive steps to help you write that perfect scene:

1. Identify Its Purpose

Here’s where too many writers flounder.

You’ve likely heard that a scene should either advance the plot, reveal character, or both. Good advice but vague. You want strong pacing, showing rather than telling, and to create empathy for your protagonist. Plus, you want mystery and conflict in every scene to keep readers turning the pages.

So, the purpose of the scene is key.

In life, things happen, we react, process what happened, and decide on new action. So it’s action-reaction-process-decide-new action.

Write one sentence that encapsulates that for each scene. For instance, a scene I’m working on for my new historical Western romance marks the midpoint of my novel. Its purpose is to show my hero, Buck, losing control and scaring the heroine, Angela.

I fix that in my mind and make sure every element of my scene serves that purpose.

If you can’t identify the purpose for your scene, throw it out and come up with one that works.

2. Identify the High Moment

This occurs near the end of a scene, maybe even in the last line. Why?

Because most of your scenes should mimic overall novel structure, with a beginning, middle, climax, and ending. Of course, a scene could effectively “hang” at the end, to add tension and propel the reader into the next scene.

The high moment in my midpoint scene comes when Buck goes crazy in an attempt to keep Angela safe. I had established that she is terrified of snakes, and the scene begins just before they run into a mess of rattlers. The high moment is Angela screaming as the snakes strike. Buck shoots his rifle, then slashes in fury at the critters with his knife.

I end the scene with Buck a man possessed and Angela more frightened of his behavior than she is of the snakes.

This crucial step in the process reveals the ultimate purpose of your scene.

3. Emphasize Conflict: Inner and Outer

A great novel will have conflict on every page, sometimes inner, other times outer. Or both. But you don’t want meaningless conflict, such as two people arguing over what type of coffee to order—unless that specific argument reveals something important that advances the plot or exposes a key bit of character.

Think of ways to ramp up conflict to the highest stakes possible. Too few writers do this.

Every scene—even thoughtful, “processing” ones—should convey tension, inner conflict, and high stakes. You don’t need explosive action to have conflict.

My rattlesnake scene carries obvious outer conflict: man against snakes. But if that were all, the scene would be lacking.

The deeper conflict is Angela’s inner angst over Buck’s violent streak. She has resisted falling for him, so this incident creates super-high conflict between them, as Buck’s behavior pushes her away. He intends to show courage and his desire to protect her, but it backfires.

4. Accentuate Character Change

Writing instructor James Scott Bell says, “Every scene should have a death”—of a dream, a relationship, or a plan.

Literary agent Donald Maass encourages writers to consider how a point-of-view (POV) character feels before a scene starts and how she feels when the scene ends.

Your character should be changed by what happens. That change can be subtle or huge. It can involve a change of opinion, or it could be a monumental personality shift.

But change must occur. Why? Because, for the story to advance, decisions must be made and action instigated. Every event in your novel should impact your characters and foment change. But it must be significant and serve the plot.

How will Angela change by the end of the snake scene? Before the scene, she was falling in love. Now, her feelings have been squashed. She wants to flee back to NY.

Buck drastically changes too. He’s also shocked at the violent streak he fears he’s inherited from his father (who murdered Buck’s ma). Though he loves Angela, he believes he can never let himself get close to any woman because he will hurt her.

5. Determine POV

Who is the best character through whom the reader should experience this scene? With novels solely in the protagonist’s POV, this isn’t an issue. But for novels in shifting third person, with more than one perspective character, you need to decide whose POV you’ll portray in each scene.

You may find it easier to choose your POV character when you determine the purpose of your scene.

Or the POV choice may become obvious.

In romance novels it’s common to alternate between hero and heroine, so each gets a turn filtering the scene through their POV.

To decide whose POV to choose, ask yourself:

Who has the most to lose or gain in the scene?
Who will react strongest emotionally?
Who will change the most?
Whose reaction would most impact the plot?
6. Leave Out Boring Stuff

And the on-the-nose stuff no one wants to read.

Start your scene in the middle of the action, a bit before you build to the high moment, and you’ll avoid pages of unimportant narrative.

Inject important backstory but not at the expense of the present action. Cut anything that doesn’t serve your scene’s purpose. Make every word count.

7. Perfect Beginnings and Endings

It’s not just your novel’s first line that has to hook readers. Every scene promises to entertain your reader, to enthrall, to evoke emotion. You must make good on those promises.

Study best-selling novels in your genre to see how adept authors create strong scene openings and riveting scene endings. A scene’s last paragraph and closing line should ratchet up the conflict and underscore character transformation.

What about symbolism or motif? In my scene, by the end, the snakes become to Angela a symbol or image of Buck. One minute they’re silent, unmoving, and the next, they erupt in a violent attack. Beneath that calm exterior, Buck is poised to strike.

8. Inject Texture and Sensory Details

While some writers stuff scenes with too much detail, most tend to underwrite sensory specifics. This step in this scene-crafting process involves combing through your draft and bringing scenes to life with vivid detail that engages your reader’s senses.

Your goal is to paint enough of a picture to help your reader see the scene as if on the big screen. Too much detail is boring, as are details that don’t reveal anything important.

Scenes serve as the framework of your novel and shouldn’t be thrown together. Use this 8-step method every time, and you’re sure to succeed.

To help, I’ve created a worksheet you can download and print.

What are your biggest challenges when you write a scene? Does this process make sense? What would you add to the process?

The guest blogger:

C. S. Lakin is a novelist, copyeditor, writing coach, mom, and backpacker. She blogs about writing at Live Write Thrive, and specializes in manuscript critiques. Get a free copy of her book Writing the Heart of Your Story when you join her novel-writing fast track mailing list here.

The post 8 Steps to Writing a Perfect Scene—Every Time appeared first on Jerry Jenkins | Write Your Book.

The Worst Writing Advice I Ever Heard

Has this happened to you? Have you gotten bad advice at some point in your writing journey, even from self-proclaimed experts?

Too many spout their so-called “best practices” without any examples, and their counsel often does more harm than good.

Dig into their backgrounds and you’ll find these “authorities” have limited experience.

I’m a go-along, get-along kind of a guy, and I make it a practice not to criticize anyone by name. For one thing, I don’t care to judge someone’s motives.

I just want to caution you against taking any writing advice at face value—yes, even from me.

I teach writing because I feel compelled to pass forward the many lessons I’ve learned in a long career—including the stuff I learned the hard way, by getting it wrong.

Since my first book was released in 1974 and my 192nd will release next year, I’ve published with nearly 50 publishing houses.

That’s taught me plenty, and I have been blessed a thousand-fold by the people I’ve worked with and by more success in the marketplace than anyone deserves.

But that’s also why bad advice hits me as offkey, and off-putting.

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

When someone spouts generalized absolutes about the publishing industry, they’re either guessing or flat wrong. Sure, there are widely accepted parameters for word count and style, depending on genre and target readership.

But those of us in the business don’t decree hard and fast rules based on something we heard from one agent, or one editor, or one publisher. Any time anyone says, “Forget about this or that genre or subject because nobody’s buying it anymore,” ignore them.

Same with all-knowing proclamations about word count limits.

“Young Adult books should be no longer than 50,000 words.”

Really? Ever hear of the bestselling series in history? Some of the seven titles in the Harry Potter line are pushing three times that limit, and the series has sold more than 500 million copies in 80 languages!

And those massive tomes smashed all records for speed of sales too, the last two reaching more than 10 million copies within the first 24 hours of their releases.

“Nobody’s buying memoirs from unknowns.”

I read several a year, so someone is publishing them. And in my Writers Guild we teach how to write them. Not every memoir is by someone famous for being famous. If it’s well-written and carries transferrable universal truth, it’ll find a market.

You Have a Place in the Market

True, trends come and go. And the day will come when the Inspirational market will see even all the Amish fiction peter out. In fact, they’re getting down to only the best writers in that genre now, but, get this, there’s always room for something compelling and well-written.

Absolute rules on chapter length? James Patterson has blown that idea out of the water. Some of his chapters are as short as one sentence. And while we don’t judge quality in terms of dollars, he must be doing something right to average $90 million a year in royalties.

Will the book capture readers? That’s all an agent or a publisher wants to know.

If you see in an agent’s listing that he doesn’t represent a certain genre, that doesn’t mean the genre itself is dead. It’s just not his area of interest. Find one who’s looking for what you’re writing.

Focus On the Craft

Great writing will always trump rules and best practices, so if you’re new—trying to break into print—the more you learn and the better you write, the better your chances.

If agents and editors and writing teachers agree on certain principles, you’re wise to follow them. Just beware the absolutes.

Want to write a great book of any genre, fiction or nonfiction? Here’s my advice, based on decades in business:

Shed the bad excuses
Find your writing voice
If you’re a novelist, determine whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser
Nonfiction writer? Learn to be an Outliner.
Keep your deadline sacred, but schedule time for procrastination
Become a ferocious self-editor
Always think reader-first

What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever heard? Tell me in the comments.

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