Lisa Hall-Wilson's Blog, page 8

4 Ways To Write Dynamic Character Descriptions

Last week, I shared about describing minor characters and how we shouldn’t let these opportunities pass us by. This week, I wanted to dive deep into how our protagonists (and antagonists) describe themselves. This often trips up new writers and offers particular challenges if you’ve chosen to write your whole novel in deep point of view.

Avoid The Obvious

I’ll begin by restating a point I made last week that you need to avoid the obvious unless there’s something remarkable about it. Everyone...

Write Minor Character Descriptions Like A Pro Even If You’re A Beginner

There are serious pitfalls in adhereing only to “show don’t tell” when it comes to character descriptions because there’s so much more you can do than simply catalogue a character’s appearance. The goal with any character description should be to paint a word picture for readers, but more than that — what can the description show us about the character doing the describing?

Minor character descriptions are often overlooked by busy writers, because these characters don’t influence the plot a...

Write Character Descriptions Like A Pro Even If You’re A Beginner

There are serious pitfalls in adhereing only to “show don’t tell” when it comes to character descriptions because there’s so much more you can do than simply catalogue a character’s appearance. The goal with any character description should be to paint a word picture for readers, but more than that — what can the description show us about the character doing the describing?

Avoid Cataloguing Common-To-All Features

If you meet someone and they have no lips, for instance, that would definitely...

How To Discover Your Author Voice And Why You Probably Already Know It

One of the things many writers get hung up on (and I did too) was finding their writer or author voice. It feels like this elusive, ethereal thing that you chase and have about as much chance of catching as netting the wind. You never feel like you’ve “found” it and some writers spend years beating their heads against a wall trying to sort it all out.

Have a seat – here’s some ice – let’s look at this with a bit of objectivity.

What Is Your Writer’s Voice?

Many people confuse marketing and b...

3 Ingredients You Need To Make Readers Feel

I get so many writers telling me that what they want is to make their readers feel something. Their goal is to make a reader laugh, cry, shake their fist at the sky–whatever, either to cheer on the character or in sympathy with them. Deep point of view is a great stylstic choice to do this, but there are three key ingredients to create emotion in deep pov:

authenticity

specificity

emotional triggers

Malcolm Gladwell in his Revisionist History podcast episode “King of Tears” said: “Beauty and...

How To Find Time To Write

Finding time to write when you’re already crazy busy is a challenge. I’ve been writing (with a mind to being published) since I was 27. I’ve raised three kids in that time, launching a journalism career, begun teaching writing online, and written several novels. Is it easy? No way.

So many writers tell me they are struggling to find time to write. And I get that. I’ve had seasons where I was trying to write while raising three close-in-age children and working part time, working full time, v...

How To Get Inside Our Character’s Heads And Make Readers Care

Getting readers to care and have an emotional connection to our characters is the gold medal run for most novelists. If readers don’t care, if there’s no emotional pull, it gets easy to place a bookmark in a page and walk away. *womp womp*

I’m continuing in my summer series of answering reader questions. Today’s question comes from Jenette who wrote:

“I want to get better at really getting into my character’s head and making readers feel.”

Seeking the answer to this question is what led me t...

Using Deep Point Of View Without Dragging Down The Pace Of Your Novel

Deep point of view is a great writing technique when used well, but if you’re not careful, deep POV will bloat your word count and tie an anchor to the pace of your story.

Pace Must Be Strategic

I’ve met very few bestselling authors who, when asked, can’t tell you the pace they were intentionally aiming for with any particular novel. Whether your intent is to create a fast-paced action-packed crime novel or thriller, a slower-paced romance or contemplative literary novel, or something in bet...

What Deep Point Of View Can Do For Your Writing

Are you struggling to create characters readers care about? Critique partners, editors or agents telling you to dig deeper emotionally? Do you want to write emotional arcs into your stories to keep readers engaged and turning the pages?

Deep point of view (POV) is dynamic, visceral, and immediate. The goal of this writing technique is for the writer to disappear and minimize the perceived distance between the reader and the point of view character (POVC). At the heart of deep POV is an immer...

5 Ways Deep Point of View Delivers Punch To An Action Scene

I’m working through some of the reader questions I’ve received, so this week we’re looking at writing action scenes in deep point of view. Here’s the question:

“I struggle most with action scenes. How deep is too deep POV where the reader loses a sense of what’s happening in the scene? And how do I balance the character’s inner dialogue and reactions with the action?” – Rabecka

Great question. Thanks for asking, Rabecka. Let’s dive in!

Know The Why Of The Action Scene

Just like in every othe...