Angela Ackerman's Blog: Writers Helping Writers, page 31

Writing About Pain: Invisible Injuries and Conditions

In this series on pain, we’ve covered everything from minor injuries to major and mortal injuries. But there’s another source of pain that can push our characters to the edge of coping: invisible injuries and conditions.

When readers see a bruise, cut, or gunshot wound, it’s easier for them to fill in the blanks about what happened, and imagine the pain that goes with it. But when the source is internal, writers have to work harder to connect the dots for readers, especially if the character themselves is unaware of what’s causing their distress, or they choose to mask their pain.

So what are some examples of internal conditions or injuries?

A concussion, brain injury, stroke, or another condition affecting the brain. Maybe your character fell on the ice and seemed to have escaped with only a few bruises, until a headache or migraine shows up. There are changes in vision and nausea. Or they’re having trouble forming thoughts, words, or remembering things.

Internal organ damage, bleeding, or ruptures. Physical trauma, being poisoned or exposed to toxic elements, a surgical complication, bone fractures, or even an ectopic pregnancy can all be sources of internal bleeding and damage. While initially a character may not realize they are in distress, it doesn’t take long to know something is off as internal bleeds can cause significant pain, and manifest in different ways depending on where they are located. Organ damage can cause a rapid or irregular heartbeat, make the character feel nauseous, lead to confusion and lethargy and fever and chills. Untreated, organ damage can lead to organ failure.

Chronic Pain. Your character may have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or recurring pain from an old injury or condition without visible markers. Because the pain is chronic, it may impair their ability to enjoy everyday things, cause mood swings and irritability.

Neck injuries (like whiplash) can be caused by things like car accidents, pinched nerves, contact sports, or being shaken, and don’t necessarily have visible signs of swelling. Characters can experience stiffness and debilitating pain in the neck, shoulders, and head.

Hearing conditions that lead to sensitivity. Some characters may feel pain when exposed to certain noises, due to hearing loss or other conditions. They could even have Misophonia (an aversion to specific sounds that causes panic attacks and causes one to feel as though they are losing their sanity).

Neurologic disorders, diseases or lesions. A character with a condition like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Long Covid or even a spinal injury may experience neurological pain, paresthesia, tingling or numbness that is difficult to manage and impacts their quality of life.

Autoimmune Disorders. A character who has a condition like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, IBD, or Crohn’s disease will experience internal inflammation and invisible symptoms that can range from fatigue, joint pain, fevers, and uncomfortable digestive issues.

Cardiovascular Conditions: Heart conditions, such as arrhythmias, certain types of heart disease, and attacks can cause pain in the chest, upper back, and neck, lead to discomfort from experiencing indigestion and nausea, and even cause dizziness. Some arrhythmias have no signs, others can be quick and fatal.

Digestive issues. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastric ulcers, food poisoning, gall stones and a variety of other gastrointestinal conditions create discomfort in the form of cramps, diarrhea, nausea, and bloating.

Other forms of disease like cancer. Tumors pressing against organ, bones and tissues can be quite painful, and the radiation or chemotherapy no less so.

Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), borderline personality disorder (BPD) and other mental conditions and struggles. Not all invisible conditions cause physical pain; many cause emotional distress, anxiety, panic attacks, etc. as well. The psychological battles being fought may not be visible to others, but this doesn’t make the emotional pain your character feels any less real or debilitating.

The little things. Pulled muscles. Toothaches. Infections. Minor nerve pain. Even small hurts can cause your character to feel irritable and ruin their day.

Tips for showing internal injuries

Regardless if a character doesn’t know what the invisible injury is, or they are purposefully hiding it, we still need to help readers realize something’s off. Here are a few ideas on how to do that.

Seed some hints. Is there something a character is avoiding, like bending down, getting out of bed, or cleaning the house? This can plant a clue that pain is a factor.

Give the character a few tells. Is your character consistently rubbing at their neck rolling their wrist, or they’re extremely irritable for no reason?

Know the signs of internal conditions. This one is one of the most important. Each non-visible condition or injury will have specific symptoms for pain. Do your research to make the character’s behavior authentic.

Show their struggle to manage or hide pain. Is your character overcompensating, breathing in a strained way, or struggling to form words?

Have the character talk it out. If the character is around someone they feel comfortable sharing with, they can talk about what they feel, but only if it makes sense for your character to be open like this.

Have a character make an observation. Characters can be very observant. A pointed question, “Is there something wrong with your knee? You keep rubbing it.”

Reveal something they can’t do. There’s nothing worse than discovering something you used to do is no longer possible: tying a shoe. Being sociable at a family barbecue. Talking about anything without becoming emotionally upset.

Add urgency. Internal injuries get worse when not treated. This can happen slowly, or quickly. Raise the stakes by showing your character’s condition worsening, making it crucial to find an answer to what’s hurting the character.

Invisible injuries and conditions have a superpower: they create tension.

Visible signs give readers a good idea about what’s wrong and how bad the pain will be, but when it’s something invisible, the reader wonders, what’s wrong? How bad is it? And because they’ve experienced that feeling of ‘not knowing’ in their personal life, they will feel unease until the story provides answers.

Internal injuries can also be a false front. Readers might believe a character has gotten away unscathed, only to discover a clock inside them is ticking, and if they don’t get help soon, the consequences will be significant…or fatal. So the next time you need to hobble your characters with pain, consider an invisible injury!

Other posts in this pain series:

The Three Stages of Awareness
Different Types to Explore
Describing Minor Injuries
Describing Major and Moral Injuries

The post Writing About Pain: Invisible Injuries and Conditions appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Strategies for Smooth Scene Openings

If the opening line of a scene is the doorway to the party, what follows is the welcoming handshake and introductions that draw readers into the mix. Effective scene openings extend beyond the fireworks of a provocative opening hook, ushering readers into the new space with no awkward stumbles or feeling out of place.

Here���s how to whisk readers effortlessly into a scene���s flow.

Go in Late ���

The first technique is all about judging the point at which to enter the scene. Screenwriters have a saying: Go in late, get out early. Don���t overexplain on either end.

Since stories are about significance (why did the character make those choices, and how did it matter?), scenes should be constructed of significant stuff���stuff that matters, not all the characters��� dull daily duties.

Cut out the boring stuff. Short of a few scenes way back in the first act of your book while you���re establishing the character���s normal world, it���s almost never interesting to show a character waking up, getting dressed, drinking coffee, and getting ready for the scene. Get to the point. Readers come to your book for engaging story action, not the mundane business they���ve already slogged through themselves so they can sit down and read.

Transitions are a common tripping point. You can almost always do away with travel to the next location in the story (unless the journey itself is the point). Travel, arrivals, greetings, goodbyes���those are interstitial moments, not the story itself. None of that merits your precious word count.

Scenes dip in and out of the story at key points of conflict and tension, when things are popping that actually change what���s happening. Spend your time showing the characters doing things that affect the story line, not merely getting ready. It���s like a theatrical play���don���t show the stagehands changing the scenery, just raise the curtain on the next scene.

Aim to begin on the upswing into the conflict or juiciest part of the scene. Some scenes need a little more set-up, but you���ll be surprised how quickly readers catch on if you simply dive in.

This technique of going in late (or in medias res, in the middle of things) is often honed during revision. Write first, hone later. You���ll be surprised how much you can slice away without shaking readers��� ability to follow where the story moves next. Save anything you remove during revisions in your graveyard file, in case you need parts of it again later.

Test out shortened scenes on readers who don���t know your story. They may not know the details of the story, but can they slide into the spirit of the scene anyway? Could you prune away still more? You can always add removed content back a snippet at a time.

Bonus Tip: ��� Get Out Early

Speaking of petering out, the reverse of ���go in late��� holds true on the back end of the scene: Get out early. Once you���ve hit the peak���the conflict or surprise or complication���get the heck out of Dodge. Don���t overstay the scene���s welcome by dragging out the characters��� reactions (reaction/emotion, dilemma, and decision). This isn���t the time for lengthy debates …

… unless, of course, it is. If the characters and readers need time to grapple with the ramifications of what just happened, indulge in a full sequel scene.

Anchoring Scenes: The 3 Ws

Once you���ve chosen the right place to begin the scene, it���s time to invite readers in. Readers can���t sink into immersion until they���re oriented in the story. Whose view are they seeing this scene from? Where and when are they?

Within the first page of every scene���preferably within the opening paragraphs���ground readers by establishing the 3 Ws.

WHO the viewpoint character is (and WHO ELSE is present in the scene)WHERE the scene is taking placeWHEN the scene is taking place, or a sense of how much time has passed since the last scene

1. WHO Nothing in a scene makes sense until readers have context for what they���re reading. Whose experience is this? Establish the viewpoint character unambiguously within the first paragraph or two, ideally within the first two sentences.

Readers usually assume that the first character named in a scene is the viewpoint character. Positioning the viewpoint character in the opening has the added benefit of launching them into motion, doing or speaking or considering or noticing. Now viewpoint character has agency in driving the scene.

Also near the top of a scene, establish who else is present. Ideally, this should happen within the first page or so. You want to avoid the sort of confusion when some character pops off on the last page with a snarky observation, only readers didn���t even realize they were there. A glimpse of each character is sufficient, even a collective mention such as The others armed themselves with plastic forks and swarmed the defenseless box of cake on the counter.

2. WHERE A scene will feel like a snippet acted out in front of a green screen on a movie soundstage if readers don���t know where it���s unfolding. Don���t infodump the details in a steaming lump at the front of the scene. Parse it out.

The things the viewpoint character notices should reflect their personal mindset: their knowledge, priorities, taste, immediate agenda, hopes, fears ��� What is the viewpoint character doing here in this scene? They���re not sitting around and blinking around at a static world; they should be actively engaged in something that���s obviously headed somewhere interesting.

3. WHEN Pull readers across the chasm between scenes by seeding the next scene opening with cues as to how much time has passed. Unless the timeline is integral to the plot, it���s not necessary to be overt about this. In slower stories or sections, a mention of late-afternoon sun or a brisk autumn breeze gets the job done. The shorter the story���s overall timeline, the more granular you���ll need to be with these references.

Many books benefit from timestamps at the beginning of each chapter (22:58:07 11/12/2093, Bridge of the Atlantis) to help orient readers. Caveat: Not every reader notices or absorbs timestamps, and even those who do are unlikely to parse out the number of days or weeks between dates to grasp the relative passage of time (with the exception of something like the breathless hour-by-hour countdown of a thriller).

Revising Scene Openings

Pro revision tip: Make a single revision pass dedicated exclusively to tightening scene openings. Don���t get sucked into editing past the first few paragraphs. Try starting at the end of the manuscript and working backward scene by scene, forcing you to tackle each scene in its own right rather than in relation to the previous scene.

First, check to see that you���ve started each scene as late as possible, just before things get juicy. Since every scene should cause the next one to come about, like a chain of dominoes, you could also use this revision pass to check that scenes wrap up promptly (���get out early���), before the momentum has a chance to start petering out.

Next, move back to the scene opening to check for the 3 Ws: who, where, when.

Done.

Continue to work your way through the manuscript one scene at a time from back to front, checking only for scene opening issues. The result will be a smoother read that invites readers into the action every time.

The post Strategies for Smooth Scene Openings appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Christ Figure

In 1959, Carl Jung first popularized the idea of archetypes���”universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” He posited that every person is a blend of these 12 basic personalities. Ever since then, authors have been applying this idea to fictional characters, combining the different archetypes to come up with interesting new versions. The result is a sizable pool of character tropes that we see from one story to another.

Archetypes and tropes are popular storytelling elements because of their familiarity. Upon seeing them, readers know immediately who they’re dealing with and what role the nerd, dark lord, femme fatale, or monster hunter will play. As authors, we need to recognize the commonalities for each trope so we can write them in a recognizable way and create a rudimentary sketch for any character we want to create.

But when it comes to characters, no one wants just a sketch; we want a vibrant and striking cast full of color, depth, and contrast. Diving deeper into character creation is especially important when starting with tropes because the blessing of their familiarity is also a curse; without differentiation, the characters begin to look the same from story to story.

But no more. The Character Type and Trope Thesaurus allows you to outline the foundational elements of each trope while also exploring how to individualize them. In this way, you’ll be able to use historically tried-and-true character types to create a cast for your story that is anything but traditional.

Christ Figure

DESCRIPTION: This character is someone who makes the ultimate sacrifice to save someone else. During the course of the story, they may be symbolic of Jesus Christ or simply model his characteristics,��such as selflessness, generosity, mercy, and forgiveness.��

FICTIONAL EXAMPLES: Aslan (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), John Coffey (The Green Mile), Gandalf (the Lord of the Rings trilogy), Simon (Lord of the Flies)

COMMON STRENGTHS: Calm, Confident, Courageous, Decisive, Empathetic, Focused, Gentle, Honorable, Humble, Idealistic, Inspirational, Just, Kind, Loyal, Mature, Merciful, Protective, Responsible, Spiritual, Trusting, Unselfish, Wholesome, Wise

COMMON WEAKNESSES: Fanatical, Humorless, Hypocritical, Inflexible, Judgmental, Know-It-All, Manipulative, Melodramatic, Obsessive, Reckless

ASSOCIATED ACTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND TENDENCIES
Being a good listener
Being counter-cultural
Being innocent or even na��ve
Not being ego-driven
Being willing to make sacrifices to help others
Frequently standing up for what they believe in
Being a natural leader
Having a strong spiritual side
Enjoying solitude
Defending the vulnerable
Remaining calm in high-pressure situations
Thinking of the greater good rather than their personal desires
Valuing justice
Speaking wisely; giving good advice
Never giving up hope
Being driven by purpose
Being able to find meaning in suffering
Using non-violent means to achieve their goals
Being persuasive
Being quick to forgive others
Having an overall positive outlook
Rebelling against the system if it’s unjust
Having an underdeveloped sense of humor
Being overly preachy or moralistic
Viewing problems through an overly simplistic lens
Being out of touch with the culture
Coming across as different or odd
Being misunderstood

SITUATIONS THAT WILL CHALLENGE THEM
Discovering the person they’re sacrificing themselves for is despicable
Having no choice but to resort to violence
Running afoul of the law because of their actions
Facing an injustice they can’t do anything about
Seeing many people in need and not being able to help them all
Working with someone who is frustrating or annoying (because they need constant support, are always negative, are prejudiced, etc.)
Learning new information that makes them realize they shouldn’t follow through on a promise they made

TWIST THIS TROPE WITH A CHARACTER WHO���
Isn’t male
Is loud, has a good sense of humor, and is the life of the party
Has flaws or personal demons that interrupt their attempts to do good
Struggles with doubt
Has an atypical trait: nature-focused, quirky, scatterbrained, childish, witty, indecisive, etc.

CLICH��S TO BE AWARE OF
The completely na��ve and wholesome Christ figure
The Christ figure who has an overt message to share
A Christ figure with no flaws or internal conflicts who is portrayed as the ideal human
The Christ figure who throws out his arms during the moment of final sacrifice, making the symbol of the cross as he dies

Other Type and Trope Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

If you like, swing by and check out the video walkthrough for this site, and then give our Free Trial a spin.

The post Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Christ Figure appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Writing about Pain: Describing Major & Mortal Injuries

As you may be aware, we���re smack dab in the middle of a series of posts on writing a character���s pain, and today’s is a doozy. Our last post explored common minor injuries your character might encounter and the pain associated with those. Today, we���re leveling up to discuss the severe and even fatal injuries that could befall someone in your story. But before we get to that morbid list, let���s talk about a common life-threatening thread that runs through them all and will be an issue for most characters undergoing serious physical harm.

Physiologic Shock

Many severe injuries result in a loss of blood or reduced oxygen in the blood supply. Sometimes this is a natural result of the trauma, when too much blood leaves the body or vascular system and there isn���t enough circulating to the organs. In other situations, the body redirects blood to where it���s most needed in the moment, which leaves other parts of the body untended. In either case, the vital organs aren���t getting the blood and/or oxygen necessary to sustain them.

Because shock so often accompanies physical trauma, a character who���s been seriously hurt will likely experience this symptom, so it���s important to know what it looks like. Common indicators associated with this kind of shock are as follows:

Shallow breathingUncontrollable shiveringIrregular heartbeatClammy skinDilated pupilsLight-headednessNauseaMental confusion

You���ve probably heard that people can die of shock, but that���s not technically true; they die from the severe injury that interrupted their blood or oxygen flow, with shock being a secondary symptom from the injury. Shock is just an obvious indicator that something is terribly wrong and that immediate measures need to be taken to get the issue under control before too much damage is done.

Now let���s take a closer look at the most common mortal injuries that could befall your character, as well as the pain and other processes associated with them.

Stab Wounds

This form of puncture wound can cause damage to blood vessels, organs, or the spine, resulting in rapid blood loss, organ failure, and potential death. Wounds to the chest and abdomen are particularly dangerous because of the vital organs that can get nicked. But stab wounds to the extremities are still serious because of potential vascular damage.

Associated pain: The patient may experience sharp or stabbing pains from tissue damage, as well as burning and shooting pains associated with injury to the nervous system.

Gunshot Wounds

Gunshot wounds are another kind of puncture wound. But unlike stab injuries, these wounds can cause greater damage because of their high-velocity nature and the bullet���s ability to bounce around and hit multiple targets, resulting in rapid blood loss, internal bleeding, organ failure, and potential death.

Associated Pain: A patient with a serious gunshot wound and minimal nerve damage will experience the same kinds of pain as someone who has been stabbed. As blood loss increases and shock sets in, the pain may diminish until the patient loses consciousness.

Dismemberment

This type of cutting injury occurs when a part of the body is severed from the whole. Accidental dismemberment is often instantaneous, with the victim being unaware of it until it���s done.

Associated Pain: There will be significant and severe pain in the area of the dismemberment as severed nerves are exposed. But shock will kick in very quickly, numbing some of the pain and possibly creating a dissociative effect to separate the patient from their pain.

High-Impact Traumas

These injuries are the result of the body���s collision with another moving or stationary object. Car accidents, falls, sports injuries, and physical violence are common causes that can result in so many problems, including broken bones, a crushed airway, brain trauma, collapsed lungs, torn blood vessels, and displaced organs.

Associated Pain: If the injury is localized���say, a hand that���s crushed in a workplace accident���the pain will be focused on that area. Pain resulting from organ injury might be described as aching, squeezing, or cramping in quality, but because the organs are located close to each other in the body���s trunk, it may be hard for the patient to pinpoint exactly where it���s occurring.

Severe Burns

Third-degree burns that cover a significant portion of the body are often life-threatening because of the risk of infection, edema, dehydration, and other complications. These differ from first- and second-degree burns, which can often heal with at-home treatment, leaving only minor (if any) scarring.

Associated Pain: Despite their severity, third-degree burns destroy nerves, which often results in less or lower-quality pain in the affected area. However, there will be considerable pain in the surrounding areas as the severity of the burn lessens to second- and first-degree burns where the nerves are intact. And, unfortunately, treatments in the form of topical applications, the changing of dressings, debridement, and skin grafts will intensify the character���s discomfort after the initial trauma has passed.

Asphyxia Injuries

These injuries deprive the body of oxygen, often resulting in damage to the brain and organs and leading to death. Types include strangulation, suffocation, choking, drowning, smoke inhalation, asthma attacks, and anaphylaxis associated with allergies.

Associated Pain: In each scenario, the kind of injury will determine the pain involved. Smoke inhalation will cause headaches and pain in the throat and chest as irritants are ingested and swelling ensues. Strangulation will cause pain in the throat and the feeling of pressure building in the brain as the flow of oxygen is cut off. Asthmatics in the throes of an attack often describe it as feeling like an elephant is sitting on their chest. The causes of asphyxiation vary widely, so careful research is required to know the kind and quality of pain your character will experience.

Poisoning

This injury occurs when someone swallows, touches, inhales, or otherwise comes in contact with a toxic substance that can result in serious injury or death. This may include substances that are poisonous by nature (cyanide, arsenic, etc.) and those that become toxic when they���re misused, such as household cleaners or prescription medications.

Associated Pain: A character���s response to a poisoning will depend on the kind and amount involved. Common painful responses include abdominal pain, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures. If poisoning is in the cards for one of your characters, thorough research into the kind of poison and the body���s response to it is needed to write their pain realistically.

Electric Shock Injuries

The body is essentially a complex electrical system, so any influx of high-voltage electricity can wreak serious havoc. The injuries associated with electric shock are myriad, including internal and external burns, brain trauma, spinal injuries, chest pain, muscle pain, and damage to the heart.

Associated Pain: Shocks of this nature don���t tend to last very long. But in the moment, a character undergoing a severe electric shock can experience burning sensations, a clamping and seizing of the muscles, respiratory paralysis, arrhythmia, and possibly cardiac arrest.

These are the body���s physical pain responses to fatal and near-fatal injuries. But as we learned in the second installment of this series, pain goes beyond the physical. And while near-death and deathbed experiences can be notoriously quick, they can also bring moments of clarity, where thought and emotion come to the forefront.

Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Responses to Major InjuriesFear and Anxiety: regarding their pain, the outcome of their circumstances, the probability of death, and how their leaving could impact loved onesDetermination: Determining to fight with everything they have to survive; redoubling any mental or physical effortsDespair: giving in and giving up their hold on lifeDissociation: A sense of being separated from their pain and any physical sensation, as is the case in an out-of-body experience; viewing their circumstances from outside of themselves, which provides the ability to think and process what���s happeningReflection: The ���life flashing before your eyes��� scenario, where the character is able to review their choices and experiences, both good and badRegret: Wishing they had done more with their time, they���d taken or not taken certain actions, they���d worked harder to resolve certain conflicts or build key relationships, or they could have more time with loved onesDoubt: Questioning what they���ve always believed about death and the afterlifeSpiritual Clarity: A person of faith being comforted as they recall that there���s something and someone waiting for them; a character returning to the spiritual beliefs of their childhoodAcceptance: Gaining a sense of peace regarding the reality of their situation; embracing the inevitable

As is the case with so many aspects of storytelling, someone���s pain level and intensity during a severe or fatal injury will depend on a variety of factors relating both to the situation and the character. Deciding what the specific situation will be is your first step. The second is knowing what kind of pain is involved. And finally, you���ll need to figure out the character���s response to it. Hopefully this post has provided a basis for making those decisions.

Other Posts in the Writing About Pain Series

The Three Stages of Awareness
Describing Minor Injuries

The post Writing about Pain: Describing Major & Mortal Injuries appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Writing About Pain: Describing Minor Injuries

When we push characters to their limits, sometimes they get hurt. Injuries can range from annoyances to mortal wounds, and handled well, can add tension and complication to the story, drawing readers in deeper.

We’re always looking for ways to make sure our characters struggle as they navigate new situations, uncertain environments, dangers and threats. Let’s dive into what minor injuries you might want to inflict that will also bring a dose of authenticity to your fiction.

Common Minor Injuries
& How to Describe Them

Superficial cuts and scrapes. These are surface wounds affecting the skin, causing redness, scratches, or shallow wounds. There is a flash of pain, and then blood blooms. You can focus on the redness of the scratches, any dirt or grit caught in the injury, and the searing pain a character will feel when something touches the injured site: a sleeve, branches that slap and scrape as your character navigates a narrow wooded trail, bumping against someone, or even the pain-then-relief sensation when a breeze hits the area.

Bruises. Collisions with hard surfaces or pressure injuries can lead to bruises. Maybe your character was rushing, missed a danger, was careless, or the injury happened through violence. Bruises may throb or ache, especially when the damaged muscle moves. Skin will discolor, turning reddish on a character with lighter skin, or appearing purple, brown, or even black on any with darker skin. Over time, the bruises may turn brown, yellow or even green as they heal before fading completely. With bruising, show a character’s discomfort. They may find it hard to sit or lie comfortably, and wince when the injured muscles move.

Burns and blisters. Exposure to heat or friction can result in burns and blisters, leaving the area tender to the touch. This can make everyday tasks uncomfortable, like having to walk with a blister rubbing the back of a shoe, or having to handle items with a fresh burn on one’s fingers. Blisters appear raised, containing fluid, and burns may also present as blisters or raw skin where several outer layers are removed. Small burns and blisters are easy to forget about until they are bumped or grazed, and then the pain starts anew. If a character has sunburn, their skin will be hot to the touch, red, and pain comes in the form of a radiating heat sensation.

Sprains and strains. Rapid or repetitive movements, twisting, overextending, and otherwise pushing ligaments or muscles too far can lead to stretching or tears that cause pain and limit a character’s range of movement. To describe this, think about the tenderness and painful twinges you feel at these types of injuries, and how your character will have to compensate by limping, hunching over, and moving gingerly. Each bump or unintentional twist can bring about deep pain, so use the character’s face as a map: wincing, drawing their eyebrows low, a pinched mouth. They may suck in a sharp breath through their teeth, or swear under their breath. To find relief, a character may observe the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), and use crutches to get around.

Minor fractures or breaks. Most bone breaks are not minor, but a broken toe or finger is usually something you wrap and wait for it to heal. A bone fracture is painful, but isn’t a full break, so healing comes much quicker. In both cases, the character will experience a sharp pain and may ‘feel’ the snap or crack. Anxiety and dread often follows these types of injuries because the character knows whatever they’ve done will need time to heal. These injuries are great when you want to slow your character down, add complication to their life, and limit them in what they can do. When you’re showing this type of injury, think about how your character will overcompensate (limping, shifting their weight, using their ‘good’ hand, etc.) to spare the injured bone. Show their discomfort through pinched facial expressions, a strained voice, a short tempter, or other ‘tells’ that line up with their personality.

Dislocations. When two bones pull away from their natural meeting point, the pain can be excruciating. An unnatural bulge forms where the bone is, causing swelling, intense pain, numbness and tingling. Your character may also feel a rush of fear when their limb suddenly stops working.

In movies, characters often ram the dislocated bone against something to reset it, but unless they’re skilled and experienced, this is dangerous, and causes extreme pain and further injury. So before you decide to have your character do this, ask yourself if they know how or not, or if others are able to assist.

Foreign objects. Splinters, thorns, fishhooks, and other items that pierce the skin can add a dash of authenticity and make your character more irritable, because these everyday annoyances do happen.

Nosebleeds. Maybe someone popped your character in the nose, or they have allergies, the air is dry, or it happens due to another condition or injury. Whatever caused it, nosebleeds are uncomfortable, messy, and can make the character feel embarrassed as they suddenly become the center of attention. To stop the flow, they may pinch the bridge of their nose and tip their head back, but as blood runs down their throat, they may gag in discomfort.

Contact with poison, toxins, or irritants. Some characters have allergies or sensitivities to substances, and coming in contact with these causes an adverse reaction. They may swell up, develop a rash, break out in hives, become feverish, and have trouble swallowing or breathing. This minor situation can escalate into something more dire if they don’t get help.

To describe this injury, focus on the reaction to the toxin as it contacts with the character’s skin. Does it swell up, redden in patches, or feel hot to the touch? If the irritant is something they breathe in, it can cause them to cough, spit, bend over, and wheeze. They may grow anxious if it becomes harder to see or breathe.

Bites and stings. We’ve all gotten too close to a wasp’s nest or been a victim of mosquito bites. The character will feel a small nip of pain at the point of contact, and then the area can swell, itch, and redden. If the character has a sensitivity to the venom or a bite becomes infected, the pain will grow, and the rash will spread.

Minor head or eye injuries. When a character’s head area is injured, they need to take care in case the wound is worse than it seems. Maybe your character bumped their head on a low ceiling beam, had a spark or projectile fly into their eye, became the victim of bear spray, or slipped on ice and hit their head. These injuries can leave them with a throbbing headache, swollen eyelids, blurry vision, and a good dose of panic or worry.

Think Outside the Box When It Comes to Injuries

As you can see, the ways you can injure characters is only limited by your imagination, so get creative! What might be a fresh way to injure them that makes sense for the action? How can the setting and its inherent dangers be used?

Also, consider your character’s emotional state. Are they rushing to meet a deadline, or feeling panicked because they are out of their depth? When they become injured, do they blame themselves, or feel overwhelmed by their circumstances?

Know Your Why

Hurting characters ‘just because’ will lead to flat writing, so have a reason for causing them strife. How will an injury further the story or reveal who they are to readers? Will this new challenge hobble them and force them to think strategically? Are you trying to show their humanity through a response to pain or teach them a lesson for being rash? Know your why so injuries never feel random or contrived.

Also, don’t forget to show the before-during-after awareness chain so your character’s responses are realistic and believable.

In this series:
Writing About Pain: The Three Stages of Awareness
Writing About Pain: Different Types to Expl ore

The post Writing About Pain: Describing Minor Injuries appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Doomsday Prepper

In 1959, Carl Jung first popularized the idea of archetypes���”universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” He posited that every person is a blend of these 12 basic personalities. Ever since then, authors have been applying this idea to fictional characters, combining the different archetypes to come up with interesting new versions. The result is a sizable pool of character tropes that we see from one story to another.

Archetypes and tropes are popular storytelling elements because of their familiarity. Upon seeing them, readers know immediately who they’re dealing with and what role the nerd, dark lord, femme fatale, or monster hunter will play. As authors, we need to recognize the commonalities for each trope so we can write them in a recognizable way and create a rudimentary sketch for any character we want to create.

But when it comes to characters, no one wants just a sketch; we want a vibrant and striking cast full of color, depth, and contrast. Diving deeper into character creation is especially important when starting with tropes because the blessing of their familiarity is also a curse; without differentiation, the characters begin to look the same from story to story.

But no more. The Character Type and Trope Thesaurus allows you to outline the foundational elements of each trope while also exploring how to individualize them. In this way, you’ll be able to use historically tried-and-true character types to create a cast for your story that is anything but traditional.

Doomsday Prepper

DESCRIPTION: Paranoid and prepping for the end of the world, doomsday preppers have a very specific skillset, as well as access to resources that are in short supply elsewhere. Their knowledge and assets can be useful in certain scenarios, and these characters often become important contacts for the protagonist, supplying exactly what’s needed in the moment.

FICTIONAL EXAMPLES: Burt and Heather Gummer (Tremors), Hershel Greene (The Walking Dead), Howard Stambler (10 Cloverfield Lane), Dale Gribble (King of the Hill)

COMMON STRENGTHS: Adaptable, Alert, Analytical, Cautious, Focused, Independent, Industrious, Nature-Focused, Observant, Organized, Private, Proactive, Protective, Resourceful, Responsible, Thrifty, Traditional

COMMON WEAKNESSES: Fanatical, Nervous, Obsessive, Paranoid, Pessimistic, Rebellious, Stubborn, Suspicious, Uncooperative, Withdrawn

ASSOCIATED ACTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND TENDENCIES
Stockpiling resources of food, fuel, weapons, tools, and more
Fortifying their homes or creating bunkers or underground shelters
Being resourceful
Having knowledge of local flora and fauna that could be harvested for food and other needs
Looking out for their family’s interests
Being hard workers
Being skilled marksmen with guns or other weapons
Being alert to potential threats
Distrusting people from certain groups who think differently
Seeking out underground information sources instead of relying on mainstream media channels

SITUATIONS THAT WILL CHALLENGE THEM
Experiencing a disaster they weren’t prepared for
Running out of supplies before the disaster has been resolved
Being ridiculed as paranoid and uncooperative
Being unable to grasp a necessary survival skill, such as growing crops or utilizing solar energy

TWIST THIS TROPE WITH A CHARACTER WHO���
Becomes an unexpected savior in a non-apocalyptic emergency, such as supplying shelter for those in need during a deadly blizzard
Goes from paranoid and fearful to hopeful, trusting, and optimistic through the course of the story
Has an atypical trait: appreciative, generous, scatterbrained, gullible, reckless, etc.

CLICH��S TO BE AWARE OF
The paranoid gun collector with a bunker full of enough food and supplies to last a decade
The conspiracy theorist who adamantly warns people against highly unlikely scenarios instead of preparing for probable disasters

Other Type and Trope Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

If you like, swing by and check out the video walkthrough for this site, and then give our Free Trial a spin.

The post Character Type & Trope Thesaurus: Doomsday Prepper appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Writing About Pain: Different Types to Explore

���Life is pain, Highness.��Anyone who says differently is selling something.���
-The Dread Pirate Roberts

Pain is an unfortunate part of life. As our characters go about their day���working, building relationships, pursuing goals and dreams, blowing off steam���things won���t always go as planned, and they will be hurt. When it comes to how quickly and fully they heal, a lot will depend on their pain response. But first we need to know the kind of suffering they���re dealing with.

Kinds of Pain

Most of us know about physical and emotional pain, but there are more types to consider. And consider them you must if you want to know which makes the most sense for your character in a given scene and in the kind of story you���re writing. So let���s take a look at the categories of pain that are common for all people and are at your disposal for your fictional humans.

Physical Pain

Put simply, physical pain is the neurological response to bodily harm caused by illness or injury. The severity of this and any other kind of pain will depend on its source. If you step on a LEGO, you’ll feel pain, but the quality, intensity, and length will be different than if you���re catapulted through a windshield during a car crash. The same is true of pain associated with an illness; the discomfort resulting from a sinus infection headache will vary vastly from the pain associated with shingles (as I can unfortunately attest to).

Emotional Pain

This can be described as intense and harrowing emotions in the wake of a difficult experience. Divorce, the death of a loved one, victimization, or paralysis in the face of an agonizing decision can all trigger emotional pain in the form of sadness, heartache, grief, self-doubt, or nostalgia. Rather than feeling an ache in our physical bodies, this kind of pain is felt in our emotions. But it���s just as unpleasant as physical discomfort, prompting us to pull away from the source and make the pain stop.

Psychological Pain

Closely related to emotional discomfort, this kind of pain goes deeper, into the realm of mental and emotional suffering. Shame, regret, depression, despair, PTSD, and anxiety are just a few examples. While emotional and psychological pain are similar, a major difference is that while the former tends to be temporary, the latter takes longer to resolve and often requires more dedicated measures, such as therapy or medication.

Social Pain

Social pain is a form of emotional pain that results from relational conflict, bullying, social rejection, or being separated from loved ones. It can also be referred to as interpersonal pain because it���s caused by certain interactions with the people around us. This kind of pain can cause the person to feel isolated, excluded, and devalued.

Spiritual Pain

As humans, we have physical bodies and emotions, but we���re spiritual beings as well, and negative impacts on the spirit can result in spiritual pain. Situations that threaten a person���s faith, shake their moral code and their ideas about right and wrong, or cause them to doubt their purpose in life can cause spiritual distress.

Chronic Pain

This specific form of physical pain is often associated with a chronic illness or injury. It���s defined by its persistence as it carries on for many months or years despite treatment. As such, chronic pain can be especially detrimental, eventually leaching into other areas and spawning emotional, psychological, social, and/or spiritual distress on top of the prolonged physical pain.

Tips for Writing These Categories of Pain

Now that you���re aware of the different kinds of pain that exist, you can decide what will make the most sense for your character. But there are a few more things to keep in mind if you want to write this universal human experience authentically and believably.

The Pain Types Don���t Always Happen in Isolation

Stepping on a LEGO, as physically uncomfortable as it may be, isn���t likely to result in other kinds of pain. But more serious situations can result in your character experiencing multiple types of pain at once. Take a physical assault, for example. In the moment, your character will feel pain in their body, but also in their emotions if they struggle with feelings of embarrassment, self-blame, or worthlessness. If the assault occurs in a public place���say, at school���they could experience social pain. If the abuser is a religious figure or mentor, spiritual pain may become a factor, as well.

Whatever���s happening to your character, research those events carefully to understand exactly what they���ll be going through. Then you can focus on the best details from the various categories to show their pain to readers.

Pain Categories Are Often Progressive

A car accident may start with minor physical pain. But what happens when the character discovers that their distracted driving killed someone else? What if the physical discomfort worsens into something chronic?

However the pain begins, the specifics of the root event can determine how it progresses���if it festers or causes other kinds of suffering to develop. Just as many emotions follow a natural progression (from irritation to frustration to anger to rage, for instance), one kind of pain can be followed by another, especially as time passes and the character has time to process what���s happened.

Pain Responses Should Be Tailored to the Character

Responses to pain will vary from one character to another, depending on a number of considerations. Personality, past experiences, and the character���s current support system are just a few of the factors that will determine how they deal with their pain���if they���re facilitating healing or are responding in a way that���s making things worse. (We���ll look at this more deeply in the 6th post of this series.) The best way to write your character���s pain responses believably is to learn as much as possible about your character so you���ll know how they���re likely to respond.

Put The Emotional Wound Thesaurus to Work

If your character���s pain is coming from a traumatic event, this database at One Stop for Writers may have already done some of the research for you. It covers a variety of wounding events that could have befallen your character, and all the pain categories are covered. (See a complete list here.) So put it to use to brainstorm possible causes for your character���s pain and how they reasonably could respond to it. And for easy reference, you can also find a new tip sheet at One Stop on the different pain categories.

Other Posts in the Writing About Pain Series

The Three Stages of Awareness
Coming up: Describing Minor Injuries

The post Writing About Pain: Different Types to Explore appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Writing About Pain: Three Stages of Awareness

If there’s one thing we like to do as we write, it’s show a character’s pain. Emotional, physical, spiritual, existential…we are all about bringing forth pain and crisis. Is it because we’re a little messed up, and torturing characters is, well, kinda fun? Or do we do conjure painful situations to show the universal truth that life hurts sometimes?

Ah, it’s probably both.

No matter what our reasons for holding our character’s figurative (and possibly literal) feet to the fire, we need to do a bang up job of describing it well. And this is where this series on pain comes in. So join us for a deep dive on all things painful, starting with…

Pain & Your Characters: Three Stages of Awareness Before: Anticipating Pain

Sometimes our characters don’t see a threat coming, but when they do, we gain a terrific opportunity to draw readers into the moment and heighten their emotions alongside the character’s. The anticipation of pain is something we all know, and so it’s an effective way to generate empathy for characters experiencing it.

A character may only have a heartbeat or two to steel themselves: their muscles tense, teeth clamp down, the head draws back, and their eyes shut. To narrow themselves as a target, they might try to make themselves small, a full body cringe. Or they’ll duck, jerk back, pull away, or attempt to flee. This is their instinctual fight-or-flight response, and ultimately they’ll do whatever they believe will protect them (or those they love) in the few seconds they have.

Other times, the threat is farther out, giving the character’s brain time to churn. They have knowledge and experience, and so flashes of what will happen and likely wounds and injuries hit in rapid succession. Memories of past pain assault the character, too, along with the inescapable weight of dread.

Their adrenaline surges, and if they can do anything to escape what’s to come, they do: respond, act, fight, or flee. If there’s nothing they can do, their skin crawls in expectation of the painful sensations to come.

Pain isn’t always physical, of course. If an event is approaching that will hurt your character emotionally, they may fall into a depression or try to avoid it however possible – staying in bed, refusing to go out, avoiding people, staving off the situation by lying, or something else…all things that line up with flight. They could also grow anxious, obsess about what’s going to happen, and force a confrontation before they’re fully prepared to deal with it (fight).

Is the source of pain a secret about to be uncovered? A marriage about to completely unravel? A hospitalized child’s condition degrading? Mental and emotional pain are just as debilitating (or more so) than physical wounds.

TIP: Whatever type of pain your character is experiencing, think about their personality, coping methods, and personal fears. This will help you determine how they will respond to threats that bring pain.

During: Physiological and Psychological Processes

When discomfort happens, it’s felt in different ways. When there’s a physical component, pain receptors pick up on the type of sensory input that’s at work: heat, friction, tension, cold, pressure, etc. and sends signals to the brain about the area affected, the type of pain, and intensity level. The instinctual response is to flee pain, so unless there’s a compelling reason why they must not, a character will seek to pull away and escape. This is especially true when they can see the damage happening (a gash, a broken bone, blood, etc.), and the gravity of what’s happening to them hits home.

Your character’s emotional state will also influence how much pain they feel. If the source of it is tied to a fear, emotionally wounding experience, or their anxiety is triggered, the discomfort they feel is intensified. Other emotions can actually help them weather it better: anger, rage, determination, etc. Pain levels can become so excruciating that a character passes out or enters a state of shock. This is where the body systems slow and they become distanced from their agony.

A character can use coping mechanisms to handle their discomfort, turning to meditation, breathing exercises, self-distraction, talk therapy, etc. or numbing it with medications, drugs, or alcohol. In cases where they are attempting to manage pain through mind over matter, if the threshold reaches a certain point, continued exposure will no longer be possible.

Characters will also experience a stress reaction to pain, meaning their heart rate and blood pressure can rise, their body becomes increasingly tense, their breathing may change and tears may form.

TIP: Using POV visceral sensations to show what they’re experiencing is a great way to communicate the strain they’re under.

After: Recovery and Aftereffects

After an injury or event that causes pain, your character may have a hard time with mobility, balance, and cognitive processing, so keep this in mind when you show readers what happens next. Your character may have to protect the injury, hunching over as they walk, cradling an arm, limping to overcompensate a strained muscle or broken bone. They might have a loss of energy or motor control, have a delayed reaction time, and seek to distance themselves from others so they can process what happened and heal in private.

Everyone copes with pain differently, especially pain that scores an emotional hit. Time will be needed to fully process what happened, and if the emotional hurt is far too painful to examine, characters try to bury it rather than work through it in a healthy way, leading to personality and behavioral shifts that change how they interact with the world and those in it. Unresolved emotional wounds are sources of ongoing pain, so a bit of research here on what this looks like for the type of wound is key.

If your character suffered a physical injury or illness, the healing process can include different types of pain – tenderness, strain, headaches, itchiness, and the like. They may need to rest or sleep more, and if this is impossible because the danger in ongoing, their energy may drain further. It could slow their healing, and open them to infections and more injuries.

After an injury heals, your character may have scars, less range of movement, or suffer debilitating migraines or other internal reactions. Depending on what they experienced, they may also carry new fears, anxieties, a decreased ability to take risks, and even PTSD or other conditions that they will carry with them. Each new encounter with pain will make your character more wary and watchful for any circumstances where it might reoccur, so remember that as they move forward in the story.

Realistic Fiction Sometimes Means Ignoring Hollywood

Because movies only have so much time to show everything they need to, the stages of pain awareness are sometimes skimmed over. Often there’s a split-second awareness of danger and then the camera focuses on the character being injured, whether it’s a gun shot wound to the thigh or a six-pack of punches to the gut. They falter briefly, then rally to win. But when we see them again after the climax, they are usually not as in bad shape as they should be, or are miraculously fine (I’m looking at you, Jack Ryan, and your ability to be perky and ready to go after several rounds of boiling water-and-salt torture!).

Movies and TV can sometimes get away with this, but books, not so much. Readers want to share the character’s experience, so this means showing things that are true-to-life. You don’t have to go overboard and show every detail, but make sure to convey enough of the before-during-after chain that readers feel the character is responding realistically to pain and injury.

If you need more ideas on how to show pain, this is one of the entries in our Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus.

The post Writing About Pain: Three Stages of Awareness appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Character Type and Trope Thesaurus: Pessimist

In 1959, Carl Jung first popularized the idea of archetypes���”universal images that have existed since the remotest times.” He posited that every person is a blend of these 12 basic personalities. Ever since then, authors have been applying this idea to fictional characters, combining the different archetypes to come up with interesting new versions. The result is a sizable pool of character tropes that we see from one story to another.

Archetypes and tropes are popular storytelling elements because of their familiarity. Upon seeing them, readers know immediately who they’re dealing with and what role the nerd, dark lord, femme fatale, or monster hunter will play. As authors, we need to recognize the commonalities for each trope so we can write them in a recognizable way and create a rudimentary sketch for any character we want to create.

But when it comes to characters, no one wants just a sketch; we want a vibrant and striking cast full of color, depth, and contrast. Diving deeper into character creation is especially important when starting with tropes because the blessing of their familiarity is also a curse; without differentiation, the characters begin to look the same from story to story.

But no more. The Character Type and Trope Thesaurus allows you to outline the foundational elements of each trope while also exploring how to individualize them. In this way, you’ll be able to use historically tried-and-true character types to create a cast for your story that is anything but traditional.

Pessimist

DESCRIPTION: This doom-and-gloom character believes that if something bad can happen, it will. They tend to focus on flaws and potential pitfalls and see every opportunity as a new way that things can go wrong.

FICTIONAL EXAMPLES: Eeyore (the��Winnie the Pooh��series), Marvin the Paranoid Android (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), George Costanza (Seinfeld), Sadness (Inside Out)

COMMON STRENGTHS: Alert, Analytical, Focused, Honest, Introverted, Meticulous, Observant, Pensive, Persistent, Resourceful

COMMON WEAKNESSES: Apathetic, Cowardly, Cynical, Fussy, Grumpy, Humorless, Inflexible, Inhibited, Insecure, Lazy, Martyr, Melodramatic, Morbid, Nervous, Obsessive, Paranoid, Pessimistic, Uncooperative, Withdrawn, Worrywart

ASSOCIATED ACTIONS, BEHAVIORS, AND TENDENCIES
Noticing even the smallest details
Identifying problems and risks before they happen
Avoiding potential trouble spots others may not see coming
Being cautious
Easily identifying things that need improvement
Planning ahead
Being thorough
Always seeing the glass as half empty
Frequently frustrating others with their constant negativity
Having only a small circle of friends

SITUATIONS THAT WILL CHALLENGE THEM
Having to share space with an extreme optimist
Facing a situation with unknown factors they haven’t had time to prepare for
Being complimented for their skills or abilities

TWIST THIS TROPE WITH A CHARACTER WHO���
Is empathetic and insightful, supporting others during the crisis the character was able to prepare for
Has a witty and dark sense of humor (instead of just being annoying)
Has an atypical trait: affectionate, confrontational, persuasive, vain, workaholic, etc.

CLICH��S TO BE AWARE OF
The team member who rains on everyone’s parade, creating a perpetually gloomy atmosphere
The cynical best friend who always prophesies doom (and turns out to be right)

Other Type and Trope Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

If you like, swing by and check out the video walkthrough for this site, and then give our Free Trial a spin.

The post Character Type and Trope Thesaurus: Pessimist appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Phenomenal First Pages Contest – Guest Editor Edition

Hey, wonderful writerly people! It���s time for our monthly critique contest! This month, winners will receive feedback from a professional editor. So exciting!

Eight winners will receive a critique of their first five pages.

If you���re working on a manuscript and would like some objective feedback, please leave a comment. Any comment :). As long as the email address associated with your WordPress account/comment profile is up-to-date, I���ll be able to contact you if you’re chosen. Please know that if I���m unable to get in touch with you through that address, you���ll have to forfeit your win.

Here’s the editor you’ll be working with:Erica Converso

I���m Erica Converso, author of the Five Stones Pentalogy (affiliate link). I love chocolate, animals, anime, musicals, and lots and lots of books – though not necessarily in that order. In addition to my work as an author, I have been an intern at Marvel Comics, a college essay tutor, and a database and emerging technologies librarian. Between helping adult patrons in the reference section and mentoring teens in the evening reading programs, I was also the resident research expert for anyone requiring more in-depth information for a project.

As an editor, I aim to improve and polish your work to a professional level, while also teaching you to hone your craft and learn from previous mistakes. With every piece I edit, I see the author as both client and student. I believe that every manuscript presents an opportunity to grow as a writer, and a good editor should teach you about your strengths and weaknesses so that you can return to your writing more confident in your skills. Visit my website astrioncreative.com for more information on my books and editing and coaching services.

Contest GuidelinesThis month���s contest will work the same as it usually does���except our amazing guest editor will send feedback if you win.

Please be sure your first five pages (double-spaced in 12-point font) are ready to go so our guest editor can critique it before next month���s contest rolls around. If it needs some work and you won���t be able to get it to me right away, please plan on entering the next contest, once any necessary tweaking has been taken care of.

This contest only runs for 24 hours, start to finish, so get your comment in there!

Eight commenters��� names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow morning. If you win, I’ll contact you with information about sending it to me. Then, I’ll forward it to our amazing editor for feedback.  

We run this contest on a monthly basis, so if you���d like to be notified when the next opportunity comes around, consider subscribing to our blog (see the right-hand sidebar). 

Good luck! I can’t wait to see who the winners will be.

PS: If you want to amp up your first page, grab our helpful First Pages checklist from One Stop for Writers. And for more instruction on these important opening elements, see this Mother Lode of First Page Resources. Want to give your writing a boost?

Join Resident Writing Coach Suzy Vadori for a 3 day virtual Writer’s Retreat this fall to get unstuck in your writing process, get inspired, and ask all the questions you’ve ever had about writing a book. See you there! 

The post Phenomenal First Pages Contest – Guest Editor Edition appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.