Angela Ackerman's Blog: Writers Helping Writers, page 92

How to Craft Engaging Dialogue Exchanges

One of the best places to reveal your character’s emotions is during dialogue. Author Peter Gelfan joins us with some great considerations on how to make these exchanges more powerful, drawing readers in. Read on!

Although we like to think of ourselves
as rational beings, emotions provide deeper and more persistent motivation to
our lives. Reason may steer us, but emotions drives us. The same goes for the characters
we write, and they often most vividly reveal and project their emotion though dialogue.
Dialogue remains one of the most complex skills we have to learn and keep
learning, and writers face a series of choices in depicting emotion in
dialogue.

Monologue
vs. Scene



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Dialogue almost never consists of
disembodied words, so conveying it isn���t only a matter of deciding what words
the character will utter. As well, people in the throes of emotion often have
difficulty putting together coherent sentences. So writing dialogue involves creating
an entire scene, which entails a number of decisions. This can include, in
rough descending order of importance: what the character says (or doesn���t say,
which can be just as eloquent), what the character does (or doesn���t do), what
the character thinks (or not), what other characters say, do, or think (or
don���t), and tonal elements such as setting.

Having a character expound her innermost
feelings at length in poetic cadences may make for a riveting performance on stage,
but in a novel, where realism rather than spectacle generally holds sway, it���s
likely to come off as contrived and expository rather than genuine and heartfelt.
Instead, work out what effect you want the scene to create and then choose the actions
and spoken words that will best put it across for that character and situation.

Expectation
vs. Surprise

A character receives some news���perhaps
a lover has died. You have a great range of possible responses, and the least
effective choices are the expected ones: ���Oh, no!��� and she bursts into tears. Or
you can give readers a surprise���one that in hindsight they will realize they
should have seen coming���and something to think about, such as a new side to
this character. Perhaps she stiffens for a few seconds, then slowly collapses
into a chair with a long exhale and a blank expression. After a pause, she
says, ���This isn���t all my fault.��� Or, ���Who was he with?��� Emotional scenes are
gold for a writer. Think twice before squandering them on default emotional
responses and clich��d ways of expressing them.

Hearts
on Sleeves vs. Ambiguity



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So far, we���ve been talking about
conveying emotion. But there���s another dimension to consider. How unequivocally
do we want readers to understand a character���s emotional state? It���s not always
in a story���s best interest to let readers know clearly how someone feels. In
some cases, it���s vital that readers do not know, such as when the copiously
grieving widow is the poisoner. Even when reader ignorance isn���t vital, as it
is in a whodunit, it���s always more interesting for readers to wonder about
something, which spurs thinking and imagination, than to know something, which
lets the mind go back to idling. As well, in essence, depth of character boils
down to the impression there���s more to learn about this person, which can
include how they feel. Ignorance, including emotional ignorance, is what pulls
readers through any novel.

Emotion
and Subtext

In any given scene, a writer has
several layers of understanding to manipulate. This can also be seen as levels
of subtext. At the full-knowledge end of the scale, the character in question
knows exactly how he feels, as do the other characters and readers. That may be
fine for a happy ending, or a fast blast of disaster. But it doesn���t give
readers much to chew on in terms of character interaction and undercurrents.

Dialing down from full knowledge,
perhaps the central character has his friends fooled, but readers know how he
really feels. Or vice versa: the other characters seem to know how he feels,
but readers don���t. Further down toward ignorance, the main character knows how
she really feels even if she effectively hides it from others, including
readers. You can even have a main character who is so confused she can���t sort
out her emotional state. And of course we���ve all had mixed emotions about an
event, with some of them embarrassing or shameful. At the bottom end of the
scale is complete ignorance, where even the writer hasn���t quite yet decided how
the character feels about something.

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Writers sometimes have the mistaken
idea that their job is to convey information to readers. That may be true in
nonfiction, but creating an engaging reader experience in fiction has more to
do with playing on reader ignorance and curiosity. So before you try to
communicate as much emotion as you can as often as you can, have a look over
your choices and find the best emotional tool for a character and a scene.
Sometimes hiding it, hinting it, faking it, exaggerating it, downplaying it, or
reversing it will make your story even better. Then, once you���ve created your
subtext, don���t spoil it by explaining it with interior monologue, dialogue, or
exposition. Trust your readers to get it. Write for smart people, and your
writing will be smarter.

Drama
vs. Exposition

One last suggestion about making the
most of emotion in dialogue: unless you have a very good reason to do
otherwise, build the emotion into the dialogue and the scene rather than
stepping in as author to try to explain what the character is feeling. You want
readers right there with the characters trying to fathom what���s going on with
them. You want readers listening to the characters, not to you. You may know what
the character is feeling, but instead of telling readers, write the character
and the scene to allow the reader to figure it out. The purest essence of the novelist���s
art is to communicate through human interaction, not exposition.

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Peter Gelfan was born in New York City, grew up in New Haven and the New York City suburbs, and attended Haverford College until he turned on, tuned in, and dropped out.

He
has traveled widely and lived in Spain, England, Florida, and Vermont. Found Objects, his debut novel, was published in 2013;
his latest novel, Monkey Temple, was published in 2019. He co-wrote the
screenplay for Cargo, les Hommes Perdus, which was produced and released
in France in 2010. He lives with his wife, Rita McMahon, in New York City,
where he continues to write, work as a freelance book editor, and tutor writing
in a public high school as part of PEN���s Writers in the Schools program. You
can find him on the web here.

The post How to Craft Engaging Dialogue Exchanges appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Navigating the Changing Face of Book Promotion with Smart, Effective Strategies

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying summer and taking time to refill their creative wells. Writing, publishing, and marketing is a lot of work so making time for ourselves to recharge is really important. The other critical thing we need is great advice and powerful resources, and Penny C. Sansevieri from Author Marketing Experts is here to give us both, so read on!

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Much like the world of publishing, book
promotion is constantly changing and with it, so are the services offered by
book promotion companies. What may have worked just a few years ago doesn���t
have quite the same impact today. I know from experience that the surge of
books we see every day in the marketplace has a real effect on how various
programs work. Today���s book promotion services are less about what you���re
marketing in the moment and more about the foundation you���re creating.

So, what���s working in book promotion now?
Surprisingly, it���s not at all what you would expect. Let���s take a look:

Email Newsletters: While it may seem really basic, unlike social media, email newsletters are an effective way to make a direct connection to your readers. We think of social media as the main way to reach our audience but in reality, it���s not as direct as we���d like it to be. And sending an email newsletter is actually a lot easier than say, managing a bunch of social media platforms. (Here’s a guide for getting started.)

Your Reader Fan Bases: Book publishing is rapidly growing and with around 4,500 books being published daily, it is crucial to build supportive reader fan bases. In the past, we���ve relied on the blogger market to help promote books but with such fierce competition, it is getting harder and harder to get attention. What remains steadfast though is your readers. Building excited and engaged reader fan bases is a fantastic way to build momentum for your book and letting readers help you with your book promotion by posting reviews and sharing your book release on their social stream. (Want to build fans and superfans? This article shows you how.)

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Going Local: Many authors approach book promotion with the goal of reaching a national audience through big media. What shouldn���t be overlooked though is local media. Local media loves their local authors and can be a great launching pad for long-term success. It isn���t that you aren���t worthy of the national spotlight, but national media is harder than ever to get. Also, many bigger media outlets use scouts who research local stories that are gaining momentum, so making waves in your local market can lead to national exposure.

In addition to local media, you may also consider doing local events, whether at a library, bookstore or gift fair. And don���t forget non-bookstore markets like boutiques, coffee shops, and other area businesses that might be interested in your topic. (Here’s some more great advice on positioning yourself when it comes to media.)

Expanding Your Goodreads Presence: Goodreads is growing by leaps and bounds and with each month that
passes, it gets more robust. Now more than ever, it���s imperative to get set up
on Goodreads and start networking with genre-specific groups. More than any
other social networking site, Goodreads is geared toward and caters to readers.
Start by being a reader. Being more involved in networking and socializing and
less on being the pushy marketer will garner you much more attention and will
sell you more books in the long run.

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Smart eBook Pricing: Digital clutter is changing the trends of ebook pricing. While
price discounts and specials are good, that isn���t smart book pricing. As an
example, book pricing at launch can be slightly lower than what your regular
pricing might be, as even a dollar discount can give your book a helpful bump.
But eBook pricing should still be weighed against what the market will bear. I
also advise against pricing an eBook over $9.99, especially if you���re just
starting out. As a new author, remember that readers are taking a chance on you
and might be more inclined to purchase if your book���s price feels more like an
impulse buy.

Amazon Book Page: It���s easy to get outwardly focused on book promotion and forget
about the all-important landing page we are sending our readers to ��� Amazon! Your
book page on Amazon should have a clear description with white space and no
paragraphs crammed on top of each other. I also recommend using your Author
Central Page to enhance your book page. With Author Central, you can add
reviews, an author interview, or book experts. Think of your book page as a
sample of your personality with information to help the reader decide to buy
your book. It can also be a terrific way to drive more reader engagement on
your page.

Amazon Advertising: I had some challenges with Amazon ads (also referred to as AMS ads)
when they revamped their platform and the associated advertisement algorithm,
but I���m happy to report that the platform has found its footing and the ads are
improving. As a guideline, you���ll want to have 400 keywords at a minimum. Start
your ads at $10 a day in budget and no more than .50 cents per click until you
get a sense of how the various keywords are doing.

AMS ads are great to do at campaign launch,
starting them a week before the book launches if it���s on pre-order. You can
also use them to promote pricing strategies, lowering the book price for a few
days to coincide with an eBook promotion.

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Keeping Your Social Media Footprint Small: When you try to be *everywhere* on social media, it���s hard to be engaged on all the sites, all the time. And in an age of fake followers and fake accounts, engagement matters. Even if their numbers are small, the user with the most engagement far outperforms the ones with millions of followers. This doesn���t mean less work though ��� you���ll still need to put the effort into the site you decide to be on. Engaging readers on one social media platform in a consistent and fun/informative/helpful way is a far better book promotion strategy than trying to be everywhere. As I always say: it���s not about being everywhere, but everywhere that matters. (For more ideas on integrating social media into your marketing, try this.)

Knowing Your Audience: Many authors I speak with have no idea who their actual reader market is. When I ask them, they���ll often say: everyone. You know who markets to everyone? McDonald���s, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. But they didn���t start out focused on everyone. Amazon, for example, started out as a book site, reaching readers. It wasn���t until they built a base of readers that they began expanding out into other things. Knowing your audience is not only important when you���re writing your book, but absolutely crucial when you���re trying to market it. Zeroing in on your core reader, specifically, is key to any successful book promotion campaign. (Need help finding your readership? Try this article.)

While book promotion can seem like a
daunting feat, it doesn���t have to be. By focusing your efforts into smart
strategies that are tailored to your book and your audience, a successful
marketing campaign can be just around the corner!

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Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. She was named one of the top influencers of 2019 by New York Metropolitan Magazine.

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Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Amazon Optimization programs as well as Social Media/Internet book marketing campaigns. She is the author of eighteen books, including How to Sell Your Books by the Truckload on Amazon, Revise and Re-Release Your Book, 5-Minute Book Marketing for Authors, and Red Hot Internet Publicity, which has been called the “leading guide to everything Internet.” 

AME has had dozens of books top bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. To learn more about Penny���s books or her promotional services, visit www.amarketingexpert.com.��

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Conflict Thesaurus Entry: Being Forced to Move

Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source���other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene.

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Conflict: Begin Forced to Move

Category: Increased Pressure and Ticking Clocks, Failures and Mistakes, Relationship Friction, Duty and Responsibilities, Loss of Control, Miscellaneous Challenges

Examples:
Relocating for work
Having to move due to financial constraints
Moving due to a separation or divorce
Requiring specialized care (at a retirement home, for treatment at a medical facility, etc.)
One’s building being condemned or a safety concern
Begin evicted
Moving to be on hand to support a struggling family member
Having to flee (to escape one’s enemies, avoid being caught by police, etc.)

Minor Complications: Having to take time away from work to pack, dealing with children who are angry about the move, a bank account hit as one pays for moving-related expenses, losing time to home repairs as one preps a home for sale, needing to leave on a moment’s notice for a showing, having to sell what one can’t take, having to reschedule appointments, holidays, or other commitments, difficult goodbyes to friends and neighbors, having to switch schools, a possibly longer commute or new job to navigate at the new place

Potentially Disastrous Results: Discovering the new place is riddled with problems (leaky pipes, faulty wiring, a pest infestation, awful neighbors), realizing the new neighborhood is unsafe or in some way undesirable (such as a new factory or mall being built close by), one’s kids hating their new school or being bullied by local kids, finding out a criminal lives next door, hating one’s new job, being unable to keep up with one’s new mortgage

Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict): Second guessing one’s decision to move, self-esteem issues (if the move was a downgrade), reopening past wounds due to one’s situation (the pain of poverty, feeling abandoned or isolated, being mistreated at work, feeling unsafe, etc.), struggles with new places and change

People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: family members (especially children), friends, organizations that the character is involved with and must now leave, one’s employer if the notice is short

Resulting Emotions: agitation, anger, anxiety, apprehension, bitterness, conflicted, defeat, defensiveness, defiant, determination, disappointment, disillusionment, doubt, dread, emasculated, embarrassment, envy, frustration, guilt, homesick, hopefulness, hurt, insecurity, loneliness, longing, nervousness, nostalgia, overwhelmed, powerlessness, regret, relief, remorse, resentment, resignation, self-pity, unappreciated, uncertainty, vulnerability, worry

Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: abrasive, catty, confrontational, controlling, disorganized, forgetful, grumpy, gullible, haughty, hostile, impatient, impulsive, indecisive, inflexible, irrational, irresponsible, materialistic, melodramatic, oversensitive, pessimistic, possessive, prejudiced, scatterbrained, temperamental, uncooperative, volatile, weak-willed, whiny

Positive Outcomes: Realizing one is able to adapt to change and adversity, discovering new friendships and opportunities in the new location, being able to leave behind pain associated with the old home and situation, gaining a fresh perspective on life along with the new start, feeling more independent and life-capable

If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.

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World-building: Creating a Credible Magic System

Hi everyone! Today we have a new face at the blog: author and ghostwriter Justin Attas. He’s in love with world-building and has some great ideas on how to ensure the magic systems we create are credible and logical, enhancing the world and the story line rather than becoming window dressing. Read on!

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If I started breathing fire today, it would be magic .

Ten years from now, researchers would have dissected why it happened. Then it would be science .

When I write fantasy, or any genre incorporating magic, I live and die by this premise, because no matter the depth of study in your plot, when you use magic, it needs reason, method, and understanding to back it.

Magic is a catalyst for thousands of amazing stories, but also ten thousand more flat, unoriginal ones. The key is to make magic seem ���real,��� in the context of your world. One surefire way to help you do this is to make sure the concept of magic stands alone in your story.

What helps your magic stand alone? Its origin, uses, and how it changes the world. Of course, no idea is entirely original, but borrow from others only in inspiration, never in execution. Build your magic from the ground up, and it will be as real as the pages (or screens) under your readers��� fingers.

Origins: Where Does Magic Come
From?

The easiest way to create ���real��� magic in your story is to find its origin. These details don���t necessarily need to be shared at the beginning of the story, but they should be one of the first things you brainstorm. If your world is filled with magic, that���s going to affect everything, including its history. Unless magic is a recent discovery, it will play some part in how everything evolved. (Imagine how different Earth would be if twenty percent of the population could commune with animals!)

So ask yourself, what made your fictional world magical? Did it fall from a mystical meteorite? Did the gods themselves impart gifts on those they chose, or everyone? Does magic emanate from a certain material, perhaps a mineral only found in the mines of a single mountain range? It is crucial that you not just answer one of these questions, then skip ahead to the flashy spell casting. Deciding the origin of magic will form the rest of your world.

To demonstrate, if your magic came from the aforementioned mineral, how long ago was it discovered? Are the first people to find it now more prosperous than others? What regulations have authorities put on this precious material? Only three question, but these details will make the magic feel more authentic and your world will become more layered and interesting.

Uses: Who Uses Magic, and How?



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After you���ve handled how magic got there it’s time to enjoy the arguably most fun part: what does it do? Remember, this is your world. Don���t feel constrained by predecessors��� work. When most people think of magic, they picture classic elementalism- manipulation of fire, water, air, or earth. You certainly can birth an interesting story from this if you use a unique twist. But don���t be afraid to make magic do, well, whatever you want. So long as you can explain it, go ahead and give your sorceress the ability to tear thoughts from a brain and bring them to life as a spectral servant.

Once you decide what the magic will actually do, there’s a plethora of choices to make regarding magic users. Are people born with natural propensity for one type or the other? Perhaps, in your world, people must study to learn magic. If so, decide what sorts of magical teachers and schools there are. People might learn the arcane arts from tomes in solitude, have a singular mentor, or attend a massive magical university. There���s a huge range to play with, and you should have fun doing it!

Need help with knowing what questions to ask about the magic in your world? Look into One Stop for Writers’ Worldbuilding Surveys.

Your World: How Does Magic Change
it?



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Next we want to consider how magic changes your world, and answer in every way possible. Culture. Government. Social structure. Education. War. Spare no expense on how magic fits into your story. It helps to compare your fictional world to our own. Picture all the things magic can do, and transplant that to Earth. How would it change the things mentioned above? You���ll need to tweak a few things for allowances of time period and technology, but the exercise will give you an idea of how magic affects your fictional world.

Never forget that the ultimate purpose of including a magic system is to tell a unique story. Not every detail about how magic works and what it influences needs to be stated in the story (we don’t want a pile of information dumps) but the most important aspects should fit into your plot and push the story forward. Without a compelling reason to include it, a magic system becomes a flashy coating on an otherwise dull story.

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Justin Attas is a professional ghostwriter. He has written twelve novels across genres including: western, science fiction, supernatural, mystery, and crime thriller. Justin is also the author of the science fiction novel, Strand: the Silver Radio. He has a background in education, which he uses to create articles and videos to help other writers along on their journeys. As someone who had a crooked journey to writing himself, Justin aims to use his experience and skills to encourage anyone with the soul of a writer to grab a pen and start writing.

Justin���s Youtube Channel is an ever-growing resource for writers, so check it out, read his ebook, or explore his website for a comprehensive look at the writing life.

How do you go about ensuring your magic system stands up to story logic? Do you have any favorite resources you use? Let me know in the comments!

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Critiques 4 U!

Happy summer, everyone! Unless, of course, you live somewhere where it’s winter. Angela and I Skype with Lee (who lives in Australia) every other week, and it’s a little disorienting to see him in sweaters while we’re sweating our bits off. But it’s a good reminder that everyone’s situation is a little different. So wherever you live, I hope you’re enjoying the weather and finding a happy balance between work and relaxation.

Me saying that is very much the pot talking to the kettle, because the Puglisi household is a little chaotic right now. After much discussion, we decided to move from New York back to south Florida (where our remaining bits will undoubtedly be sweated off within minutes of arriving), and because the school year starts a month earlier there, we’re racing to get everything packed and finalized.

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*twitches*

So life is a little cuckoo. I just keep telling myself that in two months, everything will be great again ;). In the meantime, I’m trying to hold on to some form of consistency, and one of the best ways I can think to do that is to get my mitts on some first-page reading material. And so…

CRITIQUES 4 U!

If you���re working on a first page (in any genre except erotica) 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 your first page is chosen. Just please know that if I���m unable to get in touch with you through that address, you���ll have to forfeit your win.

Two caveats:

      Please be sure your first page is ready to go so I 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, let me ask that you plan on entering the next contest, once any necessary tweaking has been taken care of.

      I���d like to be able to use portions of winning submissions as illustrations in an upcoming presentation on first pages. By entering the Critiques 4 U contest, you���ll be granting permission for me to use small writing samples only (no author names or book titles).

Three commenters��� names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow morning. If you win, you can email me your first page and I���ll offer my 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 left-hand sidebar).

Best of luck!

Oh, and one more BIG heads up!



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Angela, Lee, and I have rolled out a 2-week FREE TRIAL at One Stop for Writers, and we hope you will all take advantage of it!

You can use all of our completed descriptive thesauruses (yes, including the expanded Emotion Thesaurus!) and our custom writing tools like the hyper-intelligent Character Builder that will map out your character’s arc in a handy story blueprint!

Just stop in, register if you haven’t already, and activate your free trial. No credit card required.

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One Stop for Writers Now Has a Free Trial!

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Imagine it:

You’re standing there, holding your book.

The weight of it.

The smoothness of the cover.

How the pages flutter as you drag your thumb along their edges.

A smile beams out of you. It’s happened–it’s really happened: you are an author.

Or envision something slightly different:

You’re at the keyboard and your fingers are flying to keep up with your imagination.

You skip lunch, ignore the ping of Messenger. Coffee? What coffee.

There is only the story and the iron certainty that this one is…special. Deep down you know it’s stronger than anything else you’ve ever written.

Can you see this dream, fulfilled? We can.

Your ideas deserve to be immortalized on the page. Your stories need to be out in the world. And One Stop for Writers is determined to help make this happen.

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Since One Stop for Writers‘ inception, Becca, Lee, and I have focused on developing highly intuitive, powerful tools because as writers ourselves, we know what you really need to create your best work. And today we are thrilled to announce we now have a 2-week free trial! (No credit card is required).

So, if you’ve heard amazing things about our fiction-focused thesaurus database–the largest description bank available anywhere–visit us and start using it as you write!

Or, if you’ve had writing friends talk about a hyper-intelligent tool called the Character Builder that helped them create an all-star story cast, maybe it’s time to create an all-star of your own.

Even if you just know Becca and I love to build useful things for writers, stop in and give our free trial a spin. We’d love for you to discover what writing can be like with one-of-a-kind resources is at your fingertips.

Let’s create something amazing–our readers are waiting!

Angela, Becca, & Lee
Your One Stop librarians

Visit One Stop for Writers

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How To Stop Self-Doubt From Holding You Back From Writing

Self-doubt can be a crippling weight, especially for writers. Today we have writing mentor Leigh Shulman with us, and she has some terrific, actionable ways to use prompts to turn self-doubt on its head (and get you writing again!)

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I���ve never met a writer who didn���t doubt. You worry you���re not good enough. You wonder if anyone even wants to read your writing. You even begin to suspect that unless your writing fills some very specific criteria, you couldn’t possibly be a real writer at all.

Problem is, worrying about all these things holds you back from writing. Instead of sharing writing for feedback or sending work out for publication, doubt gets you mired in the mud and stuck. 

But what if doubt could propel you forward instead of holding you back?

I created these four journaling prompts to help you dance with fear and follow your instinct as you become a stronger and more confident writer.

Prompt One: Let Go of Doubt with an Unstructured Free Write



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This is the most powerful writing exercise I know because it helps you move past self-consciousness and get your ideas on paper. In twenty years of writing and teaching, it has never failed me. 

When to use this prompt: 

When you���re feeling stuck, overwhelmed or you���re simply not sure where to begin. This is a perfect prompt to move through resistance.

How to use this prompt:

You���ll need a timer plus your desired method of writing. Use a pen and paper or type directly on a computer. Whichever works best for you.

Set the timer for ten minutes and write for ten minutes without stopping. No editing, erasing or crossing anything out. If you don���t like what you���re writing, simply move to the next line and continue with your next thought. If you have nothing to say at first or you think this is the most ridiculous exercise ever, write that down.

What to do next:

Read through your freewriting, circling any ideas that jump out at you as interesting. Let your instinct guide you. Those circled ideas become the seeds for finished essays, stories, scenes, and books.

Prompt Two: Dive Deep into Your Doubt

When to use this prompt:

Any time self-doubt hits. Instead of pretending you don���t feel the way you do, embrace it and write.

How to use this prompt:

As with unstructured free writing, you���ll set a timer for ten minutes. This time, dive into what you���re feeling. Explore the edges of your emotion by writing down what you experience.

Where do you feel doubt in your body? Does your stomach tighten or do your hands go cold? What sparks the doubt? 

Use the Emotion Thesaurus to answer these questions, too. What verbs connect to the sensations you experience? What happens with your doubt once it begins? Does it escalate into full worry and disbelief? Or can you ease your doubt and turn it into curiosity?

What to do next:

Apply your personal experience of doubt — or any emotion for that matter — to your characters or in a personal essay. You can lift passages directly from your journaling and edit them to fit a story or scene.

Prompt Three: Talk to Your Haters



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When to use this prompt:

When you find yourself stuck because you believe no one wants to read your writing or when you imagine you���re writing to a specific audience.

How to use this prompt:

Write about the audience you imagine not wanting to read your work. What do they look like? Where do they live? Why do you believe they won���t like what you have to say?

Or perhaps there���s a misunderstanding? What is it your reader really wants? And what about your writing will resonate with them?

What to do next:

This process of diving into the thinking of another person is the basis of character building. You can incorporate this person into something you write.

This prompt also helps you develop your author branding and platform building. When you have a clear idea of who wants to read your writing and why you know where to reach out and how to find your readers.

Prompt Four: Problem Solve with a Targeted Free Write



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When to use this prompt:

You know basically what you want to write, but you���re not sure how to write it. Or you have so many ideas, you���re not sure which to choose. Whether perfecting your storytelling, fleshing out characters or understanding why a scene isn���t working, targeted free writing allows you to explore your options and experiment.

How to use this prompt:

Instead of writing whatever comes to mind as you would in an unstructured free write, begin with a question you have related to your writing. Some examples of what you can ask yourself:

What will happen next in the story?What does my character want?Which of the subplots need development?Any other quandary you currently face with your work-in-progress. 

Then write for ten (or more) minutes to answer your question.

What to do next:

Use the solutions you uncover and apply them to your works in progress. Try something, see how it works. If it doesn���t fit your needs, try something else.

People often avoid journaling, because they wonder what worth free writing can be if no one ever reads it. What if you develop an idea and it ends up being the wrong one?

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This is simply part of what it means to be a writer. Yes, you will likely write pages you���ll never use. But the more you practice, the more you move past the resistance and doubt that holds you back.

For more ways to get past self-doubt, download this Build Your Writing Confidence worksheet.

What helps you get back to writing when self-doubt hits? Let me know in the comments!



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Leigh Shulman is a writer and writing mentor with over 20 years experience. She���s the author of The Writer���s Roadmap: Paving the Way To Your Ideal Writing Life. Her online writing mentorship program The Workshop guides writers as they create a business plan for their writing lives then make their plans happen. For more ways to get past self-doubt, download her Build Your Writing Confidence worksheet.

The post How To Stop Self-Doubt From Holding You Back From Writing appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Three Simple Questions That Will Unlock Your Story

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Writers are the most powerful people on the planet. Yes, you! You have the power to change your readers in a more profound way than almost anyone else they encounter. 

How? By allowing them to experience, first hand, the profound change your protagonist goes through in the pages of your story.  

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Sounds like magic, doesn���t it? It is in a way. Here���s the scoop: Stories are the world���s first virtual reality. They allow us to vicariously try out difficult situations that might paralyze us in real life, the better to give us useful inside intel on how to best survive should those situations befall us. So sure, your reader might be devouring your novel while sitting in her most comfy chair, but biologically, that story has catapulted her out of her own life, and into your protagonist���s. And as your protagonist���s worldview changes, so too does your reader���s.  

But there���s just one caveat: for that magic to happen, you must actually tell a story. And the biggest problem with most manuscripts, as one freelance editor recently lamented, is that most of them ���are just a pile of pages, not a story.���

Turns out that it���s relatively easy to write a pile of pages, but not nearly as easy to write a story. As the great Southern writer Flannery O���Connor once quipped, ���most people know what a story is, until they sit down to write one.���

So, before you sit down to write another word, let���s first define what a story actually is. Then we���ll dive into three simple questions you can ask to ensure that you���re telling one.

What a story actually is ��� the nutshell version

A story is about one single external problem that grows, escalates and complicates forcing the protagonist to make a long-needed internal change in order to solve it (or not, if it���s a tragedy).

What is that one single external problem? The plot. What is the story about? The long-needed internal change the plot will relentlessly spur the protagonist to make. 

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That���s why at the heart of every story is an irony: what the protagonist thinks will solve the problem and get her what she wants is actually the thing that���s keeping her from it. 

Here���s the secret: a story isn���t about whether or not that external plot problem is solved ��� Will the protagonist save her daughter? Rescue her brother? Keep the earth safe from evil intergalactic unicorns? Of course we care about those things, and we���re dying to know how they turn out. But what has us on the edge of our seat is how that external problem is gradually forcing the protagonist to change internally, giving her the insight and the strength to solve it. Readers are wired to track the internal change���the shift in how the protagonist sees the world, the shift in why they���re doing what they do.  

This means that you can���t start by simply envisioning the plot. First, you have to envision the internal change that the plot will force the protagonist to make.

If you���re wondering, Wait, what change? Change from what to what? Why?That���s exactly what these three simple questions will unlock. 

To be very clear: these are questions to ask about your protagonist���s impending internal change before you shove her onto page one of your novel. Right now, as far as she���s concerned, her life is probably going to go on just the way it always has; she has no idea about the deliciously dark and stormy night you have in store for her.  In other words, you���ve got her right where you want her.

1. What does your protagonist already want?

Every change we humans make is based on one thing only: how it will help us achieve our agenda. This doesn���t make us selfish ��� heck, your agenda could be coming up with a cure for insomnia (please). Or to bring a smile to everyone you meet (that���s sweet). Or to create an ad campaign that would convince people once and for all that cellulite is actually quite lovely (please, please). 

The point is, until you know what your protagonist will enter the story wanting, you can���t figure out what change she will have to make in order to get it.  So ask yourself: what, specifically, does my protagonist already want ��� whether she���s aware of it or not? The more concrete your answer can be the better.

2. What external change does your protagonist need to make in order to achieve her goal?

Here���s a maddening irony: we���re often completely oblivious to the very changes we need to make to have a shot at getting what we want. In fact, we tend to instead embrace our current iffy behavior, thinking it���s helping us. 

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For instance, that ace copywriter whose dream it is to change how the world views dimply thighs? She really, really wants the big promotion that���s up for grabs because it means she���ll get the dimply thigh project, but she not only doesn���t tell anyone (even her boss) that she wants the job, she lets everyone else take ownership of her ideas, which of course they���re all too happy to do. If she doesn���t speak up soon, she���s going to get passed over again! 

Bingo! The ability to stand up for herself is the external change she needs to make if she wants to have a shot at her dream. Now the question is: why doesn���t she just speak the heck up for goodness sake? What���s stopping her?

3. What is keeping your protagonist from making this change, internally?

This is where you���ll strike gold! Because we���re about to leave the surface world���the world of what your protagonist does���and dive into the world of why she���s doing it. This is the layer that readers come for, the layer that brings your novel to life, giving meaning, urgency and conflict to every single thing that happens. What mesmerizes readers is your protagonist���s internal struggle, the one that leads, scene-by-scene, to the change they���ll have to make.

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The question to ask yourself is: what deeply held belief is causing your protagonist to take such misguided action? Because as far as she���s concerned, she���s not making a mistake at all���she���s doing exactly what she should do, except that for some reason she can���t quite figure out, it���s not working.

For instance, maybe that ace copywriter doesn���t dare ask for the promotion she so dearly wants because she believes that pride goeth before the fall. And so if she has to tell her boss how much she deserves it, it will not only prove that she doesn���t deserve it, but that she is arrogant to boot. To her, that���s not a ���belief,��� it���s a fact.

Aha! That is the misbelief that your plot must now force her to question and overcome if she���s going to get what she wants. 

Now that you know the specific change your protagonist will have to make, and why it���s so darn hard for her, you can begin to create a plot that will spur her toward it every step of the way ��� whether she likes it or not. 

And here���s the bonus: by digging deep into your protagonist���s past to answer these three simple questions, you���ve already unearthed the story-specific info you need to envision the single escalating plot problem you���re going to throw her into. After all, you���d never toss her into a pile of pages, not when there���s a compelling story to tell.

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Lisa Cron is the author of Wired for Story and Story Genius. Her 6-hour video course Wired for Story: How to Become a Story Genius can be found at CreativeLive.com, and her TEDx talk, Wired for Story, opened Furman University���s 2014 TEDx conference, Stories: The Common Thread of Our Humanity.

In her work as a private story coach, Lisa helps writers of all ilk wrangle the story they���re telling onto the page. For a library of her free myth-busting writing tips and information on how to work with her one-on-one, you can find her at wiredforstory.com

Psst! Angela here, who has been traveling the internet a bit lately. If you need help with making your Character’s Physical Description Stronger, I’ve got you covered. And if you’re focused on growing your audience, find out my 5 Tips for Building a Fan Base.

The post Three Simple Questions That Will Unlock Your Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Conflict Thesaurus Entry: Seeing an Ex with Someone New

Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source���other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene.

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Category: Relationship Friction, Loss of Control, Ego

Examples: Learning that an ex is seeing someone else can be a painful experience, especially if the character is still emotionally attached. The amount of conflict this situation arouses will depend on many factors, but the most impactful are who the ex is with and where the character sees them. For varying degrees of tension in this scenario, consider the following possibilities:

Seeing the ex with…��
The character���s best friend
A family member
The character���s therapist, pastor, or other trusted mentor
A rival
Someone the ex always claimed they didn���t like
Someone the character can���t easily avoid, such as a co-worker or their child���s teacher

Seeing the ex and their new significant other…��
At a funeral
At a family reunion
In a place that holds significance for the character and their ex (the site of their first date, the church where they were married, etc.)
In a confined area where avoidance is difficult, such as a shared taxi, a train car, or an elevator
At an event where the character needs to be at their best, such as a performance or important business meeting

Minor Complications: The character saying something they���ll regret later, awkwardness or unease that causes the character to do something embarrassing (spilling a drink, putting on an obvious act as if everything is fine, etc.), skipping school or calling in sick and getting in trouble for it, avoiding the ex by cancelling plans with a friend and creating tension in that relationship, temporary uncertainty about one���s current romantic partner, becoming need with one���s romantic partner

Potentially Disastrous Results: Getting into a physical altercation with the new person, the mental strain causing collateral damage for the character in the aftermath (blowing a work presentation, not doing well at a job interview, etc.), obsessing about it and ruining the current romantic relationship, seeking revenge against the ex, coping in an unhealthy way (getting drunk and doing something stupid, spending large amounts of money, becoming promiscuous, etc.), pushing one���s romantic relationship to the next level before either party is ready to go there, seeking to get the ex back (even if the ex was bad for the character, the relationship was toxic, etc.)

Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict): Comparing oneself to the new person and finding oneself lacking, romanticizing the old relationship (only recalling the good memories, remembering things more positively than they actually were, etc.), needing to process the new information but having to hide one���s emotions, difficulty finding closure (if the new person is someone the character will see often), becoming dissatisfied with one���s singleness, struggling with suicidal thoughts, slipping deeper into an existing mental illness (depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, etc.), revived feelings of remorse or guilt (if the character was to blame for the break-up)

People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: The character���s current romantic partner, the ex, the ex���s new flame, friends and family members

Resulting Emotions: Agitation, anger, anguish, anxiety, betrayed, conflicted, contempt, depressed, desire, devastation, disbelief, flustered, hurt, inadequate, insecurity, intimidated, jealousy, loneliness, longing, nostalgia, obsessed, powerlessness, resentment, sadness, self-pity, shock, stunned, vengeful, vulnerability

Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: Abrasive, addictive, catty, confrontational, controlling, impulsive, insecure, jealous, macho, melodramatic, needy, obsessive, oversensitive, paranoid, possessive, promiscuous, rebellious, reckless, self-destructive, self-indulgent, vindictive, weak-willed

Positive Outcomes: Eventually gaining closure from seeing that the ex has moved on, comparing one���s current partner with the ex and seeing how much better one���s situation is now, seeing one���s faults realistically (if one was to blame for the break-up, or the new person is a truly good person) and being motivated to change them, being freed emotionally to pursue a new relationship

If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.

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5 Innovative Strategies That Could Help You Win a Writing Contest

One person I love having at the blog is Savannah Cordova from Reedsy, because she always has an innovative take on every subject. If you enter writing contests, this post is one you will want to read, because she offers a ton of great ideas on how to make your entry stand out. Enjoy!

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If you���ve ever participated in a writing contest, you���ll know that it���s one of the most exhilarating, motivating, and overall craft-stimulating experiences you can have as a writer. Indeed, what starts off as a modest contest entry can even turn into a much bigger project, like a book.

However, the flip side of the coin is
that if you���ve entered multiple writing contests and still haven���t won, the
experience can become intimidating, demoralizing, and frustrating.

I���ve personally been on both sides of the
contest conundrum: I���ve lost time and time again and felt incredibly
discouraged, then had all faith in my writing restored after a win. And recently, my knowledge of writing contests has gained
yet another dimension ��� the perspective of a judge, as I help decide the winner
of a weekly contest we hold at Reedsy.

My experience as both a writing contest
participant and a judge has given me a finely-honed sense of what contributes
to a winning entry��� and what doesn���t. To that end, here are five innovative strategies that could
help you win ��� some of which I���ve used myself, some of which I���ve seen in
action, but all of which have proven concretely successful (as you���ll see from
the examples below).

1. Draw from a recent experience

���Write what you know��� is some of the most
oft-given writing advice for a reason. Writing about something you���ve
personally seen, felt, or done lends the story an air of authenticity that���s
nearly impossible to replicate in any other way.

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My key addition to that advice is to make
it recent: the fresher the
experience, the stronger your writing about it will be. Of course, if you want
to write about something from a long time ago that affected you deeply, that���s
your prerogative ��� but you might find it hard to dredge up the words to describe
something that happened months or years ago.

I���ve found that the more recent the
experience, the more smoothly the words flow. Indeed, this was the tactic that
I used for my story ���Perspective,��� which
actually won the Reedsy short story contest last May (and led me to my current
job). When I wrote ���Perspective,��� I was getting ready to move away from my
family and feeling sentimental, which I indulged by watching old home videos.
The intensity of emotion I felt then inspired me to write a story that started
with a woman watching her home videos
and see where things might go from there.

2. Subvert the prompt

Many contests provide writers with a
prompt or theme to write about. In this case, another highly effective
technique is to subvert the contest theme/prompt. Of course, this can backfire
if the rules of the contest are particularly rigid ��� however, in most cases,
judges will appreciate writers who think outside the box.

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