Angela Ackerman's Blog: Writers Helping Writers, page 94

Story Goals: Are They Slowing Your Story���s Pace?

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If we���ve spent any time learning about
story craft, we know the importance of goals
in our story. They affect every aspect of our story:

Stories are about a problem to solve���a
goal.Characters striving for something are
more compelling.Scenes with characters pursuing a goal have
a story purpose.

Without goals, readers can���t tell what
stories are about, characters wander aimlessly, and scenes feel like filler. In
addition, goals
increase our story���s tension because they create stakes���the consequences if the goal isn���t reached.

In short, goals help drive our story
forward. Without them, our story���s pace slows because there���s nothing forcing
the story or characters to do
anything.

But we need the right kind of goals. Some goals are active goals, and others are passive goals. How can we make sure we���re using active goals that force our story forward?

What Are Active vs.
Passive Goals?

For all the talk about goals in
storytelling craft, we might not have heard about active vs. passive goals
before.

Active Goals: Active goals force
characters to take action. They push the plot forward as the characters strive
and overcome obstacles. They often lead a character to change or adapt, forming
part of a character���s arc.Passive Goals: Passive goals don���t force
anything. The plot crawls along in neutral as characters simply want to
maintain a status quo. Characters might stay in their comfort zone, with no
positive lesson learned from a struggle.



How Can We
Recognize Passive Goals?

If we���re not aware of the difference between
active and passive goals, we might think our story is just fine. After all, our
characters do want something. There is a goal���but it���s not necessarily
strong enough to force our story forward.

Look at the description of passive goals
above. See that word maintain? That���s
passive.

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Passive goals use words like keep, continue, stay, and so
on. The character wants to keep their
job, continue in their relationship,
or stay in their home. That���s different from a character actively
going after what they want beyond the status quo.

Why Are Passive
Goals ���Bad���?

At first, those examples above might look
fine. On the surface, passive goals often feel like any others. We can point
out how the character does want
something.

So on some level, passive goals might be enough to get the job done. But
no matter the specific details, passive goals are about avoiding. Characters are avoiding change���and stories are about
change.

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Goals about maintaining, keeping, and staying
leave the story in neutral (and possibly stalling out completely) rather than
forcing forward movement. So in addition to weakening our character���s arc,
passive goals make our story���s pace feel slower.

Are Story Ideas
with Passive Goals Doomed?

Luckily, having passive goals doesn���t necessarily
mean we should toss the whole story idea and start over. Often, the problem
isn���t with our story idea but in how we���re expressing
it.

It���s
usually possible to tweak most passive goals into active ones. Once fixed, keeping the active goal in mind while drafting will help
our story���and us.

Help for Our Story: Focusing on active
goals throughout the drafting process will naturally increase our story���s
tension and pace. Our characters��� desires will be felt more keenly, and
characters will be faced with a need to change or adapt to get what they want. That
creates a stronger arc, as they learn
what they���re capable of, and in turn the lesson they learn creates a stronger sense
of our story���s theme.Help for Our Writing Process: Focusing
on active goals can help us get through the draft. A stalled story is harder to
write, as there���s no clear idea of where the story���or we���should go next. So if
we���re struggling to figure out what comes next in our story, we can check if
the goals we���re using are active.



How Do We Fix
Passive Goals?



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Look
at why the status quo is at risk or
why they���re avoiding the change. Usually somewhere in that why
is an idea we can make the focus of their active goal.

For example:

Passive: She wants to keep her job���which is at risk.

Active: She wants to find proof her
coworker is scamming the company and blaming others.Passive: She wants to continue in her relationship���to avoid
change.

Active: She wants to get her mother
to stop thinking she���s a flake who can���t commit.Passive: She wants to stay in her home���to avoid change.

Active: She wants to convince her
husband to go to couple���s counseling and fix their marriage.

Those active goals (which aren���t even great ideas) give the characters���and
us���a stronger focus for their struggle. Knowing what they���re actively striving for helps our story move forward. *smile*

Do you have any questions or insights about
passive vs. active goals?

The post Story Goals: Are They Slowing Your Story���s Pace? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Story Goals: Are They Slowing Your Story’s Pace?

[image error]

If we’ve spent any time learning about
story craft, we know the importance of goals
in our story. They affect every aspect of our story:

Stories are about a problem to solve—a
goal.Characters striving for something are
more compelling.Scenes with characters pursuing a goal have
a story purpose.

Without goals, readers can’t tell what
stories are about, characters wander aimlessly, and scenes feel like filler. In
addition, goals
increase our story’s tension because they create stakes—the consequences if the goal isn’t reached.

In short, goals help drive our story
forward. Without them, our story’s pace slows because there’s nothing forcing
the story or characters to do
anything.

But we need the right kind of goals. Some goals are active goals, and others are passive goals. How can we make sure we’re using active goals that force our story forward?

What Are Active vs.
Passive Goals?

For all the talk about goals in
storytelling craft, we might not have heard about active vs. passive goals
before.

Active Goals: Active goals force
characters to take action. They push the plot forward as the characters strive
and overcome obstacles. They often lead a character to change or adapt, forming
part of a character’s arc.Passive Goals: Passive goals don’t force
anything. The plot crawls along in neutral as characters simply want to
maintain a status quo. Characters might stay in their comfort zone, with no
positive lesson learned from a struggle.



How Can We
Recognize Passive Goals?

If we’re not aware of the difference between
active and passive goals, we might think our story is just fine. After all, our
characters do want something. There is a goal—but it’s not necessarily
strong enough to force our story forward.

Look at the description of passive goals
above. See that word maintain? That’s
passive.

[image error]

Passive goals use words like keep, continue, stay, and so
on. The character wants to keep their
job, continue in their relationship,
or stay in their home. That’s different from a character actively
going after what they want beyond the status quo.

Why Are Passive
Goals “Bad”?

At first, those examples above might look
fine. On the surface, passive goals often feel like any others. We can point
out how the character does want
something.

So on some level, passive goals might be enough to get the job done. But
no matter the specific details, passive goals are about avoiding. Characters are avoiding change—and stories are about
change.

[image error]

Goals about maintaining, keeping, and staying
leave the story in neutral (and possibly stalling out completely) rather than
forcing forward movement. So in addition to weakening our character’s arc,
passive goals make our story’s pace feel slower.

Are Story Ideas
with Passive Goals Doomed?

Luckily, having passive goals doesn’t necessarily
mean we should toss the whole story idea and start over. Often, the problem
isn’t with our story idea but in how we’re expressing
it.

It’s
usually possible to tweak most passive goals into active ones. Once fixed, keeping the active goal in mind while drafting will help
our story—and us.

Help for Our Story: Focusing on active
goals throughout the drafting process will naturally increase our story’s
tension and pace. Our characters’ desires will be felt more keenly, and
characters will be faced with a need to change or adapt to get what they want. That
creates a stronger arc, as they learn
what they’re capable of, and in turn the lesson they learn creates a stronger sense
of our story’s theme.Help for Our Writing Process: Focusing
on active goals can help us get through the draft. A stalled story is harder to
write, as there’s no clear idea of where the story—or we—should go next. So if
we’re struggling to figure out what comes next in our story, we can check if
the goals we’re using are active.



How Do We Fix
Passive Goals?



[image error]

Look
at why the status quo is at risk or
why they’re avoiding the change. Usually somewhere in that why
is an idea we can make the focus of their active goal.

For example:

Passive: She wants to keep her job—which is at risk.

Active: She wants to find proof her
coworker is scamming the company and blaming others.Passive: She wants to continue in her relationship—to avoid
change.

Active: She wants to get her mother
to stop thinking she’s a flake who can’t commit.Passive: She wants to stay in her home—to avoid change.

Active: She wants to convince her
husband to go to couple’s counseling and fix their marriage.

Those active goals (which aren’t even great ideas) give the characters—and
us—a stronger focus for their struggle. Knowing what they’re actively striving for helps our story move forward. *smile*

Do you have any questions or insights about
passive vs. active goals?

The post Story Goals: Are They Slowing Your Story’s Pace? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Nurse

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

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Occupation: Nurse (RN)

Overview: Registered nurses are in charge of patient care. They observe and record symptoms, helping to guide a patient’s health plan. They also instruct loved ones and caregivers in how to properly care for a patient. Some RNs may have other roles outside of patient care, such as teaching or organizing a nursing crew. They may work in a hospital, clinic, long-term care facility, doctor’s office, school, or even prison. If they’re part of a home health care company, they’ll travel to meet their patents in their homes or at other facilities. Depending on where they work, some nurses will focus primarily on certain kinds of patients or care, such as pediatrics, geriatrics, plastic surgery, dermatology, etc.

Necessary Training: Registered nurses need a 4-year nursing degree and will have to pass a national licensing exam. Nurses with a graduate degree can seek certification in an advanced clinical profession to become a nurse practitioner, nurse midwife, or a specialist in another area.

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: A knack for languages, basic first aid, empathy, gaining the trust of others, good listening skills, hospitality, multitasking, reading people

Helpful Character Traits:

POSITIVE: Adaptable, affectionate, alert, calm, centered, cooperative, courteous, decisive, diplomatic, discreet, efficient, empathetic, friendly, hospitable, industrious, intelligent, kind, merciful, meticulous, nurturing, objective, observant, optimistic, organized, patient, perceptive, professional, responsible, sensible, studious, supportive, unselfish

NEGATIVE: Fussy, manipulative, pushy

Sources of Friction: Fractious or uncooperative patients, patients who lie about their true condition or health habits, missing important warning signs in a patient, suspecting that an elderly or underaged patient is being abused, being unable to help a patient, having to provide end-of-life care for a favorite patient, a patient being unable to afford treatment, losing touch with a critically ill patient (because they moved unexpectedly, were transferred to an area beyond one’s care, etc.), becoming addicted to opioids or other medications, being asked by a terminal loved one to help with their final transition, undesirable work conditions, working with patients who don’t follow prescribed treatments and keep having the same problems, overbearing or condescending doctors, favoritism in one’s department, budget cuts that result in understaffing and poorly maintained equipment, seeing problems with a patient that one can’t treat (homelessness, toxic relationships, poor nutrition, etc.), treating a patient and discovering they have a dangerous and infectious disease, suspecting a doctor of malpractice or incompetence, harassment on the job

People They Might Interact With: Doctors, other nurses, other healthcare providers (physical therapists, psychologists, etc.), patients, hospital administrators, administrative staff, the patient’s family members or caregivers, pharmaceutical reps

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

Self-Actualization: Nursing is a rewarding career, but it also requires long hours and can be emotionally draining. Someone in a difficult work environment who is unable to move up or change specialty areas may begin to feel stifled and dissatisfied. Esteem and Recognition: A nurse in the frequent company of a condescending doctor or disapproving relatives may come to doubt herself and her chosen profession.Love and Belonging: A nurse who becomes too emotionally attached to her patients may have a hard time becoming attached to others. Or she might connect with her patients in an attempt to keep from having to open up to the people in her life, either creating or reinforcing a void in this area.Safety and Security: Safety could become an issue for a nurse who works in a dangerous part of town, treats volatile patients, or who doesn’t practice sufficient self-care.

Common Work-Related Settings: Break room, cruise ship, emergency room, hospital (interior), hospital room, living room, nursing home, psychiatric ward, refugee camp, waiting room

Twisting the Fictional Stereotype: While there are more men in the nursing field than ever before, most people still associate this career with women. Whatever the gender, make sure that your nurse has a combination of interesting and meaningful attributes and flaws. You can also switch things up by placing your nurse in an unusual location, such as a refugee camp, psyche ward, or boarding school.

Visit the other Occupations in our collection HERE.

The post Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Nurse appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Critiques 4 U, featuring Sara Letourneau!

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It’s time for our monthly critique contest, and editor and writing coach Sara Letourneau is back to offer feedback on the winners’ first pages.

Visit the  Heart of the Story website  to learn more about working with Sara or  her writer website  to read some of her poetry and freelance writing.

Contest Guidelines

This month’s contest will work exactly the same as it usually does, only Sara will be the one contacting you if you win.

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, Sara will be able to contact you if your first page is chosen. Just please know that if she’s unable to get in touch with you through that address, you’ll have to forfeit your win.

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

Three commenters’ names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow. If you win, Sara will be in contact to get your first page and offer her feedback. Best of luck!

The post Critiques 4 U, featuring Sara Letourneau! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Stay Thirsty

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I love a good ad campaign.

When I started running a small publishing business years ago, I had to teach myself advertising and marketing. I read some classics on the subject, such as How to Write a Good Advertisement by Victor O. Schwab and Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples.

My favorite, though, was Ogilvy on Advertising by the legendary ad man David Ogilvy. This volume made me appreciate what goes into successful ads, and just how hard they are to pull off. It also made me realize that some of the same elements of a good ad can be applied to our stories.

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One of my favorite campaigns was “The most interesting man in the world” commercials for Dos Equis beer. 

A typical spot featured “vintage film” of this man in various pursuits, while a narrator recited a few facts about him. A few of my favorites:

• He lives vicariously through himself.

• He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels.

• The police often question him, just because they find him interesting.

• He once taught a German shepherd to bark in Spanish.

• When he drives a car off the lot, its price increases in value.

• Superman has pajamas with his logo.

At the end of the commercial we’d see him—now a handsome, older man—sitting in a bar with admiring young people at his elbow. He would look into the camera and say, in a slight Spanish accent, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do I prefer Dos Equis.”

And then, at the end of each ad, comes the man’s signature sign off: “Stay thirsty, my friends.”

What was so good about this campaign?

It was risky. Having a graying man as the lead character in a beer ad was, as they say, counter programming. 

It was funny without trying too hard. The understated way the deep-voiced narrator extolled the man’s legend was pitch perfect. 

It had a complete backstory, revealed a little at a time in the mock film clips.

These are qualities of a good novel, too: risky, in that it doesn’t repeat the same old; a bit of unforced humor is always welcome; and its backstory renders characters real and complex without slowing down the narrative. All that we can learn from “the most interesting man in the world” campaign.

And from the man himself we can learn, as writers, to live life expansively and not just lollygag through our existence. Not waiting for inspiration but going after it, as Jack London once said, “with a club.” Believing, with Jack Kerouac, in the “holy contour of life.”

We ought to be seekers as well as storytellers, a little mad sometimes, risking the pity and scorn of our fellows as we pursue the artistic vision. Then we park ourselves at the keyboard and strive to get it down on the page. Why go through it all? Because the world needs dreams rendered in words.

Writer, keep after it and someday this may be said of you as well: “His charisma can be seen from space. Even his enemies list him as their emergency contact number.”

Stay thirsty, my friends.

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Jim is the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, Plot & Structure, and numerous thrillers, including Romeo’s Rules, Try Dying and Don’t Leave Me. His popular books on fiction craft can be found here. His thrillers have been called “heart-whamming” (Publishers Weekly) and can be browsed here. Find out more about Jim on our Resident Writing Coach page, and connect with him on Twitter.

The post Stay Thirsty appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Treasure Hunter

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

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Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

Occupation: Treasure Hunter

Overview: A treasure hunter is someone with an inquisitive nature who uses their investigative talents to find lost, stolen, or forgotten treasure. It may be buried, sunken, hidden, part of a recovery mission, a historical find, or a prize as part of an elaborate hunt created by a person with means.

Necessary Training: Depending on the type of treasure being recovered, different types of education will help one’s success or be required. For example, someone who salvages shipwrecks would need need their diver certification and have documentation that allows them to pilot a boat. Depending on the location, and whether the treasure hunting mission is legal or not, additional permits may be needed to search. Also, being educated in a specific area of history, map reading, navigational skills, knowing the culture and language tied to the nationality of the treasure lost would all help the treasure hunter (but if they didn’t have this knowledge, someone on the team could supply it). Understanding symbols, glyph, being able to follow clues based on details only those educated in a certain era or with intimate knowledge of the person who hid the treasure will also be important if one is to recover certain finds.

Treasure hunters would also need equipment to help them (this could range form a metal detector to deep sea salvage gear, to explosives, and more) and be proficient in their equipment’s use. They would also need to be able to handle situations that could come up (beating out rival treasure hunters, dealing with local superstitions, gaining permission to search, working with (or past) law enforcement, encouraging locals to open up when investigating the past, obtaining financial backing, etc.).

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: A knack for languages, a knack for making money, basic first aid, enhanced hearing, exceptional memory, foraging, gaining the trust of others, good listening skills, haggling, high pain tolerance, lip-reading, lying, making people laugh, mechanically inclined, photographic memory, predicting the weather, promotion, reading people, repurposing, self-defense, sharpshooting, sleight-of-hand, strategic thinking, strong breath control, super strength, survival skills, swift-footedness, wilderness navigation

Helpful Character Traits:

POSITIVE: Adaptable, adventurous, alert, ambitious, analytical, bold, calm, courageous, curious, decisive, disciplined, discreet, focused, imaginative, independent, industrious, meticulous, observant, optimistic, organized, patient, persistent, persuasive, resourceful, thrifty, wise

NEGATIVE: addictive, cocky, devious, dishonest, evasive, know-it-all, macho, manipulative, materialistic, obsessive, stubborn, superstitious, suspicious, unethical

Sources of Friction: Rival treasure hunters unraveling the clues before or at the same pace that one can, tight-lipped locals (that don’t trust outsiders), maps that have degraded with age, old equipment that barely functions or breaks just when it is needed most, wasting time following false leads (and letting one’s competition get the jump on one’s operation), trying to bribe an official or police officer and it backfiring, finding a treasure only to have a government body or relative to the original owner try to claim it, having one’s equipment or vehicle sabotaged by a rival, personality conflict within one’s crew, a curse tied to the lore of a treasure that turns out to be true, buying a treasure at auction or in a yard sale and finding it to be a fake, trying to circumvent the law and being arrested, being unable to obtain permission to search a specific area, being attacked or injured during a job, finding a treasure’s resting place only to discover another has been there first

People They Might Interact With: museum curators, archeologists, historians, police, government officials, local guides, drivers, laborers, fellow treasure hunters, ship owners/captains, experts, financial backers

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

Self-Actualization: If a treasure hunter’s desire to find a big score is their sole focus and this never materializes, it could threaten their sense of self, and make them wonder if they have wasted their lifeEsteem and Recognition: A character in this field that is always one-upped by other hunters may struggle with self-esteem issuesLove and Belonging: Treasure hunters often travel, and can be gone for long periods of time. This means they may struggle with commitment and responsibilities that lie outside the job, including relationshipsSafety and Security: In the scope of their work, treasure seekers may travel to locations that are hazardous, and whenever a large finders fee is in the offering, humans can present a danger, too

Common Work-Related Settings: abandoned mine, airplane, airport, alley, ancient ruins, antiques shop, arctic tundra, art gallery, attic, backyard, badlands, bank, basement, bazaar, beach, bookstore, canyon, cave, cheap motel, condemned apartment building, construction site, country road, creek, desert, dungeon (speculative), farm, fishing boat, forest, ghost town (old west), graveyard, grotto, hiking trail, lake, library, marina, marsh, mausoleum, meadow, medieval castle armory (speculative), medieval castle (speculative), medieval tavern (speculative), medieval village (speculative), moors, mountains, museum, ocean, pasture, pirate ship (speculative), quarry, razed city street, root cellar, salvage yard, secret passageway, sewers, swamp, thrift store, waterfall

Twisting the Fictional Stereotype: A lot of treasure hunters are portrayed as men, but women have a adventurer’s spirit too. Why not consider this career for your next female protagonist?

Visit the other Occupations in our collection HERE.

The post Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Treasure Hunter appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Tips for a Successful Writing Collaboration

It’s hard to believe that Angela and I have been writing together for over a decade. It started in 2008 with this blog, where we pooled ideas and shared writing responsibilities. Then we stepped up our game and decided to write a book together. And then Lee Powell came along with his proposal for One Stop for Writers…

Our collaboration has been kind of a magical one. As I’ve often said in my best Forrest Gump voice: Angela and me was like peas and carrots. But it’s more than that—particularly when it comes to co-writing books. How do we do it? How have we managed to create books together that sound like they’ve been written by one person rather than two? How do we agree on the ideas for our books in the first place?

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Questions like these are the most common ones we get from authors. Co-writing is on the rise in both the fiction and non-fiction markets; people are interested in trying it but they aren’t quite sure how to make it work. So I figured I would tackle the topic and offer some advice to would-be collaborators. But in the spirit of true collaboration, I reached out to some of the authors I admire who have found success writing books with others.

So read on, future co-authors. Some of the tips that follow are universal in nature while others may be simply one way of doing things. Hopefully you’ll find some answers that will clear the air for you.

1. Find the Perfect Partner

Read books in the genre you want to write. Take the extra moment to send a compliment or two to the authors. We’re writers and we all love compliments and positive feedback. Introduce yourself with an offer or a kind word instead of an ask, which will almost always be ignored.

In addition, Facebook groups can be a great place to meet other like-minded authors. I’ve met some awesome people in those groups. Conferences and writers’ retreats can be another place to make a friend and maybe start a collaborative relationship. For example, we’ve met several new friends at the Sell More Books Show Summit in Chicago. Consider attending local events at libraries or critique groups where you might also find writers looking to make connections.

Regardless of how or where, finding the right collaborator is a lot like making friends or finding romance–it’s not always easy and it’s different for everyone, but you’ll know when you find the right person.

~~J. Thorn, co-owner of Molten Universe Media with Zach Bohannon, authors of the Final Awakening series

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2. Discuss the Details Up Front

Create a written document before you start to co-write that acts as a contract between you. It should cover everything from how you will communicate, who is responsible for what, target dates and word count, how you will handle the money, how you will publish and market, what happens if the book is an incredible success — or if it’s a failure. It should also cover what happens if you die, as copyright lasts 50-70 years after the death of the author and you are creating a product that will (hopefully) stand the test of time. I’ve co-written three books with J.Thorn and we used shared Google Docs for our contract agreement, as well as writing our chapters and communicating during the project. We outlined everything in our book, Co-Writing A Book: Collaboration and Co-Creation for Writers.

~~Joanna Penn, co-writer of 5 novels and 2 non-fiction books, including  Co-Writing A Book: Collaboration and Co-Creation for Writers  with J.Thorn

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3. Have the Same Overall Goal

When one author is writing for therapy . . . Okay. We all write for therapy. . . When one author is onlywriting for therapy, and the other author wants to be a USA Today Bestseller within three years, there will be blood. One person will be getting their nails done while the other is breaking their nails on the keyboard. It will end up being a waste of time for both of you. As with any business venture, success requires distinct goals and timelines for your project and making sure both of you are on the same page with expectations and commitments.

~~By Piper Bayard & Jay Holmes, authors of Spycraft: Essentials and its upcoming sequels

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4. Share Your Words

As my daughter and I edited our two-voice 2019 memoir, some of my narrative fit more logically in her sections. When that happened, she adopted my writing and adjusted the words to fit her own style and voice. Other times, I conscripted her words and made them my own.

~~Nancy Jorgensen, co-author of the soon-to-be-released memoir Go, Gwen, Go

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5. Divvy Up Ownership of Viewpoint Characters

Coauthoring fiction can be tricky, because no two authors have the same style, and it’s hard to keep characters consistent. My coauthor and I used a simple plan to solve the consistency problem. The basic idea is that each of us “owned” one or more of the viewpoint characters.  We assigned each scene in advance to one viewpoint character, and then whoever owned that character had to write the scene.  Immediately after writing the scene, it was emailed to the other author, who then inserted revisions and emailed it back. If there were conflicts in portraying any character in the scene, the “owner” of that character had final veto power. This worked out very well in practice.  We also typically made revisions by adding in things, rather than deleting material.  If we honestly felt that something needed to be deleted, we discussed it by phone, and then whoever originally wrote it did the deletions.

~~Randy Ingermanson, coauthor with John B. Olson of the award-winning novel OXYGEN, a hard science fiction novel about the first human mission to Mars

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6. Don’t Co-Write. Co-Author

That means a decidedly distinct separation of duties. If my name is one of two on the cover of a book, I have either written every word (a la Left Behind) or edited every word (50 titles with Chris Fabry). I know some succeed by sharing the writing, but that would not work for me.

~~Jerry B. Jenkins, New York Times bestseller with sales of more than 70 million copies, including the Left Behind series with Tim LaHaye

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And a few final tips from yours truly…

Know Your Strengths & Weaknesses

Each author brings something important to the table. Knowing each person’s areas of strength can help in the doling out of responsibilities. For instance, Angela has an amazing sense of vision that allows her to visualize the overall product and what it needs to include. I stink at that, but I have a knack for distilling information into a sensible order. When we know each other’s strengths, it’s easy to know who should do what.

Build a Foundation of Mutual Respect

This is hugely important for any successful collaboration—in writing, business, family, whatever. It means trusting the other person’s expertise in a certain area and letting them handle portions of the process without micro-managing. It requires give-and-take in situations where you may not 100% agree. Sometimes you’ll have to check your ego at the door and apologize for a mistake, admit that you need help, or take on a duty that may not be your favorite. Basically, if you look at your work as a team effort—two individuals working together toward the same goal—it helps maintain the proper perspective.

Hopefully these tips have filled in some blanks for you. What other questions do you have about the collaboration process?

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Occupation Thesaurus Entry: Bounty Hunter

Jobs are as important for our characters as they are for real people. A character’s career might be their dream job or one they’ve chosen due to necessity. In your story, they might be trying to get that job or are already working in the field. Whatever the situation, as with any defining aspect for your character, you’ll need to do the proper research to be able to write that career knowledgeably.

Enter the Occupation Thesaurus. Here, you’ll find important background information on a variety of career options for your character. In addition to the basics, we’ll also be covering related info that relates to character arc and story planning, such as sources of conflict (internal and external) and how the job might impact basic human needs, thereby affecting the character’s goals. It’s our hope that this thesaurus will share some of your research burden while also giving you ideas about your character’s occupation that you might not have considered before.

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Occupation: Bounty Hunter

Overview: Bounty Hunters apprehend fugitives who are running from the law. While a suspect awaits a court date, they’re often released on bail. If they can’t pay the money themselves, they get it from a bail bondsman. If the suspect doesn’t appear for his court date, he becomes a fugitive. The bail bondsman may hire a bounty hunter to find the suspect in exchange for a portion (usually 10-20%) of the bail amount. Bounty hunters may work directly for a bondsman or do freelance work on their own.

In some ways, bounty hunters have more freedom than official police officers because they can enter the fugitive’s home without a warrant and cross state lines to apprehend the fugitive. Their work might include such activities as interviewing family and friends, canvassing the fugitive’s neighborhood, staking out certain locations, tracing phone records and license plates, and confronting the suspect when he’s found. Because of the inherent danger in this job, most bounty hunters work in teams or pairs.

Necessary Training: In the U.S., you must be 21 years old and hold a high school diploma or GED to pursue this career. While many bounty hunters have a background in the military and law enforcement, no official training is necessary. Because they must be licensed in most states, they’ll have to pass an exam that covers the laws and limitations for their trade area. Someone new to this profession would likely apprentice with an experienced hunter to learn the trade.

Useful Skills, Talents, or Abilities: Basic first aid, blending in, charm, ESP (clairvoyance), exceptional memory, gaining the trust of others, good listening skills, haggling, high pain tolerance, knife throwing, mentalism, parkour, reading people, self-defense, sharpshooting, strategic thinking, super strength, survival skills, swift-footedness, wrestling

Helpful Character Traits:

POSITIVE: Adventurous, alert, bold, cautious, decisive, discreet, focused, industrious, just, observant, patient, persistent, persuasive, protective, resourceful, responsible, sensible, uninhibited, wise

NEGATIVE: Callous, confrontational, humorless, manipulative, nosy, obsessive, pushy, rebellious, rowdy, suspicious, vindictive

Sources of Friction: Trying to get information from uncooperative sources, being confined by the law, being tempted to circumvent the law to catch a fugitive, not being able to find the fugitive, receiving incorrect information from a source, a job requiring going over budget or schedule, an important contact going out of business (one’s primary investigator or bail bondsman, for instance), conflicts of interest (the fugitive being a person one knows, having a family member who was victimized by the fugitive, etc.), suffering a physical injury that makes it difficult to do the job, being wounded or taken captive by the fugitive, working with an impatient bail bondsman, working a case that multiple bounty hunters are also working, do-gooders questioning one’s methods, having to enter dangerous neighborhoods and talk to volatile people to get information

People They Might Interact With: bondsmen, law enforcement officers, people associated with the fugitive (family members, friends, neighbors, former bosses, etc.), “regulars” in the areas where one frequently works (shop owners, wait staff, etc.), administrative personnel

How This Occupation Might Impact One’s Basic Needs:

Self-Actualization: A bounty hunter who chose the profession because he was unable to pursue the career he really wanted (such as one in the military or law enforcement) might soon become restless and feel unfulfilled.Safety and Security: The danger associated with this job, the fugitives involved, and the neighborhoods they frequent could easily cause safety or security problems for the character.Physiological Needs: Most careers wouldn’t impact a character on this level, but a bounty hunter could easily lose their life in this line of work.

Common Work-Related Settings: Airport, alley, backyard, bar, basement, big city street, casual dining restaurant, cheap motel, coffeehouse, convenience store, courtroom, diner, emergency room, fast food restaurant, garage, gas station, hospital (interior), hospital room, hotel room, indoor shooting range, living room, nightclub, park, parking garage, parking lot, police station, pub, public restroom, small town street, subway train, waiting room

Twisting the Fictional Stereotype:

Bounty hunters are often portrayed as rough and grubby, which helps them blend into the environments where their subjects are hiding. To switch things up, consider a bounty hunter who takes on only high-profile cases and must share the upscale looks of the fugitives he hunts.

Visit the other Occupations in our collection HERE.

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Gameify Your Writing Life

As creatives, we all have a million ideas. But if we’re going to turn any of tthem into reality, we have to have a plan, and that’s where the wheels fall off the bus for many of us. Rochelle Melander is here today to share a method for doing this that you may not have considered—one that involves combining writing with gaming. Two of my favorite things!

About ten years ago, my husband and I got pedometers. We’d always been very competitive, but the pedometers gave us a new game to play. Who could walk more in a day? In a week? Suddenly my husband was volunteering to walk books back to the library, take children to the park, and carry laundry up and down the stairs. It’s not that he hadn’t done these things before—he had. He was just more excited about it now. As we turned walking into a competitive sport, we both won. We both walked more than the recommended 10,000 steps a day and felt better overall. 

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We benefited by gamifying our lives. Gamification brings game elements to existing experiences to make them more engaging. It has been used in just about every area of life, including the military, advertising and marketing, and in the health industry. For writers, National Novel Writing Month is a great example of gamification. Participants sign on to complete the challenge or writing a 50,000-word novel in a month. Winners get badges and bragging rights.

I learned about this idea through the book SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver, and More Resilient. In the book, author Jane McGonigal talks about how she used gaming to heal from a brain injury. She said, “When we play a game, we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, and more optimism. We’re also more likely to reach out to others for help.” (p. 3)

You can use gamification for just about anything, including making social media posts, querying agents, and publicizing your book. Here’s how you can use this concept to write more.

Define Your Epic Win

What would a big win look like for you? Writing your book in the next 60 days? Writing daily? Finishing the draft of that super-secret project you’ve been longing to write but haven’t had time? 

Get a Secret Identity

When I was first writing professionally, I felt like an imposter. Because of that, I had difficulty claiming my writing time. I might have benefited from adopting a secret identity. For those of you who juggle day jobs, family responsibilities, and more, having a secret identity can help you feel more powerful.

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Choose a favorite superhero or two that have some of the traits you use to succeed: resilience, strength, extreme vision, or courage. Create a name that will help you embody these traits. Model your name after your favorite superheroes—maybe Wonder Writer, IronWriter, Super Word Weaver. Take a look at some of the online name generators to help you choose your name. (Google Superhero Name Generator and look at the images tab.) It can also be helpful to give yourself a tagline. Superman was faster than a speeding bullet. You might be “The fastest drafter in town” or “Making up Fun Stuff Since 1999.” 

Identify Allies

Who will support you in this endeavor? We need allies to support and encourage us on our quests. Develop a list of people who can be there to check in with you once a week. Think about who might keep you accountable, encourage you, and help you celebrate. One interesting way to do this is to add your future self to your list of allies and imagine that he or she is rooting you on. 

Name Villains 

A villain is anything that prevents you from achieving your goal. It can be the inner critic, online or in-person distractions, or toxic friends and colleagues. Who interrupts your writing time? What roadblocks do you encounter? Are you dealing with imposter syndrome? Name the villains you commonly face (thereby taking away their power) and make a plan for defeating them. 

List Power-Ups



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If you’ve ever played a video game, you know that power-ups give you extra energy or abilities to navigate the game, fight villains, and survive. As a writer, power-ups help us renew our energy, overcome roadblocks, and finish difficult tasks. For example, doing a repetitive activity like knitting or folding clothes can lead to finding the solution to a writing problem. Make a list of the activities that support you as a writer. These might include taking walks, gardening, chatting with a friend, taking a nap, cuddling with your dog, or eating a healthy snack. Next time you get stuck, try a power-up to renew your energy and move forward. 

Identify Rewards

When runners cross the finish line, they’re often rewarded with a participant medal and, in some races, a mug of beer. How will you reward yourself after each quest? Like power-ups, rewards don’t have to be expensive or fancy. And many of your power-up activities will work as rewards, too.

But rewards and power-ups differ in two key ways. First, because rewards happen at the end of a quest, they can be a bit more elaborate. So, while working on the quest, you might take short walks to boost your energy. But when you finish your quest, you could reward yourself with a longer walk in a new neighborhood.

Second, rewards can be special activities you don’t do every day. So, a power-up might be spending fifteen minutes in the garden while a reward could be going to the store to buy a new plant. If you choose a reward that will delight you when you finish your quest, you’ll be even more likely to win!

Design Quests

Now, imagine that your epic win is completing a draft of your novel by the end of August. That’s great—but it’s a long way off. You need a series of quests to get you from here to there. Here are examples of some potential quests that might help you reach your epic win:

Research Quest: Study the clothing choices for a woman in 1880s FranceWriting Quest: Write an elevator pitch or logline for your bookPlotting Quest: Write a list of potential scenes for your bookEditing Quest: Apply my critique group’s edits to chapter fourSubmission Quest: Query five agentsPromotion Quest: Connect with five bloggers about potential guest posts

When you’ve established a quest, make it doable by deciding on the following elements:

A Measurable Goal (Write 500 words a day)The When, Where, and What (After breakfast each day, I will sit in my favorite writing chair and write scenes for my novel until I hit 500 words)A Power-up (If I get stuck, I will fold laundry, sweep the floor, or do dishes for 15 minutes and then get back to work)Rewards (When I finish my 500 words each day, I will reward myself with 30 minutes on Facebook. At the end of each week, I will have coffee with my accountability buddy.)

Pro Tip: As you develop quests, make sure that your reward is tied to your actions instead of the results. Why? The publishing world is fickle. You can only control what you do. Do it well, and you will succeed no matter what.

Once you’ve developed and played a few quests, you’ll get a sense of which quests work best. You’ll also know what power-ups renew your energy the most and which types of rewards will motivate you. You’ll be better able to design quests that help you reach your goals.

Ready, Set, Go!

Writers spend a good chunk of their lives alone, in our heads, making stuff up. When we’re pre-published, we may be working without deadlines or any other kind of external accountability. Gamifying our work lives can help us stay focused on our goals and write more. 

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Rochelle Melanderis a speaker, certified professional coach, and the bestselling author of twelve books, including Level Up: Quests to Master Mindset, Overcome Procrastination and Increase Productivity. Through her writing and coaching, Rochelle Melander helps writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs overcome distractions and procrastination, design a writing life, turn their ideas into books, navigate the publishing world, and connect with readers through social media. She is the founder of Dream Keepers, a writing workshop that supports teens in finding their voice and sharing their stories. Visit her online at writenowcoach.com. You can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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Contrasting and Condensing Characters: Two Sides to One Coin

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Good characterization is an enigma: it happens in the minutia, with the details we choose for our cast members, but it also happens on the macro level, with how we put those details together. I’d like to share two techniques today for building compelling and substantial characters that will breathe new life into your story. Let’s begin with the first one.

Contrast: the quality that makes characters visible

One of the most important things about character is opposition. Characters must be in opposition to each other, their story, and themselves.

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Say we’ve got a pair of charming ducks. We can’t just leave them a pair of charming ducks. They’ve got to contrast each other. They’ve got to exemplify, somehow, the fundamental differences between all human beings. So we want to set up a dichotomy between these two characters, which of course turns out to be the root of all their ills. 

They’re super-compatible. They both love art and frisbee and cats. They love life. They love each other. All’s well in their world.

But there’s an abyss between them—the abyss that will tear them apart. 

Say when she was young she accidentally shot her brother while hunting and now has terrible recurring dreams. Say he’s an LPN and works in the ER. This contrast between their characters can bring about their worst nightmare when he’s in the ER one night and a gunshot victim rises unexpectedly from the gurney and pulls a pistol from their belt, and she’s the only person who can drag him to safety and follow his gasped instructions for digging out the bullet. . .

Or.

He’s secretly gay. And she’s secretly lesbian. But they need a child. (Why? Who knows? Maybe they’re aristocrats in need of an heir, like Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson.) The fact that they’re terrified of revealing their secrets to anyone—especially each other—means their efforts to live up to the pressure result in either great comedy or great tragedy. . .

Or.

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They’re not really a couple. But they must pretendto be a couple for very urgent reasons. Maybe they’re in a Witness Protection Program. And it turns out that one of them isn’t really a witness, which is, naturally, the contrast between them. And this means the other isn’t really protected. . .

Do you see how the contrast between characters is the tension that makes our story a great big paintball aimed right at the reader’s head? 

Now let’s try the second technique by condensing some of these characters.

Condensation: giving the reader someone to follow

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Say the woman who accidentally shot her brother originally had two sisters. We have a social climber, a tomboy, and Mommy’s Little Girl. We have someone who’ll knock others down to get her way, a rather moody black sheep, and someone with a (slightly-strained) smile for every season. We have all of these qualities we really want to explore, and we need someone to paste them onto.

What if we eliminate the sisters? What if we give all those characteristicsto the same character?

Or maybe the homosexual man originally had a straight best friend with all the qualities we didn’t know how to give to our effeminate gay blade. The best friend is big, muscular, athletic, and has a way with the ladies. We’ve made our gay blade thin, willowy, soft-voiced, and limp-wristed. 

What happens if we combine the two? Make the gay man big, willowy, muscular, soft-voiced, supremely athletic, with a charming way with the ladies to hide his passion for their brothers and boyfriends? The ladies don’t mind his limp wrist. They think he’s being sophisticated.

And the lesbian woman—maybe she originally was bluff and hearty, with a fondness for fresh air and dogs and comfortable shoes. And maybe the social-climber sister was intensely competitive, while the smiley sister was a fainting lily who spent a lot of time on her chaise longue sipping absinthe and fluttering her eyelashes at the big charming dude with muscles.

What if we made the lesbian a delicate flower with a fondness for fresh air and dogs and comfortable shoes. Her intense competitiveness makes her constantly over-do the bluff and have to retreat to her chaise lounge while her husband with the limp wrist brings her absinthe. She flutters her eyelashes at him hoping against hope that he hasn’t seen her rolling in the hay with the neighbor’s governess.

And after they’ve survived the shoot-out in the ER, he has to testify against the perpetrator, who can identify him. So he’s put into a Witness Protection Program and given a fake wife, with whom our heroine falls in love. . .

Do you see how contrasting and condensing characters brings them vividly alive? It forces us to climb over our unconscious clichés and create unique people—all while keeping the story focused on their conflicted needs that get them from hook, through development, to climax.

And it makes the material so much more substantial, resulting in writing that’s significantly more compelling.

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Victoria has been a professional writer and editor for over thirty years. She is the author of the Art & Craft of Writing series and offers email subscribers a free copy of Art & Craft of Writing: Favorite Advice for Writers. Catch up with Victoria on twitter or visit her website for more information on her editing services.
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