E.B. Roshan's Blog: This, That and the Other, page 24

Random Writing Tip #3: Beginning, Middle and End

Every story has a beginning, middle and end. Each of these parts has a specific role to play that will be virtually the same, regardless of what kind of story you are writing, or how long or short it is.

The beginning of your story has three main purposes:

To introduce your main character.To introduce the problem the story is about.To “hook” your readers, so they won’t want to stop reading until the end.

The middle section also has three main purposes:

To develop the main character.To explore the story problem in greater depth.To make things complicated for your aforementioned main character. If it’s all fun and games for him, you may have a nice piece of writing, but you don’t have a story.

The final section and ending also has three main purposes, too:

To bring the tension of the story up to fever pitch.To show how your main character has changed for better or worse. The character you leave your readers with at the end of the story should not be the same person they began the story with.To provide resolution to the problem that the story posed for your main character.

This is only a brief overview of what it takes to write a good story. Over the next few weeks, we’ll go into more detail on how to create each of these story elements. Stay tuned!

Dreaming up Sevia (Coming Soon...)

The next book in the Shards of Sevia Series, Final Chance, is scheduled to be released July 7th. I hope you’re looking forward to it as much as I am. Here’s the official book blurb:

“Three months have passed since Preen learned that her husband, Rama, was captured and killed by a rival militia. Now the pieces of her shattered life are falling back into place. It’s getting easier to breathe again. Preen finds herself smiling over her daughter’s antics. She’s engaged to her wealthy, handsome cousin, who loved her long before Rama stole her heart. Then, late one night, Rama calls. He asks Preen to come back to the dangerous city of Dor, back to the life she thought she’d left behind forever…”

Final Chance will be available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and the Apple Bookstore, as well as at subscription sites like Scribd and 24 Symbols.

Dreaming up Sevia (Random Writing Tip #2)

A story is made of words, obviously, which form sentences, which form paragraphs, which form scenes. As you plan your story, it might be helpful to think of each scene in it as a step forward on the journey from the Beginning to the Challenge to the Climax to the Resolution to the End.

Each scene should leave your hero/heroine in a new position. For example, if a scene began well, events should take a turn for the worse. If it began badly, either things should start looking up or they should get really bad.

Begin your scene at the last possible moment, and end it as soon as it has accomplished its purpose in the larger story. Then move on to the next one.

Maybe you’ve just finished writing a scene, and it’s full of great description and funny dialogue, but it’s not moving your story, or your readers, along on the journey you’ve created for them. It’s painful, but you need to cut it out, or re-write it so it does move the story forward.

Dreaming up Sevia (Names)

Some readers have been intrigued or confused by my choice of names for the characters in this series. I think choosing the right names is vital for creating a believable world, but I didn’t want to invent my own names, because made-up names sound…made-up.

For the Sevian ethnic majority, I chose European names. For example, an important character is called Peter, his wife is Oxsana, his son is Alexander, and so on. For characters from the Tur-speaking minority, I chose mostly Central/South Asian names. The main character of my upcoming book is Preen, her husband is Rama, and his friends are Desh and Erkan.

A character’s name is meant to immediately identify the language/cultural group he or she belongs to, both for readers and for other characters. This is important, because the loss and suffering caused by ethnic conflict is one of the major themes throughout the series.

Dreaming up Sevia (The Last Wolf King)

In anticipation of my next novel, Final Chance, which is set to come out in early July, I published a short story from the world of Sevia (along with a sneak preview of the first chapter of Final Chance.)

If you’re new to the series, and not sure about committing to a full-price novel yet, this little story is a great way to get a feel for my writing, and a taste of what’s to come, for almost nothing. Click here to purchase my short story “The Last Wolf King” for .99 at the online bookstore of your choice: https://books2read.com/u/47Xxnj

Dreaming up Sevia (Selling Books)

I didn’t start out planning to sell my books. When I decided self-publishing looked interesting and fun, I thought I’d offer my stories for free; why not? I didn’t need the money and I love giving things away.

Then Covid-19 brought big changes, one of which was the loss of my husband’s job. He has another one now, so we’re not in financial crisis by any means. I am thankful for that, but it means we had to cancel our support for many friends and former colleagues who still work in parts of the world where we (for various reasons) can no longer be. I shed tears when calling to cancel those gifts and decided, never mind, I’m going to sell my series after all. How hard can it be?

Well, the answer to that question is, it’s not so hard, but it is a lot of work. I read articles instructing aspiring authors on what to do to be successful. I set up this website. I submitted my already-published book to at least a dozen promotional websites. I contacted dozens of reviewers. And the list goes on. I may never actually make money, but even so, what a great learning experience it has been!

Dreaming up Sevia (My First Interview)

I was interviewed today by White Cat Publications. A fun experience, and a fine little publishing company. You can check it out here:

https://www.whitecatpublications.com/...

Dreaming up Sevia (Random Writing Tip #1)

If at all possible, avoid using the passive voice in your writing. The passive voice, sometimes called passive tense, is used when the subject of your sentence is being acted upon, rather than doing the action. Confusing? Some examples may help.

1. Passive Voice: Snow White was given an apple by the witch.
2. Active Voice: The witch gave Snow White an apple.

In Sentence One, Snow White is the subject of our sentence, but she's not doing anything except standing there (presumably with outstretched hand.) A sentence isn't very interesting if your subject doesn't do anything.
In Sentence Two, the subject of our sentence is now the witch. Snow White hasn't gone anywhere, she's just not our subject anymore. Since she wasn't doing anything, she had no business being the subject in the first place.

Here are a couple more Passive/Active pairs to help you get the concept into your brain.

1. The heavy shopping cart was pushed by the little boy.
2. The little boy pushed the heavy shopping cart.

1. Bob was helped down the steps by Rob.
2. Rob helped Bob down the steps.

If you want to improve your writing overnight, one of the best ways to do that is to change your Passive Voice constructions to active ones.
When proofreading your own writing for passive voice, look out for "He WAS something-ed BY something" constructions. The "was/by" combo is a flashing red warning light.

But is Passive Voice ever useful? Of course! You can use it to change the emphasis of your sentence, for example:

1. Passive Voice: Prince John was robbed of his gold by Robin Hood.
2. Active Voice: Robin Hood robbed Prince John of his gold.

In the first sentence, the emphasis is on Prince John. The second sentences emphasizes the sneaky hero, Robin Hood.
In your own writing, you'll have to decide where you want the emphasis to lie. Passive voice puts the spotlight in unexpected places and can create feelings of sympathy in your readers. Don't you feel sorrier for poor, bereaved Prince John in Sentence 1. than in Sentence 2.?
Still, don't overdo it. Passive voice distances your readers from the action in your story, making them feel like they're wading through molasses with cotton wool in their ears.

Dreaming up Sevia (Boris's Dilemma)

Like many romance stories, Wrong Place, Right Time is written from two points of view–Anna’s and Boris’s. I found the parts told from Anna’s point of view fun and comparatively easy to write, probably at least in part because I’m female myself, but mainly because her conflicts were more straightforward.

With Boris, I had to create a balance between making him either too resentful and prejudiced to be appealing, or so idealistic in his determination to risk letting Arjun work for him that he’d seem stupid. I re-wrote his scenes and dialogue more often than anything else in the book. But in doing so, I learned a lot about how to portray a believable, yet inconsistent, character. He’s not my favorite character in the series, but in the end I do feel that he came out the way I wanted him to be.

Dreaming up Sevia (Creating a Cover)

Writing isn’t always easy, but sooner or later, the story will come. With ruthless editing, I can achieve (or get close enough) to the ideal I saw in my head. The challenge I wasn’t expecting was the cover. A good book cover should be unique, but not so unique that it sticks out like a sore thumb among the other covers in its genre. Not only images, but color schemes, and even fonts should should work together to tell prospective readers what kind of book it is.

A few minutes’ Internet browsing on the subject taught me everything I really needed to know, but implementing it was a different story. I considered and rejected at least six cover designs before setting on one that seemed to work. However, even this process was not nearly as time-consuming as it might have been, because I used the excellent (and free) graphic design site, Canva.com, to create the cover. I uploaded photos from Pixabay.com, a great online library of copyright-free photos. So that’s the short story of how I designed a fairly good cover on a zero-dollar budget.