Florence Witkop's Blog, page 50
January 4, 2018
How can I effectively write of a book character who slowly descends into madness?
If you are using first person point of view and are showing the world through that character’s eyes, then you gradually describe the world and the people in it as if the world and everyone in it is changing and the character is having more and more trouble adapting because it’s not that character’s fault, it’s the world that’s gone mad. Because that’s usually the way people with mental illnesses see themselves and the world. They are right, the world is wrong.
If you are writing from third person point of view, it’s a little more difficult because you must show how that character sees the world changing until the entire world has gone mad and he/she is the only sane person.
So it’s all a matter of description. Normal versus abnormal. Sane versus insane. But all the time remember that the person losing their mind doesn’t realize it’s happening, just thinks that everyone and everything else is going wrong. At least that’s the case with almost all mental illness so it’s most likely the way a reader would expect to see it happening in a story.
[image error]
January 1, 2018
Does everybody have a unique writing style similar to the uniqueness of a fingerprint?
Ask ten people to write a true-to-life description of an event they all witnessed together and you’ll get ten totally different descriptions for the following reasons:
People see things differently and that different perspective results in a different way of writing. Which is style.
When those people sit down to write, their personalities, background — everything that makes them who and what they are — kicks in and influences how they describe what they just saw. And that, too, is style.
Add in everything else that makes a person the kind of person he/she is and you have a totally unique writing style for each and every person on the planet.
December 28, 2017
My Confession
Okay. I confess.
I always say — and I mean it — that I write uplifting, comfortable, clean romances that end happily.
When I say that, I lie — sort of. A little bit. A teeny, tiny little bit.
Because, in my long career as a writer, I have been known to write some stuff that can be classified as horror — or dystopian — or simply scary. Not much, but it has happened.
I’m confessing this because I plan to include some of that stuff as free reads on this site. Mostly sci-fi, and my short story type sci-fi isn’t romantic. And at least one short horror story.
So that’s it. The truth. The ugly truth? Anyway, the not-so-happily-ever-after truth.
Watch for them. They’ll be here as soon as I can squeeze in the time to get them uploaded.
Here’s where to sign up to enter the Ne
Here’s where to sign up to enter the New Year’s drawing for a Kindle 8 and lots of random prizes just for signing in to win. http://ow.ly/OdFG30htnSu http://ow.ly/i/BEZFv
[image error]
December 27, 2017
December 26, 2017
I’ve always like the philosophy behind
I’ve always like the philosophy behind Alfred Hitchcock’s stories. So much so that I’ve copied his philosophy and made it my own.
He took normal, well-adjusted, reasonable and reasonably happy people and threw them into situations that stretched their abilities, changed their priorities and increased their view of the world until they became different people.
That’s what I try to do with my books. No angst-driven heroes and heroines for me, I prefer people who are well-adjusted and intelligent. No horrible childhoods or terrible situations to overcome during the course of the story.
No, I like to set nice, normal people in situations that somehow change them and, in the process, I write a story that people like to read.
The result falls easily into the ‘clean and wholesome’ romance genre and I take the ‘clean and wholesome’ tag to mean not only no describing sex scenes, but also to refer to the characters themselves.
Yes, it’s harder to write such a story. I realize that the easiest story to write is one filled with horror and suffering. But I choose not to write that story. I choose to write stories about people everyone knows and likes. Normal people. Nice people.
My stories may be considered ‘light’ reading because there are no tragedies inherent in them. That’s fine with me as long as readers come to know and like my characters and to enjoy the story.
After all, that’s what storytelling is about. Interesting characters thrust into interesting situations. I think my stories qualify. My readers seem to think so.
December 24, 2017
How do I rewrite my novel using the outline I already have?
Rewriting involves rereading. And then rereading it again. And rereading it still again. And so on.
Each time you read your manuscript you’ll find something that can be done differently. Better. Deleted. Added. Whatever …
So simply sit down at your computer and start reading what you wrote. Soon it’ll change and become better and better. And perhaps — and only perhaps — you’ll discover major changes that should be made. If that happens, then make those changes.
What do I need to make a good horror/thriller story?
I’d normally not answer this kind of question because I’m not a horror writer, but I see that, so far, you’ve gotten few answers so I’ll say a couple thing.
Mystery and horror are, more than most genres, driven by specific guidelines. Find a book/class/mentor who can teach you the correct way to write horror— the craft of it— and follow their advice to the letter. Follow it absolutely even if you think it’s silly, because that’s what will get people reading what you write. (Maybe this is the place to mention that when I started writing, I didn’t sell until I ran across an article in a writing magazine that laid out the specific steps to writing a short story, after which I started selling immediately.) Even if you self-publish, readers subconsciously, like editors consciously, recognize whether a piece is written correctly or not.
Remember that the most important aspect of horror is suspense. Learn how to generate suspense and then do it. Overdo it. Overdo the overdoing.
December 21, 2017
I’m writing a story and I want to use already existing characters because of the scenario. Can I do this?
If the person is a well-known person who is often in the news, then, yes, you can use them if what you say is absolutely, positively true with no possibility of any misunderstanding and it’s difficult to know where the line is between what’s allowed and what’s not.
What I advise for any and all such situations is that you use another name for those people. This can work as long as you insist that your character is fictional and you make enough small changes to their characteristics that, though everyone knows whom you are referencing, your character is different enough to truly be considered fictional.
In other words, remember what I said earlier. Be very, very careful and, if at all possible, disguise that person as a fictional character.
