Amy Sue Nathan's Blog: Women's Fiction Writers, page 4

Day 14 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Creating Expectations

 

DAY 14

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

Amy xo

LAY IT ON THE TABLE (Yep, that’s a cliche)

Ray Bradbury said, “Get to the big truth first.”

Kurt Vonnegut said, “Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.”

I have interpreted all of this to mean — set an expectation for your reader as soon as you can. You don’t have to give away all the juicy bits or secrets (sorry, Mr. Vonnegut) but whatever you write first should lead the reader down the path to finding them out. The reader won’t know how they’ll get there, or even why. And the beauty of your book will come with those details.

This kind of (ok, not kind of) circles to backstory and where novels start, which I’ll touch on this week.

Happy Sunday! I’m off to brunch with my college pals. (Any coincidence I have old friends as part of my novel?)

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Amy xo

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Day 13 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Making a Scene

 

DAY 13

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

MAKING A SCENE

Most of the time, a novel is a made up of chapters.

A chapter is a collection of related scenes.

When you’re writing a scene keep in mind, it’s capturing a single moment in time in your story, usually in one place.  Breaks between scenes within a chapter give you the opportunity to move forward in time, shift POV (if that’s your jam), or change location.

I write in scenes and I outline my scenes. Each scene has to have a purpose related to the goal of the story, in fact, it likely tells a story of its own.

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Amy xo

WANT ME AS YOUR PRIVATE WRITING COACH?

Day 12 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Call it Quits with Cliches

 

DAY 12

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

It’s Time To Break Up With Cliches

Look no farther than the definition to see why cliches area no-no when you’re writing.

“a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought”

This is why I say to my writers that cliches are inadvertently lazy writing. YOU DIDN’T THINK OF IT. It might say what you mean but it was someone else’s cleverness that has become so common that people roll their eyes when they hear it. The last thing you want is your agent/editor/reader to think you’re unoriginal. Right?

A workaround?

Take a cliche and make it your own.

My daughter did this when she was little — so it was obviously an accident, but it totally works! (Proud mom here)

She tasted something she didn’t like (I don’t remember what) and instead of saying “It’ not my cup of tea” (she must have heard me say it) she said: “IT’S NOT MY CUPCAKE.”

It might have been a mistake — and super cute coming from a kid — but you get the idea. We know what it means because of the relation to the original cliche–but it’s totally original.

Try it. It might just become your cupcake!

And because rules are meant to be broken, cliches can work well in dialogue, because people use cliches when the speak. My personal advice? (That’s why you’re here right?) Still be careful. It’s always better to use your words rather than someone else’s.

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

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Day 11 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – When Flashbacks Work

 

DAY 11

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

When Flashbacks Work

Flashbacks (or backstory, call it what you will) work when they matters.

When do they matter?

NOT when they catch up the reader up on what she needs to know.

NOT when they reveal a secret from the past.

NOT when the main character is just pondering.

NOT when you want the reader to know something because it’s interesting (so you think).

Flashbacks matter when they impact the present-day of the story you are writing IN THAT MOMENT.

Flashbacks matter when they spur your protagonist to act and to change, to notice something she wouldn’t have been able to notice without the flashback.

Flashbacks are literary tools that help you tell your story.

In real life you can think about something for no reason. In fiction, not so much.

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

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Day 10 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Writers Must Read

 

DAY 10

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

Writers Must Read

There was some chatter in one of my author groups today about how many aspiring authors as well as some successfully publishing authors say THEY DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ.

WHAAA?

This is your personal business, but if you’re in the aspiring part of your career, keep it to yourself. No, CHANGE IT. Read what you write, read what you don’t write. Read for fun. Read to learn how to write.

I read the genre I’m writing. It helps me know what works for me as a reader and what doesn’t. It helps me see how those ahead of me in the publishing line have gotten there.

I’ll give you a tip — when I say read that also means listening to audibooks. I listen to audio books all the time. No eye strain. I fold laundry, empty the dishwasher, apply make-up ALL WHILE I’M “READING.” Sometimes I just sit and listen and close my eyes!

You’re too busy? That doesn’t fly.

I’m always saying DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. Not this time. No excuses. If you’re not reading you will not be the best writer you can be.

End of story.

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

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Day 9 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Nailing Plot in a Character-Driven Novel

 

DAY 9

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

Nailing Plot in Your Character-Driven Novel

Okay, okay, if you ask me (and many others) ALL fiction is character-driven. But if you’re writing women’s fiction or another story that focuses on the who more so than the what — how does an effective plot fit in? How do you insure that something is always happening?

Because this is key.

Just because your characters are busy doesn’t mean something is happening in the story. And you don’t want your protagonist to have things happening around her and to her for pages and pages. Life may be that way, fiction cannot be that way.

Think of this — it’s not so much what happens to your main character but how she REACTS to what happens to her.

And I don’t mean “gasps.” I mean, how does what happens around her spur her to act? Protagonists act. That’s what they do. This goes back to passive vs. active (and you know about that, right?).

In your character-driven novel — your character DRIVES the plot. **headslap**

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

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Day 8 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Take A Lot Of Notes Then Do It Your Own Way

 

DAY 8

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

LEARNING FROM OTHER AUTHORS

Learning from other authors isn’t plagiarizing. We all have strengths and weaknesses and finding an author who does something well that you find difficult can be like striking literary gold. Note, it doesn’t mean that author finds it easy, just that he or she has figured out how to get it to the page in a way that works.

The first order of business is to identify your difficulty. We all have them.

My speed bump (or speed hump) as the signs say in my town, is writing transitions of time — like when a week or month or half a day has passed. When the reader needs to know the story is continuing, not necessarily in the very next moment in time.  This has been a challenge for me always.

The second bit of business is to recognize when other authors do it well. Don’t be envious, be joyful. You’ve found your teacher.

For the last months of writing THE LAST BATHING BEAUTY, as I read for pleasure, I wrote down EVERY TRANSITIONAL PHRASE OR SENTENCE that I liked. I used index cards because I heart index cards. You can use anything. I did not list which book or author, just the words. Then, when I was stumped in my own writing, I went to my cards. I wouldn’t (nor could I) “copy” these lines, but I was able to discern what about them worked for me — the phrasing, the cadence, the specificity. Was it the mention of the past? A hint to the future? A description? Some dialogue? Non-analytical me analyzed. Then I wrote my own words that served my own story.

In the same vein, for the past few years as I read historical fiction, I noted what I liked best and liked less — so I could incorporate what worked for me into my dual timeline novel, yep, THE LAST BATHING BEAUTY. Writing this book required a bit of a different approach than my three contemporary novels.

I guess the tip here is READ MUCH READ OFTEN PAY ATTENTION!

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

 

Day 7 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Keeping Track of Character Details

 

DAY 7

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

TAKE A PICTURE, IT LASTS LONGER

One of my issues, if you will, is remembering what my characters look like. I never see their faces, so it makes it all the more confusing. I know their features but a full picture doesn’t emerge. I make lists so I don’t forget — but they don’t alway work — they’re BORING.

Since I’m a visual sort — I loosely employ the use of doppelgangers. I find a photo online that somewhat sorta kinda has elements of my character, so I can SEE them.  I have multiple photos for one character.

I also love the idea of incorporating an art project into my writing and am utilizing this for my new WIP. In addition to the photo doppelgangers, I am using this:

I’ve printed it out, and have started writing on it — hair styles, eye color, jewelry choices, condition of hands and nails. It’s all in one place and more visual than a list. And believe me, I do love lists.

Do you think this would work for you to keep track of your character’s traits? I’ll let you know how it works for me going forward. It will certainly be fun!

SEE YOU TOMORROW~

Amy xo

WANT ME AS YOUR WRITING COACH?

 

Day 6 – Don’t Kill Your Characters With Kindness

 

DAY 6

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

PULL THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER 

When constructing your main character think about this — it’s not so much what happens to her, but what goes wrong, and how she reacts.

This was a tough nugget for me when I started writing fiction, and even sometimes still. I would resolve conflicts in one page. I would give her successes.

Think about the worst possible thing that could happen in the moment. Not only that, but WHY it would be the worst for your character. That’s the key. A fender bender is bad. A fender bender that stops her from making it to her best friend’s party on time is worse. And it’s even worse if she has a propensity for being late or not showing up and she is trying to change. This has less to do with the ding in the car than the ding in her goals. Maybe now she thinks she can’t change. She’s resigned to always disappointing people–and rightfully so, everyone is mad and no one believes her.

Whew. That was quite the riff. Make sense?

Bottom line: be cruel in whatever way works for your story.

More tomorrow!

Amy xo

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Day 5 – 30 Days of Writing Advice – Why Now

 

DAY 5

This month of daily writing advice will include tidbits, tips, and sometimes tricks. This isn’t a replacement for editing or book coaching, it’s meant as a jumping off point for exploration and thought! I hope it helps! ~Amy

WHINE LIKE A TODDLER AND ASK WHY

I like to say that the not so secret ingredient for good fiction is WHY.

Especially if you’re a dedicated pantser, like me, it’s a good way to keep things consistent in your manuscript.

Ask WHY?

Why is your main character doing what she’s doing? In the book. In the chapter. In the scene. Heck, even in the sentence. If you can’t answer WHY then you might want to backtrack and figure it out, or maybe your character needs to be doing something else.

Ask WHY NOW?

This question is key — and it was great advice from my superstar agent that I’ve taken to heart. The urgency or reason something in your novel MUST HAPPEN NOW is imperative. If this story could happen to anyone at any time, well, that’s not super compelling, is it?

What are some important questions you ask yourself while you’re writing?

See you tomorrow!

Amy xo

WANT ME AS YOUR WRITING COACH?