Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 16

Use reversal to hook the reader

Whenever you have an idea on what to write next (while you’re blocking out the scene in PPT or later, while writing it out), try this trick. Instead of writing down your brilliant idea, write the opposite of it, and only later reveal the truth.

So, in short: use reversal to hook your reader.

For example, let’s say you’re writing about a character (a white boy) falling for another character (a white girl). You could dream up a beautiful scenario, like the girl was late for class (let’s say it...

Get inside your characters’ heads

This is hard to do, and it takes time, but it pays off with stellar story. 

When you’re blocking out your scenes (we talk in detail about scene blocking at the Wolves level and up), BEFORE you even start writing them, get inside each of your character’s heads and act it out from their POV as if you were them, so literally...

GET UP AND WALK AROUND, AND MOVE AND TALK LIKE THEM. 

Do everything you can to visualize how it would look for them—what’s happening in the scene. Then switch to the next...

Set a writing goal, then tell someone about it

It's one thing to tell yourself you're going to write, it's another when you tell someone else who will call you on it. ("So, how is it going? Did you write? Did you? DID YOU?")

Accountability is the best motivator.

Set a writing goal and tell it to someone who will ask you about it the next time you talk—in person, on the phone, or even online. It doesn't matter where, what matters is that they'll ask you about it.

In my case, about six years ago, when I was just beginning to write, I set a...

Stop perfecting your story and JUST SHIP IT

You can get stuck making it better, and better, and better. The thing is, it’s already good, and in your gut you know it’s good, so stop perfecting it.

STOP CHASING PERFECTION!

Ship it. 

It’s like with a child. You’ll never be the perfect parent who has given your child everything they need to get out there into the world and deal with life. We’re never ready, none of us. Stuff happens, and we need to adapt on the fly.

Same with writing. Feels good enough? Feels done? SHIP IT.

You’ll write anot...

Read your writing aloud

This one simple thing will boost your writing up to the next level.

Better yet, if you can (and you can do it on any phone now), record yourself reading your writing, then watch it. If you don’t think you have time to do this, FIND TIME. It's important.

Why?

Because as you read aloud, you’ll hear things you can’t see. They’ll jar your ear. Those are the things you need to fix.

And when you watch yourself read, you’ll almost see it as a movie, an actor (you) acting it out on the screen, and in...

Don't beat yourself up

We all have those days when the fraud police just won't shut up.

"You did this bad! And you did that bad! And no one will read your book! And you're an impostor! And everyone will find out! And you might as well quit writing altogether!!"

Bullshit.

Every day of your life you improve your writing—even when you don't write—your mind is always working, always growing. You can't stop it. You're a writer.

SO DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP.

Tell the fraud police to go fuck itself. Take a day off. Do somethin...

Write your problem on a piece of paper, then nap (no kidding)

This is a trick I use when all else is lost. And it works. For real.

When I’m stuck and I’ve tried everything else, and nothing works, I write out my writing problem on a piece of paper and nap. 

Or I do this right before bedtime, hold what I wrote in my head while I fall asleep, and then usually in the morning I’ll have a solution. Or after the nap I’ll have a solution.

Now, I’m not the napping type, to those of you who can’t nap. As in, if I fall asleep in the middle of the day, I’ll sleep...

Excitement is as bad for your writing as anxiety

This is something that my editor has been helping me see and understand over the last few months, and finally I see it.

YOU DO YOUR BEST WORK WHEN CALM. PERIOD.

I thought when you got anxious, you screwed up. As in, fear gets in the way, you get blocked, and so on. Nope. When you get excited, you screw up too. Any emotional imbalance that throws you out of whack is bad for writing.

Yes, I know, everyone loves talking about how you have to feel what you write. But the truth is, you don't have...

Surround yourself with stories

When I write, I always have a movie open, and a book open, and a script open, to peek into when I feel stuck. I also have stacks of books and loads of movies in my movie library to look at when I recall one or the other scene that's similar to what I write.

So surround yourself with stories. READ AND WATCH LIKE CRAZY.

Then later you can recall episodes for reference when puzzling over your own writing.

How did so-and-so do it again?

You can quickly look it up in a book or watch it in a movie,...

Get an Idiom Dictionary

I can’t tell you how many times it had saved my ass. I have two, one for translated idioms from Russian to English and back, and another one called Dictionary of American Idioms.

This kind of piggybacks off yesterday's post, on searching books when you don’t know how to say something.

Think of an image or a word, then look it up and read all the idioms connected to it. It's folk wisdom. It's language history. You can’t go wrong by picking out one or the other.

It’ll add authenticity to your w...