Geri Schear's Blog, page 7

How to Inspire Inspiration

You’re probably well aware of the Edison comment that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. I, like many other people who write about writing, have spent a considerable amount of time focusing on the perspiration part, that is, turning an idea into a novel or story. But the inspiration part? Yeah, that’s tricky.

There are, of course, any number of theories about where inspiration comes from. These involve neural pathways and firing synapses, so you’ll forgive me if I move into something a bit more relateable, which is this: How do you foster inspiration?

Because I like history, finding interesting or unexpected historical facts can often spark an idea for a story. Of course, one fact, no matter how fascinating, does not a story make. That’s when I add other ingredients. I’ll look at how that one fact might impact a character. For instance, I wondered what had happened to the other members of John Wilkes Booth’s family after Lincoln’s assassination. That ultimately led to the story of Asia, John’s sister, and her husband John Sleeper Clarke. The story was called, “Sherlock Holmes and the Ghost of Lincoln.”

When some piece of trivia sparks my imagination, I have to let it stew for a while. I add other elements as I go: the setting, the characters, the complications. I’ve tried a variety of ways of testing if new thoughts and ideas add to the story, or take from it. My most common tool is the good old journal. I like that it’s portable and I can add to it whenever an idea strikes. But I have also used the mood board (see below), and the MS ‘One Note‘ — if you’re not familiar with the latter, check it out. It allows you to put pictures and notes on the page, move them around, and add things like a spider diagram.

Journals and Mood Boards

I often post comments about how important it is to keep a journal and write down your ideas, so I won’t belabour that here. One thing I will say, though, is if you’re planning a long work, like a novel, it can be handy to use one specific notebook just for that. A similar process is a mood board. This is particularly helpful if your are stimulated visually. How does it work? Well, you use a wall or a large notice board and you cover it with things you find intriguing. Say you’re working on a novel and you don’t know much about it except it takes place in a castle far from civilisation. On the Mood Board you can post pictures of castles, pictures of the various people involved — guests, servants, the owner’s family, and so on — and any quotes or other items you think might inspire you.

If you do opt for a journal, add some art to it. I’m not saying you have to be Da Vinci, but maybe doodle, or press some flowers between the pages, or even paste in some photographs or pictures. Whatever makes you happy.

Do the washing up

This was Agatha Christie’s way of mulling over a story. Find some fairly mindless task that you can do without much thought or effort, and let your mind wander. I like things like crochet or knitting, as long as the pattern isn’t too complicated. I’ve never whittled, but I suspect that would work, too. Don’t try to force it. Nothing inhibits inspiration as much as saying to yourself, “OK, Muse, here I am. Inspire me!”

Play

Play with the children in your life, or turn things into games. If you’re on public transport, do a Paul Simon. In ‘America’ he talks about,

Playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said “Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera”

What a great way to fire up your imagination. You can also play games with place names. Replace the first letter with a P. “Pew Jersey”, anyone? Or Publin? The sillier the games are the better. Maybe get off at a place you’ve never been to before and ramble. Play hide and seek. Forget you’re a grown up and just have fun. The Muse loves fun.

Explore new territory

That can be literal, as in going on a journey to a place where you’ve never been, or it can be figurative. One thing I like doing is looking at pictures of different places or unusual buildings. Then I imagine the people who live there and think about what a day in their lives might be like. For you, it could learning a new sport or a different hobby like music or art. Without going into detail about how it works (as if I could) I can tell you that new tasks and experiences get different synapses firing, and this can open your mind up to different possibilities.

Enjoy the arts

Yes, listen to your favourite music, but don’t be afraid to explore something new. I’ve been so excited recently to see young hip-hop fans listening to older rock’n’roll and getting hooked on the Beatles or Elvis. You can almost see their horizons expanding. By the same token, I’ve been trying to listen to music that’s outside my usual taste, for me that’s heavy metal. But you do you. Also, check out photography, art, sculpture and see where they lead you.

Sensory deprivation

What would life be like if you were visually impaired or hard of hearing? What if you lived your life in a wheelchair? Try for a day going around your home wearing a blindfold, or wearing earplugs. Go for a walk and periodically squat so you can get a wheelchair-user’s point of view. Yes, you’ll look silly, but you will learn a lot. Look at the pavements (sidewalks) in your neighbourhood. How accessible are they for people who cannot walk? Do people leave their bins in the middle of the path? Or park on the pavement? Imagine how difficult it would be for a wheelchair user to get around these obstacles. Even a parent pushing a baby in a buggy can be forced out onto the road to get around these things. Then there are the uneven paths, holes full of mud, and more things than I can even imagine that will cause problems. Imagine you have to deal with these things every day for years, how would that feel?

What if?

All roads to imagination begin with those two words: what if? What if a man in a wheelchair became so furious about someone who always parked on the pavement, that he swore revenge? What if a man was being haunted by Lincoln’s ghost? What if you looked at a picture of a street and could see around the next corner? What if? Take the most mundane things in life and think about them. Think about the man whose job is working night shift in the hospital morgue. Then one night, something happens… Maybe it’s something terrifying, like a zombie comes looking for his dead girlfriend? Or perhaps it’s more mundane, for instance the electricity fails and the freezers stop working. Every idea in the world began with those two words, what if? Try asking them and see what happens. You may be inspired.

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Telling Lies in Fiction

The story goes that Harriet Beecher Stowe could sit in Pittsburg at the confluence of the Allegheny, the Monogehela, and the Ohio rivers, and see slaves working on the other side of the water. This is what inspired her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin. That’s what I was told a few years ago when I was in Pittsburg — 2 stars. Would not recommend — and I was unconvinced. For one thing, the water was so wide, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could see detail on the opposite bank.

This story is part of the problem with Uncle Tom’s Cabin: there are so many apocryphal stories about it and its inspiration that it’s hard to know what is true. For instance, we are supposed to believe that Stowe met President Lincoln during the Civil War and he credited her with being, “the little lady who started this great war.”

What matters, though, is the impact the book had on the people who read it. Many who had supported slavery or who had never thought much about it became abolitionist. Not all, of course, but some. And this is my point: people who are entrenched in certain ideas, or who don’t give them a moment’s thought can be swayed by well-crafted fiction.

Now, I’m not suggesting your novels and stories should be sermons disguised as fiction, I’m merely pointing out the power of fiction to reach hearts and minds. Think of some of the great novels and the lessons they imparted. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding told us that children can be dangerous. 1984 by George Orwell spoke of the dangers of a totalitarian regime. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller revealed the insanity of war in an unforgettable way.

Most books simply aim to tell a story, but even a basic love story can reveal a lot about the author’s attitudes and ideas. Look at Jane Austen’s novels. Yes, they are love stories and hardly basic, but they depict the realities of life for women during her lifetime, especially women who were not rich. Though she never comes out and says it, it’s apparent that Austen takes a dim view on the necessity of marriage for women in order to be financially secure.

Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

Stephen King

Fiction is the sweet, tasty shell that contains the often unpalatable truth. Think about your own writing. What is the subtext? Honour is passé? Porn is good? Women don’t deserve rights? You’ll find these ideas in a lot of modern literature, whether the author intends to convey those messages or not.

‘Fiction’ is a word that is often used to mean a lie. “Are you telling me the truth now, or is this a fiction?” Fiction is, after all, made up. But does that mean it’s untrue? Real literature reveals something about us, about our beliefs or our society to the reader.

One last word about lying in fiction. Many of us craft our stories from real-life events. That is to say, the real event is the starting point, but our writers’ brains transform those events into fiction. Right now in the UK and in Ireland people are being told to be careful what they post on social media. The wrong message can get you arrested. When Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953 there was no such thing as social media. Even the internet, as we now know it, did not exist. Yet we can easily imagine how Bradbury would have felt if he’d faced those restrictions in his lifetime. Perhaps, prophet-like, he saw it coming. And that’s the point: we see current events or things in our own lives and we write out our terrors, as well as our aspirations and our fantasies.

One of my favourite quotes about writing comes from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,

It’s the truth. Even if it didn’t happen.

Ken Kesey

That’s the point, you see. Even if the events are made up and the characters come from somewhere deep in your soul, as long as you write honestly, the story is the truth. Not true. But the truth. Does that make sense?

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When your Fictional Characters Ignore you

There are some writers who meticulously plot every page of their novels in advance. They have every detail planned out in advance, and know precisely the content of every paragraph before they begin.

That could never be me. I know the beginning, some of the major plot points and, usually, the ending. However, many of these details change as the story evolves. It’s not unusual for me to find by chapter 17, for instance, that some major event should have been referenced earlier. As I have said in previous blogs, this is the point when my trusty spreadsheet comes in handy. I leave myself a note about what ought to take place around chapter three, for instance. Then, when I’m ready to start the rewrite, I have all my comments to guide me. In my latest book, Brave Warrior, a certain piece of jewellery turns out to be an important clue. The only problem is I hadn’t actually created said piece of jewellery. Of course, with my rewrite, I was able to correct that error. Job done.

Most often, though, it’s the characters who cause the biggest headaches. Sometimes a scene seems to be progressing quite nicely, then a new character shows up, completely unexpectedly, and just does what he wants, like a diva on on movie set. Or my hero who was going to save the day at the end, goes and gets himself murdered in chapter 12.

Bloody characters. Always doing their own thing.

This used to irritate me no end. I’d ignore this pesky individual, and continue the story the way I had planned, dammit! But, you know what? I invariably found that the annoying newcomer knew better than I did. Or Mr What’s-his-name getting killed early on was actually perfect for the plot. He knew what he was doing.

Let me correct that. My subconscious knew better than my conscious mind. It had figured out many elements that the awake part of my brain hadn’t begun to think about.

When a fictional character starts behaving in a way you hadn’t expected, it just means that your brain has fully understood who this is at their core. And while it may feel irksome at the beginning, it is, in fact, a good thing. If you didn’t expect this turn in the plot, you can bet your readers didn’t either.

The character who appears to be independent of the author is one who is fully realised. The author knows in her heart who this individual is, and, if she’s smart, she’ll follow his lead.

One of the things that most annoys me about some books and TV shows is when a character acts completely, uh, out of character just for the sake of the plot. I suppose it comes down to the age old question, no, not the chicken and egg, silly, but character or plot. In my opinion, they are both important, but we read for character. Well, I do, and so do most of the avid readers I know. Think of it this way: the plot is the bicycle that moves the story along, but the characters are the ones who pedal the bicycle. At least, they should be.

But what if this has never happened to you — having a character take over and do their own thing on the page. Does this mean you’re not a good writer?

Not at all. Perhaps you have plotted your story out so well that the characters don’t need to take a different path. Besides which your subconscious may function differently from mine or any other writer. As long as the character is believable that’s all that matters.

The bottom line is this: don’t get annoyed when your characters misbehave. Pat yourself on the back for creating such thoroughly believable fictional beings. Let them take the lead and see where they take you.

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Five Books of Mystery, Murder, and Malevolence

I’m a firm believer in the gentle influence of books. Those of us who write have all had our style, our interests, and many of our approaches to writing impacted by the books we have read. I read dozens of books a year, some classics, some contemporary fiction, almost all of them engaging. (If I don’t like a book it’s usually my own fault. Usually.)

Being such a bibliophile, I was thrilled when I was recently asked by Ben Shepherd of Shepherd.com to participate in his site which focuses on authors and the books we like to read. Five Books, I was told. That’s a tough ask. I’ve probably read thousands of books over the years. Still, after some weeks of choosing, rejecting, and choosing again, I finally settled on my five. I went with books that I didn’t only enjoy, but that helped mold me into the author I am now. Most of them I have read many times.

My five books are listed under the heading of ‘The best books of mystery, murder, and malevolence in 19th century England’.

If you’re curious, not only about my picks, but the picks of other authors, give the site a look. The only downside is it will add greatly to your ‘must read’ list. Many thanks to Ben and his team for launching such a great site, and for allowing me to participate in it.

My Five Books

Back to our usual writing topic next week.

10 and 1/2 Best Organisational Tools for Writers

When you are trying to write your first novel in between work, studies, family time, and who knows what else, it’s essential to be organised. You can certainly manage your tasks quite efficiently with a notebook and pen. There’s something about the scratching of a nib on paper that I love. But there are some tools available if you want something more sophisticated. Here are some gizmos (I love that word!) that you may find helpful.

Electronic

In addition to multiple diaries and journals specifically made for writers, you can find scores of electronic tools designed to help you write, track your progress, and find markets for your work. A Google search will offer you dozens of options. My only word of caution is to look for a free trial before you spend any money. Fortunately, most of these apps will offer you that option. I have tried all the following and, while some are more helpful than others — having a time for your working period is fun, but you can just as easily use the timer on your phone, for instance — but they’re all worth checking out.

Writers Companion is a free app that you can download on your iPhone or laptop. It allows you to set goals, track your progress, and world-build. It also allows you to work on several projects at a time. I like it on my laptop because I’m a klutz with my iPhone. Seriously.

Scrivener is one I tried some time ago. I can see the value in it, but it’s not for me. If I have limited time to write, I’d rather focus on the story, rather than writing dissertations about each character. I’m exaggerating, but that’s how it felt to me. Mine is a simple brain, my friends. That said, I know some people who absolutely swear by this programme. You can download a free trial and see if you and it are compatible before you fork over a chunk of change. If you and this programme are compatible, you will find it enormously helpful. I think I would have loved it if I’d discovered it when I was just starting out, but I’d already developed my writing habits long before it came along.

Grammarly If you are worried about your grammar, this is a handy tool for making your prose more understandable. Plus, it’s free.

Marinara Timer This is another one I like. It’s an online tool, and it’s designed to help you focus on whatever task your working on. It is set up so you can work for 25 minutes, then it allows you a five minute break. After you’ve completed four periods, it gives you a 15 minute break. You can also create your own custom timer. I don’t know many writers who don’t struggle with time management. If this is you, then you may find this a handy tool. Oh, and it’s free!

Duotrope If finding markets for your work is your priority, this is the site for you. In addition to offering up to date information on hundreds of markets and agents, it also offers a submission manager. It isn’t free, but I have found it such a time saver that it pays for itself in no time.

Writers Database Is another site that helps you find markets, track submissions, and analyse your writing habits. And this one is free.

Word and Excel. I know, some of you are intensely allergic to MS products, but I couldn’t manage without these tools. I’m not saying they’re perfect; I’ve raised my own muttered oaths when caught in an unfathomable ‘feature’. However, they’re more right than wrong. Word helps me tighten up my writing, it presents tools that help me speed up my progress such as the built-in spellcheck and thesaurus. Not that I don’t refer to my dictionary and Rogets, but I like having the immediate option.

Likewise, as I have pointed out before, I use Excel for all my novels. I use to to create my TO DO list, to define characters, outline plots, and plan my rewrites.

Paper Products

As I mentioned above, I like being able to type quickly on my laptop. My speed on my phone is grindingly slow. Sending a text message takes me a half-an-hour. Furthermore, there’s no getting around it, I’m a paper addict. I never met a notebook I didn’t want to try out. Paper organisers and journals are by far my favourite.

Moleskine notebooks. I like mine black, with a hard cover, the A5 size. They fit in my handbag, boast fine, smooth paper, and aren’t too heavy. I also like that the line spacing isn’t too wide. I like to get a lot of writing on each page. Moleskine also make planners and various other items. I’m a purist, so I stick with the original. I use a page for a TO DO list, and keep a section for my work-in-progress, because the simple notebook is just about the most versatile tool in the writer’s box of tricks. There are dozens of wire-bound notebooks around too, if that’s your preference. Blank pages, narrow feint, from pocket-sized to desktop variety. There’s a world of choices just for you.

Writer’s Prompt Journal: From my writers’ group experience, I know how attractive prompts are to getting those creative muscles warmed up. This book is exactly right for this. It presents a prompt and gives two pages for the writer to react. My one caveat is that this isn’t nearly enough space for most writers I know, but of course, you can write in your notebook instead. But this would make a fun gift for the writer in your life.

Make your Own

Finally, my half-choice: If your ideal organiser isn’t available, make your own. Do it on paper, or using Excel or Word. MS offers a number of templates you can adapt to your personal taste. Or you can create something in your notebook. It’s easy to do and to keep up, plus you can change it to match your needs.

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Scenes that Reveal Character

While we all want our characters to appear consistent to the reader, we also hope to make them as realistic as possible. Of course, in life, very few people behave in a completely consistent manner. We all get upset and angry at times, no matter how moral and self-controlled we generally appear.

We have all read books or seen films where the character is consistent from beginning to end. I don’t enjoy stories like that. These characters are not realistic and they’re often boring. One of the best ways of making a character interesting is to reveal how they behave when no one is looking. Think Tony Soprano going to a psychiatrist. Think of those vulnerable moments that we have all experienced, sickness, bereavement, and so on. If your character is the hard-as-nails sort, it can prove interesting to reveal him in a vulnerable moment. Here are some ways you can reveal a different side to your characters:

Sickness

Even a case of the sniffles can change the character’s behaviour. Even better would be an illness that is in some way related to whatever problem he’s dealing with. For instance, a failing marriage might give him heartburn or the symptoms of an ulcer. A man who cannot seem to express himself may suffer from constipation, the body’s way of reflecting his personality. You might give him depression or some other mental illness if it fits the story.

Depending on the nature of the illness, it may also give the character time for introspection. This can be particularly helpful when the character is very active the rest of the time.

Also, if your hero seems a bit ‘wet’ — you know, always complaining about something — it can be interesting to see him respond stoically to a serious illness.

Bereavement

You could play against expectations here by revealing an otherwise sentimental character acting completely unbothered by the death of a family member or a close friend. Conversely, a tough guy reduced to tears because his cat has died could give the reader a completely new take on him.

Furthermore, if a character has been bereaved, perhaps by a mother or a spouse early on, seeing them react to an illness and remembering how their lost loved one used to care for them can reveal a sensitivity that might otherwise have been missed.

Animals

Some people care far more about their pets or animals in general than they do other human beings. Alternatively, some people can appear perfectly compassionate and charming, and yet be brutal to animals. Seeing how your character behaves around animals can be a great way of revealing something unexpected about them. (In my latest book, Great Warrior, Mycroft Holmes reveals he lost all confidence in a colleague when he saw the man kick a dog.)

Music

We’ve all been moved by music. Even the roughest and toughest can get choked up by the right song at the right time. At my younger brother’s funeral the Queen song, Who Wants to Live Forever brought me to tears though I had been pretty stoic up to that point. Sometimes, it’s not the song but the memories attached to it.

Another thought about music would be a deeply racist character who adores Louis Armstrong, for instance. For him, music is colourless and so are musicians. What makes this approach interesting is how unexpected it is, and how peculiar is the human way of thinking.

Inanimate Objects

The other day, BFF Jane told me she was upset because she’d dropped a mixing bowl in her kitchen, smashing it to pieces. It wasn’t the bowl that made her upset, it was because it was this bowl. She used to help make gravy with her late mother with this bowl. We all develop sentimental attachments to odd items. A hat, a teddy bear, a tee-shirt. People have been known to throw tantrums because a spouse threw out their favourite shirt, or a broken tennis racket. Don’t look for logic here. This is just the way humans behave. Remember Citizen Kane’s last word, Rosebud? The sleigh he had played in when he was a boy.

Fears

We’ve all seen the tough guy shudder at the sight of a spider. Or the savage old woman who shrinks from any expanse of water. Fear is another vulnerability that we all share, albeit we all fear different things. It’s not just fear itself that makes the character interesting, but how he or she deals with it. Does he run and hide, or does he face up to it?

Trauma or Catastrophe

Imagine your story involves a hitman, someone who has made a fortune by killing other people. Then an earthquake hits, or a volcano, and this man uses all his skills to save the lives of hundreds of strangers. Is he a hero or a villain? Very few people are all one or the other. “Witches can be right, giants can be good,” Stephen Sondheim tells us in No One is Alone from Into the Wood.

Stephen knew.

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Fine-Toothcomb Editing

The devil is in the details, they say. I disagree. I think heaven is in the details. There’s no such thing as an almost-right computer code, nor a nearly-there manuscript. Details matter. Details are what separate the amateurs from the professionals.

Several years ago, I attended a lecture by an Irish writer. Asked how he approaches editing his work, he said, “I print my pages and then I go through them, line by line, with a ruler under each line I’m working on. Not till I’m sure it’s perfect do I move on.”

As you can imagine, this is a time consuming and eye-exhausting process. I’m not saying it’s the only way, only offering it as an example of how nitpicky writers have to be in this last stage of editing.

If you opt to edit your work on your computer, it helps to change the font for your manuscript. I’ve no idea why this helps, but somehow it does. Also, whether you print your MS or not, having a different coloured background can also help. No, I don’t know why.

Whatever process you use, some mistakes are notoriously difficult to spot. Check out this tweet that was posted by the Blue Earth Society:

Tell @NOAA to end shark-kill tournaments like the The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo (19-21 July), which STARTS TODAY by signing this petition.

Did you spot it? If not, don’t worry, I’ve posted the answer at the bottom of the page.

You can do quite a lot of editing on the computer. MS Word will handle grammar checks, spelling checks, punctuation reviews, and even tell you what percentage of your story is in the passive voice. However, Word is not infallible. It has an annoying habit of calling out some perfectly correct words as misspelled. ‘All right’, is not spelled ‘alright’, for instance. It also doesn’t know a homophone from a telephone. These are things you, the author, need to check with those weary, red-rimmed eyes. In fairness, the editing option in Word was designed by computer technicians, not writers, so proceed with caution.

You can adjust the editing function in Word so it will match your requirements more accurately. It won’t solve all the issues, but it will help with some. Oh, and if you have a newer version of Word, you can set the usage to match a specific manual of style, such as APA or the Chicago Manual of Style. However, the options, as far as I can tell, are US specific, even if your language choice is British English. (You’ll find the language option on the bottom left of the page in Word.)

Aside from the techy option, here are some other methods you can use to help the editing process:

Listen to the story being read. Hearing the story can help you catch clunky sentences, overuse of any specific words, gaps in the story, and mistakenly repeated words.

Since the speed of the out-loud reading is generally much slower than your natural reading speed, it can also prevent you from moving too quickly over potential errors. The downside of this method, however, is that this will not help you catch spelling or grammar errors, misused word, or homophones.

Get a Beta reader. Firstly, not all Beta readers are created equal. Your mum may love you (I hope!) and your writing, but that doesn’t mean she has a good eye for catching bad dialogue or misapplied words. You may do better with a fellow writer, perhaps someone from your writing group, but even then you must tread with caution. Not all aspiring writers are fully cognizant of the rules of grammar and spelling. Worse, some may be so jealous that you have completed an actual novel, they may try to sabotage you with overly-picky critiques. Not deliberately, of course. But, yeah.

If you are as lucky as I am, you will find a friend whose reading tastes match your own, and who really wants you to succeed — thanks, Jane! — they will give your work as much care and consideration as if it were their own. This Ideal Reader is intelligent, literate, and very familiar with the type of writing that you do. They will be honest always, blunt when necessary, and supportive in more ways than you can imagine.

Engage a professional. There are any number of companies and individuals out there that offer to edit your manuscript and ‘prepare it for publication’. For a fee. The good thing is these companies have no horse in the race, so you can expect an unbiased report.

Make sure you know what they are offering. Some companies will read for story only. They will critique the plot and the characters, but not look at the punctuation or word choices.

If you are a struggling newby writer, you may find the prices for these services too rich for your taste. As they say, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Teach yourself how to edit. The downside here is that you develop blinkers when it comes to something you have been working on for a year or so. On the other hand, no one will ever care as much about your novel as you will.

There are online classes that will will teach you the finer points of editing. Writers’ Digest offers one, I believe. Such classes can help you become a better writer and a better editor. And having a certificate in editing can allow you to offer your services to other writers, if you wish.

Summing Up

The items you need to check as you review your manuscript are:

Constancy. Don’t change the hero’s name half way through. Nor change the heroine’s eye colour. If a character is afraid of cats in chapter one, he should remain so in chapter ten, unless you have explained the change in him.

Logic. Even in science fiction, you have to establish the rules by which a spaceship or planet operates. In this world, Newton’s laws apply. Furthermore, different countries have different laws and customs. Make sure your story follows these norms. If someone falls off a cliff, you can’t expect them to bounce. Don’t show the sun rising in the west. Whatever the rules are in the story, you have to follow them, or give us a very good reason why not.

Rhythm. Even though you may not be aware of it, there is a rhythm even in prose writing. Writers, at least the ones I know, do this instinctively. Think of a short sentence containing one-syllable words. If you’ve seen Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, you might notice that Theoden does this a lot. “Is that it?” “Let them come,” and so forth. While this works with his character — and he does use longer words and phrases when necessary — it would be boring if the whole book were written like this. Ideally, a sentence should contain a variety of long and short words. By the same token, paragraphs that are always the same length can be equally annoying, especially if said paragraphs are very long. Here’s a test: shrink your Word page down to about 30% and see how the pages look. Ideally, the print should look jagged on the page. You definitely don’t want big walls of text. At this stage I should admit that it took me ages to get through Henry James novels for this reason. Those forbidding long, long, long pages of text made my eyes water.

Incidentally, did you notice my repetition of ‘long’ there?

And how long the ‘rhythm’ paragraph was? Followed by the short?

That’s rhythm.

Repetitions. For the sake of the rhythm of a sentence, you may very occasionally, repeat a word. One of the best examples in the title of a Raymond Carver story, ‘Will you please be quiet please.’ That second ‘please’ adds a note of desperation. But if you do this, do it very seldom and with excellent reason.

Chapters. Rhythm applies here too. Chapters don’t have to be all the same length. A short chapter that is mostly exposition might follow one of intense action. Think about Tolkien leaving the Hobbits as captives of the Orcs, only to switch in the next chapter to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. If you are reading or listening to your story and it sounds flat, take a look at the rhythm.

Point of View. Try to be consistent with your point of view. Even if you opt to tell the story from several perspectives, don’t tell us what everyone thinks. If the story is about four sisters living in a tenement house in 1920’s Dublin, do we really need to know what the postman thinks about them? I’m not saying he’s irrelevant, that depends on his role in the story, just think about what each character should contribute.

If a point of view character is used, it shouldn’t be just once. Someone is either a POV character or they are not. Make a decision and stick to it.

Don’t switch POV in the middle of the sentence. Not even in the middle of a paragraph. It makes things confusing for the reader. Your job is to make the story clear to them, even if that clarity only comes fully at the end of the story, such as in a mystery.

Grammar. Learn it. Apply it. You can break the rules — I do it all the time with sentence fragments, such as my ‘that’s rhythm’ comment above. But break them knowingly and with good reason.

Spelling. If you’re writing British English then use British terminology. Pants don’t mean the same thing in US English. Neither do bonnet, purse, or gas. Be consistent.

Homophones. There’s no quick way around these. Learn them and don’t confuse them. Bear and Bare, Two, Too, and To, Complement and Compliment… The list isn’t endless, but it’s long enough. Keep a print out by your desk and refer to it often. Eventually the usage will become second nature.

Also… Know the difference between effect and affect. Flotsam and Jetsam. Fewer and Less, etc.

Did you spot the error in the tweet? Tell @NOAA to end shark-kill tournaments like the The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo (19-21 July), which STARTS TODAY by signing this petition.

See, it happens to the best of us.

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Big Picture Editing

or Editing for Plot

The revising / rewriting stage is a bit like Marmite. You either detest it or adore it. Fortunately for me, I fall into the ‘love it’ camp, but then, I like Marmite, too. To me, the real writing begins with the rewriting process. This is when you hunt the perfect word, seek the spot-on simile, and turn muddy prose into a thing perfectly distilled beauty. That’s easy to say, of course, but overwhelming if you’ve never done it before. In time, you will figure out the things that work for you and will refine your process; in the meantime, I hope my methods will help you get started.

“To become a proper writer, you have to forgive yourself the catastrophe of the first draft.”

Alain de Botton

In order to make your first big rewrite easier, REVISE AS YOU GO. At the end of each day’s work, I print out the new pages. The next day, I begin by editing those pages. No, I won’t catch every mistake, but I will spot quite a few. In fact, I still find typos in books written by award-winning authors and published by acclaimed publishers. My point is that you have to be realistic in your expectations. However, this approach will help you accomplish three important things.

Firstly, as long as you are careful in how you approach your editing each day, you reduce the time it will take you to get through your big revision, once you’ve completed the manuscript.

Secondly, by revising your previous day’s work, you remind yourself where you are in the story, and this will help you to pick up the tale in a fairly seamless manner.

Thirdly, it will help you get used to the editing process.

READ OUT LOUD. One of the best ways of finding clunky sentences, repetitions, and many other errors, is to read your pages out loud. What your eye may miss, your ear may catch. Even better is to find someone else to read to you. If that isn’t possible, know that MS Word offers a ‘Read Aloud’ option, so you can listen to your masterpiece being read to you and catch many problems.

THE FIRST BIG REVISION is the first reworking of the complete manuscript. This is big picture stuff; you are reading to make sure you have tied up all the loose ends, corrected any major mistakes, and solved any plot problems.

To help me do that, I keep notes of my story on a spreadsheet which I update after every writing session, or when questions strike me. On the spreadsheet, I note the chapter, the page, and the issue or question. This makes those issues easy to find and, with luck, fix when I come back to them.

This is a sample of the spreadsheet I used for my most recent novel. I’ve blocked out the plot spoilers, but otherwise you can see the sort of things I focus on. This one is for the final draft, so many of the issues have already been addressed. You will see, too, that I have pages in the same spreadsheet for my To Do list, a character record sheet, historical notes, and so on.

In the first draft of my new novel, (Great Warrior) I updated the spreadsheet every time I completed a day’s work. Many of the edits were due to the fact that my new pages didn’t square with scenes I had written previously. Maybe the character had developed a disability or a phobia, or there was an issue with the chronology. Once I’ve made a note of the issue, I can easily find it and correct it later. I should add that these type of changes involve going back several pages to make those fixes, as opposed to things in the days work I can easily correct in my next-day edit. An example would be if you decided on page 200 that a significant character is blind, unless you have good reason for keeping that secret, you should inform the reader the first time we meet her. Even if you want it to be a surprising reveal, you should still give the reader a hint or two right from the start. Playing fair with readers is important.

Just one other thing to keep in mind: once you have added or deleted scenes to correct the issue, your MS page numbers will change. My way of dealing with this is to note the chapter. Since mine are usually fairly short, it’s not too difficult to find the relevant problem again. Other way would be to quote a line in that paragraph. Another option would be when you note the point that needs to be fixed, would be to change the colour of the font and add a comment to remind you of the issue.

Once you have completed your first draft, you need to fix all these plot points before you do anything else. What’s the point in correcting the spelling in pages you may end up deleting? Also, you will almost certainly have to write new scenes to fill plot holes, or replace scenes you had to delete.

By revising each day’s work as you go, and then do the big picture revision at the end, you will make your subsequent revisions much easier to handle.

Next week, we will look at the itty-bitty-nitty-gritty elements that involve the final draft.

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Why Can’t I Get Published?

You’ve been writing every day for at least a year. You read all the books and articles you can find about how to write. Your friends and writing group tell you you’re really talented, and yet you just can’t seem to get published. What are you doing wrong? As I will get to, possibly nothing. You can do everything right yet still hit a brick wall. But let’s look at some of the most common mistakes writers make, and you can decide if they apply to you.

Submitting too soon

Most of us when we started writing were in a real rush to see our work in print. As a result, we practically raced through our stories and submitted them before the ink had time to dry. The cure for this is obvious.

SLOW DOWN!

No one does their best work in a rush. And wouldn’t you rather future readers saw your best, rather than some hurried job?

One writer I know prints off his ‘final’ draft and then puts a ruler under each line as he reviews the text, word by word. Indeed, most successful authors do something similar. Don’t expect an editor to do this for you. This is your job.

Missing your blind spots

We all have them. It could be constantly misusing a word — writing your instead of you’re, for instance — or perhaps writing in the same tone all the time. Perhaps you change point of view in the middle of a paragraph. The point about blind spots is, well, you can’t see them.

One of my recurring boo-boos is a tendency to repeat whole sentences in virtually the same paragraph. Sometimes it’s a result of cut-and-pasting, but sometimes it’s because I forget that I’ve already said that. It’s not just me, either. I have seen a few respected authors doing the same thing. It’s most common when the repeated phrase shows up on the bottom of one page and the top of the next. The moral here is never finish your review at the bottom of the page, or at least go back over the last couple of paragraphs again as you prepare to rework the following pages.

While you can learn how to find these invisible demons yourself — more on that next week — it can be hugely helpful to take a class on writing. Having an objective person looking at your work and giving you honest feedback is precious beyond rubies.

I won’t say that once you’re aware of your most common errors, you’ll never make them again, but that’s just not true. At least, it’s not for me. Still, once you recognise them, you’ll be able to pluck them out like the weeds they are.

Overwriting AKA ‘Purple Prose’

This is my failing and one I cannot seem to shake. While other writers possess the gift of simple, unadorned writing, I have to embellish. Most of my rewrites involve cutting whole swathes of paragraphs, trying to tighten up my prose. This is one of those I-know-I-do-it-so-I-should-be-able-to-stop things but it just doesn’t work that way.

The best treatment for this is savage editing. Remove every unnecessary word, tighten your prose, and deliver crisp prose. Easy.

Ha!

Submitting to the wrong markets

Fortunately, this is an easy one to fix. It’s time-consuming to thoroughly research a journal, but not more so than sending your story to the wrong publications again and again. Also, hitting the target quickly is far less frustrating.

Imagine you have written a story about a mischievous cat. You find a journal called ‘Small Pets Monthly’ and send off the manuscript. Almost instantly, you receive a no thanks. If you had taken the time to do some research, you would have found that this journal is aimed at vets and focuses on healthcare for small animals. They do not publish fiction. Ever.

My short story acceptances increased after I developed a list of my preferred journals. These are the ones that are accessible to new writers and the ration of acceptances to submissions is comfortingly high. New journals can also be more welcoming to newcomers. These tend not to pay much, or at all, but at least in the beginning, your credits are at least as important as cash. I know other authors may disagree, but that’s my opinion.

I use Excel to make my lists and include categories such as the frequency of acceptance, if there are periods where they do not read submissions, if they charge a reading fee (a big no-no, in my book), if they accept simultaneous submissions (so you can send your story out to several markets at the same time. Just make sure to let the others know you are withdrawing the story if it gets accepted elsewhere.) Finally, include links to their website, any articles about them as publishers, and their Writers’ Guidelines. If you write in a specific genre then focus on journals that accept those sort of stories.

I also keep a list of my ‘dream publications’. These are the big markets such as The New Yorker or The Atlantic. The odds of acceptance are almost microscopic, but if you believe your story would fit them, then have a go.

Writing in an old-fashioned style

I have to put my hand up for this one, too. To be fair, when I started I was in my young teens and almost all my reading up to that point was classical literature. I found myself emulating Jane Austen or Charles Dickens or someone else from a bygone age. Which would have been fine if I lived in the 18th or 19th century. Read contemporary fiction. If you’re a genre writer, read everything you can in that genre. The more you read, the better you’ll get.

Writing in the wrong medium

Perhaps you are writing short stories when you should be writing novels. Or plays. Try different mediums and see which fits you best. Different styles of writing require different creative muscles. When you’re just beginning, explore everything until you find out what suits you best.

Nothing

You can be an exception writing, submit to all the right places, and still get rejections. The libraries and bookshops are full of books, now beloved, that were rejected by multiple publishers before they were finally accepted. Stephen King talks about keeping all his rejections on a nail in the wall of his basement study. Eventually, the rejections were so many, he had to switch to a large spike. We have all been there. We have shed the tears and turned the air blue with our oaths. Rejection is soul-crushing, but it’s just one milestone along the way. All writers have tales about their most brutal rejection letter, and the curt dismissals. they hurt. They hurt even more when you know your work is good and you have done everything right.

But know this: if you work on your craft, select the write markets, and if you’re patient, you will succeed. Just wait and see.

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Four Fabulous Essentials for your Writing Journal

Story ideas

This one is obvious, right? The most common reason writers use journals is to keep note of the inspirations that strike while the writer is travelling, at work, or in bed. Don’t assume that you’ll remember. I mean, you might, but it’s a risk. Much better you write the idea down. It may take you ages to return to it, and by then you may well have forgotten most of the details. Having as comprehensive a description of the story as possible can be very helpful.

“Good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.” — Stephen King

Sometimes the notes we leave ourselves are confusing. We may never remember what that original idea was, but that’s not as important as the note inspiring us to write something.

New words

Writers don’t need a fancy vocabulary in order to write, but there’s no such thing as the ‘almost-right’ word. The better your vocabulary, the greater the chance that you will find the exact word to convey your meaning.

Few things put me off a writer as much as them misusing a word. Saying drug instead of dragged, for instance. Or one I’ve noticed a lot lately is ‘lifeless’. You would think people would take half a minute to realise that means dead — absence of life — but it’s frequently used by poor writers to mean unconscious. Oh, and while I’m on this rant, don’t use a Y when you should use an I. For instance, PAID not PAYED. Grr!

Your word list doesn’t have to be replete — see what I did there? — with verbal jawbreakers. You don’t need to include things like inchoate or mither, unless these words are essential to your characters or style of writing. But if you’re unsure of the difference between, for instance, ashamed and embarrassed, or flotsam and jetsam, please look them up. Likewise, if you’re uncertain about how to spell a word, you should check that, too. Don’t rely on MS Word to catch it for you. The aforementioned drug instead of dragged is correctly spelled (not spelt, which is a fish), it’s just not the past tense of anything.

Also, if you need to look something up, check it on more than one site. I just today read this:

Merriam-Websterhttps://www.merriam-webster.com › thesaurus › pulchri…

Synonyms of pulchritudinous

adjective · unpleasant · unprepossessing · unappealing · unappetizing · unbecoming · grotesque · plain · ugly · unimposing · hideous.

What’s wrong with it? Well, pulchritudinous means pretty. Merriam-Webster should have said these words are antonyms, not synonyms. I should add that the above appeared in the Google snapshot; the full entry on the Merriam-Webster site was correct.

Phrases you have thought of or have overheard

Public transport, cafés, and other public areas are great places for hearing scraps of conversation. Sometimes, just a phrase out of context can open up all sorts of story possibilities in your mind. I am reminded of how Alfred Hitchcock used to get on a crowded elevator and say softly, “But who would have thought the old man would have so much blood in him!” Oddly, most people got off on the next floor.

Snippets of conversation can tickle the imagination, suggesting stories or characters. In general, other people’s whole conversation are as bland as our own. But the odd phrase taken out of context can be exciting. One of my grandmother’s neighbours was overheard saying to her husband, “There’s a red flag flying tonight.” The same woman often said, “It’s daylight robbery with violence.” Such people are well worth listening to.

Not only story ideas or characters, but story titles sometimes lurk in the detritus of other people’s conversations. Go sit in a café, or take a bus and keep your journal handy, then listen. Listen, too, to the one-sided mobile phone conversations that currently pollute the world. Listen. Stop frowning and start writing.

Books to read

I love keeping a list of books I want to read close at hand. If I happen to find myself in a bookshop — as I sometimes do — then I can look for something specific, in addition to browsing.

My list includes classics I’ve been wanting to read for a long time, current bestsellers, books by my favourite authors, and anything that has caught my attention will end up on my list.

So, what do you keep in your journal? Let me know in the comments.