Part of the storytelling ability is simply the anticipation of boredom and the introduction of a sudden surprise

Part of the storytelling ability is simply the anticipation of boredom and the introduction of a sudden surprise. To be a good storyteller you need to have first internalized the audience: that subvocal groan that says, “Okay, get on with it.” Not that you always have to cater to the audience’s expectations: you can cross them up, frustrate them, prolong their tension, though that too can be a way of entertaining them. In any case, you have to be aware of their demands, whether you satisfy them or not.

To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction
PHILLIP LOPATE

I came across this quote on Advice To Writers.

Photo credit: "All about Flickr titles, text, tags, and views" by kevin dooley under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Fate Core And The Creation Of Magical Worlds

Yesterday I talked about role playing games and how they could help authors develop their fictional worlds.

The discussion was inspired by the delivery of the first set of files from Fred Hicks Kickstarter project, one of which was beguilingly entitled: Magic System Toolkit.

Anyway, as I said, I went into full-on geek mode and started to write about how Fate Core can help authors develop magical systems for their fictional worlds.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Toolkit breaks this down into 5 aspects or questions: Tone, Craft, Limits, Availability and Source. Let's go over them.

Tone: Neutral, Flavored & Opinionated

I discussed tone yesterday (see: Roleplaying Games, Writing, And The Creation Of Magical Systems) but, briefly, tone is about the very nature of the magic system you are creating. Will it be neutral (have no mind of its own--no opinions) or will it be biased--flavored--in certain ways? One common way for magic to be flavored is for it to come in light and dark varieties and, depending on whether it is light or dark, it will behave differently.

Another way magic can have tone is by being opinionated. That is, it originating from an agent, someone with intelligence and will. (For more on this see my article from yesterday.)

Cost: Price vs Risk

There are two kinds of ways one can pay a cost for using magic. One can pay a price or take a risk.

Keeping in mind I've never gamed with the Fate Core system, it seems to me that the main difference between a price and a risk is when the cost is paid by the magic user.

The PRICE would be known well before the magic was invoked so the character would have time to think about their choice and prepare themselves. Often the price paid would also be whatever it was that powered the magical spell (burnt herbs, etc). In this sense, the price paid would be a condition of the magic being kindled and would therefore be paid before any magic stirred.

A RISK, on the other hand, would be paid either as the magic is being kindled or as it is unleashed. (If the price is paid while the magic is being Kindled the spell itself has a chance of misfiring.) Also the magnitude of the cost for kindling the spell is unknown to the caster until the process has begun. Once they find out what the cost will be it's too late to change one's mind. (I can imagine a story where the twist at the end is that the cost of the spell was so high the protagonist won a Pyrrhic victory.)

When there is a risk to using magic then each instance of magic use must be carefully considered. Just because your last three casts went well--sure your rosebush died but you didn't like it anyway--doesn't mean your fourth will too.

Costs: Rules of thumb

The TOOLKIT mentions that magic systems which choose price over risk often have the subtext that "power has a price".

The TOOLKIT mentions, also, that price lines up well with flavored magic and risks line up well with neutral magic. For instance, you could have it that 'light' spells had a price which could be paid by the energy released from burning dried plant material, and so on, while dark magic required blood to be shed, lives to be extinguished.

Or, perhaps, the price would be the twisting, or tarnishing, of one's very soul (Kim Harrison's Hollows series is a good example of the later.)

Perhaps I'm wrong--it has been a while since I read the books--but the world of Harry Potter seems to be one that tends more toward risks. Think of all the times Ron's spell comically backfired.

The TOOLKIT mentions that both price and risks work equally well with opinionated magic. One of the main risks inherent in using opinionated magic is that you'll come to the notice of some very grumpy, very powerful, beings.)

Some Questions

- How common is magic in your world?
- Is the source of magic abundant? For instance, are there lots of lay lines and are they at full strength?
- Independent of how common magic is, there may not be many people who have the ability or knowledge to access the magic. Can anyone, potentially at least, access magic? Does accessing magic take ability or knowledge? Or both? Does everyone have the ability required or only a few?

Limits

If magic can do anything it becomes uninteresting. What limits magic, and magic use, in your world? What can't magic do?

Can it do anything you could do in a more conventional way?

Are there certain kinds of magic that won't work in your world? What prevents magic users from casting powerful spells all the time?

Availability

Will everyone in your world be able to use magic or only a few?

For instance, it's a fairly common setup to have only a few individuals who are able to do truly spectacular magic--and then a lot of folks who do lesser spells, spells of convenience to help cook dinner or herd sheep. Kind of like a pyramid with one or perhaps two amazingly powerful spellcasters on the top and a lot of people on the bottom who can use magic to do things like pick locks and kindle fire.

There would need to be some sort of explanation about why only a few people can do amazing magical spells. One way of explaining this would be to say that it had to do with the amount of energy a person could channel. Those born a certain way--genetic mutants or members of a particular race--could channel a lot of energy while the ordinary person could only channel a little.

Which brings us to our next magical aspect: the source of magic in your world.

Source

It doesn't matter what your explanation is for where magic comes from but it is extremely important than you have one and that it makes sense to you.

You need to know what magic can do and, more importantly, what it can't do.

You don't have to tell anyone what the source is and perhaps it's better if you don't.

You're under no obligation to share this explanation with the players, and in fact this is an area where I actually encourage a little discretion. Not because you can't trust players with this information, but because your magic system is going to feel a hell of a lot less magical after you've explained it all. A little bit of mystery is essential to the magical feel. (Magic System Toolkit)

What Does Magic DO?

Although we've finished discussing the five aspects of magic we still haven't addressed the most important question:

What does magic NEED to do in your world?

Why does there need to be magic in your world? What does it do? What do you need it to do?

Well, that's it! Of course that's just the tip of a very large iceberg but I think it was enough to get me started crafting my own system. This is going to be fun!

Have you ever constructed a magical system? Were you inspired by gaming? By folklore? What did your magical system do?

Other articles you might like:

- Roleplaying Games, Writing, And The Creation Of Magical Systems
- Analyzing Story Structure
- The Trouble With Adverbs

Photo credit: "HOBBITON" by gothic_sanctuary under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Roleplaying Games, Writing, And The Creation Of Magical Systems

A few weeks ago I invested in my first Kickstarter project.

I did it because, even though I've never had the good fortune to be part of a weekly gaming group, when I was a teen I wanted that very much (even more than I want it to be March 5th!). But none of my friends gamed and the local gaming store was always filled with guys who knew a lot more about gaming than I did.

Anyway, for many of my teenage years it was this thing I wanted to experience, but I never could figure out quite how to make it happen. I think that was probably the reason, initially at least, I was drawn to MMORGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games).

Recently I've noticed that a lot of my favorite science fiction and fantasy authors also game.

When I saw Jim Butcher's announcement that Evil Hat Productions was having a Kickstarter campain I thought it was the perfect opportunity to indulge the kid in me and learn something about gaming and perhaps figure out why so many awesome authors (especially fantasy, urban fantasy and horror authors) game.

Today I received my first batch of .pdf files from Evil Hat Productions and one in particular caught my eye: the Magic Systems Toolkit. (Yes, when I read that title I actually grinned and rubbed my hands together.)

A few months ago I wrote the first draft of a novel about magical creatures who are often mistaken for Fae, but who have a magic all their own. That meant I would have to create a magical system for their world but I had no idea how, so I put the project aside. Now, after skimming through the Magic Systems Toolkit file all I can say is thank goodness I invested in that Kickstarter!

I'm beginning to understand why fantasy writers love gaming, or why they grow from gaming. It's probably a chicken and egg thing: does gaming produce fantasy writers or are fantasy writers attracted to gaming because it helps them create and populate their magical worlds?

What Is Magic And How Does It Work?

While it's true that magic is a convenience of authors, those who use it willy-nilly produce typed, mushy, fantasy. Giving magic rules is not just good gaming, it's good fiction. If you can find the spot where those two priorities overlap, then you've got the workings of a great magic system. - Magic System Toolkit

It may sound odd, but when I wrote about magic in the past I hadn't asked the question, "What is Magic and how does it work?" I'd never considered what rules might govern magic in my created world. So, lets!

What is magic?

Before I read the Magic System Kit I had no idea how many different sorts of magic systems were possible. For instance, you could have what for lack of a better term I'll call scientific magic.

Scientific Magic

Arthur C. Clark thought that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic. On this view magical forces are, fundamentally, physical forces that we don't know much about at the moment. However because they are physical forces they could be expected to behave something like the physical forces we know about.

Mathematical Magic

Or we could think of magic more like a "system of prices, risks and rewards". For instance, magic could be like an algebraic equation where, because both sides have to balance, if (on the one side) you use magic you have to take something from the other. Energy, a sacrifice, dead plants, whatever.

The nature and existence of magic

Where does magic itself come from? Are there fundamentally different sorts/kinds/types of magic? Is some magic light and some dark? Does the flavor of magic depend on who is using it or what the source is?

The Magic System Kit breaks magic down into 5 aspects:

1. Tone
2. Cost
3. Limits
4. Availability
5. Source

I won't have time to cover all these today so let's just talk about Tone.

Magic Tone: Neutral, Flavored or Opinionated

Neutral Magic

Is magic a mindless, unthinking, force like the electromagnetic force? If it is, then its action will solely be determined by a thing's physical properties. In this case, casting--using magic--could be like a recipe. Get the right physical ingredients together, do the right things, say the proper words (preferably in Latin), and presto! Magic will happen.

If inert, neutral, magic lies on one end of the spectrum what lies on the other? According to the FATE system, two things: flavored magic and opinionated magic.

Flavored Magic

Flavored magic can come in varieties, such as dark and light, and may operate differently depending upon which end of the spectrum the magic user draws from. On this view the spells themselves--the magic used in the working on them--would be dark or light, though this could be a matter of degrees.

Flavored magic isn't intelligent, but it does have tendencies. Just as fire tends to burn and earth tends to be stable, flavored magic tends toward certain things but what sorts of things those are is up to you.

For instance one way magic could be flavored is by being either light, dark or some combination of the two. What's great about the FATE system, though, is that it doesn't have to be flavored light or dark, you can let your imagination go wild. Perhaps instead of being tied to our conceptions of good and bad it could be tied to emotions, or passion, or times of the year. The possibilities are endless!

Opinionated Magic

Opinionated magic comes from someone. It requires an agent, someone with both intelligence and the will to wield it. Often the magic users I write about are like this. They are born with magical ability, they just need to learn how to access and control it.

On this view the agent/being might use neutral magic or flavored magic. Also, the magic itself could be shaped by the casters thoughts, personality or will.

Magic Tone And The Fiction Writer: Examples

I think examples make everything clearer. (cross fingers!)

A group of tipsy teenagers invade their crotchety neighbors house--the ancient one that looks haunted--on a dare and steal an odd looking book which turns out to be (surprise!) a book of spells.

Neutral magic: On this view anyone can work magic if he or she has the right ingredients and follows the spell. Therefore, in our little example story, any one of the teenagers could use the book of spells to work magic. The spells wouldn't be good or bad, it would all depend on what the magic user(s) did with them.

Flavored magic: To write a story about flavored magic we need to, first, specify what the flavor is. I'm going to use the concepts/ideas of light and dark to flavor my magic. So, what does this mean for our example story? Let's see ...

A group of tipsy teenagers invade their crotchety neighbors house and steal an ancient book bound in leather. The writing is faded and the ink used seems ... peculiar. 

In this version of the story the teenagers would find out the book was bound with the skin of torture victims and that the spells were written in their blood. This sets the stage for the use of dark magic. (I think of dark magic as powering spells that do ethically dubious things like raising the dead.)

On the other hand, imagine that a being of light drifted down from the heavens on Sunday morning as the same group of teens were nursing their hangovers, promising never to drink again. Imagine the angel hands the group a glowing book. I would expect those spells to be milder and not as ethically questionable, depending on the inventiveness of the magical practitioner. (I think any spell is an invitation to misbehave.)

Opinionated magic:  The teenagers break into the creepy house and meet its even creepier owner, a crotchety old man. The old man turns out to be a powerful wizard and turns all of them, except for one, into purple chickens.

The one he spared, let's call him Kevin, he did so because he recognized the boy had the potential to become a powerful wizard. The old wizard makes Kevin kill and cook all the chickens for his evening meals but spares one, the one that was Kevin's girlfriend. The wizard promises Kevin that the day he is able to transform his girlfriend back the way she was that he'll be free to leave.

In this version of the story there's no spellbook. The old man doesn't need one, the magic lives within him. That's convenient but the downside is he hasn't been able to find a worthy apprentice because working magic takes more than intelligence and determination; raw skill is required. That's what Kevin has.

However learning magic, having it come alive inside one, changes a person and the old man knows that by the time Kevin has the ability to make his girlfriend as she was he will not be the same person. Will he still want his girlfriend back or would he rather have a nice, light, snack?

Well, that's it! At least, that's it for magic tone, tomorrow we'll go over cost, limits, availability and source.

Have you done any old school (something requiring a pencil and paper) role playing? If so, tell us about it!

Other articles you might like:

- Analyzing Story Structure
- The Trouble With Adverbs
- 8 Tips For Finding The Motivation To Write

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Analyzing Story Structure

We've all heard the advice that to become a better writer we must first become better readers. I'd like to take this advice seriously.

I want to read and analyze more flash fiction so I can ... well, I think of it almost like pulling back the curtain on a magic trick. When I read a story I'm caught up and transported into the story world. Because of this I usually don't read critically, I'm happy to be whisked away and entertained.

This will be a challenge.

Here are some guidelines, some questions, I've come up to help me analyze narrative. I haven't made any attempt to provide a complete list of questions so if you see something missing please do let me know in the comments.

An Analysis of Narrative

Characterization

- Who is the protagonist? Antagonist? Who are the main characters? What are their names? 
- What do the characters look like physically? What do they wear? What are their quirks, their idiosyncrasies? What tags, traits and tells are associated with each main character?
- What point of view is the story told from?
- Map out the character arc for each main character.
- What are their goals? What object or state-of-affairs do they seek? (For instance, Indiana Jones in Raiders sought the ark.)
- Conflict. What is preventing the character from attaining their goal?
- Who is the antagonist? The protagonist? Is there a helper character? A foil? A mentor?

Story elements

- What is the setting?
- Is there a theme? If so, what is it?
- Is the story mainstream or genre/category? If the latter, which genre? Which sub-genre? (Wikipedia has a list of genres and sub-genres as well as a list of literary genres.)

Plot

- Describe the original world of the protagonist
- What was the inciting incident/call to adventure?
- Describe the new situation/special world.
- How is the protagonist tested?
- Is there a point of no return to mark the halfway point?
- How were the stakes raised in the second half of the story?
- What was the major setback (also sometimes called the 'dark night of the soul') toward the end of the story?
- Resolution. Was the main arc completed?

Note:

- When listing the facts of the story take note of who the information came from. You may find out later they were lying or, for whatever reason, it wasn't accurate.

Comments

These questions are intended to be suggestions only. Not every story has the same structure, nor should it. For myself, my goal is to simply pay closer attention to how the stories I read are constructed so I can continue to improve my own writing.

What questions do you ask when reading? What elements of story structure do you pay special attention to?

Other articles you might like:

- The Trouble With Adverbs
- 8 Tips For Finding The Motivation To Write
- Describing Character Reactions And Emotions: She Smiled, He Frowned

Photo credit: "shachihoko" by EmreAyar under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

The Trouble With Adverbs

I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs ....
- Stephen King, On Writing

Why do many writers hate adverbs?

When I first read Stephen King's On Writing I confess I thought his stance toward adverbs a tad harsh. How could a part of speech be categorically condemned? As Jeff Chapman writes:

Adverbs shade the meaning of the words they modify. They are grammatical and an accepted part of speech. I've seen them used by well-respected writers. So, what's behind the injunctions against adverbs? (Why No Adverbs?)

As I investigated the roots of the prejudice against the adverb (I was tempted to write "the lowly adverb" but restrained myself) I came to agree with the admonition to eschew the use of adverbs, or at least to try. This blog post is my attempt at a partial explanation of why we should treat the adverb with caution.

Much of what follows has been drawn from Charlie Jane Anders' article, Seriously, What's So Bad About Adverbs?

1. Adverbs Often Express A Redundant Meaning

Jeff Chapman writes:

Adverbs are redundant when paired with strong verbs. For example: "clenched his teeth tightly"; "moped sadly"; "screamed loudly"; "whispered quietly." In each case, the adverb adds no additional meaning to the verb. There is no other way to mope than with sadness and when someone whispers, they are being quiet.

But what about something like, "He yelled angrily"? It doesn't feel right, but the notion of being angry isn't directly implied by yelling.

For instance, you might yell to tell someone they're in trouble ("Look out! A bus!") or because you're in a nightclub ("I said, 'What would you like to drink?'"). In these cases, though, one shouldn't have to use an adverb because the context should make it clear whether the person yelling was angry.

2. Adverbs Are Sometimes Used To Bolster Weak Verbs

The idea being that the weak verb should be replaced by a strong verb rather than propped up by an adverb.

Before I get into this I feel I should say a few words about what is a strong, as opposed to a weak, verb. I looked this up and, apparently, strong verbs are irregular verbs and weak verbs are ... well, here's a quote:

A weak verb (or regular verb) is one that forms its past participle and past form by adding "-ed" or "-t". (Weak Verbs)

For instance:

Look at the most famous adverb in science-fiction history: Captain Kirk's "To boldly go where no man has gone before." What do you notice? Okay, yes, it's a split infinitive. But look past that. The verb is "go," which doesn't really tell us much in itself.

What would happen if you took the adverb out of that sentence? You get: "To go where no man has gone before." Which sounds bland, and a little apologetic. ("Hey, we're, uh, going, ummm, somewhere that we haven't gone before." "Oh. Are we there yet?" "No.")

From that, you might conclude that the adverb is necessary. But actually, it's more that the verb is weak. "Go" just doesn't give us much, and it definitely doesn't have the swashbuckling feeling Captain Kirk's ringing voiceover demands. So the best bet is to replace it with a stronger verb, like "venture," or "explore." Or how about: "To walk where no man has walked before"? It's evocative and calls to mind men walking on the Moon. (Seriously, What's So Bad About Adverbs?)

I love Star Trek so just let me say that I think, here, the flexibility of the verb was a good thing. After all, we don't want to say, "To fly where no man has flown before," "To dive where no man has dived before," "To walk where no one has walked before," "To run where no one has run before," "To crawl ..." well, you get the idea.

But, point taken. Most of the time weak verbs are insideous. They creep into one's prose and weaken it with clutter. Jeff Champman writes:

Adverbs are used to prop up weak verbs. A better solution is to replace those weak verb/adverb pairings with a stronger verb. For example: replace "frowning angrily" with scowling; "running quickly" with sprinting; "petting softly" with caressing; "moving slowly" with creeping. (Why No Adverbs?)

3. Using Adverbs In Dialogue Attribution

For instance,

"Get out of my house!" she said angrily.

From the dialogue itself it's probably clear the speaker was angry. Yes, it could be that there was a fire spreading through her house and she wanted everyone to evacuate but the context should make the meaning clear.

4. The Adverb And Purple Prose

Charlie Jane Anders gives "He smiled thinly" and "He grinned wolfishly" as examples of adverbs aiding and abetting purple prose.

Of course she's right. Adverbs are likely present in a lot of prose that could be described as purple (that is, excessively ornate prose that does not further the story).

That said, it's interesting only one -ly adverb occurs in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's famous first sentence:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. (Purple prose, Wikipedia)

Are Adverbs Irredeemable?

Charlie Jane Anders concludes:

But adverbs aren't necessarily all bad, and they can spruce up your writing if you use them judiciously. Here's a test you should apply before using an adverb.

1) Does it change the word it modifies? Does it make the verb or adjective mean something drastically different?

2) Does it convey some vital piece of information in a way that's better or more evocative than real description or a stronger verb by itself?

If the answer to either or both of these things is "Yes," then go ahead and use an adverb. There's nothing wrong with an adverb, if it conveys new information or provides a distinct slant on something.

I couldn't agree more!

Professor Quest has written a wonderful article The Betrayal of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Adverbs in which he talks about Fitzgerald's use of adverbs to, "create internal tensions or to emphasize points-of-view". He writes:

[In The Great Gatsby] People intrude deferentially; their eyes roam speculatively across empty ballrooms. At one point, Gatsby's house is lit like Coney Island at night, every door and window wide open. As Nick turns away, he speaks of the house "blazing gaudily on."

Charlie Jane Anders writes:

For example, "horribly fatal" doesn't tell us anything new. "Hilariously fatal" does. So does "moderately fatal." So does "arguably fatal." I will never quibble with anyone who wants to use phrases like "statistically significant number of maimings." An adverb can signal a certain tongue-in-cheekness by undermining or tweaking the adjective it goes with, like: "the savagely handsome first officer." Or "the obnoxiously sexy co-pilot."

I'll give Jeff Chapman the last word:

So, should you ever use an adverb? They are permissible in a few cases. It's reasonable to employ them in dialogue. People use them when they talk. In other cases, an adverb is adequate to create a mental image and rewriting makes the prose wordy. Consider this example: "The man stood silently at the window" versus "The man stood at the window making no noise." The instance with the adverb is more concise. The rewrite is longer and draws unnecessary attention to the phrase "making no noise".

It is very easy to fall into the adverb traps. The good news is that they are easy to find. Search your manuscript for "ly" and consider each instance. You will be surprised how much richer your writing will be when you eradicate those adverbial weeds from your prose. Happy weeding.

A Disclaimer

None of this adverb hate applies to your first draft. When you write, ignore everyone except your own muse. On your first draft you're birthing a story so it's going to be messy. Use all the adverbs you want. You'll start cleaning things up on your second draft.

Other articles you might like:

- 8 Tips For Finding The Motivation To Write
- Describing Character Reactions And Emotions: She Smiled, He Frowned
- Tags, Traits And Tells (Podcast)

Photo credit: "?" by Bruna Schenkel under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

8 Tips For Finding The Motivation To Write

Sometimes we don't want to write.

Perhaps you've hit a rough patch in your work-in-progress, perhaps you've come back from vacation or--like myself--taken time off to heal an injury.

Often getting back into the swing of things can be daunting and there's the guilt of having taken time off, for not having written (or edited) for a few days.

Deadlines loom--and perhaps pass, unmet.

It's natural to want to give up, to push the anxiety-inducing project to the side.

That's where I'm at now, and I'm looking for ways to pull myself out of this funk and WRITE.

So, in that spirit, here are 8 reasons to write, even if, like me, you don't feel like it.

1. Reward yourself

Give yourself something, a reward, when you finish your writing goal for the day.

For some, this might be a glass of nice wine, for others this might be a piece of fine chocolate--or perhaps a cup of hot coco with masses of miniature marshmallows dissolving into white foam on top. (You can perhaps guess what my preference would be! I'm a sucker for hot chocolate.)

Or perhaps you could get some time to yourself. For instance, if you have children, perhaps you could arrange for someone to mind them for 15 minutes or so while you take a nice hot bubble bath.

Or, if neither of those excite you, perhaps give yourself permission to watch a movie or an episode of your favorite TV show.

In the article How to Find Your Daily Writing Motivation James Chartrand writes that there are three things to keep in mind when choosing a reward:

a) The reward must be personal

It has to be something you want and something you're not going to feel guilty about afterward.

b) The reward has to be immediate

In order for the reward to work you need to give it to yourself as soon as you accomplish your daily goal. This way the reward will be associated with the stimulus (meeting your goal) and unconsciously you will feel that much more motivated, next time, to sit and write.

c) It has to be special

If your reward is something you regularly indulge in it won't motivate you to write because you'll be able to indulge in it regardless. James cautions that it may take several weeks for this method to reach its peak effectiveness, but it does work!

2. Set up consequences

Jody Calkins in her article 3 Keys to Getting Motivated to Write recommends also setting an extreme consequence that will befall you if your writing goal goes unmet. For instance, 50 pushups or crunches.

Or babysitting the neighbor's kids.

3. Warm up with a writing exercise

You wouldn't start exercising without warming up first, the same goes for writing. Do a writing exercise for 5 or 10 minutes to help get your creative juices flowing. But be sure to keep it to under 15 minutes or so. The goal isn't to start a whole new project (unless it is, then go for it!) it is to get you back into a writing mindset so you can work your way back into your old project.

4. Re-read a few pages of your previous work

Trish Love Elliott in Ten Ways to Find Motivation to Write recommends re-reading your previous pages as a way of working back into--and renewing your passion for--your project. She adds, though, that one should guard against getting so caught up in editing that you don't move on and write new words.

5. Write in a new place

One thing that sometimes works for me is going to my local (overpriced) coffee shop and treating myself to a decadent beverage--the more decadent the better! It helps if you surround yourself with all the accoutrements of a writer. The idea is to put yourself back into the mood, so play the part of the writer hanging out at the coffee shop, channeling her muse.

6. Read

To start yourself off, read for 15 minutes. If you're having a hard time believing you can actually do this thing, that you've got to be crazy to even think you could write, and so on, get a bestselling book from a second hand store or from the library. Pick one you think is horrible. The idea is to find a published book that sold well but makes you think: Hey! I can do this!!

Because you can.

7. Get your friends involved

Ask one or more of your friends to phone or email you and inquire whether you wrote. Be honest with them!

If you don't have anyone you feel comfortable asking to do this for you, set up your calendar program (I use Google Calendar) to send you an email reminding you to write.

8. Start small

In the beginning, when you're trying to ease back into a project, it's best to start small. Rather than demanding of yourself that you work for three hours, try 15 or 30 minutes. Once you're back in the groove you can increase the amount of time spent writing or editing.

Here are a few tips on how to, once you get back into a daily routine, keep it going: 12 Writing Tips: How To Be A Writer.

Do you have any advice, any tips or tricks, to share? How do you help yourself keep to a daily writing schedule?

Other articles you might like:

- Describing Character Reactions And Emotions: She Smiled, He Frowned
- Tags, Traits And Tells (Podcast)
- Good Writing: Using The Senses

Photo credit: "Untitled" by eflon under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Describing Character Reactions And Emotions: She Smiled, He Frowned

If you're anything like me, you've had the experience of trying to find another way of writing "she smiled" or "he frowned". It can be maddening!

Which is why I was thrilled to discover Janice Hardy wrote a blog post about alternate ways of describing character reactions/emotions. (By the way, if you haven't read Janice's blog, The Other Side Of The Story, I highly recommend it.)

Janice Hardy's article is well worth the read, but here are a few of her tips:

Other Ways Of Expressing A Character's Emotions/Reactions

1. If this is a first draft just write "She smiled"

If you're writing a first draft just write "she smiled" or "he frowned" and move on. You can tidy things up on the second draft. Chances are, a lot is going to change from the first to the second draft, just concentrate on laying the foundation of your story.

2. Express the reaction through synonyms

For instance, instead of writing "She smiled" you could write "She grinned" or "She beamed" or "She laughed". All of those communicate pleasure/happiness.

3. Express the reaction through internalization

Ask yourself: Why is the character smiling? If she realizes a cute guy likes her you might do something like: Sue tried to look at Rob without being obvious. He is kind of cute, she thought.

4. Express the reaction through dialogue

Mary nudged Sue, "Hey! I think the cute guy in the corner was staring at you."

5. Express the reaction  through movement

Janice Hardy suggests, "Her lip twitched," or "her eyes sparkled," rather than "she smiled".

8. Express the emotion through subtext

Here is an example from The Italian Job. John is on the phone with his daughter.

John: I'm sending you something.
Stella: Does it smell nice?
John: No. But it's sparkly.
Stella: Does it come with a receipt?

In other words: Is it stolen?

Janice Hardy has a lot more to say on this topic, and you can read it here: Alternative Ways to Describe Character Reactions
 

Useful Links: How To Write Emotion

I like to do background reading when I write a blog post and, today, I came upon a few articles I didn't use but they're great so I want to share them with you.

How To Describe Emotions - Gives great pointers.
Emotion Thesaurus: Relief - 15 ways to express relief.
List of Human Emotions - What the title says!

"She smiled," is a tricky one. Characters smile a lot so this phrase is easy to overuse. What alternatives have you come up with?

Other articles you might like:

- Tags, Traits And Tells (Podcast)
- Podcasting
- Good Writing: Using The Senses

Photo credit: "The Hidden Beauty!" by VinothChandar under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Tags, Traits And Tells (Podcast)

Okay folks, I've taken the plunge and put together a podcast!



Please keep in mind this is my FIRST podcast. One's first time doing anything is not going to be anywhere close to polished so please keep that in mind. Also, although I'm getting a proper mic on the weekend, today I made due with the built-in mic on my iPad.

As you can see, I've embedded the sound file at the top of this post. If it doesn't show up for you, please let me know.

For those of you who would much rather read than listen, I've included a written transcript here of what I talked about.

Jim Butcher On Story Craft

Jim Butcher, in his Story Craft blog post writes that stories are about characters attempting to attain goals. The problems, the setbacks, a character encounters makes him or her struggle and creates tension.

But, ultimately, whether we'll be interested in a particular story depends on whether we find the character's interesting.

So, what makes a character interesting?

What makes a character interesting?

I imagine different writers would answer this in different ways. My goal as a story teller is to tell an entertaining story so I seek out the advice of authors who have created stories which have entertained me. Authors like Jim Butcher.

Mr. Butcher has a list of characteristics that make a character interesting--and I want to talk about them all one day soon--but for now the one that interests me is "verisimilitude", verisimilitude being "the quality of appearing to be true or real". A character that has verisimilitude will "have the appearance of being real". In other words, they will act and react believably in whatever world you've set up.

What makes a character act believably?

I think consistency is a big part of believability. (It can be that a character consistently seems to behave randomly). A part of consistency is just something simple like don't give a character blond hair in one scene and red hair in another, at least without some sort of explanation.

There are two parts to creating believable characters:

a) Being clear about what your character is like, their traits, quirks and mannerisms.

If this isn't clear then it will be impossible to predict their behavior.

b) Assigning different characteristics to each character.

These characteristics should be markedly different so that it's easy to tell characters apart. Also, if, say, "grey eyes" are being used as a tag for one character then try to avoid using that as a tag for another character.

Tags, Traits and Tells

Tags, traits and tells are concepts writers can use to help create interesting, unique, characters.

The first time I came across the concept of tags and traits was courtesy of Jim Butcher so he's the one I quote from, below, although writers such as Dwight V. Swain have talked about the concept as well.

Tags

Tags are physical characteristics that define individual characters and differentiate them from the rest.

Here's what Jim Butcher wrote about them in his LiveJournal blog:

TAGS are words you hang upon your character when you describe them. When you're putting things together, for each character, pick a word or two or three to use in describing them. Then, every so often, hit on one of those words in reference to them, and avoid using them elsewhere when possible. By doing this, you'll be creating a psychological link between those words and that strong entry image of your character.

For example; Thomas Raith's tag words are pale, beautiful, dark hair, grey eyes. I use them when I introduce him for the first time in each book, and then whenever he shows up on stage again, I remind the reader of who he is by using one or more of those words. (Characters)

An example of a tag is blond hair, a peg leg, or stunning beauty. Tags are physical characteristics that can help differentiate one character from another. Since tags differentiate one character from another they need to be unique to each character.

Traits

There are a couple of different ways of thinking about traits. Jim Butcher views traits as "decorations hung onto the character for the reader's benefit."

For instance, Harry Dresden's black duster, his staff, his blasting rod and his pentacle amulet are traits. Bob's traits are the skull, how his eyes light up, his intelligence, and so on.

That's one way of thinking of traits. Here's another:

Traits as dispositions

A trait is a disposition. Examples: Being ambitious, or anxious, or bossy.

On this view--and this is how I look at it--there are tags, traits and tells, a tell being how a trait/disposition is manifested.

For instance, if a character is anxious she might bite her lower lip, jump at small sounds and gnaw her fingernails.

I call how traits manifest--nail biting and the like--tells because a tell means "to make known; reveal." It reveals a character's traits/dispositions.

To sum up, we have tags--physical characteristics like blond hair and freckles that don't have anything to do with the character's psychological makeup. Then we have character traits which are internal dispositions (e.g., anxiety) and tells (e.g., nail biting) which are how a character's traits manifest.

The importance of being different

Tags, traits and tells should be unique to a character since one reason for coming up with these markers is to quickly differentiate one character from another.

For instance, let's say we have a character, Pam. Pam has blond hair, a voluptous figure and loves mathematics. Although she fits the stereotype of the blond bombshell she is smarter than just about everyone else.

Pam's tags:
- blond
- voluptuous

Pam's traits:
- brilliant
- outgoing

Pam's tells:
- Can do math problems in her head quicker than a calculator.
- A favorite lecturer at the university.
- Chairs a number of committies.

When a character is introduced also introduce their tags, traits and tells. Repeat each two or three times to fix them in the readers mind.

For instance, the way technology malfunctions around Jim Butcher's character Harry Dresden is a manifestation of the trait of being a wizard/magic user. The blue beetle, Harry's low tech car, is perfect for Harry because of this trait even though the car is falling apart.Harry's icebox--he doesn't have an electric fridge--is, again, a concession to his shorting out anyting technological within arms reach.

You see how tells can help not only define a character but can suggest plot elements.

Other articles you might like:

- Podcasting
- Good Writing: Using The Senses
- Dwight V Swain On How To Write A Novel

Photo credit: "Untitled" by thejbird under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Podcasting

While I've waited for my arm to heal I've been preparing my first podcast.

I know I've blogged about podcasting in the past so this post is more about my experience over the past few days than it is about podcasting in general.

Podcasting Programs

Audacity & GarageBand

Generally, the programs I see recommended most often are Audacity for the PC and GarageBand for the Mac (although you can get Audacity for the Mac as well). These programs are both free and the initial learning curve isn't brutal.

Final Cut

Final Cut Pro is a bit pricey but if you already have it, or you don't mind spending a few hundred dollars, Final Cut is a great program for Podcasting.

Final Cut is both easy to use and powerful. I should note that so far all my attempts have been very basic. The most I've needed to do was splice out failed attempts to communicate in anything vaguely resembling English, and slap a filter on the audio to enhance audio captured by the default, built-in, microphone. (And, yes, I squandered a good hour applying effect after effect and laughing like a demented hyena. My favorite, completely absurd, filter was the Robot.)

The iPad and Final Cut

When I first bought my iPad 2 I had dreams of using it to take footage and importing that footage into a program like Adobe Premiere (on the PC) and editing it.

Yeah, that didn't happen. There was no straightforward way to get the video off my iPad and into Premiere. I was reduced to editing each sequence in my iPad until it was under a minute in length and then mailing it to myself. After that I'd save the clip to disk and then import it into my project.

Not simple. Not easy. Not fun.

With Final Cut, though ... wow! I can import video directly from my iPad into the program in one seamless step. And it doesn't crash as much as Premiere did.

Sorry, I know this is starting to sound like a commercial for the Mac. My apologies, it's just that I've been in geek heaven over the past couple of days playing with Final Cut.

My Podcasting Plans

Enough about video and audio editing! This is a writing blog.

My tentative plan is to take some of my favorite older posts, update them and make a podcast based on that material. I don't know how many I'll do, but I want to try doing at least five and see how they turn out. At the very least it will be an interesting experience and I'm sure I'll learn much.

Another idea I had was that I could do short interviews with other artists. And next year I would like to, if possible, narrate my book Until Death. But that's for the future. Hopefully I'll get my first podcast up this week.

Have you ever created a podcast or narrated one of your stories? If not, why not? If yes, how'd it go? Can you give us any advice? :-)

 Other articles you might like:

- Good Writing: Using The Senses
- Dwight V Swain On How To Write A Novel
- Michael Hauge On How To Summarize Your Novel

Photo credit: "Starry Starry Winter's Night" by jumpinjimmyjava under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Good Writing: Using The Senses

My last post, Dwight V Swain On How To Write A Novel, was an info dump. Sorry about that! Today I'm just focusing on one thing: Making our prose clearer and more powerful.

I loved the way Dwight V. Swain talks about writing and structuring stories. Sure, at its core it's nothing we haven't heard before, but the way he put things together made a light-bulb go off for me. What I want to do today is talk about--in Emeral Lagasse's words--kicking our writing up to the next level.

We're going to look at two things: First, how to use Motivation-Reaction Units to make our writing clearer. Second, we're going to discuss how to make your readers feel. This last point goes, I think, to the very heart of what it is to tell a story: we want to entertain.

The Flow Of Narrative: Motivation-Reaction Units

What do we mean by "motivation-reaction unit"? It's simple. We're talking about cause and effect, stimulus and response. Mr. Swain writes:

Where your character is concerned, when you stick a pin in him he yells, "Ouch!" He doesn't yell "Ouch!" and then you stick in the pin.

Simple, right? But there is something more subtle going on here. Look at this example:

The wind had an icy edge to it. Eddy shivered and dug his hands deeper into his pockets. The wind kept right on chilling his hands so, still shivering, Eddy turned his back to it and headed for the house. Even as he did so, the lights went out.

Eddy stopped short.

Let's unpack Mr. Swain's example.

Motivation: The wind had an icy edge to it.
Reaction: Eddy shivered and dug his hands deeper into his pockets.

Motivation: The wind kept right on chilling his hands ...
Reaction: ... so, still shivering, Eddy turned his back to it and headed for the house.

Motivation: Even as he did so, the lights went out.
Reaction: Eddy stopped short

When I read this it was like a light went off for me. THIS sort of thing is what makes a piece of writing easy to read and understand.

If you're scratching your head wondering what I'm going on about think of it this way. Would it have seemed excessively peculiar if Mr. Swain had written:

Eddy shivered and dug his hands deeper into his pockets. The wind had an icy edge to it.

That seems to work, but it doesn't work as well. Or at least that's how it seems to me.

Help Your Readers Feel

Everyone writes for different reasons, but one reason common to many writers is the wish to entertain. That doesn't mean we have to turn our readers into human-shaped tear factories but it does mean we need to engage their emotions.

The 64 thousand dollar question: How can a writer make his, or her, readers feel things?

Dwight Swain gives four practical tips.

1. Use Action Verbs

Action verbs show something happening. For instance:

He turned
He sat down
He jumped
He whistled

2. Pictorial Nouns

Pictorial nouns are specific. Dwight V. Swain uses this general rule of thumb: The more specific the noun, the better off you are.

For instance (this is based on Mr. Swain's example), if you wrote, "The female sat," you haven't given your reader a lot of information. The subject could be a young girl, a teenager, a middle-aged woman, and so on. 

If you wrote, "A woman sat," you've communicated more information to your reader but the image formed is still vague. However, if you wrote, "An elderly woman with a lined face sat," then you would have given your reader a much clearer idea of what the subject looked like.

The more specific the noun, the more pictorial, and the more it paints a picture in your readers mind.

When your readers have a clear picture of what's going on in the story it's easier to generate narrative drive.

3. Use Sensory Language

Mr. Swain urges us to write in terms of what you can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. For instance:

Sight: bleary, colorless, faded, dim, glance, hazy, indistinct, shadowy, smudged, tarnished.

Sound: Bellow, cackle, grumble, howl, jabber, murmur, rant, screech, squawk, thud.

Touch: Balmy, chilly, dusty, feathery, gooey, hot, icy, moist, oily, prickly.

Taste: Bitter, creamy, gingery, nauseating, piquant, peppery, ripe, rotten, salty, sharp, tangy.

Smell: Acrid, fetid, odor, pungent, putrid, redolent, sweet, musty, waft, moldy.

Here is a list of sensory words (it's a .pdf file).

4. Use An Emotional Clock

I hadn't heard the term "emotional clock" before, but it makes a lot of sense.

Subjective vs Objective Time

Objective time is clock time. It's the time on your watch. Every second is the same.

Subjective time has to do with how each of us perceives time. We live by subjective time, by the excitement and tension of the moment.

Here's Dwight Swain's example: Einstein once said time passes quickly when you're talking to a pretty girl and slowly when you're sitting on a hot stove.

Very true.

We need to write to an emotional clock

So, what does an emotional clock have to do with writing?

Here's the idea:  you measure the amount of copy you put down according to the tension and excitement of what's happening.

For instance, if you're writing about lunch at a greasy spoon you're not going to give that a lot of space. You could probably tell rather than show.

On the other hand, if you're writing about the villain holding a gun on you and his finger going white on the trigger and the knowledge you're going to be blown away in the next minute, you stretch that out. You make the character suffer. How? By writing in terms of motivation and reaction. When you do this you slow down the pace and show. 

(This post has been based on Dwight Swain's Master Writing Teacher CDs, especially the first two.)

Do you have any tips for how to kick one's writing up a notch? Any tips or tricks you'd like to share?

Other articles you might like:

- Dwight V Swain On How To Write A Novel
- Michael Hauge On How To Summarize Your Novel
- Six Things Writers Can Learn From Television

Photo credit: "Harry" by kevin dooley under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.