The Number One Writing Mistake (Late Post Tally #3)

Second late post this month, third of all blogging time (since last January). Wow, I'm on a roll.

Since this post is late, let me tell you how I spent yesterday so you know why I'm tallying again. After work and a massage to get out the "at the computer 24/7" shoulder knots, and grocery shopping, and cooking dinner, and cleaning up, and then shopping for new winter boots since mine are leaking wet into my socks every time I go out (and this is a massive problem in Northern Wisconsin, since it has yet to be above negative or single digits for 3 weeks and snow only keeps coming), *inhales deeply* I finished reading a book.

It was terrible.

It was so bad, I told my mother, "I don't think I'll ever read another book of her's again, in case she does the same thing."

This is the kiss of death for a writer. I (as a reader) did not enjoy the story. I told someone else it was terrible. She will probably tell another 3 people, so on and so forth, and then this writer will have to live out of a cardboard box behind Wendy's. Bad word of mouth travels.

Why was this story so terrible, you ask? It was terrible because the writer let me down.

Common ways to let your readers down:

• Using 3/4 of the book to hype up a supposedly explosive meeting between protagonist and antagonist, and then when they finally meet on page 368, they have a slightly strained "talk" and work out their feelings sans shanking and bullet wounds. 
• Building up a world with rules and boundaries, only to smash it to bits and tiny pieces in the third to last chapter.
• Anything along the lines of, "Turns out they're government experiments".
• Anything along the lines of, "Turns out it was just a dream".  

You get where I'm going with this. If you lead the reader to believe one thing (that your world's rules are solid and unbreakable) then feed them something else entirely (whoops, looks like she can bend time afterall thanks to a government mutated gene hidden deep in her genetic code...no, wait, that was a dream, she's really dead), they're going to feel let down and they will hate you - or at least your book. They may never read another word you write.

New ebook? Nope, not taking it if it's free. Score a nonfiction magazine article deal? Flipping past it, in case that's just a dream, too. You sent me a Christmas card? Trashing it, in case it's mutated by the government.

Letting the reader down is the number one mistake you can make. We can all see past a little diffused tension here, a little crappy writing there, and a typo or two, but none of us will ever get past being let down. It's like the time your friends said they'd pick you up from your house on the way to the airport, but then left on the plane to Vegas without you. They're not your friends anymore.

People's time is precious. Don't waste it.

Don't live behind Wendy's in a cardboard box because you could have done some more creative thinking - or better yet - trashed that one story you didn't know how to end properly.

That is all. Write better and more prosperous, my friends. (I'm going to leave myself a note and hopefully, we'll speak again on Tuesday!)

Beginnings, The Bane of My Existence (Why, Yes, This Is Another Late Post)

Late Post Tally #2. Sorry, guys, the holidays have me whirling and I completely forgot about blogging yesterday while waiting for my inner zen to kick in.

Anyway, back to writing.

For me, the hardest part about writing a story (short, novella, or full novel length) is the beginning. Where can you possibly start when all these characters have so much going on, and have had so much going on in their past? Thankfully, we have an answer.

The inciting incident. The inciting incident is the moment that "kicks" your story into motion. It's the place where your character's world is changed forever.

In ye olden times, the narrator of the story would often start with a long history of the protagonist's past (and possibly the antagonist, too). From birth, through childhood, and even an explanation of how the protagonist is now king before all the characters in Act 1 filed onto stage.

In modern times, ain't nobody got time for that. All we need to know is the protagonist is now king, which can be detailed through the first scene, not the first sentence.

We live in an age of thirty second meals delivered through our microwaves or car windows, instant internet shopping (perhaps more instant with the Amazon Drones? We'll see), and laundry that takes a mere half an hour to go from wet to dry and wearable. However, it's important not to get too hasty in the opening of your story. This is the tricky part. If you move too quickly without enough explanation, the reader will get lost and confused.

That's why all those writing teachers always told you not to start off with dialogue as your opening line. The reader is introduced to the story and its problems by a character they don't know anything about, in a setting they have never seen. It'd be like leading you into a dark room, blindfolded and wearing nose plugs, to have someone whose voice you can't recognize, read you a monologue. Kind of jarring.

The key to a great beginning, one that works for publishing and for your story, is to start us off at the inciting incident - the moment your character encounters a problem. Of course this problem will grow and manipulate through the story, but it gives the protagonist something to fight for, something to change their way of thinking and their actions immediately. Start there with enough exposition sprinkled throughout so readers understand the stakes and the world, and you've got a mighty fine beginning.

It's a lot easier said than done, as I'm sure most of you know. That's why beginnings are the hardest part for me. How much is too much? How much is too little? It varies for every single story.

Happy writing!

Hold Your Morals

I'm a very firm believer in writing a story for the plot and characters, and not to portray a particular moral standpoint. Unless you're writing inspirational literature or something nonfiction, don't begin your novel with a moral theme in mind. At least, not if you want it to be a success.

Are you staring at the virtual me asking, "What, Alyssa, are you against morality?"

No, of course not. I have morals and I appreciate others who hold strongly to their morals.

Literature is a whole 'nother ball game. Before you get anywhere near the moral theme, you need to nail out plot, setting, character development, grammar, punctuation, and plain great writing.

Here's the problem if you bypass those and instead write only what suits your moral standpoint: Your story will not flow organically.

And what happens when your story is forced and inorganic? That's right, kiss those publication dreams goodbye.

First worry about all the story characteristics we've discussed thus far or you've read in magazine articles. These are the important aspects of story. Once you've written the entire draft (and perhaps revised it two or three times) feel free to look within the story and see a moral standpoint revealing itself. There will always be one. Then you can perfect it in your scenes.

Do you disagree? Think back to your last high school or college English Lit class. How many times did you hear "exactly what is ____ author trying to portray here?" How many people decided to weigh in to the conversation of Mrs. Dalloway's stream of consciousness narrative and what that meant for Virginia Woolf? Yeah, you get where I'm going.

People will always try to interpret your work. Much like preaching to the wrong crowd, you can't force readers to accept your morals or point of view. However, your characters can help them understand it if they themselves are organically facing that moral issue in the story. Unfortunately, characters are much like the ornery people who slam the door in your face. They won't buy the morals you're selling. They have a set all their own and they will portray the message that they need to. Oftentimes, it will be the exact same moral you were trying to force them to buy. If you demand morals from your characters, they'll fight you. If you let the story and its moral evolve naturally, you might just have something publishable.

Then, maybe your book will be in the center of that English Lit class.  

Everyday Wisdom

I received the best Chinese lunch buffet fortune cookie message ever!

 

Keep Writing. Confucius demands it.

Calling All Extras (as in; do you know where your supporting cast was this weekend?)

This week, let's go back to talking about your characters.

Many times, it's the characters that force you to start your story. These fictional people in your head are so vivid and witty, you simply have to write their story. But how's your supporting cast? Most of the time, we start with our main characters (protagonist, antagonist, and possibly one other [a sidekick?]) and the other characters present themselves when they need to. However, leaving them that way when you send your manuscript off to agents or self publishing is a massive rookie mistake.

So, for this post's homework, I'd like you to go back and examine your supporting cast.

Does each character sound like a distinct, new person? Though he may only be there for one scene, every character that graces the page needs a personality and a backstory that you know (but that you, please dear god, do not go on and on about to readers). What does he smell like? Does he have a favorite phrase? Does he squeak or hum when he walks? All of these things, even in tiny doses, make your supporting cast and your story world come to life.

If your supporting characters are a little too bland, and you don't know how to fix it, start with dialogue. It's the number one best way to help breathe that third dimension into them. Make that character unique and distinct. Not necessarily with an accent or a catch phrase, but perhaps with the candor of the lines or the flourish of the adjectives.

For example, give supporting character number two a distaste for a certain word. Try cutting out every "as" "but" or "it". Or, if supporting character three needs some life, take a hint from my own life and have her pick up an annoying aphorism. Case in point: In college I picked up the bad habit of saying "B-T-Dubs" rather than "by the way". No matter if I actively try to stop myself, it always comes out like this. Yes, even to my boss, embarrassingly enough.

Truth is, if you spice up your supporting stars' dialogue, their personality will shine through too and you'll know them better in the context of your story world. Your readers will recognize this. It may be the final push you need to get your novel from good to great.

Leave the Door Behind: Writing in Public

Here we are. The third and final week of our three-post series about HOW we write.

Do you have that dream where you're sitting in a Parisian café, penning your literary novel about a pair of doomed lovers over a café au lait? It's a common dream from writers. Paris. The coffee. The leisure. The people passing you by. I shudder at the thought.

Even in Paris, though I've always wanted to go, I would separate my writing time from my out time.

In fact, I've only written in a café or coffee house twice to date. They were both places I was comfortable with and had known for a long time. It still didn't make me feel any better.

I didn't like the constant distractions around me: People having loud conversations and letting their noisy ringtones interrupt the entire café, the waitresses wondering if you're still doing okay, the terrible feeling I harbor when I order a black coffee and sit on their wi-fi for two hours.

Both times, I was so uncomfortable writing in public that I ended up doing little to no writing at all. I didn't want people to see my 50 page Word Document open and infer I was a writer. Then I'd have to converse. It was almost as bad as the time I was working on my poetry for class in the doctor's office waiting room and (though the entire waiting room was empty) an elderly couple sat right next to me. I had to skirt the line between leaning away so they couldn't see my notebook and not looking like a complete jerk.

So, I have a hard time seeing the benefits of writing in public besides complete necessity (like it's the only place you're not ridiculed for writing or can carve enough time to do so).

Here's my list of benefits:

• It allows you to study those around you (which is especially beneficial if your story is set in the same region you write from)
• It has a romantic ring to it: "Being a writer, writing in a café."  

So, I'm going to ask for your help on this one. If you're a writer and you love writing in public spaces. Why? What makes it so beneficial for you? Maybe you can help the solitary writers see the light. Leave a comment please.

Crack the Door: Writing Around Friends and Family

This week brings post two in my three-part series on HOW we write.

Today's topic is writing while surrounded by family or friends. In modern day, this is how many of we freelance writers or aspiring authors write. After all, they're called our "loved ones" for a reason. If you love them and they love you, it should be no problem to tell them you need quiet to write your scene or you need someone else to pick up dinner tonight so you can hash out why chapter three sounds terrible. But if your family is as loud as mine, you know this doesn't fly in real life. Everyone is trying to do something at the same time while still being together. Though our intentions are good, productivity isn't always the best.

This being said, I've recently done more writing and revising around my family. I put the rabbit on the couch, the laptop on my lap, and let the TV and my family play in the background. Is it as beneficial for my writing life as writing alone? Well, no. I'm not gonna lie, it's not.

However, it means I get in more writing time. In my mind, one hour of writing - no matter what writing it is or how much writing actually gets done - is better than no writing at all.

So, though I have to stop the rabbit from antagonizing the dog and listen to and participate in family stories, at least I'm getting a few more sentences on the page. I'm squeezing all the time I can from my day to write. As a younger, less time-constrained writer, I would have never done this. Not only would I have been frustrated my writing wasn't flowing as smoothly as when I was alone, but I wouldn't want my family to see me writing - after all, what if this idea didn't work out and I had to scrap it in front of them? Would that make me a failure?

If you're losing your writing time to a hectic lifestyle and work schedule, I'd recommend writing on your friend's couch or at your breakfast table. Here's why:

• You can squeeze more time from your busy schedule for writing 
• You don't have to feel bad anymore that you sacrifice time for your kids or roommates to write - they share in the experience!
• Your friends and family make perfect case studies for dialogue and stage action