Category: writing tips

Are you in a writing rut?

Have you tried brainstorming about your main character? This is an exercise I teach in writing workshops and it seems to help get writers out of a rut. Basically, write down your main character’s first name and last name on a piece of paper. Do the same with a secondary character (could be someone they’re in conflict with). Then consider the following:

nickname? if yes, why? if not, why not?
what does this person love?
what do they want?
what bad habit do they have?
what do they eat for breakfast?
what kind of underwear to they wear?
where do they sleep?
what’s their job?
is there something everyone around knows them for?

etc etc

Another idea is to get a job application form and try and fill it out for your characters. What all this does is expand your thoughts about your characters and think about them in a different way. Midway through the brainstorming your mind will explode with revelations. When that happens, think about how these two character confront each other, and then write that scene.

Remember that you don’t have to write your book in a linear way. You can start any place. Do this scene, and then write what comes before and comes after and eventually you’ll catch up to what you’ve already got.

I like to take my characters through a typical 24 hour day. Much of that ends in the trash heap, but again, doing this gives you revelations.

Also, think about your setting in a minute way. What the floor looks like. Are there bugs? What are the smells, touches.

As a writer, I have found that one of the best ways of getting good feedback on works-in-progress is to join a critique group. I run a free  online crit group here. The group I run is hidden from public view and to get in, one must ask for permission.

In our online crit group, we all give and get feedback on our works-in-progress. I find that doing crits teaches the critter as much as the crittee.

One of the things that I have noticed after over a decade of critting and being critted is that dialogue is often used as a crutch in early drafts. I have come up with a self-editing technique that I like to call Marsha’s 5 word rule for dialogue. Here goes:

 Anytime a character says more than five words at a time, look carefully at what you’re trying to accomplish with the dialogue. Often, you’re using dialogue as:

— an information dump
— backstory
— scene avoidance
— saying something instead of showing it
— saying something you’ve already just shown

Long dialogue always slows the story down. Pare whenever possible and when necessary replace with a scene. Alternately, pare out that dialogue altogether and save that information for later on in the story. Doing so can add suspense.

The other day I had an interesting question via email:

“In your writing tips, you warned against submitting photos or pictures with the text — commissioning your sister-in-law to paint some pictures for the book, for example, is a bad idea.
However, what if the pictures are your own drawings, and you want to be an illustrator as much as you want to be a writer?”

Here is my answer:

There is one exception to never sending in illustrations, and that’s if you’re a professional artist. Even so, the best way to handle it is to submit the story without illustrations, but to mention in your cover letter that you are an artist. If you have a sample that can be viewed online, give them the url.

Another way around it is to submit your art portfolio without your story.

If you’re an illustrator, consider making up postcards and sending them out to editors.

The reason you don’t want to submit both at the same time is because it gives them two reasons to reject you. What if they hate the story but love the illos or visa versa? That said, there are some publishers who specifically request submissions from people who are both author and illustrators. Those ones should be on the top of your “to submit” list.

Good luck with your submissions!