While shallow stories can be enjoyable, we often strive to add depth to our storytelling. Deeper stories can “say” more to readers, evoking more emotions and leaving a bigger impression.

We have many options for how we can deepen our stories, from creating layered characters or heartrending emotional journeys to exploring complex dilemmas. But a primary way of adding depth to our story is by using and expanding our story’s themes.

Themes are meant to communicate to readers by provoking them to consider a certain view of the world (such as what to value, believe, hope for, aim for, etc.), so themes inherently provide plenty of opportunities for us to say more to readers. Themes that interact on some level create even more depth, as they take a simplistic belief (“love is powerful”) and turn it into a more purposeful idea (“love is powerful when we learn to trust others”).

Today, let’s look at how we can set up themes that resonate with each other, and thus add up to a deeper story than possible with just a standalone theme.

Themes 101: What Creates a Theme?

First, we need to understand how our story can (and likely will) contain multiple themes. For that, we need to know what creates themes within our story and how the different aspects and elements of our story each contribute to the impression of “what our story is about”:

• Story Themes: What’s the premise of the story? Who’s supposed to win or lose—and why?
• Character Themes: How does the protagonist change over the course of the story? What do they learn?
• Plot Themes: During the plot’s turning points, what do the characters attempt? Do they succeed or fail—and why?
• Choices Themes: What choices are the characters making? Do the results match the Story or Character Themes (choices that agree with the themes should succeed and vice versa)?
• Villain Themes: Are the villain’s beliefs reinforced or disproved by plot events?

How Will Our Story’s Themes Interact?

Obviously, with all those different sources of themes, our story will likely share multiple messages with readers (whether intended or not). Those messages can interact in various ways, as they could:

• conflict with one another,
• each be independent (and essentially ignore each other),
• align despite being unrelated,
• echo similar ideas, or
• resonate with repetition and deeper similarities.

How Can We Make Themes Work Together?

Let’s look at a few options for integrating multiple themes, from techniques that inherently result in the least resonance to those with the most:

Option #1: Multiple Independent Themes with No Connection

As long as the ideas from our story’s various themes don’t undercut each other, there’s nothing “wrong” with unrelated themes.

For example, a story could be about both justice and love. Perhaps the main plot focuses on the protagonist ensuring a killer is brought to justice, while a subplot focuses on the protagonist resolving a relationship issue.

While those themes don’t echo or resonate with each other, they also don’t specifically interfere with each other. They are simply each standalone themes, and for some stories, that approach works fine.

SPECIAL TIP FOR UNCONNECTED THEMES:
Watch Out for Conflicts

Avoid using multiple themes that conflict or interfere with each other, except for cases where an exploration of that conflict is part of the story’s premise.

For example, a theme about “the value of friendship” expressed through the protagonist relying on their friends would struggle to cooperate with a second theme of “the value of rugged independence.” Those themes undermine the messages of each other, so our storytelling would be weaker unless an aspect of the story focused on the protagonist deciding how to prioritize or embody each of those ideals. That exploration of the conflict would create a connection between the themes (pushing it into the Option #2 approach below).

Option #2: Multiple Independent Themes with Some Connection

Sometimes with unrelated themes, we can reference the ideas of one theme in the story elements that explore another theme.

As an example, given that same story idea from Option #1 above with the themes of justice and love, the ideas or lessons learned from one theme could inform the resolution of the story events of the other theme. With our above example, the protagonist’s desire for justice could carry over to be related to the relationship issue, such as if a too-strict adherence to justice prevents the protagonist from being sympathetic with their love interest. Or a lesson learned from the relationship could help the protagonist understand and track the killer, such as through stretching their empathy “muscles.”

While the themes themselves in this Option #2 don’t connect directly, the story elements exploring each theme can overlap. Those overlaps can create echoes adding depth to the story, as the theme’s ideas are revisited in other circumstances, or as they examine the story world from unrelated-but-parallel perspectives.

Note that the examples above illustrate that the only difference between Options #1 and #2 is whether we choose to create overlapping references. In other words, virtually any Option #1 story could become an Option #2 story if we consciously make a few narrative tweaks, such as by having one theme’s ideas mentioned in another theme’s story elements or by having one theme inform the other, and so on.

Option #3: Multiple Somewhat-Related Themes

Some themes can be different-but-similar to other themes, exploring ideas along comparable or related lines.

For example, a story exploring the theme of love could also include themes of related ideas: trust/distrust, friendship, rejection, etc. (all touching on a character’s emotional journey with relationships). To go deeper into that example, a protagonist may experience relationship love in one aspect of the story, but a subplot may explore their pain of a parental rejection, or them learning to accept that rejection, or them learning to appreciate those who do love them despite that rejection.

A few other themes with somewhat-related ideas include:

• survival / learning to trust yourself
• love / learning to trust others
• justice / survival
• justice / oppression

In other words, themes with related (or opposite) ideas can often resonate with each other, as the lessons learned from one theme can often carry over and help in the exploration of the other theme. Or from a reader perspective, what the story says through these somewhat-related themes add together to create a bigger cohesive “message” or perspective, such as “learning to trust yourself can help you survive.”

Option #4: Multiple Explorations of the Same Theme

Some stories allow us to explore a single theme idea from multiple perspectives or circumstances.

For example, a story about trust could explore that theme in various ways, as the plots/subplots and other story elements could all focus on the benefits of learning how to trust. Or a story about the power of love could explore romantic love, friendship love, sibling love, parental love, etc., all in different aspects of the story. Or a story with multiple protagonists could explore the theme of romantic love through each character’s relationship.

Final Thoughts: The Benefits of Connecting Themes

Note that Option #4 is not “better” than Options #2 or #3 for creating connections across the thematic elements of our story, especially as that style won’t work for most stories. The point is to identify our various themes and see what they have to say (if anything) about each other. While echoes and resonances may happen more automatically with Option #4, as long as we ensure that we create or emphasize those resonances with Options #2 or #3, all three of those approaches can work equally well for using thematic echoes to deepen our story.

That said, the unconnected themes of Option #1 can also work for our story just fine, depending on the story we’re trying to tell. However, those unconnected theme ideas are almost like the thematic version of episodic storytelling, as they don’t add together to create a bigger idea. Yet for some stories, that style is a good match for our storytelling goals.

In contrast, themes with some level of connection – whether Option #2, #3, or #4 – help the story feel not only deeper, but more epic, as the echoes and resonances weave on a single, common canvas to give readers the sense of a bigger story with more meaning. With Options #2, #3, and #4, the more we’re able to create those connections between the various themes of our story, the deeper and more layered our story will feel, as our story will “say” more to readers. *smile*

Have you thought about how stories contain multiple themes, and therefore how those themes interact may affect the sense of depth (or “epicness”) of a story? Have you struggled to know how to make themes interact in helpful ways? Does this post give you ideas for working with themes? Do you have any questions about themes or how they can interact?

PRO TIP: Your characters’ traits, experiences, and personal biases will influence how they approach the story theme, so it’s important for you to know these driving factors in your cast members.

For this reason, we’ve structured the entries of One Stop for Writer’s Theme and Symbolism Thesaurus so you can explore these aspects for your characters and make smart decisions about their thematic statements. View an example here.

JAMI GOLD - Resident Writing Coach

Jami Gold put her talent for making up stuff to good use, such as by winning the 2015 National Readers’ Choice Award in Paranormal Romance for her novel Ironclad Devotion.

To help others reach their creative potential, she’s developed a massive collection of resources for writers. Explore her site to find worksheets—including the popular Romance Beat Sheet with 80,000+ downloads—workshops, and over 1000 posts on her blog about the craft, business, and life of writing. Her site has been named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer’s Digest. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with Jami below.

The post How to Deepen a Story with Thematic Echoes appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

How much time do we spend thinking up character names?

Too much.

That name will represent the character we love, so the pressure’s on to get it right. And no one wants to get halfway through a manuscript and realize they have to make a change. Find and replace on that scale, with something that important? No thank you.

Resources abound on the common problems we see with character names (impossible pronunciations, contrived spellings, too many similar-sounding names), so I don’t need to cover that ground. Instead, I’d like to provide some tricks for finding a name that’s perfect for your character.

1. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Sometimes, a simple name is best. One that’s invisible to the reader and doesn’t call attention to itself. In this case, don’t go through mental gymnastics to come up with something new when there are thousands of names that already exist. Here are some resources for finding those.

• Baby Name Books
• Encyclopedias
• Obituaries. Agatha Christie liked these.
• Your Own Family Tree
• Maps and Atlases. Paris, Jordan, Brooklyn, Asia—get inspired by names of other places.
• Graveyards. If it was good enough for Rowling…
• The Social Security Administration’s Listing of Popular Baby Names by Year. This can be helpful if you’re writing a period piece and want to find a popular name, you want to avoid something that’s too common, or you’re looking for inspiration.
• Name generators. I like Reedsy’s, which lets you search up fantasy and medieval names, as well as those based on certain languages.

These are helpful for brainstorming real names. But if you’d like a moniker with more gravitas that fits your character and story, keep the following tips in mind.

2. Know the Character’s Role

The more important a character is to the story, the more memorable or purposeful their name can be. The opposite is true for background characters, because a peripheral character with an interesting or attention-grabbing name could pull the reader’s attention where you don’t want it and make them think there’s more going on back there than there really is. For those characters, consider a more common name, just a first name, or no name at all.

3. Choose Something that Characterizes

Think about what a character’s name could reveal about them. The obvious tells point to a character’s race, religion, gender, or the time they live in. In some cultures, it could identify their profession.

Also, consider what the character does with their name. Do they shorten it or use it in its entirety in the most pretentious way (Charles Emerson Winchester the Third, anyone)? Do they use a nickname that says something about their preferences, ideals, or attitude? If the character came up with it themselves, it often will say something about them.

4. Explore the Root Meaning

One way to subtly characterize is to choose a name with deeper meaning.

• Beorn, the shape-shifting warrior in The Hobbit, comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning warrior/chieftain and an Old Norse word for bear.
• Kreacher—sniveling house elf to the Regulus family in Harry Potter—comes from the German word kriecher: to creep, crawl, grovel, cringe, or fawn upon.
• Shrek is Yiddish for fright.
• And then there’s Percy Wetmore, The Green Mile’s bullying, cowardly antagonist who’s such a wuss he ends up peeing his pants in fear.

Behind the Name is a great tool that provides the etymology and history of many names. Even if readers don’t know the underlying meaning, a name with significance will often work because of the way it sounds or the connotations it evokes. And that brings us to the next tip:

5. Utilize Sound Devices

Did you know that explosive consonants have a jarring and unsettling effect to the hearer? These sounds (p, b, d, g, k, ch-, sh-) can work well for a villain’s name—Gordon Gekko, Krampus, Count Dracula, and the like. On the flip side, harmonious/soft consonants (l, m, n, r, th, wh, soft f, soft v) may be good for peaceful or nurturing characters, such as Luna Lovegood or Melanie Wilkes (Gone with the Wind). There are obvious exceptions, but the sound of a name is a good place to start when you’re trying to figure out the right handle for a character.

6. Evoke a Desired Response

To build on the last point, devise a memorable name by making the whole thing alliterative, musical, lilting, quirky, unnerving, or unsettling—whatever you’re going for. Inigo Montoya, Sam Spade, Boo Radley, Scheherazade, and Ponyboy Curtis are good examples. What do you want your character’s name to bring to the reader’s mind? Create an overall sound that fits.

7. Tie it to the Story’s Theme

What message do you want to convey, and how does the character relate to it? One of the themes of Watership Down circles leadership. Hazel must lead his band of reluctant rabbits to a new home, but he has no special skills; he’s not fast like Dandelion or strong like Bigwig. He’s just a regular guy. The rabbits in this story are all named after plants, so you’d expect the leader to have a grand, inspiring name, but Hazel, in lupine, simply means “tree.” His name reflects the story’s thematic message, that leadership doesn’t require flash and charisma; it often just means being willing to do what must be done.

There are so many tips for coming up with the perfect name for a character. But as always, the name needs to fit both them and the story. If readers are pulled out of the narrative because they’re enamored with (or confused by) them, we’ve led them astray. So have fun digging into those names, but remember that they’re just one part of the bigger picture.

BECCA PUGLISI

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post 7 Tips for Finding Perfect Character Names appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Writing an entire book is an immensely complex undertaking. Even if you’ve outlined meticulously, you’ll need more ideas than you can possibly imagine to fill the pages of an entire book (50,000 to 100,000 words or beyond, depending on your genre). And what you’ve mapped out in detail in an outline will only fill a portion of this.

Whether you’re writing fiction or pulling from real events for a nonfiction book, as you write, your brain will make decisions about what to include. What comes easily might depend on your mood or what you got up to that day.

When I read about characters making spaghetti while I’m editing draft pages of a writer’s fantasy novel, or a character cleaning their house in detail in a romance, I know instantly that the writer is bringing snippets of their own lives into their pages. Sometimes, these scenes are brilliant writing. Occasionally, the scenes are on point and tie into the rest of the book. But many times, scenes like these have nothing to do with the character’s journey, and they slow the pace of the book to the point a reader might stop reading.

As you’re coming up with ideas and exploring how they fit into your book, it’s easy to lose sight of what you wanted to say to readers in the first place. Instead, while you’re scrambling to fill your pages, you might veer off course, creating a book full of cool things that isn’t what you meant to write at all and will leave readers confused.

I have conversations with writers weekly who want to discuss whether they should add a new idea they just came up with to their book. What they really want is a compass that will tell them if the scene they’re adding is improving or taking away from their reader’s experience. To figure this out, they need to choose a Takeaway.

What Is a Takeaway?

The Takeaway you decide on for your book is closely related to what some might call your theme, or the point of your story. As with everything I teach about writing, I like to flip the script, thinking about the reader at every turn, because they’re the ones that you hope will find, read, love, and share your book with others. They’re the ones you’re starting a conversation with when you publish your book, and choosing a Takeaway can help you decide which scenes belong and which ones you should kick to the curb.

To choose a Takeaway for your book, take a step back and ask yourself a simple question: What message do you want readers to take away from your book?

Choosing Your Book’s Takeaway

You don’t have to get too fancy with this. A simple sentence, cliché, tried-and-true saying, or a mantra will do, as long as it resonates with you and it’s what you hope your readers will think about when they’re done. Your Takeaway won’t be shared with the world, it’s just a reference point for you. So don’t sweat making every word in it perfect.

Some examples of Takeaways in books:

• Blood is thicker than water
• You can’t accept love until you love yourself
• You get out of life what you put into it

You can choose your Takeaway when you’re planning your book or during your revision stage, whenever you need guidance. To get started, spend 20 minutes brainstorming a list of 5-7 possible Takeaways for the book you’re writing now, then narrow it down to one you’re excited about.

PRO TIPS:
* Choose only one Takeaway per book
* Books in a series may have the same Takeaway for each book, or they may be different

Simple, right? Now here’s the fun part. Once you’ve chosen your Takeaway, you have a way to test every idea or scene that you want to include in your book, to see if it fits.

Note: Choosing a Takeaway doesn’t mean everything in your book will feel the same, or that every character in your book will view the world the same way, which is pushback I often hear from writers who don’t want to be restricted. In fact, your Takeaway will open up multiple directions for your scenes to go while delivering an experience to your reader that feels cohesive and incredibly satisfying (even if they have no idea how you did it – that’s the magic and the behind-the-scenes of writing).

With your Takeaway handy, take a look at each scene, event, action, or character’s reaction you want to include in your book. Does it somehow compare, contrast, mirror, challenge, or support your Takeaway? If it does one of these things, it belongs in your book. If it doesn’t? It’s off-topic and will feel out of place to your reader. Cut it.

A Takeaway Example

Let’s imagine that Blood is Thicker than Water is your Takeaway. Scenes that support this Takeaway will obviously show family bonds that are stronger than anything else in a character’s life.

But… don’t forget to include ideas and scenes that will compare, contrast, mirror, or challenge this Takeaway, such as:

• A subplot showing a dysfunctional family with no loyalty among them, and the result
• A character who has no family trying to find their place in the world
• A storyline where supporting one’s blood relatives results in disaster
• A character who feels burdened by their family, even if the relationships benefit them

PRO TIP: The Theme & Symbolism Thesaurus at One Stop for Writers explores many popular story themes and thematic statements like the ones above that might work for your story.

You can include any number of ideas that revolve around your Takeaway. Remember, if you have a scene that doesn’t fit this bill, take it out, even if you love it (in writing we call this killing your darlings!). If you dig in your heels and leave it in, your readers will miss out on the incredibly satisfying experience of having everything in your book pointing in the same direction as your plot unfolds, leading readers to love and share your book with others.

Once your Takeaway is woven into every scene, you’ll start to see possibilities and connections you didn’t see before, and readers will be pulled deep into your story. With your Takeaway as a guide to what belongs in your book, your message will come through without you having to hit readers over the head with it, and it will linger long after they reach The End.

And those deleted scenes? You can always release them later as bonus material for your loyal readers, or you can include them in a future book that revolves around a different Takeaway. So they’re never really lost.

Defining your Takeaway and ensuring everything you’ve included in your book aligns or evokes it in some way is the secret sauce that will hold your reader’s attention and push their experience over the top. So keep your Takeaway top of mind while you plan and revise your book to make it as impactful as it can be.

Want more practical tips on writing that you can apply to your book today? Take a listen to my brand new podcast, Show, Don’t Tell Writing.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the Founder of Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down important writing concepts into practical steps to make it easy for writers coming from outside the industry to get up to speed in a snap, so that they can realize their big, wild writing dreams!

In addition to her weekly newsletter encouraging writers, and online courses, Suzy offers both developmental editing and 1:1 Book Coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and discover how to connect with Suzy and all the resources she has to offer here.

The post Use Your Story’s Takeaway (Theme) to Trim Extraneous Content appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

What are writers chronically short on? Time.

There never seems to be enough of it as we try to get the next book written, research our publishing options, keep up with marketing, work on our platform, etc., and that doesn’t even factor in what’s happening in other areas of our life. And as we juggle, the one thing that can help us succeed more than anything else is often neglected: education to help us improve our storytelling skills.

Introducing Mini-Lessons

You guys know Becca and I have a lot to say about description and how showing the right things in the right way means readers are pulled in and will care deeply about characters and what’s happening in their lives. We’ve written books on many description elements and have even more of these in our THESAURUS database at One Stop for Writers.

This summer, Becca and I have recorded a mini lesson for each of our thesauruses, helping you better understand that story element, what its superpower is in your story, and how to activate that detail through description.

Each video takes you through a thesaurus in the One Stop for Writers database, but you don’t need to be a subscriber to benefit from these lessons or use our thesauruses (although they are very helpful for brainstorming). But if you are someone who uses them, this will broaden your understanding so you get even more value from each brainstorming list.

Bite-sized learning is a perfect match for busy writers

Life can be hectic, making it hard to carve out big blocks of time for learning. With these videos, you need about 5 (ish) minutes. Totally doable! Whether you want to learn how to describe a character’s emotions, activate the power of your scene’s setting, or understand character motivation better so plotting becomes easier, a helpful mini-lesson is waiting for you.

Here’s the playlist, or choose the topic you’d like to know more about below.

Happy writing and learning!

Grow Your Skills with Becca & Angela

How to Describe a Character’s Appearance

How Emotional Trauma Affects Characters & Their Arc

How to Use a Character’s Fears in Storytelling

How to Create a Character Readers Will Love

How to Give a Character Flaws that Will Hold Them Back

How the Right Setting Details Make a Scene More Powerful

How to Create a Memorable Character Using a Talent or Skill

How to Show What Your Character Is Feeling

How to Use Conflict to Power up Your Story

How to Write Your Theme and Use Effective Symbolism in Fiction

How to Use the Weather to Build Mood and Generate Conflict

How to Find the Right Job for a Character

How to Bring Readers Into a Story Using Textures

How to Create Vivid Description Using Colors and Patterns

How Describing an Object’s Shape the Right Way Strengthens the Story

How to Build Strong Characters & Arcs

How to Amplify Your Character’s Emotional State

Need more help as you plan, write, and revise? Join us at One Stop!

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post Improve Your Storytelling in 5 Minutes appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Journalism writing often uses the 5W1H structure. The first few paragraphs of a news article should answer 6 basic questions (which start with 5 Ws and an H): Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

While fiction writing doesn’t try to cram the essentials into the beginning paragraphs, those same questions are important for our storytelling. In fact, we can use specific questions from that structure to understand the big picture—or essence—of our story, plot, and theme.

Story vs. Plot

First, though, we need to understand that our story and our plot are not the same. A story is about our characters’ struggle, while a plot is the events that reveal the characters and choices explored in the story.

Let’s illustrate the difference with an example plot idea: An asteroid is coming to smash the Earth to smithereens.

Yikes! Okay, but what about it? Who’s doing the struggling against those consequences?

Without characters, that asteroid’s just going to do its thing, same as it would on an uninhabited planet. Boom, crash, the end. There’s no story there because there’s no story problem there—no characters attempting to overcome the obstacles of the plot.

What’s a Story?

To have a story, we need characters who face a problem. And it’s only when we decide who our characters are or the choices they’ll face that we’ll know what our asteroid story is:

• Plucky team of astronauts try to destroy the asteroid before it reaches Earth.
• Doomed world leaders debate how to help their citizens react in the last days.
• Estranged family members reach out to each other and heal wounds before the end.
• And so on…

Each of those character examples defines a story problem—they want to destroy, debate, or heal. In turn, the story problem defines the story, as the characters attempt to solve their problem.

What’s a Plot?

On the other hand, if the asteroid is only big enough to cause a few cloudy days, our characters would have no reason to make big changes or choices. That’s where plot comes in: Plot events are the triggers forcing choices and changes in our characters.

Story Questions vs. Plot Questions

Now back to that 5W1H structure…

Story Questions

As a story is about a struggle or an attempt to solve a story problem, we can begin to define the layers of our story with questions that focus on that struggle or problem:

• Who? Who is doing the struggling or attempting to solve the problem? (team of astronauts)
• What? What is the struggle or problem? What do our characters want? (destroy the asteroid)

We can further define our story with other questions, especially in certain genres such as historical or science fiction (When? 1892 or the distant future, Where? England or outer space), but the two bullets above are generally the most important.

Plot Questions

As a plot is about the events that force choices and changes, we can begin to define the layers of our plot with questions that focus on those events:

• How? How are the characters being pushed into action or choices? How are they trying to reach their goal? (an asteroid is coming to smash the Earth, so they’re trying to blow it up)

Note that it may seem like additional questions would help us further define the plot:

• What? What plot events will best reveal our characters? (an accident takes out the mission leader and the protagonist needs to step up)
• When? or Where? to describe the circumstances causing the story to take place now (explaining the reasons those estranged family members finally reach out to each other, when they technically could have healed the wounded relationship at any time)

But those are all just other ways of getting at the How, defining the triggers that force the changes and choices in our story.

How Does Our Story’s Theme Fit In?

Theme is usually said to be a story’s “message,” but what does that mean in practice? How can we define what the theme of a particular story might be, especially when…

• themes are less concrete or obvious (often found in the subtext or a single sentence)
• stories contain multiple themes (formed by story premise, worldview, character arc, plot events, etc.)
• stories often include unintended themes (which can undermine our intended themes)

In other words, we might not know what our story’s themes are—or should be. Even if we brainstorm from “theme idea” lists, those nouns or short phrases (war vs. peace, coming of age, love, survival, etc.) aren’t themes until we figure out what we’re trying to say about that topic.

Theme Questions

To figure out what we’re trying to say with our story, we can begin to define the layers of our themes with big-picture questions:

• Why? Why does our character participate in the story (in the big picture)? Why are we writing this story? (such as: our protagonist believes the world is worth saving, or we want to inspire others to not give up)

Our Why answers help us narrow down what we’re trying to say with our story, which then helps us define our intended themes. Our protagonist could learn to not take life for granted. Our plot events could present reasons and opportunities for our protagonist to give up, but they believe in the importance of their actions and make choices revealing their persistence. And so on.

From Journalism to Storytelling

Taking a page from journalism writing to identify the most important aspects of our story can help us see the big picture as we plan, draft, or edit our story. Using the 5W1H questions forces us to focus on the essence of our story, especially:

• Who are our characters?
• What do they want?
• How are they going to try to get it?
• Why is the story important (to our character(s) and to us)?

Those answers give us direction as we attempt to get our big-picture thoughts onto the page for our readers to enjoy. *smile*

Have you ever struggled to see your story’s big picture or to identify/develop your story’s themes? Does this framework of using specific questions to define our story’s essence make sense to you? Do you have any questions about story vs. plot vs. theme or how to apply these questions?

JAMI GOLD - Resident Writing Coach

Jami Gold put her talent for making up stuff to good use, such as by winning the 2015 National Readers’ Choice Award in Paranormal Romance for her novel Ironclad Devotion.

To help others reach their creative potential, she’s developed a massive collection of resources for writers. Explore her site to find worksheets—including the popular Romance Beat Sheet with 80,000+ downloads—workshops, and over 1000 posts on her blog about the craft, business, and life of writing. Her site has been named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer’s Digest. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with Jami below.

The post Story vs. Plot vs. Theme: Know Your 5Ws and H appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

So…symbolism. We’re pretty familiar with this storytelling element, and I’m guessing most of us have experimented with the use of symbols in our writing. In a nutshell, you take an object, word, color, phrase, etc., and apply it in a story to give it a deeper meaning:

Tolkien’s one ring (evil) in Lord of the Rings
The floating feather (destiny/fate) in Forrest Gump
A Mockingjay (rebellion) in The Hunger Games

Some symbols are super obvious; other times, readers have more of a subconscious awareness that the object is really meant to represent X. Either way, when a symbol is deliberately included in a creative work, it’s almost always saying something about the story’s theme.

But theme … this one isn’t as easy to grasp. So let’s talk about this storytelling element and how you can use it along with symbolism to strengthen your writing.

What Is Theme?

The theme of a story is the central message that explores a universal concept. Nature, good vs. evil, freedom—ideas like these are common to the human experience, and when we include them in our writing, readers tend to engage with them and connect with the text and the characters on a deeper level.

But thematic ideas themselves aren’t typically so neutral. The author will often bring their own worldview and perspective to bear on a given concept to form a thematic statement that supports a specific perspective:

We’re all part of the circle of life. (The Lion King)
Every human has equal capacity for good and evil. (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
Freedom requires sacrifice. (Braveheart)

Typically, this statement emerges and is proven out through the protagonist’s journey. They may start out embracing the thematic statement, which is challenged along the way by other ideas, but it survives the test of time and holds true. (Or the protagonist refuses to embrace that statement, ensuring in most cases that the story ends in tragedy.)

Alternatively, the hero may come to the story with a contrasting statement that is eventually proven wrong. And in some cases, the protagonist has no particular dog in the thematic fight; they arrive on page one without an opinion either way about the main idea. But by the final pages, the people they’ve encountered and trials they’ve faced have made them believers in the thematic statement.

As authors, we’re orchestrating this process. Sometimes it happens subconsciously, with our deeply rooted opinions organically making their way onto the pages as we write. But others take a more strategic approach to theme; they know what idea they’re trying to get across. It’s just a matter of figuring out the best way to do it.

Well, good news! We’ve got some tried-and-true methods for you to do just that.

Use the Whole Cast Via…

Contrasting Thematic Statements. If you’ve done your character creation homework, you’ve assembled a cast that is diverse in experience, personality, and mindset. As a result, each player will see the thematic idea from their own perspective. Allow readers to explore the central idea through the lens of those different viewpoints.

For instance, greed is the concept being explored in the movie Wall Street, and the players involved all see it a little differently. Protagonist Bud is a clean slate, with no preconceived ideas about it. His mentor lives by the mantra “Greed is Good,” and he has the money and moral ambiguity to prove it. Bud’s father, a hardworking blue-collar family man, believes that strength of character and being able to look yourself in the eye are more important than being rich. Bud’s girlfriend doesn’t reference greed overtly, but her ability to be bought says volumes. These viewpoints all leave an impression on Bud, formulating his ideas and influencing his journey to finally understanding and embracing his truth about the theme of greed.

Surround your protagonist with characters whose thematic statements contrast with his own. As the story unfolds and conflicts arise, the characters will respond based on their preconceived ideas about the theme. This will allow you to convey the idea you’re wanting to get across.

Personality Traits. We’re largely defined by our values, and this comes through in the traits that define us. The same is true for our characters. Someone who is honorable will look at greed differently than someone who is materialistic, selfish, or even ambitious. Likewise for an idealist vs. a cynic. Personality will naturally impact your character’s opinions and values, so whatever theme you want to explore, give each character the negative and/or positive traits that will make their beliefs about it make sense.

Experiences. A character’s ideals will also be influenced by their experiences. Let’s take, for example, a theme of family. Someone who grew up in a tight-knit, got-your-back family may swear by the adage that blood is thicker than water. But a character who was abandoned by their parents and has had to cobble together their own support system may believe that family is what you make it. Being raised in a home defined by rigid rules, strict punishments, and condemnation could cause someone to feel that family is a prison that must be escaped. Each character’s history—the good and the bad—will contribute to their personal ideas about your story theme. Set them up to have their own ideas about the theme by giving them the backstories that will support those beliefs.

PRO TIP: Your characters’ traits, experiences, and personal biases will influence how they approach the story theme, so it’s important for you to know these driving factors in your cast members.

For this reason, we’ve structured the entries of One Stop for Writer’s Theme and Symbolism Thesaurus so you can explore these aspects for your characters and make smart decisions about their thematic statements. We’ve added 30 new entries to this collection and are in the process of updating the existing entries to include this helpful information, but you can see an example here.

Use Symbols to Reinforce Thematic Statements and Ideas

Once you know the thematic statement you’d like to convey, an effective way to reinforce that idea is with some strategically chosen and placed symbols. Theme is abstract, but symbols turn it into something solid and concrete that readers can easily grasp. When it comes to finding the right symbols to reinforce your idea, keep the following options in mind.

Universal Symbols. While nothing is truly universal, certain objects are widely associated with certain themes, making them easier for readers to interpret. After all, they instinctively know that snakes symbolize evil, spring represents new beginnings, and a crown indicates royalty, so a universal symbol will make those references very clear.

However, because they’re used so often to stand for the same things, these objects can become a bit clichéd. If you’re worried about that and would like to go a more original direction, use something that’s unique to the character, instead.

Personal Symbols. These can be quite powerful because they relate directly to the character and their individual story. These objects can also contain inherent emotion because of the character’s connection to them.

Consider a woman who is defined by two things: she’s a competitive runner who has often been the victim of discrimination. A second-place marathon ribbon is in a prominent place in her study. It’s quite a prize, but to her, it doesn’t represent achievement or talent: it’s the moment success was stolen from her when she was sabotaged by another runner out of pure prejudice, a constant reminder of how important it is to keep fighting injustice and never giving up.

This unorthodox object as a symbol of injustice, discrimination, or possibly vengeance is original and makes perfect sense for this character. The strong emotional connection also stirs up a lot of emotion, which is always a good idea.

Symbols Within Symbols. If you’re looking for a fresh symbol, explore big devices for the gold nugget that may be hiding within. Weddings, for example, often represent a new beginning. But maybe the ceremony itself has been a little overdone in this context. To find something original that conveys the same meaning, go deeper into the wedding itself. The marriage certificate, a cake topper, the bride’s veil—even something as innocuous as the dried rose petals that were scattered by the flower girl on the big day can be used.

The little people, places, events, and objects associated with a bigger symbol can represent the same thing. Explore these micro options to come up with some unique symbolism choices to sprinkle throughout your story.

Symbols are potent, affecting how we feel about the chosen items. Themes are even more so because they get us thinking by challenging our ideas and deepest beliefs. Used together, your story’s theme and the symbols you use to reinforce it can create a deeper, more meaningful experience for readers.

For a list of themes and the symbols representing each, visit our Theme and Symbolism Thesaurus Database at One Stop for Writers.

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One Stop for Writers is celebrating seven years this week with a 25% discount on all plans.

Whether you are an existing subscriber or you plan to become one to take advantage of all the powerful tools and resources there, grab this code and make your wallet happy. See you at One Stop!

BECCA PUGLISI

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post Themes and Symbols Go Together Like Peas and Carrots appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Successful stories are often ones whose elements are employed subtly. You may not be able to say exactly why they work, and as a reader, you probably don’t care; you just like the feeling of rightness that settles in as you read.

Theme is one of those important elements that are quietly working in the background of a strong story. This central idea, pulled deliberately or subconsciously from the author’s individual worldview, acts as an anchoring thread that connects the other elements and creates a sense of cohesion. But writing theme into a story can be tricky. If you’re too obvious, you risk whacking people over the head with it, and your story becomes preachy. If you’re too subtle, readers may not pick up on the message at all.

So how do we incorporate theme into our story with just the right amount of touch? One surprisingly effective way is to use the character’s job.

The movie Up in the Air expertly explores the theme of isolation, and it’s done largely through protagonist Ryan’s occupation as a Career Transition Counselor: corporations hire him to fire their employees for them. He travels 270 days a year, which leaves him very little time to connect with others, and he loves it. He loves it so much that when a young upstart introduces new video technology that would allow Ryan to fire people virtually from the comfort of his own home office, he sets about to dismantle her idea before it dismantles his entire way of life.

Ryan’s job highlights the theme of isolation on a number of levels. 

First, the job itself: he fires people for a living. He is essentially the agent of isolation, forcibly removing people from the jobs that have provided them with satisfaction, purpose, and their work community. These people quickly unravel and lose their moorings, as we see in so many of the exit interviews he conducts.

Secondly, his career underscores Ryan’s own isolation. Because he’s never home, his apartment is sterile and completely without personality; the hotel rooms he stays in while working are more welcoming. And the get-in-get-out nature of the job ensures that he doesn’t have time to make meaningful connections on the road, either.

Ryan states in the opening monologue that he likes his carefree lifestyle and thinks it’s working for him. But the additional touchpoints via his job keep quietly reminding viewers of his isolated existence. And in the end, when he realizes that he’s no longer satisfied with his choices, those same touchpoints beautifully contrast his former viewpoint—once again highlighting the theme.

How can we use a character’s job to explore the important ideas in our own stories?

Identify Your Theme

Authors can arrive at their theme a number of ways. Sometimes, they know from the very beginning which idea is going to play a part in their story. Others begin blindly, with no theme in mind, only to see it emerging subconsciously as they draft. Either method works; once you’ve identified your theme, you either build it in when planning or backtrack once the first draft is finished to incorporate it more firmly into the story. 

Choose a Job for Your Character That Relates to That Theme

Then it becomes a simple matter of choosing a career that allows you to shine a light on your central idea. For instance, if obstacles is a theme in your story, your protagonist could be a truck driver or outdoor guide who encounters physical roadblocks in their day-to-day life. Or they might be a therapist whose patients are constantly dealing with emotional or mental barricades. Careers like these will offer many opportunities for that theme to be revisited in ways that make sense for the story itself.

It should also be noted that it doesn’t have to be the main character’s career that highlights the story’s theme. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas deals largely with the idea of innocence, but Bruno, the nine-year-old protagonist, is too young to hold a job. His father, however, is not. His occupation as the commandant of Auschwitz provides many chances to highlight the concept of innocence—as it relates to the boy himself but also to the inhabitants of the concentration camp in Bruno’s backyard. 

Experiment with Contrast

Because theme should be subtle, some careers may be too obvious. A nun highlighting the theme of purity or a slave in a story about enslavement may be too “on the nose.” These very well may work, but if you’d rather go with something more covert, consider a purposeful contrast. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company can be free in the most literal sense while being enslaved to obligations, public perception, or the fear of losing his money. Purity could just as poignantly be explored through its lack in the life of a prostitute, assassin, or con artist. Contrast can be very effective, and there are so many jobs that could work; to brainstorm possibilities for your story, check out our book, The Occupation Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Jobs, Vocations, and Careers.

A Caveat

This method of tying the theme to an occupation can work most of the time—but not if your project calls for a specific career. If you’ve written a story about a treasure hunter, for example, then you already know your character’s occupation and you’ll need to find other ways to flesh out the theme. But most of the time, as in real life, your character has career options. Finding one that ties in to your theme is a great way to pull multiple elements together and give readers the sense of Aaahhhh that comes from a cohesive and satisfying story.

For more information on incorporating theme into your story, check out our Theme and Symbolism Thesaurus at One Stop for Writers.

BECCA PUGLISI

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and its sequels. Her books are available in five languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog and via One Stop For Writers—a powerhouse online library created to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post Use a Character’s Career to Support Your Story’s Theme appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Let’s face it, some of our characters have to die. Sure, we may have spent hours (days, weeks, decades?) shaping them, planning their backstory, filling their hearts with hopes and dreams. But in the end, it just isn’t their time to shine.

So…

That deer crosses the icy road at the wrong time.

The cable hoisting a plate glass window to the third story breaks.

Or the psycho with the ax chooses your character like he’s Pikachu.

Tragic, right?

But here’s the thing: when it comes to killing, there’s a time and place.

We don’t kill because the scene needs some spice.
We don’t kill because we’ve spotted a plot hole, and killing a character seals it off.
We don’t kill when it’s the easy way out. (Bring on the suffering!)
We don’t randomly kill someone to show readers how bad our baddie is.

And most of all, we don’t kill 1) when the death serves no purpose or 2) if readers aren’t invested in the character. So, make sure the death pushes the story forward in some way and readers have a soft spot for the target (Rue from Hunger Games, for example) before you snuff them out. Emotional currency is king.

I know, I know, you’ve got a sad now, like I smashed your ice cream cone on the ground. So here’s when you can kill:

To Remove Your Character’s Support System

Sometimes our characters must hit rock bottom or lose everything before they can find inner strength. Taking away their safety net can trigger devolution or evolution and support their arc’s trajectory.

To Support the Story’s Theme

Sometimes, there is a cost to holding to a belief or following a certain path, and death may be necessary to fully underscore the weight of the story’s theme. Sometimes, there is no justice. Evil triumphs instead of good. Safety is an illusion. Love means sacrifice, or finding one’s purpose in life may mean surrendering to it. Think about your theme and if this death will support the underlying meaning of the story.

To Show the Cost of Failure

Stakes can be primal, and it needs to be clear to everyone, including readers, when failure means death. If you go this route, invest time into the sacrificial character. Give them goals, needs, and people they would do anything for. Most of all, make readers care about them so their death has an impact.

Because They Had It Coming

Some people deserve to die. They take risks, fail to heed advice, or are just plain toxic and awful. To show the cause and effect of their actions or provide a satisfying death scene for readers, take the character out in a way that makes sense, is ironic, or rings of poetic justice.

See? Lots of good options for killing. Challenge yourself to make it count so it serves the story.

If you’d like to grab this “When to Kill a Character” checklist to save and print, go here.

How do you decide when to kill a character? Who was it, and why did you do it?

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post When to Kill a Character appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

It’s no secret that side characters can be amazing in their own right. Great side characters feel like real people–even if the focus isn’t on them. They have lives that exist beyond the scope of the protagonist. When they seem to exist only to help or exacerbate the protagonist, they lack authenticity.

With that said, untamed side characters can water down a strong story, or worse, steal the story. While we don’t want our characters to be exact copies of each other (unless, of course, you’re writing a story about characters being exact copies), it can be helpful to examine the main character and his or her journey to bring balance, depth, and meaning to your cast. After all, side characters are also called supporting characters, which means they are meant to support the protagonist’s journey, not take away from it. 

In her book, Story Genius, Lisa Cron explains that while we need to develop secondary characters that have their own driving agendas, realizations, and often, own arcs, we also need to create them with this purpose in mind: “to help facilitate the protagonist’s story.”

She writes, “This means that although each one of them could stand alone as a full-fledged human being . . . you’ll create them and their beliefs so they will naturally facilitate your protagonist’s story.”

Consider what role the character plays in the protagonist’s journey, and develop the character with that in mind. What kind of qualities and attitudes are going to challenge your protagonist? What does your protagonist need to learn from this person? Who would uncover a new side of your protagonist? It’s possible to fully brainstorm a side character who actually doesn’t interact well with your protagonist. But when you consider these questions and similar ones, you’re more likely to create a side character who offers meaningful exchanges. 

(Explore different types of character relationships here.)

If the character is an ally, some writers feel compelled to make him or her too similar to the protagonist. In reality, it’s often more interesting if the ally contrasts the protagonist. In Pixar’s Soul, the protagonist, Joe Gardner, has a thirst for life (jazz, specifically), but he is allied with 22, who has no desire to even be born. This contrast brings each character into sharper focus, balances out the story, and provides more opportunities for meaningful discussions. 

Likewise, if the character is an opponent, it’s often more effective to emphasize a likeness between that character and the protagonist. In Soul, Terry functions as the antagonist, trying to bring Joe to the Great Beyond. Like Joe, Terry is so obsessed with fulfilling his purpose (to count the dead), that he’s blind to the inspiring things happening around him: Joe helping 22 finally find her spark. Like Joe, Terry is also aspiring to a moment of recognition–he wants the Jerries to recognize him with an award for him doing his job. 

It may be helpful to consider much of the side characters as foils and mirrors of the protagonist and his situation. We can see how this balances out in Soul. Joe’s mom foils him by pressuring him to take a practical job. On the other hand, Dorothea Williams reflects what Joe wants to become. Dez foils Joe by letting go of his veterinarian dreams and becoming a barber. Connie reflects his passion for music. Paul foils by being someone who never went after his dreams. . . .

In a sense, each of these characters represents a different moment of or outcome to the journey Joe is on. In his book, The Structure of Story, Ross Hartmann refers to these characters as clones (a term that comes from award-winning screenwriter Brian McDonald). Hartmann writes, “a clone character . . . is a way for us to show what could, should, or might happen to a character if they take a particular path. . . . [We can] use a clone character to convey information about where the character is headed or might be headed either philosophically, emotionally, or physically.” 

The supporting cast is also more balanced when it contains different types of arcs, which tap into the protagonist’s journey. A character may change positively or negatively, or hold steadfast (remaining more or less the same) positively or negatively. In the film, Marley & Me, the protagonist, John, changes positively as he learns to embrace the adventures of domestic life. Marley, who already embraces the adventures of domestic life, remains the same, positively, throughout the film. John’s friend Sebastian dismisses domestic life to go on career-driven adventures instead, remaining the same negatively. Had the filmmakers wanted to, they could have added a fourth character who leaves the adventures of domestic life to fully focus on her career, which would have been a negative change character (within the context of the story). 

Because the protagonist’s journey also plays into a story’s theme, balancing out your cast with your protagonist in mind, can help keep your side characters thematically relevant. For more on that topic, I suggest reading “Use Theme to Determine Subplots, Supporting Characters, and Tension.” 

In any case, creating your supporting characters with your protagonist in mind, will likely lead to a more meaningful, balanced cast, and story.

SEPTEMBER C FAWKES - Resident Writing Coach

September C. Fawkes is a freelance editor, writing instructor, and award-winning writing tip blogger. She has edited for award-winning and best-selling authors as well as beginning writers. Her blog won the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers Award, Query Letter’s Top Writing Blog Award and has over 500 writing tips. She offers a live online writing course, “The Triarchy Method,” where she personally guides 10 students through developing their best books by focusing on the “bones” of story.

To learn more, visit SeptemberCFawkes.com and grab her AMAZING free guide on Crafting Powerful Protagonists. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with September below.

The post Balancing Your Cast of Characters appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

“Yesterday.”

A beautiful, beautiful song that easily applies to our writing process. Confused? Go with me for a minute.

It doesn’t matter if we’re a pantser, a plotter, a plotser, a puzzler, or some other mash-up of a writing process (there is no right or wrong process!). There will come a time in our first draft, or second or third, when we look back and realize we’ve missed something super important along the way…something that could not have been revealed until we had the space to look back.

That’s important. Keep that in mind as we continue.

So how does a Beatles song apply to our writing? Let’s find out.

Yesterday – The First Act

When writing the first act, we’re often in that I’m in love! phase with our book. The characters are finding their voice, the story we’ve had brimming inside is finally getting onto the page, and there’s a powerful, creative energy for this amazing story idea.

Yesterday
All my troubles seemed so far away

Sure, it’s not easy. For some of us, it may be the hardest act to write. (ahem.)

But while we’re in the first act, plot holes don’t exist, boring side characters haven’t revealed themselves yet, lack of suspense or action or romance hasn’t occurred, because we are still so early in the process.

Then, we enter act two and act three—which have their own share of problems. Even if we’ve painstakingly plotted, scenes that arrive later in the story might throw our original vision off course. And sometime in these later two acts, it can feel as if our troubles are here to stay.

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

A Shadow Hanging Over Me

Suddenly
I’m not half the man I used to be
There’s a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly

In the later acts, it may feel as if there’s a shadow hanging over our words. 

Something’s changed somewhere, or we feel we have missed an opportunity to deepen the story…but because the story has not been completely written, we don’t have the clarity or distance to see where we’ve gone astray. 

We all have different ways of dealing with this, from puzzling our scenes together and connecting them at the very end of our process, or sticking to our story outline no matter what…even if a scene is no longer working…or making a note in the margin and moving on, trusting ourselves to fix it later and praying we’re not writing ourselves into a corner.

But that shadow. It can really dampen the writing spirit.

Now I Long for Yesterday

Why she had to go, I don’t know
She wouldn’t say
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday

Hey. It happens. Hindsight is 20/20, or so they say. At the very least, hindsight lets us see the path we’ve traveled, and where we could have taken different steps to shorten our journey or saved ourselves from some hard bumps along the way.

Lucky for us, we’re writers.

We actually do get to go back and rewrite the early acts of our story.

Some editing insights happen only after we’ve written “The End”:

• Strengthen Theme – What is the central emotion, lesson, or question that our story radiates from? Does our theme run through the entire story, or do we allude to it once and then forget about it?
• Deepen Character – especially side characters – What is their goal? Do they reach it by the end of the story, or do they fail? How can we better set up their faults and strengths to help them reach or not reach their goals by the end?
• Fill In Character Motivation – Sometimes we don’t understand a character’s motivation until the end (why does Snape keep protecting Harry Potter??)…and then we have to set up the beginning motivation to better support the end.

And then, there’s this little thing I like to think of as the subconscious story mind. It’s magical.

Oh, I Believe in Yesterday

Yesterday
Love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday

The magical Subsconscious Story Mind (SSM) is both a mindset and an editing bullet point.

Oh, I believe in yesterday is such a perfect lyric to describe the SSM. 

Our magical SSM understands more than our conscious brain does. It gets our story themes even before we do. 

You know those lightbulb moments you get as you’re reading your first draft for the first time? Somehow, you’ve made a subtle scene the impetus for a majorly important end scene…and you didn’t even plan it that way!

Looking back at our first act…after our story is written…gives us the ability to bring our subconscious genius to our conscious story. We get to utilize the full, creative magic of applying 20/20 wisdom to our ‘yesterday,’ 

Don’t miss out on this, the magic of yesterday. Not only that, but believe in yesterday. It’ll get you through the shadows that hang over your writing process. Trust your SSM.

You have left yourself clues in your story. Now, it’s time for you, author, to dig up those clues, bring them out of your story’s subconscious and closer to your story’s surface. 

These are clues our reader can stumble across and have an even more satisfying conclusion to our story. Like Snape casting a secret counter spell, use your SSM and yesterday magic to create plot twists, strengthen the story theme, and hook your readers in for not only this story, but for all your books yet to come.

CHRISTINA DELAY - Resident Writing Coach

Christina Delay is an award-winning author of psychological suspense, as well as mythological-based fantasy written under the pen name Kris Faryn. A wanderer by heart, Christina’s latest adventure has led her and her family to the southwest of France. When not planning their next quest, Christina can be found writing in her garden, hosting writing retreats, sneaking in a nap, or convincing her patooties to call her Empress. If you love books about complex characters who never know when to quit, with a good bit of will-they or won’t-they tension, check out her books.

The post Yesterday: Looking Back at the First Act appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

OVERVIEW
A firefighter is a rescuer who extinguishes and prevents fires that threaten life, property, and the environment. They also respond to car accidents, chemical spills, natural disasters, and engage in water rescues. Many firefighters are certified EMTs, administering first aid until paramedics arrive. They complete inspections, educate the public on preventing fires, and conduct investigations, particularly if arson is suspected. When they’re not responding to an emergency, they work on call at a fire station, maintaining vehicles and tools, staying physically fit, conducting drills, and keeping up to date with industry changes. Because shifts can last 24-48 hours, they often eat and sleep at the station.

NECESSARY TRAINING
Firefighters need a high school diploma or equivalent. Some choose to complete a two-year degree in fire science, but it is not always a requirement. They receive training at a fire academy, where they must be interviewed and pass written, physical, and psychological tests.

USEFUL SKILLS, TALENTS, OR ABILITIES
Basic first aid, empathy, enhanced hearing, enhanced sense of smell, equanimity, high pain tolerance, knowledge of explosives, stamina, strength, strong breath control, swift-footedness

HELPFUL CHARACTER TRAITS
Adventurous, alert, analytical, bold, calm, cautious, compulsive, confident, confrontational, cooperative, courageous, decisive, disciplined, efficient, fanatical, focused, fussy, humorless, intelligent, objective, observant, persistent, protective, pushy, resourceful, responsible, sensible, unselfish

SOURCES OF FRICTION
Sustaining an injury due to someone’s incompetence (a firefighter, volunteer, reckless member of the public, etc.)
A fellow firefighter dying in a fire
Strained personal relationships due to the inherent danger of the work
A challenging fire investigation
An accusation of misconduct or poor decision-making by higher ups who were not on scene
Long and unusual working hours, including 24-hour shifts, holidays, and weekends
Living in the firehouse with people who have clashing personalities
Private firefighting companies competing with traditional firefighters for jobs
Showing fear in front of other firefighters
Managing post-traumatic stress
Repeated exposure to trauma
The physical demands of carrying heavy gear or working in extreme temperatures
The weight of responsibility as a rescuer
Having to fight for government funding year after year
Losing someone in a fire and feeling responsible

PEOPLE THEY MIGHT INTERACT WITH
The fire chief, other firefighters (paid and volunteer), members of the public, police officers, paramedics, fire inspectors, fire investigators, public servants, reporters, psychologists, search and rescue training specialists

HOW THIS OCCUPATION MIGHT IMPACT THE CHARACTER’S NEEDS
Self-Actualization: In high-intensity situations, firefighters might struggle to problem solve. They may be faced with difficult moral decisions, such as saving one person over another. The lack of control in some situations may be hard to square with, especially if a firefighter is highly empathetic, and leave them wondering if this is the career for them.
Esteem and Recognition: Lives may be lost while a firefighter is on the job, resulting in guilt, shame, and possibly post-traumatic stress, all of which may lower self-worth.
Safety and Security: Firefighters work near traffic accidents, buildings with compromised structures, swift-moving water, and active fires, making this is an extremely dangerous profession.
Physiological Needs: Firefighters place their lives on the line in many of the situations they face, so this is a need that is definitely threatened on the job.

TWISTING THE FICTIONAL STEREOTYPE
Firefighters do more than serve the federal or local municipalities; they also work at ports, airports, for the armed services, and for chemical, nuclear, and gas and oil industries. Why not switch up your character’s workplace to bring a fresh twist to the page?

Firefighting is an overwhelmingly male occupation. Consider crafting a female character who can meet the demanding physical, emotional, and mental requirements of the job.

The public inherently trusts firefighters. You could keep this in mind and craft a character that defies stereotypes and surprises the reader.

CHARACTERS MIGHT CHOOSE THIS PROFESSION BECAUSE THEY…
Grew up with a family member in the same profession
Want to make up for a perceived past mistake where they failed to rescue someone
Desire to serve the public in a meaningful way
View camaraderie with other firefighters as a substitute for family
Are drawn to exciting activities and want a job that keeps them active
Want to channel their adrenaline-junkie tendencies into a healthy outlet
Are fascinated with fire

The Occupation Thesaurus has 124 different job profiles like the one above, giving you a range of diverse, contemporary options for your characters along with a deep dive into this important (and yet often under-utilized) area of characterization. Get ready to unlock the storytelling power of occupations!

Reviews from Goodreads

“The Occupation Thesaurus is yet another priceless author resource released in this series…”

“[Angela & Becca’s books] have helped me throughout my successful children’s writing career and when I made the jump to Indie and Romance. This one, The Occupation Thesaurus has to be one of my faves…”

“I’m a retired therapist and I’ve never realized until I read this book that a person’s job, even an insignificant one, carried so much weight in a story and that readers subliminally pick up on it…”

“Angela and Becca go into great detail on the many, many professions presented in this book. Each entry is incredibly well thought out and well researched…”

Add this book to my Goodreads shelf
Find out more about this volume
See the full list of entries in this book
Buy the book in print and ebook or PDF versions

ANGELA ACKERMAN

Angela is a writing coach, international speaker, and bestselling author who loves to travel, teach, empower writers, and pay-it-forward. She also is a founder of One Stop For Writers, a portal to powerful, innovative tools to help writers elevate their storytelling.

The post The Occupation Thesaurus: Firefighter appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

What Is A Structural Toolbox?

Put simply, a structural toolbox is the foundation work all writers need to put in to ensure they …

• understand how structure works
• can apply structural techniques to their writing

Think of it as a collection of tools you have to hand in order to identify and fix your stories. This is why I like to call it a structural toolbox! 

An important thing to remember on structure is that one size will definitely NOT fit all. Different stories will call for different solutions … Just like different DIY jobs around the home will require different tools.

Why Writers Don’t Like Studying Structure

If this seems pretty obvious stuff, that’s because it is. However, lots of writers will resist developing their structural toolbox.

Their reasons for this may vary, but here’s the most common reasons I’ve bumped up against when working with writers …

• ‘My stories arrive in my head ‘fully formed”. Let’s be clear: NO ONE’s stories stay the same from the moment of conception through to completion. Not even veteran uber-writers like Stephen King’s.
• ‘Structure is ‘just’ a formula anyway.’ Actually, it’s a framework: ‘beginning-middle-end’. All stories need these three things, whether they’re linear or non-linear. It’s a framework we’re all familiar with since childhood. But we’re arguing semantics and this objection is, at its roots, redundant.
• ‘This is just overthinking / writing guru BS.’ It’s definitely true that writers can go down the rabbithole too much on any element related to the craft of writing. It’s also true there’s a whole industry dedicated to encouraging them to do this. That said, there’s always a middle ground. Understanding the many different ways structure can work, such as all the different plotting archetypes, can actually ENHANCE our writing.
• ‘The structure will change in the development process anyway.’ These writers are correct, it probably will. That said, if we don’t know where we are starting and why, then we are very likely to get lost in ‘development hell’. It’s like starting out for a particular destination with no map … you wouldn’t, would you?
• ‘This is what I’m paying script editors like YOU for!’ Some writers may say it’s ‘impossible’ to diagnose structural issues by themselves, so they need script editors like Bang2write to tell them where they’re going wrong. But here’s the kicker: even if I tell them how to fix their structure problems, they still can’t … Because if they don’t truly understand how structure works, then they’re flying blind.

I get it. Developing a structural toolbox is a LOT of work. But when writers are urged to ‘work on their craft’, this is what is meant. What’s more, no writer ever regretted knowing more about structure!

How To Develop Your Own Structural Toolbox

i) Read widely and make notes

Find out about all the different ways of looking at structure and plotting … there’s lots of them! Whether you’re writing novels or screenplays, you will discover there’s multiple ways of describing how that framework goes together.

Here are some books that B2W recommends most often:

• Poetics by Aristotle
• Writing Fiction: A User-Friendly Guide by James Essinger
• Into The Woods by John Yorke
• Constructing A Story by Yves Lavandier
• Save The Cat by Blake Snyder
• The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker

Make plenty of notes, however you seem fit. You will notice in the course of these notes that you find some of the structural approaches very illuminating. Others will confirm what you already think.

There will also be approaches you feel are unnecessarily complicated, or you even vehemently disagree with. This is good!

ii) Decide how YOU see structure working

You will notice the books above focus on primarily screenwriting. This is because ‘screenwriting is structure’ (ie. it is plot-led). With this in mind then (and having read a LOT of writing craft books!), I believe screenwriting books to be the most useful sources of information on structure.

I also believe screenwriting and novel writing to be the same at foundation level in terms of actual storytelling … concept, structure, character. I call these the ‘B2W Holy Trinity’.

This means I approach writing my novels in exactly the same way as I write screenplays, or work with screenwriters on their scripts. I didn’t do this by accident. I worked on my craft, identified how I personally saw structure working and developed my structural toolbox accordingly.

iii) Understand the link

Lots of writers argue about whether character or structure is ‘more’ important. This is a pointless debate, because character and structure are a symbiotic relationship.

We don’t read or watch stories ‘about characters’ … We want to read or watch stories ‘about characters who DO something, for SOME REASON.’ 

By understanding how character and structure are linked, we can ensure every beat in our story reveals character and advances the plot.

iv) Use visuals, outlines, post-its, beat sheets & worksheets

Reading books about structure are a great start, but can be a bit dry. What’s more, theorising on the craft of writing does not always suit everyone. So here’s a few more ideas to add to your structural toolbox …

• Use visual representations to learn about structure. There’s countless diagrams, pictograms and drawings online to illustrate how structure and plotting works. For a collection of them to start you off, CLICK HERE.
• Always outline first. Whether we like outlining or not, facts are facts: outlining means you avoid structural problems. This is why the industry (particularly in TV) will insist on writers outlining first, but even novelists benefit from it. MORE HERE.
• Using Post-It Notes, index cards, whiteboards, beat Sheets. Writing out the ‘beats’ (aka important events/ moments) of your plot really helps you see whether your story is in the ‘right’ order. TV writers’ rooms often use post-it notes on the wall, index cards or white boards to do this. Physically moving these beats around can really aid your plotting, especially if you prefer to work in a more instinctive way. Alternatively, writing a beat sheet or set of bullet points may help.
• Use worksheets. ‘Drawing the story’ can really help, too. There’s lots of FREE worksheets online to do this. I created one for Bang2writers which you can grab too, HERE.

(Another story structure option: One Stop for Writers’ Story Map.)

v) Keep Learning!

The more you read and learn about structure, the more you realize everyone is more or less saying the same thing … just in different ways.  By appreciating this, we can develop our own vocabulary to describe how OUR writing works. We can also continuously add to our toolbox in terms of solutions for common structural issues.

This has the added bonus of helping us to protect our work when it’s in development with publishers, producers and others. After all, if we understand exactly WHY a structural rewrite will undermine our protagonist’s worldview and mission, we can avoid this and offer another solution instead. We then don’t end up in what B2W calls ‘The Story Swamp’ or the film industry calls ‘Development Hell’.

Good Luck!

LUCY V. HAY - Resident Writing Coach

Lucy V. Hay is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. She’s been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for 20 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. She’s also an author, publishing as both LV Hay and Lizzie Fry.  Lizzie’s latest, a serial killer thriller titled The Good Mother is out now with Joffe Books, with her sixth thriller out in 2024. Lucy’s site at www.bang2write.com has appeared in Top 100 round-ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life, as well as a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK (ninth in the world.). She is also the author of the bestselling non-fiction book, Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays: From TV Pilot To Feature Film (Creative Essentials), which she updated for the streaming age for its tenth anniversary in 2023.

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