Great novels don’t hook readers by accident. They strategically build up tension and feelings, then release them at just the right moment. This perfect timing isn’t about fancy writing tricks; it’s baked into how the story itself is built.

When a story pulls readers through the pages so smoothly they forget all about the clock, it’s not just clever words doing the work—it’s smart structure doing its job. That irresistible “just one more chapter” feeling happens when the story’s building blocks create a natural flow that keeps readers turning pages without even thinking about it.

Stories built on four-act structure (three-act structure minus the oversized, saggy middle) hit those sweet spots consistently. These natural turning points occur at the quarter mark, halfway point, and three-quarter mark, never allowing any section of the story to drag on too long.

Missing these points by a substantial margin results in a misshapen book with sagging or surging momentum. A lumbering, oversized Act 1 bores readers by taking too long to get moving. A missing midpoint creates that notorious bane of three-act story structure, the “mushy middle.” And a mistimed dark moment, one that hits too soon or straggles in too late, can make even a potentially explosive climax fall flat.

Applying story structure to your novel doesn’t imply blind adherence to some lockstep formula. What it suggests is the wisdom of tapping into a storytelling form readers already get—the same ups and downs that have made stories work since people first shared them around the fire.

That pattern shows up everywhere, from novels to movies to symphonies. “It is interesting to note that within the structure of classical music for several centuries known as sonata form, the first act of three was called Exposition, followed by Development and Recapitulation,” notes screenwriter Scott Myers. It’s no accident these sound familiar—they’re the same building blocks of the four-act structure we recognize in novels.

Act 1: Exposition As the story opens, readers discover the character’s situation and witness their internal disunity.

Act 2: Development The character reacts to the story challenge, which puts pressure on their internal issues, beginning the process of deconstruction.

Act 3: Development When their initial efforts don’t pay off, the character pushes for more proactive progress. They may already be reconstructing their internal balance.

Act 4: Recapitulation External forces (plot) and internal forces (character arc) come together to achieve synthesis, unity, and resolution.

The mix of plot and character through these four phases gives your story its momentum. Early on, readers feel they’re on a journey headed somewhere specific. Each act pulls them closer to what they think is the story’s destination. And those turning points between acts? They’re the rocket fuel that launches readers from one part to the next.

Turning Point 1

Between Act 1 and Act 2, about 25% into the story

Turning Point 1 inextricably tangles the protagonist in the story’s web. It’s that big moment when they have to deal with the main story conflict head on, whether they want to or not, as the story ship irrevocably leaves the dock for a specific destination or goal.

How does Turning Point 1 serve readers?  By now, readers have plowed through a good chunk of your book, about 20 to 25 percent. That’s a real investment of time. If your main character is still just poking around the story’s starting situation at this point, readers might decide there’s no real point to your story—and they’ll bail.

Books that suck readers in often hit that first big turning point earlier than the textbook quarter mark, often around 20% in. This gives readers that crucial “I need to know how this turns out” feeling before they have a chance to get bored.

Turning Point 2

Between Act 2 and Act 3, about 50% into the story

Turning Point 2, the midpoint complication, injects a fundamental plot twist that flips your protagonist’s strategy on its head. Whatever they tried in the first half of the book just isn’t cutting it, or something big has changed or come to light—and now they need a new approach. The early plan (the easy way) isn’t working anymore; now your character has to push beyond what they thought would be necessary or what they believe they can handle (the hard way).

How does Turning Point 2 serve readers? Stories can’t feel like a laundry list of “All the Stuff I Gotta Take Care of Before the Inevitable Climax.” The midpoint keeps your story from bogging down in a monotonous slog toward the same old goal.

Turning Point 3

Between Act 3 and Act 4, about 75% into the story

Turning Point 3 pulls all the conflicts together, creating your protagonist’s absolute low point, their “dark night of the soul.” With hope seemingly extinguished and success looking impossible, this moment sets up everything that follows, making the final resolution meaningful instead of simply predictable.

How does Turning Point 3 serve readers? This rock-bottom moment gives your character somewhere to push off from as they rally for the climax. For readers, it cranks up the suspense. Can your protagonist really pull this off? How? This turning point hits readers with that emotional gut-punch showing exactly what will be lost if your character gives up now. It turns readers from spectators into allies, cheering your protagonist on: Get back in there. Find your guts. Stand up and fight for what matters.

Irresistible Momentum

These turning points aren’t random checkboxes in some rigid formula—they’re powerful currents that pull stories forward. Each one catapults your story into its next phase with fresh energy and urgency. This natural momentum keeps reading turning pages late into the night, whispering “just one more chapter” despite their 6 a.m. alarm.

That’s the power of turning points: They transform your story from words on a page into a voyage readers can’t help but follow all the way to the end.

LISA POISSO - Resident Writing Coach

Lisa Poisso specializes in helping new and emerging fiction writers. A veteran of the disciplined world of classical dance, she brings that same practiced artistry to writing—where structure, form, and technique are springboards that give you freedom of movement on the page. Explore her Writing & Editing Resources for valuable tools to develop your manuscript, and subscribe to the Writes of Fiction newsletter to receive Lisa’s hand-picked writing advice delivered directly to your inbox. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with Lisa below.

The post Best Ways to Pace Your Story’s Key Moments appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

As you may have heard, we recently released The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility, a companion to The Emotion Thesaurus.

If you aren’t familiar with this term, let me explain. An emotion amplifier is a special state or condition that can make a character emotionally reactive. Whether it’s pain, scrutiny, pregnancy, competition, or other state, when a disruptor messes with a character’s psychological and emotional equilibrium, it’s bad for them, but good for the story. And this is but one way to use them.

Emotion Amplifiers are unbelievably versatile. In addition to making a character volatile, check out how else they can help you level up your story!

1. Amplifiers make it harder for characters to hide what they feel.

Characters are like people–they often mask what they feel to avoid judgment, vulnerability, and the perception that they are weak. But if your character is hungover, enduring high levels of scrutiny, or it’s been ten hours since they last had a cigarette (withdrawal), it becomes harder to keep their emotions in check. A slip–forgetting their filter, telling someone off–and suddenly their emotions are on full display.

2. Amplifiers are great for uncovering a character’s faults, flaws, and sensitivities.

Characters are motivated to control events around them as much as possible, which can make them seem more capable and strong than they actually are. Derailing their plans with an amplifier is a great way to show readers they don’t have it all together and can lose their emotional grip just like anyone else.

3. Amplifiers infuse scenes with tension.

When a character’s stress levels are heightened because of an amplifier like hunger, illness, or pain, the reader becomes glued to the page, wondering if the character will be able to handle the extra strain.

When a reader is unsure of what will happen next, the tension they feel causes them to read on…exactly what we want!

4. Amplifiers generate conflict.

Sometimes your character can manage the strain of an amplifier, and sometimes they can’t. If distraction, sleep deprivation, or even attraction causes your character’s attention to drift, they could fail to spot a threat or worse, taking their situation from bad to worse.

5. Amplifiers can help make a character relatable.

Most amplifiers are common enough that readers have experienced them themselves, or at least know the challenge they represent. So when a character is struggling with something like stress, pressure, or bereavement, readers relate to the character because this situation feels like common ground.

6. Amplifiers pressure characters to deal with their inner conflict.

It can be tempting to ignore personal problems when there’s a difficult decision to be made, but if characters continue to avoid the hard stuff, readers will disengage.

Deploying an amplifier at the right time can make the character’s situation untenable, forcing them to search within and find a way to change their situation for the better, even if this means a cost or sacrifice.

7. Amplifiers provide the opportunity to grow.

In a story, characters should make plenty of mistakes so they can learn from them. Letting emotions take over because of an amplifier like addiction, burnout, or confinement might mean taking a foolish risk, doing or saying something that damages their reputation, or creating big problems for themselves. Dealing with the fallout of bad decisions and emotional volatility will teach them to find a better way next time.

8. Amplifiers support your story’s structure.

Stories contain a framework of turning points and characters must move from one stage to the next for the story to progress. The problem? Fear can make them resistant to take on certain challenges, and they become resistant to leaving their comfort zone. An amplifier like danger, dehydration, arousal, or physical disorientation can force them to march into the unknown so they can secure what they need most.

9. Amplifiers give the story’s premise or conflict scenario a fresh edge.

Stories naturally contain elements and scenarios that will be similar, especially within a genre. The addition of an amplifier, perhaps one like brainwashing, an injury, mental health condition, or intoxication, will help readers see your events as unique, and give you a way to show a character’s individuality in the way that they handle the challenge.

10. Amplifiers encourage readers to connect with your characters on a deeper level.

Amplifiers are familiar to readers as these states and conditions are part of the human experience. When an amplifier brings a character’s emotions close to the surface, readers can’t help but be reminded of their own feelings and humanity. This fosters empathy and connection, and the reader becomes invested in what happens next.

Becca and I explore over 50 amplifiers in this second edition of The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus. As a companion guide, each entry is styled very close to The Emotion Thesaurus. If you’d like a look at the list of amplifiers and a few sample entries from the book, just go here.

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 10 Reasons Why Emotion Amplifiers Are Good for Your Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For the better part of two months, Becca and I have been exploring pain, and how to write about it in fiction. It’s been enlightening for us, and we hope for you as well. So many ways to torture characters, who knew?

(Well, we did. And you did. Pain is sort of our bread and butter, isn’t it?)

But maybe you missed a post or two. It happens. You were on a writing retreat, or vacationing at the lake. Maybe you were hiding out in a sleeping bag in the woods, denying the arrival of fall and Pumpkin Spice Lattes.

Whatever the case may be, we’ve got you. Here are all the posts in this series.

The Three Stages of Awareness

Pain has 3 stages: Before, During, and After. For realistic and logical description, you’ll want to know what all three will look like for your character and the type of injury.

Different Types of Pain to Explore

Discomfort comes in all shapes and sizes, including physical, psychological, and spiritual pain. Mine this post for ideas on how to bring something fresh to your story by targeting a variety of soft spots.

Describing Minor Injuries

Cuts, stings, and scrapes create discomfort and can easily lead to bigger problems. You’ll find loads of descriptive detail for showing smaller injuries here, and how they can make your story more realistic.

Describing Major or Mortal Injuries

Sometimes a wound is serious, casting doubt on whether your character will survive this crisis. Fill your mental toolbox with ideas on what happens when your character is stricken with an injury with no easy fix.

Describing Invisible Injuries and Conditions

Not every injury leaves a physical mark, and when you can’t see it, you don’t know how bad it is. Invisible injuries and conditions are a great vehicle to encourage readers to worry about characters they care about.

Factors that Help or Hinder One’s Ability to Cope

We all hope we’ll cope well when injured, but certain factors make it easier–or harder–to handle pain. This list will help you steer how a character responds!

Taking an Injury from Bad to Worse

No one likes to get hurt, but when circumstances are afoot that cause that injury to worsen? Tension and conflict, baby. So, when you’re feeling evil, read this one to see how you can raise the stakes.

Everyday Ways a Character Can Get Hurt

We want to immerse readers in the character’s everyday world, so it helps to think about where dangers and threats might be lurking so we can create a credible collision with pain that comes from a believable source.

Best Practices for Writing Pain in Fiction

Finally, we round up this series with unmissable tips on how to take pain scenes from good, to great. Authenticity is key, and of course, showing and not telling. Don’t miss these final tips to help you write tense, engaging fiction!

We hope this mother lode of pain posts helps you level up your stories.

Pain is an Emotion Amplifier, and a powerful one at that, so putting in extra effort to showcase it well is worth the time.

Pain presents a challenge for your character while making them more emotionally volatile, and prone to mistakes. This means tension and conflict, drawing readers in!

Pain also helps empathy form because people know pain, and so when a character they care about is battered and bruised, or beset by trauma, readers can’t help but be reminded of their own experiences, and worry over what will happen next.

Other Compilation Posts

If you found this collection of resources helpful, you might be interested in some of our other posts that contain a mother lode of topic-related information.

How to Write about Character Occupations
How to Show (Not Tell) Character Emotions
How to Create Phenomenal First Pages
How to Write Conflict that Has Maximum Impact
How to Choose & Employ Your Character’s Talents and Skills
How to Write about a Character’s Emotional Wounds
How to Use Amplifiers to Stress Characters & Elevate Emotion

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 Want to Show Your Character’s Pain? Here’s Everything You Need to Know 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®.

A new writing guide is joining the family today, so please say hello to the SILVER Edition of The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles.

In this second volume of The Conflict Thesaurus, we continue our in-depth exploration of challenges, roadblocks, adversaries, and hindrances in all forms. Conflict has many superpowers, and is the golden thread that binds plot to arc, providing the complications, setbacks, and derailments that make the character’s inner and outer journeys dynamic.

This book will help you build a story that has conflict at different levels so characters have multiple problems to grapple with. It will also show you how to leverage friction and tension, force characters to make hard choices, and use adversity to provide key life lessons that will lead to growth, so they can become the person they must to achieve meaningful goals.

Here’s a more detailed look at this book.
Find the full list of conflict scenarios (& sample entries) here.
Here’s what people are saying about The Conflict Thesaurus.
And here’s where you can buy it, print and digital.

Conflict can be explosive, or subtle. It may inconvenience your characters, or devastate them. And whether it’s internal or external, readers can’t get enough of it, and neither can we.

So for the first time ever, Writers Helping Writers is sponsoring a writing contest!

Introducing…

Conflict comes in all shapes and sizes – a physical altercation, personal struggle, relationship friction, a danger or threat…the possibilities are endless. As storytellers, we need to write conflict well. This story contest is a chance to show us what you can do!

Ready to go pen to pen against other creatives and submit a story to our WRITERS’ FIGHT CLUB?

Step into the ring with your original story, any genre, that shows your character navigating one or more of these conflicts from our Conflict Thesaurus Vol 2:

Being Injured
Experiencing Discrimination
Losing a Vital Item
Telling the Truth but Not Being Believed
Being Trapped
Having Unwanted Powers

Or, one of these conflicts from our expanded Conflict Database at One Stop for Writers:

A Romantic Competitor Entering the Scene
Getting Caught in a Lie
Needing to Sacrifice One for the Good of the Many

Stories must be 750 – 2000 words in length. Our official contest rules, deadline, and how to submit can be found here:

Contest is now closed. We will be in touch after judging is complete!

Now let’s talk prizes!

First Place:

A $100 US cash prize
Two 1-year subscriptions to One Stop for Writers
(One for you, one for a friend, a $210 value)
A $100 US donation to your choice of charity that helps those impacted by conflict (domestic violence, war, human trafficking, etc.)
A professional edit of your submission by our amazing Resident Writing Coach, Lisa Poisso
+ Bragging rights!

Second Place:

A $50 US cash prize
Two 6-month subscriptions to One Stop for Writers
(One for you, one for a friend, a $120 value)
A $50 US donation to your choice of charity that helps those impacted by conflict (domestic violence, war, human trafficking, etc.)
A professional edit of your submission by our amazing Resident Writing Coach, Colleen M. Story
+ Bragging rights!

Honorable Mention:

A professional edit of your submission by our amazing Resident Writing Coach, Lisa Poisso
+ Bragging rights!

SUBMISSIONS WILL BE CAPPED AT 100 ENTRIES & THE DEADLINE TO ENTER IS SEPTEMBER 16TH. FIND OUT MORE.

Giveaway Alert!

We also want to give away some of our favorite writing books, so two lucky winners can choose a 5-pack of digital volumes from these below:

Giveaway closed – congrats to HiDee Ekstrom & Dina Mousa!

This giveaway is subject to our legal policy, and runs until September 10th, midnight (EST). Good luck, and watch your inbox!

Thanks for celebrating this new book with us!

Feeling generous? Give this post a share! And good luck in the giveaway & writing contest!

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 Release Day: The Conflict Thesaurus (Volume 2) Is Here! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Conflict is a key story ingredient, one we need a lot of, but this doesn’t mean quantity is better than quality. Fiction isn’t a video game; waves of bad guys with guns won’t keep readers tuned in for long. They expect to see a variety of conflict, including meaningful problems that deepen the story, raise the stakes, advance the plot, and provide opportunities for character development.

This last one is especially important, as it’s how a beloved character responds to adversity that really draws readers in.

The best way to reveal characterization and development is to use conflict to target our character’s soft spots. When we take aim at the things our character cares most about, trigger their fears or insecurities, or smack them right in the ego, they’ll react in a way that reveals their true selves, and that’s the person readers will connect to.

So, how do we find the right problems and challenges that will produce the response we’re looking for?

It’s true, there is no end to the ways you can challenge your character. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes having too much choice can be paralyzing.

Something Becca and I did to help with this was to create categories for conflict by looking at the theme that a clash would produce.

We covered some of these categories (and the scenarios that go with each), in The Conflict Thesaurus, Volume 1:

Relationship Friction
Duty & Responsibility
Failures & Mistakes
Moral Dilemmas & Temptations
Increased Pressure & Ticking Clocks
No-Win Scenarios

And the remainder of these categories are in The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 2.

Let’s look at each category’s superpowers so you can better decide what type of conflict serves your story and will challenge characters in the way you need most.

Dangers and Threats

This is a versatile form of conflict: a hazard or menace that represents direct harm to the character or the people they care about (and may be responsible for). Introducing a danger or threat can mess with your character’s mental state, pulling up their deepest fears and even leading to panic if others they love are at risk.

Danger can originate from other people, the environment, a location, or even from within the character themselves. For someone struggling with an addiction, an inability to gauge risk or seek help could lead to a hospitalization or death. A person consumed with guilt over past mistakes might become self-destructive, taking on an adversary or challenge far beyond their abilities because they believe that only self-punishment or self-sacrifice can balance the scales.

Another terrific place to find danger is in the setting. Look at where your character is, and the natural dangers lurking in the area: will the rain-soaked ground where your adventurers are hiding give way, or will a poisonous centipede skitter into a character’s sleeping bag on a camping trip? Will that neighbor show up before your character has time to clean up a murder scene? Depending on what you need for the story, threats or dangers can inconvenience, create delays, ruin carefully laid plans, or worse.

Ego-Related Conflicts

In the real world, people tend to shy away from situations where they could be embarrassed because they worry about what others think and don’t like to be judged. Insecurities magnify mistakes in their minds, especially if their egos have been hurt by criticism or similar blunders in the past.  

Because well-built characters will have similar psychological drivers, they’ll struggle with some insecurities, too. Being excluded, discredited, blamed, or minimized will hurt them, even if they strive not to show it. 

Ego-related challenges stir up internal conflict and trigger sensitivities that are hard to hide, so the character may respond by pulling back and isolating themselves, exploding with anger, or replying with barbed honesty that only makes things worse.

Consider Fiona, our protagonist who has not visited her hometown in quite a while. Things are becoming serious with her boyfriend, however, so she books a flight. She’s nervous, because her parents have some odd ideas about the world, but she knows Drew is the one, and it’s time to introduce him to her family. 

Fiona and Drew arrive as her parents are having an after-dinner glass of port. At first, everything goes as expected. They’re overjoyed at the surprise visit and they fawn over Drew, asking about his job, family, interests—basically ticking all the boxes. But as one glass of port turns into several, Fiona’s dad begins to rant a bit about world events until, in a pin-drop moment, he floats a full-on, dark net alien conspiracy theory.  

Imagine Fiona’s embarrassment and how she might try to salvage the evening. Maybe she laughs it off, pretending it’s a joke. Or she tells Drew that her dad’s teasing him to see how he’ll react. But the more Fiona tries to minimize the damage, the louder and more verbal her father gets. Soon he’s targeting Fiona, criticizing her for being naive, living in a dream world, and not acknowledging the indisputable evidence that an alien force is pulling the puppet strings of the human race. As her father rages, humiliation washes over her. The love of her life is bearing witness to this lunacy. What must Drew think of her parents…and her?

Ego-related conflict–such as suffering a humiliation like Fiona–strikes deep. It will hurt and lead to internal struggles regarding self-esteem, so if your character is traversing a change arc, depending on how they handle the situation, it can help them move forward, or set them back.

A Loss of Control

In the real world, the need to control outcomes control steers decision-making. We may invest in a university degree to secure a higher-paying job, or buy a house in a school district that ensures our children get a quality education. We put fuel in the car so we don’t run out, clean scraped knees so they don’t get infected, and choose politeness over honesty to avoid drama. In other words, we live according to the rules of cause and effect. 

But does life give two crab apples about cause and effect? Nope. While we’re playing the odds, it stands up and says, “Hold my beer.” It’s indisputable and somewhat horrifying: control is only an illusion. At any moment, something unexpected can happen that undoes all our careful planning. 

A loss of control in the real world can be devastating because we think we should have seen what was coming—anticipated it and had an escape plan ready, so when we hit a character with a complication they can’t stop or prevent, it messes them up, too.

Conflicts that dispel the myth of control will reveal characterization in the protagonist’s lowest moment. Imagine a character whose spouse succumbs to a heart attack while camping. In the days that follow, does our grieving character angrily push people away, causing cracks to surface in those relationships? Does he sink into the quicksand of denial and refuse to acknowledge what happened? Or will he set aside his pain to help his children and other family members cope with their heartbreaking loss? 

A loss of control will also give your readers a queasy-familiar sensation because they too have experienced moments where they thought they had a handle on things but didn’t. So if you want pull readers in or create empathy for a character, this is a great way to do it.

Losing an Advantage

One of the worst things we can do to a character is cause them to lose hope. After all, conflict’s sharp sword has already jabbed them relentlessly throughout the story. They’ve fought, sacrificed, and clawed their way forward, and then finally, their hard work starts to pay off. They gain something they need, the world starts to support them, or they pull ahead of the competition. 

So naturally, because we’re evil, we take their hard-won advantage away. 

Losing an advantage is a versatile type of conflict that can be especially helpful at specific times, so it should be wielded strategically. For example, not every character rushes out the door when the trumpet of adventure sounds. Instead, they cling to their favorite saggy, cat-clawed chair, because even if the living room of life isn’t great right now, it’s what they know, and that makes it safe. It’s in their comfort zone.

But if we let our characters stay where they are, the story is as good as dead. Taking away something they deem vital, like a position of authority, a trusted ally, or cherished relationship, can convince them to stumble through that first story door.

This type of conflict can also test a character’s commitment. What happens when they lose the one thing that’s been motivating them to continue? If their lead witness in a trial is murdered, or their benefactor withdraws support, or an adoption falls through, will they forge ahead or throw in the towel? 

Power Struggles

If there’s one thing we know about our characters, it’s that at some point, they’re going to clash. And why is no mystery. Each member of our story’s cast has their own goals, agendas, needs, and beliefs, and those don’t always play nicely with the goals, agendas, needs, and beliefs of others. When there’s too much friction, a power struggle ensues. 

This often happens in relationships where characters don’t have equal status, such as a police officer and suspect, boss and employee, or teacher and student. It can occur when the person with less power tries to level the playing field or unseat the other party. Conflict will also arise when it’s perceived that one person is using their position unfairly. If your character is on the receiving end of a power play—say, they’ve been frivolously sued by a disgruntled customer, falsely accused by a rival, or passed over for promotion because of nepotism—it will trigger their moral sense of right and wrong, leading to a battle royale.

One of the best places to highlight a power struggle is within a dialogue exchange between characters with different goals. If one party wants information the other doesn’t want to share, a beautiful tug-of-war can unfold, complete with verbal jabs, veiled threats, and insults. 

Miscellaneous Challenges

Conflict is multifaceted, and like most things in life, not every scenario can be filed neatly into a particular box. If you’re searching for conflict that provides a unique challenge for your character or complicates their situation in ways you might not have considered, this is the category for you. Maybe your character is in the wrong place at the wrong time, they have been mistaken for someone else, or a dire circumstance forces them to blindly trust a stranger. Oh, the possibilities! 

Want to see the conflict scenarios listed in each category? Find them here.

When conflict is thoughtfully chosen, everything clicks into place. Problems, challenges, and blockers raise the stakes, intensify the plot, and force the character to confront their own inner demons and shortcomings because only through growth, the ability to adapt, and hard work will they stay ahead of disaster.

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Volume 2) is packed with great scenarios so you have lots of ideas on how to keep the pressure on while writing a story premise that’s fresh. We hope you’ll check it out.

Add the book to your Goodreads list and see the reviews
See the master list of entries
Buy the book in print and ebook or PDF formats
Check out The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 1

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 Use Conflict to Target a Character’s Soft Spots appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When you think about the key elements of storytelling, characters and plot immediately come to mind, but what about the setting? Do you view it as 1) a vital story component, or 2) just the place where story events happen?

If you picked 1, nice job. If you picked 2, no worries. Go here, scroll down, and buckle in. Reading through these setting articles will transform the way you view the setting.

The setting tied to each scene carries a lot of storytelling weight because it had the power to touch and amplify anything to do with characters, events, and emotion. Used correctly, a location can characterize the story’s cast, steer the plot, evoke emotions and mood, create windows to allow for active backstory sharing, provide conflict and challenges, and act as a mirror for what the protagonist needs most, reinforcing his motivation at every step.

When it comes down to it, the setting is storytelling magic. What other element can do so much to enhance a story?

Here are five setting mistakes that drain power from your story.

1) Treating The Setting Like Stage Dressing

Each setting holds great power, deepening the action as it unfolds and characterizing the story’s cast during the scene. If we only use a few words to summarize the location, it can really impact the reader’s ability to connect with the characters and what’s happening. Vivid, concrete details not only help readers feel like they’re right there, planting specific description and symbolism within the setting also adds layers to the story itself.

2) Focusing On Only One Sense

Another common struggle for writers is choosing to describe through a single sense, specifically sight. While we rely heavily on this sense in real life, our world is multisensory, and our job as writers is to make our fictional landscape as rich and realistic as the real thing.

We want to make each scene come alive for readers so they feel like they are right there next to the protagonist, experiencing the moment as he or she does. This means including sounds which add realism, smells which trigger the reader’s emotional memories and help create “shared experiences,” tastes that allow for unique exploration, and textures that will shed light on what’s important to the character through their emotional state.

Textures are especially critical to include, as a point of view character must directly interact with the setting to bring it about, and every action in the story should have purpose. What they touch should have a “why” attached to it, revealing the POV character’s mindset, and showing, rather than telling, readers what’s really important in the scene.

3) Over-Describing Or Describing The Wrong Things

Sometimes in our enthusiasm to draw readers into the scene, we go a little crazy when it comes to describing. Trying to convey every feature, every angle, every facet of the setting will not only smash the pace flat, it will likely cause the reader to skim. And, if they skim, they are missing all that great description you’ve worked so hard to include. So, to avoid over-describing or focusing on the wrong details, try to make each bit of description earn the right to be included.

It isn’t just about showing the scene—the weather, the lighting, the colors and shapes—it’s also about offering detail that does double duty somehow. Ask yourself, is the detail I want to include doing something more than showing the reader where the characters are? Is it also characterizing, evoking mood, reminding the POV character of his goal and why he wants it so bad? Is this detail creating a challenge in some way, standing between the character and his goal? Is it helping to convey his emotional state, or does it symbolize something important within the context of the story?

Setting description should always be adding to the scene, revealing more about the characters as it helps to push the story forward.

4) Not taking Advantage of POV & Emotion Filters

Another area that can water down the effect of setting description is a very distanced narrative where every detail is explained, rather than shown through the emotional filter of the POV character. A character who is anxious is going to view the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of any given setting differently than a character who is excited, or disappointed, or even filled with gratitude.

Being able to filter the character’s world through their senses and emotions helps to pull the reader close to the character, and creates a deeper understanding of who they are, laying the groundwork for empathy.

5) Choosing A Setting That Is Convenient Rather Than Meaningful

Because the setting can steer the story, evoke emotion, remind the hero or heroine of missing needs and create a window into past pain, we need to get specific when we choose a location. Three questions to ask ourselves as we hunt for the perfect place is 1) what is the outcome of this scene, 2) how can I use the setting to generate conflict and tension (good or bad) to really amp up what is about to take place, and 3), how can I create an emotional value in this setting?

Emotional values—settings which mean something to one or more characters– are especially important. For example, imagine a character who is about to be interviewed for an important job. He’s confident because he’s got the skills they need, and the experience this company covets. His potential employer decides on an informal lunch interview, and our character is eager to impress. A restaurant setting makes sense…but why would we choose just any old restaurant for this scene to take place? Instead, let’s pick the very same restaurant where our character proposed to his girlfriend two years earlier and was rejected. By having this interview take place in this particular restaurant, we have created an emotional value—it represents something to the character: rejection.

Choosing this restaurant will put our character off balance, and the echoes of his past failure will be with him during the interview. This will almost certainly affect his behavior, creating tension and conflict. Will he get the job? Will he blow the interview? The outcome is now uncertain. Take the time to choose the best location for each scene, because the storytelling currency will be well worth the effort!

The setting is a powerful component to storytelling, but only if we fully activate it. So when you choose a setting, consider carefully how the right location can amp up the tension and point the reader’s attention to the very things you want them to notice, be it a symbol in your setting, your character’s behavior because the setting is activating their emotions somehow, or a danger or obstacle tied to the setting that’s about to challenge your character and disrupt their progress to their goal.

Brainstorm the best location for each scene

If you need inspiration as you choose the right setting and would like a list of ideas on how to describe different places using sensory language, swing by the Setting Thesaurus Database at One Stop for Writers. Each setting in the database also has a list of possible conflicts that might take place in that location, helping you think about how to make things harder for characters.

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 Setting Description Mistakes that Weaken a Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles (Volume 1) is a game-changer for writers, screenwriters, game designers, and anyone else who needs a steady stream of ideas on how to challenge their characters inside and out.

Conflict is a big deal. It touches everything: plot, pacing, characterization and character arc, theme, stakes, and more. It’s one of the best tools out there for helping our books stand out from others in our genre, too…if we use it the right way.

This book will help you brainstorm meaningful conflict scenarios that capture attention. Instead of just throwing rocks to slow their progress toward a goal, we’ll show you how to target a character’s soft spots. You’ll learn how to cause them to struggle internally while challenging them externally, forcing them to dig deep if they are to succeed.

Here’s a more detailed look at this book.
Find the full list of conflict scenarios (& sample entries) here.
Here’s what people are saying about The Conflict Thesaurus.
And here’s where you can buy it, print and digital.

All this talk about conflict has us wondering one thing: how would you do if you were in the hot seat instead of one of your characters?

Introducing…

As writers, we shove our characters through life’s meat grinder, again and again. But what if YOU are the protagonist who has to face difficult problems, obstacles, and dilemmas?

Will your choices lead to victory…or failure?

Let’s put it to the test! Survive, and you might just win something neat.

Yes, there are some great prizes waiting for you in the Conflict Challenge, but would it be a Thesaurus book release without a giveaway? Of course not. So…

ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY, TOO!

Subject to our legal policy, of course. Draw ends midnight October 15th, EST.

Giveaway now closed. Watch your inboxes in case you’ve won!

Thanks for celebrating with us. Shares are greatly appreciated!

After you take the CONFLICT CHALLENGE, send your fellow writers to this post so they can test their survival skills, too!

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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 Release Day: The Conflict Thesaurus Is Here! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

With all the writing advice out there, we know that some “writing rules” we hear are more like guidelines. However, story structure is important not just for our writing but also for our readers—creating their overall sense of our story—so we should consider the risks before ignoring structure-specific guidelines.

In fact, if our story isn’t working well, we might be able to fix the issue by going deeper into the reasons behind those guidelines. Let’s take one example of a relatively minor aspect of story structure (that most advice doesn’t even mention) and look at how it can affect our story—and how our story can “break” if we fail to include the details readers need.

Story Structure at the 25% Mark

Before we start, first know that different story structure systems use different names for each point, but the function they fulfill for our story is the same. In other words, the names don’t matter.

For example, most story structure systems include a plot event (a story “beat”) around the 25% mark (often called the Catalyst, First Plot Point, or the End of the Beginning), and no matter the label used, the function of this beat is to create a “point of no return” forcing the protagonist into the story.

After this plot event, readers should have at least a hint of (and in many cases, a fairly good idea of):

• the story goal(s) and reasons for the goal (stakes)
• the main conflicts/antagonists/obstacles blocking that goal
• some of the internal issues complicating that goal

Those all work together to tell readers who they’re rooting for or against, what they’re rooting for or against, and what our story is about.

If we fail to include a story beat with this function around the 25%-ish mark (usually between 20-30%), our story’s pace will likely feel slow and/or readers might close the book in frustration at not understanding the point of the story. A well-developed 25%-mark beat will establish the story, plot, conflicts, stakes, and character/emotional arcs of the story.

Internal Issues at the 25% Mark

Those of you familiar with story structure probably expected those first 2 bullet points above, but maybe the last point was a surprise. Many story structure systems and beat sheets focus on the external issues of our story—plot, antagonists, villains, obstacles, etc.—and don’t touch on internal issues.

However, if we comprehend the deep, underlying purpose of a story’s structure at this 25% mark, we know that we want to not only show the goal our characters are aiming for, but also to at least hint at what’s preventing them from reaching that goal right now. After all, without something standing between our characters and their goal, readers will think our story would be over before it began. *grin*

For some stories, that “something” will be all about external obstacles and villains, just like the focus of most beat sheets. But for the remainder of stories (especially those with character arcs), readers should have seen hints by the 25% mark that the “something” also includes internal obstacles—such as characters’ false beliefs and backstory wounds—that interfere with the story goal(s) as well.

Going Deeper Helps Our Story (and Readers)

What’s a reader’s experience if they don’t see (at least) hints of the internal obstacles that will be complicating the protagonist’s path toward the goal(s)?

• Readers may think the external conflicts aren’t enough of an obstacle to the goal to create a story and simply close the book.
• Readers may question whether there’s anything other than a need for word count holding the character back from their goal (in a “the character struggles because the plot needs them to” problem) and lose patience with the story and characters.
• Negative character traits without a hint of an internal-arc goal to improve may be assumed to be permanent, which can make readers less likely to root for them.
• Any self-destructive (or obviously wrong) assumptions a character makes without a hint of how it ties into their internal arc (such as through a false belief or backstory wound) may make them less likable or sympathetic and lessen readers’ engagement with our story and characters.

For example, let’s take a character who assumes no one likes them. If readers have seen evidence throughout the first act that the assumption isn’t true, they might have a negative impression of the character for making such a patently false assumption. The assumption could even make readers frustrated, contemptuous, and dull their emotional connection to our character—and story. Not good.

One potential fix? By the 25%-ish mark, give readers hints/glimpses/allusions to a backstory wound causing that assumption.

Even just a few words hinting at something (such as: He’d learned his lesson about trying to make friends years ago.) can make all the difference between a character that readers sympathize with and a character that readers disdain. The hints give a reason for the character’s internal issues that keeps readers in their corner—and rooting for them to improve.

Story Structure Matters

Just as our story can look “broken” if we haven’t provided glimpses of enough conflict (external and/or internal) by the 25%-ish mark, similar problems can occur if we ignore the other major story structure guidelines or fail to go deep enough into the purpose behind each major story structure point. Story structure matters for creating the overall sense of our story—and for convincing readers that their time will be rewarded with a satisfying story.

So if we struggle with a story that seems broken, try going deeper into its structure and make sure to address the underlying purpose of each major beat in our story. We may discover a few easy edits to fix our story. *smile*

Do you have any questions or insights about story structure and how going deeper might help our story?

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 Not Behaving? Try Going Deeper into Structure appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Every scene needs good, solid conflict. It might be something big and life-altering, or a smaller block, complication, or disruption the character must now navigate. No matter what form it takes, conflict should further the story and offer readers insight into the characters involved.

Conflict is a kaleidoscope, offering a million possibilities for fresh storytelling. But sometimes, too much choice is paralyzing, and we struggled to choose what happens next. Or we’re writing on a day when the ol’ imagination tank is empty. In these cases, knowing where to look for conflict can guide us to scenarios that help raise the stakes and mess up the protagonist’s plans.

The #1 Place to Find Conflict

Where does most of our conflict come from in real life? That’s right: other people. Loved ones, extended family, roommates, co-workers, neighbors, friends, complete strangers—if they’re someone who will interact with your character, they’re a potential source for trouble. This is why planning your story’s cast ahead of time can be so beneficial.

Relationship Status: It’s Complicated

Chances are, your character is connected to a variety of people in the story. When you need conflict, poke at their relationships to see what problems shake loose.

MARRIAGE AND PARTNERSHIP: All romantic relationships have bumps – good ones, and bad ones. I’ve been married twenty-seven years and there are days…well, you know. Life can be full of unknowns, including whom each person will become, how beliefs, goals, and needs may change, and if the partners will grow mostly in the same direction or not. People can also cope very differently when it comes to life’s challenges, and this can lead to resentment, frustration, friction, and fallout.

FAMILY: The people closest to your character may know things others do not…including the bad stuff. Past mistakes, shortcomings, and failures may be part of a relative’s mental Rolodex. Will they reference a “favor owed” when they want something, lay a guilt-trip, or spill a secret to others when they’ve had too much to drink? Strings tend to be attached in family relationships, so responsibilities, duties, expectations, and demands might also be a source of friction. And let’s not forget family dysfunction! Disagreements, arguments, sibling rivalries, or a family feud might help you hit your character’s soft spots.

HISTORY: Think about what kinds of people might have crossed swords with your character at some point in the past. Did your character wrong someone, or did betrayal end a friendship? What will happen if a ghost from the past shows up at a time when your character needs to really focus on the present?

Or maybe your character did something they aren’t proud of. If the partner from a one-night affair appears at the family barbecue as a cousin’s +1, will the past stay buried?

ACTIVATORS: Some people like to press buttons to get a reaction, or they press them unknowingly by being clueless, annoying, or entitled. Keeping emotions in check around these people is a challenge. Who might irritate your character by what they say, do, or believe? Will your character stay in control or explode? And if an emotional outburst happens, is everyone watching…and judging? Maybe your character was trying to impress someone and just blew it, or their actions cost them an opportunity.

ADVERSARIES: Other people (antagonists, villains, invaders, etc.) might have goals that clash with your character’s, creating sizzling levels of conflict. But adversaries can also want the same thing. Rivals or competitors will try to beat your character to the finish line, meddlers may try to take over, and haters can become saboteurs when envy or jealousy pushes them to try and take your character down a peg.

OPPOSITES: In the real world, there are always people we try to avoid because we don’t get along, and to supply realism, this should be the case in the fictional world, too. Think about which traits might get under your character’s skin. What attitudes or morals will be difficult for him to accept? Then—you guessed it—build characters with those traits, biases, histories, or habits into the story. Maybe your by-the-book character is paired with an unethical co-worker, or a prickly, animal-hating new neighbor moves in next door to your dog-loving protagonist. If each character stays true to form, tensions will inevitably rise.

What if my character is a lone wolf?

Some stories feature characters who rarely interact with other people, or perhaps not at all. Chances are, though, they still have relationships you can exploit for conflict. In I Am Legend, Robert Neville had his dog, and plenty of conflict arose when Sam followed his doggy instincts by barreling into dangerous situations. And Chuck Noland had Wilson, a volleyball, in Cast Away, whom he ultimately had to leave behind, causing immeasurable grief.

Even if your character has more transactional interactions with others (paying a bill, ordering food at the tavern, etc.), think of what can go wrong to disrupt that transaction. Or maybe your character is pulled into something unexpected or dangerous by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing something they shouldn’t, or overhearing a stranger share information that shakes up the world.

People are complicated, so bring that complication into the story. The best part? Readers relate to people problems because this type of conflict is something they experience, too!

For more help with conflict…

Grab a copy of Volume 1 of The Conflict Thesaurus. Go here to view sample entries from the book.

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 Does Your Story Need More Conflict? Tap this Powerful Source appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Context is often an underappreciated element of our writing because when not done well, a context-filled passage can become a tell-not-show info dump. However, context is essential for most aspects of writing, from attributing dialogue and establishing stakes to evoking emotions and anchoring readers within a setting.

For that last situation, without context to “set the scene,” readers can struggle to visualize and fully immerse themselves in our stories. So let’s dig into this idea: How can we set the scene throughout our story and avoid common problems?

What Is the “Talking Head” Problem?

For many writers, dialogue is the easiest story element to write. In fact, some first drafts include only dialogue, saving the step to layer in other elements: setting and description, action, internal thoughts, emotions, etc. for later drafts.

Without the context of those additional layers—especially those that ground characters (and readers) in the scene—dialogue is like an audio play, making the story follow a couple of talking heads floating in an empty space. To avoid that problem, writers often fall back on two techniques that don’t necessarily help our story:

• One common quick fix allows us to attribute dialogue but doesn’t solve the talking-head problem—and creates a lot of empty, clichéd phrases:
  • She nodded.
  • He smiled.
  • She frowned.
• Another common fix addresses the talking-head issue but can also result in overwriting with too many details that don’t add to our story:
  • She slid her finger around the rim of her coffee cup and then picked up the mug from the table.
  • He sat back on his chair and crossed his ankle over his other knee.
  • She shifted her weight and leaned against the wall.

What’s a better solution? Include details that set the scene—fixing the talking-head problem—and that add meaning to our story.

How Can We Make Context Meaningful?

Sure, we could avoid the talking-head issue by simply choosing random ways for our characters to interact with their environment: touching, pushing, pulling, opening, closing, eating, drinking, etc. But those random, empty interactions will drag down our story’s pace, feel contrived, and not add meaningful layers of context to our story. How can we ensure our contextual details are meaningful?

Details are meaningful when they add something to our story.

Strong description provides context for…

• a character’s emotional state and/or emotional struggle
• a character’s thought process and/or their priorities
• foreshadowing a future meaningful detail
• highlighting an important setting detail
• exposing a point of conflict
• reinforcing stakes or motivation
• setting up a future plot point
• and so on.

Start by thinking of a character’s environment from their emotional perspective: What’s their situation and how do they feel about it? What interactions can express that?

• a chilled character cradling a warm beverage
• an upset character pounding a table with each argument
• a nervous character hugging a pillow

Also think about what we want readers to understand from the story: Which details matter (or will matter) to the story? What interactions can highlight where we want readers’ attention?

• a character fiddling with a necklace later revealed as important
• a character dropping things that create later issues
• a character leaving a door open to later cause a scene

What Do Meaningful Details Look Like?

Those examples in the second common fix shared up top could work for grounding readers in the setting and scene of our story if they were meaningful details. For instance, let’s expand on the first example:

“Ma’am, do you know where your ex-husband is?”
Sally slid her finger around the rim of the coffee cup. Should she tell the cop Bob had just been here, drinking coffee from this very mug?
She picked up the cup from the table and dropped it into the sink, along with all the other dirty dishes that seemed to pile up whenever her too-tempting-for-his-own-good ex was in town. “No, officer, I haven’t been in contact with him.”

Now those contextual setting details add layers and subtext to the dialogue. Her touching the rim could reflect her internal debate and/or attempt to ruin DNA evidence, etc. Her picking up the cup reveals her decision in the debate by preventing the cop from discovering the evidence, while the rest of the sentence hints at more of her internal conflict.

The actions that set the scene, giving readers a visual way to imagine the setting, now add meaning to the exchange. They’re not just random actions thrown in to tell readers these characters aren’t floating in empty space. There’s a reason for her actions that add layers to the storytelling.

Limit Reliance on the Quick & Easy Approach

All that said, our story is likely to include some quick-and-easy “she nodded” or basic “he sat on the couch” type of sentences. The point is not that we shouldn’t ever use them in our writing, but that we shouldn’t rely on them too often, especially as we edit our story beyond the first draft.

Instead, when setting the scene and grounding our characters (and readers), we should look for actions and details that add layers of meaning to our story to strengthen and richen our storytelling. *smile* Do you have any questions or insights about how to set the scene in meaningful ways for our characters?

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 Nods, Smiles, and Frowns: How Can We Avoid “Talking Heads”…and Cliches? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Editing freaks a lot of people out. Drafting is creative and inspirational, and every writer LIVES for that moment when you get into the groove and the words just flow. But editing is kind of the opposite. It’s analytical, with a rigid set of rules that have to be followed. I think this is why so many writers say it’s their least favorite part of the process.

I’m one of those weird people who love the revision stage. LOVE. IT. It’s one reason I started our monthly Phenomenal First Pages contest. I really like reading a passage of writing and picking it apart, examining it from a macro and micro perspective to see how it can be improved.

In the entries that I critique, I see a lot of the same mistakes, which means I offer a lot of the same suggestions. And one bit of advice that I say A LOT is Read your work aloud. It’s one of those little practices that are so simple but can help your story in huge ways. 

Why Does It Work?

The bottom line is that we can read in our heads super fast. But when we read out loud, we’re forced to form the words with our mouths, which takes more time. This results in a slower process, and when we slow down, the brain can more accurately see what it’s reading. 

Mental reading results in a certain amount of brain processing as we’re seeing, analyzing, and comprehending the words on the page. But reading out loud adds an auditory element as our brain not only sees the words but hears them, too. More processing is involved. More processing requires more brain power and leads to better editing, comprehension, and pretty much everything else the brain is doing at the time.

Bottom line? When you read your work aloud, you catch a lot more mistakes than when you zip through a manuscript mentally. Here are some of the issues that reading aloud can help you see and resolve.

1) Typos and the Like

We’re so familiar with our own stories that when we read them in our heads, our brain tends to see what it knows we meant to write rather than what we actually wrote. The process of reading aloud helps us see (and hear) the typos, misspellings, word omissions, and other minor mistakes that can result in a messy manuscript. So from a simple proofreading level, reading out loud can have a major benefit.

2) Poorly Structured Sentences

When we read out loud, we’re more likely to read the words the way they would be spoken. So when we get to a rambling or wordy sentence, we stumble. That verbal fumbling is a sign that the sentence isn’t clear and needs revision. It’s not as likely to happen when we read in our heads, so reading out loud is great step toward tightening the writing.

3) Repetitions

One thing that catches the reader’s attention in a bad way is repeated words and sentence structures. Three sentences in close proximity that start with I, multiple sentences that are structured similarly, or even repeated usage of a normally invisible word like cold—these repetitions can start to grate on the reader’s ears. Read those passages aloud, and the repetitions will grate on your ears, letting you know which words and phrases need to be rewritten.

4) Confusing Passages

When we’re not mentally racing through a paragraph, it’s easier to be more analytical, and one thing we should always be aiming for with our writing is clarity. Does this make sense? While reading aloud, you can keep questions like this in the back of your mind, and it will become more obvious when something is confusing or vague.

5) Pacing Issues

We all know what it’s like to read a scene that’s a little boring: we’re hit with the urge to skim ahead to the interesting parts. That skimming becomes more obvious with verbal reading because you hear yourself skipping content. Identifying the issues in our writing is sometimes the hardest part of the problem, and pace is one of those sneaky buggers that doesn’t announce itself. So slowing down and reading the words aloud can provide a better opportunity to see where the pace is dragging. (Psssst…it also works on the flip side, for passages with too-abrupt shifts.)

6) Unrealistic Dialogue

Readers are intimately familiar with dialogue because it’s how they communicate. So stiff, stilted, or unnatural dialogue is going to pull them right out of the story. Reading aloud can help you identify places where your character’s speech needs to be refined. Here’s what Browne and King, authors of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, have to say about this:

“We’re used to hearing relaxed, normal speech in real life. much of the stiffness in a passage of dialogue that doesn’t show up when you read your work silently will spring right out at you when you read out loud. You may find yourself making little changes as you read. If so, pay attention to these changes—your ear is telling you how your dialogue should sound.”

One of their suggestions is to have a friend read through a passage of dialogue with you, like it’s a screenplay. You can also record yourself reading a scene’s dialogue. Either way, hearing the dialogue spoken aloud will give you ideas on where it might not quite ring true.

7) Voice Inconsistencies

For me, getting a character’s voice right is one of the hardest things. Just figuring out all the nuances of a character’s individual voice is hard enough, but then you have to write it consistently through the entire story. But Browne and King come to the rescue again, with an interesting solution to this problem.

They recommend reading aloud each character’s point-of-view passages consecutively. By putting them all together, you remove any other character’s narration and can focus solely on one character at a time. This allows you to hear any inconsistencies in their voice.

8) Lack of Emotion 

A common issue that I see in critiques has to do with character emotion—the lack of it, to be specific. If we want to really engage readers, we have to tap into their emotions, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to clearly communicate the character’s emotion. Yet too often, it’s not clear what the character is feeling, so the reader doesn’t know what they’re supposed to feel.

When we read aloud, we tend to naturally read with inflection. If your reading sounds flat and dull, it’s very possible that it’s missing the important emotional piece. Examine your character. Is their emotional state clear? Is it being conveyed in a way that’s engaging for readers—shown, instead of told, through physical cues, internal visceral reactions, dialogue, and thoughts? 

The benefits of reading your work aloud kind of go on and on. I suggest verbally reading your whole manuscript at some point—not all at once, and not even consecutively. But reading every word aloud during the revision process is going to improve your story in lots of small (and not so small) ways, leading to a much more satisfying experience for your readers.

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.

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