Is there anything more frustrating than knowing there’s a problem with our story, but not being sure how to fix it?

We wish for an easy button in these moments, but sadly, none exist. Occasionally though, we get lucky and discover a versatile story element or technique so useful it can help us navigate past MANY story problems!

So, storytellers…ready to meet your new best friend?

The All-Powerful Emotion Amplifier

Emotion amplifiers are unique states or conditions that act as a challenge, conflict, and emotional destabilizer all rolled into one. They generate internal strain and emotional volatility which can lead to a loss of control, sending your character on a crash course with missteps and mistakes!

Sounds bad, right? Well, it is…for the character. But for your story, it’s great!

Let’s look at a specific amplifier: scrutiny.

Scrutiny: being observed or critically examined.

Now, imagine yourself for a moment, will you?

You’re merrily typing away on your computer, drafting your latest story. Your brain is full of ideas! The words are flowing! And then your mother-in-law appears and begins reading over your shoulder.

Or:

You’re hosting the family barbeque and your sister-in-law arrives, sits at a picnic table, and proceeds to scowl at everything in view. She examines your cutlery as if it has never seen a dishwasher, smells the potato salad before adding it to her plate, and makes a show of picking off the burned bits of her chicken.

Can you hear the lambs screaming, Clarisse?

Face it, scrutiny is not fun. Whether it’s you, me, or a character, it gets in our heads, makes us hyperaware of our flaws, and whatever task we’re working on instantly becomes harder.

Even if an observer is expected–say at a competition–a person will have to have a strong mental focus not to be thrown off their game. So, you can imagine how our character, grappling with the weight of story problems, responsibilities, and emotional struggles, might react if we added scrutiny to the mix. You can just see how it would become that one burden too much, and in their frustration, they’d lash out or do something else that would take their situation from bad to worse.

Pain, exhaustion, hunger, competition, danger, attraction…amplifiers come in all shapes and sizes, and can help with story problems when used strategically.  

Common Story Problems

NOT ENOUGH CONFLICT:

An amplifier is an added challenge to navigate that, when intense enough, will cause our characters to lose control. When they do, they act on emotion, not thought, and this has repercussions: poor decisions that lead to mistakes, choices that carry unforeseen consequences, and new complications they didn’t think about in the heat of the moment. In other words, conflict!

LOW STAKES:

When there’s not enough on the line, readers tune out. One of the best ways to raise the stakes is to make things more personal. Imagine your character poorly navigating an amplifier like danger, competition, or intoxication and making a mistake that hurts someone or puts an important goal at risk. When a character screws up and feels responsible, undoing the harm they did becomes a personal mission. Readers will tune in because 1) they can’t help but empathize over making a costly mistake and 2) they feel tension knowing the character can’t afford to fail or lose control again.

PASSIVE CHARACTERS (NO AGENCY):

Readers are drawn to characters with agency, those who steer their fate and take charge, not ones who let others solve their problems. Emotion amplifiers get passive characters to step up because they inflict urgency, motivating the character to find relief from the strain one causes.

A starving character must find food (Hunger), a character lost in the woods must find their way to safety (Physical Disorientation), and a character suffering from Sleep Deprivation must secure rest before their body gives in.

LOW TENSION:

Tension, that stretchy feeling that comes when a person is unsure what will happen next, is something we want to build into every page. Because amplifiers cause characters to be emotionally unstable, readers feel tension as they read on to see if the character can handle the strain because if they can’t, it will cost them.

HIDDEN EMOTION:

In many situations, characters hide what they feel because they don’t want to be judged, feel vulnerable, or be viewed as weak. Unfortunately, this makes it harder for readers to get close enough to know what’s going on behind their stony exterior and feel empathy for what the character is experiencing.

This is why amplifiers are great to deploy. Like a boiling kettle, adding a nice dollop of pain, pressure, exhaustion, or even arousal, and suddenly those repressed feelings bubble up and spill out, putting the very emotions they’re hiding on display!

SHOWING CHARACTER GROWTH:

How well (or poorly) a character responds to problems and stressors can say a lot about them, revealing how much growth is required to achieve their goal. Emotion amplifiers are many things, including tests. If the character handles an amplifier poorly, they face the fallout and deal with the consequences. But it also teaches them what not to do next time, so if you later hit them with the same (or similar) amplifier again and they handle it better, it is a neon sign to readers that the character is evolving.

PERFECT CHARACTERS:

Perfect characters are a turn-off because they don’t feel realistic. Readers are drawn to characters who are true to life, meaning they’ll lose their cool, have bad judgment, and screw things up at times. You can show all this through the poor handling of an emotion amplifier! Characters who don’t handle stress and pressure will feel more authentic because readers have had their own struggles in that department and know what it’s like. Seeing characters in the same situation is relatable, and makes it easier to cheer them on as they work through the complications in the aftermath.

UNCLEAR MOTIVATION:

In every scene, readers should know the character’s goal and why they are pursuing it. If you need to redirect and show a clear scene goal, amplifiers can help. Whatever it is–pain, stress, pressure, dehydration–it’s causing a form of strain, meaning your character’s goal will be to manage or free themselves from it.

HAPPY CHARACTERS IN A HAPPY LAND:

Like low-conflict situations, we also don’t want characters to be happy for too long. Time to time, your character comes out on top, ending a scene in a win. An emotion amplifier like an injury, illness, or exhaustion is a great way to give them a new situational problem to focus on.

LACK OF RELATIONSHIP FRICTION:

Stories where everyone gets along and supports one another will eventually elicit yawns from readers. People rub against one another, and it’s not always a bad thing when they do so. Sometimes it needs to happen for important realizations to take place for a character to examine boundaries, and expectations, or achieve personal growth.

An amplifier can bring forth friction because if a character mishandles the strain of it, they may lash out, question loyalty or motivations, shut people out, or do other things that will cause misunderstandings. Any damage they do to the relationship will need to be undone, giving the character a chance to see things from the perspective of the one they hurt, and to practice accountability, both of which can strengthen the relationship long-term.

PREDICTABILITY:

Some stories can become predictable if certain plot elements, character types, and other genre expectations strain a writer’s ability to be creative. Emotion Amplifiers come in all sizes and shapes, meaning choosing the right one can easily transform a premise, conflict scenario, or relationship dynamics, elevating it into something fresh. For example, wouldn’t it be great to see a pro-athlete character struggling with sensory overload when he hits it big, a love interest trying to manage her compulsions, or a pregnant police detective hunting down serial killers?

LOW READER ENGAGEMENT:

If an agent, editor, or beta reader has even mentioned that they struggled to connect with your character, chances are two things have happened. One, the character’s emotions are not accessible enough to the reader, meaning they are too well hidden or repressed, or two, there isn’t enough common ground between the reader and your character for empathy to form.

Emotion Amplifiers help with both issues, bringing emotions to the surface through volatility and a common ground experience readers can bond with characters over.

All readers know what it is like to feel internal strain and, if they give in to it, make mistakes they’ll regret. They empathize with characters having to do the hard work of fixing what they’ve broken. Should the character successfully stay in control of their emotional responses despite the strain an amplifier causes, readers rejoice with the character for mastering the moment and rising above their stress and struggle. Win-win!

If you’ve not yet dove into the wonderful world of emotion amplifiers, I hope you’ll change that. Start by reading this introductory post, checking out this list of amplifiers, and then seeing if The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Stress and Volatility is the life preserver your story needs.  

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 How to Fix Big Story Problems appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

I’m talking about using archetypes and tropes — characters who play a specific role in a story or who have a blend of characteristics that make them instantly recognizable: the Rebel, the Bully, the Hot Billionaire, the Chosen One…you get the idea. Readers recognize these types of characters and may even expect to find them in certain stories.

So, our job is done, right? Pick an archetype or trope, put some clothes on them and shove them into the story. No, ‘fraid not. Character types and tropes can provide a skeleton, but to avoid a stock character or overdone cliché, they must stand on their own and mesmerize by being unique.

And that’s where this thesaurus comes in.

Characters need layers, full stop, so trope or not, we want to dig for what makes them an individual, give them a soul, and make adaptations that will challenge a reader’s expectations.

What this thesaurus will cover:

A Trope or Type Description and Fictional Examples. Before we can think about how to adapt a trope, we need to know more about who they are. This overview and examples will help you know if this baseline character is right for your story.

Common Strengths and Weaknesses. A character who aligns with a trope or type tends to have certain positive and negative traits, so we list those as a starting point. But don’t be afraid to branch out – personality is a great place to break the mold.

Associated Actions, Behaviors, and Tendencies. Because tropes have a mix of traits, qualities, and a worldview baked in, you’ll need to know how to write their actions, choices, priorities, and certain tendencies…so you can then decide how to break with tradition.

Situations that Will Challenge Them. Every character faces challenges in a story that are extra difficult because of who they are, what they believe, fear, and need. A trope or type character is no different. We’ll cue up ideas to get your brains whizzing on what this can look like in your story.

Twist This Type With a Character Who… is where we give you ideas on how to break expectations, so you deliver someone who has fresh angles, and isn’t a typical stand-in.

Clichés to Avoid is where we alert you to some of the overdone versions of a type or trope so you’re aware of them as you develop your characters and plot your story.

Readers are hardwired to look for patterns and familiarity

Which is why we see tropes used so often, but good storytellers know that in 99% of cases, using one is the starting point only. We want rounded and dynamic characters, not flat ones. So, unless you require a stock character to fill a background role, any character who starts as a trope should be as carefully developed as those who did not. Readers want–and deserve!–fresh characters, so dig into those inner layers and bring forth someone unique.

Join us each Saturday for a new entry, and if there’s a character type or trope you’d like us to cover, add it in the comments here, and we’ll add it to the list of potentials!

Here are all the types and tropes we’ve covered so far.

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 Introducing…The Character Type & Trope Thesaurus! appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

For writers, mindset is everything. It can’t be understated – having a positive attitude and strong self-belief keeps us focused and motivated. It sustains us during the long road to a publish-ready story.

Writing is hard work, and unfortunately life doesn’t always make it easy. Hardship and strain can sap our energy, and with everything going on in the world today following on the heels of a difficult past two years, many are reaching their limits as to what they can manage.

So when our mental tank is empty, how do we get to a place where we’re excited to write?

This is where there’s good news for anyone living in the Northern Hemisphere, because spring is here, and whether we consciously think about it or not, the seasons impact our mood and mindset. We make certain associations with each season, and in spring, these associations can be leveraged to boost our energy levels, creativity, and outlook.

Using seasonal symbolism to shift your mindset

Winter acts as a long sleep, with most of us content to hibernate a bit. We slow down, hole up inside, and wait out colder temperatures with plenty of snacks, blankets, and tea. And after a long year, we’re in need of that rest. But when spring comes, it’s the wake-up hit we need, bringing an abundance of earthy smells, green shoots, and sunlight to warm our bones.

This is our cue to pull back the metaphorical blanket and look ahead with fresh eyes. We’re naturally more curious, expectant, and energized during this part of the calendar year.

Spring is a time of new perspectives, fresh starts, and blank pages

Spring brims with symbolism that represents growth, renewal, healing, and hope. It reminds us what’s possible, and ignites our excitement to discover our own potential. This can offset lower moods and help us push back negativity.

If we embrace the idea of a new beginning, our mindset recalibrates. We can view the future more clearly and think about what our creative goals are, and that motivates us to get going on them. Maybe we will decide to dive back into a WIP with renewed vigor, start something new, or even switch gears and experiment a bit.

Want to use the symbolism of spring to full advantage? Here are four tips.

1) Think about what you need right now

If it’s been a challenging few weeks (months, years) and you’re feeling the strain, the first order of the day is to consider what you need, and how creativity can help strengthen you. Take some time to think about what you find energizing. If it’s reading, read. If it’s writing, write. And if you need to take a break from social media, certain responsibilities, or something else, give yourself space and grace to do that. It’s okay!

2) Start small

When the calendar turns to a new page, many set big, audacious goals in hopes of it being a productive year. This works well for some, but for others, it can paralyze them because here they are now, a few months in, and those goals seem too big to achieve. Spring is a great time to reassess what you want to accomplish, and possibly reset your goals to something more manageable.

And whatever those goals are, it’s important to break them down into achievable steps. Being successful in small increments is what keeps us moving forward and feeling good about our progress.

Think about what you want to accomplish this year, and then focus on the first step. For example…

If you want to write a new story, start by getting to know the main character.
If you want to revise a novel, start with your first pages and follow a revision plan.
If you want to try a new genre, read a few books first.
If you want to query a novel, start by researching agents or learn about writing queries.
If you want to self-publish, deepen your understanding of the steps ahead.
And if you’re just trying to get comfortable with writing, read this.

3) Try something new

Spring is a great time to shake things up, and when we do, it can free up our imagination and our spirits. Stories come in different sizes and shapes, so if a break from your usual projects will help, why not fool around a bit? Step outside your genre box, or try a different type of story. If you write short stories, try a novel, or if you write novels, experiment with flash fiction, a drabble, or try fan fiction for fun.

But if you are firm on the length you like, there are other ways to experiment, like changing up the type of plot in your next story. If you need ideas, download this Save the Cat Plot Types List.

4) Explore what works and evolve your toolkit

The resources we keep close to hand have a big impact on our success, but as we evolve as writers, we may need to adjust our writing toolkit. As we learn, we realize we need more help in certain areas. Here are a few places to look for help.

Find other writers. We can learn a lot from others because everyone has different strengths and experiences. Getting feedback on your writing, advice on what to do, and having others to be accountable to are all great reasons to get involved in a writing community.

Expand your reading library. With so many terrific writing guides out there, it’s hard to know where to start. Here are some of our favorite writing guides, but this list and this one are both great, too. Or browse Amazon’s bestselling list for writing guides. (Affiliate link)

Look for new tools to help you. We’re very lucky in that there are so many resources out there to help us plan, write, revise, publish, and market. No matter what you need help with, you can find tools to help you. Here are the sites I recommend the most to writers – a must-bookmark!

If spring has you energized to try something new…

Now’s a good time to head over to One Stop for Writers. You can activate a free trial and use it to build a new character, plot a new story, brainstorm a new world, or use the Storyteller’s Roadmap to see what the next step is for you in writing your current novel.

Now, one last great thing about spring? Easter chocolate is on sale (you know, in case you need to replenish your stockpile of writerly rewards!)

Spring is reminding you of your potential, so go make something amazing!

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 How Writers Can Turn the Page This Spring appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

NaNoWriMo is a great time to lock up your internal editor and let creativity take the wheel.

But unfortunately for most writers, it can be a time of disappointment, because while hundreds of thousands of folks step up to the NaNoWriMo plate, near as I can tell, only around 15% actually finish. And that’s a big bowl of sadness, if you ask me, especially as it’s often preventable.

Two Big Reasons Why Writers Quit

1. Sometimes life fish-slaps them in the face. An emergency crops up, or something unexpected comes along, and their time needs to be reallocated. Other times, already-overloaded writers decide to participate and discover they just can’t manage it along with everything else.

2. The writer loses track of where the story should go. When writers struggle too long with the “what happens now” question, they lose that forward momentum, start to doubt themselves, and fall out of love with the story. As those calendar dates pass with lackluster word count totals, catching up begins to feel impossible, or the story becomes too much of a mosh pit mess. So, they give up.

Most fall into this second category, but this doesn’t have to be anyone’s fate. So how do we avoid it? We prep, of course!

Prepping is for Plotters & Panters

No matter where you are on the plotter-or-pantser spectrum, you want to sit down on November 1st and feel good about having your fingers on the keyboard. The heady excitement of NaNoWriMo won’t last if the words dry up, so it’s best to make sure you’ve done everything you can to feel ready to create.

The two big types of NaNo prep we want to think about are Life Prep and Story Prep. Taking care of these in October is a super smart move.

The Ultimate NaNoWriMo Prep Guide

If you’d like some help getting ready, Becca and I have created an Ultimate NaNoWriMo Prep Guide for you!

This special guide looks at how to prep your writing space, NaNo-proof your life, and plan helpful story elements so you are ready for November 1st!

And don’t worry, Pantsers – our planning recommendations won’t hem you in. And Plotters, you’ll have suggestions that suit your process so you can plan as much as you need to write with confidence.

This guide is truly for Plotters, Pantsers, and everyone in between, so check it out!

Is One Stop for Writers in your NaNoWriMo Toolkit?

One Stop for Writers has a library full of powerful storytelling tools including the Storyteller’s Roadmap, a step-by-step writing plan to get you from that first idea to a publish-ready manuscript.

In the WRITING portion of the roadmap you’ll find a CODE RED section that will help with practically any struggle you might encounter, so subscribers, if you write yourself into a corner, get stuck in the middle, or you think you should quit, please check the Roadmap. A CODE RED solution can help you get you back on track!

50,000 words is within your reach.
You’ve got this, and we’re cheering you on!

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 NaNoWriMo Prep for Plotters & Pantsers appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

This idea of turning tired phrases into new and interesting ones has intrigued me for a while—so much so that I have a notebook full of samples I’ve found in various books. When I get stuck trying to describe something in my own writing, I study those passages to see how the author was able to put a new twist on a well-used phrase. As a result, I’ve figured out a couple of tricks for how we can amp up our descriptions for both fiction and nonfiction works.

The beauty of these techniques is that they work for settings, physical features, character emotion—all kinds of descriptions.

1) Ask Questions to Drill Down and Find the Perfect Phrase

Writing is hard work. Sometimes, when we get hung up on a certain passage, it’s easiest to fall back on the phrasings that are most comfortable: butterflies in the stomach, snow that sparkles like diamonds, a peaches-and-cream complexion, etc. To move beyond these clichés, focus on one aspect of the description and experiment with new ways to describe it. Take this sentence, for instance:

Her eyes are like the lit end of a cigarette, burning into me.
~Al Capone Does My Shirts, Gennifer Choldenko

What a great way to express an angry gaze. You can almost imagine the author’s brainstorming process: How do the eyes burn? What do they look like as they’re burning? What description could I use that expresses both the anger in her eyes and the way they make the viewpoint character feel? This is a great example of how a potentially clichéd phrase can be freshened up with a little extra thought and effort.

2) Mix Up The Senses

Oftentimes, our passages fall flat because they’re described with the most obvious senses: objects have visual descriptors, and sounds are given auditory comparisons. But mixing the senses can often create a fuller, more layered description.

Their voices were loud and rough and had the sharp edges of crushed-up beer cans. ~Breadcrumbs, Anne Ursu

Here, two of the senses are employed to show us how the voices sound: auditory (loud and rough) and textural (the sharp edges of beer cans). Mixing the senses not only makes for unexpected descriptions, it’s also a great way to add dimension and draw readers a bit more into the story.

3) Play With New Words

…entwined as if nothing could ever shoehorn them apart.
~Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor

I never would’ve thought to use the word “shoehorn” here. The obvious choice is pry or tear them apart. But obvious choices, over time, lose their impact and end up sounding flat. Taking the time to explore other word choices can result in a phrase that sounds totally different.

…with eyelashes so spiderleg long…
~The Sky Is Everywhere, Jandy Nelson

And don’t underestimate the impact of making up a brand new word. Just be sure that it’s a perfect fit, so it doesn’t read strangely.

4) Add An Element Of Emotion

Descriptions often read a bit boring because they simply show how something looks, or feels, or sounds. They’re one-dimensional. Emotion, on the other hand, is stirring, awakening physical and emotional sensations inside the reader. When we add an element of emotion to a descriptive phrase—especially when the feeling isn’t overtly mentioned—it adds depth, like in the following example:

He’s not the father I need. He’s a faulty operating system, incompatible with my software.
~Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson

There’s no mention of emotion here, but it still comes through because Anderson has used a comparison that expresses disconnectedness and resulting sadness. Readers are smart, and they appreciate subtlety. Choose comparisons that convey the right emotion and it will come through for readers.

Bonus Resource: The Emotion Thesaurus. Use this collection of emotions to exactly identify the feeling you want to highlight so you can infuse it into your passage.

5) Use Unusual Comparisons

Something deep and painful wrenched out of him, like nails splintering wood as they pulled free.
~Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor

This example is one of my all-time favorites because it accomplishes so much. Taylor adequately conveys the character’s emotion through an unusual but perfect comparison: the sound of nails pulling out of a wood plank. We’ve all heard that noise; it makes me wince just thinking about it. Using this sound to describe someone’s pain is so much more effective than claiming that his heart ached or his chest hurt. To create a description that resonates with readers, experiment with different comparisons.

6) Add Personification

Father’s silence is not merely the absence of sound. It’s a creature with a life of its own. It chokes you. It pinches you small as a grain of rice. It twists in your gut like a worm.
~Chime, Franny Billingsley

Here, the author could easily have said that the father was a man prone to awkward silences. Instead, she used personification to bring those silences to life. They don’t merely make others feel uncomfortable; they pinch, and choke, and twist. This gives life to the father’s typically inanimate moodiness, making it much more active and intentional. With the added personification, this example packs a heavy punch.

7) Zoom Out

Writers are creatures of habit; we get used to seeing things a certain way and describing them from that perspective. But if we zoom out and look at the object as a whole, we’re able to see it and describe it differently.

He was handsome in a way that required a bit of work from the viewer.
~Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater

Stiefvater could have focused on the boy’s eyes or musculature or coloring to describe his looks. But by zooming out and viewing him as a whole, she was able to describe him from that vantage point and come up with something new and interesting.

8) Zoom In

This result can also be achieved by zooming in, rather than out:

I’m holding it so tight my pulse punches through my fingernails.
~If You Find Me, Emily Murdoch

Pulse is one of those emotional indicators that we overuse. It’s always pounding, racing, or thundering like a drumbeat. Here, Murdoch uses this internal sensation in a new way by narrowing in on a part of the body not usually associated with the pulse. And it works because at times of high emotion, you can feel the increased pulse throughout the whole body—even in the tips of the fingers. As this example shows, narrowing the lens can be a great way to describe things from a new perspective.

Bonus Resource: The Physical Feature Thesaurus. Expand your description vocabulary by considering body parts that you’ve never thought of before.

9) Use Contrast

The world felt immense, revolving in the universe with small Susannah McKnight clinging to it.
~Steal Away, Jennifer Armstrong

Some of the things we want to describe are just really difficult. Capturing the immensity of anything—an incredibly small object, big feelings, a large-scale setting—sometimes seems beyond our ability to adequately express. The temptation is to stop the pain and just explain to the reader how big or small it is. A much more compelling technique is to use contrast. Compare the thing to its opposite, and you’ll be able to convey meaning without resorting to telling.

Bonus Feature: One Stop for Writers’ Setting Tutorials. Learn about how to employ various technique and devices to enhance your setting descriptions. The list includes instruction on utilizing contrast, light and shadow, symbolism, hyperbole, and more.

10) Characterize

He bristled with latent power as he greeted people with the slippery, handsome accent of old Virginia money.
~Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater

I like this passage because it describes this man using characterization rather than a list of physical features. You don’t have a specific picture of what he looks like, but you have a general idea because you know he’s powerful and wealthy and maybe a little slimy. All of that is enough to paint a mental picture. The next time you struggle with describing a new character, consider introducing him with information other than how he looks. Using his job, character traits, quirks, or his values can have a greater and long-lasting impact on readers than a litany of physical features.

Bonus Resource: The Character Builder at One Stop. Use this tool to get to know your character intimately. This will make it clearer which elements of characterization you’ll want to emphasize with your descriptions.

11) Mix and Match

Moonlight froze the landscape; everything was a ghost of itself.
~Steal Away, Jennifer Armstrong

This setting description combines multiple techniques. The author has zoomed out to envision the landscape as a whole instead of focusing on the minutia. She also added some personification, as if the moon had used its latent powers to purposely freeze the setting. And a beautifully chosen metaphor creates the imagery and mood needed for the scene.

Bottom line: describing things in new ways is hard work.

It takes time and brainpower and more words than using the expected phrasings. But the payoff is multi-faceted, resulting in descriptions that do double duty, reveal something unexpected, and wow the reader. Your new phrasings may be somewhat awkward at first. But with practice, turning a unique phrase will get easier and become a more natural part of your style.

If you’d like to try your hand at rewriting some well-used phrases, here are some examples to play with. Use the techniques mentioned above and see what you can do with one of the following:

• Belinda was so mad she could spit nails
• Sunburned skin
• A little black dress
• A dilapidated house

Feel free to share your results in the comments. I’d love to see what you come up with.

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 11 Techniques for Transforming Clichéd Phrasings appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Every genre and medium of storytelling uses tropes, common themes or story devices. For example, a popular trope in the romance genre is “enemies to lovers,” where the characters start as enemies before falling in love.

Most articles we come across in the writing world discuss avoiding tropes. After all, they can be the result of lazy writing and lead to predictability in our stories.

However, tropes aren’t all bad. In fact, we usually can’t avoid including at least a few in our writing. So how can we make tropes work for our story?

Why Can’t We Completely Avoid Tropes?

Tropes are some of the building blocks of storytelling. No matter which way we turn with our story’s draft, that choice likely plays into a trope.

For example, let’s say we need to add stakes or an element of character growth to our hero’s motivation before the big showdown at the climax. There’s a good chance that whatever event we choose to enact that change is a trope:

• Mentor dying? That’s a trope.
• Loved one threatened? Trope
• Ultimatum from someone with power? Trope
• And so on…

Stories are made of tropes in the same way that trees are made of wood. We can’t avoid tropes because they’re part of what we use to build our stories.

So Why Does Advice Warn Us about Tropes?

Given that tropes are a normal element of storytelling, why does most advice focus on avoiding them? Like with any aspect of writing, we can fall into lazy habits when it comes to tropes.

Being lazy with the use of tropes means that we end up with a too-predictable story. Or that we’re relying so much on trope formulas that the story itself fails to show rather than tell. In short, a lazy use of tropes can lead to boring, unengaging, and formulaic stories, not to mention disappointed readers.

For example, a common trope with sports or team-focused stories is that a group of underdog misfits manages to win an important competition against all the odds. A lazy use of the trope would set up the situation of the underdog misfits, throw in a superficial lesson about them learning to value teamwork, and then expect the reader to buy into their sudden success just because everyone knows that’s how the trope plays out.

In other words, tropes are bad when we as storytellers rely on them to carry the work of the story. Just because readers know an enemies-to-lovers romance story ends with the characters getting together, that doesn’t mean the storyteller can skip out on doing the work to show the audience—and make them believe—the characters have actually overcome their incompatible goals and found common ground.

Some Predictability Is Good

The promises at the heart of each genre—happy-ending romances, solved mysteries, and vanquished thriller villains—help define the genre, so it’s obviously not always bad for readers to know how to fill in the blanks. Similarly, story tropes help readers know what kind of story we’re going to tell, what they can expect on our pages.

So we wouldn’t want to avoid all tropes, even if we could, as tropes are often why readers like a story—they want the type of story that comes with that trope. Many romance readers love the enemies-to-lovers trope so much that they pick up any book with that trope. Personally, I’m a sucker for the fake-dating trope in romance stories.

The trick is finding the right balance to that predictability. Readers want to be able to predict our story enough to know that it will appeal to them. But readers also want their expectations met in a surprising way.

3 Ways to Improve Our Use of Tropes

1. Think: Similar But Different

To find the right balance of predictability, we can’t just lazily follow a trope’s formula. We need to take the usual trope ideas and play with them. Twist them. Turn them on their head.

The first Iron Man movie took the superhero origin story and twisted it by making the protagonist unworthy of his powers. Rather than being a relatable every-man, Tony Stark was an anti-hero.

• Layer Tropes to Create Unique Stories

Stories can be less predictable if we use more tropes. Layering story elements and expectations can make them interact in interesting and surprising ways.

The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa layers tons of tropes: office romance (the couple has to work together on a project), forbidden romance (the hero is her ex-fiancé’s brother), enemies-to-lovers (the brother is the one who broke them up…at the altar), fake dating (as they do research for their project), just-one-bed (during said research), and so on. Together, those layers create a unique story with an unpredictable path to the genre’s expected happily ever after.

• Focus on Relatability

Tropes often make our story more relatable to readers. After all, in real life, we go down to the basement to fix the burned-out lightbulb, no matter how many horror movies we’ve seen. Or even if readers haven’t experienced the trope themselves, the predictability of it can still help create that all-important connection between characters and readers.

That’s why tropes can be a marketing point for our book, letting potential readers know what to expect from our story. We might use our story’s tropes to develop the back-of-the-book blurb. Or we might allude to our story’s tropes in marketing materials.

With the right attitude toward tropes, we can improve our storytelling and appeal to readers. *smile* Do you have any questions or insights about tropes and how to use them?

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 Tropes: To Avoid or Not to Avoid? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

As a reader of Angela and Becca’s blog, chances are you’ve seen some of their many posts about the role of conflict in our story. In fact, as a Resident Writing Coach here, I’ve previously talked about how to make our story’s conflict stronger.

The most common advice is to add more conflict to our stories, to add more external or internal obstacles that force our characters to struggle while attempting to make progress on their goals. After all, without conflict, our characters would reach their goals immediately: The characters want X and then they get it. In other words, we’ve learned that conflict is what turns a goal into a story.

But what if that’s not the kind of story we’re trying to tell? What if adding conflict doesn’t feel right for our story? Are we stuck?

Maybe we just need to expand our idea of what constitutes a story…

Different Narrative Story Structures

If we grew up in Western culture, chances are that we learned from our time in elementary school that stories are about solving a story problem. In turn, a story problem implies goals, stakes, and conflict, as the characters try to solve the problem.

However, that dramatic-arc narrative style doesn’t apply to every story, especially those in non-Western cultures. More importantly for today’s topic, stories with different narrative structures often don’t rely on conflict the way we’ve learned. This lack of conflict doesn’t mean they don’t “count” as stories, but it does make them different – and that means we can learn from them.

Narrative Structures with No/Low Conflict

Examples of narrative structures that take a different approach to conflict (often ignoring it completely) include:

• Kishōtenketsu: 4-act story structure found in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese storytelling, from centuries-old stories to modern manga and Nintendo video games
• Robleto: style of traditional Nicaraguan storytelling, which includes a “line of repetition” tying a character’s many journeys within the story together
• Daisy-Chain Plot: story follows single object or idea with no central character
• Fanfiction “Fluff”: zero-conflict/angst stories focusing on character interactions
• Oral Storytelling: often emphases a moral message and not conflict
• Rashomon-Style Plot: repeating events from different perspectives

A Different Way of Defining Stories

If we’re stuck in a Western-culture perspective of storytelling, we might assume no-conflict stories would be boring. Or we might not consider them stories at all. But let’s take a step back to understand what makes a story a story.

As I’ve often talked about on my blog, all types of stories are built on change. Most Western-style storytelling is based on a conflict-style of change, which involves the protagonist overcoming or learning from external or internal conflict (or failing to overcome or learn).

However, that’s not the only kind of change that can apply to storytelling. Many of the examples listed above instead focus on change in the reader rather than in the character.

For example, Rashomon-style stories present the same events as perceived by different characters to the audience, and it might be up to the reader to decide where the truth lies. In fanfic “fluff” stories, readers simply expand their imagination of what beloved characters might say, do, think, behave, or react in different situations.

In kishōtenketsu, the third act typically includes an unexpected “twist” unrelated to the previous acts (often seeming like an outright non sequitur) until all aspects of the story are brought together and reconciled in the fourth act’s ending. In other words, the twist can be more about changing readers’ perspective than the typical “plot twist.” (Check out the first comic at this link for a simplistic example.)

No Conflict? We Still Need a Story

All that said, this knowledge of alternatives to the usual conflict-focused story doesn’t give us an excuse to release boring dreck to readers. We still need to make sure our story is a story, especially as there’s a risk to relying on alternative story structures, as our Western audience is probably expecting a typical narrative. Being too stuck or lazy or whatever to think of how to add conflict is different from purposefully creating a story where conflict is unnecessary and beyond the point.

So if we’re going to claim our story fits one of these other narrative structures, we need to learn the rules and expectations of that structure just as much as we now study conflict, goals, stakes, etc. Claiming our story “fits” an alternative structure doesn’t automatically make it true.

In addition, we need to make sure we know how the idea of change applies to our story. Whether found in the character, the story world, or readers’ perspective or experience, the sense of change creates the sense of a story. No matter the style of change or how much conflict our story does—or doesn’t—have, the change is a type of enlightenment.

Readers want to discover the unknown, from “what happens next?” to “how does this apply to me?” or “how do these story ideas relate to each other?” A reader’s desire to get answers can create another form of tension and conflict, even in non-Western-style stories that are often thought of as conflict-less. And that emotional investment from readers will help ensure our story—no matter the form it takes—is satisfying to readers. *smile*

Do you have any questions or insights about no/low-conflict stories or alternative narrative story structures?

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 No Story Conflict? Explore Your Options appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Everyone says you should read a lot if you want to improve your writing. A blanket statement if ever I heard one. 

Anyone can read. There are readers out there consuming 100, 200, and even more books a year. You don’t see them automatically writing bestselling novels. That’s because just reading isn’t enough. I think there should be a caveat to that sentence. It’s not enough to just read. You have to analyze, deconstruct and synthesize that reading into your work. That’s what we’re going to look at today.

A Word on How You Read

When I say you have to read consciously and not lose yourself in the story, many people object, because “escapism” is half the joy of reading. Look, I’m not saying you’re never allowed to read solely for fun. What I’m saying is to try and keep part of your brain conscious. Allow it to roam the pages for sparkling dialogue, description that sings, or characterization that takes your breath away.

Underline those sentences, or if that’s too much like sacrilege, use a sticky tab to highlight where you found sentences that jumped out at you.

How to Pick up on Sentences

In order to find interesting sentences, I ask how or why an author created that particular sentence or effect. I go into detail on this topic in The Anatomy of Prose, my latest book. Here are some examples:

Dialogue

• Why did that line of dialogue make me laugh?
• How did the author use the back and forth between two characters to show insight into their emotional wounds?

Description

• How did the author use punctuation to create descriptive rhythm?
• Why did the author choose those words to create a descriptive metaphor?
• How did the description shed light on a character’s personality?

Technical Observations

• How did those conflicting words create such a powerful juxtaposition?
• Why did the author choose to break that writing rule in this sentence?
• Why did the use of alliteration in this description work so well to create vivid imagery?

How to Analyze What You’ve Read

It’s all good and well telling you to ask questions, but the real lesson comes from the analysis and then putting it into practice. So, let’s do just that.

Worked Example

I dug through my file of quotes (yes, I collect quotes from books where I think a lesson can be gleaned) and found a great example:

“I see no secrets in your gaze,” I said. I see only night and smoke, dreams and glass, embers and wings. And I would not have you any other way.” Roshani Chokshi, The Star-Touched Queen.

There are many observations we can take from this quote. But I’m going to focus on just two: 

Observation 1

Chokshi has created characterization as well as character description by elaborating through the narrator’s inner dialogue. This means the narrator doesn’t want the character being described to know what they think or feel about them. It also shows the narrator’s vulnerability as it’s clear she “likes” the character she’s describing. 

Observation 2

Chokshi has used a specific repetition technique and rhythm to create the description. Specifically, “X and X”. Her words are:

“night and smoke”
“dreams and glass”  
“embers and wings” 

You can take both these literary techniques and use them in your own work with your own words.

Putting Lessons into Practice

Note that we are not copying the author’s words, their characters. or characterization. That’s plagiarism. Instead we are using the literary techniques like inner dialogue to increase characterization, or the X and X rhythm of description to create our own descriptive flow. Some techniques might work for you, others you may hate. But unless you try the tools and techniques you discover while reading, you won’t shape your own writing voice. 

To give an example of this in practice, I’ve used two characters I’m currently developing for a new series: Earl (the narrator) and Scarlet (the woman he’s describing). If I wanted to use the same techniques and rhythm Chokshi used, I could create something like this:

“There is death in your eyes,” Earl said. Death and blood, vengeance and war, power and victory. Everything I like in a woman.

You’ll note that, while I used the same techniques, my sentences are completely different from Chokshi’s. Different words, different characters, different tone and feeling.

If this feels too similar to Chokshi’s sentence, I could include Earl’s thought in the narrative description rather than inner monologue, like so:

“There is death in your eyes,” Earl said. Death and blood, vengeance and war, power and victory. Everything I like in a woman.

Or I can get rid of the X and X technique while still using the narrator’s inner dialogue to show how he really feels about his counterpart.

“You reek of death,” Earl said. I like that in a woman.

If I preferred shorter, cleaner descriptions, I could still use the X and X rhythm but make it sharper by removing all but one instance, like this:

“There is death in your eyes,” Earl said. Death and blood. Everything I like in a woman.

You can see how much you can take—both lessons and technique-wise—from the analysis of just one quote. Yes, reading is important, nay, essential as a writer, but I truly believe it’s more than that. What’s important is what you do with your reading and how you analyze what you’ve read. It’s that intentional practice that truly helps you develop as a writer. 

SACHA BLACK

Sacha is the author of the #1 bestseller for writers, 13 Steps To Evil – How To Craft A Superbad Villain. Her blog for writers, www.sachablack.co.uk, is home to regular writing, marketing and publishing advice sprinkled with dark humour and the occasional bad word. In addition to craft books, she writes YA fantasy. The first two books in her Eden East Novel: Keepers and Victor, are out now. You can find her manning the helm at The Rebel Author Podcast, and on social media:

Twitter ǀ Facebook ǀ Instagram ǀ Pinterest

The post What “Read More to Improve Your Writing” Really Means appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Do you have a hard time plotting an entire novel in advance? Do you get bogged down or overwhelmed, to the point it paralyzes your story? If so, you might be more of a situational writer. And it might be time to set yourself free.

Plotting has long been my nemesis. Over the years, I’ve read many books and articles on fiction writing that stressed the importance of advance plotting. I understand the merits, on an intellectual level. In some cases, as with epic fantasies and the like, plotting becomes more of a necessity than a choice.

But not all writers fall into that boat. Some could benefit from taking a more situational approach to their work.

(Book titles may contain affiliate links)

I first encountered the concept years ago, while reading Stephen King’s memoir and writing guide On Writing. He was discussing the manner in which he writes his books — or prefers to write them — and he used the term “situational.” Suddenly, I had a label for something I’d been drawn to all along.

Here’s a relevant passage from On Writing:

“Gerald’s Game and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon are two other purely situational novels. If Misery is ‘two characters in a house,’ then Gerald is ‘one woman in a bedroom’ and The Girl Who is ‘one kid lost in the woods.’ As I told you, I have written plotted novels, but the results, in books like Insomnia and Rose Madder, have not been particularly inspiring. These are (much as I hate to admit it) stiff, trying-too-hard novels.”

For me, the pressure to create an extensive plot stifles the artistic process. It bogs me down. It removes the organic spontaneity from the story. And that spontaneity — those little surprises that emerge along the way — is one of my favorite things about writing. When I eventually nixed the plotting and embraced the situational model, I felt liberated. I found more surprises within the story, more life. I got to see my characters emerge and figure things out on their own. It was all I could do to keep up and chronicle their evolution.

Now, before you plotters start throwing tomatoes at me, let me clarify. I’ve read many novels that were plotted in advance (as disclosed through author interviews) and enjoyed them immensely. Plotting works for some writers. For some novelists, plotting is a tool that paves the way to a finished book. And that’s what it’s all about, right? Finishing. So, if you’re one of those writers, and plotting is how you reach the finish line … plot away!

I would also be remiss not to mention the hybrid approach. This is where you start with a general plot but leave room for situational writing and spontaneity.

It’s not an either-or scenario. You can mix it up.

If you’re like me, however, and you feel weighed down and walled in by plotting, it might be time for a different approach. Try the situational method. Let the story emerge bit by bit, the way real life happens, and see where it takes you.

So, how do you go about it?

The first and most important thing is to create a strong enough situation. This is mission critical. It won’t result in a finished work. You still have to figure out what your characters are all about, how they change during the course of the story, etc. But it all starts with the situation. That’s the seed from which the story grows.

In the above quote, King was downplaying when he said the situation behind Misery was “two characters in a house.” There was more to it, obviously. Yes, there were two people in a house. But one was a popular romance novelist, immobilized by a car accident, and the other was a deranged fan with serious entitlement issues. Now that’s a situation!

Misery, and many other novels like it, evolves though a series of “what next” questions. (Or “what if” questions, if you like.) What would Paul Sheldon do if he realized he was being cared for by a closet lunatic? What would Annie do if she suspected he was trying to escape? These questions — these situations and their results — drive the story forward.

Maybe you’re not a Stephen King fan. That’s okay. There are plenty of other examples. Many successful and prolific authors have written novels in this manner. So don’t get too hung up on the whole King thing. It’s the idea I want you to consider. And the idea (to borrow another quote from On Writing) is this:

” A strong enough situation renders the whole question of plot moot, which is fine with me.”

So you start with a situation. Then you move toward it, establishing mood, building character. And you ask yourself: what next? What would this character do in this situation, and how might that complicate things? What conflicts would arise? Thus, the story moves forward.

Some critics malign the situational writing method. Some claim it results in one-dimensional stories. I say they’re missing the point. The situation is not the novel. It’s the spark that conflagrates. It is the basis of conflict that creates drama and friction. Even with a strong and intriguing situation, there is much work to be done.

But for some writers, the situational approach makes that work easier to tackle. It gives you a first draft. Then you go back and add layers to deepen the story. Chances are, you’ll discover things about your characters you didn’t know when you first set out. That’s a best-case scenario. It requires revisions. A lot of them, in some cases. But it also allows you to smash through tropes and formulas to produce something new, something the reader never saw coming.

If you’re a veteran writer, you probably have things figured out already. You’ve got your method, and it works for you. Great! But for novice writers, a bit of exploration might be warranted. You have to figure out what kind of story you want to create, and what strategy is needed to accomplish that goal. Situational writing is one approach worth considering.

Brandon Cornett has written three novels and published one. His first published book, Purgatory, is a horror-based thriller with a reality TV tie-in.

His next novel will be out in 2020. You can connect with the author by visiting https://www.cornettfiction.com.

Have you ever tried situational writing? Were you able to plot your way to an entire novel? Let us know in the comments!

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 ‘Situational’ Writing Works Better Than Plotting appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Full disclosure: Becca and I have been a bit sneaky this year.

First, we decided that rather than tell everyone which thesaurus we would publish next we would surprise everyone, and in February we launched an EXPANDED version of the Emotion Thesaurus (130 entries). And now, we have another surprise for you…our first boxed set!

Many of you have asked if we would consider boxed sets, and while there’s too many barriers for a print boxed set we decided to go ahead and try a digital one. This is a pilot project, to see if the interest is there, because our books are very link-heavy and so require a lot more work to bundle up than a fiction boxed set.

So, meet the Character Trait Thesaurus Boxed Set. Inside are the complete volumes of The Positive Trait Thesaurus, which covers the different attributes and strengths of a character’s personality, and the Negative Trait Thesaurus, which looks at the different human flaws we can hobble our characters with. These books span more than 200 critical traits and lead you through the process of character creation. Not only will you understand how the past affects the present when it comes to personality, worldview, and so many other aspects of characterization, you’ll find everything you need to build a story cast that feels authentic and memorable, and be able to write their actions, thoughts, and decisions in a way that lines up with their core traits.

Everything contained in the original Positive and Negative Trait books is in this bundle, but with a terrific enhancement: we’ve cross-linked each trait so you can reach the master list of attributes and flaws from any entry. We’ve also linked the options under the section TRAITS IN SUPPORTING CHARACTERS THAT MAY CAUSE CONFLICT so you can quickly maneuver to those entries with a single click:

Basically, navigating is twice as easy, and twice as fast. And that’s what these guides are about, giving you what you need quickly so you can get right back to what you do best: writing the book!

This boxed set is only available here at Writers Helping Writers.

We have every format you need: Mobi (Kindle), ePub (other e-readers like kobo, etc.) and PDF. Instructions are provided for putting these on your device, so it’s all nice and easy. If you would like to know more, visit our bookstore.

Powerful characters lead to powerful stories!

We hope this boxed set is just what you need. Happy writing, all!

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 Introducing the Character Trait Boxed Set appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

“Begin with the end in mind.” -Stephen Covey

Whether it’s planning a goal, an entire curriculum unit, or a book, backward design is an effective concept that can be applied to any strategic planning process – storytelling included.

Think about it: As writers, we often start mapping out our stories by focusing on the beginning, then working our way through the murky middle, until we reach, with relief, the inevitable end.

But, what if you were to plan your story backward, and reverse engineer your entire plot?

If you’re struggling with writer’s block or discovering that your story’s events don’t seamlessly lead your reader to a resolution, try reverse engineering your story with backward design.

What is Backward Design or Mapping?

Backward design, also known as backward planning or mapping, is a popular strategy used by educators to design learning experiences that lead students to end-of-year success. Teachers use this strategy to plan their curriculum unit or lesson plan with the end-goal in mind, rather than construct it around the everyday classroom process. 

How Can You Apply Backward Design to Storytelling?

By starting with your story’s end in mind, you can navigate your way through the major plot points that led up to that end. You can take your reader through a well-constructed, thoroughly mapped out experience.

You can apply the backward design strategy on a macro and micro level. On a macro level, you can use it to plan the main events in your plot. On a micro level, you can apply it to strengthen your characters’ development, so that they achieve the desired persona.

Let’s take a look at how we can apply this strategy to our storytelling! 

Step 1: Establish the End-Goal

Just as a teacher might begin with laying the foundation, you must begin with a setting and some basic characters for your piece.

Once this is established, you can dive into the big question: How do you want your story to end?

The answer to this question can vary depending on your writing goals. Do you intend to write a series of books, a single novel, or a short story? Either way, thinking about how your story will end is the foundational question you must answer.

Identifying your end-goal first is a beautifully simplistic thing that opens up a plethora of opportunity for your characters and plot.

As an example, let’s examine J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The end goal of Tolkien’s series is that Frodo destroys the one ring, crumbling the dark forces of Sauron. Due to the establishment of this ending, Tolkien’s characters’ actions, and the course of his plot is dedicated to attaining this resolution. Without the inception of this ending, the beloved characters of The Lord of the Rings would find themselves wandering Middle Earth for three novels until their author deemed it a good time for the story to end.

To avoid disappointing your reader with plot holes, start by establishing your story’s end goal and guiding your entire plot and characters towards it.

Step 2: Determine Your Principle Plot Points & Create an Index

Once you’ve established your end-goal, you get to delve into the meat of your story, constructing the path your plot must take in order to reach the desired resolution.

With your ending scrawled out before you, you can now create an index of what titular events must take place in order for your ending to be achieved.

Using The Lord of the Rings as an example again, Frodo must have the ring in order to destroy it, he must find a way to get to the only place where the ring can be destroyed, his enemy must be distracted upon his final approach, etc.

Creating an index of these important events allows you to space out your story, and precisely build an outline for your plot to follow.

Step 3: Construct the Filler

Your story now has a roadmap. You know where you are, where you’re going, and what your primary stops are along the way. All that’s left is to make the journey.

From this point you get to connect all of your principal events in whatever way best suits your characters. It is within this step that you can use backward design on the micro level to plan your characters.

Using Backward Design to Build Your Character

A complex character development is just as beneficial as a good plot, and backward design provides an effective strategy to constructing this development throughout your piece.

To formulate your characters using the backward design, simply follow the same format we used for mapping out the plot.

Establish where you want your character’s development to end, then plan out the events that will shape their personality to get them there. 

Step 4: Tie in Character Construction

At this point, you have planned out the arc of your plot, starting with its end, and have discovered who your characters will be upon reaching your tale’s resolution.

Now, you can simply tie the two together, recognizing what events in your plot line will cause for the necessary changes in character. By the time you are finished, you have a beginning-to-end story with no loose ends, formulated so that every event that unfolds supports the conclusion. 

Try Using Backward Design to Plan Your Story!

While this strategy of plot-planning may not be for everyone, it is a surefire way to turn an idea into a viable story, and to avoid writing a plot that doesn’t support your ending.

While this article focuses on applying backward design to fiction writing, you can even apply this strategy if you’re writing a nonfiction book. Instead of outlining a plot, you’ll outline each topic that will guide your book’s main point.

Angelica Hartgers is the Content Creation Specialist at SelfPublishing.com. With a background in writing and education, she is passionate about empowering other writers to improve their craft and promoting the power of the written word. When she’s not creating content that helps writers tell better stories and publish their books, she’s reading, writing, and traveling the world. Read more on our blog. 

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 Using Backward Design to Plan Your Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

I’ve never met a writer who didn’t doubt. You worry you’re not good enough. You wonder if anyone even wants to read your writing. You even begin to suspect that unless your writing fills some very specific criteria, you couldn’t possibly be a real writer at all.

Problem is, worrying about all these things holds you back from writing. Instead of sharing writing for feedback or sending work out for publication, doubt gets you mired in the mud and stuck. 

But what if doubt could propel you forward instead of holding you back?

I created these four journaling prompts to help you dance with fear and follow your instinct as you become a stronger and more confident writer.

Prompt One: Let Go of Doubt with an Unstructured Free Write

This is the most powerful writing exercise I know because it helps you move past self-consciousness and get your ideas on paper. In twenty years of writing and teaching, it has never failed me. 

When to use this prompt: 

When you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed or you’re simply not sure where to begin. This is a perfect prompt to move through resistance.

How to use this prompt:

You’ll need a timer plus your desired method of writing. Use a pen and paper or type directly on a computer. Whichever works best for you.

Set the timer for ten minutes and write for ten minutes without stopping. No editing, erasing or crossing anything out. If you don’t like what you’re writing, simply move to the next line and continue with your next thought. If you have nothing to say at first or you think this is the most ridiculous exercise ever, write that down.

What to do next:

Read through your freewriting, circling any ideas that jump out at you as interesting. Let your instinct guide you. Those circled ideas become the seeds for finished essays, stories, scenes, and books.

Prompt Two: Dive Deep into Your Doubt

When to use this prompt:

Any time self-doubt hits. Instead of pretending you don’t feel the way you do, embrace it and write.

How to use this prompt:

As with unstructured free writing, you’ll set a timer for ten minutes. This time, dive into what you’re feeling. Explore the edges of your emotion by writing down what you experience.

Where do you feel doubt in your body? Does your stomach tighten or do your hands go cold? What sparks the doubt? 

Use the Emotion Thesaurus to answer these questions, too. What verbs connect to the sensations you experience? What happens with your doubt once it begins? Does it escalate into full worry and disbelief? Or can you ease your doubt and turn it into curiosity?

What to do next:

Apply your personal experience of doubt — or any emotion for that matter — to your characters or in a personal essay. You can lift passages directly from your journaling and edit them to fit a story or scene.

Prompt Three: Talk to Your Haters

When to use this prompt:

When you find yourself stuck because you believe no one wants to read your writing or when you imagine you’re writing to a specific audience.

How to use this prompt:

Write about the audience you imagine not wanting to read your work. What do they look like? Where do they live? Why do you believe they won’t like what you have to say?

Or perhaps there’s a misunderstanding? What is it your reader really wants? And what about your writing will resonate with them?

What to do next:

This process of diving into the thinking of another person is the basis of character building. You can incorporate this person into something you write.

This prompt also helps you develop your author branding and platform building. When you have a clear idea of who wants to read your writing and why you know where to reach out and how to find your readers.

Prompt Four: Problem Solve with a Targeted Free Write

When to use this prompt:

You know basically what you want to write, but you’re not sure how to write it. Or you have so many ideas, you’re not sure which to choose. Whether perfecting your storytelling, fleshing out characters or understanding why a scene isn’t working, targeted free writing allows you to explore your options and experiment.

How to use this prompt:

Instead of writing whatever comes to mind as you would in an unstructured free write, begin with a question you have related to your writing. Some examples of what you can ask yourself:

• What will happen next in the story?
• What does my character want?
• Which of the subplots need development?
• Any other quandary you currently face with your work-in-progress. 

Then write for ten (or more) minutes to answer your question.

What to do next:

Use the solutions you uncover and apply them to your works in progress. Try something, see how it works. If it doesn’t fit your needs, try something else.

People often avoid journaling, because they wonder what worth free writing can be if no one ever reads it. What if you develop an idea and it ends up being the wrong one?

This is simply part of what it means to be a writer. Yes, you will likely write pages you’ll never use. But the more you practice, the more you move past the resistance and doubt that holds you back.

For more ways to get past self-doubt, download this Build Your Writing Confidence worksheet.

What helps you get back to writing when self-doubt hits? Let me know in the comments!

Leigh Shulman is a writer and writing mentor with over 20 years experience. She’s the author of The Writer’s Roadmap: Paving the Way To Your Ideal Writing Life. Her online writing mentorship program The Workshop guides writers as they create a business plan for their writing lives then make their plans happen. For more ways to get past self-doubt, download her Build Your Writing Confidence worksheet.

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.

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