Writers hear it all the time: Show, don’t tell. This advice is so iconic that I wouldn’t be surprised if a few tattoos are kicking around the community. After all, our job as writers isn’t to explain what’s happening to readers, it’s to help them experience the story themselves. And show, don’t tell is how we do it!

Showing Creates an Experience.
Telling Hands Out Information.

Imagine your story as a culinary masterpiece and your reader a dinner guest. Sure, you could slap a plate down and say, “It’s lasagna, enjoy,” or you could slide the steaming dish in front of them and let those saucy layers, bubbling cheese, and heavenly aroma rev them up for the first bite.

Telling has its place -and for more on that, zip over here- but showing engages readers. It will bring them in close, make them feel involved, and awaken their emotions and memories.

One problem with show, don’t tell?

Somewhere along the way, it became so integrated with character emotion that writers didn’t necessarily think to use it for other things.

To be clear, showing emotion is great advice! I’m sure you’ve attended workshops and been told not to say your character is sad—instead, describe them standing at their school locker, clutching a break-up note, blinking fast and swallowing hard. If you’ve read The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, you know Becca and I preach loud and proud about showing emotion. But it has so many other applications, so let’s recap a few.

Showing Can Anchor Readers in the Setting

When it comes to worldbuilding, readers should be able to imagine the character’s world and feel part of each scene.

Telling: The castle was massive, with stone walls and high towers.

Showing: The castle loomed over the village, its stone walls etched with centuries of wind and war. Torchlight flickered along the high towers, where banners snapped against the night sky.

Telling works for delivering details that aren’t important, but showing can draw a reader in, help them imagine what they reader, convey the history or importance of a location, and more.

Showing Can Set the Mood

Part of creating an experience is steering how readers should feel. The details we share, especially sensory description, can nudge them to view a setting a certain way—safe, dangerous, calming, worrying. It’s up to us.  

Telling: The alley was dark and scary.

Showing: The alley narrowed, its brick walls leaning inward, swallowing the last flickers of streetlight. Garbage bags sagged against dented cans, the air thick with something damp and rotting.

Here, telling is factual, but showing creates foreboding. Only one will push readers to eagerly read on to see what sort of bad thing is waiting in the dark.

Showing Can Define a Relationship Without Labels

Characters shouldn’t have to say they’re best friends, mortal enemies, or hopelessly in love. Their actions should make that obvious.

Telling: Jake and Connor had been best friends for years.

Showing: Jake barely knocked before pushing open Connor’s door. “Bro, I got a problem with someone and need backup.”
Connor shut his textbook. “Let’s go. I’m driving.”

Best friends? Yup! Telling would work if this friendship wasn’t relevant, but if it is, we need to see that closeness in action. Showing does that, pulling the reader along for the ride.

Showing Can Reveal Character Motivation

Characters need to have agency, doing and saying things for a reason. But if we just tell readers what’s driving them, it falls flat.

Telling: Olivia wanted to prove she was just as capable as her older brother.

Showing: Olivia tightened the laces on her running shoes. She could still hear her brother’s voice from last night: “You won’t last a mile.” Gritting her teeth, she stepped onto the track. She’d make it ten.

A character’s motivation is more likely to land with readers if they empathize with their reasons. Showing here utilizes a common human experience—a lack of support and voiced doubt—and places readers in Olivia’s corner. They want her to succeed.

Showing Helps Deepen Conflict and Stakes

If the stakes matter, readers should feel it.

Telling: If Sam lost, he’d have to leave town for good.

Showing: Sam rolled his poker chip across the felt. One hand. One chance.

Across the table, Mason smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll pass on your goodbyes to everyone at the wedding tomorrow.”

Here, telling readers what’s at stake is equivalent to a sad trombone (womp-womp). Showing makes readers care about Sam and invest in what happens next.

Showing Can Showcase Characterization

Each character will have their own personality, talents, beliefs, tendencies, quirks, etc. How you convey who they are can mean the difference between a cardboard character and someone so authentic it feels like they stepped out of the real world.

Telling: Jonas was a germaphobe.

Showing: Jonas pinched the edge of his plate, avoiding contact. Across the table, a man sneezed into his palm, then grabbed the breadbasket. Jonas stiffened. Bacteria—everywhere. He chewed fast, breathed shallowly. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could scrub this place off his skin.

When we show it, Jonas’ fear feels authentic. Readers can surmise how this phobia will shape his life in the story.

Look for Opportunities to Make Your Story Immersive!

Showing can vastly improve a story, but crafting the right descriptions is not easy. This is why it can be so tempting to slip into telling. It’s worth the worth, though, when the situation in the story warrants showing.

It comes down to knowing what to show, and what to tell. Readers never need to know every little thing about the story and your characters, but they know the important stuff that helps them follow the story, care about the characters, and feel invested in the outcome.

Focus on what’s important, what readers need to know, and what makes them care the most. If you need help finding telling that you suspect needs to be converted to showing, try 7 Ways to Find Telling in Your Writing.

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 Use Show, Don’t Tell to Strengthen Your Story appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

In storytelling, our number one job is to make readers care. We want to ensure that our fiction captivates them on many levels and that our characters seem like living, breathing people who continue to exist in readers’ minds long after the book closes.
So how do we do this?

Well, it may not seem like the obvious choice, but the setting can be one of the best tools through which to organically reveal truths about your characters. Here are two quick tips on how to use the setting to characterize your cast for readers:

Choose Emotionally Relevant Locations

As the gods of our own little universes, we have the power to choose literally everything. But when it comes to the setting, the decision is often a halfhearted one—since the setting is just a backdrop, right? Wrong.

Every character has a history of blissful interludes, toxic run-ins, embarrassing moments, and traumatic episodes. And long after these formative events have been forgotten or buried, their settings will continue to hold significance for the characters involved.

For instance, let’s say that after being out of the romance game for a while, your heroine has agreed to go on a first date, and you need to decide on a setting.
Instead of falling back on a generic location for this scene, brainstorm some possibilities that hold significance for the character. Maybe her date has asked to meet at the same café where her fiancé once dumped her. Or in the park where she was mugged. Or at the bar where the guy she’s been in love with since tenth grade works as a bouncer.

Any of these settings can work because they’re already emotionally charged for the protagonist.

A first date can be difficult in and of itself; experiencing it in one of these places is going to heighten the character’s emotions and bring back old memories when she’d rather avoid them, ensuring that she won’t be at her best. When it comes to the important scenes in your story, complicate matters for your protagonist and tap into his or her emotions by choosing settings with personal significance.

Get Personal with the Details

Showing rather than telling is the most powerful means of providing insight into the personality of your protagonist and other cast members. Rather than explaining your characters through boring chunks of narrative, hone in on the personal details within a given setting that will tell readers about the people inhabiting it:

I surveyed Rossa’s spotless kitchen. Dishes in their racks—sparkling. Wooden counters—scrubbed to a stone-like smoothness. Rossa herself—hair perfectly arranged, clothes crisp even at this hour, the frivolous fall of lace at her throat. I crossed my arms and couldn’t help wondering, again, how she and Dad could be meant for each other.

Here we have a scene that says loads about its owner. Rossa is meticulous when it comes to tidiness—both for her home and herself. You get the feeling that she values propriety and appearances. And we learn something about the narrator, too: she isn’t so concerned with all of that. She disdains it, in fact, and doesn’t seem to like her Dad’s love interest very much. All of this we’re able to infer from the simple description of a kitchen.

Personal spaces can be quite telling. Make them do more than simply set the scene by zooming in on those details that reveal something about your characters. And for those vital scenes in your story, put your cast members on edge by thoughtfully choosing the settings—ones that add an emotional component or will up the stakes. Resist the temptation to settle for a generic setting and start putting your locations to work for you and your characters.

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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Have you ever watched a movie based on a book you read and realized the book is so much better? As a writer, this phenomenon excites me, because we can create an experience for readers with words that studios are desperate to replicate with their huge budgets. But how can that be? Will books become obsolete as more and more content streams into homes? I highly doubt it. Writers have a few tricks up their sleeves that movies can’t use. And if you combine these elements on your pages, you’ll create an immersive experience that all the money in the world can’t put on the screen.

Movies rely on 3 elements of writing in their scripts to tell their stories – Setting, Dialogue, and Actions.

They can also use music, lighting, and special effects to enhance the whole experience.

Writers have 2 extra elements at their disposal – Reactions, and Inner Thoughts.

(Strictly speaking, movies can try to replicate Inner Thoughts by using an actor’s voiceover, but that gets annoying quickly if overused – advantage, writers!)

That’s right, only in books can a reader climb into a character’s skin and experience their world through their eyes. This is why books aren’t going anywhere, and why many times, the book is better than the movie!

The 5 Elements of Writing Include

Element 1: Setting – Your world is alive in your head as you write. Make sure that you’re giving your reader some hints along the way to help them construct your beautiful world in their minds. Try sprinkling 2-3 details of your world by letting your characters interact with your setting at the top of each scene, or immediately after the characters arrive at a new destination within a scene to make your setting pop.

Element 2: Dialogue – Just like a movie director, you as the writer can decide when to zoom way out and let time pass quickly for your characters, sharing only summary details like a movie montage, or zoom right in close and hear everything that they have to say. Dialogue is a great tool to include when you’re zooming in, letting us hear the actual words that characters say to one another. Dialogue in books is trickier to punctuate than you think, and many writers get this wrong, consistently. Check out my dialogue punctuation cheat sheet that should clear up any questions you have and get you punctuating dialogue like a pro, once and for all.

Element 3: Actions – This element includes describing all the stuff that characters get up to in your book. These actions can be small, such as scratching a nose during a conversation, or huge, such as jumping in front of a moving train to save their nemesis and furthering your plot.

Element 4: Reactions – When done right, sharing how a character reacts or feels in their Point of View will have your reader laughing, crying, or sitting on the edge of their seat right along with your characters! The Emotion Thesaurus is an amazing resource to get your creative juices flowing and practice how to get these emotions and reactions on your page.

Element 5: Inner Thoughts – This one is the slam dunk element that will tip your readers over the edge, falling into your pages. Whether you have a narrator, or it’s written from a character’s Point of View (POV), they are your reader’s guide on the journey, and will let the reader know how to feel and react to the story as they go. Let this inner voice of your POV character(s) shine, giving meaning to the events that unfold in your book’s plot. This element is what gives your story personality, helping it stand out from the rest, so have fun with it. 

What if the 5 Elements of Writing aren’t Balanced on Your Pages? 

Have you ever read (or written!) a scene that feels a little flat, and you just can’t seem to put your finger on why? Chances are, the writer has leaned too heavily on 1-2 of these elements of writing for a page or more, without taking full advantage of the full range at their disposal. Reading passages like this feels more like a chore, and readers will disengage.

Some examples of the elements being out of balance are:

• Including long paragraphs of setting description clumped together without anything happening in the scene. Readers can only digest so much information at once, and if you include too much (commonly referred to as an info dump), readers will start to skim to get back to the action on the page, missing all your beautiful descriptions.
• A page or more of quick back and forth dialogue, with minimal actions inserted between what each character is saying. This is a problem commonly called talking heads, where it feels like your characters are just heads blabbing back and forth, not providing any context. You can have quick exchanges, but keep these short and to the point for maximum impact.
• Long tirades in a character’s head (Inner Thoughts), while not moving the story forward. This one feels a lot like an info dump to read.
• Scenes that go from action to action, meticulously detailing the things your characters do, without giving them time to React, or reflect on what it means to them in that moment using Inner Thoughts.

The good news is, this imbalance is easy to spot when reading your own drafts, and easy to fix. In addition to simply counting the number of elements you’ve used on each page using the list in this article, you can spot areas in your draft that need attention quickly, paying attention to the white space on the page.

• A long section relying heavily on quick dialogue is easy to spot when there is lots of white space on your page.
• Too much setting description or inner thoughts is easy to spot when the text is dense on your pages, with long paragraphs and few breaks

Having awareness of the 5 Elements of Writing in your writers’ toolbelt will help you craft pages that hold your reader’s attention, making it feel three dimensional. Using 3 or more of these Elements on each page will keep your reader’s brain engaged and make your scenes feel richer and fuller, even better than the movie will be when it comes out.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

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

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

The post Using the 5 Elements of Writing to Immerse Readers appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

When we create a story world for readers, we are implanting images and sensory details. From which, the reader fills in the gaps. If we skew that world in any way, we pull the reader out of their base model. And ultimately, out of the story itself.

Examples of Oopsies:

• blue eyes turn brown
• a limp or lisp mysteriously vanishes
• the sun rises outside the west-facing window
• an ocean appears in the middle of the desert
• the MC’s house has hardwood floors, yet in the previous book they had wall-to-wall carpeting

Creating a fictional world requires creativity, consistency, and attention to detail.

10 Tips to Ensure a Smooth Transition from One Book to Another

Create an overarching series bible and a story bible for individual book(s). The story bible contains things like:

• Description of main characters, including the correct spelling of their names
• Description and names of secondary characters
• Description of villains, including epithets (if applicable)
• Victim profiles (if important)
• Characters’ professions
• Killer(s) MO and/or signature (if applicable)
• Pets, including deceased pets (if applicable)
• Tattoos or piercings
• Scars—emotional and physical
• Favorite jewelry
• Marital status/relationships
• Important dates (birthdays/anniversaries)
• Family ties
• Themes
• Setting
• Backstory
• Housing
• Favorite scent (cologne/perfume/shampoo/body spray/lotion)
• Accent (if any)
• Home décor and architecture
• Cherished treasures/family heirlooms
• Timelines
• Main plots
• Subplots
• Future scene ideas

In the story bible for each book, focus on minute details. Did you describe the MC’s home? Include the passage. Does the MC read a lot? Include book titles, if mentioned in the novel. Did you describe the town or the MC’s favorite breakfast joint? Include the passage.

The series bible should include details about the story world and generalized descriptions of the characters.

No need to repeat the descriptions of main and secondary characters unless they’ve changed in some way i.e., MC got a small ankle tattoo in the last book. Or she now has a scarred cheek from an automobile accident. Breast implants, liposuction, collagen lips, Botox, or other plastic surgery.

Do include theme, subplot, setting, ringtones, pets, updated backstory to include previous books, new characters, new fears, or old traumas resurfacing, new or perfected skills, favorite foods, favorite cocktail(s), food allergies, jobs, etc. etc. etc.

We forget. A lot. With multiple books in a series, our recall worsens. If we write in more than one series, it’s even easier to forget minute details.

Tips to Create Story Worlds

• Establish a Core Concept

What is the concept or theme? Is the book set in a post-apocalyptic world? Dystopian future? Historical time? When or where does the story take place? Even if you never include the month or year in the WIP, knowing the approximate date helps to establish weather patterns, sunrise/sunset times, etc.

• Geography

Develop physical landscapes, landmarks, cultures, and traditions. What are the residents like in this town? Stepford-esque? Back-country rural? A bustling city? Beach/island community?

• History

Even if you never use these details in the WIP, you should know the history of your world. Did a major event cause an upheaval? Are there lingering effects? What are the natural resources? What is the terrain and climate like? Any landmarks?

• Culture and Society

Who inhabits your world? What is the culture like? How is the diversity? Does the culture and/or society cause conflict? How so? What’s the transportation like—horses, vehicles, taxis, buses, bicycles, motorcycles, or do most people drive mopeds or golf carts on the streets?

• Languages

What is the predominate language of your world? Any secondary languages? Do language barriers cause conflict for the MC?

• Societal Norms and Taboos

What are societal norms for your world? Is there an Amish community? Is there a robust Indigenous community? Do their traditions and culture conflict or complement the MC’s background? Any taboos?

• Leave Room for Changes

Don’t describe your story world in so much detail that it doesn’t allow for deeper exploration in later books. You may love it today, but ten books later it could hamstring you.

We can either create a story bible during the writing process or after. I prefer to do it once the first draft is complete. If I stop to scrawl notes during the drafting stage, it slows me down. Do whatever works best for you. These are guidelines, not rules.

Did I miss anything? Please share.
Any other advice from your experience?

SUE COLETTA - Resident Writing Coach

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone (Writer’s Digest “101 Best Websites for Writers”). Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3), Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-7 and continuing). Sue’s appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with Sue below or at www.suecoletta.com.

The post Top Story World and Story Bible Tips appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

We’ve probably seen advice warning that any time our story revisits information, we risk the idea feeling repetitive or redundant to readers if we’re not careful. Not surprisingly, the same risk can apply even across books in a series.

Yet when we write a book series, we usually need to repeat some information from book to book. Depending on the type of series, we might need to repeat character introduction or worldbuilding information, or we might need to touch on events from previous books, and so on. So how can we avoid the repetitive/redundant risk when presenting information in a book series?

Series 101: Types of Series

To understand our options for how to handle repeating information, we first need to determine the type of series we’re writing. In general, books are designated a series because they share at least one element:

• Shared Setting: These series take place in the same “world” but each feature different point-of-view (POV) characters. The characters of book two may or may not have been introduced in book one. The events of book two may or may not be dependent on the events of book one.
• Shared Character(s): These series feature the same POV character(s). The events of book two may or may not be dependent on the events of book one.
• Shared Story Arc: These series follow a story arc over several book installments. Each book usually features at least some of the same characters. Sometimes a story will end with a cliffhanger to be resolved in the next book. These books need to be read in order.

Which Category Best Fits Our Series?

We need to determine which category best fits our series, as the writing techniques that work best for handling repeated information vary for different types of series. For example, when series books are standalone, we use different techniques than when the books must be read in a certain order.

What if the books can make sense out of order but are connected enough to make events of one book affect the next book?

In this case, the series usually has less focus on the overall Shared Story Arc than the other shared elements, so the standalone techniques of the Shared Character or Shared Setting categories will likely be the most helpful to us. However, it’s also possible that that our series may change category near the end.

Some series can be read in any order until the last book(s), when the minor Shared Story Arc threads referenced throughout the series grow in importance to create a series-level story. For these series, to get the most out of the final book, readers should be familiar with the rest of the series first. In this situation, we can use the Shared Character/Setting techniques in the earlier books, and then when that Shared Story Arc finally takes over as the main focus of the book, we can change to use the Shared Story Arc techniques in the later book(s). We should just let readers know that they’ll get the most out of the last book(s) if they read the other books first.

Want to learn the Techniques for Series Based on Shared Setting
or the Techniques for Series Based on Shared Character?
Check out Jami’s companion post!

Techniques for Series Based on Shared Story Arc

The most important aspect of Shared Story Arc series is that if we intend to write the books with an assumption that readers have read previous books, we need to include that information in our marketing materials. For example, our book description/back-cover blurb should mention that this is book number-whatever in our series, and readers should start at the beginning of the series.

So if readers will read the books in a certain order, does that mean we shouldn’t bother repeating information at all? Unlikely.

Even within a single book, we still need to give readers hints about small details they may have forgotten since the earlier reference. For example, we might mention how a minor character is related to the story if they haven’t been on the page for several chapters, such as using a tag like “her brother.” (She couldn’t go to George for help, as her brother still hadn’t forgiven her for the last catastrophe.)

With a series, there’s usually months or years between the releases of our series’ books, or even if we release the series in a bundle, readers might not binge them all at once. So just like our techniques within a single book, we often need to find ways to trigger readers’ memory of earlier information.

Assuming we’ve let readers know that it’s essential to start the series at the beginning, we can focus on repeating a minimal amount of information with these 3 techniques…

#1: Use Just Enough Information to Trigger Readers’ Memory

In standalone series, we need to share enough information to get new readers up to speed, and that means re-introducing characters, the story world, and treating previous events as backstory. However, in story-arc series, we can shortcut a lot of repeated information by sharing just enough to trigger readers’ memory.

For example, rather than re-establishing why our protagonist is estranged from their family, we might just allude to the fact that they’re estranged from them. Or rather than sharing paragraphs of explanation to introduce main characters or the setting/story world, we might just state aspects of characters and the story world as facts and avoid the feeling of a re-introduction. In other words, focus on facts not explanations.

This memory-triggering process may look like one of these options, depending on the importance of the details:

• a short tag: her office nemesis,
• a sentence: She’d still never forgiven her coworker for stealing her idea, or
• a paragraph: She’d still never forgiven her coworker for stealing her idea. In fact, the more she’d thought about Andrew’s undeserved raise and promotion, the more upset she’d gotten. Soon, though, her plan for revenge would have its day.

The more important a fact, such as a major aspect of the story, the more strongly we should trigger readers’ memory with essential details in case they can’t remember. Do readers need to know the protagonist is traumatized by her father’s death in the previous book? Share how that trauma is affecting her currently, and thus include the fact of the death event along the way, much as how we’d treat any backstory.

If we need more than a paragraph or two to share the necessary details of important information with returning readers, we can try the next suggestion to avoid repeating ourselves too much.

#2: Use Different Circumstances to Mention Repeated Information

For important information, we need to ensure that readers remember enough that they’ll understand events. When our story requires us to repeat more than a condensed paragraph of information, we can avoid the feeling of too much repetition by changing the circumstances of our reveal.

For example, if we initially revealed the information in a shocking twist, a follow-up book may remind readers of the information via:

• a dialogue exchange,
• a different character bringing it up,
• internal monologue,
• an exploration of the aftereffects,
• a traumatic flashback, or
• being part of a conflict, etc.

Different techniques will fit best with different storytelling styles. The point is to change the circumstances so we’re forced to use different words, phrases, and descriptions to reduce the sense of déjà vu.

#3: Focus on How the Information Has Changed

In addition, we can emphasize how any repeated information has changed over the story’s arc. Or if the information itself hasn’t changed, we can bring it up by mentioning how characters have changed their perspective about it.

For example, we may explore how the POV character feels about it, how skilled they are at dealing with it, how they plan on taking advantage of it, etc. Revisiting the repeated information with some type of update can be a great way to ensure the repetition isn’t redundant, as readers are learning something new.

Final Thoughts about Avoiding Repetition in Series

With the right writing techniques, we can avoid—or at least minimize—the issue of readers feeling a sense of déjà vu as we repeat information in our series. When we find ways to change the information or how we deliver that information, we ensure readers are learning something new or seeing the information through a different perspective, and that gives them a reason to keep reading. *smile*

Want to learn techniques for Shared Setting or Shared Character series? Visit my companion post!

Have you written a series and struggled with how to revisit information? Can you think of any other techniques we can use to avoid a sense of repetition or redundancy? Do you have any questions about these techniques or how to approach repeating information in a series?

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 Continuing a Series: Is This Info Too Repetitive? appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Remember the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean when Captain Barbossa explains the pirate’s code? “The code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” Writing fantasy is a bit like the pirate’s code. There aren’t any rules, exactly, which is what makes it so fun to write. You can allow your imagination free rein.

But there is one “must have”: strong world-building. And world-building is one of those things that can easily get out of hand.

Guidelines For Avoiding Mayhem

Mayhem may include confusion, infodumping, logic issues, and cliches—all of which impact reader immersion. Here are some ways to keep your fantasy world under control:

Know your world, but don’t overshare: Fantasy writers spend a lot of time on world-building details to make their setting feel authentic. But then they often feel compelled to work all those details into the story, which can lead to info-dumping. Make peace with this truth: you will do more research and world-building than you can realistically fit into your novel. But rest assured, your hard work will pay off: more of it will seep into the setting than you realize. On a similar note…

Keep your readers on a need-to-know basis: Don’t overwhelm us with information. If we don’t need to know something at that moment (or ever), set it aside.

Think carefully before you include a prologue: Prologues are often comprised of a scene relating to the middle of the book that lacks any context. While you might intend yours as an amuse bouche to intrigue us, that lack of context will likely create confusion. But don’t err on the side of info-dumping by including all the things you think we need to know before we can start reading. In fact, we don’t need to know much. Instead…

Throw us into the world but use landmarks so that we’re not lost: Ease us in by including a few familiar things: a horse in the pasture, some daisies in a vase—something we know how to visualize. How you decide to name things becomes a big factor in this process. So…

Name things in such a way that we don’t need a glossary to understand them: If you look at the opening of A Game of Thrones, you’ll notice George R. R. Martin throws us into the story without any preamble, but he calls things by names that have clear meanings: the Wall, the Night’s Watch, the wilding raiders. We don’t need any explanation. We get it.

Too much terminology gets confusing: This includes long words that are capitalized for no reason and have apostrophes in the middle, and unnecessarily weird creatures with unnecessarily weird names. If it has four legs and a tail and it barks, call it a dog.

Play by the rules you’ve made: You can’t suddenly change them just because you’ve put your protagonist in a tight spot.

Remember, there is a world AND there is a story: The world should not be the story. No matter how cool it might be, your world is still just a backdrop for the main event: the characters, what they want, and what’s at stake if they don’t get it.

Honor the rules of logic and cohesion: Again, A Game of Thrones is instructive here. Every region in Martin’s vast world has its own customs and beliefs, its own clothing and food and weaponry. Each choice makes sense according to the climate and geography. Your little microcosm doesn’t have to be based on a real place, but it does have to feel authentic—which means it must make sense.

Keep your magic rules simple: If we need a flow chart to follow it, you’ll lose us. But also remember, magic must come with a cost. If there are no limits, the stakes will be too low, because anyone with magical skill will be able to spell themselves out of a tight spot.

Remember your protagonist’s internal conflict: It’s easy for externals to take over when writing fantasy, but we won’t care about what’s happening or where it’s happening, if we don’t care about who it’s happening to. Our connection as readers is to the protagonist. If you want us to follow them on their quest to achieve a narrative goal, the stakes should be personal. Give us a flawed protagonist who must transform themselves internally in order to succeed.

And speaking of conflict, embrace the grey areas in life: People aren’t generally evil for the sake of being evil, nor do they seek to rule the world just so they can ruin it. On the other hand, no one is one hundred percent good. Nuance is key. Oversimplification of people and situations creates stereotypes and predictable plot turns.

Oh, those tropes: While fantasy readers are looking for an ordinary and unlikely protagonist to rise to the position of hero/heroine, there are lots of ways to make this happen without them having to be orphans or chosen ones or discovering a prophecy that involves them. That’s not to say these things can’t work. They can—but try to make your story unique.

Oh, those characters that sound like someone from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings: The wise mentor who sound like Gandalf or Dumbledore, the dark lord who resemble Sauron or Voldemort, the dwarves with long beards. Etc. While some of these characters are archetypical, you’ll want to avoid anything that feels derivative.

If you’re aiming to publish traditionally, make sure your first book can stand alone: The market is tough these days and multi-book deals for first-time authors are rare.

In conclusion

Writing fantasy gives you an opportunity to do something completely new and different. Is this a tall order? Yes. But that’s what makes it so fun. Even better if you can create a world that tells us something important about ourselves (like Lord of the Rings did with the corrupting nature of power, the strength of fellowship, and the surprising influence of ordinary individuals to make a difference).

That’s the true power of fantasy. By providing readers with an alternate world, you help us see our own with new eyes. And by adhering to the pirate’s code, you can do so without falling prey to the pitfalls that abound in this genre.

MICHELLE BARKER - Resident Writing Coach

Michelle Barker is an award-winning author and editor who lives in Vancouver, BC. Her newest book, coauthored with David Griffin Brown, is Story Skeleton: The Classics. They are also the authors of Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling. Her novel My Long List of Impossible Things, came out in 2020 with Annick Press. The House of One Thousand Eyes was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and won numerous awards including the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry have appeared in literary reviews world-wide.

Michelle holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and is a senior editor at The Darling Axe. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with Michelle below. Michelle’s books

The post The Pirate’s Guide to Writing Fantasy appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Have you ever been running late, and found yourself scrambling around your house, looking for your car keys? Where did you leave them – on the kitchen counter? By the front door? Oh wait, you went up to your bedroom to get something. You race up the stairs, step into your room, and then stop short. You blink. You made your bed already. The blinds are drawn.

What were you looking for, again? For the life of you, you can’t remember.

This is a real phenomenon, so if you’ve experienced this, it doesn’t mean that you’re losing your marbles. It’s called The Doorway Effect, and it happens because as soon as you step over the threshold to a new room in your house, your brain has new information to process, and it clears its slate to ground itself in your new environment.

I’m in my bedroom now. My bed is made. I closed the blinds.

It might be a minute or two before you remember you were looking for your keys. You might need to retrace your steps. (But don’t worry, you’ll eventually remember that they’re on your nightstand, and you’ll leave your house only a few minutes late).

You’re probably wondering what this Doorway Effect has to do with writing? Here’s the cool thing about brains – your reader experiences a similar phenomenon when you cut to a new chapter or scene in your book. As the writer, you have the power to take them anywhere when you start a new chapter or scene. You can jump backward in time, dropping into a flashback, skip forward in time by days, months, years, even decades. You can change whose Point of View (POV) you’re telling the story from, you can even start a new scene on the moon if that’s where your story goes.

And your reader is along for the ride. They trust you, the writer, to lead the way. So, as they cross the threshold into your brand new chapter or scene, that they’ve never read before, they clear their slates, and look for clues to ground them in the scene that’s about to unfold. As they ease into the new scene, they’ll be looking to orient themselves, and need the answers to these questions, fast: 

1. Whose head are they in now? (POV)
2. Where are they in time, relative to the scene they just left?
3. What’s around your characters (setting)?
4. Who is in the in the scene when it opens?

This is true even if you start the next chapter only moments later, BTW, so you need to clue them in even if your grounding information is the same as the chapter before! 

If they don’t get that information, they’ll feel lost, like they’re floating, without their feet firmly planted on the ground. Without this information, especially any details about the setting, the reader will picture your characters in a white room, or against a white wall, going about the activities you pen for them. This is sometimes called White Room Syndrome, or White Wall Syndrome (again, aren’t brains cool?).

Many readers will start skimming to figure this out rather than stay in this no man’s land. So, if you don’t give this information until the top of the second page of your scene? They’ll miss all the amazing things that happen on page one.

The easiest way to fix this is to make sure you’re providing the 4 elements of grounding readers in your scenes within the first two paragraphs after every chapter or scene break. It’s like a big road sign when they step over the threshold to help them find their place in your world, so that they can relax and let themselves be dragged into whatever your characters get up to next.

Tips for Including Grounding in Your Scenes

Get creative, and give readers this information as quickly as possible, so you can get on with the story.

Whose head are they in now? (POV)

This is especially important when you are writing your book from more than one character’s point of view.

• Opening with an inner thought laced with your POV character’s voice, or an action or dialogue from them is the quickest way to establish this.
• If you start with another character’s actions or dialogue, readers may incorrectly assume that they will be following this new character’s POV in your scene.

Where are they in time, relative to the scene they just left?

Immerse your readers in your scene as quickly as possible by letting them in on where you’ve taken them.

• Get creative on establishing the time period for your readers. Phrases like moments later, or three months ago, can get boring, and make your grounding feel clunky. Try some of these ideas instead:
  • Show time passing with the character’s growth (longer hair, wrinkles forming, a child growing taller etc.)
  • Demonstrate a change in an object (a jar of peanut butter that empties over time, or a set of swings that shows wear).
  • Reverse these suggestions if you’re jumping backward in time.

What’s around your characters (setting)?

Rather than describing the setting, have your POV character interact with it to keep the story moving right from the top of the scene. And keep this short – adding this information is not an excuse to drop several paragraphs of worldbuilding (info dumping), which can pull readers out of your story.

• Give 2-3 specific showing details about the room or landscape you’re dropping readers into.
  • Have your POV character use something in your scene, or move an object around them that fits with their agency
  • Examples: Have them check the industrial clock on the wall to show urgency, pick up a rock and throw it to show frustration, etc.
  • Setting details are also needed when your characters change locations within a scene or chapter, in addition to the top of your scenes, so use these tips there as well to make sure your readers don’t get lost on your journey!

Check out this article by Angela Ackerman for more ideas on how to ground your characters in your reader’s world.  

Who is in the scene when it opens?

There is nothing more jarring than thinking a character is alone in a scene and having a second character speak up or yell on page two, while standing right beside them, as if they appeared out of thin air.

• Don’t simply list everyone who’s around if there’s a crowd. Mention the crowd but then zoom in on one or two specific people to make this pop.
• Just like the setting details, let your POV character interact with the people in the scene, through dialogue or actions to make it as engaging as possible.

It’s easy to check if you’ve grounded your readers at the top of your chapters or scenes, and to add these details if you haven’t got them in the first two paragraphs after a chapter or scene break to create an immersive experience for your readers, and to lead them seamlessly through the story you’ve spent months or even years crafting. Adding this information does not mean that you have to rewrite a scene you’re happy with. When done with creativity and style, your readers will enjoy your story even more, even if they don’t know why.

Grounding your readers in each scene is one of 30+ practical writing strategies Suzy shares in her Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Want more? Sign up for her Free Masterclass, 3 Secrets to Increase Your Chances of Your Book Getting Published to learn more about her Bootcamp.

SUZY VADORI - Resident Writing Coach

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

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

The post Four Must-Haves in the First Two Paragraphs of Every Chapter or Scene appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

Imagine inviting us into your protagonist’s house or whatever you deem to be their most sacred  physical space. But while we’re so excited to meet your protagonist, they’re not actually there. We can’t hear what they say or observe the way they move in order to get to know them. Or can we?

Now imagine that you’ve asked us to become a detective in their space. To piece together who your character is based upon what our senses tell us through clues. We’ve been asked to figure out who your character is without ever meeting them. Is this even possible?

In our own writing, we’re most effective when we set up “crime scenes” for our readers and invite them in to snoop around. The more we let the reader’s senses process the story world, the more they engage. The more they work. The more they get the satisfaction of knowing your character with greater precision and depth. In turn, this tricks them into feeling like they’re physically inside the story and into feeling they know your character on a deeper level.

Consider the two examples below. As you read them, feel out which one draws you in more as a reader:

Greg loves the beach.

Or…

Greg’s kitchen cupboard is overstuffed with brightly-colored margarita glasses. Some are hand-painted with palm trees and beach umbrellas and little flip-flops, while others have words printed along the rim. Places like Destin, Myrtle Beach, and Emerald Isle.

Chances are, you felt reeled in more by the second example. Why? Well, because the first one told you about Greg. It outright explained him as a character to you and asked you to take it at face value. There wasn’t any room for you to work. To deduce. To decide who Greg is on your own. The fact was served up cold, and this creates distance between you and the writing. Furthermore, you’re not left with any understanding of the size and scope of Greg’s love for the beach.

Whereas in the second example, you became a detective. Greg’s collection of glasses gives you a sense for just how much he craves that feeling of being on the beach with a margarita in his hand. It tells you not just that he has a lot of glasses, but leaves you room to deduce how much the beach appeals to him and how he probably yearns to be there now. So we don’t just walk away knowing this fact that he likes the beach, we know Greg on a deeper level because our senses have processed clues.

Now, it’s important to note that while offering these physical clues is much more inviting for your reader, there’s actually room to take things up a notch. We’ll break our own rule for a moment and let Greg slip into the scene so we can see what he does with that cupboard of glasses.

Greg’s hand wavers back and forth inside the cupboard packed with margarita glasses. He grins with a distant look in his eyes and carefully pulls one out. “Emerald Isle” is printed along the rim.

Notice how we’ve moved from the efficacy of that second example (Greg adores the beach, has clearly been to many of them, and doesn’t mind annoyingly cheery colors) into an even deeper level of Greg’s characterization. His movement now conveys his emotions both in this moment and as it seems to pertain to a memory. He handles the glass carefully—that tells us about his emotions toward the glass itself, the beach, and the memory. We’re invited in even further to wonder why he’s chosen the Emerald Isle glass in this exact moment, which propels us forward with curiosity in the story.

The takeaway? Physical description of your character’s space + movement is the best way of all to reveal your character to the reader. Rather than pausing the story to describe the setting or who your character is, we employ our readers much more like detectives when we let them put physical detail and character movement together.

Still, for the sake of exploring and getting the most out of the setting, it helps to scoot your character out of their spaces so they can’t grab control and outright tell us who they are or how they feel.

Here are sensory-based prompts you can address to help us get to know who your character is before you invite them back into the scene to interact with those spaces:

Visual

What does the style of the furniture in your character’s home (or even just their bedroom if it’s a younger character) say about who they are as a person? Is it modern, farmhouse style, antique, beat-up, hand-me-down furniture?

How is the furniture arranged? Is it in a way that reflects their tendencies toward being open, closed-off, organized, or chaotic? Intentional or haphazard?

What sorts of objects tell us about the way they spend their time? Are there tools or equipment that reflect their hobbies? Memories they hold dear? Whose pictures are posted, if any? Keepsakes from events they’ve attended or greeting cards from specific loved ones?

Are there patterns on things like bedding or clothing that reveal a deeper tendency toward something?

What colors dominate their decorations or functional items (cups, towels, bedding, etc.)? How do those colors reflect their propensity toward certain moods?

What’s hiding in the back of their closet? Their drawers? What’s shoved far beneath their bed?

How is the lighting? What does this show about their comforts or their fears?

Touch

What sorts of linens have they chosen for bedding? Window dressings? Pillows or throw blankets? Rugs? What might those textures let us glean about their personality? Are linens smooth and crisp, or wrinkly?

What sorts of fabrics dominate their cache of clothing? What do we feel when we open dresser drawers or run our hands through your character’s closet? How do the textures of each of these reflect their need for or rejection of comfort?

If we run our fingers along surfaces, which ones have gathered dust and how does that reflect avoidance or neglect for certain aspects of their life? Which ones are spotless to reveal care and a desire to maintain?

Auditory

What sorts of music or sounds drift through their spaces? How does that music or certain sounds reflect their personality or the way they have sentimental attachment to something? Do the auditory clues change depending on which space we’re in?

Are their windows open or closed to the outside world?

Are there objects that suggest auditory preferences (ear plugs, headphones, earbuds, instruments, white-noise machines, etc.)?

What does the range of their music collection tell us about their range of moods?

What size or how many speakers are around their home? What does that suggest about their reliance upon music and sound in processing emotions?

Scent

What are the scents in the different spaces where they spend time? How might those tell us something more about their interests or what they value?

Are they utilizing diffusers, candles, or plug-in scent items to evoke mood? To cover up something?

How does scent reflect the amount of time your character spends in their sacred space(s)?

Are the scents suggestive of memories or favorite times of year? Favorite places (e.g. tropical candles might suggest a preference for summer and beach getaways)?

Taste

If we open the kitchen cupboards, refrigerator, or the medicine cabinet, are there items that reveal your character’s lifestyle choices to us? Their cultural background? Their financial means?

How do the foods we see suggest a tendency toward snacking versus eating full meals? Having time to cook or relying on conveniences?

What sorts of food wrappers or food waste are sitting in the trash can?

How does the volume of food on hand suggest their outlook on life?

Are items in the fridge expired? Organized?

Again, as shown in that third example above, all of these clue-based details are best mixed with action. Nothing drops the tension faster than the narrator pausing to tell us what a character is wearing or what the character’s bedroom looks like. The most effective descriptions are woven together with movement. The more you concoct the facets of your character’s spaces with intention, the more your reader steps in like a detective, working through your clues and getting to know your character on the deepest levels.

*Marissa also shows you how to approach your novel like a winning trial lawyer,
delivering your reader to the verdict you want.

MARISSA GRAFF - Resident Writing Coach

Marissa has been a freelance editor and reader for literary agent Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary Agency for over seven years. In conjunction with Angelella Editorial, she offers developmental editing, author coaching, and more. Marissa feels if she’s done her job well, a client should probably never need her help again because she’s given them a crash-course MFA via deep editorial support and/or coaching. Find out more about our RWC team here and connect with Marissa below.

The post Turn Your Readers into Detectives appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

By C. S. Lakin

Every person or character, at any given time, is in a particular mood. Generally, mood is a person’s state of mind, but it’s more than that. Mood can also describe the disposition of a collective of people, a certain time in history, or the ether of a place.

Regardless of what kind of mood we speak of, it’s always subjective. Ten people can be experiencing the same event at the same place and time, yet, depending on their perspective, their individual mood will differ.

We all know about moods and have a range of them we express and feel, whether we’re aware of them or not. We can sense others’ moods just as they can sense ours. The mood of the character should affect the way he perceives his environment, and expert writers will carefully choose words and imagery that act like a mirror to their emotions.

First, Consider Your Scene’s Purpose

Your story may have an overall tone or mood, but every scene is a microsystem of mood that depends on the emotional state and mindset of your character. When you plot out your scene, you need to first think about how your character will interact with his setting based on his mood and the purpose of your scene.

Remember: it’s the purpose of the scene that determines all the setting elements—what you choose to have him notice (and not notice) and react to and why.

Words Are Everything

However, learn this truth: it is not the originality of a world or the degree of creativity in the world itself that makes a fantasy novel shine with brilliance; it’s the choice of words and phrases that the author uses that evokes not just a right sensory experience but makes readers fall in love with the writing.

Please note: this doesn’t just pertain to fantasy novels. Every novel involves the creation of a “world,” and so writers need to take just as much care in the creation of any world in any genre. Take a look at this hastily written sentence:

Bill walked through the forest until he found a cottage set back in the trees . . .

Now consider the reworked description below that I spent a bit more time on:

Bill slogged along the leaf-choked path, the spindly arms of the bare maples quivering in the cold autumn wind—a feeble attempt to turn him back. But he pressed on until he spotted, nestled in a copse of willows, the derelict cottage slumped like a lost orphan, the lidless windows dark and vacant. Hardly a welcoming sight after many tiresome hours of travel.

A specific mood is created by bringing out Bill’s mindset and emotional state. Without knowing anything else about this scene (if I’d written one), a reader can clearly sense the purpose of the action by the things he notices and the words used to describe them

To immerse your readers in the world you’ve created, you need to spend time coming up with masterful description. And the components of such description are the nouns, verbs, and adjectives you choose.

Mood Nuances

We all know about moods and have a range of them we express and feel, whether we’re aware of them or not. We can sense others’ moods just as they can sense ours. The mood of the character should affect the way he perceives his environment, and expert writers will carefully choose words and imagery that act like a mirror to their emotions. It’s a reciprocal factor: mood informs how the character sees his setting, but the setting also informs his mood—shifting it or intensifying it.

Take a look at this passage from The Dazzling Truth (Helen Cullen):

Murtagh opened the front door and flinched at a swarm of spitting raindrops. The blistering wind mocked the threadbare cotton of his pajamas. He bent his head into the onslaught and pushed forward, dragging the heavy scarlet door behind him. The brass knocker clanged against the wood; he flinched, hoping it had not woken the children. Shivering, he picked a route in his slippers around the muddy puddles spreading across the cobblestoned pathway. Leaning over the wrought-iron gate that separated their own familial island from the winding lane of the island proper, he scanned the dark horizon for a glimpse of Maeve in the faraway glow of a streetlamp.

 In the distance, the sea and sky had melted into one anthracite mist, each indiscernible from the other. Sheep huddled together for comfort in Peadar Óg’s field, the waterlogged green that bordered the Moones’ land to the right; the plaintive baying of the animals sounded mournful. Murtagh nodded at them.

 There was no sight of Maeve.

Culler is masterful in her usage of imagery to convey sensory detail. The feeling of rain on Murtagh’s skin is described by flinching at spitting raindrops. The blistering wind attacks his pajamas. Dragging the heavy door shows the sensation of his muscles working—proprioception. And of course we have visuals, which paint the stage for us.

We also have the sound of the brass knocker—used for a specific purpose—to tell us he’s concerned about the children waking. This is a good point to pay attention to: sensory detail should serve more than one purpose. Don’t just add a sound or sight without thinking of the POV character’s mood, concerns, mindset, and purpose in that moment. The more you can tie those things to the sensory details, the more powerful your writing.

Weather

Writers are sometimes told not to write about weather. It’s boring, right? But weather affects us every moment of every day and night. We make decisions for how we will spend our day, even our life, based on weather. And weather greatly affects our mood, whether we notice or not.

Since we want our characters to act and react believably, they should also be affected by weather. Sure, at times they aren’t going to notice it. But there are plenty of opportunities to have characters interact with weather can be purposeful and powerful in your story.

Strong Verbs and Adjectives

Using strong and effective verbs and adjectives will help you craft setting descriptions that are masterful. Every word counts. To borrow unfaithfully from Animal Farm: All words are created equal, but some words are more equal than others. Some words are plain boring, and others take our breath away.

Mood is one of the 3 M’s of character setup, and you’ll want to make sure you get the character’s mood, mindset (what she’s concerned about), and motivation on that first page. What happens in the scene will shift the mood in some way, resulting in some change in mood by the end of the scene. So think about what that mood will be like at the start of the scene and what’s changed in the mood by the end. Using the setting interactively with your character is the most powerful way to masterfully accomplish this!

C. S. Lakin is an award-winning author of more than 30 books, fiction and nonfiction (which includes more than 10 books in her Writer’s Toolbox series). Her online video courses at Writing for Life Workshops have helped more than 5,000 fiction writers improve their craft. To go deep into creating great settings and evoking emotions in your characters, and to learn essential technique, enroll in Lakin’s courses Crafting Powerful Settings and Emotional Mastery for Fiction Writers. Her blog Live Write Thrive has more than 1 million words of instruction for writers, so hop on over and level-up your writing!

Guest Contributor

Interested in posting at Writers Helping Writers? Review our content guidelines to see what we’re looking for and how to pitch us your ideas.

The post How to Create Mood Effectively in Your Fiction 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®.

Every writer’s mission is to pen a story that draws readers in, offering familiarity when it comes to certain genre expectations while also delivering something fresh so to be distinctive and memorable. This is how to cultivate a loyal–and, fingers crossed, rabidly obsessed–reading audience.

But heck, there’s a lot of stories out there. And didn’t someone say there’s only so many plot forms to choose from? Is “fresh” even possible?

 YES.

When you know where to look, you can find a kaleidoscope of unique ideas and apply them to any type of story to transform it.

 A Story’s Secret Weapon: Conflict

One of the easiest ways to offer that thrill of “newness” for readers is to activate the power of conflict. In fiction, it is the crucible that tests, bruises, and shapes our characters. Externally, it pushes the plot onward by supplying the resistance needed to force characters to scrutinize their world, make choices, and take action to get what they want. Internally, conflict generates a tug-of-war between the character’s fears, beliefs, needs, values, and desires. Ultimately, it forces them to choose between an old, antiquated way of thinking and doing, or a new, evolved way of being, because only one will help them get what they want.

Conflict touches everything:
plot, characters, arc, pacing, tension, emotion, etc. 

No matter the genre or the type of plot, conflict allows you to make a storyline fresh. The scenarios you choose can be adapted to your character, their circumstances, and the world where everything is taking place, personalizing the experience for readers and drawing them in closer to the characters they care about.  

The other beautiful thing about conflict is how you can find it anywhere: the character’s career, relationships, duties, etc., or it can come from adversaries, nature, the supernatural, or even from within themselves. And that’s just to start.

But no matter where your character is and what is happening, there’s one eternal source for conflict that can always lead you to a complication, obstacle, or blocker to clash with your character’s goals: the setting. 

Maximize a Scene’s ‘Where’

The location of each scene contains inherent dangers and risks, meaning you can mine those to create problems and remind the character of the cost of failure. Drawing conflict from your setting also gives it a greater role in the story. Rather than be a “stage” for action to unfold, your setting becomes a participant.

Here are some things to keep in mind to draw the very best conflict from your setting, making important story moments more intense, and offering that fresh gauntlet of challenges for your character to navigate.

Choose Settings Thoughtfully

Some setting choices are obvious. If you need your character’s car to break down in an isolated area, then a country road, campsite, or quarry might do the trick. But conflict very often happens in an ordinary setting, like a retail store or at home. In cases like these, when the story has dictated where events will occur, up the ante by choosing a specific location that holds emotional value for your character. Instead of choosing just any store, pick one with an emotional association—such as the place the character was caught shoplifting as a teenager. Good or bad, any setting that plays upon their emotional volatility will increase their chances of saying or doing something they’ll regret.

And while we’re talking about emotional value, don’t underestimate the symbolic weight of the objects within the scene. The backyard may be a generic place to have a difficult conversation but put the characters next to the treehouse their son used to play in before he got critically sick, and you’ve already heightened their emotions, potentially adding additional conflict to the scene.

Use Natural Obstacles

It’s also important to think about which settings contain infrastructure that will make the character’s goal harder to reach. Maybe it’s a ravine the protagonist will need to cross, a locked door to get through, or a security guard to evade. Remember that the character’s journey to achieve their goal shouldn’t be a walk in the park. Conflict is necessary in every scene, so choose settings that contain obstacles or provide poignant emotional roadblocks.

Think about how conflict naturally evolves. The character has an objective. They put together a plan and start pursuing that goal. Then complications come along and make things interesting. Luckily, there are lots of ways we can manipulate the setting to create additional conflict scenarios.

Level-Up Setting Conflict

Mess with the Weather. Unexpected showers, a heat wave, an icy driveway, the threat of a tornado—how can small and large weather considerations create problems for your character?

Take Away Transportation. No matter what setting you choose, your character will need to move from one place to another. What kind of transportation disruptions will make it harder for them to get where they need to go?

Add an Audience. Falling down in private is totally different than doing it in a crowd of people. Both may be physically painful, but the latter adds an element of emotional hardship. Who could you put in the environment as a witness to the character’s missteps or misfortune?

Trigger Sensitive Emotions. Conflict is easier to handle for an even-keeled, emotionally cool character. So use the setting to throw them off balance. If they’re struggling to put food on the table, place them in a locale where wealthy characters are eating lavishly and throwing away leftovers. Likewise, a character with daddy issues can be triggered in an environment that highlights healthy and loving father-daughter relationships. So when you’re planning the setting for a scene, ask yourself: What could I add specifically for my character in this situation that will elevate their emotions?  

Exploit What They Don’t Have. If your character doesn’t have a light source, place them in a dark place, like a cave or deserted subway tunnel. No weapon? Surround them with physical threats. If they’re lacking something vital, capitalize on that.

Make Them Uncomfortable. Vulnerability sets the character on edge and elevates their emotional state. So whenever you can, put the character in a location where they have no experience, don’t know the rules, or aren’t really suited to navigate it. This can work for small- or large-scale settings, from a character who has to traverse an alien planet to someone who’s averse to kids having to host a child’s party.

Use Symbolism. Nothing impedes progress like fear and self-doubt. Think about which symbols can be added to the environment to remind the character of an area of weakness, a past failure, a debilitating fear, or an unresolved wound.

Add a Ticking Clock. One sure-fire way to up the ante is to give the character a deadline. Instead of them having unlimited time to complete the goal, make them dependent upon elements within their environment, such as having to avoid rush-hour traffic, reach the bank by four p.m., or get home before sunset.

Setting-related conflict is fantastic in that it can be endlessly adapted, helping you keep the tension going in every scene no matter where your character is.

Need More Help with Unleashing the Power of Conflict?

The Conflict Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Obstacles, Adversaries, and Inner Struggles Volume 1 & 2 are packed with ideas on how to make conflict work harder in your story. Find out more.

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 a Hit of Organic Conflict? Look to Your Setting. appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

The memoir section in any book shop is made of writers who have done outlandish, shocking or terrible things (or had them done to them). These books are popular because those writers are the exception, rather than the standard.

Whilst it’s said real life is ‘stranger than fiction’, the reality is most of us have pretty straightforward lives. Some may even declare their own lives ‘boring’.

So how can we use real life to inspire our fiction? It turns out there’s plenty of ways … Check these out for size.

Think: Location

All of us have lived somewhere in our lives (perhaps many places!). This means we can utilize these locations to their best advantage in our fiction.

My latest novel, Kill for It, is set in Bristol, a city in the Southwest of England, UK. There were several reasons I chose Bristol …

• I know it very well. I’ve been visiting Bristol since I was a teen; my town is approximately forty-five minutes by train away. My adult son also lives there now. That means I know Bristol ‘like the back of my hand’ (as people in the UK say!).

• Bristol is known for its culture. As the fourteenth biggest city in the UK, Bristol is very busy and cosmopolitan. It is known for its universities and colleges as well as its vibrant music scene, art and media. It is also the home of Banksy, the reclusive and renowned street artist, film director and activist.

• Bristol was in the news when I was starting my book. As I started outlining Kill For It, Bristol hit the worldwide headlines. The statue of the infamous slave trader Edward Colston was finally toppled by BLM protestors. (The statue had been subject to condemnation and multiple petitions for decades before Bristol residents took matters into their own hands. The statue is now in a museum).

The combination of these three things made me realize I could use Bristol in my novel. Early reviewers like the fact the novel is not set in London too for a change!

Think: Jobs

Most of us will have lots of work experience. This real-life experience may include (but is not limited to): full-time or part-time employment; white collar versus blue collar work; Saturday jobs as teenagers; volunteering at charitable organizations; internships or unpaid caring.

Having real life experience of a particular job can be a great way of adding authenticity to our fiction.

Kill For It is set in the world of investigative journalism. The story pits young and upcoming journalist Cat against veteran reporter Erin. Cat is tired of not getting ahead at work, so comes up with a sickening plan to (literally!) grab the headlines. The only one who can stop her is Erin, but in doing so she must put her own life at risk.

The book draws on my own experience as a junior reporter in the late 90s/00s. I wrote for a variety of publications and sites (though I didn’t kill anyone … promise!).

The 90s and early 00s was a weird time for journalism. It was the age of the ‘dot com bubble’ as well as ‘The Millennium Bug’. I was also one of the last people to train before the internet changed the face of news and content forever!

I’d always wanted to write a story set against such a backdrop, so it was a real pleasure to write.

There’s one note of caution, however: DON’T imagine everything in a job stays the same decade to decade, or even year to year! If you have not done the job for a long time, you will still need to do some research to ensure your information is up-to-date.

Think: Favorites

Thinking about what you enjoy reading or watching yourself in real life can really help you ‘zero in’ on what you want to write in your own fiction.

Kill For It was inspired in part by Killing Eve, which I really enjoyed. I was lucky enough to interview Luke Jennings, author of the Killing Eve novellas, for LondonSWF365 in 2020.

He told me and the LSFers all about his work on the books and helping Phoebe Waller-Bridge with s1 of the acclaimed BBC TV series.

As an admirer of the psychopathic Villanelle, this lit the touchpaper in my imagination … so I was delighted when a beta reader proclaimed my antagonist Cat was ‘Villanelle’s twisted little sister’!

In addition, one of my favorite movies is Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler (2014). In the film, Jake Gyllenhaal plays another psychopath: Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work. He manages to muscle his way into the world of LA crime journalism where he blurs the line between reality on the stories he is reporting on.

Whilst Cat’s journey is different, the seed of the story is similar. In attempting to smash the glass ceiling, Cat will plumb depths no decent human should ever go to.

Think: Personal

As writers, we all have personal experiences and opinions. We may even have started writing BECAUSE we feel the need to talk about such things.

One reason I write crime fiction is because Agatha Christie – the bestselling author of all time! – is a real ‘shero’ of mine. Even better, she even comes from Devon, where I live too.

When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s however, movies, TV shows and books most often featured male protagonists. This annoyed me as a young girl and I remember thinking I would write female protagonists if I became a professional writer.

In addition, I was a teenage mother. Because of this, I discovered very quickly that the notion ‘women can have it all’ – motherhood AND a career – was a lie. Even though I had great grades and a university degree, because I had a baby first it was extremely difficult to even get a job.

So, as a mother for over half my life now, I know how hard it is for women to juggle work and their responsibilities … Even when we manage it, it’s frequently held against us. After all, men STILL don’t get asked about their families or caring commitments like we do! I wanted to draw on this personal experience in KILL FOR IT.

That said, men are not the enemy in the book. KILL FOR IT takes aim at the system, not men. Whilst there’s at least one male character who is THE ABSOLUTE WORST, the point is not that men *as a whole* suck. Even female characters who don’t try and smash the system will lose their conscience and their humanity.

Of course, you may not have very strong feelings and opinions about a specific issue like I have. Other personal things you could mine for inspiration could include (but are not limited to):

Fears

Most of us have fears, or even outright phobias. They may relate to specific childhood traumas or anxieties, or they may be difficult to understand. These fears may be universal, or they may be very niche.

Secrets 

Secrets can be potent in storytelling. Most of us have them, so thinking about them can help us inform characters’ motivations in particular.

Moments you wish you could change

Regrets are common, especially if we did not act like our best self. However, even just wishing something unavoidable hadn’t happened can be good inspiration for our stories.

Favorite memories 

And to the other end of the scale … just as we might wish things could have been different, there will be perfect moments in our lives that can act as story fuel, too.

Summing Up

So, don’t worry if your own real-life experiences are straightforward or even ‘boring’. Chances are, you have plenty of lived experience you can use in your fiction to give it added authenticity and bite. Good luck!

LUCY V. HAY - Resident Writing Coach

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

The post How to Use Real Life to Inspire Your Fiction appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.