Category Archives: The Writing Life

Getting Stuck in the Big Swampy Middle

Ace Jordyn Character Craft & Skills Ideas & Plotting Rewriting Storyline The Writing Process Writing Tools 2 Comments

It was breathtaking and I couldn’t stop reading it!

That’s the experience every reader wants and those are the words every writer wishes to hear. The adage that if your character is sleeping, so is your reader is all too true. So if your novel is stuck in the big swampy middle, so will your reader be and he may not have the fortitude to move on. So, how does one gracefully dance across the swamp without getting stuck? There are many books written on the topic but here are three things I’ve learned:

 

1) you have permission to make things difficult for your protagonist.

When a fellow writer made me aware that it was my duty to make things difficult for my protagonist – that I was supposed to be mean – writing got a whole lot easier and the middle became so much more fun! Disasters, unexpected problems, the fatal character flaw, the goal he so desperately wants is within reach yet is maddeningly elusive, twists and turns, the mentor dies, red herrings  … the list of trouble goes on.

Through the middle, there will be many mini-problems which escalate into bigger ones and culminate into the BIG middle disaster. The BIG middle disaster is the lynch pin of a problem that propels the protagonist into the third act where he rises to the challenge in the smashing climax. This disaster can happen anywhere from the mid-point to the end of the middle.

Most importantly, the protagonist complicates the situation, makes it more complex, worsens it and raises the stakes. How can your protagonist worsen the situation? By having a fatal flaw that he must overcome in order to achieve his goal such as shyness, insecurity, impulsiveness, greed, play-by-the-rules, or risk taker. Sometimes the character may experience success but that can have unintended consequences such as: the antagonist’s reaction; there’s a worse problem he wasn’t aware of; or a secondary character has a bad reaction to the achievement.

2) plan your BIG middle disaster and work toward it

The plan doesn’t have to be overly detailed. Even if you’re a pantster, it helps to know where the BIG middle disaster will occur and what it will be. This will keep you from being derailed, from writing scenes that don’t support the story goals and the final conflict. There’s still lots of room for pantster creativity in getting to the BIG middle disaster and moving beyond to the climax.

As you’re working toward the BIG middle disaster, as you’re ramping up the tension by increasing emotional, physical and psychological conflict, as your characters reactions and actions are met with resounding consequences and reactions, keep in mind the story telling technique you’re using. For example, is this primarily an action oriented, plot driven story? Are you using a mini-arc, a smaller story within a larger one which although connected, serves to reveal information about the characters? Are you following a sub-plot? Is there a new character to add an unexpected dimension to the tale? It’s too easy to get derailed and fall into the swamp if you’re not clear about which technique you’re using.

And it can never be overstated: increase conflict to increase tension to keep readers wanting to know what’ll happen next. For every event, there is a reaction with resounding consequences and more reactions and actions. This will make writing the story exciting for you and a white-knuckle read.

3) focus on the prize

You’ve got your beginning with the story problem clear in your mind. Your protagonist has faced an opening disaster that commits him to solving the problem. You know the prize, the novel’s ending. Now, you must focus on that prize with your protagonist to get him to the ending. At this point, it doesn’t matter if he succeeds and this is a happy ending, or if he fails and this is an unhappy ending or if this is a bittersweet ending with mixed results. What matters is keeping an eye on the goal, working toward the climax by making sure all events -setbacks, triumphs, actions and reactions – somehow contribute to the end result.

Subplots, side trips that reveal character only count if that incident or revelation shows us something significant about the character in relation to the story goal. Saving a cat may be important if it shows a compassionate, compulsive need to act which gets him into trouble later on. For example, it’s a laudable trait to get the cat out of the tree because grandma’s upset and her blood pressure is rising. But, when escaping from the bad guys, he stops running across rooftops because he sees a half starved cat that’s too scared to jump and the six year old kid is on the ground crying. You can imagine how his compassion may get him into more trouble. The rule is that everything you reveal or use must contribute to your character working toward the prize.

The middle is really the fun part of writing the novel. It’s where you can explore your character, exploit his weaknesses and strengths, and keep ramping up the excitement. There are times when I stop writing and ask my character: What do you see? or Oh, oh, what are you going to do now? Your character will answer those questions for you and stay true to the story goal if you’ve done your homework in your character profile, and if you keep your focus on the prize.

 

For me, the middle is an incredible adventure where the protagonist and I journey through murder, mayhem and have the time of our lives!

What works for you?

Writing Software from the Technologically Impaired

Colette Black Software The Writing Life Writing Tools 2 Comments

Yes, from the technologically impaired, not for the technologically impaired, so I can’t help you with your computer problems. And, I’m not saying that whoever wrote the software was technologically impaired, only the person writing this post. So, if you’re like me, and don’t consider yourself particularly savvy with computers and software, why use a writing program? Because it will make you a better writer.

Here are my experiences with a couple of programs out there:

Snowflake:

This is a great organizational tool that takes you step by step through writing a well-developed novel. It’s also a great help as you try to figure out those synopses. It starts you with a brief paragraph description of your novel then has you expand the book summary into five plot-point paragraphs. That expansion continues until you end up at a page where you write out the key points for individual scenes. It also has a character page with a multitude of questions to help develop your characters’ personalities and quirks. I used the software for about eight months, and though I found it helpful, I felt like I was moving back and forth from one screen to another and it didn’t seem to make my writing much easier than having multiple files in Word. It’s a great outlining tool, so it would serve a lot of writers very well. You can check it out at : http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/info/snowflake_pro/

Scrivener:

I use a pc and had heard about scrivener from mac users for years. When scrivener came out with a pc version I had to try it. There’s a learning curve and I still haven’t figured out how to do maximize the program’s capabilities. But if you buy this, I highly suggest you take the time to go through the tutorial, probably more than once. This, and updated versions, will probably be my writing program for life. I don’t have to go into files or bounce back and forth between screens. My color-coded outline runs along the left side of my screen, including a section for research, characters, places, or anything else I might want. Along the right side of my screen I can choose to see notes related to specific files, including pictures and alternating notes pertaining to my whole novel, or just the chapter I’m working on. My writing screen itself can be split, so I can be writing in one screen, need information from one of my research files, and open up another screen right next to where I’m writing.  The only time I have to leave the program is when I go to the internet or books to do research, but when I find what I need, I can place files into my scrivener program and have them on hand for later use.  The only drawback so far is that the spell-check/auto-correct doesn’t seem to be as good as Word, and when I’m working without an internet connection I don’t have any type of dictionary or thesaurus. Since I rarely write under those circumstances, and when I do I just put in a triple-x and move on, I don’t find this a difficulty. I highly recommend this program. You can find it for Mac or pc at: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/

Dragon Naturally Speaking:

I like typing and haven’t used this yet, though I hear great things. I’d probably be a lot thinner if I took this hiking instead of sitting on my butt at a keyboard. If you can learn to tell a story this way, or if you prefer telling your stories rather than the slower process of typing, this might be the software for you. Since I don’t actually use it, I’m going to quote my friend, Dale Stinson, on its many uses and advantages:

“Seven years ago, I decided to write a science-fiction novel. One big problem, I never learned to type. When I tried to type something down, the thought evaporated as I was concentrating on the letters on the keyboard. The next day, I bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 4. Initial training of the software took over an hour. During the first eight hours of use, dictation accuracy increased from 85% to almost 95%. Two years later, I purchased DNS- 7 Preferred which came bundled with a digital voice recorder. Theoretically, you could dictate into the recorder, plug it into your computer and magically have your dictation transcribed. It was a huge disappointment, I was lucky if I achieved 75% accuracy. BUT, dictating directly to the computer was a vast improvement over version 4. Within the first day of use, I’d achieved 98% accuracy most of the time. Two years ago I upgraded to DNS-10 Preferred. It was literally a quantum leap forward in usability. I regularly achieve 99% + accuracy with a new software.
PROS: Editing has been made easier by having the software read what I’ve written in a computer voice while I follow the written words on the screen. When I hear the voice say something that doesn’t sound right, I can make a correction while it continues reading. It’s very easy to put down a tremendous number of words during a four-hour writing session, speaking stream of consciousness can do that.
CONS: The software never misspells a word, but it often misunderstands a word. For example: Names. There are many names that can be spelled different ways. Kathy and Cathy are an example. I’ve tried using the name I preferred, “Cathy” multiple times on the same page. Sometimes it would come up Cathy other times it would come up Kathy. After correcting by voice two or three times, it continued making the same mistake. The software also tries to guess what you’re trying to say, it’s often wrong.
In seven years, I’ve “written” close to 3 million words using Voice Recognition Technology. Without it, I would’ve never been able to start writing.” You can learn more about it here: http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm

Editing Software:

There are also editing programs available. I’ve tried a few of these, but since I write science fiction and fantasy, usually using a lot of made-up words, I find most of these more tedious than helpful. I’ve heard great things though. If you’re interested, here are a couple off the top of the search engine. Some I’ve tried, others I haven’t:

http://www.autocrit.com/

http://fictionfixer.com/

I’d love to hear your experiences with writing or editing software. What works, what doesn’t, and why?

Are You Bored or Burned Out by Your Story?

Ace Jordyn Craft & Skills Failures First Drafts Ideas & Plotting Making Progress as a Writer Rewriting Self-Motivation The Writing Life The Writing Process Writing as An Emotional Outlet 3 Comments

You’re tired of writing the short story before you’ve even finished it. You’re 40,000 words into the novel and are falling asleep at the keyboard. You’ve worked hard on your world building, done the research done your character profiles and have the main elements of your plot chart, the writing should come easily but it doesn’t.

Don’t panic! The inability to write because your work doesn’t feel interesting at this moment doesn’t mean that you’re a bad writer. It means that you’re stuck and that you need to answer one simple question to get through this:

Are you bored or are you burned out?

Burn out happens when we’ve been at it too long – our brains need a rest from processing information and creating a work of art. Writing takes lots of energy – physical, creative and emotional.  That’s when you need to give yourself a break But sometimes when you’re feeling bored it’s   your brain’s way of telling you that information is missing.  I had that experience when I was doing the world building and background work for my new series. I had had so much fun world building and I wanted to write the novel so I could share it. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t happen. Three times I started the beginning and each time I set it aside. It wasn’t fun anymore. I grew bored. So, I let it rest and when I reviewed my research, I realized that I hadn’t thought through a critical element. My brain, in the form of boredom and frustration, was telling me that I was missing something.

Sometimes I write three to ten pages of background material (important but boring stuff) because I need to get grounded in the setting and characters. Once I’ve done that, then the story begins. So, write, write and write some more. It’s not boredom per se that you’re experiencing, it’s simply that you’re going through the first step of needing to become part of that world, to unclutter your brain by getting information and relationships out of your head.

What happens when you’re genuinely bored with what you’re writing? When you’re sick of the plot and the characters? When it’s not exciting anymore and it feels like work and not fun?

Sometimes, it’s not fun and when that’s the case we need to simply write our way through it until it becomes fun. There may be technical reasons why this is so but many times those aren’t apparent until we’ve finished the novel and are revising it. So don’t stop writing. Write through the scene or section and get to the fun part!

Feeling bored may be the result of not getting to the interesting parts of the story. You’re missing mood, emotion, action and reaction because there’s too much inconsequential description, the reader isn’t an idiot and doesn’t need that level of detail, it reads like a technical manual, and yes, it’s simply boring writing! So in this case, the problem may not be with you but with what you’re writing.  Again, get it out of your system, then write the real story.

But what if you’re bored because you’re derailed and don’t even know it? Check your plot chart. Write out chapter summaries or summarize your scenes in point form. Ask yourself: where does the story begin and what is the disaster in the opening quarter that compels my charter to act? What is the story goal? What is the climax? What is happening to the protagonist between the middle and the end which makes it challenging for him to achieve his goals? It may be that somewhere in the swampy middle that you need to increase action and tension, up the stakes in order to make things dicier for your character and more exciting for yourself. This solution also works if you’re bored because your characters and plot feel boring.

Boredom may mean that you need a break. We get tired – it happens. Do something different for a bit: write a short story or a poem; paint the fence; go to a movie; bake something – give your brain a break and do something fun! Beware though that you aren’t using boredom as an excuse to procrastinate – that it’s an excuse to do the fun things and not write! If that’s the case, the surest way to quell boredom is by applying the BICFOK cure – Butt in Chair, Fingers on Keyboard.

Yawn! I’m not bored – I simply need a nap!

Don’t Stop Now: Keep the Words Flowing in December!

The Writing Life 4 Comments

Alas, November is over. The craze to finish 50,000 words in 30 days is done. For those who finished National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with 50,000 words or more under your belt – Congratulations!

For those who didn’t reach their goal or weren’t able to participate in NaNoWriMo, that’s okay. But we do hope you got something done.

Recently, I heard an interview with Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files and Codex Alera series, where he gave out a very keen piece of writing advice. Writing is all about momentum. Even if you only write one word, the most important thing is that you’re writing.

It is so very true.

So, in that vein, we Fictorians would like challenge everyone to keep the momentum of NaNoWriMo going. If you won, why stop now? That book isn’t finished! If you didn’t, November isn’t the only month you can write like a madman-get that book started!

Thus, December is Keeping it Going month here at the Fictorian Era. All month, we’ll be focusing on ways to keep your writing flowing despite distractions, procrastinations, and plain old boredom. We’ll be giving you tricks and tips for productivity, ways to use craft to keep the words going, and we’ll be exploring the truth behind that pesky idea of writer’s block. Later this month, we’ll even be getting a visit from Dan Wells from the award winning Writing Excuses podcast and author of I Am Not a Serial Killer and Partials.

So, tell us, how did you do in November? Did you finish NaNoWriMo? If not, what happened? And be sure to stick around, and let us know how you keep the momentum going.