Category: The Writing Life

Does being social help with writing dialogue for your stories? If not, what do you think helps with writing good dialogue?

On By florencewitkopIn Romance Writing, Short Story, The Craft of Writing, The Writing Life, Writing FictionLeave a comment
To be honest, your question stumped me for a moment.

I doubt that being social helps because people in books don’t speak the same way that they do in real life. Not even close.

Nor can you just pull sentences out of thin air.

But I suspect that reading books that have the kind of dialogue that you wish you’d written, then taking apart those scenes, is possibly the best way to learn how to write good dialogue.

What is the best point of view to use when writing a multi-character novel?

On By florencewitkopIn Romance Writing, Short Story, The Craft of Writing, The Writing Life, Writing FictionLeave a comment
There’s a process by which you figure that out.
  1. First, what’s the genre of the novel? Some novels are so often done in one view-point or another that stories written in any other viewpoint will be ignored. Not read.
  2. IF you have a choice because such novels can use any of a number of viewpoints, then you continue the process to figure out which will work best for you.
  3. Of course, the first step in the process is figuring out if there’s a particular viewpoint that you do best. If there is, then go with that viewpoint because, no matter what other viewpoint might seem best, any story is best told the way that works best for the writer.
  4. If you’re okay with any viewpoint, then look at your story. Check out the characters to see if one of them stands out from the others. Maybe because he/she is important, but perhaps because he/she is in the story in such a way as to be privy to most/all of the plot as it unfolds. If so, go with that character.
  5. Remember that the viewpoint character will slant the story one way or another. In other words, the story you end up with will be influenced by the viewpoint character. So a second thing to consider is what kind of story you want to write. Choose the viewpoint character that best reflects the theme of the story as well as being able to channel all the action because he/she is privy to most of the plot.

This works because I’ve never seen a story yet where all characters are equal in all ways or where the viewpoint character does not, in his/her actions and reflections, mirror the theme of the book.

When starting a novel, is it good to create an outline of ideas or just to write the ideas into the story and hash it out later?

On By florencewitkopIn Romance Writing, Short Story, The Craft of Writing, The Writing Life, Writing Fiction3 Comments
Either way works fine. It’s a personality thing.

Are you the type who jumps into everything you do feet first? Or the type who researches everything before making a move?

Which type you are tells you which way you should approach the craft of writing a story.

Personally, I started out by jumping in feet first but, over time, decided that I put less time and effort into a story if I research and outline first. So I made myself slow down and learn how to do just that.

I’ve never regretted changing methods, but what worked for me might not work for others. So do what feels right for you.

Can I write a love story if I’ve never been in love?

On By florencewitkopIn Romance Writing, Short Story, The Craft of Writing, The Writing Life, Writing FictionLeave a comment
Of course you can.

If science fiction writers can write about worlds and times that don’t exist, then you can write about love.

All it takes is a well-honed —- and well-trained —- imagination.

Because describing something you don’t personally know without thinking through how you want to do it, is an exercise in futility and will result in poor writing.

But describing something you don’t know after thinking it through and deciding what you want to say and why you want to say it is the mark of a professional writer of fiction.

What are female character cliches to avoid?

On By florencewitkopIn Romance Writing, Short Story, The Craft of Writing, The Writing Life, Writing FictionLeave a comment

There are no cliches to avoid, male or female. None.

Cliches exist because they clue the reader into the character being described quickly and easily. That can be a good thing because it saves time and effort that can be put to better use telling the story.

The thing is, do a good job of describing your ‘cliche’ character. Don’t skimp and do delve deeply into your character.

Because then that cliche character won’t be a cliche after all, she’ll be a living, breathing, exciting example of a specific personality type.

I’m writing a novel and I’m finding it hard to make my chapters long enough, I’m currently on a 2 page long fight scene to start my book and I want to to at least break 4 pages, any ideas?

On By florencewitkopIn Romance Writing, Short Story, The Craft of Writing, The Writing Life, Writing FictionLeave a comment

Common problem. Trust me on that.

Take a walk. Get away from your computer and stop staring at that dratted screen.

While walking and enjoying the weather and the trees and the beautiful birds overhead, think about your story. Dig deeper. Get inside the head of each and every protagonist in that fight scene.

What are they thinking? Why are they fighting? Do they really care? Let your mind wander and come up with whatever rises to the surface of your thoughts and don’t question your thoughts, just go with them.

Then, when you return to that dratted computer, remember your thoughts and you’ll probably discover that you have a lot more to say because you know your characters in that specific scene much better than you did before.

Maybe you’ll now describe more action because you’ll know what kind of action your protagonists might engage in. Maybe you’ll slip in some mini-flashbacks here and there to tell your reader why and how they are doing what they are doing.

Or something else that I can’t even imagine but that you can.

Is it better to get all of your ideas out and write a novel quickly, or to spend years in the process of curating the story and its elements?

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Depends.

Some writers work best slowly and carefully, deciding each and every element and making sure the whole things works together.

Others work best just sitting down and letting it all come out in one huge, whoosh.

It’s a personality thing, not a writer thing. So go with whatever works for you.

How does one begin writing a fantasy novel?

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 Fantasy requires building a world that doesn’t exist but must live full-blown and realistic in the mind of the reader.
So the first thing a writer of fantasy must do — after creating the story and the characters, of course — is to create the world that the story and characters will live in and it must become so real in the writer’s mind that the story will fit perfectly in it and flow smoothly and seem as real as if the created, fantasy world is real.

How do you develop the ability to ‘show not tell’ as a writer?

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First of all, ‘show, don’t tell’ is important. It is. But it’s also a bit oversold to new writers because at some point readers need to know stuff that simply can’t be ‘shown.’

 

Think about it. If you stopped your action for a flashback to ‘show’ why the protagonist is doing what they are doing every single time the action changed, your story would never go anywhere.

That said, though, you should ‘show’ whenever possible, and you do so by simply going through your manuscript during that all-important second draft and zeroing in on all places where you, as the writer, simply told the readers what they needed to know.

Could that information be shown without breaking the pace of the story?

If so, then change the ‘telling’ to a flashback or a conversation between the protagonist and whomever else is nearby as a way of inserting a mini-story into the larger story you are telling. The mini-story tells the ‘why’ of what’s going on in the larger one.

And that’s how you ‘show’ instead of ‘telling.’