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@qwerty-time
Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.
Bonnie Friedman (via writetothestars)
One of the things that really sell a fight scene is the physical reactions and it’s one that many authors overlook, even if these things are just external. So, let’s do some examples with a few different sequences to show how fights can be improved with the inclusion of a few crucial details.
...
Daily Writing Comic
Damn straight, baby.
Writing Advice: by Chuck Palahniuk In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer. From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use. The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…” Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.” Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.” In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling. Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them. For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…” Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it. If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline. Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating. Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.” Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.” One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering. For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…” A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…” A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives. Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember. No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.” Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.” Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts. Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads. And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.” For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.” “Ann has blue eyes.” Versus: “Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…” Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it. And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.” Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. (…) For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it. Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless. “Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…” “Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…” “Larry knew he was a dead man…” Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.
(via fictionwritingtips)
Just another example of clarity in the English language.
Seven Steps to the Perfect Story
From structure and plot to heroes and characters, your story must have everything in place if it’s to connect with the reader. Follow our guide to storytelling success.
Write the ending first. This gives you a destination. You may eventually change the ending but having a goal is more helpful than you can imagine.
Choose your antagonist before you choose your protagonist. Beginner writers tend to either have a story idea without an antagonist, or they create one-dimensional villains who do not suit the hero’s story.
Give your characters physical story goals. A physical story goal is one that can be experienced through the five senses. Your protagonist and antagonist should have story goals in opposition to one another.Example: The villain wants to destroy the hero’s company. The hero wants to save his company. The intangible story goals, such as ambition or finding inner strength, will be revealed as a result of this conflict.
Decide on a genre and stick to it. It is disappointing to a reader if he or she picks up a romance novel and it turns into a serial killer thriller. Research genre expectations, word count, etc.
Write a synopsis. This should not be longer than two pages. Tell the whole story. Do not include back story. If you cut out unnecessary details here you will save time. You will also be able to stick to the story. It sounds romantic when writers say they let the characters show them the story. I have found these writers seldom finish novels as they are always trying out new things. This sounds creative but it is disheartening when you are trying to become a published author.
Be disciplined with settings. Introduce major settings in the first quarter of your book. It is unnerving when authors introduce a new setting a few chapters from the end of the novel.
Stick to two supporting characters. Amalgamate extra characters into one person. Your protagonist does not need three best friends and five love interests. The rules of story-telling require simplicity. Readers get bored when they are introduced to too many characters in one book.
Break your story into scenes. Become a film director and construct the scenes. Ruthlessly cut out any you don’t need to move the story forward.
Wrap it up and write ‘The End’. End the story as soon after your protagonist has achieved his or her story goal as possible. Don’t explain what has happened and summarise the plot. Your reader is not stupid.
He wins but… The best endings in commercial and literary fiction, as well as memoirs, are when the protagonist achieves his story goal but… Examples: Clarice Starling catches Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs but Hannibal escapes; The pigs take over the farm from the humans in Animal Farm but they have become indistinguishable from them; In Long Walk To Freedom, Nelson Mandela achieves a free South Africa but ends the book with the message that there is another long walk ahead.
what would be the best way to describe being beaten? not exactly torture, but during the fight, and getting hit without just saying a punch to the stomach, and what would be the best reaction of that? i know some, like to your stomach can knock the breath out of you, but among other things?
How a character reacts to a hit to the stomach will depend on whether or not they had the presence of mind to tighten their abdominal muscles before the impact occurs. This is where the concept of the breath being knocked out of the body comes from, it’s a natural reaction to being hit. If you exhale all the air from your lungs, you’ll notice that your abdominal muscles automatically tighen and the body, particularly the shoulders, curl inwards pulling back. This is the concept behind the kihap, or the loud shout, that occurs in most martial arts when hitting the target. The kihap forces all the air from the lungs, making the muscles of the attackers body tighten at the key moments before impact with their victims body. The problem, of course, with the reaction is that it won’t really help to mitigate the effects of punch to the stomach if the exhalation occurs after the punch is thrown.
As with almost everything to do with combat, timing is key.
Basically, the character is going to feel like they want to throw up. They may actually throw up. A hit to the stomach will force it back into an unnatural position, one that is very uncomfortable. Dizziness, dropping the head as the body comes forward to protect the stomach, arms automatically moving to protect (i.e. wrap their arms around) the injured area. You can also expect a sudden flood of adrenaline if the victim is taken by surprise and sometimes even if they’re not as the body kicks over into fight or flight mode.
So, there could be a sudden increase in heart rate, a loss of fine motor control, a bitter taste in the mouth, etc. And of course, because all the air has suddenly left the body, they’ll be attempting to suck it down like there’s no tomorrow. The effects will be more immediate if the attack is unexpected, so: shock, surprise, anger, fear, panic, all these mental reactions can be used to stun lock the mind and leave the victim incapable of fighting back. If the person in question is unused to experiencing that kind of pain, the effects will be greater and the recovery much more slow. The more used to this particular variety of pain they are, the more hardened they will be to it.
Don’t think of it as an immunity, but rather something more easily ignored. It’s similar in concept to the idea of working out. In the beginning, your muscles are screaming and you feel like you’re going to die. But, as time passes and you keep working at it, it gets easier and the pain of your muscles doing things they don’t want to do becomes more familiar and more easily ignored. Taking a hit is relatively similar, though much more immediate and difficult to overcome.
When getting hit in the face, such as the nose, expect rapid swelling and possibly blood. So, a warm, wet feeling on the face, a taste of copper in the mouth, a sharp stinging pain right between the eyes, it will interfere with vision. Tasting your own blood is a rather surreal experience. People, for the most part, do not react well to it. The head snaps back and will again, drop forward right into the next hit if the victim isn’t careful. Any hit to the face (or really at all) invites the possibility of biting the tongue, especially if the victim isn’t wearing a mouth guard. If that happens, there will be more blood in the mouth, pain, panic, and gagging. For a hit below the eye expect rapid swelling, stinging pain, and loss of vision. There will be visible bruises that will last for, oh, a good week or more afterward.
Bruises are common in all parts of the body when they get hit and they last a long time. If your character fights constantly, they will show that wear and tear in all it’s glory on their body. It can last for a month, depending on how deep the bruises go. When I was training it wasn’t uncommon for me to find small welts all over my body, so much so that when I see a bruise now I just shrug it off.
During my third degree test, I took a roundhouse to my forearm and it became one, big mass of a bruise. I had a matched set for about two weeks, because I’d used the other arm for brick breaking.
The hand of the attacker will also bruise and possibly cut the skin, both on the victim’s body and the attacker’s knuckles. It’s worth remembering that a proper punch is necessary to keep the hand from breaking many of the small bones on impact. But hitting someone else is going to sting. Attacking better protected places on the body, like the rib cage, or the face, will be more obvious as opposed to hitting in the soft places like the throat or the stomach, still the hands will show signs of being in a fight regardless.
This is why the concept of “I don’t want to hurt anyone” is a nice sentiment, but complete bull. Want has nothing to do with it. Combat is a choice. If you fight or fight back, you’re going to hurt someone even if that person is just yourself. The question is not really “do I hurt them at all” but how far do you go and can you live with the consequences.
In specific instances, there’s the possibility of friction burns from the clothes rubbing against the body.
And of course, the most important and long lasting effect on the mind: shame. Also, guilt.
There’s more to it, but at that point it’s a good idea to start looking through medical and forensics textbooks on the subject. This is a little morbid, but in order to generate the right kind of feeling, you may want to stop and look at images of people who have been battered. Hollywood is very clean and combat is ugly. If you want to know how to describe something, you need to know what it actually looks like and decide whether or not it’s something you want to bring into your story.
-Michi
(Edit: I should also point out that there is no “best” way to do anything, just the best that you’re capable of while working with the scene and how the themes there fit within the overall narrative. Violence is an excellent way to evoke emotion, but readers do have a threshold. How realistic you are is going to depend a lot on what you want them to be seeing and feeling when they read that scene. A sequence that is too vicious and too raw without properly being set up by the narrative runs the risk of knocking the reader out of the moment. This isn’t me saying don’t do it, just make sure you’re balancing realism with the needs of your story. A brutal beating is a key moment for a character, but it shouldn’t happen on the page more than once in a book that’s not dealing with abuse and brutal beatings (and even sometimes when it is). Work with what you’re capable of writing and marry that to what your comfortable with, after you’ve assessed what those limits are, feel free to push away at them as needed.
In the end, you’re the only one who can really figure out what your story needs to function.)
I don’t know Ms. Allis, but I like that she decided to illustrate Miyazake’s words.
A moment of silence for aspiring writers still in school.
As everyone enjoys the last weeks of summer and looks forward to the relief of fall (look, it’s fucking hot in Beijing), there is one thing we can all look forward to: NaNoWriMo is coming!
"Oh fuck you, Agent Black," you might say. "We just dealt with NaNoWriMo. Give us a break. November’s two...
Do you see this blog? Yes? Follow it! Follow it and plot your little heart out my friends!
Your papers are due in two weeks. No extensions. Any questions? Class dismissed.
This goes for you too, writers: wanting to improve is not the same thing as being “bad”. And even if you are? So what? It’s not a permanent state, looking honestly at yourself and your work will lead improvement. But guess what? There’s already stuff you’re good at. Figure out what that is, recognize your weaknesses and also know your strengths. There’s nothing wrong with taking pride in your work and being proud of your skill.
And hey, you know what? If you’re worried that your writing is terrible then that probably means that you’ve been turning out quality all along.
Go figure.
-Michi
so basically this
Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college…
Organizing your writing
OK, so if you're like me, you like things organized and easy to find when you go to writing. You have your references, your outline/plot/character notes, maybe some random ideas jotted on a page somewhere, and the space you write in (because sometimes you just don't have a computer). Unfortunately, if you're also like me, you don't think ahead of time to have a place to put all of these things where you won't lose track of them and can access them easily.
So here we are.
An easy way to fix this is to have a binder (big, small, go crazy). Have a section for each of those different resources listed above and any more you think you might need. Just use some cheap dividers or even sticky notes if you want. Make sure you get everything in your binder. Print what you need off your computer and stick it in there. This way everything you need is at your fingertips, so no more waiting for your technology to boot up! It's also a good way to back up your files in case something should happen to the originals.
And voila! Happy writing my OCD companions!
I Promise I’m Not a Murderer: The Story of a Researching Writer
now with a sequel:
I Swear I’m Not Pregnant, I’m Just Naming Characters
Don’t forget: I’m not Trying to Break Into This Building, I Just Need to Know the Layout of it
The Sequel: I’m Really Not Poisoning Anyone, I Just Need To Know The Symptoms OF Poisoning And How Long They WOULD Take To Die From It.
Additionally: Please Don’t Put Me In A CIA Prison, I’m Just Trying To Figure Out How A Character Could Sneak Into Afghanistan From Pakistan While Avoiding the Border Police and the US Military.
And the grand finale: Hi Homeland Security How Are You Hope You’re Enjoying My Browsing I’m Not Really Going to Weaponize Smallpox I Just Need to Be Sure of the Symptomatic Progression After a Virulence Spike (Hint It’s Pretty Fast).
shadowhunter-riding-a-chocobo267
Hi! So, I've been writing since I was little, when I wrote a short story about a horse with rainbow spots that saved the day. Ever since then my writing style has changed, from writing about horses to supernatural and now dystopian. I think since I've been writing forever and a half its become something of a habit, a way to release the stress of the day and for my imagination to go wild.
Hi, I’m a writer. My hobbies include not writing.
