Descriptions are actually one of the things I enjoy the most about writing. I don’t think I’m amazing at it, but I do think it’s something I’m better at. I lack a bit more in the field of dialogue and action scenes.
What Are You Describing?
Before you even begin, you need to know exactly what you’re describing in the scene. Pick a focus and stick with it. If you begin to describe too many things at once, or for an extended period of time, your readers will get confused. Don’t describe the ocean waves and then proceed jump straight to what the character is wearing. Either pick one, or find a solid way to transition such as comparing the motion of the water to your character’s hair in the wind.
What is the Distance?
Another helpful tip when describing is to remain at chosen distance. Let’s use a more intimate scene as an example. If you’re describing the actions of two characters up close, do not suddenly zoom out and describe the carpet. At that moment in time it is more reasonable to describe something like a hand on one’s cheek. Zooming in and out constantly will not only chop up your story, but confuse the reader as to what you’re talking about in the first place.
Use Your Senses
As we all learned in the past, humans have five main senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. These senses are crucial when describing things.
Let’s go back to the ocean water as an example. It’s a blue color that varies depending on region and quality; it makes a distinct noise when crashing into the sand; it dampens your hands and clothing; it smells salty and crisp, as is its awfully strong taste. There you go, four different simplistic descriptions for one thing. If you use your vocabulary and a handful of figures of speech such as metaphors, you’ll be heading in the perfect direction.
Conclusions
There many ways to built your strength in the description department. For example, take random objects and try to describe them without saying what they are. Describe the vibrancy of its colors, reflection of light on its figure.. all that jazz. It may come easy to you or may not. That’s okay though, I’m sure you excel in other departments I don’t. We’re all good at something.
Finding your character’s voice is important to your story. Aside from their personality, it gives your characters a sense of individuality. Everyone you know speaks differently, so your characters should too.
Voice Claims
Voice claims are similar to face claims, but I feel like they would help a lot more in terms of your writing. Depending on how in depth you wish to make this, having a voice claim may aid many areas.
To find voice claims I suggest using either social media (go through your following) or going onto the YouTube channels of talk shows. Once on those channels you could go through hundreds of videos and see celebrities of all kinds with varying voices. Voice claims are hard for me, which is why I don’t prioritize it.
Things to Keep In Mind
When describing the voice of one’s character, there are a few things you have to keep in mind:
Where were they born?
Did they speak more than one language in their household growing up?
Have they had any injuries or taking hormones that have altered their voice in either a positive or negative way?
Do they try and assimilate with those around them?
These are only a few things that I can come up with in a few seconds right off the top of my head. Let’s use the first one as an example. If your character is born somewhere in the United States, they may use different vocabulary than someone from England, despite speaking the same language. Leading into the second bullet, if your character spoke more than one language at home, they may use some of those phrases in their day to day lives. Swearing in their native language is one way this can be seen.
Crutch Words
Crutch words are words that we don’t necessarily need to use, but we do. This may include words such as “just”, “definitely”, “literally”, and “like”. One of my own characters has a crutch word, “y’know”, that no one else in the story says. This separates him from the rest and gives him his own voice. If there were no dialogue tags and that phrase was said, I can guarantee I would know he was speaking.
Now this is not saying you should overdo the crutch words, but giving your character’s a list of expletives and taglines will do you at least some justice.
Expressiveness
When I say expressiveness I want to know how your character says things, not how they react. If your character is upset, do they scream? Does their voice get deep or high pitched? If they are so exited do they forget how to speak or have no words to say at all? These are some things I think should be thought about and can also give a sense of uniqueness to your characters.
Conclusions
In my sheet I gave voice its own section. Under it there are sub sections of voice claim, dialect and accent, pitch, speech disorders, expletives and taglines, greetings and farewells, laughter, and expressiveness. While you could do more than that or less, I think all of these have their own level of importance.
A key part of your writing style is your choice in point of view. In fiction, you’re likely to see either the first person, third person limited or third person omniscient. I write in the third person, but haven’t quite mastered my skills in remaining in either limited or omniscient. That’s something I need to work on, for writing is and always will be a learning experience.
Check out this article for a more detailed explanation of what follows.
What Are the Five POVs?
First Person - uses I/me/my. The narrator’s is telling their own story, with a limit to only what they know.
Second Person - uses you/yours. The narrator is speaking to you, “thus you become the protagonist, you carry the plot, and your fate determines the story.”
Third Person - uses she/hers, he/his, and they/theirs. The narrator is looking in from above, relaying what they know to you. Objective is no insight, limited is insight from (typically) one character, and omniscient is insight from more than one or all characters. Think: inferring feelings, some understanding, and the knowledge of a higher being.
Picking a POV
When picking a point of view, think of these two things:
How close do you wish to be to the reader?
How comfortable are you with this point of view?
Each pov has it’s own degree of intimacy with the reader, third person omniscient typically the furthest away. If you wish to connect with the reader, the closest you can get is second person. Though this is true, if you cannot properly write in a certain point of view, you will cause a disconnect between the reader and the narrator. This will completely butcher your story.
Although there is nothing wrong with experimentation, I say stick with what you know for a large wip, practicing on a smaller or inferior one.
Find Your Style
When I was in middle school I wrote in the first person and let me tell you, it was some of the worst writing I’ve ever seen from myself. The second I changed to third person (still middle school), my writing instantly got better. I clearly found my style with that transition and I can say I’m continuously getting better as time passes.
You might not find your style now or in ten years, but when you do, it’ll be such a relief. You’ll want to write every day just to see more.
Conclusions
POVs are hard, they are. It’ll take lots of practice and mistakes, but that’s how you learn. Whether you choose to do writing exercises or learn while writing your wip is up to you. I just know you’ve got this. I do.
I like titles. Series titles, story titles, section titles, chapter titles, all the goods. There are so many different reasons to have titles and options for how to do so. It’s really up to you. For more info outside my own knowledge and opinions, this article may be helpful.
What Kind of Story Are You Writing?
The type of titles that you use are really dependent on the type of story that you’re writing. While a lengthy title may take away from a serious novel, it may give a lot to a comedic one. This applies for both chapter and book titles. I suggest reading books in your target genre to aid with titling. This will also help you in terms of content. You’ll see what your readers expect, then being able to successfully provide them with what they want. Regardless, remember that the book is yours and the choice is up to you.
What Effect Are You Going For?
Titles can add a lot to your story. It can convey emotions, tease the reader to read more, or signify a break in text. For example, if you are one to separate your book into sections, “The Awakening” could signify the first act. This may be helpful if your story is not long enough to be separated into multiple novels, but difficult to understand if in one piece.
If your story is told in multiple POVs, titling the chapters the names of the character’s that are narrating will assist the reader. While you can do this in other ways such as changing the font, color, or size of the text, I find that chapter titles are the most efficient.
What Do I Do?
Titling is rather difficult for me, so don’t spend a lot of time doing so. Whatever comes to mind I use. I only title my stories and chapters, nothing else. For my stories, I think about the plot, the themes, the characters and how they handle things. Then, I try and combine all of that into one phrase or sentence. Though, I don’t always do this.
If that doesn’t work for you, try and pick the most important thing in the story and use it. For example, The Hunger Games is named after the event that dictates the entire plot of the novel. You may even title it based on the name of a character or two such as Coraline and Romeo and Juliet. For chapter titles I more or less follow the same guidelines, focusing on the content of the chapter instead of the story in its entirely.
Conclusions
I really suggest reading the article I linked above. Titles aren’t necessarily my greatest strength, but I hope what I was able to provide helped. Anytime I feel my own knowledge isn’t enough, I’ll be sure to provide a link or two. Anyhow, don’t stress too much over titles. Yes, they will come to you at their own pace, but that is alright. You’ll find them.
Writing Advice #2 - How to Write Your First Chapter
The first chapter of your story, whether it a full length novel or a short story, is extremely important. The first few pages should be what reels your readers in. They should be turning each page eager to find out what’s next. That’s what makes reading such an amazing experience.
Disclaimer: some of these tips may not apply to your genre. Certain things may add comedic effect, other’s a sense of mystery. In the end, what you do is up to you.
Avoid Cliches
I’m sure we’ve all read work that starts with “Once upon a time...” or “[Name] woke up” or maybe even “Hey, my name’s...” For the most part, these aren’t the greatest ways to start something. The first fits best with children’s books or fantasy, the others too elementary. There are better ways to start things, and in my opinion, ways much less boring.
Rule of thumb: if a child has started telling a story that way, maybe change what you’ve written.
Evoke Emotion
Shock factor might just be what you need in the first few pages of your book. I’ve watched tons movies where a murder occurs right at the forefront and let me tell you, it really set the mood for the remainder of the film.
Books are similar, but more powerful in the sense that description can be used to slowly twist your mind. This is something you should take advantage of.
While you might not need to kill someone off straight away to engage your readers, you can make them pity your characters. Have them alone in a room full of dead bodies, in a new environment, or realize they’re all that’s left. If you make your readers connect with your characters, they’ll either want to see their demise or a happy ending for them. Either one will lead them to read and figure out what happens.
Leave Questions
When writing, you should guide your readers to the answer without directly telling them. It’s like leaving a trail of crumbs in the direction of the big reveal. If you start off the novel with questions your reader wants to know, you force them to continue reading
Here’s an excerpt from one of the books I’ve read recently.
The Fever King by Victoria Lee
Outbreaks of magic started all kinds of ways. Maybe a tank coming in from the quarantined zone didn’t get hosed down properly. Maybe, like some people said, the refugees brought it up with them from Atlantia, the virus hiding out in someone’s blood or in a juicy peach pie. But when magic infected the slums of west Durham, in the proud sovereign nation of Carolinia, it didn’t matter how it got there. Everybody still died.
There is a snippet before this included in the novel, but the quote is from the first page of chapter one. Some questions you may have after reading this are:
What is this magic?
What is the quarantined zone?
Why are there refugees coming from Atlantia?
What kind of illness does the magic bring that causes death?
Personally, this portion left me eager to read on and find out what’s happening and why. If you do the same, your readers will definitely continue on.
Introduce Your Characters Right Away
No one will read a book when they have no idea who the main character is after a few pages. In the past I have picked up books where I was confused straight away, and let’s just say I didn’t make it past twenty pages.
In the current first chapter of my novel, both main characters are introduced as well as two unnamed side characters who don’t reoccur. Keeping it simple will assure that your readers do not have too many names to keep up with. Less names = less confusion.
I also suggest giving a few details about your MC(s) in the beginning. There are proper ways to do this, which I’ll post about later, but it should be done early on. You wouldn’t want your readers thinking your character is one ethnicity for the entire novel and then dropping it on them a hundred pages in that its something different.
For now, I say slowly introduce their personalities. The first chapter of my novel clearly shows that one character is adopted, quiet, and not a people person. These are some extremely important things about him, and will be reoccurring things.
Another rule of thumb: if they are important, you should probably address them in the first few chapters. Though, some secrets are better kept and slowly revealed (like a tragic backstory).
Conclusions
Take your time with your first chapter. It is one of the hardest parts of writing, second to the middle in my opinion. Now this doesn’t mean write it four times before moving on (oops, I did that), because you’ll never move on, but take your time. Get out what you think is the most important and run with it. This is only your first draft. You can fix these things in your second draft, or your fifteenth. It doesn’t matter. Just take that leap and get started!
I previously mentioned that I’ve been working of a species sheet for years (chronic procrastination should be a diagnosis on its own,,, ok.), but this post isn’t on that. When I finish the character sheet series, maybe it’ll be done. I have no idea.
Anyway, this post will clearly be about species. Picking one, researching, tips, all the goods.
Picking a Species
Fantasy isn’t really my genre of expertise, so I don’t have many supernatural or other worldly characters. Though, I do know of the popular mythical creature chart by Jez Kemp [below].
As you can see, the chart has loads of mythical creatures that come from the combination of pre-existing entities. Although mythology might not be the route you go in, it is a great start.
If you do choose mythology, remember that Greek and Roman are not the only one’s out there. You have Norse, East Asian, African, etc... myths that carry their own different tales and creatures. Just keep in mind that you should be respecting the culture in your writing and not changing things to fit your narrative. For the most part, stay true to the original tales or create your own species.
Research
Blah, blah, blah, I know. I talk about research in every single post. I promise you it’s important. Whether your creating your own species or not, you should research what already exists. For example, I have an old species loosely based off of the siren. I did a lot of research when creating it, although I don’t remember too much.
The point here is, use your sources. You can use your local library and borrow books on mythology (not fiction like Percy Jackson, the original tales), or do online research. You may also buy physical books if you plan on using them in the long term. A friend of mine has a huge book called Encyclopedia of Spirits that she used to use a lot. It has a quick rundown on many different mythical creatures and I feel like it would be a great start if you’re looking for something different.
Conclusions
Like I said, most of my characters are human, but when they aren’t, doing research and writing about them tends to be my favorite part. Here are some brief tips. Interpret them as you wish.
Add your own touch to make the character yours.
Use creatures of varying cultures to create diversity in your story as is in our own world.
The simpler the better.
Take notes of descriptors you use so you don’t say something different later on in your writing.
Face claims are, well, a controversial thing. Some people say they’re beneficial in helping visualize and describe your character while other’s say its strange to use a random person’s face for personal means. Personally, I use face claims in the way artists do: reference and that’s it. I can never find one that perfectly fits my visions anyway.
For the sake of this post lets act like there’s no controversy and I know exactly what I’m talking about. My creative process is definitely perfect.
Figure Out Their Ethnicity
This first step is exactly why I despise finding face claims and stopped sharing them. I don’t like assuming someone’s identity, ever. It sucks, but again, just reference.
What I typically do is pull out a map and pick a region of the world, then narrowing it down to a specific country. Once that’s done, I’ll do a bit of research on the culture as well as the general appearance of the native peoples (particularly facial features and skin tone). With those notes, I move on.
Search and Search and Search
Obviously, this part takes the longest. I usually go on Pinterest to find face claims, being very specific with my searches. Specify gender as well as race in your searches. Anything else is helpful but minor things like hair and eye color are not important. Those things can be edited in.
If you use any previous research, you might be able to find something that fits the character you plan on making.
Lately I’ve been putting a lot of effort into ethnicity, and actually digging deeper into the background of the people I choose. As a suggestion, try and go for influencers or models. They discuss their ethnicity here and there, usually when asked, some even having it in their bio (words and/or flags). Doing this also avoids the possible issue of whitewashing your characters and such.
Or... Just Draw Them
I know, I know, drawing. It’s hard, but it’s honestly the best way to get exactly what you want. I’m one of the unfortunate souls that cannot draw (people, specifically) for the life of me which sucks. Though, when I have the means to do so, I plan on commissioning artists to draw my characters. I’ve always wanted to see them in people’s different styles. It intrigues me quite a bit.
Picrew is also a great source that artists upload to! You can customize characters for free and depending on the picrew you choose, there are many opitions!
Conclusions
Putting a face to your characters is important, to a certain extent. No one really cares how blue their eyes are, but having a visual makes your writing all the more interesting on their part, and easier to write on yours.
Before I go, I have one last tip. Create a pin board titled “Face Claims” or something of that sort. You’ll thank me later.
If not decided upon picking the name for your character, now is the time to do so. I don’t really have a standard for picking the gender or sex of my characters, I kinda just do it. Because of that, this post will be mostly educational for those who don’t know much. I’m going to keep it simple though, keep that in mind.
Lets talk terms
What’s the difference you may ask? Lets ask Merriam-Webster.
Among those who study gender and sexuality, a clear delineation between sex and gender is typically prescribed, with sex as the preferred term for biological forms, and gender limited to its meanings involving behavioral, cultural, and psychological traits.
I’ll try to keep this as simple as possible. In terms of science, sex is determined by your chromosomes and subsequent genitalia. Think of what you see on a medical document: m (male) and f (female).
Gender on the other hand, may differ from from what your sex is. You may be assigned female at birth (afab) but identify as something else, such as male or nonbinary. It’s a spectrum, whilst sex is limited.
Being Respectful
We need more trans and gender non-conforming people in media. This is, or should be, common knowledge. But, with more representation comes responsibility. If you are to write about certain groups, particularly marginalized groups, you have to do it properly. I hope to make a lengthy post in the future about this topic, but for now here are some (not all) ground rules.
If you aren’t part of that group, don’t write as if you know and understand.
You will never understand the full extend of someone’s experiences unless you are them. Ex: if you aren’t trans, how would you know what gender dysphoria feels like?
They are more than their identity.
Just because your character is trans, a poc, a woman, queer, etc., does not mean that is all they are. Also keep in mind that your characters, as people, don’t all act and feel the same way.
Don’t make them a token character.
Have trans and gender non conforming characters, but don’t put them there just so you have the representation. Also don’t put them there to move the plot forward and discard them from that point on. That’s absolutely disgusting.
Conclusions
A general rule of thumb I have is to look around me. I have trans friends, I have queer friends, I have poc friends, I have friends of many different religions and backgrounds... Take that, and put it in your story. There is no reason for your cast to be exactly the same when your life isn’t homogeneous either. Switch it up, be respectful, and be true to yourself and style. Diversity is amazing, as are you.
