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[willow-salix]

Mistakes that Novice Writers make - Part 1. Story Construction.

Mistakes That Novice Writers Make and How to Avoid Them –

Part One Story Structure.

Hi again you lovely lot, here again for another dose of Witchy Writing Wisdom, you lucky buggers. That or you’re bored and have nothing better to do, either way, hello.

As you all probably know by now, I’m Willow, Paranormal Romance author, witch, medium, endless reader and cat slave.

A few people have asked me to put together a video on the mistakes that you might make as a novice writer and how to either avoid them or learn how to fix them.

This is a very wide topic and far too much to cover in one video so I’ve decided to make this into a series of videos that I will post each day until it’s finished.

Making these mistakes can immediately give you away as an amateur writer and, even if you aren’t, they can make you seem that way. You could have been writing for the best part of your life, but if you never learnt the basics then you will never improve past a novice. Harsh, but true unfortunately.

These are a basic guide of what to avoid and what not to do. This is coming from bitter experience, writing class lessons, the opinions of other writers that I have spoken to asking what they would include in this list, readers themselves and a shit ton of practice. All of which I’ve done so you don’t have to. How much do you love me now? The answer had better be a lot.

This first video will focus on what to avoid in your story construction and what is seen as amateurish. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Firstly, a bad story concept. This sounds so obvious, doesn’t it? but for some it’s not. If you think your story through, follow a story formula to make sure you have all the elements you need, and plot it properly, that will be a massive help.

What can also help is joining a writing class or group, if you can’t get to one physically, then online forums and groups can be just as good. There you will be able to get a lot of feedback if you pitch the idea. Believe me, people will question things and make you think about it. They will likely pick up on and question the things that you hadn’t even thought of.

If you don’t want to do that, then getting it checked by a beta reader can make all the difference. Some new writers seem to think that they have to go it alone all the time, that they can’t ask for or accept help when it is needed or offered. They will self-edit and review before publishing and then wonder why they are getting negative reviews. That lack of help shows. And I’ve been just as guilty of this myself in the early days. I thought that no one else would know and love my world as much as I did and therefore couldn’t be of any help. I was so wrong. Help is always a good thing and even the best, most successful writers still have trusted beta readers to show their work to first.

This moves us on to plot holes. Yet again this is a problem that can be fixed with careful plotting rather than trying to just write without a plan, and then with careful editing and observation.

Poor cause and effect is just as bad as a plot hole, your reader knows that stepping out in front of a car will hurt, it will cause damage and possibly kill you. but if your character walks away without a scratch it will jar with your reader. Just because you need that car to hit someone to show who is the bad guy, you still need to keep it realistic.

If you character shoots and kills someone research what the lawful procedure will be, what will be their punishment and comeback in your country. If your character breaks into a house and gets caught what would happen if it was a real-life situation in the place your story is set? All of this might seem like it can be skipped, because hey, it’s all fiction, right? Wrong? Just because its fiction doesn’t mean that anything can happen, things have to feel realistic, they have to have an element of truth to them for your reader to gel with the story.

Random story elements will also confuse your reader and lead them down a path you never wanted, so by the end they feel cheated out of a potential plot point that they found quite enticing.

Just because you get an idea for a funny, quirky or poignant scene doesn’t mean you have to use it if it doesn’t make narrative sense.

This brings me to my next point, overly confusing plot. Inexperienced writers often feel that they have to try and impress their readers and make an impression, which to a certain extent is true, but they go about it the wrong way. Trying to be too clever, or too complicated will almost always backfire.

Having a large, convoluted and detail laden plot can put a lot of readers off and can be very hard to write successfully.

Having 6 red herrings, 3 turncoats, 10 hidden clues, 5 points of misdirection and 4 plot twists, all in one story will just make for an exhausting and hard to follow plot that most will either give up on without finishing it or feel confused and unsatisfied by the end. And that is not what you want.

Don’t try to be too clever, don’t try to baffle your reader. You want them to relate and engage, not feel like they don’t know what 2+2 is.

As with anything there are extremes and while being too complicated is bad, so to is being too simplistic and vague. Some writers drift towards vague writing as a way of creating mystery and surprises within their story, but in reality, this rarely works.

Unneeded scenes are a big problem with novice writers. They seem to think that the more there is, the better it is, which is not always the case.

Don’t get hung up on word count. By trying to bulk up your story you can often do more harm than good.

It might seem cute or easy to add an extra scene with your main characters dog doing all sorts of weird and wonderful things, but it will be recognised as what it is. Filler.

Say it with me, if nothing actually happens in a scene, if it doesn’t add to character development or if it doesn’t push the plot along, then it doesn’t belong in your book.

Now, I’m not a total monster, I know these kind of scenes can creep in, and you’ll love them, but they need cutting. Notice my word choice there, cutting, not deleting, cutting. Nowhere is it against the rules to add the scene at the back of the book as a deleted scene or to put it in a blog post or on your website. It doesn’t have to die, it just has to get its arse out of your story.

Under these rules you can include big scenes that are masquerading as really important but focus more on what’s not happening rather than what is. For example:

You have 5 people in an office having a meeting. They spend 4 pages of back and forth dialogue discussing possible problems, chatting about how, no, Gerald didn’t place that order, no, that big client didn’t cancel his contract blah blah blah, all filler and no real information for us readers. It’s not needed.

Have a meeting to discuss a problem that is happening or has happened, one that does actually affect the story, not what might happen. Keep it current, keep it relevant.

Our last problem relates to the ending. As I’ve said many times, your ending must be satisfying to the reader. If your ending seems too easy, too obvious or very short and rushed, your readers will know, and they will not like it. Weak endings weaken your entire book.

That’s it for book structure mistakes. Thanks for watching, tune in tomorrow for the next part in the series focusing on Characters and Narration.

As always, hit me up on social media with any questions or suggestions for future videos or even books you might like me to read and review.

Blessed be, and happy writing.

[willow-salix]

Mistakes Novice Writers Make - Day 2 Characters

Hi guys, nice to see you back again my little lovelies.

We’re here for the second part of the mistakes that novice writers make series. These are based on long experience, trial and error from me, wisdom from writing classes and from other readers and writers themselves.

If you didn’t catch the first video on story structure, then check that out later.

Today we’re going to look at character problems. I’ve covered in another video how to create believable characters but today I’m going to focus on how mistakes in the way they are actually written can look amateurish.

Bland characters are something I’ve heard about a lot. Some writers seem to equate secondary with bland. Not so. Secondary characters should be just as alive and fully formed as your mains, especially if, like me, you are creating an entire world with the intention of writing a series of books.

Unfortunately, it’s not just secondary characters who can get the bland treatment, bland friends, love interests, bosses and family are all a thing too. Many novice writers focus so much on their protagonist, the one the whole story revolves around, that they forget to flesh out the rest of the cast.

Imagine your book is a movie, if the main character was the star, a big-name celebrity with all the lines and an awesome wardrobe but everyone else was unknowns who barely got any action or lines it would be boring as hell. And your book will be the same without you meaning it to.

Along with bland characters comes characters who lack purpose. They are either there just to bulk out the background, to make your character look popular and loved, or just as filler.

This can happen in a number of ways, for example:

The random best friend that follows your protagonist around like a lost puppy.

The boyfriend/girlfriend that seems to do nothing but fawn over the main character and make them look good.

The kinda enemy who throws the odd nasty comment at the protagonist, maybe trips them in the corridor but never advances past that.

The neighbour that yells at your main character over the back fence for no apparent reason and nothing ever comes of it.

Characters who lack purpose, whoa re used as filler, are boring and unnecessary. Characters can be used as plot devices, yes, but they shouldn’t be there just for that, your plot should work on its own.

I see characters as fitting into certain levels.

-Your mains, which includes your protagonist, so the person the book focuses on, and those who really feature in the story, so maybe the love interest, a best friend or maybe a child.

- Secondary Characters, so characters that are less important than the mains, but who need more purpose, more details and more personality than our next level, which is background characters. Secondaries are those that have a place in the story, a purpose and interact more with the mains.

-Backgrounds Characters are the ones that are quite literally in the background, they don’t need huge histories and page time, but again, they need a reason to be there.

Think of a movie, if the main character is in a bar and the barmaid serves them a drink they aren’t then going to just stand there, still as a statue, staring at nothing. They will be bustling around serving others, wiping down the bar, cleaning glasses or something like that.

She could go on to serve a table full of rowdy lads who get a bit too handsy as she passes and that is when the main character gets up and punches one of the lads. This turns into a large fight and the main character gets arrested. Or the character could notice her and think that she reminds him of his little sister, which makes him decide to go back home, or maybe his sister died and it still affects him. All from a simple background character, she then has a purpose.

If you don’t intend to do anything like that, and you just want to show your main character as a brooding, drunken anti-hero, then just have him drinking and introspective.

And lastly, we have what I call the abstract character. This would be one that isn’t an active player in your story, is never seen, but is referenced or used in some way. Say your main character became a police officer because someone shot his father in a store robbery and was never caught. Your characters motivation is his father, the lack of conviction, the killer going free. The father was the man he always looked up to and aspired to be like and they frequently recall things about him, and everyone says he looks like him.

The father is an important character, but an abstract one. That doesn’t mean they don’t need history, backstory and a purpose.

Characters who lack story goals are another thing that was mentioned to me a lot, this basically means when you have a protagonist or main character that lacks goals.

Your character has to have something that they are working towards, something that motivates them. This could be a number of things, such as:

-something emotional, family, friends, sexual intimacy etc

- something to do with them as a person, self-esteem, lack of confidence, a personal achievement, a career goal, something related to their safety, the safety of others around them, financial security, health issues or even the safety of home.

These goals can come in many forms, for example:

-the risk of losing their home

-lack of confidence stops them doing anything they aren’t sure about, so they now push themselves to take risks.

- someone at work is actively plotting against them and they must be stopped.

The goal of your story is as important as the story itself.

Now I’m going to touch on weak character voices as I intend to cover this in another video on dialogue, but the lack of clear and distinctive character voices can have a massive impact on your novel.

If all your characters sound the same, or even all sound like your authors voice this results in a story that has a lack of flow and depth, not to mention being harder to follow and to relate to the characters themselves.

The characters are the driving force of your story and if its hard to tell them apart your readers will quickly lose interest, finding it hard to connect with them.

And lastly, character reactions. Over-reactive characters and under-reactive characters are a sure-fire way to show yourself as a novice writer.

Your characters are supposed to be realistic, like people and to react the way that real people do.

Having a character that never reacts is boring, not strong and indifferent as you may be trying to portray them.

Having one that over-reacts all the time can be exhausting and annoying to read. You need a good balance between the two.

Conflict between characters is often used within a story, in fact it’s a very important part of it. Everywhere in life we have conflict and confrontation, we cannot avoid it no matter how hard we try, so why should it be any different for your characters?

The problem occurs when there is either too much, or too little. Conflict between characters is often a driving force of a novel, but it still has to be realistic. A common theme of many romance novels is to have two characters that seem to hate each other, constantly arguing and falling out with each other, who end up admitting that they only do this because they like each other and didn’t know how to act. Ok, I get that, sexual tension can be a pain in the backside at times, but honestly, that isn’t that true to life is it? Would you get in a relationship with someone that you hated? With someone that you couldn’t agree on anything with, someone that was nasty to you and just plain mean? If you said yes to any of this, then I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have problems, because that is not a healthy relationship. I’m going to touch on this more in a forthcoming video, so I won’t go too far in depth with it today.

Now, I understand that in some books this can work, in my third book the two main characters were complete opposites of each other and if they hadn’t of had to work together, they never would have managed to get to know each other enough to realise that they weren’t all that different after all. They argued, they had moments of hating each other, but that was also broken up with times of laughing together, of seeing the lighter side of the other, of realising that they both had reasons for acting the way that they did. It was resolved in a way that worked for everyone.

Characters that are constantly getting into conflict with each other and everyone around them quickly become annoying. This type of character is often augmentative, opinionated, aggressive, egotistical, overconfident and cocky. And honestly, do you like that type of person? They are annoying to be around, impossible to work with and just hard work in general.

When your entire book is full of conflict, petty arguments and shit, all caused by your main character, well that just makes them an arsehole quite honestly. I mean, that’s cool if that’s what you were going for, but most of the time it’s not.

But then we can swing the other way, with a lack of conflict that just makes the book boring to read. Nothing ever goes wrong, nothing is ever hard, nothing is ever working against your characters, in short, it’s got no substance to it. Conflict does not just mean physical or verbal conflict, it can take the form of anything that slows down or tries to stop your protagonist reaching their goal. In the book world we call this dramatic conflict, because any kind of drama is included.

There is a fine line between too much and too little, but if you follow a basic story formula, it should be easy enough to notice when you need it, when the pace of your story is dropping and when its running too fast and needs to hit the brakes.

That’s all I have for today, please pop back tomorrow when I’ll be chatting about common mistakes with POV.

Until then, Blessed Be and happy writing.

[willow-salix]

The Seven Basic Plots and how they work.

OK, so this subject is a little controversial, and many will argue the points made, but I thought I would include it, because when I was taught them, they made perfect sense and helped the whole class to identify with the type of story they were actually writing.

This is a really important thing to discover, probably even before you start to plot out your book, because knowing the type of story, and the general structure that they usually take will make the actual construction of your story, so much easier.

The theory goes that there are only ever seven basic plots for stories. 7 in the entire world! They say that any story you can think of will fall into at least one of these categories, though more often they are a mixture of two, three or even more.

The plots are

- Overcoming the Monster

- Rags to Riches

- The Quest

- Voyage and Return

- Rebirth

- Comedy (in which they have included Romance)

- Tragedy.

Now, lets look at them in more depth.

Over coming the monster. This may have you conjuring up visions of a snarling beast looming over a fair maiden who is swooning and screaming for her knight in shining armour to come and save her.

And while that’s fine, if your story is going that way, if you do have a physical monster that is terrorising villages, you do you, dude, but as a plot it’s much broader.

Monsters can take many forms, from a physical threat, a bad guy, an evil boss, and old enemy, an ex-partner or friend, or even something more symbolic like the badness of society or even mankind itself, an organisation, or a political party.

An overcoming the monster story, as with all of the plots, usually follows a formula, although it is easily moved around to make the story your own.

It starts with the creature itself tormenting and torturing its prey, so it could be the boss picking on the young, inexperienced intern, or a nasty teacher bullying the class.

Then comes the call, when the hero hears of this wickedness and comes to save the day. This could be someone in the office overhearing the nasty things said to the poor, sobbing intern, or one adventurous member of the class that decides enough is enough, this evil teacher must be stopped.

There will usually be a brief, first confrontation where the hero and the monster meet face to face for the first time.

There is often a period within the story that is referred to as the dream state, where everything seems to be going ok for our hero, this turns into a nightmare with another confrontation, which the hero shows every likelihood of losing.

And finally, victory, usually including a lesson of some kind which is designed to make the reader think about the moral of the story.

Rags to riches and comedy/romance will often be blended together. We will often see a small, insignificant individual who will step forward and become our hero. Like the nerdy best friend in a high school drama who turns out to be the perfect person for them all along.

Our unfortunate and reluctant hero will have been treated badly by those around them, family, friends, society and is often orphaned by at least one parent. This gives them some vulnerability and odds to overcome.

It is believed that Cinderella is the oldest rags to riches tale with thousands of known versions today, the oldest dating back to the 9th century.

The unfortunate hero is usually the youngest child, one that is shown during the story to be growing up and to mature.

There is usually a part of the story where there is some kind of crisis, where everything is going wrong, but in the end, everything will work itself out and change for the better.

This is often paired with romance because it’s a good formula, we as readers, like the thought of a humble hero being the one to get the love interest rather than the rich, arrogant rival.

Aladdin is a perfect example of both plots mixing together, an orphaned boy who steals to survive, getting his big break and meeting the girl of his dreams. But just when things seem to be coming up roses for Aladdin, he is knocked back down, having to find the guts and determination to keep fighting, clawing his way back to win the heart of the princess and defeat the bad guy.

The quest is often twinned with voyage and return.

No type of story is better known than the quest, some of our most beloved stories, like treasure island, lord of the rings and the holy grail are all a quest.

The story itself can take the form of a physical journey, where they hero is actually travelling from one place to another, or more of a mental journey, a voyage of self discovery if you will. Maybe one relating to their mental or physical help, self improvement or some other life goal.

When looking at the story the goals are usually pretty simple. Some fabulous treasure or mysterious mythical object, or they surround a homeward journey, be that a mental one of self discovery, back to the person you once was, or a physical one.

They often begin with the call to action, as many others do. A community in uproar, a lost treasure or even a missing person.

All quests begin with a sense of unease, a desperation which pushes them on, often the plot will also involve a time limit to make it feel tenser.

The hero will often have to leave their home and battle to find their way back, returning a better person than when they left.

These stories often involve companions of some kind who will travel with them or be picked up along the way and help them on their journey, their unique abilities making victory possible. This has a moral reason for happening, to show the reader than no one can triumph when they are alone or unsupported, trying to take on too much themselves, to not rely on others, or in the case of a more arrogant hero, thinking they don’t need help. There is no shame in allowing friends to offer a hand.

Sometimes the writer will pull a sneaky on their reader and have one of the companions actually work against the hero, instead being in cahoots with the enemy. This is a good way of involving a plot twist into the story, but it is one that has to be managed very carefully, it should not be obvious that they have been actively trying to cause trouble. It should come out of nowhere and completely blindside the reader, but, when they look back, there should be enough to make it true. It’s a hard one to pull off and it does require practice, but that’s no reason to avoid doing it if that’s how your story is worked.

Once the hero and companions have assembled, they will venture forth. Usually they will encounter their first scary or dramatic situation, entering unknown territory, facing a monster or even lack of resources or food. The possibilities in this, are endless.

Mystical intervention along the way is also a common theme, where our heroes will receive some much-needed help and advice which will save the day.

When the journey is almost over, when we think they will make it, comes the final ordeal. All is lost! Or so we think. But of course, the hero will overcome the odds and win the day.

A twist to this kind of story is the dark quest, and my personal favourite, where we see the dark, brooding anti-hero who seeks to destroy an object or person who is working on the side of good. just when it looks like darkness will overcome the light, he has his redemption.

I do love a sexy, anti-social man who needs kicking into shape, and I am usually just the girl to write them, but, enough about me, lets continue on to our last two plots.

Tragedy and rebirth are another two that are often partnered up for the sake of a story.

Tragedy comes in many forms, from the loss of a parent, a lover, a child, even a whole town or city, leaving the protagonist, our hero, as the only one left to deal with the situation.

They are obviously grieving, emotionally destroyed by the tragedy they have just dealt with, but they must soldier on.

Some stories just stick with the tragedy and refuse to have a happy ever after ending, which is fine, its your story and no one said it had to be a happy happy feel good book, but if you did want to give your hero something to strive for, some home, a light at the end of the tunnel, that’s where the rebirth plot is usually utilised.

We, as readers, love to see something good come out of a tragedy, we love to think that no matter how bad things get, there is always hope of something good just around the corner.

Rebirth stories are always popular. Think of a Christmas carol, with mean, skinflint Mr Scrooge meeting 3 ghosts who take him on a journey of self-discovery, where he will have to face up to the inevitable, if he continues as he is, he will die alone and unmourned by anyone.

He learns the error of his ways and wakes the next morning as a changed man, determined to do better for everyone around him.

So, there you have the 7 basic plots, and as I said before, although others may disagree, I believe they are useful to know and perhaps look at in more depth, especially if you have an idea for a book but are unsure on how to structure it.

Identify the type or types of story it is and then study the formula, fit it all together and get writing.

I once did an article explaining how the 7 basic plots all managed to fit into my book, Two Minutes to Midnight, before I even knew what they were. If you are interested in reading this article, let me know in the comments or DM me and ill get it up online for you all.

That’s all for today, so ill say blessed be and happy writing.

[willow-salix]

Story Construction

Hi there, a few people have asked me to elaborate on the elements that actually make up a good story. We’ve covered how to do your actual plotting, and how to create believable characters, the seven basic plots and I’ve recently done a video on pacing, but the question I was asked was how to construct the body of the story, what does that actually entail. What elements are actually needed for a good story.

So today I’m going to elaborate on something I touched on in the guide to pacing, story formula.

First, lets assume that you have an actual idea for a story. As I said in my video on plotting, most people have an idea of how their story is going to start and end, but they aren’t too sure on the bits in between.

That’s ok, we can work with that.

First step is to identify which plot, or plots, your story fits into, because that will help us to find the sub formula for your story.

I’m not going to go into major details of all these plots because, as I said, I have done a whole video on these recently, but what I will do will be picking one to use as an example to show you how useful they can be. So, if you haven’t watched that video, go check that out.

First plot is Over coming the monster, just as it says, it’s a monster, either a physical monster, a big evil of some description or even something that represents a monster like a company or a political party. Think Beowulf or any number of Greek myths.

Rags to riches, again, clue is in the title. The main character will start off poor and down on their luck, maybe treated badly by everyone around them, and by the end of the story they will have made their fortune and live happily ever after. Think Aladdin or Dick Whittington.

The quest, where your main character has to track down an object or person that is needed to save the day. Think Treasure Island or Lord of the Rings.

Voyage and return, where our hero has to set out on an epic journey or suddenly finds themselves in an unknown land and has to find their way home again. Good examples of this are Alice in Wonderland and The Lion the witch and the wardrobe.

Rebirth is where our character will change over the course of the story, from a person that no one really likes, to someone that is worthy and good. Think A Christmas Carol, Beauty and the Beast or the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Comedy, which includes romance, really doesn’t need an explanation nor examples.

And finally, tragedy, which is different from rebirth because there is no redemptive end for the character, something they cannot recover from. Think of Romeo and Juliet or a Picture of Dorian Gray.

Ok, so we now have our basic plots, for my example I’m going to use voyage and return and mix it up with a little comedy/romance as that’s what I live for.

Next, lets take a little more of an in-depth look at our basic story formula.

A story usually has three acts to it, the first which focuses on the main protagonists normal, everyday life.

We start with the hook, something in your first chapter that will grab your readers attention and keep it, they need to feel for your characters, to be drawn in by them and want to know what happens next.

This could be in the form of an event, known as the inciting incident, and this is basically the main reason that the story will happen, it’s the thing that kicks off the whole series of events that make up your story and lead to the climax.

This could be something dramatic, like a car accident that leaves your main character in need of help, physical and mental therapy or it could be the loss of someone close to the main character. It could be a robbery or even some kind of abuse that triggers a change in them that needs to be addressed.

This creates a goal for your protagonist, the thing they will be working towards for the rest of the story.

You will need to show all of this event in the first chapter or stretched over to two if it’s a particularly detailed and complicated event, though I wouldn’t recommend this unless you have had practice in this. Too much detail and drama in one go can be too much for your reader and rather than drawing them in, it will push them away. The idea is to show everything that is major in the event, and tease what will happen next by the end of the chapter.

Let’s start constructing our story as we go. Our main character, who I’m going to call John, has been out at a party with his best friend. John has been drinking, but his friend promises him that he has been good and only had one, he’s more than capable of driving. Unfortunately, that one had been topped up numerous times during the night and was, in reality, more like three or four.

They get in the car and head off home. Within a few minutes, John has drifted off, his head resting against the window. His friend, lest call him Carl, is feeling a bit tired too, and a little fuzzy from the drinks. Deciding that bed is what he needed, he chose to take the quickest route home, down a smaller back road.

While driving, his eyes slide shut and, without his knowledge the car slowly drifts into the wrong lane, right into the path of an oncoming car. Trees and verges on both sides of the road leave the other car with no where to go and BANG.

John wakes up in hospital four days later to find out that his best friend is dead and that he’s lost a leg from the knee down, crushed in the accident.

So now we have our hook, our back story and know the journey that our protagonist will likely have to go on, one where he learns to walk again and deal with the horror of the crash.

Next is the beginning of our second act and our 1st plot point.

This happens somewhere around a quarter of the way into your book, an event that forces the protagonist to face up to their problems in life and find a way to fix them.

The second act is all about a series of events, successes and failures, that escalate towards our 3rd and final act and the ending.

Our hero will be pursuing his goal and overcoming obstacles on the way.

So, lets continue working on our story.

So, we left John in his hospital bed, dealing with the reality of not being able to walk and losing his best friend all in the same moment. He’s understandably upset, traumatised and grieving, both for his friend and his lost limb.

He is let out of hospital in a wheelchair and has to move back in with his parents because he needs help with pretty much everything. He feels useless and sinks into depression.

He is offered counselling, forced to go to group therapy, but refuses to talk about it or face up to the reality of the situation. Slowly he gains some strength back and is booked in to have his first prosthetic leg fitted, even though he doesn’t want it, he sees no point in it.

Now we reach our midpoint, where your character will be in the middle of some kind of drama or at a massive low point int their lives. Something needs to happen in order to give them the kick up the arse they need to keep going, otherwise wed have a pretty rubbish book.

So, as I said, I’m mixing in a little romance here. So, lets picture the scene.

John is assigned a new therapist who fits him with his leg and then starts him on physio therapy. At first he is grumpy and short with her, not wanting to work, not wanting to try, feeling like he wasn’t worth the effort. But in time, he starts to open up and talk to her about the crash and how he is feeling, and they become closer. Both of them are attracted to each other but, when they finally get around to a kiss, they are interrupted and discovered by her boss.

They both get told off, told that it is not allowed, that his therapist will lose her job if it happens again and she is reassigned to another patient.

John, feeling like its all his fault, falls into a downward depressive spiral, feeling like he wasn’t good enough for her anyway, all his doubts about his worthiness and attractiveness now that he’s missing a leg comes back to haunt him.

So that’s the dramatic moment, our hero has been knocked back and it looks like he will fail, but of course, that’s not how this plot works. Now we need him to come back fighting.

John reaches his lowest point, he has no where to go but up. He decides to go it on his own, to work hard and get back to the man he was before the accident, to learn to walk again.

Now we enter the 3rd and last act, our climax the final battle, and then our resolution, a satisfying ending that our reader deserves.

The climactic sequence as we near the end of our book and where we will be putting all our plot points and plans into motion, everything we have been working towards is in this moment.

We see John working hard, taking his first faltering steps, and then gaining more strength. We see him working out in the therapy gym, gaining back some of the muscle he’d lost. We see him forcing himself to eat to fuel his body even though he didn’t have any appetite at first. We see him avoiding his old therapist at all costs, scheduling appointments when she would be busy or have finished for the night, he doesn’t want to see her, not yet. And finally, we see him walking on his own, being discharged from therapy.

And now, we need our satisfying resolution, where everything needs to be tied up in a neat little bow. All our plot points and story threads have to be gathered up and addressed.

So, we see his old therapist coming out of work one night, looking up to see John standing there, beside her car, unaided, without even a stick. She’s shocked, but happy to see him, feeling all kinds of emotions, pride that he did so well and continued, that all their work in the beginning wasn’t wasted.

She runs over to him, wanting to hug him, to hold him, to kiss him, but stops herself before she reaches him. It’s wrong, they aren’t allowed.

Smiling, john closes the distance between them, reaching out, wrapping his arms around her, he pulls her closer, his lips finding hers in the sweetest of kisses.

She pulls back, breaking the kiss, worried that someone might see them, and that’s when he reveals that he is no longer under the care of her facility, they are free to be together.

And there we have our basic plot and the structure to our story, we can see the way that it flows and ebbs, having highs and lows, taking the reader on the journey with them.

All that’s needed then is to fill in the details, to flesh out your story and to make it your own, make it special, make it unique to you.

I hope this has helped. I’m always happy to hear any ideas or requests you may have for videos or any questions, hit me up in the comments or on social media, I’m always happy to talk to people and help in any way that I can.

Until next time, blessed be and happy writing.

[willow-salix]

Mistakes Novice Writers Make - Day 5 Writing and Prose

Hi guys, and welcome back to our last day of common mistakes that novice writers make. Today we’re gonna talk about general writing mistakes and problems with prose.

The biggest thing that novice writers are guilty of is trying too hard. They might feel like their plain, everyday way of talking and writing isn’t good enough, isn’t clever enough or isn’t literary enough.

And so, they will try to be something they are not. This almost always shows to the reader and makes the writer look like an amateur.

A lack of clear and concise prose will turn off all but the hardiest of readers. Writing styles, much like language evolve over time. The days of big words and flouncy, poetic prose went out with Dickens. And while it’s nice to go back and read them sometimes, they are very much of their time and not to most modern tastes.

That’s not to say there is anything wrong with this style of writing, it has its place and can still be used today if it’s done right, but it’s a skill that takes practice and more practice to get it right. Often if you are writing a book in the style of someone else, you can market it as such and that’s fine, your readers will know exactly what they are buying, but for a modern, contemporary novel, it doesn’t work at all.

Not matching your writing style to the type of book you are writing. For example, if you have a rather old-fashioned style, with very proper sentence construction and a love of bigger words, you might be better suited to a historical novel where it will work better. Older writers who attended school in a different era tend to find this works for them. An historical novel doesn’t have to be set hundreds of years ago, it just has to be a time that is not now. So, if you grew up in the 60’s, were taught in those times and still have those kind of speech patterns to your writing, then maybe think about doing a novel set during that time period, where your langue and style will be able to flow and work to its full potential.

If you have a more modern style, then set your novel in modern times that reflect it. it would really jar with your readers if you used modern langue in a novel set in the 1940’s for example.

On the subject of historicals, let me add in a little warning about another problem that was brought up by another writer is asked about common mistakes. And that is lack of research.

Armature writers often get too caught up in the story and have an overly romanticised view of the time period they are writing about.

I’m a member of a few active writing forums and one observation someone made was how they were having to re-write almost all of their novel because their editor had said they had overly romantic, TV drama style descriptions. And because of this they had now learnt that the streets of 1850’s New Orleans would have been covered in horse shit as well as human waste, people would be pissing on the street without a care in the world, it was filthy, it stank and was not really a nice place to be.

Trying to write a book when all you know about the area or time period has come from Movies or TV shows will scream novice and showcase your lac of effort. Research is your friend.

This doesn’t just mean in the physical descriptions of the area itself, but includes the dialogue they would have used, the accents and slang words they would have used, the legal system of the time, how the country worked, and basically researching all aspects of the book, not just the obvious.

Another prose problem would be making your writing overly complex, again this is related to the type of book that you are writing.

Going into massive details about how a computer works and how they are built is fine if you are writing an article for a computer magazine, but not in a novel or gods forbid, a short story. Readers will have a hard time following it and will likely skip ahead or give up on the story entirely. It’s the same with science or physics, keep things as basic as you can while still giving the information that is needed. Don’t treat your reader like they are stupid and need to be spoon fed the ABC, but also keep the large, complicated scientific explanations in their place such as magazines, academic journals and dissertations.

Choppy prose is another example of amateurish writing. Choppy prose can make your writing feel disjoined, like it lacks flow (because it does) and construction.

While this will work in small does, for an action scene or a scary scene, too much will make it feel like a race, exhausting your reader and making it harder to read.

There are a number of culprits that result in choppy prose, the most common two being fragmented or run on style sentences.

Run on writing is when two or more scene points are joined without proper conjunction- like the use of and, but, or type of words- or without punctuation. It has an almost hurried pace and that isn’t always the pace you are trying to create. For example:

“Mona arrived at the bank only 3 minutes late she ran up the steps she banged on the door screamed at the people still inside she had to get inside to talk to them.”

Fragmented writing seems incomplete, lacking a real purpose, flow or structure. It can make the writer look uneducated, it can read in a really confusing way and give an image you don’t want. For example:

“Mona gave up and stopped. Cried. What would happen now? Ruined. All was ruined. She sat down on the steps. Because her legs gave out. maybe someone would help her? The next bank. Take pity on her.”

That was actually hard for me to write, because it goes against almost everything I know as a writer. But you’d be surprise how often I see it while beta reading, in online stories or in independently published books.

See how badly those examples read? But don’t despair, because both can be fixed with a little practice and work. Separate your run-on sentences with correct clauses, or into sentences of their own, adding more details when needed. Smooth out your fragmented writing with proper punctuation and build them into full sentences.

Here is an example of how to fix some of the structural problems.

“Mona missed the bank by 3 minutes, finding the doors locked. Desperate, she banged on the door, calling to the people inside to let her in. She needed to talk to them, to fix it. they ignored her, deaf to her yells. Giving up she stopped, bursting into tears as the reality of the situation hit home. Ruined, it was all ruined.

Her legs felt wobbly, incapable of holding her up and she sat down heavily on the steps before she fell down. Maybe someone else would help her, maybe another bank would take pity on her? she couldn’t give up now.”

That flows so much better, it explains the situation in brief detail and shows her mood, but also her determination to keep trying.

Check your word choices. Nothing screams amateur more than writing the wrong word or spelling.

Here is a brief example of this, I’ll give you a moment to read it. (show purple picture.)

Using the wrong word choice can make you look uneducated, like you are trying too hard and using words you don’t understand in an effort to look clever. When in fact it has the opposite effect.

If you are using a word that has more than one meaning, check its definition, check the spelling and make sure you are using it in the correct way. For example: bare and bear One, spelt BARE- means that something is naked, not covered, to bare all, or to be bare, something that is basic, the bare essential, without decoration or fancy features. Bear spelt BEAR has more than one meaning, it means a bear as in the animal that lives in the woods and likes to steal picnic baskets, other meanings include not being able to bear something, its unbearable, I cannot bear it. you can also bear something, as in, he was bearing a tray of snacks.

The same goes for any words that you do not use or hear in everyday conversation, check them, because you can quite easily misunderstand the meaning of a word or misspell it to turn it into something it shouldn’t be. If you are wanting to use a word that you have never checked before, check it. A thirty second google could be the difference between looking educated or stupid.

So many people think they know the meaning of a word only to confuse it with another that sounds very similar, for example, Synonym buns, and cinnamon buns. Most definitely not the same thing, and yes, I’ve seen this one on the internet, it’s a real thing.

Another thing to always check is a common saying. By that I mean when someone thinks they know what a common saying is, but they actually misheard it themselves and now just keep saying it wrong. One example I’ve seen of this is someone that wished everyone could just “barry the hatchet” I don’t know who barry is or why he’s a hatchet or what they are trying to do with him.

All of these little slip ups are sure fire ways of making yourself look bad when they turn up in your writing work.

If I read a comment or post by someone that uses the wrong words while trying to look clever, usually when someone is ranting or trying to make an offensive point, I will notice it, I can’t help it. and much as I would love to say that I don’t judge them, lets be real here, I do. I do judge, because I believe in education, and in continuing to educate yourself, to better yourself, for as long as you have left on this planet. By not looking up the correct words, using tools like spell check or even bothering to use the right spelling for a word, well that’s often just laziness in my eyes. Harsh but true. I can’t take someone seriously if they are trying to make a point when they write like that. And if I saw that in a novel, it would likely make me stop reading. If you want to be taken seriously with your writing you have to start taking it seriously yourself, and that means lots of time and effort.

Bad use of punctuation, or the complete lack of it, is also something that many will judge you on. It can also throw off the whole rhythm and flow of your writing. I’m not going to go deep into this as I’m planning to do a video on this subject. But what I will say now as a quick tip is to either read your work out loud or better yet, get a reading app to do it for you if you have trouble with knowing how punctuation works within your work. The difference between a full stop and a comma is huge, but many treat them as the same thing, almost interchangeable, but the misuse of them will change the whole structure of your sentence.

Repetitive words are another thing that novice writers may do. Now I’m not saying that you need to pull a Joey and use a thesaurus for every word you use, but you can mix it up a bit.

If you are describing something and you will need to make a point more than once, try to find a different descriptive word to use. I have a personal rule of never using the same descriptive word twice for the same thing in the same paragraph.

Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, some things you can’t branch out on without looking like you are trying too hard.

A book is a book, sure technically you could say novel, opus, tome, volume, paper back etc, they all mean the same thing, but it would get pretty ridiculous if you used them all. In this case I would describe the book itself, “A paperback romance sat on the bedside table,” and then just refer to it as the book after that. “She picked up the book, studying the cover,” “she flicked through the book, starting to read at random,” “She threw the book at his head.” That is an example of keeping things simple.

When not to use repetitive words would be when describing something important, like a baby. You could use new-born, the baby, his son, her child, the infant, etc.

Picture the scene, there had just been a traumatic birth and now the baby is safely here and it’s the aftermath or even during the birth itself, just saying the baby all the time would become boring and repetitive.

If something is important it needs to be kept at the forefront of the action and that means that it needs more than one descriptive word.

Another example of this would be action words or ‘doing’ words if you prefer to call them that.

Here’s an example of one descriptive word getting overused and boring. “The crystals were placed in a circle, their pattern very specific, with a candle placed in the centre. Next, she took out a shell and placed that in the west of the circle, then came an incense cone which she placed in the east.”

Placed, placed, placed all the same descriptive word. Other words could and probably should be used to keep the writing feeling fresh.

“The crystals were arranged in a circle, their pattern looking to be very specific, a candle was then placed in the centre (our first and only placed) next she took out a shall, laying it carefully in the west of the circle and an incense cone in the east.”

Different words make the writing more interesting.

Another problem which I will just touch on as I did a bit about this in one of the previous videos and I plan on doing a more in-depth talk on them in the future, is POV, i.e. 1st, 2nd or 3rd person writing. Books are almost always in either 1st or 3rd person POV, 2nd is mostly ignored and unused, personally I hate that point of view.

Most novice writers fall into writing 1st person because they find it easier to relate to the character and to tell the story, but this can come with problems. It can be harder to create a more complex storyline as you are limited as to what information you can give and what you can show to the reader due to how much you character will actually know, see and experience.

You will often end up in the realm of telling instead of showing as a way of explaining, which isn’t that great.

Another problem can be lack of character voice as you might not have had time to develop your authors voice and style, therefore all your characters run the risk of sounding the same.

Lastly your characters can come off as whining, self-centred and a bit dumb as it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of too much information feeding.

As always everything with writing is takes time and practice. Read lots of tips, keep watching videos like this and keep writing.

Upcoming videos include dialogue, exploring the various POV’s in depth, how to edit your work and more talk on romance novels.

Until then, blessed be and happy writing.

[willow-salix]

How to plot your book.

How to plot a book or story

Plotting is something that almost all writers will have an opinion on, good or bad. Some will hate it and never do it, others will swear by it.

Personally, I love a good plotting session and I take it very seriously, for me it’s almost as important a part of a novel’s creation as the writing itself.

Now, please remember that this is only my views on plotting and how I do it, you do not need to be as full on or organised as I am, because I will admit, I’m a little obsessive with my note taking.

Ok, so, why plot?

I know that some writers prefer to just wing it and let the story flow as it may, but personally I have beta’d and read enough works from people who have done that, and I’ve found that they often lose track of the story and veer from the point into a rambling, convoluted mess in some places. That or they confess to me that they have ground to a halt because they have either written themselves into a corner or they don’t know what happens next.

Its all well and good having a general idea of how you want your story to pan out, but its harder than you may think to actually execute. Winging it in a short story is easy enough, but in a novel where you have so much more to keep track of, its best to have some idea of what you are doing, a plot should help you get the most out of your story.

There are a number of ways to plot out your work.

-simple bullet points

- a simple synopsis type overview of the story taking up two or three pages

- a flow chart

- post-it notes on a wall in your office

- or even simple notes on your computer.

They can be as simple of as detailed as you wish or need.

I personally love as much detail as possible. That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes deviate from my plans or add things that my brain doesn’t suddenly decide that it knows exactly what has to happen next without my say so, that would be craziness, but I also don’t believe in letting my characters run around all over the place doing as they please. I will drag them back kicking a screaming if I need to. They are your creation, you tell them what to do, not the other way around.

Now this is how I plot (hold up notebooks, then show some of the pages etc)

I have a whole, massive, complicated world in my head, and all my characters and individual books intertwine to create a big series. I have a lot to keep track of and a sieve for a brain. I need all the help I can get.

When my muse is in full rampage mode she refuses to shut up and let me focus on my current writing project until I have indulged her and listened to her new idea. And until I’ve written the idea out, I won’t leave me in peace.

I have no more than two novels plotted per note book, because I like lots of space for extra notes, ideas that pop up and notes as I write the actual book.

I plot the entire book, start to finish in a mixture of bullet points, full sentences and sometimes full paragraphs, and sometimes even scene snippets as I quite often find that they will pop up fully formed in my head. I add as much information as I think I will need.

I like to do this for a number of reasons.

One, because it gets the whole story out of my head and down on paper so that I can start thinking again but it means that I don’t lose any of the actual idea details.

Two, I like lists, lists are good. I make lists for everything in my life, even cleaning the house, as I like to tick things off as I do them and feel a sense of accomplishment. There is nothing worse than staring at a blank screen and feeling that daunting dread of knowing you need at least 50,000 words on there to make a novel. This way you can physically see your progress and tick it off as you go, imagine how good that feels.

Three, its motivation for me. If I’m not feeling like writing and believe me most writers will tell you that they hardly ever feel like it. if you wait for your muse or inspiration you could be waiting forever. This way I can say to myself, a little is better than nothing, wills. Just write one of your plot points, just one. That one will often lead on to two, three and as you find your flow.

Four, you will never, ever have writers block, or at the very least you will never be able to use the excuse for not knowing what to write, because its right there in front of you. no excuses!

Imagine how good it feels as you work your way through your story, seeing it forming before your eyes? I can tell you, it’s addictive.

Another reason I like my elaborate plots and notebooks is because I can write all my additional ideas and notes for the story in it and never lose them. They will always be right there.

They also make a great reference piece. I can quickly find old plot points to make sure there are no inconsistences in future books.

It works for me, motivates me and organises me and that’s the most important part for more. It helps me write my best work.

Now, on to how you actually take an idea from your brain and make it into a working plot.

Many find it hard to get the idea down at all. Really, all you need to start off with is a beginning and an end. You know how it starts, you know how its going to end, you just have to fill in the bits in between.

First, I would suggest you identify what type of story it is that you are wanting to write, I’m going to make another video soon that explains the 7 basic plots, but they are easy enough to look up for yourself.

Let’s make up an example. Say you wanted to do a classic voyage and return story. You would start with your hero needing to travel to some far-off place. While they are there, they need to experience a variety of things, from excitement, hope, disappointment, a time when they think it’s all hopeless and then victory in the end. The whole journey should teach them lessons and make them a better person by the time they return.

Sometimes its easier to start at the end and work your way backwards. So, plot out your ending, because that’s usually the part of the story we are most clear on. Ok, with me so far?

Once you have your ending, work out what obstacles your hero is going to have to face. Scatter them within your plan, along with a few happy moments, and then write your beginning. There you have your basic plot formation. Now all you need to do is ask yourself how your character will travel from plot point to plot point, this is basic infilling.

Its not a flawless process, but it’s definitely easier than trying to figure it all out as you go. But remember, don’t be afraid to deviate slightly from your plot, it doesn’t have to follow perfectly, just try to stick to your major plot points and you’ll be fine.

I hope this has helped you in some way, keep popping back for more hints and tips.

Blessed be and happy writing.

[willow-salix]

New story up on my website.

New story up on my website, pop along and have a look. It's good to laugh.

A short story from within the Carpe Noctem world of Paranormal Romance autor Willow Salix

[willow-salix]

New Series!

For those of you who wanted the witch to get her own series, your wait is over. I'm so excited about this one, I've truly come home. You'll all love Zagan, he's the most amazing man I've ever created and I love him so much. This dude has my heart. So please, if you're on Wattpad and want to read along, hit the follow to get updates.