#writingtiptuesday

[willowsilverpine]

Writing main characters

The main character is without a doubt the most important character in your WIP to know and write about. If your reader doesn’t like your MC and doesnt root for them, it will be really hard for them to get invested in your story. Here’s some tips to create an interesting MC your readers will enjoy reading about for hundreds of pages.

Give them a PERSONALITY. Your MC should be just as unique and layered as your side characters, if not more. Making your MC a blank slate for your readers to ‘project on’ has an opposite effect. That is not what readers are looking for in a character. They want to get invested in the story and feel connected to the MC. Readers can still project themselves onto the MC if they have a personality. Noone wants to read 200+ pages about a character who is bland and boring.

Give them flaws! Readers want to see the MC struggle. They should fail, they should make mistakes and mess things up. That makes it easier to relate to the MC. Also, it’s pretty boring to read about a character who’s perfect and good at everything. If your MC is already amazing at everything at the beginning of your story, and they win every battle against your ‘villian’, the victory will feel unsatisfying. I’ve already said some things about this in an earlier post. Basically, show that your MC grows and learns throughout the story, and finally gains the skill and strenght to defeat the villian, or finally fulfill a different goal (depends on your WIP). The win will feel so much more satisfying and deserved. If you want to learn more about this, try looking up ‘Mary Sue Characters.’

Not every sidecharacter has to like the MC for the MC to be a likeable character. This is also a trait that belongs to a Mary Sue character. Maybe there are one, two or more side characters who dislike your MC. This won’t make the reader dislike them as well. It actually might make it easier for the reader to root for them.

Give the MC their own goals. This especially applies to stories where the MC is a heroic character, fighting injustice and/or crime. We all understand they are the good guy, who sees evil in the world and wants to stop it. But what about them? What do they want in life? Before they had to save the world, they had a life of their own. Friends, family, relationships. A dream they were pursuing? And hobbies! Also something I’ve talked about before. What do they like to do in their free time? Are they passionate about art and doodle little things everywhere, or enjoy visiting museums? Anything is possible here. Giving your MC hobbies/goals adds some extra layer to their character and makes them feel more real.

I hope this was helpful for you! I really enjoy making these for my few followers haha :))) Good luck writing!

[didasstuff]

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If he tore his soul -⠀⠀

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀(shredded to parts)⠀⠀

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Butchered his spirit, and hauled it throughout heaven and hell -     ⠀

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀(paraded around)⠀⠀

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He would still give him his heart -⠀⠀

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀(never repenting)⠀⠀

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He would gaze into those emerald eyes and sigh, ⠀

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀(absurd, angel)⠀⠀

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 ⠀ - 𝐴𝑙𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑒 𝐵𝑎𝑦𝑑𝑎𝑎⠀⠀⠀

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[anythingforstories]

Rule Number 1 in writing:

Feel free to break the other rules if your story works better like that.

Case in point:

People say it’s really amateurish to include the beginnings of conversations with their small talk and pleasantries, because it bores the reader. And it certainly can. I’ll bet you wouldn’t want to read a book where all the conversations started like,

Emmy glanced up and smiled as Henry walked in. “Hi, how are you?” “I’m good,” Henry said, closing the office door behind him. "How about you?” “I’m fine. How have the kids been?” “They’ve been good. How about your little one?” Emmy chuckled. “Same as before, except that he’s shooting up like a beanstalk. So anyway...”

Is that boring? Why, yes. Yes it is. It doesn’t give us useful information, so why are we bothering to read it?

The general rule is to enter conversations late and leave them early so the readers only get the most important info. And a lot of the time, that’s absolutely true.

But that’s not to say that pleasantries are always useless fluff. Let’s make this exact exchange give us information to show how powerful this scene can be.

Example 1:

Emmy glanced up. Henry was entering the office. Her palms grew sweaty, but she forced a pleasant smile on her face.

Polite. Businesslike. It’s fine. It’s. Fine.

“Hi, how are you?” her words came out, thankfully not giving a hint of strain.

“I’m good,” Henry said, closing the office door behind him. He came over to Emmy’s desk with relaxed shoulders, as if interacting with people all day didn’t bother him at all. It probably didn’t. “How about you?”

“I’m fine,” Emmy choked out. Ugh, that was too fast! Too stiff. She had to make it sound more polite by adding something. “How have the kids been?”

If that sounded forced, Henry didn’t seem to notice. “They’ve been good. How about your little one?”

Emmy forced a chuckle. That was something people did during small talk, right? “Same as before, except that he’s shooting up like a beanstalk.”

There. That was the formalities. Now she could breathe, relax. Time to get down to business. That, she could handle.

This time, a genuine, relieved smile crossed her face. “So anyway...”

Example 2:

Emmy glanced up to see Henry entering the office.

Great. Another problem to deal with, most likely. And just a few minutes before five, too.

Still, she pushed a smile onto her face. Anything for that promotion. “Hi, how are you?”

“I’m good, how about you?” Henry said, closing the office door behind him. Emmy resisted the urge to scowl as he did so. Closing the door meant that he didn’t want anyone to hear whatever his issue was, and by the several folders he carried tucked under his arm, it was obvious that it was a big issue. Couldn’t he have just come earlier?

“I’m fine. How have the kids been?” Hopefully, he wouldn’t take it as a chance to ramble on about his little tykes the way so many other people did.

Thankfully, he kept his answer short. “They’ve been good. How about your little one?”

Emmy chuckled, more to hide her boredom than anything else. There was no way Henry cared about her son any more than she cared about his. “Same as before, except that he’s shooting up like a beanstalk. So anyway...”

Example 3:

Emmy glanced up and froze as Henry walked in, but she forced a smile onto her face. Act natural. She had to pretend everything was normal. If he suspected that she knew—

“Hi, how are you?” she said, hoping that the strain didn’t come through in her voice.

“I’m good,” Henry said calmly—too calmly—as he closed the office door. There was no way he should be that relaxed, what with his criminal operations behind the scenes. Yet here he was, flashing her a winning grin as he continued to speak. “How about you?”

Emmy swallowed hard. Was that some kind of test to see if she’d say anything? No way. There was no chance that he knew anything. “I’m fine.”

Still, he kept staring at her, making her squirm in her seat. She should say something, anything.

Finally, she forced words out of her mouth. “How have the kids been?”

“They’ve been good. How about your little one?”

Her little one? What did her son have to do with anything? Was that some kind of threat?

Emmy mentally shook her head at herself as she kept her shaking hands hidden. Of course not. She had asked about his kids, after all. It was just polite conversation.

She chuckled, though it came out more as a nervous rasp. “Same as before, except that he’s shooting up like a beanstalk.”

Still, Henry kept staring.

Emmy swallowed again, if only to take up a second of time. When he didn’t speak, she tried to change the subject. “So anyway...”

So here, you can see that the simple exchange that meant almost nothing before can actually be dripping with useful information about the characters and plot, and you can go many different directions with it.

All that to show, yes, there are “rules” in writing for a reason, and yes, you should follow them... most of the time.

But don’t feel tied to them! This was just one example of many, and there are so many ways you can break rules or bend them to work better for your story.

Get creative and have fun!

[davidfarland]

5 Ways to Improve Worldbuilding in Speculative Fiction

Written by: Angela Brown

When you build a new world, you’re responsible for building the very essence of any good story. In the genre of speculative fiction, which can include science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism, it may be tempting to go overboard with your writing. Doesn’t creating a new reality mean that you get to pack in as much intricate detail and description as you want? Nope – not unless you want to risk putting your readers to sleep. What about creating a fantastical land with no logic and rules? It sounds great in theory, but any contradictions can actually confuse people—or even worse, make them give up trying to make sense of your world and stop reading. Here are five suggestions that might help you improve your worldbuilding ability:

1. Be Unpredictable No one wants to read just another variation of the same old story they’ve read before. There are tons of speculative fiction tales out there, and the majority of dedicated readers have seen and read it all. What you need to give them is something fresh and something new. Hook them in, keep them engaged, and keep them guessing. Even readers who are new to the genre want to see what makes it so different from other genres, so it’s up to you to defy their expectations. ‘Defying Expectations’ states that the key element of a successful story is the need for the reader to have a sense of epiphany—where they learn something new. “At that moment, the brain will release several hormones, such as dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline, and others associated with learning,” which gives you that magical addictive rush that gets you addicted to discovering the story’s outcome. So, go ahead and create that plot twist that takes your story in a completely different direction—maybe you’ll even surprise yourself.

2. Stay Grounded Even though the word “speculative” is part of the genre, it’s always best to make sure that some elements of the story remain grounded in aspects of reality. You can always include strange and wonderful details alongside these aspects, but if they don’t flow with the plot, this may break the reader’s fragile immersion in your story. In order to build a believable yet fascinating world, you only need to look at current trends for inspiration. Maryville University claims that many online universities now offer flexible start dates, personalized support, and completely online coursework – is it such a stretch to create a dystopian world in which schools in the future had students sitting in their homes and attending lectures through virtual reality, never actually meeting anyone or experiencing anything for themselves? Also, researchers from the United Nations have estimated that by 2050, medical technologies will see over 3 million people live over the age of 100 at any given time – is immortality really that far off? To sum this up, you should build upon what’s familiar and combine it with other fantastical elements to give that special magic.

3. Be Flawed One of the biggest problems that speculative fiction writers often face is the inability to accept that their worlds and characters may be flawed. Perfection is boring. You need to ask yourself, “Is there a problem in my world that needs to be solved? How can I make my characters suffer, and more importantly, why do my readers care?” Everyone should have their personal downfalls, even your all-powerful heroes and gods. In ‘Creating a Sense of Wonder in Your Writing’ it suggested creating characters so that they are both realistic and fascinating. A common tendency is for authors to create flat stock archetypes like your typical elves and dwarves. Instead, he suggests modeling characters on interesting historical figures like Hitler or Gandhi to add a dose of multi-dimensional realism. In the end, it pays off to recognize the little quirks and faults in your worlds. Instead of working hard to iron them out, just embrace them because they help your world echo our reality.

4. Show, don’t tell When you start writing your first draft, D.N. Bryn, a speculative fiction writer, suggests diving straight in. As your main character interacts with your world, it also helps your reader learn about it. There’s always more time in later drafts to adjust and develop stronger explanations behind your ideas. Also, she suggests that you should limit the amount of exposition in your first chapter. Once your readers are already immersed in the first chapter, they’re more likely to sit through exposition in the second because they’ve already formed a bond with the story and the characters. Lastly, she emphasizes the “build” in worldbuilding. It’s important that each new piece of information is based off what you’ve already established, starting with the most basic of concepts. This prevents you from drowning the reader in a flood of information.

5. Step in, step back As Margaret Atwood mentions in a feature on Fast Company, you want to devote time to looking at how your characters may see their world, and then step back and look at the big picture. For Atwood, she likes to “wonder what people would have for breakfast...and whether or not they would say a prayer over them, and how they would pay for them, and what they would wear during that meal … Breakfast can take you quite far.” Basic acts like these allow you to indirectly allude to your world’s values, systems, and customs. Similarly, V.E. Schwab identifies “world-building and setting... as the first character”, which she develops before anything else. After these core elements and norms are planned out, she adds greater detail. It’s always important to make your reading accessible to your reader- otherwise, all your great ideas may go unread.

Worldbuilding may sound like a complicated journey, but it’s a highly rewarding process. Ultimately, your main focus should be on helping your readers understand your characters and plotlines. This means sharing your unique version of a world that they want to explore. If you’re having trouble finding some inspiration, you might want to have a look at The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB), which catalogs various works and upcoming releases. For more helpful writing tips and suggestions, feel free to subscribe to #WritingTips.

 Angela Brown has always wanted to be a writer. She first started writing sappy poems about taking care of her cats when she was 9 years old, and then she wrote some articles for the school paper. Pretty soon, she was writing short stories and fan fiction, and by college, she'd realized it was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. She currently works for a contact center in the day and works on her writing at night, blogging until she's confident enough in her short stories to get them published.

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Creating the Perfect Cast Workshop

In this class, you’ll learn specifically how to

Build characters that intrigue your reader

Devise characters that we either love, or love to hate

Recognize the various roles that certain types of characters play in your novel, and then figure out how to adapt these characters to suit your novel.

Create tension by creating storylines that better exploit your character’s personality

Make sure that your cast isn’t too lean or bloated

And much more.

This workshop will be held from Thursday, Feb 27 through Saturday Feb 29, 2020 in Provo, Utah

Price per student: $449

We will start daily at 9:00 A.M. and go until 5:00 P.M.

Please bring a laptop and an idea for a novel to work on. We will be doing daily writing exercises, have daily lectures, and we will be critiquing your work and the work of other students.

There will be a maximum of 16 students in the class.

Find out more or register at https://mystorydoctor.com/live-workshops-2/

[kayodekolade]

One book 📚 can change your life.

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Learnt so much reading @didierdrogba autobiography ‘COMMITMENT.’

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If you want to learn the secrets of high performance and being world-class, then you need to read this book.

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Do have a great day.

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[crowliphale]

Good Writing Tip

Good tip for doing writing assignments: feel like your conclusion isn't strong enough, or is presented weirdly? Feel like your hook isn't much of a hook? Imagine an old Scottish man yelling at you inspiringly, I find it helps you determine what order things should come in or what you should do to grab the audiences attention (I think of Scrooge McDuck yelling at Donald to get his shit together)

[willowsilverpine]

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is how you make sure the plot twists in your WIP make sense to the reader. Some examples:

A character is shown (for example) questioning the motives and goals of their ‘side’ before betraying their side. Unless it fits the character, they don’t betray their loved ones for no reason.

Before succumbing to an old injury, a character first shows symptoms matching their injury. They don’t collapse out of nowhere. They can experience e.a. nausea, aches, dizzyness, etc. (not sure if this counts as foreshadowing, but still)

If a side character is suffering from a terminal illness and dies because of it at the end of your book, it shouldn’t come as a total surprise. Not all readers will notice, but you should work this into your story. Cancels plans on short notice without an explanation, pale faces, flinching, a container with pills next to their bed. Whatever you want, whatever matches the disease. You can make this as discrete as you want. What I enjoy, is when a proofreader says they didn’t notice something throughout the story. But when they reached the plottwist, they facepalmed and thought: how did I not see that?

[willowsilverpine]

Some things you might forget about when creating a new character:

How do they talk? Everyone talks differently, and I am not talking about accents or a stutter. In what tone do they speak? What words do they use a lot? Are they big chatters or are they quiet? Do they interrupt people regularly? Or are they not very talkative and mostly listen?

How does the character behave when nothing is happening? You’ve probably figured out what they are like when in danger, but what when all is quiet and they aren’t doing anything life-threatening? Are they comfortable and calm, can they sit still, enjoy the singing of birds or read a nice book? Or are they restless, jumpy, always expecting something horrible about to happen? Do they chat, do they like to take a nap, or, do they have a hobby? This is one that is often overlooked. When not saving the world, what does your character do to pass time. Play sports, play chess, do something creative, go out and party. Anything is possible.

Does your character have a pet peeve? Many people have one. Slow walkers, loud chewers, noisy people, dog ears in books, wrinkled shirts, bad breath, messy hair, bad smell, dust, etc.

It’s useful to know your characters favourites. Favourite animals, favourite smells, favourite clothing, favourite food. It depends on your story which ones are relevant, but these apply to almost any genre. It’s always important wether your character prefers to wear dresses, a pair of jeans, or maybe likes both.

I’m pretty sure you’ve figured out your characters greatest fear. But what about something smaller? Something they find creepy or disgusting? Like mice, spiders, bats, or wasps. A traumatic event as a kid that made them scared of horses, birds or dogs. Abandoned parking lots, a 24/7 store at 3am, a dark alley at night, thunderstorms, being alone in the woods. Flickering lights, creaking doors, portraits in a dark hallway that seem to follow them with their eyes. Little things that manage to freak them out. This way your character can be scared, without them having to face their greatest fear.