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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Feb 17

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How to create a metaphor practice, part 1

Before I sit down and “go in” to my writing for the day, I like to do a few warm ups—kind of like a singer going through her repertoire before going on stage.

I might reread a few pages from the day before or maybe do a free-write on an aspect of my story I’m still trying to figure out. Sometimes, I’ll play around with creating metaphors or similes that I might use in my story. All of these are a great way to get my creative juices flowing.

Reminder: a simile compares two different things and usually uses the words “like” or “as” in the comparison; a metaphor describes two different things by stating that one thing is the other or has some of its qualities.

Simile: his eyes were as blue as the ocean

Metaphor: his eyes were the ocean

What are the benefits of creating a metaphor practice? Read more

Feb 13

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Writing body language that empowers your character’s emotions

Let’s face it, writing body language is hard. In my first drafts, I either try to stay away from writing body language, or I just face the fact that it will be all cliched and awful and I’ll have to rewrite it from the ground up.

Thanks to writing teacher Margie Lawson, I’ve been learning tips for writing better body language and using tools like back-loaded sentences, cadence, and rhetorical devices.

For tips on writing body language with examples and break downs of those examples, read Margie’s latest post here.

Also, check out my earlier post, “Character emotions: two ways to write about the body,” that shows how author Dorothy Allison writes body language.

If you’d like to share some of your experiences or tips about writing about body language, please do so in the comments below.

Feb 11

Make your setting active to keep your reader engaged

When reading other authors’ novels, do you ever find yourself skipping over the setting descriptions? I do. If that description goes on for more than a few paragraphs or, God forbid, a page, I’m annoyed.

I know some bestselling genre novels do this and get away with it, I think, because of the big names of the authors—they come from an earlier time (you know, when raptors roamed the earth). But, after a few weeks, they seem to fall off the list. Those books that tend to stay on the list for weeks and weeks (I’m thinking books like The Help and Water for Elephants), don’t annoy us with pages of dead description but have learned how to tell us what we need to know when we need to know it.

One way to keep your reader engaged in your story is to make sure your setting is active. Instead of dropping big chunks of setting description in your scene—which may have been all the rage when Jane Austin was alive but is a sure way to bore your reader to death now—is to drip in bits of description and to “make it active.” What do I mean by that?

The easiest way to explain is to show you a “before and after” example from my work-in-progress:  Read more

Feb 10

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Make lists to find out where to take your story next

I’ve been working on a children’s story off and on and find that I stop when I get stuck about where to take my character next. A post last week by Seth Godin, Exhaustive lists as a reliable tool for unstucking yourself, made me think of how I could use his technique to figure out where my character needs to go next in his quest. Thanks Seth!

Here are my examples of exhaustive lists to make when I’m stuck on a writing project.

  • All the possible names I could name each of my characters.
  • Every type of trouble I could inflict on a particular character.
  • Every source of help my character might seek to get out of trouble.
  • Every publisher that might be a fit for my story.
  • Book titles that would pique readers’ interest.
  • Editors or agents who might want to represent my work.
  • Out of-the-ordinary ways to market my story.
  • Publishing options from traditional to non-traditional.

The idea is to go crazy. List everything. Then team up with another writer friend and share your ideas. Together you’ll likely build even more crazy good ideas to push your writerly self forward.

Godin says that going beyond the obvious is where innovation lies.

Feb 6

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Style is more than the arrangement of words on a page, part 2

In my previous post on the subject of style, I mentioned how style is not achieved by merely the order of words on the page but through all aspects of writing as they coalesce into a whole.

Another way of looking at style is through the words of author Lowell Cauffiel who says, “Style is not how a writer puts words together but what he perceives and how he thinks.” He says beginning writers often think of style as how words are put together—i.e. they think, “Should I write sparsely like Hemingway or use more words like Faulkner?”

Cauffiel says style is not about word techniques but how you perceive the world around you and how you relay that information. Read more

Feb 5

Love is in the air: How to write about it

Valentine’s Day will soon be here. In case you’re inclined to write a mash note, love note, or even like note, read these posts for pointers.

Six tips for writing a love letter

Craft a Valentine’s Day poem for your beloved

And for more inspiration, read these poems on The Academy of American Poets website:

“The More Loving One” by W. H. Auden

“Love Story in Black and White” by Toi Derricotte

“Wild Nights – Wild Nights! (249)” by Emily Dickinson

“The Kiss” by Stephen Dunn

“My Father’s Love Letters” by Yusef Komunyakaa

“When Someone Says I Love You the Whole” by Karyna McGlynn

“A Love Song” by William Carlos Williams

Feb 4

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Style is more than the arrangement of words on a page, part 1

I was on a business call the other night speaking with a man who lived in Oregon when we added another woman to the call. As soon as this third party joined us, the man’s voice and manner changed. He went from sounding very normal and nondescript to suddenly sounding like a cross between Yogi Bear and a Scottish Highlander. I was totally freaked out.

He continued in this voice and manner for the entire call. Why? Did he secretly have a crush on the other woman and this was his way of sounding “debonair?” Was he terrified of her and used this new voice and manner to distance himself? I have no clue.

In the craft of writing, this Yogi Bear/Highlander persona could be called a character’s or narrator’s voice.  Voice is one element of a writer’s style–that five letter word that many writers seem to have a hard time defining.

Style relates to how the writer puts words on the page—the arrangement of the words—but it’s also more than that.

In Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction,Jeff Vandermeer defines style as follows:

This slippery term more or less means the way the story is told; i.e. the patterns of words, phrases, and sentences through which the writer achieves certain effects….Style is the means by which the writer’s subject matter, passions, and interests reach their fullest expression on the page.

He explains that most writers fall somewhere between Ernest Hemingway (sparse) and Angela Carter (lush) and also between the painter Chagall (who always painted in the same style) and Picasso (who experimented and mastered many styles). Read more

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