Jun 12
Have you ever analyzed which qualities of a piece of writing draw you into a story?
One way writers can immerse readers into their stories is by using micro details. Something about these details makes a setting or character so real and authentic that the reader can’t help but sink into the story. Read more
Stories come into being in all kinds of ways. They may start from a dream we’ve had, an overheard conversation, an image we see driving down the road, a newspaper story, or from hearing an author read their work aloud. Many of my poems or stories have come from these inspirations.
Author Neil Gaiman said his most recent book, “The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” started out as a story for his wife, musician Amanda Palmer. In an interview with Tim Martin for The Telegraph, Gaiman says that while she was away recording an album, he thought he’d write her a story because he missed her.
“She doesn’t like fantasy very much, but she really likes honesty, and she really likes me. Writing it was like going, look, this was me. You’re always interested in me. The family isn’t really mine, the things that happened aren’t really mine, but the landscape, the place it happens, is me, and the eyes out of which this kid looks are those of seven-year-old me.” Read more
Poet and teacher May Swenson said, “The best poetry has its roots in the subconscious to a great degree. Youth, naivety, reliance on instinct more than learning and method, a sense of freedom and play, even trust in randomness, is necessary to the making of a poem.”
In the spirit of being random, turn up your observation skills and as you go about your day, note 12 phrases or words that strike you. You might see something in an e-mail, a text, or an overheard conversation at the tea shop. Use them to spur the writing of a poem or flash fiction.
For inspiration, read Earth Your Dancing Place and other poetry on Poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets. Learn more about May Swenson.
One of my friends came to me recently feeling overwhelmed about writing her life story. She struggled with knowing where to start and what to include. I advised her to approach it as a group of stories about the big, pivotal moments in her life instead of trying to write the “story of her life.”
I figured this technique out when I helped my uncle write his personal story. He focused on key moments that caused a shift in how he looked at life and how he matured as a man, including: time spent on the battlefield in World War II, meeting and marrying his wife, and the birth of his sons. These moments were the catalyst for change, which is something we want our characters to do in stories, whether they’re real-life people or imagined characters living out the plot we create.
If you’re struggling with how to write your personal story or memoir, set your focus on the big, memorable moments.
In the end, you’ll have a group of stories that you can weave together to form a whole. Here are several tips and prompts to help you start:
Are you writing for children and young adults? Success may be yours with the right mix of plot and writing finesse. The Greenhouse Literary Agency, which specializes in children and YA writing, lists these tips as part of a top 10 list. These are three of my favorites:
Find out what books today’s kids are buying and enjoying. Absorb contemporary culture and literature, but never try to copy anyone else’s voice or concept because you think they’re successful right now. What’s hot today may be stone cold in a year’s time and it will take at least this long for your book to be published.
Publishers publish into age categories – young fiction, middle grade and young adult. Be very clear who you are writing for; many novels never find a home because they don’t speak clearly enough to any section of the market. Read more
Readers are smart and smart people don’t need to be told how to feel when they read your story.
The best way to get your readers to feel is, of course, to evoke those emotions within them. As a writer, you do that by using strong nouns and verbs and creating meaningful images and scenes. You don’t do that by using adverbs.
According to author and poet Jack Remick, relying on adverbs to tell our readers how to feel is a lazy way to get to emotion.
In his insightful interview with Joel Chafetz, Remick gives an example of a poorly used adverb—“Get out of here, she said sternly,”—and says it can easily be replaced with something stronger such as, “Get your butt out of here,” she growled.
Another reason Remick says he hates adverbs is because they hide images. Read more
In a recent interview by Joel Chafetz, author Jack Remick, talked about how learning Natalie Goldberg’s timed writing technique totally changed his writing.
Remick who is a poet and author of the novel Blood, among other works, said he learned to use timed writing to craft his scenes. He breaks it down as follows for a 30-minute timed writing session:
