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Posts from the ‘Craft’ Category

Jan 28

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A killer title must have irony and tell a tale

In his well-known book on screenwriting, Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, Blake Snyder explained that the title of your screenplay (or novel) is an important component of your logline (for a novel, think of the logline as your one sentence pitch).

A killer title, he wrote, must have irony and tell the tale of the story. One of his favorite movie titles was, “Legally Blonde,” because it encompassed the essence of the story and was unexpectedly humorous.  On the other hand, he felt the movie title, “For Love or Money,” was a horrible title because it was too vague. (There’s even been four different movies with that title, none of them memorable).

Snyder’s advice on titles can apply to any writing project–even poetry or short stories. He made me realize that the working title for my current project had to go because it met none of his criteria for a good title–it didn’t show what the novel was about, it wasn’t unusual or ironic, and it didn’t hook the reader. In fact, the old title probably got in the way of my writing. Yikes! I may change the title again in the future but at least my new working title is pointing me in the right direction–the direction my story wants to go in. Read more

Jan 24

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Generate writing ideas with online photo galleries

In my last post “Overcome writer’s block and generate new ideas with tarot or picture cards,” I wrote about how I stumbled upon the benefits of using tarot cards to inspire my writing.

I’d like to share another great source of inspiration I discovered recently. Sometimes, Carly and I will go to Shutterstock or iStock to find photos for our blog posts. Recently, we purchased a large number of photos, and I helped find pictures for our blog. What I discovered was a plethora of inspiration!  Read more

Jan 22

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Overcome writer’s block and generate new ideas with tarot or picture cards

Ever find yourself happily writing along and then, suddenly, you’re stumped on what should come next?  When I start a scene, I usually have a general idea of the direction I’m going and how it will end. But occasionally, my characters take me in a new direction or the ending I had in mind feels insufficient.

This happened to me recently. An ending to a new chapter left me feeling uninspired. And, worse, I couldn’t think of a better ending. Every idea I thought of felt forced.

In my writing room is a set of Tarot cards. I don’t know how to read the tarot, but I purchased them because of their beautiful pictures. Plus, I’d heard another writer say that she used them when she needed inspiration in her writing. At the time, I thought it was pretty silly—am I really going to incorporate a Price of Cups or Queen of Wands into a story? Read more

Jan 18

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Three posts to help you plot a novel

As I work on plotting my current novel, I like to investigate what other authors are doing. By reading about their process, I learn tips to incorporate in my own process.

“How I Plot a Novel in Five Steps” by Rachel Aaron explains her process of plotting a novel. I like what she writes about timelines:

“Make a timeline. I didn’t have timelines for the first four Eli novels and OMG did it bite me in the ass. Lesson finally learned, I now make timelines not just for the events of the novel itself, but the history before it as well. I especially make sure to note relative ages and how long everyone’s known everyone else.”

“How to Create a Plot Outline in Three Easy Steps,” by Glen C. Strathy.  To write a story that others will want to read we have to raise the stakes for our protagonist. Low stakes equals low interest. Strathy calls this, “The Cost.” Read more

Jan 16

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Enrich your characters’ and readers’ emotional experience with these cues

Readers pick up a book to have an emotional experience. They want to connect with characters on an emotional level that will eventually, by the end of the story, enrich their own lives. (Tweet this). 

Readers don’t want to be told how a character feels. They want to experience the emotion themselves. Dialogue is one way to convey or show character emotion, but much of a character’s emotion is nonverbal.

In The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide To Character Expression, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, the authors break down nonverbal communication into three elements: physical signals (body language and actions), internal sensations (visceral reactions) and mental responses (thoughts).

In their book, the authors list over seventy emotions, such as anger, depression, doubt, excitement, happiness, loneliness, relief, and sadness, and offer suggestions on how these emotions can be shown through the three elements above. Read more

Jan 14

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How to plot a novel: recommended resources

In my last post, “Plotting a story is like solving a puzzle,” I mentioned that I read several books to help me demystify that four-letter word “plot.”

Below are resources and books I highly recommend adding to your craft collection or checking out at the library:

Blockbuster Plots: Pure & Simple by Martha Alderson. She has another book called The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master, which is also very helpful, but Blockbuster Plots really does a great job of breaking it all down. Learn about structure, scenes, character development and everything a good story needs.

I love Alderson’s youtube channel because it’s full of fantastic short clips about the craft of writing and plotting that I play in the background when I’m cooking, doing dishes, or when I need a short break. Read more

Jan 10

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Plotting a story is like solving a puzzle

Some words send shivers down my spine. Plot. Outline. Crisis. Climax. Beats. Scenes. Structure

Since one of my motto’s in life is to “go fear-ward,” I decided the best way to overcome my shivering was to dive into the world of “plot” and demystify it.

I read books, went to conferences, and played with the different exercises and ideas recommended by others to wrap my head around this idea of plot. (In my next post, I’ll share the books I found most helpful).

Along the way, I had several epiphanies. I realized that all plot really is is a series of events in your story. Plot is what happens. (Tweet this).

And, really, when you think about it, we’ve been learning about plot since the first day we learned to read: Read more

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