Writers - Save Your Readers From Boring…

Throw your hero off a cliff. 

Yep, that’s the ticket. Think about it. Are you boring your reading audience with wonderful Mr. Nice Guy who may be a bit shy, but so darn good looking he’s irresistible?

Okay, he can be all that, but does he spend his days at the lake faithfully with his one true love and have nothing more exciting than crossing against a light to spice up his day?

Uh…. Boring.

Readers don’t want to follow a perfect hero or heroine as he or she goes about her day and everyone is subjected to every boring detail from tooth brushing to hailing a cab.

Really, if that’s your character you might sit down and have a talk with yourself about why that is. 

So how about this. Your hero remains your hero but you toss in the woman he meets and falls in love with, a kick-ass martial arts champ, crack shot markswoman with a questionable past and a sarcastic wit. Now we’re talkin’! How would they work out their differences? How would he react to her, aside from loving her? What about her past, is that about to come back and bite them both?  I don’t know, do you have a clue? A few elements like this and the reader doesn’t know from one page/moment to the next if the hero is going to have to jump off a cliff to save himself/her/ or out of total frustration.

Now that I’d like to read. Done well it would be a great page-turner or possibly the plot of a hit movie.

So, are you thinking like that, writing like that? No? Why not? We all have pasts and wounds we can draw on that we can present to our characters and really identify with.

If not, why not?

It’s scary out there for writers. They really need to plumb the depths and dig deep.

Unless…wait, there is no unless. It’s what a writer needs to do in order to hook readers. Sure, the fictional people are, well, fiction, but we put a little of ourselves into every character we create. Heroes, villains, it doesn’t matter.

Sinister? Painful? Dark? Yep, and we can throw in some sunshine and lollipops, but it originates within us. And we can’t make readers or movie goers feel if we can’t feel. Open up to yourself, admit your flaws and dark corners.

Dig deep, raise the bar for yourself and don’t stop exploring every emotion we all possess. Your readers will thank you and admire you for it.

Writing Tips Anyone- Why they Can Be Absolutely Useless Plus the Writer's Update

First - an update for our readers:

Our latest comic in the Planet Of The Eggs Series, Eruption, is now available in paperback as well as Kindle editions. The latest newsletter just released as well. Join the fun at www.facebook.com/PlanetOfTheEggs - tell your friends and click the sign up button to be sure to get your copy of the next newsletter filled with character interviews, freebies, contest notifications and more! 

And now on to the pros and cons of writing tips:

Writers seem inclined to want to learn. That’s why writers, both newbies and old hands, are always on the lookout for tips to help improve the writing, speed the writing, promote the writing, create compelling characters – pretty much any aspect of writing.

But here’s the problem. There are tons of tips and instruction out there. Some of it is really good, other, not so much. In any event it’s tough to tell which can be chucked and quickly deleted from the brain bank and which is worth keeping. It’s so overwhelming the studious writer can end up simply wasting time…lots and lots of time. And time is where the true value lies for the writer for the amount of time to write for most is limited. Sometimes tucked into neat segments at designated times.

But some things learned are so valuable they’re not to be missed. You’ve learned to fine tune your adjectives. You’ve reduced your adverbs. You’ve brought more emotion to your writing.

Right – all that’s good and writers generally have a mental inventory of writing tools and techniques they regularly employ. Problem is a writer can reach maximum saturation with so many tips and teachings flowing through the brain cells that it throws everything off. It can even cause writer’s block (I’ve never experienced this, thank goodness, but I can see where it could happen).

So what’s to be done? Probably less than one would think. The trick is to codify all that learning into sturdy, straight-forward techniques that work for you (and you is certainly a broad audience – each writer sees things differently).

Think about the many hats of creativity. Walt Disney was said to have claimed to wear many different ‘hats’ when he attended creative meetings. There was the dreamer, the critic and the realist. The dreamer creates, the critic picks things apart and the realist pulls it all back together in a powerful way.

When I break my thinking down that way I can see my ‘dreamer’ comes up with the ideas, extrapolates them and creates, infusing characters with life and the story with energy. I give my dreamer full rein in the beginning. Anything goes.

My critic then does a dandy job of picking at all the lose threads, finding things that don’t work and criticizing sentence structure, story ending and everything else. All the while those tips and teachings I’ve picked up over the years are on alert, watching out for floods of adjectives, verbs that just lay there, repetitive words and a whole host of other details.

Until the end when the critic is told to shut up and the realist within takes over to slap on the last polish, pulling it all back together into the comprehensive story it was meant, from the beginning, to be. 

So, the moral is, don’t toss out the tips you come across as a writer, but don’t allow them to swamp you in a sea of bits and pieces either. When a new idea on how to create the perfect story comes along let it join the others in your toolbox and see how it improves your writing. If it doesn’t, let it go. There is not right and wrong way to write the story.

What Are Writers Afraid of? Using Emotion To Create Compelling Characters

What’s anyone afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something whether they want to talk about it or not. It might be the dark, spiders and snakes, heights, guns, crowds…something! There is something that sets your nerves to jangling and teeth on edge, not to mention raises a cold sweat.  

Just thinking about whatever that is can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, your heart pound and the breath hitch in your lungs if you get into the zone closely enough.

Reason. We all try to use it at such moments, but reason can be at war with that fight or flight we’ve all got so deeply embedded within us. The urge to run or do battle is something hard to deny. So what’s all this about?

The writer’s muse.

A writer’s best work can stem from connecting with that moment, getting inside yourself to pull out those deep-seated fears and expose them to daylight in the service of harnessing the power those emotions and channeling them onto the blank page.

Writers want to reach inside the reader’s head and feel things. The gamut of human emotions and dark thoughts. It’s so easy to ‘make it up when we go along’ when writing, but the fact is the best writing stems from the gut. The best writers reach deep to plumb their own experiences and inject that into characters. Remember and regurgitate those emotions in order to really bring a character to life.

 

Terrified of walking alone in the dark on a city street? Think of all the nuances as my mother did when she was a young woman and had the night shift at a switchboard. She walked home on the dark sidewalks of a Chicago night with every other street lamp blown out. She hugged the building side when a car came past and hugged the curb side when passing alleys. She walked fast…very fast. Sounds, common and unfamiliar were all around. Strangers on the street with her; were they as she, walking home from work…or a threat? Adrenaline. Inject the fear. Inject the urgency. Clip the sentences and paint a vivid picture. Hurry. Pause. Confront the dark fear of an unlit alley as a garbage can lid bangs within the blackness.

That was one reality. There are many others, and they aren’t always in the physical realm. A character doesn’t always have to worry about being stalked by a murderer. 

It can be much closer to the heart, much more emotional. Is there fear a marriage is failing? Is a student an outcast at school afraid of one more indignity? Will a friendship end with betrayal? Will a job be lost to a character charged with supporting siblings after their parents die? Nightmares. All of it. Emotional wrench and perhaps destruction.

Either way. Emotional or physical – what do you fear? What can you hand a character that will give him the cold sweats?

Think about it. Feel it. Write it.  

Let’s Get Started - On Writing by Writers Great Quotes

I’m a writer, a creator, but who doesn’t like to get the viewpoint of others? To listen in, via quotations as to how the minds of others work. In this case, writers.

Also in this case how to begin. It’s amazing when confronting the blank page. All writers know the feeling. Those who write fiction, non-fiction, articles and even business reports. What to write first? What words to put on that blank screen or paper?

  It’s special and at the same time nearly terrifying. Oh, the heck with ‘nearly’ it is terrifying. And, since putting words to screen (ie paper) is pretty much the same for every writer, I located some basic tips from writers I particularly like.

So join me and let’s take that first step, often the most difficult, together.

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. His position is “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” Hmmm, not to be difficult, but I’m not sure I agree with that one. For me the scariest is just after I hit those first key strokes and see what’s coming up on that white screen before me.

Louis L’Amour took another tact. He said, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”   Yes! That’s always been one of my mottos. Do it already – you can always change it.

Then famed Sci Fi writer Ray Bradbury had this comment, “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.” That’s another one that should get you, the writer, moving – no matter what you write. Either that or send you running, screaming in another direction.

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Jack London says. He’s my kinda guy. Don’t sit there. Don’t wait. Go after it. Writing inspiration isn’t something that falls upon you like rose petals. It’s something you do. So do it.

Toni Morrison advises, “I always know the ending; that’s where I

start.”  To which I say, well, it may work for you Toni, but not for me. I rarely know the ending when I start. It usually pops out at me somewhere in the first third of writing the book. That’s not to say I don’t plan and ideas don’t swarm, but I’m not certain about the ending when I begin.

Author Les Brown makes the statement, “You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.” That truly hits it on the nose. For every type of writer. The simple fact is you have to start…no matter how scary that starting is. Doesn’t matter if it’s a business paper, a short story, non-fiction book or screenplay. It’s not going to get done if that blank page overwhelms and you don’t start.

Sweet Beatrix Potter takes the more optimistic view, “There is something delicious about writing the first words of a story. You never quite know where they’ll take you.” And I guess that’s what I believe – especially since I never know the end when I start. I just don’t know where it will take me until I get into the act of writing.

And one last comment by Nora Roberts, “You don’t find time to write. You make time.”  Take that one to heart. Write.

10 Great Writer's Quotes

Great Writers quotes about and I thought I'd take the holiday season to share a few with you. 

What better time to take a break from writing and reflect a bit, both soberly and with some humor?

So here are some of my faves - Oh ye writers out there, think about them and reflect.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway

          - Who can argue that?

“I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.”
—Roald Dahl, WD

          - I'm there!

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

—Stephen King

          - There's a lesson there.

“Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. … I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.”
—Gore Vidal

           - Ahhhhh, those voices in our heads!

 “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”
—Elmore Leonard

          - Another lesson learned.

 “There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”
—Doris Lessing

          - So true.

“If you tell the reader that Bull Beezley is a brutal-faced, loose-lipped bully, with snake’s blood in his veins, the reader’s reaction may be, ‘Oh, yeah!’ But if you show the reader Bull Beezley raking the bloodied flanks of his weary, sweat-encrusted pony, and flogging the tottering, red-eyed animal with a quirt, or have him booting in the protruding ribs of a starved mongrel and, boy, the reader believes!”
—Fred East, WD

          - He's giving the involve the reader advice - don't just tell them what's going on.

 “Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”
—Ray Bradbury, WD

          - Love the poetry of this one.

“There is only one plot—things are not what they seem.”
—Jim Thompson

          - Think about it, it's true. 

“Beware of advice—even this.”
—Carl Sandburg, WD

           - That about sums it up. 

In closing I must mention the release of the third in our comic series Planet Of The Eggs - Mummified Egg. An exciting adventure far from
Eggland where our superhero eggs find the lair of the Mummified Egg and the horror is unleashed. Grab your copy today!