O is for Opening

The first page is a powerful tool and should be used to tell readers what kind of world they've just landed in.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.-JRR Tolkien from The Hobbit

One of my favorite openings. Already you know you've landed in a magical story with non-human creatures and that there are comforts to be had. The opening section of your book has a few objectives. To hook your readers, introduce your hero, establish stakes, foreshadow future events and then to get the show on the road.

First stop your hook. Larry Brooks over at Storyfix teaches that you need a hook within the first 20 pages of your book. What exactly is a hook? It's something to get your readers attention and pull them into your story. It can be blatant or subtle as long as it packs an emotional punch. The best way to get someone's attention is to make them feel. Immerse your reader in what is happening now. Until you have your hooks in them the time is not right for backstory.

Another opening task is to introduce your hero. Don't tell your readers her whole story, but do let them get to know her. If she spends a lot of your story angry let her throw a tantrum now to set the stage. Show her character flaws, we all have them and so should your characters. Also, let the readers see what your hero's life is like. Is she a rock star who only eats green M&Ms? Is she a humanitarian working to feed and cloth children in a poorer neighborhood? What has she been doing and what are her goals?

Now please tell me why I should care. What does the hero have at stake? Her family, career, love or even the fate of the world could all rest on her shoulders. Show don't tell when it comes to, well everything in your story. It is important to show the readers what will be in jeopardy for the rest of the story. Of course you can and should up the stakes later, but there must be a compelling reason for your hero to jump into the meat of the story.

Foreshadowing future events is subtlety or blatantly hinting to your readers about a plot point or issue of characterization. The purpose of foreshadowing is to prepare your readers for something important that is coming. If readers aren't prepared when a big event occurs it can leave them feeling jarred or worse lied to and cheated.  Most of the first quarter of your story should be a huge beautiful tapestry of these hints woven together. If it's supposed to be an obvious hint give it emotion. If it's supposed to be subtle it's a little trickier and you can let it pass without much notice. Subtle is usually better because you don't really want to give away your plot twists. Once you planted the hint make sure you give them the yield. Not bringing the hints to fruition will leave your readers just as confused as a big event without foreshadowing.

Now if we've done our job all that's left is to get the show on the road. The inciting incident, also known as the first plot point, brings the opening of your story to a close. It launches your hero into a different world where their goals and dreams have just been rearranged by the antagonistic force.

What do you find as the hardest part of the opening to write? What is the easiest? Please leave a comment and don't forget to let me know where you came from so I can follow you back.

Photos by Pixabay.

M is for Magic

I'm trying to figure out exactly how the magic in my story works. I know it's biased in the elements and each group is working with a different element, but that's about as far as I've gotten.

I found this WikiHow about building your own magical system that was helpful. I need to decide why the magic in my storyverse works. It suggests the magic should be capable of a lot more than is shown in the story and there should be mystery about the magic as far as the characters are concerned.

Next it recommends deciding who can use magic. If everyone can do it then magic would be common place. Since necessity is the mother of invention it is possible many technologies would not have developed if people already had magic to made their labors easier. Which won't work for my story. That leaves me with a select few who can wield magic. I already know that the magic is passed down from parent to child. Other options include the magic decides, like the force. You have to read and prepare from a book, often this type forgets the spell after it's been used. Then of course you could go with a divine source of magic. These priests can be paragons of good or an archetype of evil depending on where in the spectrum the god they follow falls. I am sure you can think of many other ways magic use could be decided, but I'm out of ideas.

How is magic used? Does it require a wand like in the Harry Potter series? Are the practitioners using material components that will be consumed to cast spells? Is the process more of an internal thing that you really can't see except for the raised hand or concentrating eye? Is there an object that the power is channeled through? Are there objects or talismans that are used to increase power? There are so many things to consider. I think I am going to use a combination of internal process with no focus object, though I can see the characters using some spell components to augment their magic. So maybe I am not good at making decisions.

The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.”
-Iain M. Banks

The Wiki goes on to say that you should create a personal guide of how and why everything works even if you don't share it all in the story. I think that is a good idea, but they lost me at their insistence that the magical system has to be logical. I have always felt that authors are hemmed in by something life never has to follow. If there were logic behind everything that happens good people wouldn't suffer and criminals wouldn't get away, but this may not be the place for this discussion. I do think it will be easier for readers if you don't break your own rules. 

It will take a while perfect, but getting it all down will be helpful when you are writing your story. Have you ever created a magical system? Do you have any tips that could help me? I was supposed to to a ROW80 midweek check-in, but the whole production seems unnecessary because I missed all my goals except for posting my A to Z. Though they are getting later and later in the day which is upsetting to me, but what can you do when real life attacks? Hey, I guess technically I just did a check-in. Sometimes it's the little things. Please leave a comment and don't forget to let me know where you came from so I can follow you back.

Check out other ROW80 bloggers here!

Photos from Pixabay.

L is for Luxury, Living, Learning and Leisure

I wonder what my characters do for a living? How can they afford to do all the awesome things they need to get done?

It would be easy to make them independently wealthy. Of course it leaves me to figure out how they came by that money and how it has effected them. Maybe that isn't so easy.

When you meet a new person they often ask what do you do. I can say from experience they don't mean when you're at leisure or the community service your family participates in. They are looking to categorize you by your working life or lack there of. The same is true for our characters. The readers want to know them and knowing their work history is a helpful clue to where, in our societies fabric, characters fit. Even if the characters are not at work during the story I think it's important to know where and how they work. It doesn't have to be super in depth, but the more I know about my characters the easier it is for me to write them.

My main character is in school and working. Her job doesn't pay well and she probably doesn't even get 40 hours. Her school and choice of major are other clues to help feel her out. Since this is an urban fantasy I have planned on using an actual school. I am going to contact the school admissions and find information about courses offered and when a student would usually take certain classes. I was thinking about scheduling a tour, but since none of the scenes will actually take place at the campus that would probably be a waste of time. What is your opinion on using a real school or business for that matter? My main characters goal is to be a dancer so I know that a lot of her time would normally be eaten up practicing and such. Maybe it would behoove me to talk to someone who dances for a living.

The things we put our free time into also tells a lot about us. Someone who fixes cars for their hobby is usually good with their hands and able to figure out how things work. A few of my characters hobbies will be revealed in The Most Magical Place, but I want to focus on something that will further the plot or help the characters in the final confrontation. I found this huge list of hobbies. Do you have any hobbies that you might want to give a character? Have you ever used a characters hobby as an excuse to learn something new?

How important do you think it is to know where a characters money is coming from and their time is going? Please leave a comment and don't forget to let me know where you came from so I can follow you back.

Photos from Pixabay.

K is for Kill

We discussed the things to consider before you kill a character a while back. I never did get to how I was going to do the deed and I feel K is forcing my hand. Remember that killing this character is necessary and hits all 4 of the good reasons to kill a character. There are so many ways to off someone and so may decisions to be made.

I found a helpful list of over 400 ways to kill a character. It's even all divided up into categories to help you focus your decision making process. I never even considered half of them and this list really got my mind cranking. I don't want to say the actual way the character dies because, you know, surprise. I do want to talk about the things I need to consider. The general idea in this case is murder where the character is sacrificing herself for the cause and the main characters. I am not sure if she also kills the killer at the same time or they get away and have to be tracked down. However, murder automatically rules out a few categories:

Nature’s Revenge
Animal Attack (Unless they were using an animal, but that seems hard in this story.)
Everything Goes Wrong
Disease

I don't see seriously organized, heavily propped, broad, lasting or easily traceable methods as effective in this situation, which rules out more categories:

Methods of Execution
Unusual Methods of Execution
Poisonous animals
Poisons in chemical warfare

That leaves a couple categories for me to consider:

Poisoning
Weapons (So many to choose from)

Then I realized in my excitement, is that the right word, at picking a death incident I wasn't being true to the story. It's an urban fantasy and they have magic powers. Why wouldn't they use them for this endeavor? I think the murder would.

I also wanted to be sure my doomed character is fleshed out and preferably that the readers are attached to her. I want my readers to feel for the victim and the surviving characters. In my research I discovered that there was originally supposed to be a pilot flying plane in Pixar's The Incredibles. He was slated to die when the plane crashed, but Pixar realized they would have to spend too much screen time on his life and story to make his loss meaningful. I mean when the red shirted ensign dies no one is surprised or really all that upset. I know I don't want my spectacular death scene ideas to be waisted on a character that doesn't even pay off with the audience.

Now we know the who, why and how decisions have been made. I'm left with the question what exactly am I trying to try and make the readers feel? That is a hard one. I want my readers to like the character and feel sad when she dies. In this case I also want to make the readers mad at the murder while simultaneously making them worry about the 2 main characters. The character on the chopping block is powerful and very close to the main characters so I expect it would effect them similarly. I am planning to use this murder to raise the stakes and show just how much influence the bad guy has.

The victim is going to leave a hole in the story dynamics. Every character has a part to play. In the case of The Most Magical Place the timing of the death won't require that the role is filed again. In other words the characters job is done.

What tips do you have on killing characters? I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Please leave a comment and don't forget to let me know where you came from so I can follow you back.

Most photos by Pixabay.
Murder girl photo credit: ; via photopin (license)

I is for Inspiration

Or perhaps a lack there of. I have no inspiration for my 'I' post. There are a million recommendations of what to do, but I find myself balking at all of them tonight even the ones that have been useful in the past. Let's go through a list of the things I have tried or at least tried to try.

First I tried turning to Google. I often Google my topics especially when I already have one in mind and just need some help fleshing out out. There were a lot of suggestions, but not much I hadn't already come across in the course of life.

 Then I tried meditation. Well mostly relaxing and calming, but that required too much concentration. I was quickly irritated and lost interest quickly. It always seems that I could benefit most from calming meditation when I am not able to get there.

So I attempted to listen to music. It is a tried and true way to get my brain flowing. Of course I tend to listen to rock a little too loud for the late night hours in a typical home. In a reversal of rolls my 14 year old daughter came out and asked me to please keep it down. We were unsuccessful in finding my ear buds and the music had to go.

Next up was free writing. I usually do this on One Word. They give you one word and you write for 60 seconds without editing or stopping to think. Then you can read other people's and post yours. Tonight I was just trying to associate the word 'inspiration'. Let me tell you it is a bunch of gook that I don't even feel comfortable sharing to be silly.

A change of scenery is often helpful. Though the difference between the livingroom and the bedroom isn't all that inspiring. Some other people recommended that you could even change your desktop to reflect another local if you can't really get away.

Writing with pen and paper is one of my favorite things to try. Shortly after I felt like a teenager all curled up and anxty. Maybe I'm doing this one wrong. I should have taken a stab at this one before the change of scenery and lack of a table.

Concentrate on something different for a while. I took a break to watch one of my favorite shows, Charmed and that was refreshing and I felt less stress when I went back again. Unfortunately I didn't find anything other than distraction.

Make your muse jealous. After trying all the things that appeal to you here or where ever you find other ideas. If still nothing is working, just start. It will probably not be your best work, but your muse will wonder what you could possibly be up to without her. After a while she will start to push you toward more inspired work and before you know it the project will be done.


Stuff I haven't tried tonight:

Going for a walk out in nature. So many people recommend this no matter what you are trying to do. It is said to lower stress and we can all use that. I don't do this often, maybe I should consider it.

An idea book is another great tool. I used to have one that I cherished. It was lost in a move and I can still remember how sad I was the day I realized it was gone. I have started replacing it in Evernote, but the file is thin and doesn't have the same magic as a handwritten notebook.

Playing or spending time with kids. They don't even have to be yours. Some of the most creative and entertaining things I have ever heard came from my children or their friends. Of course they're all in bed while I try to write this.

Get some sleep. I mean really how often are writers sleep deprived. If you are having trouble and the things that usually get you going aren't helping,  maybe your brain is begging you for a little break and rejuvenation.

Where do you turn when your wellspring of inspiration is running dry? What tips can you offer a crazed writer? Please leave a comment and don't forget to let me know where you came from so I can follow you back.

H is for Humor

In my life I use the funny. Some have said to me that I'm always "ON". I don't know if this is true, but I can't imagine writing without humor. Most of my favorite moments in books or movies are the comic relief between the big and hard scenes. Clever use of humor makes you more accessible and helps to cement your bond with readers. It is also one of the big factors that decide if I will bother with a second book from an author.

One of the best ways to coax a smile from someone is to be specific. A million years ago, in debate class we had to present our arguments as an animal. It was silly and one of the most engaging classes that teacher taught. I was assigned to be a squirrel, which is humorous, but lots of others had that task. I decided to present in the persona of an irate French squirrel. This was highly effective and became a running joke for years. I believe the specifics made it easier to visualize and thus funnier.

Another thing to consider when injecting humor into writing is that people often find the unexpected hilarious. I don't like to be thrown too far out in left field, but if you have something heading one way and you can take a believable hairpin turn you will often find yourself landing in a humdinger of a sweet spot.

A question I was worried about is what do you poke fun at without hitting a nerve. Your answer is all around you, the mundane. So many situations in life are side-splitting because we've all been there and it was a little awkward. Watching our heroes squirm is always fun.

One of the best topics for your comical fire is yourself. Be the joke you see in other places. If you present your joke as something internalized people can choose if it applies to them or not. This is especially helpful when you are skirting trickier subjects. Stand-up comedians use this technique often.

What do you guys think? To joke or not to joke? Are some stories too dark or serous to have a place for humor? Don't forge to leave a comment with a link if you can and let me know where you're from so I can follow you back.

Photos from Pixabay.

G is for Get Back Up

I missed F, which makes me sad because I was looking forward to that one. I was going to talk about fan fiction. I know if I try to make up the missed letter it will put me in a perpetual game of catch up and I have no desire to go there. So today I'm getting up, back on the horse and moving on.

G is also for grammar. Wait, stop, don't leave! I'm actually not one of the grammar police. I try very hard to make well informed grammar decisions in my writing and everyday life. However, that is not where I was going with this post. I  have realized that I spend a large amount of time worrying about grammar, so much so that it often inhibits my writing progress. To myself and others who are still working out the kinks in this writing thing I am recommending grammar light. If your not sure exactly how something is supposed to be written, in your first draft, do the best you can and move on. You will have other passes when you move on to the editing phase.

If you are looking for grammar tips delivered in a smart and funny way Grammar Girl is an awesome resource. What do you think about grammar? Do you feel that stopping to answer grammar questions while writing is distracting or will it drive you batty until you know how it's supposed to be done?

Good luck to all those taking the April challenges and thanks for stopping by. Please leave me a comment and let me know where your're visiting from so I can follow you back.

E is for Exempt From Perfection

Update on me: My heart is still in A Fib and the Dr. has told me that it is more likely to drop back into it's regular rhythm if I get a full nights rest. At home this would mean working until I'm done and then sleeping in, but everyone knows you can't sleep long in a hospital before someone needs to poke or prod you. I still have some time, but if it gets too late I may put it down and just post afar I have. You have been warned, TMI concluded.

E is also for experience! The only way you can get experience is to just do it. It's like a Nike commercial, but with less sweat and more chocolate or coffee or both. This is something I am really bad at. I seem to always have a billion things that distract me from actually sitting down and putting pen to paper or pixels to cloud. However it goes these days. Usually it is mundane life stuff, which I will never complain about again because the Fates keep showing me it could always be worse. For the record I believe them.

Another thing that seems to distract me is research. There is so much great stuff out there that you could probably spend a lifetime researching and never move to the next step of starting your story. So of course that leaves me here preaching about experience when I am far from this magical creature called the experienced author.

How am I going to get this much coveted experience? I have a few plans. First, challenges like A to Z help me immensely. I just like the feeling of moving toward a measurable goal with a bunch of other people. Being able to pick your brains has led to some ingenious solutions.

Second, dedicating a set time each day in your routine is reported to help you transition from mundane you to writer more quickly and easily. I have no experience easily becoming writer me, but I have seen the power of the routine in my children's lives. I will apply those principles to my writing and see how far I get. The only way it could get worse is if I don't try.

Another piece of advice I have used with success is setting a timer and just writing as much as you can in the allotted time. Write or Die offers a word processor equipped with a timer and warnings that tell you if you have stopped writing for too long. The settings are customizable, so the penalties range from an annoying reminder to deleting your work if your inactive for too long. It is available as a program you can purchase or a free web version with fewer features.

Lastly, I am going to be kinder to myself. We all try to be kind and supportive of our friends and writing groups. We go out of our way to make helpful comments and listen as others vent. We have proven we posses these skills so why do we not practice them when dealing with our selves. I am guilty of negative self talk and usually talk myself out of even trying because I'm convinced that what is in my head will never measure up. I can not allow this to go on. Doubt is trying to kill my dreams and I need to resuscitate them and then nurture them.

I showed you mine now you show me yours. What are your best tips for motivating yourself or others to just do this writing thing? Let me know where your visiting from so I can follow you back and see what your up to.

Photos by Pixabay. 

A Good Chase

I have been working on my main work in progress and have come to a dilemma. I need to write a chase scene. I want it to be exciting and meaningful all at the same time. I have been doing some research and looking around the interwebs information and advice on writing a good chase scene.

Some of the tips that I ran into several times said in many different ways are:

Make each sentence simple and precise – Short sentences make the reading flow much faster keeping the action flowing. It would be hard to keep up the pulse pounding action while your character takes time to jimmy open a window. Just smash it instead.

Use active verbs – [thing doing action] + [verb] + [thing receiving action] Yeah I know it's not quite that simple, but what I am trying to say is don't find an amazing euphemism for an explosion. Just have the car explode.

Avoid all qualifiers – Nearly and almost only count in horseshoes and grenades. Something should either happen or not.

Stay on your character – Action scenes are sometimes so complex we are tempted to describe the whole setting. What people really care about most are your characters and what is happening to them.

I think these suggestions will help me write a pulse pounding chase scene. Do you have any tips I didn't cover? Do you use a completely different method? Please share, I would love to get all the help I can before I dive into my first chase scene.


photo credit: jenny downing via photopin cc

photo credit: ˙Cаvin 〄 via photopin cc

Social Media Darling...

Riding in the car on a long journey I realized that I could grab a few moments to work on my writing. Though in reality the incessant humming of my five year old in the back seat will probably keep me from getting much done, but I am going to try. (Since I got this done in the car I decided to give you a bonus photo of him.)

Today I would like to talk about presence in social media. Mostly because I don't have one. I think my focus probably needs to be on Facebook with the huge number of users. I have an author page, but I usually forget to post to it after I finish my blog. Another important site is Twitter and thanks to Triberr I think I am getting a lot out of my twitter profile. Of course I could always do more, but I am not sure what exactly to do.

I have done a lot of reading on the subject, on the long car ride, and most of the suggestions seemed like great ideas. For instance one site said to have an interactive conversation with your followers instead of delivering a sermon from upon high. This seemed reasonable and helpful. I know you need to respond to comments to let the readers know that you are paying attention to them. Another site said not to post on Facebook more than two times a day. I was just wondering who posts that much and where do they find their content? Still another site suggests you have a video on your site because it will bump you up in searches and add varied content for your readers. Something else that I thought was fun was a suggestion that you get gaming. Play games and run contests for your readers. Now to try and implement some of these ideas.

What do you think is your most important social media platform and what is the best way to take advantage of it? What do you do to keep your readers engaged?

photo credit: Rosaura Ochoa via photopin cc

I Stumbled Into A Story Arc

OK so I accidentally ran across this wonderful way to plan out your novel back at NaNoWriMo time. It made so much since to me and I just loved it. However, not having the foresight to realize that at some point I wouldn't be able to find the link in the forums I did not copy down the name of the system or where I found it. I did happen to write down the basic instructions so can still use it, but there was a lot more detail and I would love to find it. I have had several friends searching, all at once at a table at Denny's, and still we didn't find it.

Today, I was searching around and stumbled across Nigel Watts “Eight Point Story Arc” Which is good and close. So I thought I would share it. His book is: Writing A Novel and has a lot more than just the story arc in it.

Stasis – This is your characters everyday life. Before the story really starts.

Trigger – This is something that is beyond the control of your character. It can be big or small.

The Quest – The quest is stimulated by the trigger. The quest can be to return back to the Stasis or to gain some new and pleasant state.

Surprise – This part takes up most of the book. It is comprised of the obstacle and twists that keep the characters moving forward. They shouldn't be too predictable, but if they are way out in left field they won't be believable.

Critical Choice – This is when the characters medal is tested and they must make a choice to proceed. They could also choose not to proceed. This is often a choice between right and wrong or more epically good and evil.

Climax – Is the culmination of all the surprises and choices in the quest and is the height of action.

Reversal – Is the natural consequences of the climax. The characters, especially the main character should be changed by the reversal.

Resolution – Is where you wrap everything up and establish a new Stasis.

Help Me Make Love (Mature)

OK so I am working on a sex scene. I have been reading post after post on what makes a good sex scene. So far the consensus is that I should not say penis, which makes me sad. I think the word penis is a sexy word, but it seems everyone else thinks it is too clinical or will make people giggle. On the other hand they were discouraging me to use something called "Purple Prose" which included examples such as: wand of love and dewy folds. These things I do not find sexy anyway so luckily I could easily avoid the purple prose kind of thing. There were lots of other things that had some agreement, but none so overwhelming as do not say penis. So where does that leave me? Cock, dick or wiener? Alright wiener just made me laugh out loud so I guess that one is out, too. Someone suggested just saying me because everyone will know what you mean anyway.

For example: She licked her hands and grabbed my penis.
Versus: She licked her hands and grabbed me.

I guess they are right, that does sound more alluring than the penis example.

Another good piece of advice they gave me was to make sure you don't ignore the emotional for the carnal. That sex is an emotional experience as well as a physical one. This we already know, but it is a good reminder to make sure we are using both sides to engage the reader.

A final piece of advice that surprised me, but makes sense is that sex should be used to develop a character or reveal something that we didn't know. This never occurred to me. I was just going to use sex because it is fun to have and read, but I am now trying to think about what it will reveal about my characters. other than they like to have sex.

Do you have any good tips for making a sex scene better?