![]() An editor will point out and encourage you to correct all instances of timid phrasing. If you are self-editing, you must do this yourself. Weak prose tells the story, holds the reader away from the immediacy of the experience. Timid phrasing leads to wordiness, which most readers dislike. Overuse of forms of to be (is, are, was, were) also lead to wordiness. Long, convoluted passages rife with compound sentences turn away most readers. The verb “be” is comprised of eight forms:
“Was” and “were” are verbs that are called “subjunctives.” Subjunctive verbs are words that (in the English language) are used to form sentences that do not describe known objective facts. They indicate possibilities only. Something might be or it might not. New writers frequently guess at how to use “was” and “were,” and in doing so, guess wrong. There are times when we use a form of the verb ‘was’ even though the subject of the sentence has not yet happened or may not happen at all. This is the past subjunctive verb form. It is unreal and may remain that way. “If I were.” Consider the song from Fiddler on the Roof: If I Were a Rich Man. As I am a woman and intent on remaining so, I will never be a rich man. As I am an author and intent on remaining so, I will never be rich. So, for me, that song title contains two impossibilities. “If I were” is the correct subjunctive mood. When you are supposing about something that might be true, you use a form of the verb “was” and don’t sweat it.
To avoid wordiness, use action words (verbs) in place of forms of to be. In active prose, our characters don’t begin (start) to move. Instead, they move. They act as opposed to beginning or starting to act. That and which are two commonly misused words. When it comes to eliminating the word “that,” it’s crucial you look at each instance of how it is used. Sometimes, “that” is the only word for a given situation. Something you need to know: “that” and “which” are not interchangeable, so you can’t just use a global search to change every instance of "that" to "which." “That” is a pronoun used to identify a specific person or thing observed by the speaker, a determiner, an adverb, and a conjunction.
In the case of number 4 (above), the sentence would be stronger without it. “Which” is a pronoun asking for information. It specifies one or more people (or things) from a particular set, and it is also a determiner:
Go lightly with “which” and “that” but use them when they are required. LIST OF TIMID WORDS TO WATCH FOR. Do a global search and examine each instance. Eliminate or rewrite to make active:
In the second draft, I look at words like “went.” In my personal writing habits, “went” is a code word that tells me when a scene is ending and transitioning to another scene. In fact, all info dumps, passive phrasing, and timid words are codes for the author, laid down in the first draft. Clunky phrasing and info dumps are signals telling me what I intend that scene to be. In the rewrite, I must expand on those ideas and ensure the prose is active. I must cut some of the info and allow the reader to use their imagination. Often, these rough passages indicate transitions from one scene to the next. The characters or their circumstances are undergoing a change. One scene is ending, and another is beginning. For example, when I see the word “went,” I immediately know someone goes somewhere. But “went” is a bald telling word. I ask myself, “How did they go?” Went can be shown as a scene:
You get the idea. In the rewrite, I find the “telling” paragraphs that connect my dramatic scenes together and decide what will stay and what should be cut. If the necessary information requires a paragraph, I have to consider how to rewrite it so that it is interesting and not a mind-numbing wall of words. If you notice a few flaws in your manuscript in your final pass but think no one will be bothered by them, you’re wrong. Readers always notice the things that stop their eyes. In my own work, I have discovered that if a passage seems flawed, but I can’t identify what is wrong with it, my eye wants to skip it. Revising the first draft is a long, complicated process. The few pointers I have offered in this post are just the tip of the iceberg that is your manuscript. Eliminating timid phrasing is only part of the quest for an enjoyable manuscript. The next post will appear on January 1, 2020, and will cover ways to make verb placement your tool for creating active prose. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy.
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![]() Indie authors are financially responsible for getting their manuscript revised, edited, and proof-read. This can be a costly process as freelance editors are working for a living and expect to be paid for their work. A 70,000 word manuscript can cost from around $700.00 or more to have edited, depending on the services you want. If you can, it’s a good idea to hire an editor because our eyes may skip typos and autocorrect errors in our own work. When we read what we have written, we are immersed in visualizing the scene. Some errors will be missed no matter how hard we try to edit our work because our eyes see what is supposed to be there, rather than the typos or missing words. Many editors offer a service called “Beta Reading” at a much more affordable price. Beta reads are helpful in identifying areas you may want to revise. If you’re a member of a writers’ group, you have a resource of people who will “beta read” for you at no cost. As a member of that critique group, you will read for them too, so be careful how you phrase your comments on their work. Be accurate and find positive things to point out as well as areas that need work. If you are harsh and dismissive, your work will receive that treatment in return. Regardless, if you are publishing that work, you are responsible for making the line edits in your work. If you are unable to afford a full professional edit, there is a way to make a pretty good stab at revising your own manuscript, but it is time consuming, which is why an editor’s services are not cheap.
TO BEGIN MAKING GOOD REVISIONS YOU MUST KNOW YOUR BASIC RULES OF GRAMMAR. First, if you aren’t going to hire an editor, you should consider investing in Bryan A. Garner’s Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation. This is a resource with all the answers for questions you might have regarding grammar and sentence structure. The basic rules of grammar are like traffic signals. They regulate the flow of our words, making our sentences understandable. A professional author will make a stab at learning a few rules regarding punctuation and will apply them to their work. It doesn’t require perfection, but people who don’t think the common rules matter are doing their work and their reputation a disservice. Readers want to enjoy the book, not struggle through rambling, garbled sentences. Simple Rules for Common Punctuation: Commas: Never insert commas “where you take a breath” because everyone breathes differently. Do not insert commas where you think it should pause, because every reader sees the pauses differently. DO USE COMMAS TO:
We like people to understand exactly what we mean, so we ALWAYS use the Oxford Comma, also known as the Serial Comma. If there are only two things (or ideas) in a list, they do not need to be separated by a comma. I like dogs and birds. If there are more than two ideas, the comma should be used as it would be used in a list. I like dogs, cats, rabbits, and birds. Semicolons: Semicolons are NOT extra-firm pauses; they are connectors. Join two short but related sentences this way:
Avoid comma splices at all cost. Use conjunctions or semicolons to join related independent clauses, not commas.
Colons are used in technical manuals. They can denote lists but are never to be used in the literary narrative: To use the typewriter:
Question Marks: Always use one question mark at the end of an interrogative sentences (a question). “Would you like to go dancing?” It goes inside the quotation marks. Exclamation Marks: These are “power punctuation” and should be used sparingly. They are used for emphasis when the narrative doesn’t express excitement or other intensity well enough. Used to freely, the narrative becomes breathless! Painful! Too much, even! Interrobang (?!) NEVER USE TWO punctuations at the end of a sentence. The interrobang is not an accepted form of punctuation in anything but comic books. The narrative should show the reader that the protagonist is shocked and confused. Dialogue and Quotation Marks: ALL punctuation in dialogue goes INSIDE the quotation marks:
The Ellipsis is NOT Punctuation. It is a symbol showing where words have been omitted. The ellipsis requires punctuation the same as if it were the words it symbolizes, even if it is at the end of a sentence of dialogue. Bryan A. Garner, on page 396 of The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation lists five uses and two misuses of the ellipsis. First, we’ll talk about the uses, listed with examples on page 396.
On page 398, Garner lists two misuses.
Now that you have a quick reference guide to basic punctuation, the next posts will deal with the nuts and bolts of the self-editing process. You will learn how to spot passive phrasing, eliminate inadvertent repetition, correct grammar, and ensuring consistency. Self-editing is not an easy task. It is highly rewarding, though, to put out your best product possible. Over the next few posts, NIWA will give you the tools to make your work as literate and easy to read as possible. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. ![]() November 1st, is here, the beginning of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. Many authors have begun this month fully intending to get their 50,000 words by November 30th. NIWA author Lee French and I are co-MLs for the Olympia Region for NaNoWriMo. In our region last year, 245 writers created profiles and began an official manuscript at www.nanowrimo.org. More than half were college students. We’ve been doing this for a while, and we have seen a pattern. The first roadblock happens when reality sets in. This usually occurs within the first few days. Last year 64 writers in our region never got more than 5,000 words written. One stopped at 34. A majority of new NaNo writers are people who “always wanted to write a book.” Often, they don’t have any idea of what they want to write, and no clue of how to be disciplined enough to write any words, much less the number of words it takes to make a novel. They start, get 30 to 1,000 words in, and realize they have nothing to say. But in our region, 34 of these people made it to the 10,000 word mark before they stopped writing. That’s an achievement—it’s almost a novella. Other new writers are fired up on day one. They go at it full tilt for a week, or even two, and then, at the 20,000 word mark, they take a day off. Somehow, they never get back to it. Their novels will languish unfinished, perhaps forever. Even seasoned writers who have crossed the finish line at NaNoWriMo in previous years may find the commitment to sit and write 1,667 words every day is not doable for them. Things come up—life happens. But by November 30th last year, 78 writers out of the 245 in our region had made it to the 50,000 word mark, and 5 exceeded 100,000 words. Some of these novels were complete and ready for revisions. It takes commitment and discipline to write 1,667 new words every day. This is not revising old work. This is writing something new and not looking at what you wrote yesterday. This is sitting down at the keyboard and opening the document to the place where you left off and moving forward. For me, having an outline keeps me on track and writing a coherent novel. I’m not a good typist. The words that fall out of my head during this month are not all golden, just so you know. Some words will be garbled and miskeyed. This means I sometimes have a lot of revising of the work I intend to keep. Some of what I write will be worth keeping, and some not at all. But even among the weeds, some passages and scenes will be found that could make a story work. I will keep and use them because they say what I mean to say, and the others I will revise. In the past, I have used November to write short stories. To that end, I kept a list of ideas and prompts, and had it ready for when I began to write. The words fell out of my mind, and the stories told themselves. This year I am writing a contemporary novel under my other penname. Finishing November with a completed novel is a matter of sitting down and writing. If you don’t get those ideas out of your head and onto paper, you can’t revise and reshape them into something worth reading. How do we develop the discipline to write every day? This is my list of suggestions for how to have a successful NaNoWriMo, and end November with that winner’s certificate:
Remember, not every story is a novel. If your story comes to an end, start a new story in the same manuscript. Use a different font or a different color of font, and you can always separate the stories later. That way you won’t lose your word count. Validate your word count every day once that option is offered to you. Yes, these suggestions do require you to actually sit in a chair and write. Talking about what you intend to write won’t get the book written—for that you must sit your backside down and write. That is what NaNoWriMo is all about. Writing, and developing discipline. >>><<< Credits and Attributions: Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. Portions of this article were first published on October 24, 2018 on Life in the Realm of Fantasy as “Many will begin, few will succeed,” © 2018 Connie J. Jasperson and has been reprinted by permission. ![]() It’s mid-October, and time to talk about participating in National Novel Writing Month again. Many established authors are preparing to embark on their annual NaNoWriMo project. The experienced NaNo writers are making outlines and creating character studies. They’re just setting up the background, so they don’t have to stop and do that during the writing process. All this preparation will jumpstart their project when they sit down and begin writing a manuscript of at least 50,000 words on November 1st. For the next thirty days, they will spend several hours every day writing nothing but new words in a new manuscript. For many of us, this is when we get that rough draft of our new novel out of our heads and onto paper so that we have that all important “new novel every year” going out the front door along with the novellas and short stories we generate to keep the content of our author pages fresh and updated. I have been a Municipal Liaison for my region since 2011, and my co ML is author Lee French. Between us, we keep the writers in our region stoked about their projects and help them get through the rough spots. We host write-ins, both virtual, and at libraries and coffeeshops. As established authors, we have learned a few tricks that we are always happy to share with those who are planning to “do” NaNoWriMo for the first time. If you are just embarking on this literary joyride for the first time, here are a few quick tips and resources to help get your novel off the ground: Things you want to have at your fingertips, so you don’t have to stop and look it up: MAPS: If you are writing a story set in our real world and your characters will be traveling, walking a particular city, or visiting landmarks, bookmark google maps for that area and refer back to it regularly to make sure you are writing it correctly. If you are writing about a fantasy world and your characters will be traveling, quickly sketch a rough map. Refer back to it to make sure the town names and places remain the same from the first page to the last. Update it as new places are added. TECH: Many people are writing scifi novels. In hard scifi, technology and science are the central core of the stories, so it’s a good idea to know what tech is available to your characters well in advance of writing their scenes. A little planning now will aid you greatly in the writing process. If you are writing fantasy involving magic or supernatural skills, briefly draw up a list of rules for who can do what with each skill. Remember:
Resources to kickstart stalled creativity:
Basic resources to bookmark for the fundamentals: Three websites a beginner should go to if they want instant answers about grammar, written in plain English: Never delete, do not self-edit as you go. Don’t waste time re-reading your work. You can do all that in December when you go back to look at what you have written.
If you want to “win” and have your wordcount validated on the national website, write at least 1670 words every day. This is 3 more than is required, to account for differences in how your word processing program and NaNoWriMo’s official word counter validates wordcount. You don’t want to come up short at the end! This has happened and is quite frustrating. Most importantly – enjoy writing that novel. This is time spent creating an amazing story only you can tell, so above all, enjoy this experience. To learn more about NaNoWriMo, go to www.nanowrimo.org. >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. This article was first published on NIWA’s blog as as Tips and Tricks to Jumpstart Your NaNoWriMo Project © 2019 Connie J. Jasperson and NIWA. It has been reprinted by permission. ![]() I regularly participate in the annual writing rumble known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This is a worldwide event where people dedicate themselves to writing a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. I'm a rebel in that while I do work on a new novel, I will also scratch out as many short stories as I am able in those thirty days. I participate every year because for 30 precious days, writing is the only thing I "have" to do. My friends and family all know that November, in our house, is referred to "National Pot Pie Month," so if you drop by expecting a hot meal from Grandma, it will probably emerge from the microwave in the form of a formerly frozen hockey puck. I usually have my “winners’ certificate” by the day they become available, but I continue writing every day through the 30th and update my word count daily. NaNoWriMo is a contest in the sense that if you write 50,000 words and have your word count validated through the national website you ‘win.’ But it is not a contest in any other way as there are no huge prizes or great amounts of acclaim for those winners, only a PDF winner’s certificate that you can fill out and print to hang on your wall. It is simply a month that is solely dedicated to the act of writing a novel. Now let’s face it–a novel of only 50,000 words is not a very long novel. It’s a good length for YA or romance, but for epic fantasy or literary fiction it’s only half a novel. But regardless of the proposed length of their finished novel, a dedicated author can get the rough draft--the basic structure and story-line of a novel--down in those thirty days simply by sitting down for an hour or two each day and writing a minimum of 1667 words per day. With a simple outline to keep you on track, that isn’t too hard. In this age of word processors, most authors can double or triple that. As always, there is a downside to this intense month of stream-of-consciousness writing. Just because you can sit in front of a computer and spew words does not mean you can write a novel that others want to read. Every year many cheap or free eBooks will emerge in January, testifying to that fundamental truth. The good thing is, over the next few months many people will realize they enjoy the act of writing and are fired to learn the craft. They will find that for them this month of madness was not about getting a certain number of words written by a certain date, although that goal was important. For them, NaNoWriMo is about embarking on a creative journey and learning a craft with a dual reputation that difficult to live up to. Depending on the cocktail party, authors are either disregarded as lazy ne’er-do-wells or given far more respect than we deserve. For a very few people, participating in NaNoWriMo will give them the confidence to admit that an author lives in their soul and is demanding to get out. In their case, NaNoWriMo is about writing and completing a novel they had wanted to write for years, something that had been in the back of their minds for all their lives. These are the people who will join writing groups and begin the long journey of learning the craft of writing. Whether they pursue formal educations or not, these authors will take the time and make an effort to learn writing conventions (practices). They will attend seminars, they will develop the skills needed to take a story and make it a novel with a proper beginning, a great middle, and an incredible end. They will properly polish their work and run it past critique groups before they publish it. They will have it professionally edited. These are books I will want to read. Every year, participating in NaNoWriMo will inspire many discussions about becoming an author. Going full-time or keeping the day job, going Indie or aiming for a traditional contract—these are conundrums many new authors will be considering after they have finished the chaotic month of NaNoWriMo. While few of us have the luxury to go Indie and write full-time (my husband has a good job), many authors will struggle to decide their publishing path. However, if you don’t sit down and write that story, you aren’t an author. You won’t have to worry about it. With that in mind, November and NaNoWriMo would be a great time to put that idea on paper and see if you really do have a novel lurking in your future. >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< >>><<< Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. This article was first published on Sept 10, 2018 on Life in the Realm of Fantasy as What is NaNoWriMo and Why Bother With It? © 2018 Connie J. Jasperson http://conniejjasperson.com/2018/09/10/what-is-nanowrim…ith-it-amwriting/ It has been reprinted by permission. ![]() When you confess to new acquaintances that you write books, they often don’t know what to say, other than “Oh, how nice. What kind?” When you admit that you write speculative fiction, you get a range of reactions, from pitying condescension to confused, blank looks. Occasionally people laugh and tell me how easy it must be since I can make any old thing up and it will fly . Nothing could be further from the truth. Readers ALWAYS know when you have gone off the track and into the shrubs. World building must combine enough realism with the created world to make the fantasy plausible. It involves research. I spend hundreds of hours researching the most trivial details for every book I write. If I get it wrong, it’s because I failed to look in the right place. In the process of writing numerous short stories, four medieval alternate-world fantasy novels, and six RPG game-based fantasy novels, I’ve done as much investigation into medieval times as many scholars. I know how people dressed, what they ate, how they earned a living, how they preserved food and every intimate detail of their lives that is researchable. I know all of this because I read scientific papers written by experts on the subject, all of which are available to us via the internet. My files are full of the fruits of other people’s efforts, with the sources documented and the authors credited. By documenting my sources, I know where to go to find out more if I need to. Keeping a list of links to websites that pertain to a particular novel is critical. Murphy’s Law is in full force here: if you didn’t write down the links and the authors, you will surely need the information again and won’t be able to find it. Readers are smart. If something is impossible, and you don’t somehow make it probable, you will lose your readers. The best way to make the impossible into something probable is to mix your fantasy with a good dose of real history. Be historically accurate as often as you can, so that when your blacksmith makes a weapon, readers who know about smithing will not be jarred out of the story by inaccuracy. Most of the time, these things you spend untold hours researching will only get one line in your narrative, but if that line is inaccurate or impossible, your readers will know you were too lazy to do it right. The following is a short list of go-to websites for in-depth, accurate information for when I am writing, including grammar questions. They are self-explanatory and are easy to make use of. Submit your questions via the handy query box. Figuring out how to phrase your question to get the answer you need to know may take several tries. Be persistent and as specific as possible, and you will soon have answers. Medieval Histories http://www.medievalhistories.com Academia http://www.academia.edu/ NASA https://www.nasa.gov/ Physics http://www.physics.org/ Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/ Grammarist http://grammarist.com/ These websites are just the beginning. Look at the many different sites that come up when you google a query and make a note in a log of each site that works for you. I suggest you don’t simply bookmark these things. When your computer dies, you lose your bookmarks, even if you have saved all your work to the cloud (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.). Don’t lose all those hours of research. Create a logbook (using word, excel, google docs, etc.) and save in a file to the cloud. Label it with a clear and simple name, such as Links_for_Research. I’ve learned a lot from reading the great literature of ages past. If you really want to know how people thought during Medieval times, read a modern translation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. People were bawdy, irreverent, and loved nothing more than a good joke. Much like we are today. If you are writing a story set in an alternate world environment, you may need to know what sort of clothing common people wore in medieval times. Or you might want to know what their home looked like, or a village. For that, I suggest you seek out the art of the Flemish Painters. When you go to the great art, you will see what men and women looked like and how they dressed, both for celebrations, and for working. You will see what their towns looked like, and the public places they gathered in. The interiors of their homes are also found in the works of the great Flemish painters. Any time you want an idea of average village life in the Late Middle Ages through the 17th century, you need to look no further than Wikimedia Commons. There, under the heading Category: Painters from the Northern Netherlands (before 1830) you will find the brilliant works of the Dutch Masters. These were artists living in what is now The Netherlands, and who were creating accurate records of the everyday life of the common people, along with stylized religious images. They painted their subjects with a heavy dose of religious allegory, but that was a part of village life—both the Inquisition and the Reformation were under way, and the politics of religion was in the very air they breathed. If you are going to write medieval fantasy, you must understand how strong the influence of the Church was and how entangled it was in politics. You must show how even a fantasy religion and its politics affect the common person's life. I adore Rembrandt and the painters who lived and worked during his era. I love the work of one family of early Dutch painters from Flanders, the Brueghel Family. Five generations of their family were well-known painters and printmakers. The internet is your friend. Researching your novel can be incredibly entertaining. Research is what slows me down more than anything. I spend far too many happy hours on Wikimedia Commons, looking at 16th-century Netherlandish paintings, so much so that I now also regularly write an art history blog. I love to share the beautiful art I have discovered on my writing journey. Since I already had the public stage in the form of my author’s website, it seemed a natural thing to share my secret passion for art and the people who make it. *** *** *** *** *** Credits and Attributions: Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of ten novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. This article was first published on August 23, 2017 on Life in the Realm of Fantasy as Do the Research © 2017 Connie J. Jasperson https://conniejjasperson.com/2019/03/25/gaining-strength-through-rejection-amwriting/ and has been reprinted by permission. ![]() Authors soon learn that there is an art to keeping a story short. Contests and anthologies usually have strict wordcount requirements, and if we want our piece to be considered, we must ensure it follows the stated rules. What are the requirements of the contest or publication you are considering submitting a piece to? If you have no specific contest in mind, 2000 to 4000 is a good length that will fit into most submission guidelines. For this exercise, we will plot and write a story of only 2000 words in length. Writing a story that short can be a problem for those of us used to writing novels. You know what the story is, but after a short while of writing, you find you have gone way beyond 2,000 words. Mapping your story in advance gives you a framework to go by and helps limit unneeded growth. We have to look at this as if it were the action scene for a longer story. The example I am using is from a fantasy short story I wrote for a contest in 2015, titled, A Song Gone Wrong. In every story, you must choose your words with care, but the shorter the story, the more important word choice becomes. We choose words that convey power. In English, words that begin with hard consonants sound tougher and therefore carry more power. Verbs are power words. Fluff-words and obscure words used too freely are kryptonite, sapping the strength from our prose. Placement of verbs in the sentence is critical.
Short stories are just like novels, in that they have an arc, and you can make it work for you. By looking at it from the perspective of the story arc, you can see what you have to accomplish, and how many words you have to accomplish it in. Every word in this exercise is critical and has a specific task—that of advancing the plot. To that end:
The story: Our protagonist was a bit too specific when putting a local warlord's fling with another man's wife into a song. He is now a wanted man. Divide the story into four acts: Act 1: the beginning: We have 500 words to show the setting, the protagonist, and the opening situation. This is only a few paragraphs!
Act 2: First plot point: We have 500 words to show the inciting incident.
Act 3.: Mid-point: We have 500 Words to show the dire condition.
Act 4: Resolution: We have 500 words to show how things work out.
Take a moment to analyze and plan what needs to be said by what point in the story arc, and in how many words. Once you have the map, you can get to the nitty-gritty of turning that far-fetched tale of woe into a good short story. In order to have your work comply with wordcount rules and limitations, you must phrase your prose carefully. Use descriptive, dramatic, powerful words to convey what you want to say concisely in one or two sentences. Pacing is critical. You must choreograph the rise and fall of the action, drama, and transition; the ebb and flow of conversations.
On-screen conversations are what conveys the personalities and the minimal backstory of the piece. Word space is extremely limited, so only new information can be discussed. The main character can't give anyone a recap of his troubles in the reader’s hearing—all that will have to be done off-stage. Distribute your exposition in small portions, delivered only when the reader and main character must know it. After a few times of creating short stories this way, you won't need to think about it. When you know the length a given tale has to be, you can mentally divide it into acts and just write for fun. *** *** *** *** *** Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. Credits and Attributions: Portions of this post were taken from Crafting the Very Short Story, by Connie J. Jasperson, © 2018, published 3 January 2018 for Life in the Realm of Fantasy. ![]() I keep a document pinned to my desktop, one that I write down topics and ideas for stories on. This list is crucial to my preparations for being productive during NaNoWriMo, which I participate in every year. After all—great stories spring from great ideas, but only if you can remember them. When I begin writing a story, the working title is just a handle to carry it by for the time being. Titles are always changed several times over the life of a story. While the actual title might not exist, the story does, in the form of an idea, a prompt. I title each story folder with a working-title, such as Jane’s Legacy. This probably won’t be the final title, but it gives me something to work with until I do know what to call it. Each story file contains two documents. The first document is blank except for one line, which is the prompt, the premise of the story. The second document is the manuscript itself. In the first document, I answer a short list of questions about the overall story arc of my intended tale. The answers help me visualize the basic premise of the story arc.
The answers to these questions make writing the actual story go faster because I know what happened, what their goal is, why their goal is difficult to achieve, and (crucially) how the story ends. Then you build your story:
Question number six is an important thought to consider. · What moral (or immoral) choice is the protagonist going to have to make in their attempt to overcome the odds and achieve their objective? Many final objectives don’t revolve around morality, but all final objectives should have consequences and should involve a struggle. The answer to question number seven is vitally important because every story hinges on how the protagonist overcomes adversity.
Answering question eight is crucial if I want to complete my short story in a timely fashion. Endings are frequently difficult to write because I can see so many different outcomes. I generally write several endings, trying them on to get the perfect fit. This method of preparation keeps me working and ensures I am productive even when my novel is stranded in the desert of “Now What?”. Pre-planning also means I have a good system established for version control. I make a lot of revisions, but I never delete old files as you never know when you might need something you wrote previously. I just give them a good descriptive label such as:
Develop your filing system, save your work regularly, and save it to an external drive (I use Drop-box). In that file, include any sub-files of research and backstory that pertain to your novel or short-story. Do it now, even if you are already deep into your work. You won’t have to stop and look things up so often. All you will have to do is write and save your work. >>>---------------------<<< Credits and Attributions: Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. ![]() Perhaps you asked a member of a professional writers’ group for feedback about your book or short story. Perhaps it came back slightly sharp, slightly critical, and you think the reader missed the point. Authors are thin-skinned. We offer friends and family (or even casual acquaintances) our work to read, full of expectations that they will enjoy it and think it is stellar. Then we get their assessment back, and it isn’t what we thought we would hear. Perhaps the reader noticed those info dumps we thought wouldn’t matter. Or perhaps they know more about horses (or medicine, or police procedure) than we do and suggest we need to do more research and then rewrite what we thought was the perfect novel. We bleed profusely when a first reader points out places where our work isn’t perfect. For some authors, even mild comments feel like their work has been torn to shreds. A good, honest critique can hurt if you are only expecting to hear about the brilliance of your work. Even if it is worded kindly, criticism can make you feel like you have failed. Even people who have spent years in the business have been known to go ballistic and make an uncomfortable situation worse. But what if it was our favorite work, the best thing we ever wrote? Why couldn’t the reader see that? When I first began this journey, I received feedback that was the opposite of what I expected. I managed to stay polite and tried to listen to what they were actually saying. I knew I had to use their comments to improve my work, but I didn’t know where to begin. Feeling confused, being the only one who doesn’t understand something evokes anger in me. Still, as a former hockey player, I knew that skill and growth could only come through education, practice, and effort. I knew I had to take their comments like a grownup and learn from the experience. Critiques hurt in those days, but when I look back on my earlier work, I can clearly see why it was not acceptable in the state it was in.
Not understanding how to correct what has been pointed out as bad writing habits is the core of why we feel so hurt. You need to be strong, stay calm, and understand that the reader has gone to some trouble for you. Please, don’t go off hurt, bad-mouthing that reader to your friends on your favorite writers’ forums. Something you might want to consider—if they are an author, they may be involved with the same forums in all the many social platforms you are, so have a care what you say online. They’re just like the rest of us. If they have been around for any length of time in the industry, it’s likely they’ve experienced their share of criticism. If you respond publicly in an unprofessional way, the innocent bystanders will remember you and won’t be inclined to work with you either. By now, we should all be aware that how we interact online with others is public information and is visible to the world. Never be less than gracious to a person who reads and critiques your work when you communicate with them. Sit back and consider the areas they find problematic and ask yourself what revisions would make your work better. Don’t ask a fellow member of a professional writers’ forum to read your work unless you want advice that is honest. Even if they don’t “get” your work, they spent their precious time reading it, taking time from their own writing. A piece of advice I like to give everyone is this: some people, even people you know well, are not cut out to be beta readers or readers at all. They shoot from the hip and take no prisoners. I would suggest you don’t expect gentle comments from these sorts of readers, and if you have offered your work to a person who falls into this category, don’t feel guilty for not asking them to read for you again. But once you have cooled down, look at their comments with a fresh eye and try to see why they made them. Negative feedback is a necessary part of growth. Don’t have a tantrum and immediately respond with an angst-riddled rant. This is where you have the chance to cross the invisible line between amateur and professional. Always take the high ground—if a beta reader or first reader has given you a harshly worded critique, respond with a simple “thank you for your time.” Above all, keep writing. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Connie J. Jasperson is a published poet and the author of nine novels. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies. A founding member of Myrddin Publishing Group, she can be found blogging regularly on both the craft of writing and art history at Life in the Realm of Fantasy. |
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