Tag: structure

Categories
The Picky Pen

How to Edit Characters

As we continue this editing series how we can develop a great story, I hope you’re able to see that the elements of storytelling hinges on more than concept and characters. By having all the layers in place before actually writing, you can have a clearer idea of where your story is going. Or if you’ve already written your book, how to make sure all the layers are in place so that you give your readers a delightful reading experience.

The sixth layer in developing a great story is developing your character within your story, whether nonfiction or fiction.

Your character is your readers’ best friend. Your character makes or breaks the story. Your character helps readers grow. Your character has influence on all other characters in the story. Your character must create empathy in your readers.

How to Edit Your Characters

  • What does your character want most?
  • What are winsome/lose-some qualities about your character?
  • How is your character motivated?

What does your character want most?

As you know, in storytelling, it’s really what drives the main character. What do they want? And the best way to show that is to show the character interacting with themselves, other characters, and the events of the story.

As I’ve said before, the greater the need, the bigger the story. So if your character wants to fly around the world, not in eighty days, but in ten, how on earth is this possible, and why do they want to do something so impossible? If your character wants to fulfil a promise to a dying loved one, then what is the internal satisfaction they’ll gain from it? Don’t just have your character want to go out on a date for the first time in twenty years; give your character a reason for wanting to do so, and maybe the motivation for waiting so long.

We must ask ourselves the following potential questions (not exhaustive, by any means):

  • Does what your character wants stem from their past experiences, even before the book opens up?
  • Does what they want stem from something that just happened within the story itself? For example, they want changes. (For this to work, you’d have to have a really good reason, and you’d have to set up the story really well.)
  • Does what your character want leap off the first page, or within the first five pages?
  • Why does your character want what he/she wants?
  • Is your character’s desire from someone else’s expectation or from their own?
  • What would your character do if he/she didn’t get what they wanted?
  • What would he/she do if they got what they wanted?

What are winsome/lose-some qualities about your character?

I say winsome or lose some because if we had a character that was Goody Two-shoes all the time, I think we’d be throwing the book at the wall.

It’s better to have a character with a deep struggle that they grapple with throughout the book, and come to accept by the end. Maybe that deep struggle becomes their saving grace. If your character’s winsome qualities can somehow compliment their lose some qualities, that is even better, because it’s the constructive qualities that present the greatest challenges and victories.

These qualities can be internal, external, philosophical, esoteric, or however you choose them to be. And the more you mix them up or the quirkier they are, the stronger your character will be.

How is your character motivated?

Propelling the character forward through the plot is tough. Not gonna lie. It’s that delicate balance between stop, listen to the birdsong, and go, race through the sun-splashed woods.

In making the most of your character throughout the story, it’s important to understand why he/she is doing what they’re doing. It’s important to dive deep into the outer and inner motivations. If they want to make a trip cross country but are delayed by a snowstorm, do they drive forward anyway? What if your character doesn’t get what they want in the first place … do they flip the coin to see what their next option is, or do they sit and stew for days and days, until someone helps them snap out of it?

Whatever your character’s motivation, readers should be on pins and needles on your character’s behalf—because you have created a winsome character that tends to lose some sometimes. It’s all part of the character journey.

Secret Sauce to the Best Character Development. Ever.

“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.”

Henry David Thoreau

“We become the books we read.”

Matthew Kelly

The books we read. The characters we create. Both of these speak to the integrity and endurance of the fictional characters we create, or the real-life characters we write about in our nonfiction.

Each writer and author benefits from exploring their characters inside and out, while asking “why?” at every turn when crafting their character’s reactions and responses throughout the story because it’s really the secret sauce to writing a great story that captivates agents, editors, readers, marketers, and the person who wouldn’t necessarily pick up a book and read it.

Questions? Comments? I’d love to engage in the conversation with you! Drop your question or comment in the chat below, and I’ll look forward to responding!

Your Turn!

What is the best quality or trait about your character, and why?

What is your favorite character in a book or movie, and what makes you like or dislike them?

Tisha Martin writes historical fiction and articles, and edits full time for beginning and best-selling writers and publishing houses. Since 2017 she has edited and evaluated 250 books, and written a plethora of back-cover and marketing book copy. She has a bachelor’s in Professional Writing, a master’s in English Education, and an editing certificate from the PEN Institute. Her nonfiction contribution “The Meaning of an Heirloom” for The Horse of My Dreams: True Stories of the Horses We Love is available from Revell. Learn more at www.tishamartin.com.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

Should Your Romance Contain a Trope?

In case you’re unfamiliar with the word trope, let’s define it. A trope is a character trait or plot line that has become commonplace. If you read romance, you’ve seen quite a few romance tropes. Some of the most common are: the love triangle – two men competing for the love of the same woman; forbidden love – (this one goes all the way back to William Shakespeare and his classic Romeo and Juliet), where the boy and girl are forbidden to love one another due to parental stipulations, or differences in status (he’s rich, maybe in line for the throne, and she is a commoner or comes from a family with no wealth); Mail-Order Bride; marriage of convenience; and the list goes on.

Now that you know what tropes are maybe you have a favorite romance trope or maybe you don’t like tropes because you prefer a unique romance story. No matter what you think of them, tropes are popular. Recently tropes have been getting a lot of attention. Therefore, including a trope in your book could be helpful in obtaining readership. That doesn’t mean your trope has to be predictable and “just like all the rest”.

If you’ve submitted any queries or studied what agents and publishers look for in a query, you’re aware that one of the questions an agent or publisher wants answered is: how is your story different from those already published in the same genre?

So, if tropes are so popular and used so often, how can you use a trope and still have an original story?

There are several ways, but the first thing you should do is become familiar with the popular tropes. For instance, a current popular genre is fairy tale Retellings. If you haven’t read any, this may be a good place to start to see how an author takes a popular trope and puts their own spin on it. I recently read The Rose Princess by Ivy Hollins, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and Ivy had several unique plot points that made her retelling distinctive, such as the Prince and the beauty having a unique link years before they first meet. This story was just as enjoyable as the original fairy tale.

When you consider which trope to use in your story, consider your purpose for using the trope. Are you using it because you know it’s popular and has been successfully used in lots of other romance stories? If this is your reason, you should reconsider.

Instead, start by considering how you want to present your story or what you want your character’s values or point of view to be. Then consider how to use the trope by putting your own spin on it. Think about how the trope will best serve your story. Use your own voice and your own plot. You can also use a bit of the expected before surprising them with your own unique details to create fresh characters and an unexpected twist to the plot.

Kelly F. Barr lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is married and has three sons. She writes historical romance. She has also been a blogger for ten years, and every Friday, you can find her Flash Fiction stories posted for your reading pleasure. She loves her family, including the family dog, books, walks, and chai lattes.

You can find her online at:

Categories
Romancing Your Story

When All Seems Lost

The Black Moment. The Crisis. The Breakup. There are many titles for that moment when all seems lost.

No matter what you call it, every novel must have a crisis point, at which time it appears the characters will not or cannot reach their goals. The black moment needs to happen two to three chapters before the end of the story so that the characters have time to examine their open wound, recognize their flaws, and face their greatest fears. Without that time, they will not be able to move through self-evaluation toward the resolution.

The black moment cannot come out of the blue. There need to be hints from the beginning of the story. Often the wound revolves around something the hero or heroine has kept hidden or perhaps believes has healed. The black moment reopens that wound.

In Deborah Dixon’s GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, she writes, “This black moment is brought about by the external event. But it is the internal choice, the compromise, the character growth that keys the resolution.” 

If you are writing multiple viewpoints, each character is on a separate personal journey with different wounds and external events and emotional issues. It needs only to be one character who withdraws to cause the breakup, which will trigger the black moment and cause both of them to believe their love isn’t enough to overcome the external obstacle. Their wound(s) have been ripped open, and they may withdraw to a place in the past where they felt safer. 

The black moment leads to the internal emotional event that allows them to examine their feelings, recognize their flaws, and see how their fears are keeping them from their greatest desire or goal. Whether they are facing the realization alone or are confiding their hurts to a friend, they must come to the pivotal point that allows them to try again.

In How to Write a Brilliant Romance, Susan May Warren writes, “Every Black Moment has two parts. An  event, which is the actual fear coming true, and  effect, which is the following emotional and spiritual crisis.“

The resolution is the big payoff. Readers have been anticipating it from page one. Make it emotional, whether by making the reader laugh, cry, or gasp. The resolution needs to be big enough to count. The reader is expecting a satisfying ending. One in which the character grows and sacrifices. In a romance, the conflict resolution is an emotional choice.

If you reach a point in your romance where the black moment needs to happen, and you haven’t hinted at the wound or flaw, the reader feels cheated. By revealing the wound early in the story, it doesn’t surprise the reader. If it only appears at the black moment the author may have left the reader confused, puzzled, or perhaps worse, disappointed in the story. 

Every story begins with a promise. In romance, that promise is a satisfying ending that makes the reader believe all is right with the hero and heroine’s world. As the reader closes the book, we want them to feel they have experienced their journey to find love. A satisfied reader will return for more of your books.

Award-winning writer, Rose Gardner’s journey toward publication has come in two phases. During the early years, she was a finalist in thirteen contests and won her category in seven, was a 2007 RWA Golden Heart finalist in the Long Contemporary Category, and 2nd runner up in the 2008 Harlequin Super Romance Conflict of Interest Contest. After a break from writing, she returned to writing with a renewed focus on clean, contemporary heartwarming stories about love, hope, healing, and the power of forgiveness. She has won or placed in several contests for unpublished writers since 2017 as she works toward publication. You can find out more about Rose at her website mrosegardner.com or on social media at Facebook at MRoseGardner/, Twitter MaryGardner6, Instagram mrosegardner/ 

Categories
The Picky Pen

How to Edit the Plot

As we continue this editing series how we can develop a great story by having all the layers in place before actually writing, or if you’ve already written your book, how to make sure all the layers are in place.

The second layer in developing a great story is developing your story’s plot.

Surprisingly the story’s plot extends beyond points of action in your story and reaches into the area of the characters and how they interact with the story’s trajectory of the plot.

How to Edit the Plot

  • How well do you know your characters?
  • How do your characters interact with the story events?
  • How well do you create suspense, conflict, and context throughout plot?

How well do you know your characters?

Knowing your characters is more than knowing their outer attributes. Knowing your characters internally is key to mapping out a rock solid plot. Let’s explore some ways we can really get to know our characters.

If we describe our characters in terms of physical appearance is great because it gives readers a visual representation; however, if we describe our characters by what drives them, then we open the door for readers to understand how our characters live and breathe.

For example, a librarian who doesn’t particularly like books, but is simply driven because of the patrons who frequent the library might offer an interesting plot and chain of events.

How do your characters interact with the story events?

Every story has that one character who makes the story shine, much like the key actor in a film. Which character comes to your mind? I’m thinking of D.C. Morse in the BBC series, Endeavour, and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.

With our librarian, perhaps she feels remorse from an event in her past, and she seeks to cover her own feelings by paying attention to the library patrons. What if this self-serving action sends her on an adventure as she gets to know each person, therefore helping her through her own inner struggle? What chain of events would have to happen for this to be resolved?

How well do you create suspense, conflict, and context throughout plot?

Alfred Hitchcock said, “Emotion is an essential ingredient of suspense.” And, I would also add, an essential ingredient of conflict and context in the plot as well.

Back to our librarian. Would she argue with one of the patrons, or go out of her way to help another reunite with a family member? What if she was suspicious of one but not of another? If one of the patrons was homeless, would she let him sleep in the library, sneaking him in after closing? What if a young patron checked out the same book week after week, and the librarian was reminded of her own childhood fascination with books and experiences anxiety from the memories? What would happen if someone found out?

And if another patron, who did not have enough money for a library card, possessed sticky fingers, would she turn a blind eye, because she knew they were researching for something important, and this person always returned the books? What would happen if they didn’t, and the library director found out and confronted the librarian about this employee infraction? And really, why did the librarian feel motivated to let the patron take books home without a library card?

A Few Examples

Lillian Avery in Anchor in the Storm (Waves of Freedom series) by Sarah Sundin wants to prove herself by getting a job as a pharmacist. But when she gets the job, she’s thrust into more than just working at the pharmacy—she’s jumped into a drug ring. How she reacts to each situation sends her deeper into the events, until she’s caught right in the middle of the struggle. . .

In Lady Jayne Disappears by Joanna Davidson Politano, Aurelie Harcourt struggles to find a home with her deceased writer-father’s wealthy family, she embarks on the adventure of finishing his last story, and is thrown into a whirl of trouble with her new family—who seem to thwart her every effort of finding out what happened to her mother.

Secret Sauce to the Plot

My favorite editor, Maxwell Perkins (who worked with F. Scott Fitzgerald and other authors of that time), said to “just get it down on paper, and then we’ll see what to do with it.” I love that because it brings home the reality that if we don’t write, we’ll be staring at a blank page. And heavens, we can’t edit a blank page!

Each writer and author benefits from exploring their characters inside and out, while asking “what if?” at every turn when crafting their novel’s plot because it’s really the secret sauce to writing a great story that captivates people, agents, editors, readers, marketers, and the person who wouldn’t necessarily pick up a book and read it.

Questions? Comments? I’d love to engage in the conversation with you! Drop your question or comment in the chat below, and I’ll look forward to responding!

Your Turn!

What is something unusual that your character possesses that could enhance your story’s plot

What are three ways your character interacts with the plot?

Tisha Martin writes historical fiction and nonfiction but edits full time for beginning and best-selling writers and publishing houses. Since 2017 she has worked on over 250 books, including Planned from the Start, the devotional companion to Unplanned the movie, and serves as contest judge for Writer’s Digest. She puts her bachelors in Professional Writing, masters in English Education, and editing certificate from the PEN Institute to delightful good use. Her nonfiction essay “The Meaning of an Heirloom” in The Horse of My Dreams: True Stories of the Horses We Love is available from Revell. She enjoys speaking at writer’s conferences and coaching writers in the self-editing process. Learn more at www.tishamartin.com.   

Categories
Courting the Muse Guest Posts

How Reading Poetry Collections Can Help You Plot Your Novel

Whether your novel closes on a cyclone-worthy twist, or a conclusion as warm and satisfying as homemade pie, you’ll need a solid plot to guide you as you write your way to that ending. Of course, coming up with one is easier said than done. 

You might have your major plot points all lined up, but maneuvering your cast from one scene to the next doesn’t always mean smooth sailing. You need the plot to advance, but there’s so much more to think about. Is your protagonist’s growth coming through? Are your themes subtle and multilayered, or just clear as mud? 

When you’re stuck on questions like these, it’s helpful to step beyond the world of your own manuscript and do a little outside reading for inspiration. Of course, you can look at how the greats in your genre have plotted their masterworks. But there’s another kind of book that just might give you the Eureka moment you’re seeking: poetry collections.

Poetry collections are plotless. But they’re also highly curated and intentionally ordered, without a verse out of place. Taking inspiration from their structure can help you plot a story that satisfies. Here are three crucial lessons to take away from them.

1. Think about the reader’s experience.

Poetry collections are often organized with the reader’s experience in mind, attending to their emotional and intellectual needs. That could entail interspersing two devastating pieces on grief with something more hopeful in tone. Or it might mean mixing in some lighter works with dense, allusive poems that require substantial thought to appreciate.

Let this reader-focused approach guide you as you assemble your chain of events. If you’ve placed a lot of tearjerker scenes early on, for instance, you’ll risk having your audience all cried out before the climax. Alternatively, you might be subjecting them to information overload —  forcing them to juggle too many names and too much backstory before the action kicks off. 

2. You might have to cut beautifully written scenes.

What makes a poetry collection difference from a bunch of poems bound together? Cohesion. A seasoned poet is wise enough to leave out any piece that doesn’t fit with the rest — even if it won them their latest Pushcart.

This sort of strictness will serve you well too. As writers, we’re often told to kill our darlings, setting sentiment aside and subjecting the lines we’re proudest of to revision’s red pen. That generally means excising an elegant but distracting metaphor. But it can also apply to entire scenes.

A scene might be gorgeously written, showcasing the most stylish prose in your entire book. But what if it feels out of place, or doesn’t serve a purpose beyond mere beauty? File it away and save it for a companion short story (or perhaps a sequel).

3. Give each chapter a shadow title.

Speaking of every section serving a purpose, here’s a poetry-inspired trick to make sure each chapter you write pulls its narrative weight. Each poem within a collection tends to have a title. That’s generally not the case for novel chapters (unless you’re writing for a middle-grade audience). But try to give each of your chapters a title anyway — for your eyes only.

Formulating these “shadow titles” help you distill each chapter down to its essentials: its key takeaway, its place in the overall structure of the book. It can also help you spot any outliers that should perhaps be reworked — or even removed. Say, for instance, you’ve come up with Friends-style titles for most of your chapters — “The One Where Iris Finds the Amulet”, “The One Where Jeff Dies”— but you have one that you can only call “The Sunset”. That might be a sign that it’s out of sync with the rest of the book.

By examining how every chapter works within the structure of your book, you’ll be able to deliver a satisfying story — and keep your readers hanging onto your every word. After all the work you’ve put into shaping your plot, that’s exactly what you deserve. 

Lucia Tang is a writer for Reedsy, a marketplace that connects self-publishing authors with the book industry’s best editors, designers, and marketers. To work on the site’s free historical character name generators, she draws on her knowledge of Chinese, Latin, and Old Irish —  learned as a PhD candidate in history at UC Berkeley. You can read more of her work on the Reedsy Discovery blog, or follow her on Twitter at @lqtang.

Categories
Screenwriting

Inciting Incident?

Now that a new year is here, I want to start going in another direction. This year’s focus for this column will look at different components of screenplays—how there are alike and different from fictional novel writing.

It can be hard to get going at the beginning of the year. Traditional folklore states that what we spend the first day of the year doing will set the pace for the rest of the year. Thus, when I was growing up my mother always warned me to be careful about what I did on the first day of the year. Here are some of the things she warned me about:

  • Don’t clean – Cleaning on the first day means your house will be dirty all year.
  • Don’t sleep all day – You’ll have an unproductive year.
  • Don’t borrow money – You will be in debt all year.
  • Don’t argue or fight – you won’t have any peace that year.

Like the first day of the year we want to start our screenplays off right, this is why it’s important to have a clear inciting incident.

Inciting incidents?

The inciting incident is the event in any story. Whether it’s a novel or a screenplay, the inciting incident is the first domino that falls and sets off the chain of events that leads to our protagonist’s goal or destiny.

It doesn’t have to be the opening scene or in first beat of action, but in screenwriting, the sooner the better. It’s understood that the first ten pages of the screenplay are valuable real estate, because it must grab the audiences’ attention. This is why a lot of writers plant the inciting incident around page 5 or 7.

It gives a writer time to introduce the main characters and set up the need for change or conflict. Inciting incident ignites the fuse to get our story going forward. Often it gives our protagonist the motivation to pursue something or someone greater than themselves.

Since the nature of film is visual it is easier to present the inciting incident in a visible manner instead of using lines of dialogue full of exposition—we can see the inciting incident in action. (Show vs. tell.) Below are a few good examples from past movies:

  1. Rambo: Last Blood – John Rambo’s friend’s daughter runs off to Mexico to find her father and doesn’t return.
  2. Gran Turino – The attempted theft of a Gran Turino.
  3. Friday Night Lights – Jason gets paralyzed playing a sport he loves.
  4. Saving Private Ryan – The Death of three Ryan brothers leads General Marshall to find the last missing Ryan boy.
  5. Die Hard – The arrival of  Hans Gruber at the party.

Each of the above scenes sets a chain of events in motion that takes our characters on a journey from point A (pre-incident) to point B (the final action resulting from the inciting incident.)

While these scenes aren’t the opening scenes of the movie, they are the tipping points that get the ball rolling toward the eventual climax.

Just The Beginning?

Robert McKee explains it like this, “The inciting incident, the first major event of the telling, is the primary cause for all that follows, putting into motion the other four elements—progressive complications, crisis, climax, resolution.”[i]

As McKee notes above, movies are made up of numerous components. Although the inciting incident doesn’t necessarily happen at the beginning of the movie, it is the real beginning of the story you want to tell. Each of the components below has a direct relation to another (cause and effect.)

  • Characters: The participants in your story.
  • Actions: What your participants do in your narrative.
  • Conflict: Obstacles your characters face in your story.
  • Plot or Plotline: The sequence of events, where each event affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect (think about our domino analogy.)

While the timing and placement in a screenplay will vary from script to script, each should be a direct result of your story’s inciting incident!

[i] McKee R. (1997).  Story: Substance, Structure, Style, And The Principle of Screenwriting (Kindle edition) pg. 181.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Romancing Your Story

The Romance Recipe

Ideas for my stories come from a variety of places. Sometimes I need to think about an idea for a while before I can begin to write. Let it percolate, so to speak. Other times the story comes to me fully formed. It’s as though the story has found me, and only I can tell it. I call these stories “gifts.” They don’t happen often, but when they do, my fingers fly across the keyboard to get the story down.

No matter how the idea comes, there are certain things I need to know before I start to write. First, what type of story will I be writing.  Once I’ve decided it will be a romance, I still need to know if it will be sweet, spicy, suspenseful, contemporary, paranormal or historical. I even need to set it’s length.  The decisions I make will impact how many ingredients I need to add. It’s kind of like baking without the calories.  I wouldn’t use the same ingredients for a pie that I’d use for cookies. The same is true for the author before they write their story.   

Romances, by their nature, are relationship driven. There are certain ingredients you must include to have a compelling story that keeps the reader turning the page.

Every writer, no matter where they are at in their writing journey starts every story at the same place; the blank screen or blank sheet of paper.

As the author, only you can decide how much of each of the following ingredients you need to add.

Ingredients of a romance

Every romance starts with a heaping helping of Boy Meets Girl – An event, goal, or circumstance occurs to bring our hero and heroine together.

Add a big scoop of Interest/Need — Something about their individual situations makes their hearts vulnerable to romance.

Add a cup of Why – The core reasons why they belong together.

Add two cups of Why Not – External and Internal Obstacles between the hero and heroine conspire to separate them.

Stir in a dose of Wooing – Events or situations that allow the hero and heroine to fall in love.

Add between a cup and a gallon of Sizzle – Dialogue that creates romantic tension.

Add an appropriate helping of Kiss – The romantic tension leads to the physical connection

Throw in a fist-full of Breakup – The biggest Why Not (Obstacle) rises to push them apart and scrape open their wounds.

Add a generous dose of Make Up – The wound is healing and the Big Why (the core reason they belong together) saves the day.

That recipe sounds easy enough doesn’t it? However, if you have not premeasured each ingredient before you begin to write you may find yourself with a story that doesn’t work.

Stir until you reach the Big Gesture/Sacrifice/HEA (happy ever after) – The Hero or Heroine are able to prove their love through big gestures/sacrifices in order to stay together and find the love they’ve always long for.

I can’t claim this ingredient list is mine. I came across it in How to Write a Brilliant Romance by Susan May Warren. If you want more details about using each ingredient, If you want to write romance, I recommend her book, The 10 Ingredients of a Romance. You won’t be disappointed. I also want to thank Susan for permitting me to use some of those ingredients for this article.  You can also find out more about her at  http://www.susanmaywarren.com

Rose Gardner’s writing journey has come in two phases. The first was focused on contemporary category romance. After a break, she returned to writing contemporary heartwarming stories about love, hope, healing and the power of forgiveness. During the first phase of her writing she was a finalist in thirteen contests and won her category in seven including a 2007 RWA Golden Heart finalist in the Long Contemporary Category, and 2nd runner up in the Harlequin Super Romance Conflict of Interest Contest in 2008. More recently she won 1st place in the Blue Seal Award for General/ Contemporary/ Romance Novels at OHCWC 2017.

Categories
The Poet's Pen

Is Your Poem in Shape?

Carmina Figurata or shaped stanza is a picture poem—a poem that forms a picture. In “CAROUSEL” by Jan D. Hodge, the poem forms the shape of a carousel horse. This is an illustration of positive shaping. A shaped poem can describe the object and is shaped like it.

When the poem fits around a shape it is negative shaping.This is illustrated by the poem, “THE VIEW FROM KHUFIT’S TONGUE” by Walter H. Kerr. the negative space form the shape of a mountain.

“CLIMBING THE TOWER AT PISA” by Richard Frost as you might guess forms the ape of the Tower of Pisa. The poem is read form the bottom up.

Create a simple shape with simple words until an idea takes shape. Play with the words. Don’t force the image. Have fun with it.

The following poem is an example of a shaped poem. For obvious reasons I call it “PAW PRINTS.”

Darlo Gemeinhardt writes middle grade novels. She believes that there is a story in every dog. In her spare time she takes care of 1 husband (of 40 years), 29 dogs and trains with TALLAO, K-9 SEARCH AND RESCUE. Visit her at From the dog pen.com

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Between the Lines

Ever since I took my first journalism class in high school I’ve heard the age-old debate on how to write, to use an outline or to just free-form (discovery writing.) Some creatives feel outlining takes the life out of writing.

They like having the freedom to just let their ideas flow. Whereas most intellectuals believe structure is the best way to shape ideas and convey a thought. I believe they both serve a purpose.

  1. Outlining – Focus, flow, Balance, and definitiveness.
  2. Free-form – Spontaneity, more creativity and of course freedom.

After years of writing, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m one of the moderates who go either way, depending on the type of writing I’m doing. When I write nonfiction and want to prove a point or explain it, I’m a legalistic outliner. Plus, writing with a brain injury makes it hard enough to focus itself.

When I write screenplays I tend to let the characters tell their own stories. It doesn’t take long before they invite me in on their joinery. Of course, there are times when I have to step in and help keep the characters in line.

Lines?

In regards to art, a line is a basic element. Geometrically, a line connects two points. It is a path traced by a moving point. A line is vital to any artwork.

Writing is a form of artwork that takes an audience on a journey from point A to B; the journey can be in the form of a fictional story or nonfictional prose. Either way, the audiences’ attention is going somewhere.

I’ve used screenwriting as a protagonist’s adventure of growing in life: they will make mistakes, get hurt and hopefully learn from it all. If I do my job well as a storyteller my audience will want to follow my character’s journey and hopefully learn a few things as well.

Nonfiction writing has a line of thought as well: it may be political, enlightenment, entertainment or a sales pitch, etc.

After all, what’s the point of writing if it doesn’t take us from point A to B? As Christian author DiAnn Mills’ theme states, “Expect an adventure!” All writing has a theme or purpose.

Takeaway!

One of my bigger struggles as a disabled writer is I tend to write for myself. Sometimes I write what I want to hear and sometimes I write for what I need. But, that doesn’t make me a good writer.

Every writer knows the selling point of any prose is the take away value. What will my reader, my audience, or my peers gain by going on the adventure with me from point A to point B?

Sometimes is obvious from the get-go, other times it comes from the journey or it is found at the conclusion of it. But by the time we get to point B, my theme should be obvious.

When I first started blogging, my posts were the length of a college thesis, and I thought this was the best way to cover all my bases from beginning to end. The problem was, I often lost focus and veered off on multiple tangents.

I was like an adolescent with ADHD who ran out of Ritalin. Without an outline, sometimes I can be all over the place and can’t keep it between the lines.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Truamatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
The Picky Pen

Editing the Plot

Okay. Most of you (myself included) admit it’s challenging and exciting to plan the next book. It must be simple, right? Think of an idea. Create characters and compelling scenes. Write a few hundred pages. And you’re done. Right?

Wrong. Not. That. Simple.

You’ve got to think of a plot that works. A plot that includes a beginning, middle, and end. You may not think plotting a book is part of editing, but it is, my friend. What I’m going to say next is vital to the life and breath of your story. If we don’t analyze how our story flows at the macro level we won’t have a solid story to edit at the micro level.

What? There’s a structure to tying it all together? I’m afraid so. A story isn’t Friday Mish Mash. (Although some writers have successfully pulled off a great mish mash story . . . that’s another conversation for another day.)

  • Beginning. Introduce your characters, bring in a conflict or desire between your main character and an antagonist (can be an animate or inanimate object), and set up how the main character is going to achieve their goal.
  • Middle. Continue story with riveting twists and turns for the character to achieve the solution to the problem or desire. You can even introduce subplot, which is often more exciting than the main plot.
  • End. Begin to wrap up the solution to the problem, but not before your character is forced to choose between good and evil in order to obtain their goal. This is the most exciting part in your story because you’ll hook your readers even more and keep them reading late into the night. (A very good thing!) Your conclusion should be satisfying and solve the problem your character faced in the beginning of the story.

Remember. Readers who have a reason to care about the characters you’ve created will be hooked from beginning to end.

Here’s an example of my own WWII story:

Beginning
Clara must babysit her little sister while their mother goes shopping. In addition to babysitting, Clara has to put up the tomatoes (goal). Little sister Bevy proceeds to wreck Clara’s work (problem). Clara tries to work with Bevy to no avail (aggravated problem.)

Middle
Clara is frustrated that Bevy is squashing all of the tomatoes and reacts angrily toward Bevy. Bevy runs outside (climax).

End
While cleaning up the tomato mess, Clara sees Beverly running toward the tractor where their dad is harvesting crops (unexpected climax that causes reader to care). Clara realizes the importance of her attitude toward Bevy (resolution to the problem).

The instructions might sound simple. But it takes practice to grasp the concept of beginning, middle, and end structure and then to execute it. Grasping the concepts are also determined by editing the plot to make sure it sings like a canary rather than a crow. Then. It. Will. Be. Simple.

Join in the discussion!

What part of the novel do you struggle with and what resources help you conquer the struggle part(s)?

Tisha Martin writes historical fiction and nonfiction but also edits and proofreads for beginning and best-selling writers, professional editing agencies, and publishing houses. She has a BA in Professional Writing, an MS in English Education, and an editing certificate from the PEN Institute, affordable continuing education for editors. Active in American Christian Fiction Writers and The PEN, she appreciates the writing and editing communities. As Assistant Director of PENCON, a conference for editors, she enjoys travel marketing and updating PENCON’s Facebook Page. Connect with Tisha on her website www.tishamartin.com and engage in the conversation.