The Writing Tools

George R.R. Martin Masterclass

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 02:52:00 +0000

Have several videos here for ya. Tiff calls this first video a masterclass in and of itself. It's more like an interview, but George does talk quite a bit about the craft writing, biographical information aside. Enjoy:

And here he is talking more about writing:

Fiction Writing Podcasts from The University of Iowa

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 01:48:00 +0000

The University of Iowa offers recordings of writing events associated with itself in a podcast called "The Writing University." I recommend you subscribe and download here if you're the podcast type, if you're not, that's alright, I made this post for you so you can listen online instead.

The links below are all of the fiction recordings from The Writing University that caught my eye. Enjoy.

Dates are provided for finding and downloading the audio directly here.

Productivity

You can find other writing podcasts from this source as they come out here at the Writing University homepage.

Brandon Sanderson Creative Writing Lectures

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 10:14:00 +0000

Brandon Sanderson is an extremely talented, best selling science fiction and fantasy author. From the Stormlight Archive to the Mistborn series, from the Rithmatist to Steelheart, he's an amazing writer with a large fan base.

He taught several years at BYU and recorded his 2012, 2013, and 2014 course lectures from there. What this ends up being, when watched as a whole, is basically a FREE UNIVERSITY COURSE IN CREATIVE WRITING. That's exciting, so I put it in caps. If you're looking for creative writing tips, or creative writing lectures, and you want them for free...this a great place to start.

Below are the links to his 2012 and 2013 creative writing course lectures as provided on his website, a link to the 321 Class recorded in 2014, and a link to a podcast Sanderson is a part of called "Writing Excuses." Several of the links on his website are broken, which is why I took the time to provide every link to the different lecture videos myself.

If you found this helpful, be sure to follow us for more writing tips and resources.

2012 Lectures

If you prefer, you can get notes on the entire 2012 course here and the entire downloadable audio for the 2012 course here.

Lecture 1 videos:

Lecture 2 videos:

Lecture 3 videos:

Lecture 4 videos:

Lecture 5 video:

Guest Lecture on Short Stories: Eric James Stone

Lecture 6 videos:

Lecture 7 videos:

Lecture 8 videos:

Lecture 9 videos:

Lecture 10 videos:

Lecture 11 videos:

Lecture 12 videos:

Lecture 13 videos:

2013 Lectures

Lecture 1 videos:

Lecture 2 videos:

Lecture 3 videos:

Lecture 4 videos:

Lecture 5 videos:

Lecture 6 videos:

Lecture 7 videos:

Lecture 8 videos:

Lecture 9 videos:

Lecture 10 videos:

Lecture 11 videos:

Lecture 12 videos:

Lecture 13 videos:

Lecture 14 videos:

Lecture 15 videos:

2014 Class (All in one link)

Brandon Sanderson's 321 Class (realize this is a worshop so it's much, MUCH longer)
Notes on the worskshop can be found here.

Podcast Sanderson is a part of

Writing Excuses Podcast

Pre-Writing a Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 23:08:00 +0000

The idea is simple: 10 or so minutes to pre-write key events, quotes, and development you want to hit in your next scene. But it does WONDERS, especially for those with ADD. It increased my writing speed, my finishing rate on stories, and has been instrumental in blasting past any blocks to actually get some fiction writing done.

I first heard of this idea while reading N.P. Martin"s "1500 Words Per Hour: How To Write Faster, Better And More Easily Using The Simple And Powerful Speed Write System For Writing Mastery" long title huh?
You can find both the kindle and audible versions of it here. It's short, to the point, and cheap, and I enjoyed the subject matter. But the pre-writing concept was my key, practical takeaway and the most beneficial to my writing.

To understand this concept fully you have first have to understand the "write, don't think" mentality that so many authors promote as a key to succeeding in writing. The idea is that constant thinking, revising, and rewriting is one of the best ways to slow or even stall yourself as a writer. Ray Bradbury was a huge proponent of this famously saying "“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”
He wasn't close to the only one though, I reference Stephen King and Dean Koontz here talking on the subject. King calls it over-analyzing and Koontz calls writing free of thinking relying on "intuition." They both feel leaving the critical thinking out of the writing time as much as possible is important.

But it's too easy to stop and rethink what you're writing, then go back try to rewrite it, or think about what you want to write next. After a period of time you may realize that you're getting much more editing and thinking done than actual writing, and the writing is coming MUCH slower and as Ray puts it "self-conscious."
What if in the moments you're trying to collect your thoughts and move forward you could look over at a guide written by... you? That's what this pre-writing phase is, a handwritten/typed guide by yours truly, guiding you forward in a cohesive manner. You do your thinking about what you want to write and what happens anyway (at least the main idea and points), why not do it up front and get a guide to keep you on track in the process?
Maybe some writers can write without thinking with little to no outlining, like Bradbury. But for many of us, just taking off writing leads to rethinking, rewriting, and writer's block. That's what this pre-writing exercise is for. N.P. Martin got the concept, and the concept of his book, from many professional writers, and now I'm bringing it to you.

So, how exactly do you go about this 10 minutes or so of pre-writing and what are its other benefits?

The Nitty Gritty:

How to do it

-take the time just before writing and summarize/note what you want out of the scene

-N.P. Martin suggests handwriting it on paper, I use my typewriter because I love that thing

-shorthand, ie clipped sentences and lots of pronouns

-hit key plot points (I do so with bullet points like this)

-include quotes that pop into your head (maybe this only happens to me, but I enjoy building a paragraph or mood around a powerful quote)

-include what you want to show the reader, whether that's something in the scene, something about a character, or something explaining the world or environment around the character, or anything else

-after this begin your writing without stopping to even correct grammatical or spelling errors (Martin recommends) let the fingers fly, occasionally referencing what you outlined for yourself, and you'll find the path much faster and more creativity based than before (occasionally adding what feels right in addition to your skeleton outline without over thinking it)
-do it every time you write creatively from now on, just before you start

What it does

-allows you to begin writing fast without thinking, get more done, and allow your creativity to flourish by getting all (or the majority) of your thinking done up front
-What it did for me? Helped me finish a story quicker than normal and start several others little to no getting stuck.

Give it at least one try.

P.S.
Below (and at the beginning of the article) are examples of pre-writing from parts from my stories. They're messy, have errors, and have things possibly only I will understand. But they're good examples (especially this one below).
I will also note that I added to and changed some of what I pre-wrote as I wrote without thinking, but strictly adhering to an outline wasn't the point. The point was when I got momentarily stuck thinking "what comes next" or "what do I want out of this scene" I turned to this instead of having to think about and plan it in the moment.

If you're interested in more pre-writing/outlining advice, check out this article on character building/bios.

Free Productivity Tools For Writers Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 04:10:00 +0000

If you haven't read part one, here it is. Now with no further ado, let's jump in.

Focus Booster

If you lose track of time, procrastinate, or often get distracted and wander over to facebook because you can, this can be a great tool to keep you on track. Focus booster in its free version is basically just a timer that will display over every other application and change color the closer you are to the time limit. The app chunks your time into time blocks and schedules you breaks, and the timer remind you to stay focused and that your time is finite.The default setting is 20 minutes working with a 10 minute break. I find these 30 minute chunks helpful, but you can set the work and break times however you want, 50-10, 30-5, whatever. Could be used well in conjunction with Slim Timer, a time logging tool talked about in the first productivity tools post. You can download Focus Booster here.

Open Office

Don't have Microsoft Office? Can't afford it, don't want to illegally download it, or don't know how? Open office might be for you. It basically has everything Microsoft Office has but free, with the ability to save the files as ".doc" and other file designators so that your work can be opened by Microsoft office on other computers. The open office version of powerpoint is a little bare bones, but the word processor and spreadsheet programs are on point. You can download it here.

Write Monkey

Writing focus tool. As simple as it gets and sexy. Bare bones, with nothing on the screen but the text you type and a word count, it's perfect for avoiding distraction and typing in style. By right clicking on the side and going to preferences you can enable typewriting sounds, auto saves, change font, toggle between themes with the smiley button, and a more. Everything you need. Also, according to the installation readme "Writemonkey is a portable application so no installation is necessary. To start using it, just copy Writemonkey folder from the zip file to any folder on your disk." You can download it here.

OmmWriter

Another great writing tool to help you focus. From background sounds, to typing sounds, to colors and fonts, this baby has decent customization and a nice setup for zen writing. The main (or pretty much only) difference between this and write monkey are the calming background sounds. There are less options in customization than Write Monkey, but some people like that. Check out the video below for a feel.

You can download it here.

Starting a Writing Group

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 01:54:00 +0000

The story of my writing group:

A little less than a year ago a work colleague found out about my writing and asked the simple question: "Have you tried National Novel Writing Month yet?"
"Well no, not yet," I replied. And he went on to tell me that it was one of the best things he'd ever done was try it out and meet with a local writing group in Monterey, CA. He got SO much done, he said, more than he ever had before, "and it felt really good to have that support and camaraderie you know?" Hm, I thought, and told him I would think about it, he made it sound so great.

I thought about giving it a try and resolved to do so. Currently I write for this blog as well as a Persian language learning site, on top of occasional stories, songs, and poetry, but I haven't put work into a novel in years, and quite frankly I was getting tired of putting it off.

At this point November is coming up and I'm getting a little nervous, 1666 words a day? Every day? We'll see how this goes, I'm thinking to myself. Then my friend Murphy messages me seemingly out of the blue, says National Novel Writing Month is coming up and suggests a different plan of averaging 1500-3000 words a week for 4 months. I think to myself: that sounds much more realistic to accomplish. When he adds his idea of starting a writing group from a couple of our hometown friends we know that write, I'm immediately sold.

So we start a writing group consisting of four people and set out to write a novel, two of us from complex ideas and two of us from our short story ideas with no clear structure in sight. Two fantasy, one mystery, and myself a science fiction based in a pioneering, American-west-feeling Mars that is just finishing terraforming. The results are extremely encouraging. My positive points on start your very own writing group:

Accountability

This positive point is also the biggest negative one. We tend to have a Saturday night turn in, which lets us review on Sunday. Knowing others are expecting you to turn in at least SOMEthing that you did can be a good boost to motivation. Unless you're dedicated to procrastination as I sometimes am. Either way...someone else besides yourself will know you didn't do much, and your friends may yel- I mean, encourage you. And that's a step in the right direction.

Encouragement

Having people read and comment on your work is probably the most encouraging thing about this type of endeavor, having writers you trust and/or admire helps a lot too. Being in the pit with fellow writers and reading their work can help build a sense of comraderie, and that you're actually moving toward a goal together and witnessing each other's progress means something

Feedback and Much Needed Criticism

You used five titles to describe your flying, motorbike on Mars and it made sense in your mind because you wanted to give a feeling of both modern technology and American west antiquity. But it didn't work. It's overdone and your friends tell you.

^This is a perfect example of the value of having others there to read your work and tell you what they think. It can be very encouraging sometimes, and sometimes it's a touch embarrassing. But it's hard to argue that the extra pair of eyes isn't helpful. In my opinion, they should be as harsh and to the point as possible with a sense of what they were feeling and thinking when they read it, but to each his own.

You can sign up with your own account at figment here. Create a group, invite your friends.

Want on alternative to online? Try in-person meetups and clubs.

Another nice and helpful alternative to your own, personal, online group though is a local literary meetup. Meetup.com is a great place to find what you need and connect you with local writers, talent, inspiration, and support. From literary groups, to writing clubs, to writers eating together clubs, there's something for everyone everywhere, and it's a good opportunity to be encouraged, critiqued, and inspired by fellow writers that I highly recommend. If nothing else while I'm here in DC I plan on going out with the "Writers Eating DC" meetup to catch a bite, get out, and keep my head engaged about writing.

Driving the Plot Through Conflict: Three Questions When You're Stuck

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 04:29:00 +0000

You're writing such a great story, or novel, chapter, tale, vignette, allegory and suddenly you think, crap, what comes next?

Well, you don't want to just continue haphazardly and risk it being completely bad, no matter what some artistic-types preach about just getting it out there on the page. Because well, let's face it, either you're drawing a complete blank or you're a perfectionist. At the same time you like the idea you had, and you really don't want to abandon it. What do you do? Where do you go next? How do you get unstuck? These are questions that bother a lot of writers.

The first thing you have to remember is that the central component to any good story is conflict. With that in mind, what are some ways you can get your story back on the track to a proper conclusion? Or spark interesting and valuable conflict? If you're all out of ideas here are some questions that have the potential to kickstart your story's heart (and hope it never stops):

1) What is the absolute worst thing that could happen? aka: "He he he."

Major conflict. Again with the conflict thing, pretty obvious, but there's a lot to say about the things to keep in mind while asking this question.

Now a Tornado hitting, or a monster eating the romantic interest in front of your main character's eyes is all well and good, but can easily borderline cliche. When I say worst thing that could happen I'm not necessarily talking about 9-11, Hitler, or Hiroshima. I'm talking about real conflict that needs to be resolved by the various characters of your story.

It's important when thinking about the train wrecks you're getting ready to throw in front of your characters try to and think about how overcoming these problems will shape the characters and the direction of the story. Having the little boy dreaming of adventure confront real danger will serve to reveal his true nature and either develop him as a hero or expose his cowardice. By the same token being able to rescue his dying mother (again as cliche as that example sounds) even change who he is and drive him to have certain reactions.

Remember that the purposes of these conflicts are yes, to tell a great story, but also, and more importantly, to invoke thoughts and emotions in our characters and reveal their souls to our readers. To let us look into their minds and hearts. To reveal their past and lay the foundation for their future.

The important thing, when thinking about the worst thing that could happen, is to not only to think about what the worst thing that could happen to this boy, man, village, or armadillo is, but also what would be the worst thing for this individual, or situation, right now. And choosing the most interesting individual, place, time and way for it to happen.

For some people having your only son taken could be worse than having Godzilla step on your car.

Which leads us to the next question:

2) What do your characters want? aka "Messing up people's lives continued."

Minor conflict. Sometimes this can be as simple as figuring out what a person or group of people want and taking it away.

The muscled guy in the tank top wants to look tough. Humiliate him. The father of a newborn just wants a good night's sleep. Wake him up with his deepest fear (or maybe just a big pet peeve). Your protagonist wants to remember who he/she is. Keep them isolated or give them a debilitating injury to drag out the discovery process.

These are surface problems, simple luxuries, pains, inconveniences of life. As I've heard it put, and often repeat: "First world problems." But the interesting part of this seemingly superficial device is in deciding where you want the story to go, ie: who you want to mess with and when in order to drive the story forward or develop the many facets of the world you're telling it in.

Sure it makes sense to focus on and continuously ruin the main character's day, but why not have the girl he loves contract AIDs and see how he reacts? Ok, not a minor conflict really, but the point is to put problems before other people in the story. Putting small problems before your two-dimensional characters will develop them into more interesting, three-dimensional parts of your story, and contribute overall to the feeling of a multifaceted, interesting tale. As well as show how your protagonist/main characters might react to it. The bigger, less surface, and closer to affecting your protagonist these problems are, the more like major conflicts they become. But don't let that fool you, they're not.

Having seemingly ordinary people around your main characters encounter problems like falling asleep at their post, not having any cash on them, spilling mayonnaise on their sweaters, getting thrown out of a bar or caught in a lie may seem small. But it provokes reactions and drives dialogue and events.

Beside filling pages this makes the story more interesting and more believable. It lends flavor that can say much more about an environment in a single action than a page-long description of what it looks like. And let's face it friends, this isn't a perfect world. The less little problems that exist around your characters, the less believable that world is.

3) What do your characters really want? aka "The whirlpool"

This is a question that, interestingly enough, focuses less on your characters and more on where you're taking them. The question that really drives the plot, and the part that yes, can cause conflict, but often removes it and tells you where the story is going next.

Some doors have to close so others can open. To know which ones to close and which ones to open as a writer you need to look at both what drives your characters and where you want them to end up. Even if you don't completely know where you want them to end up, look at what they want and who they are: their hopes, dreams, and fears. Developing who your main characters are what they want is where a character bio could come in handy, but honestly just considering and deciding who the various characters are and what they want most is sufficient in this case.

What drives them? What are their main goals, their dreams, their habits and what they want and like most. Once you know their desires, have them pursue them. Because the fact is everyone pursues what they want: love, a rewarding career, drugs, sex, fitness, safety, whiskey, status, comfort, and thrills, whatever.

If a kid in a washed up town really wants to get out, the next logical step is to force him out from under the things that are keeping him there, or have him struggle to overcome those obstacles. Removing obstacles can be as just as powerful in moving the plot forward as creating them.

But the thing is that EVERYONE wants something; the vendor serving your detective coffee, the mayor of the rundown town in the middle of nowhere, the guard on the cell block, the copy editor for your reporter, the dog in the neighbor's yard, the couple walking down the street. Think about what is driving every single character in the environment of your story, have them all go for it, and then focus on the parts that make for good storytelling. The ultimate goal of this question is to have this whirling pool of wants and desires collide over and over again to make the ending that you want to see.

So, the next time you're sitting in front of your keyboard with no idea how to get through to the next part of the story, where to go, what comes next, be sure to turn to these three questions for driving the plot.

Thanks for reading :D Liked what you read? Try checking out the popular posts linked to at the top of the side bar.

Writing With Your Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:12:00 +0000

"No thinking - that comes later. You write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!" -Sean Connery as William Forrester

Two posts ago I quoted Stephen King saying that the most important advice he could give up and coming writers is to simply "Read a lot, and write a lot." Sage advice. Simple, laconic, direct. But it leaves some people wondering how, why, or what the thought process behind that may be. Watching "Finding Forrester" the other day for the first time in a long time and hearing the above quote was like a light bulb flipping on in my head. The perfect way to explain simply...writing, and why it is the first key to writing.

Though King is very terse in his advice to aspiring writers he has said much more on the subject that is often overlooked. And that much more is that writing without the passion, without the heart, without the creativity is often choppy and lacking. It doesn't flow properly. The only method that flows is creating that direct stream to your subconscious, the story that you want to come out. But that stream doesn't flow from your head, it flows from your heart.

"It’s head down, bum up during the creative process. Go with the flow. Let the inspiration work its magic. Later when it’s all down on paper it’s time to turn on the analytical parts of the brain and examine what’s good and what’s, well…that’s what the backspace key is for." -Stephen King

If there's no inspiration, just freaking go with it anyway! If you can let your heart take over and scribble down what comes to mind on instinct, without mulling it over or trying to improve it, you've successfully made that connection to your subconscious. It's when you try to plan and plan and rewrite before you even write that you can end up blocking yourself. Because you've stopped up that stream to your subconscious! All over-thinking does is screw up, tire, and discourage a writer as he's creating a story. "I've given up thinking - it keeps getting me into trouble." -King

Stephen King is a major success as a commercial writer. He's pushed out more bestseller's, had more books sold, and more books made into movies than nearly any other modern day writer. But King and Forrester aren't the only ones who agree on writing from the heart. Dorothea Brande, Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, and many others feel the same.

Dean Koontz said this in an interview: "If you give yourself entirely to intuition but then bring hard intellectual analysis to what the intuition produces, you'll be okay." And age old editors and writers alike believe that the single best piece of advice to young writers is simply to write. Article: Single best piece of writing advice - Harper Lee, John Steinback, Carl Sandburg weigh in

If you get nothing else from this article, remember simply that the first key to writing is to write. And the best way to do this is to do so without thinking; to trust your intuition, your subconscious, your heart, and let it take you away.

"When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'One word at a time.'" -Stephen King

A Conversation with Ray Bradbury

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:16:00 +0000

For those of you who do not know, Ray Bradbury is a critically acclaimed writer most famous for his novel Fahrenheit 451.

All I can say is that this guy is amazing, the whole 29 minute video is worth the watch. If nothing else however, watch about the first half, as many bits of helpful advice for writers are revealed and Ray Bradbury does the perfect job of passing on "The Zen of Writing." At 5:45 the actual talk about writing begins. Quite inspirational to writers, Ray Bradbury a hilarious, wise, all-around great man. Enjoy.

How Reading Helps Your Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:10:00 +0000

Stephen King’s age-old advice to success as a writer: “read a lot, write a lot,” it’s just that simple. Reading is essential to becoming a GOOD writer, and even a GREAT writer. The “write a lot” portion will be covered in later posts, but for now I will detail a LARGELY overlooked aspect of becoming a writer: reading helps your writing. Here's how:

Helps build a better command of the language: You can not help but get rubbed off on by good writing, it’s infectious. Bad writing can be even more beneficial because it leaves an imprinted emotion with each error you read. The subconscious memory of you reading the messed up passage and saying "Whaaat the eff" to yourself will be with you forever.

Gives you a feel for your genre: Writers stress this often. This mainly applies to those looking to get published, but also to anyone trying to make good fiction. Reading gives you a feel for what’s been done before, what has not. A feel for what works, and what sells, and what doesn't, which are valuable pieces of information.

Stirs the imagination: When you read, you imagine. You taste and feel and see the events unfolding out before you. You have to, or there would be no entertainment value in it. This is good exercise for your imaginative muscles, but more importantly it gets those muscles recharged and rejuvenates them. It's been proven that people who exercise more have more energy. And in just the same way those who exercise mentally have more mental and imaginative energy.

Serves as resource for ideas: Now I’m not telling you to steal places, names, characters, but that reading provides those excellent moments where you find yourself saying “That’s a GREAT idea, that really makes the story…you know, I could make my story much better if I incorporated it into it like this.” Example: A title of a book I saw read “Secrets of the Sunless Planet.” Now I don't plan on writing the same story, or even a similar story, but I do plan on incorporating a 'sunless planet' because hey, that’s just awesome. Nothing's new under the sun, just the way we look at those things. A microwave's still a microwave, a person with a speech impediment's still a person with a speech impediment, and just because Joe Schmoe uses a character with super strength doesn't mean anyone else can't make a new and wonderful story with a similar idea.

Creates a desire to write: This last reason is best expressed in a clip below featuring Stephen King. It really combines several reasons in a very profound and hilarious way. Best part is toward the end:

Free Productivity Tools For Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:34:00 +0000

Everyone loves free tools. But most of all, we love free tools that are actually helpful. If you're looking for a way to stay on task, organized, and push past the roadblocks of the writing occupation, then you will find at least one of these to lend you a hand. Enjoy:

-Y Writer Y Writer is a program that saves and organizes your writing into different chapters, books, and even paragraphs. Also provides tools for outlining and an ease of finding sections to edit (and separating the finished from the unfinished). Again, provides a sense of accomplishment because you actually see the results of your labor stacking up.

-Team Viewer Access files on your computer remotely over the internet. Helpful when you’re out and about somewhere writing (such as a coffee shop or friend’s house) and need access to files on your home computer.

-Slim Timer This baby will track your tasks. As the link to opening the timer as an html file (for a shortcut) on your desktop, and whenever you're doing something open up the timer, add the task, click on it, and then click it again when you're done. The website will log the time spent on each task and you can use it to see how long you spend writing, editing, researching, or even cleaning, netflix, and goofing off if you log it. It's a good tool for better time management, motivation, and goal setting.

-The Story Starter Generates story-starting sentences, which can be helpful for blocked writers and generating ideas. Even though it is obviously it uses a formula with subjects, verbs, objects, etc. sometimes the most random and senseless start-up sentence contains a creativity-sparking gem.

Visit http://emilycaseysmusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/helpful-writing-software.html for another list of tools. I recommend the Dark Room she lists there.

One, Two, and Three Dimensional Characters and How to Use Them

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:47:00 +0000

Different characters have different levels of depth to them, dimension if you will. A concept I read about once, categorizes these levels into dimension types and explores those types to better aid in character creation and story telling. This article is my spin on the different levels of character depth as well as my commentary on the ways I've found most helpful in using them effectively.

At first glance it seems like a simple concept, but distinguishing these dimension types and integrating them properly into a story can GREATLY improve reader engagement, scene pacing, and believability. Recognizing both the under-developed and over-developed characters in my stories helped me improve my writing in the aforementioned areas and it can do the same for you. It is important for a writer to know both when a character needs to be developed and when to move on.

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A one-dimensional character constitutes the "walk on" parts of the story. These are your waiters, your cab drivers, bartenders, a mother walking down the street, or the random pikeman your hero stabs through the face (though not always). They are briefly seen and do not speak. One-dimensional characters that spend more than several pages in your story should be made two-dimensional. Beside possible subplots, adding realism to an environment, or even promoting general interest, any interaction with a main character serves to flesh out the personality of both characters and add dimension to a scene or personality. Any walk-on that could successfully be made into two-dimensional character should...unless doing so awkwardly upstages an important character/moment or harmfully dilutes the pacing of a scene.

A two-dimensional character is the same as one-dimensional character except for the fact that they show one emotion or character trait. They are also known as "cardboard" characters, your cutouts, because they lack dimension. They show a little bit of character through their words, actions, or emotions, but everything they reveal is of a one-track nature that's somewhat undeveloped and often lacking in background, explanation, or depth.

Unlike the one-dimensional character, they must react through speech or gesture to reveal an emotional trait. Their reactions and integrations in the story are often brief, but not always. Though a main character may be present the majority of the story, if he/she is lacking in depth, complexity, or history, that character becomes two-dimensional. One of the biggest dangers to believability or engagement of readers in a story is a lack of depth to main, or even secondary characters.

A three-dimensional character however, plays an important role in the story and constitutes all major characters, including villains. They have complex emotions and sometimes conflicting motives, troubled pasts and deep worries. They are alive with passion and ambition and desire, never apathetic (and if they are, they are overly apathetic).

Every feature and aspect about them is exaggerated and heightened, and the reader must absolutely understand who they are, and have a profound feeling that they existed long before the story began. Any character that spends longer than several pages in your book should be three-dimensional, or the reader can quickly lose interest.
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Problems in choice of characters arise when a character is much too shallow (i.e. a hero having little to no background, identifying characteristics, or consistency in personality) or when too much focus is given to a character that does not influence the events of the story in any major way (i.e. a waiter being psycho-analyzed through narrative when the major characters meeting in the restaurant are supposed to be the main focus). Misusing or poorly developing characters are among the best ways to lose reader interest. So make sure you both focus your narrative attention and develop your characters accordingly.

Thanks for reading :D Liked what you read? Try checking out the popular posts linked to at the top of the side bar.
For more tips on developing characters specifically, check out the article on character bio's/character building at: Character Bio's: Why and How

Good Writing Books to Download or Purchase

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:11:00 +0000

Ok, first...getting the books the free and illegal way.
You're going to need to download this to download from piratebay: http://www.utorrent.com/ so get that first. Next since the package of Ebooks you'll be downloading is compressed into a rar you may need a more heavy duty extractor such as 7-zip: http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Now you're all geared up to pirate, arrgggh! Recommended packages and books:

Most worthwhile and essential books of the first package include: "On Writing Stephen King, "How to Write a Damn Good Novel" volumes 1 and 2, James Frey, and "A guide to writing novels and getting published" Bob Mayer.
The second package has much of the same books as the first, with more variety and focus concerning Grammar.
The third and fourth items on the list are books concerning writing for journalism, and although they focus on the aspects of writing non-fiction they contain valuable information on the mechanics of writing.

If you're looking to purchase (either for a hardcopy, or honor's sake). The Idiots Guide and Elements of style are not in the download packages, but highly recommended. Here are links to good books on writing:

Several Writing Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:54:00 +0000

Just a few sites for goodies on writing:
http://writing-journey.com/
http://www.frankswales.com/
http://www.writeexposure.co.uk/
http://www.jakaaz.com/Adsense2/volume4/writng-tips/index.html

More money orientated:
http://www.onlinejobs4all.co.in/
http://www.makemoneyfromwriting.com/

Character Bio's: Why and How

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:22:00 +0000

Why
It's important as a fiction writer to know your characters. Giving your characters in-depth backgrounds, goals, and features and keeping all of those things consistent provides believable people for your story.
Not only should you know your characters, you should know them better than your reader. How do you get to know them well? By writing answering questions about them for yourself. Whether you commit them to memory or miniature character biographies is up to you. Benefits?

Helps writing a character's actions and reactions come faster and more natural
Well rounded, interesting, and deep characters engage readers and are more believable than two-dimensional, shallow, cardboard cut-outs
A Bio/dossier gives you a complete picture of who they are so that, with this in mind, you can take them on a journey that hopefully helps them grow

Most writers can create good characters off the cuff but is that character vivid in their minds? Can the writer instantly judge how they would act or react in a given situation or intimately understand where they are and where they're going? Most likely not.

If you really DO have a vivid idea of what your character is like then a character bio is a sure way to keep it consistent as the story progresses, or as a reference to revisit later.

How
Your biographies are mainly for the purpose of developing complex, three-dimensional characters. And so the "how" of the three dimensional character bio is based on Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing's three dimensions of Physiological, Sociological, and Psychological (i.e. physical, environmental, mental/emotional). Each plays an important part in who the character is. I'll give you his take character bio's first, then mine.

Egri's handy-dandy checklist:

Physiological (physical) - height, weight, age, sex, body color (eyes, hair, skin), age, sex, race, health, equipment, clothing style. Beautiful or ugly, short or tall, fat or skinny, etc. Identifying features.
Sociological (environmental) - social class, place they grew up, education, groups they were a part of, how they interact with people, pet peeves, childhood (values taught, scarring, different places they visited, fond or haunting memories), parents' attitudes. Lots of friends or few friends in the past, introverted or extroverted, assertive or passive, bullied or bully, or neither. Past experiences, organizations, and people that have affected them. Write their resume.
Psychological (mental/emotional) - The true make-up of a character and each point affects strongly how your character interacts)--Fears. Guilts. Wants and Goals. Aptitudes. Special abilities. Talents. Habits. Irritability. (possibly) Mental illnesses. How they view themselves. Favorite phrases and words. Reasoning and Beliefs. Who are they?

My take on Character Bio's:

Mental (because it's the most important). First off, hate and love. If a character hates/hated something/someone, or loves/loved something/someone, these are defining points of their psyche and approach to life. Second off, defining characteristics, i.e. how would their friends describe them? If they're known for being stoic, belligerent, poetic, pragmatic, whatever, if it stands out I make a note of this mentally and/or on paper. Thirdly and secondary to the first two: anything else that could drive them. This includes their fears, guilts, goals, habits, and talents, and should just as closely tied into their past as their hates, loves, and defining characteristics.
A little background (where they were). Past events, upbringing, groups they've been a part of, these things all add interest, depth, and believability to a character.
Where they are and where they're going. This falls in line with plotting. But knowing their emotional/mental state at the moment and where you want to take this character and what you want to do with them GREATLY adds to the continuity and depth of both the character and the story.
Appearance. I list this last because it's the least important. If readers wanted an exact description of everyone and everything...they'd watch a movie. Written stories provide us an entrance into a character's mind and a depth of insight into a scene and story that cannot be done with dialogue and scenery alone. While it's important to know a general sense of what your characters look like, unless it's integral to a scene or the character's personality, past, or present situation, it doesn't really matter. I make sure to know some of the things from Egri's checklist, but leaving something to the imagination is a positive, not a negative.

I'll give you a little example. Once upon a time I was having a bunch of friends beta read several scenes of mine and give me their thoughts. I forget what led me to do this (maybe a piece of scenery one didn't like) but I asked them to describe in their own words how they pictured the inside of this prison block on a spaceship, as well as the halls of the ship itself. Then I asked them to describe the main character. You know what happened? Each of the responses was slightly, if not wildly different, and made me realize both what I needed to add to the scene and what the human imagination is capable of completely making up on its own.

Something I left out of my take on Bio's, but just as important to character development:
Whatever defining traits you give a character (especially a main one!) should be exaggerated. Even less defining traits shown more strongly in a situation help make a scene more interesting. An angrier, more stoic, more belligerent, more paranoid, more giving, or more (insert adjective here) character can and will be much more interesting to read in action than a moderate perpetrator of the same trait. The opposite of "exaggerated" in character development is bland. While a bit of background and realism can prevent these exaggerated traits from coming across as cheesy or cliche, cheesy is better than bland.

An effective (and easy) way to give characters depth is to make them emotional firestorms. Deeply troubled, deeply idealistic, deeply wounded and lacking inside (which consequently leads them to a deep addiction to a substance). An extremely effective way to push two-dimensional secondary characters into the three-dimensional range. This makes them more interesting right off the bat and communicates without a doubt who they are.

In conclusion:

A well developed character can drive an entire scene, even an entire story. A character's wants and desires spur action, drive the characters, and sometimes even drive a scene or story. People pursue what they want. If you set three different characters in a room and give them each their own unique desires and goals for that interaction, you can quickly begin to work out how it might turn into an interesting scene. Real people want things and take action to obtain them. They don't just float through life reacting to the bad things that happen to them, though conflict is important for an engaging plot as I talk about in the beginning of this article.

Writing, or even thinking about, a character bio can help you flesh them out and produce a more vivid character, scene, and even story.

Thanks for reading :D Liked what you read? Follow The Writing Tools or try checking out the popular posts linked to at the top of the side bar. For a related topic on character types, try One, Two, and Three Dimensional Characters and How to Use Them

The Benefits of the Spiral Notebook

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Writing longhand (much less in a notebook) is not nearly as popular as it used to be, and this is no mystery. Computers have made the job of writing much easier with a faster word rate, spell check, thesauri, ease of editing, etc.

But there are many benefits to writing in longhand that are overlooked, as the method seems out of date. I have recently found a personal preference for the notebook over the notebook computer because of the ease of transportation and because it give me less excuses to avoid writing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Less Excuses to Avoid Writing (and other benefits)
1)Easier to start, and stop- Just the flip the spiral notebook open and go; no logging in, saving, putting it on standby when you leave. The notebook is ever-ready for you to pick it up, and set it down. Piece of cake.

2)Notes in margins- No need to open new documents or get separate sheets of paper for items such as ideas, outlines, notes for the future, maps, drawings, things to edit, because the margins provide room for all of this. If they do not, then you can always skip a page and use it as space for you miscellaneous needs. Better organization and no breaks in your writing to stop and make a document, or stop and get a piece of paper.
3)No more scratch paper- Making a name, doing a bit of math, reminding yourself of things you need to do? Scribble it in the notebook. As mentioned above there's ample space in the notebook, and no need to set down or leave your writing to do whatever you must.

4)An opportunity to edit- If you plan on submitting your work for publication, showing to friends, or just printing a copy, you're going to need to type it up. This gives you the chance to proofread, subtract, and add to what you've written. With this in mind, and because of the fact you'll run out of room to edit eventually you're forced to focus on writing, instead of the constant: edit-write some more-stop-edit-write.

5) Form words as you write- Because writing longhand is slower, you theoretically have more time to form better sentences, and a more fluid continuous (not having to stop and think) writing motion.

6)Easier to take with you places-Reasons for this discussed in "Ease of Transportation" below.

Ease of Transportation
1)Weight- Even the smallest of laptops weigh 2-3 pounds, while the average notebook weighs ounces.

2)Size- Much thinner and easily stored than 95% of laptops (estimated-in other words, completely guessed-figure).

3)Power- "Oh no! I forgot to recharge my spiral notebook!" Uh-uh, doesn't happen. Your writing time is never cut short (except for maybe the need of a new writing utensil-which is rare) and there's no need to hassle over power cords.

4)The Conspicuous factor- The student in the classroom can not whip out his laptop and start writing when there's a lull in the classwork, theater go-er's ca not power up their computer before the show, it's considered rude to bring a computer to places like church, or the dinner table, or a restaurant. With the spiral notebook there's no LED light, it takes up less space, it doesn't make noises, it's easier to pull out and to put away, and people are less inclined to bug you with the "Why do you have your laptop?"

5)Less likely to get stolen- $700 laptop or 50 cent notebook? This isn't a tough choice for a thief. With a notebook you do not have to worry about it getting stolen because, hey, who wants a bunch of paper? And you will never have to incur monetary loss, unless of course you have a completed novel between the covers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though I still use the computer for writing, I find it much more convenient and easier to get into the daily writing habit with a spiral notebook. But to each his own.

Statistics
-Average (wide ruled) handwritten page: 200 words
-Average time to type (wide ruled) handwritten page: 15 minutes

How To Write "Good"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:28:00 +0000

How To Write Good:

I don't completely know where this came from, but some of it is derived from William Safire's Rules for Writers. You can find the page that I got this from at the link below. Love how an example of what not to do is given in each.

1. Always avoid alliteration.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague--they're old hat.
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
8. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
9. Contractions aren't necessary.
10. Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.
11. One should never generalize.
12. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
13. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
14. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
15. It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
16. Avoid archaeic spellings too.
17. Understatement is always best.
18. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
19. One-word sentences? Eliminate. Always!
20. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
21. The passive voice should not be used.
22. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
23. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
24. Who needs rhetorical questions?
25. Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.
26. Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
27. Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
28. Subject and verb always has to agree.
29. Be more or less specific.
30. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
31. Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
32. Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
33. Don't be redundant.
34. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
35. Don't never use no double negatives.
36. Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.
37. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
38. Eschew obfuscation.
39. No sentence fragments.
40. Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
41. A writer must not shift your point of view.
42. Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
43. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
44. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
45. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
46. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
47. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
48. Always pick on the correct idiom.
49. The adverb always follows the verb.
50. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
51. If you reread your work, you cn find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
52. And always be sure to finish what

Find the article at: http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/humor/writegood.cfm

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How Reading Helps Your Writing

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One, Two, and Three Dimensional Characters and How to Use Them

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Several Writing Websites

Character Bio's: Why and How

The Benefits of the Spiral Notebook

How To Write "Good"