Category: Writing Tips

Using Track Changes to Revise an Outline

Writing Tips

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraigOutline with comments

Over the last couple of years, I’ve transformed into a (very reluctant) outliner.  Long story short, I royally screwed up a couple of books really close to deadline when I’d pantsed them, and with the schedule I’m on, I decided I couldn’t afford mistakes anymore.  Or maybe it’s just that my heart couldn’t afford them since I’m sure my blood pressure shot through the roof.

So I outline.  My outlines are completely conversational, in paragraph form, and cover the whole story from start to finish.  More about my process of outlining in this post from last August.   More about what I feel the pros and cons are for outlining in this post from February.Continue reading

Writing Real Characters Amid Horrible Violence: Tips from a True-Crime Writer

Mystery Writing Tips, Writing Tips

By Dan Morse, @morsedan, author of The Yoga Store Murder

Unknown

In 2011, as a reporter for The Washington Post, I covered the most violent of murders in the least likely of places. Someone had slashed, stabbed and struck Jayna Murray more than 331 times in the back of a high-end yoga store. The killer used more than six weapons, including a hammer, wrench, knives and a jagged steel bar used to display merchandise. That dichotomy – complete mayhem in a place of peace and Zen – got me thinking about writing a book about the case.

To pull readers along for 300-plus pages, though, I needed detailed scenes that not only advanced the plot, but also built out very real characters. After all, readers of non-fiction are like readers of mysteries; they want to get to know people as they turn each page.Continue reading

Fine-Tuning a Manuscript–Comma Usage

Writing Tips

Guest Post by Jack SmithWrite and Revise for Publication

In fiction what is “correct” is what works—what creates strong characters, drives the story, and creates the appropriate tone.  This applies to grammar and mechanics as well.  I’ll have to admit, I do tend to be a bit schoolmarmy about the conventions of grammar and mechanics, but I also recognize when it’s important to depart from the standard handbook.  A bullet train of comma splices might be desirable if you’re attempting to capture run-on thought.   No punctuation at all might also be.  When I’m editing my own work, as well as the work of others in my role as Fiction Editor for The Green Hills Literary Lantern, I tend to notice the following kinds of grammatical issues: subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference, misplaced modifiers, and, of course, matters of punctuation, which includes commas, semi-colons, colons, apostrophes, parenthesis—and more.

I’ll limit my comments here to commas.  According to strict handbook rules and conventions, where should you use commas?Continue reading

Frogs, Hot Water, and the Seven Deadly Sins: Making Trouble for Characters

Writing Tips

by Man Martin, @manmartin1Days of the Endless Corvette

I’ve been reading students’ unpublished novels for a summer class I’m teaching alongside Nancy Zafris at Kenyon College in Ohio.  Again and again, I see the same fundamental flaw: the characters refuse to get into trouble.  This is understandable.  Most of us – except for the hopelessly neurotic – are very good at avoiding trouble.  This isn’t to say we run from challenges, but trouble itself we stay out of.  If there are difficult people with whom we can’t get along, we either stay out of their way entirely or deal with them on a superficial level, being as outwardly courteous as we can stand.  We do not take deliberate actions to sabotage our love lives or our careers.  For the most part, we obey the law.  We don’t embezzle funds or commit murder.

No one should get into trouble if there’s any way to avoid it.  Trouble makes everyone unhappy.  Trouble prevents us from self-fulfillment.  Trouble causes stress and migraines.  Trouble is just too much trouble.Continue reading

Twitterific Writing Links

Twitterific, Writing Tips

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Blog

Twitterific links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 23,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Creating Matriarchies:  http://ow.ly/xxbKI  @mythcreants

Tips for writing villains–villain theory:  http://ow.ly/xxa5H from Clever Girl Helps

Self-published authors: where you live doesn’t matter:  http://ow.ly/xxbzr @chrisrobley

Why 1 Writer Isn’t Publishing Paperbacks:  http://ow.ly/xxakH @MikeWellsAuthorContinue reading

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