Helping Writers Go from Unpublished to Published
In his book The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Bell says,
[E]very character in every scene must have an objective, otherwise he shouldn’t be there. Replace him with a chair.
Review your WIP. If you find a character(s) who is superfluous? Do as Bell suggests, rewrite the scene and cut the character.
Now reread the scene. Is it stronger, weaker, mediocre? Revise until you are satisfied. It may mean putting the character back in, but do that only after you’ve determined his/her objective.
The benefits of membership in a writer’s organization are numerous. The benefits vary from organization to organization, but here are just a few:
I presently belong to two writer’s groups. The free webinars I get from Christian Writer’s Guild far outweigh the $99/yearly membership fee. The networking and camaraderie I receive from fellow writers in Heart of America Christian Writers Network keeps me encouraged and connected to the writing world, and I get regular notifications of markets wanting stories.
A Google search on “writers organizations” will yield a plethora of pages that offer a listing of organizations. While the listings aren’t exhaustive, they are worth the visit. You can dig deeper by searching on specific genres. Both the Writer’s Digest Market Guide and The Christian Writer’s Market Guide give information on writer’s organizations.
Here are a few direct links:
Being connected to an organization within your field/genre will yield marketing opportunities and allow you to develop relationships that will both encourage you as a writer and push you forward in your writing career.
What value have you found from the writers’ group you belong to?
Debra L. Butterfield © 2013
Formatting your submissions according to a publication’s writer’s guidelines is essential. Finding those guidelines isn’t always easy, and even in this day of digital everything you often have to request guidelines via email.
For easy reference, FreelanceWriting.com provides a database of 836 writer’s guidelines, by category. http://www.freelancewriting.com/guidelines/pages/
Point of view. Think about those words and it will help you.
From whose perspective are you viewing your scene? Whose feelings and thoughts are being expressed in the scene?
Example from my present WIP:
Chase stared at Karl with what he hoped was a questioning, please-continue look in his blue eyes, but Karl just sat there like a dog refusing to fetch. He took a deep breath, clearly concerned and struggling for words.
Explanation:
We are in Chase’s POV. He is describing what he does (stared at Karl), and because he can’t see his own face describes what he hopes he’s trying to convey (a questioning, please-continue look). Chase goes on to describe Karl’s behavior (doesn’t respond, takes a deep breath, Chase sees concern on Karl’s face and discerns that Karl is struggling to find his words).
Practice: Whose POV is this in?
The breath Chase had been holding escaped violently, involuntarily. Abby’s mouthful of coffee came sputtering out all over her lap and across the corner of Karl’s desk. Karl pulled a handkerchief from his suit coat breast pocket and handed it to Abby. She wiped her mouth and then swiped away the coffee from Karl’s desk. (Leave your answer in the comments section.)
Review several pages of your work in progress. Are you showing the observations and feelings of more than one character in one paragraph, one page, one scene? Rework accordingly.
Would you like some feedback or help? Copy a paragraph from your WIP into the comments section and we’ll discuss.
Related articles:
Point of View Defined
Debra L. Butterfield © 2013
I regularly notice that writers incorrectly shift from one character’s point of view (POV) to another. That is, they give us more than one POV in the same paragraph. I know I did when I first began writing fiction, and I continued to struggle until I got my brain wrapped around what POV is.
Nancy Kress in her book Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint defines it thus: “whose eyes we view the action through, whose head we’re inside of, whose feelings we experience as that character feels them.”
Let me show you how it works with something from my book Claiming Her Inheritance.
POV done incorrectly:
Leslie sat directly across from Chase, her head down, elbows on the table, face in her hands. Her silky brunette locks fell forward, brushing the table. Chase could see the slow rise and fall of her shoulders and hear the deep breaths she took in, held, and then released.
Explanation:
Because Leslie’s name comes first the reader falls into Leslie’s point of view without even thinking about it and sees Chase sitting across from her. The reader may even imagine herself in Leslie’s face-in-her-hands position, her silky hair softly brushing against her face, and feel Leslie’s emotional discomfort. But in the third sentence the POV shifts to Chase because now we are seeing what he is seeing, hearing what he is hearing.
POV done correctly:
Chase watched Leslie directly across from him, her head down, elbows on the table, face in her hands. Her silky brunette locks fell forward, brushing the table. He could see the slow rise and fall of her shoulders and hear the deep breaths she took in, held, and then released.
Explanation:
The difference is minor in actual words, but where point of view is concerned it now all comes from Chase’s POV. We are seeing and hearing what he does.
It’s best to keep each scene in one character’s POV. When shifting it is best to do it at the beginning of a chapter. If you shift within the chapter, you’ll want to add a line space with a few asterisks centered on the line to help the reader know there is a shift coming.
Do you have a question about POV? Leave your questions and comments below.
Related articles:
Debra L. Butterfield © 2013
Readers want to see character growth and change through the course of the story. This is the character arc of your story. Character growth can be as simple as having your heroine realize she doesn’t need a man in her life to be happy, or as complex as overcoming the childhood trauma of abuse.
Here are 5 questions to ask yourself either before you begin to write or during.
As in life, it usually isn’t any one thing, but a combination of happenings that bring about change/growth in our lives. So it is with your story characters. These five questions will get you on your way to creating characters readers can connect with.
I highly recommend Nancy Kress’s book Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint. Check the link to the right for more information (affiliate link).
Debra L. Butterfield © 2013
The adjective that exists solely as decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader. … make your adjectives do work that needs to be done. —William Zinsser, On Writing Well
“Bloated, chunky, dull dialogue is a five-alarm warning to the reviewer that you can’t write salable fiction,” says James Scott Bell in his book The Art of War for Writers.
Dialogue, like any other part of your novel, must move your story forward.
An important part of good dialogue is the distinctive voice of each character. Even if your characters grew up in the same neighborhood and went to the same schools, they have different parents, siblings, and perspectives on life. Those things will affect the way they speak.
Discover your character’s voice by creating a voice journal, a stream of conscious writing you write from a character’s POV. Start your character’s journal by having her or him respond to the questions “Who am I and what do I want?” Then write for about 10 or 15 minutes.
I recommend creating a journal for each main character of your story. Utilize these journals throughout the process of writing your novel, especially when you feel stuck.
What tools do you use to create compelling dialogue?
Debra L. Butterfield © 2013