Phillip Williams - Author
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Lately, I've had others comment on how much they like my outline. Admittedly, I first thought about saying thank you, that's very flattering but I'm married... and then I realised that I had my laptop open. Solid joke, I know. But in all seriousness, I've had enough positive comments for me to want to give this method its own blog post. It is probably one of the simplest things to do and it helps you to keep track of where you are. So picture this... You've written down all of your plot points and put them all in order. You know exactly what needs to happen and at which point in the story they need to occur. The next thing to consider is where you can store these for easy access; making it easy to edit, chop and change as and when you need to. The answer, of course is a spreadsheet. Mine looks like this (blank, of course... don't want to give you the story until it's done): Having this format will make it super easy to keep track of where you are. I even highlight the row in green once I've completed the scene. So... let's break it down: Scene Number This doesn't necessarily mean Chapter Number. If it works, you can transition between scenes using line breaks. Just make it obvious that's what you're doing so that the reader doesn't find it jarring. Date This refers to the date that the scene is happening. It is just as important to understand when something is happening as well as where so that you adopt particular writing styles. If it's set in the Victorian era, you're not going to be discussing social media, for instance. Focus Character You may have several characters in your story, so this helps to keep track of which character you're writing for. This helps if you're switching between characters and don't want them to be in too many consecutive chapters. Characters Who else is in the scene? If they're important enough to form part of the plot, they need to be included. Movies need extras; books, not so much. Location The where to the when and the why. I like to try to re-use locations so that I only have to describe it once. Still, important to know where your character(s) are so that you can prompt yourself to include smells and other nuances. If they're in a factory for instance, you can prompt yourself to mention the smell of burning coal and the noise of the machinery, etc. Plot/Action What is happening in the scene. Simple as that. Sub-Plots/Arcs The not so simple part of the above... why is it important to the story? Notes Will there be things that you need to change as you go? Probably. This section helps you to add extra things that you need to add/change/mention. This one is more flexible than the others because it really is just for little reminders for yourself. Word Count You can keep an eye on how much time your reader will spend on each section. If one scene is in at 3000 words and the other scenes are sitting at 1200 each you can ask yourself... have I rambled a bit? Can I trim that down? Or vice-versa, of course if you find yourself with just 400 words in a scene. Here's another neat little trick to help you keep track as well: NB: I decided to break my story down into ACT I / ACT II / ACT III - this is just my approach. You don't have to use it. If you freeze the top row, you can write scenes galore with as much information as you wish. It just means that as you scroll down, you will still be able to see the categories as you do so.
As I said though, this is all just how I approach things myself. If it doesn't work for you, then that's fine. One size does not fit all. Let me know what you think! Feel free to use it and get in touch if you need a hand. As ever, thank you for reading! Until next time...
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Here's the story. I sent off my first three chapters to my small team of beta readers and got some feedback. Great dialogue, natural flow, easy to follow. Great! But... not enough exposition. So, I needed to learn a bit more about how to strengthen this. So I took to the internet and I did what I do best... you probably guessed it... research. Now the first question for those who don't already know: What is meant by the term 'exposition'? The Oxford dictionary defines this as: 'A comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory.' In my mind when I started to write the book, I would split it into three parts, similarly to a screenplay (even though there are articles out there opposing the three-act structure... which I don't understand why). In my head: Act I would be the set-up; Act II would be the action; and Act III would be the finale. Thus, my understanding was that my exposition would be the overarching meaning of Act I. I was incorrect. Also, the Oxford definition of exposition is not what we are looking at when it comes to writing. Fundamentally yes... practically... not so much. So let's get into it. Exposition is... You can look at exposition in a couple of ways, in my opinion. Firstly, you can see it in the way that my beta readers did whereby you are simply incorporating more backstory to add character depth. Simple, right? So how do you go about it? To add more character depth and incorporate more back story you need to entwine this within the characters thoughts or dialogue. In my novel, my main character (MC) had a brief memory and stated that it was 'probably the last happy memory she had of her Mother'. I left it there, and later on when her Father says to her 'we don't have to tell your Mother about it' and my MC has to stop herself from saying 'don't worry, you're not the only one keeping secrets', I didn't delve into it. My thought process was that it would result in there being some intrigue. I was wrong, it was too vague and I need to add more. There is a backstory that my MC knows, that other characters don't. The point is... you are in your MC's head! You can tell the readers what the MC knows and still keep it from the other characters. So, I will be doing that... pronto! And then it hit me... there is a second way to strengthen exposition! The story is starting off too slowly. It's supposed to be a crime thriller/drama and so far, the set up is eating up all of the lovely, lovely drama! This meant re-writing Chapter 1 (which luckily I had already written for my first draft, and then scrapped) to not only add backstory to the character... but going back to the Oxford definition, I could add a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory. Transposing a couple of the meanings: Comprehensive description/explanation = a chapter Idea/Theory = the theme of the novel A chapter that allows me to add drama, in context about something that happens in the story. A chapter which predetermines the pace of the book. Something that says to the reader: Hey, this is what you can expect once all of the set up and character introductions are out of the way. Obviously I'm not going to tell you here... you have to wait for the book... or become a beta-reader/critique partner for me. It's bloody exciting though! A practical example of this, too... Now that story did pretty well...
I hope you found this useful and something you can adapt to your own stories. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading. Until next time... ![]() It's been rather quiet here as of late. The reason... I've actually been writing. Which was kind of the point of this whole exercise. Needless to say, I'm pretty darned chuffed. It feels like such a long time ago that I was jotting down ideas in my writer's journal; thinking about different plot ideas and how many twists and turns I could incorporate into my roller-coaster story. It doesn't feel like too long ago that I posted a picture of my plotting progress, though. I am still very early on in the actual writing process, but I am much farther along now. If you missed it, this is a picture of my wall a few weeks back: The second picture is all about collating the notes into a spreadsheet. The headers on that spreadsheet include: Scene # / Date / Focus Character / Characters / Location / Plot-Action / Sub-Plots / Notes / #Words # being 'Number of'... the conventional meaning. #OldSkool, right? So, I populated the entire sheet with all of the individual plot points (of which there were 68 across the three acts). Then, I got to writing. Along the way, I thought I would tell a bunch of people about what I was doing. I had a few work colleagues who expressed an interest so I bit the bullet and asked, "Will you be my beta reader?". Thankfully, they agreed and this weekend I posted off my first three chapters for review. So far, I've had some glowing responses, great critique and this is really spurring me on.
So, although my original idea of writing a book start to finish without worrying about the nitty-gritty went out of the window, I'm having a great time getting into the story. Come to think about it, this is probably the first 'writing journey' blog post that I've written since the outset and I thought I would give you all an update. Thank you so much for following me. If you don't already, you can find links to my social media accounts on my homepage. I will definitely be posting more blogs about writing tips moving forwards. Just to let you know about the little things that I've learned. Thank you for reading! Until next time... I absolutely adore the symbolism in the picture above. If you're writing, you will totally get this. You might sometimes find that your protagonist isn't really doing anything and you find yourself wondering... should I just sack them off and try a new idea or try and fix them? I have fallen victim to this myself and it is a product of the books that I read. I am a huge fan of crime fiction and writers like Jefferey Deaver, Sean Black and Simon Kernick (in no particular order, I hasten to add). In these books, the focus is usually on the detective. It's his, or her story and this has translated into my writing. However, my problem is that the detective in the story is part of the sub-plot... so I found myself focusing on him, therefore throwing a massive shadow over my main character (who is the prospective victim of the story). A part of me said... well, let's make it about him instead. Logic dictates... but why should it? I'm biting back and sticking my middle finger up to my logic. Screw you, I'm not giving up on her. So, here we go! I'm one for making things simple... to an extent... so let's break it down. Firstly, let's have a look at what makes a good protagonist. Interesting There is no point writing about someone who hasn't got much going on. I get it. There are people out there that are boring but the whole reason you are writing is to tell a dynamic story. You don't want your readers to turn off. Make your protagonist relatable... add some humour, some sarcasm, some honest feelings about the situations at hand. This will allow the reader to relate to your character. Why on Earth do you think we keep watching soaps on TV? Because we care about the characters and what happens to them. You want your readers to feel the same about the main person in your story. Realistic Your characters need to feel like they're real people that you're telling a story about. Give your protagonist an intricate backstory. This will help you to figure out how they would react to certain situations. How were they raised? If they were raised by slobs, the likelihood is that they will be slobbish themselves (or an interesting twist would be if they wanted to change and become successful... see 'interesting' above). If they were raised in a respectable household, they might have exceptional manners, for instance. What has happened to them? Make them flawed. There isn't a single person alive who isn't. Whether it be as simple as self-consciousness or something more dramatic like post-traumatic stress disorder. Your character needs these flaws. Also, make your character inconsistent sometimes and self-contradictory. People aren't robots and your characters shouldn't feel like they are. They also need to have their own unique voice... but that's another blog for another day. Active Is your protagonist driving the story forwards? If the answer is no then you need to do one of two things. 1. Get a new protagonist 2. Work harder and get re-designing As mentioned above, I've decided go for the latter. It's going to take work and it's going to take graft. My so-called protagonist was just letting life happen to her (spoilers) and I'll be damned if I can't make her strong enough to stand on her own two feet. The story needs to be able to stand alone with just her point of view so I need to change the story up and get her doing things that push the plot along. So there we go, a few hard truths and hopefully some insightful input. Let me know what you think. What do you think makes a particularly strong protagonist? Thanks for reading. Until next time... I have finally found it! I have spent such a long time searching for the perfect structuring techniques for my novel. Along the way, I've also learned that my protagonist is too passive and wasn't moving the story along... but that's another blog piece for another day... Massive credit to Shaelin Bishop for her tips which have been extremely useful for me as a novice. One of the techniques I am covering, Shaelin has made a video explaining the process, which you can find here Although the video above relates to the 15 Beat Plot Structure, it's not the only one I'm talking about in this piece. What is the difference between outlining and structuring? For me, outlining is the very first step creating the plot points and the general 'A to B' of the story that you're telling (blog on outlining here). Let's assume that you've done your outline, you've written out all of the plot points and the things that you want to have happened in the story, whether that be from one point of view, or multiple points-of-view (blog on POV writing here). Structuring is taking all of those plot points and putting them in order. Not just chronologically, but in an order that will help move the story forwards. There are a couple of traditional structures that you can use which I will cover. I'm leaving my favourite until last, though. So, let's get into it. Traditional Structure This is the classic structure that you will find pretty much everywhere. However, it's everywhere because it works! Here's how it goes: Exposition - Setting the scene, introduction of the characters, and giving the general background needed to set the story up. Call-to-action - This is the moment where the protagonist is required to help solve a problem. Think Rick and Morty... every episode of Rick and Morty! Rising Action - A series of events that builds up to the climax Crises - The series of events and moments of conflict that leads up to the... Climax - The most intense conflict up to this point in the story Falling Action - The answering of any questions not yet addressed and the resolution of all crises. Resolution - The final moments where a new reality for the protagonist is realised. As you can probably tell... I've put a wee bit more time into the following structure. Stick with me on this, though... it's a game-changer! A Whole New World Here I am referring to the 15 Beat Plot Structure that I mentioned earlier. When I watched Shaelin's video I wrote it down to help myself understand how it worked. I'm quite a visual person so I found that putting it in a picture format was going to prove to be useful. So, after typing up my chicken-scratch handwriting I drafted this (I bloody love PowerPoint): Now let me explain what each of these actually mean because this structure was originally developed for screenplay, so the wording used directly relates to how it would do for television.
Also, to explain, a beat is something that happens within the story. Of which there are two types, a regular beat and an extended beat. A regular beat should be an event whereas an extended beat can be a series of events. So... let's get into it! Opening Image - This is as it says on the tin, it's the start of the story and this is where you can set your scene and introduce your reader to your universe. Theme Stated - This is where you imply what the theme is. Is there going to be a moral to your story? If so, this is where you set it up. If not, this should be where you initiate the reason behind the story... why your character needs to grow and progress/change. This isn't necessarily the second thing that should happen and can be moved around within Act I (the set-up phase). Which leads us onto exactly that... Set-Up - This is what is referred to as an extended beat and can be the whole point of Act I, to set the story up, meeting the central characters and starting to bring about the next point. The Catalyst - You may have heard it referred to in creative writing as the 'Inciting Incident'. This is the event that start's off the story's problem, if you will. Again... this should always be an event, not a description. Subsequently, this leads us onto... The Debate - This is usually done at a slower pace because it gives the protagonist time to contemplate and react to the inciting incident. Break Into Two - Literally breaking through into Act II. This is also known as the path of no return... ooooooooh. Spooky. Basically, once your protagonist has made this choice there is no going back. This is where you get to address the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist. B-Story - Introducing your sub-plot. Usually someone who is going to be able to help your protagonist move the story forwards. Fun and Games - This comes before the middle of the book. This is going to be your protagonist's grapple with the main issue. They are carrying out the choice that they made in the break into two. Usually quite a highly active point within the book full of movement and excitement. Midpoint - This is the section where your protagonist has grappled with the main issue and thinks that their job is done. It is a point of what is called 'false victory or false defeat'. In the words of Kenneth Wolstenholme... they think it's all over. But it isn't. Either they think they've won and the antagonist gets back up after the fight and takes off... or they have been defeated but muster the strength, usually with the help of the character from the sub-plot, to carry on and keep fighting. Bad Guys Close In - Basically, the antagonist is getting stronger and stronger and it looks like they're about to win the second round. Perhaps they returned to the fight with a gang in tow armed with weapons. All is Lost - Also known in literary as the breaking point for the protagonist. It seems as though there is no coming back. Your protagonist's focus may be blurring in and out, about to pass out after the onslaught. Then... astride their gallant proverbial steed comes... The Dark Knight of the Soul - Your protagonist musters even more strength than before. They've been carried away by Mr/Mrs B-Story who's dressed their wounds and fed them chicken soup (my head's in a strange place here). In which time, your protagonist has figured out their new plan. The final plan, the one that will either make or break them. It's all-or-nothing time, baby! Break into Three - Again... literally breaking into Act III. This is where all the action takes place. Your protagonist is carrying out their master plan. The battle between good and evil. Both parties leap into the air, weapons drawn ready to strike... Finale - Who won? Did your protagonist strike first with a fatal blow or are they dragging themselves to the corner of the room nursing a fatal wound. This is the part where your character should have changed emotionally. A different outlook... maybe they reflect 'if only I'd have...' (you get the drift). Or perhaps they are towering over their adversary, victory plastered all over them. Final Image - Sometimes this is short or it may be longer and used as a means to tying up loose ends and answering the unanswered. Still, this should be the section where no stone is left unturned. This is easily my favourite structure because it breaks it down for you. It's helped with my outlining too because it's allowed me to highlight sections that I've not yet thought of and iron out any plot holes. It's definitely made my story stronger. What do you think? Do you prefer the traditional or trying something a little bit newer? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading! Until next time! The question begs... have I done too much or too little with outlining my plot? Well, let's start with this... do you know how your book starts and ends? Do your can your characters feasibly find a solution to the plot? No? Then you haven't done enough of an outline! Put the laptop away, get your pen and paper out and get back to GENERATING MORE IDEAS DAMN-IT! I started writing my book with a really rough outline. I had one ending and a couple of ways that my main characters could drive the plot to that ending. Then... something happened. I started to stray from my original idea and it was bugging the crap out of me. Why can't I just write this? Why do I keep straying? Who the hell is this character I've just created out of thin air? As you can see, I had a lot of questions and lots of extra things were coming into my head that were totally unprecedented. So, as you will know from my previous blogs (because you've read them all, I'm sure), I just wanted to write a book from start to finish, not worrying about plot holes, etc. to let myself know that I CAN DO THIS! Too many GIFs? Sorry... ANYWAY... Alas, my perfectionist nature and thirst for knowledge led me to put in an imperial tonne of research into things like: writing techniques; overcoming writers block; writing dynamic dialogue; point-of-view writing; building tension... basically all of the things that I didn't really need to learn about until I had mastered the basics. This brings me to the wonderful world of outlining and story-boarding. Ladies and gents, I can honestly say that this has changed my world. I had already written four chapters that stopped dead in their tracks because, guess what... I didn't know where the hell they were going to. I knew about my end goal and I was learning more and more about my characters as I've been writing. So it's not all bad and I've learned a lot in three-or-four months from the point I started out on this wild adventure into my, supposedly psychopathic, subconscious. My wife kindly bought me home a wad of large post-it notes the other day and the book has already transformed. I composed out a timeline in my writer's journal, and jotted down references to scenes that I wanted to take place and where (or when, whichever way you look at it) they should appear on the timeline. So, next I grabbed hold of the post-it notes and used them as a flip board. Not detaching a single one and I wrote scene after scene, after scene, after scene. I've read back over what I had written and discovered plot holes... so I jotted down solutions. Without worrying about sequence I continued to write (and it's not even finished but I had to share this with you) and I've added so many different ways to drive the plot forward that I started to think... Is this too much? Is there too much going on? You might be thinking the same. Am I putting too many ideas down? What if I can't link these up? To answer those two questions are: No, keep at it and write as much as you like; secondly... can't link it? Take the darned thing out... you obviously don't need it. The beauty is that these post-it notes (other brands are available) aren't just pieces of paper with your chicken-scratch all over them. Each one represents an idea, a piece of a jigsaw puzzle that is your novel. You might occasionally get a piece in there from another puzzle that's found it's way into the box. Don't toss it away, put it aside... you might be able to re-use it later in your next piece of work. In conclusion, my opinion is that you can never write too much down to start with. The trick is being able to whittle it down to what fits your story! That's a whole different ball-game that I'm not even going to pretend to understand yet. I'll touch on that when I get there. Thanks for reading... let me know what you think. Until next time! Firstly, what is writer’s block? Writer’s block is a phenomenon that occurs when you are trying to put words on the screen and hey… suddenly, you have literally nothing to give. All the words that you have bandying around in your brain down-right refuse to put themselves in logical order for you and you end up like poor Sheldon here. So, what can you do about it? How can you get those thoughts organised so that they can be put to good use? There are so many ways to overcome writer’s block. But I am going to give you some tried-and-tested ways of getting those creative juices flowing again (pardon the cliché). Although, before we get into that. It might be a good idea to understand why you might be experiencing this pain-in-the-backside self-lockdown mechanism. I like to call these the primal issues. Environment Are you sitting in a room where there’s so much going on that you’re having trouble concentrating? Are there lots of distractions: a TV on in the background; little ones running around; notifications coming through on your smartphone? Does this sound like your situation right now? Over-analysis You write something down. It doesn’t look quite right so you delete it and start again. You finish it again but even that doesn’t look right so you repeat the process. You’ve re-written the same section six or seven times trying to say the same thing but in a multitude of ways and now you’re left with a whirlwind in your head as you find yourself getting more and more frustrated. Sound familiar? Misjudged Timing and/or Poor Planning You’ve sat down at your computer… you’ve opened a new Word document (other programs are available) and you find yourself staring at a blank screen. You’ve got nothing to write. Did you do any pre-planning or give yourself a guideline about what you wanted to write about? In the fear of sounding patronising, this is something you really need to do before you sit down to write. The above happen quite regularly, they’re easy to overcome by taking yourself somewhere quiet, sticking with what you wrote originally, highlighted for you to revisit later, and getting your planning down first respectively. Also, they are all things that I have personally experienced! Yup… that third thing happened to me when I started writing when I was younger. No preparation, no research, not a clue and guess what… I got stuck and gave up for seventeen years (yes, I started when I was eleven). If these three factors are not the root-cause of your writer’s block then it’s going to be a little trickier, require more time and some extra effort too… but stick with me on this! From what I can assume, you’re here because you currently have writer’s block, have experienced it or are anticipating it and want to be prepare yourself when the inevitable happens. Yes… it’s inevitable. Okay… so, picture the scene. You’re comfortable, you’re in a quiet space, you’ve decided to not be over-analytical and just write whatever for the time being and you know what you want to write about. You start writing and you’ve reached that point. The point where nothing else will formulate and you’ve stopped writing and gone all dumbfounded. What now? Before the panic sets in, take a breath and firstly reassure yourself you can get over the hurdle. It’s time to take control and bring out the big-guns. Here are a few things you can do: Bullet Point Ideas My guess is that you know the context, you know what you want to achieve from this piece of writing. I’ll assume this because you’ve obviously done all your planning and you’ve got your outline all written out in front of you. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about then click below to read my blog on outlining. http://pwilliamsauthor.weebly.com/blog/outlining-your-story You’re at the start of the chapter and you’ve written a couple of paragraphs. There’s some dialogue that’s happened and you’re not sure what should happen next in the scene. You have your outline and you know where it needs to go. It’s time to start bullet-pointing what you want to happen in the scene. Once you’ve got all the necessary points on paper, put them in order of occurrence and imagine how it would look if you were watching it as a movie to help you describe what’s happening. Work backwards Is this still not working? Well, try this. You already know what the end goal is because your outline is in front of you. Think logically about how your characters would come to the end-point and work backwards. If your characters can’t achieve the end goal then there may be a plot hole for you to work through… in this instance it becomes a primal issue, which we’ve already discussed how to overcome. Take A Break Yeah, I said it. Go and do something else for a little while. Perhaps make a cuppa, grab a biscuit, go for a walk. Essentially do something that’ll help you clear your mind. When you come back, your anxiety about not having anything to write might have lifted, meaning you can crack on. Freewriting This is one of my personal favourites and it doesn't mean just writing down random words willy-nilly. Open a new word document/fresh sheet of paper and write down the following starting points:
Now forget about your storyline, your characters and everything to do with your own prose. This is something to help you to freely write down whatever you are feeling when you look at these pictures. It doesn’t have to have direction or purpose. This is just an exercise to put your mind into a state where you can just type away until you feel you’re ready to return to your work. Try and write a paragraph for each starting point and see how you get on. If you’re still not ready… just repeat the process from where you started bullet-pointing ideas. You’ll soon find your muse has returned. I’d like to get your thoughts on this and I’d be interested to know what you have done to overcome writer’s block in the past. Let loose in the comments below! Until next time, thanks for reading! ![]() Not going to lie, I’ve been putting this one off until I had done ample research. Why? Because there is so much that goes into outlining the story. I’ve had a really interesting time with this and I must admit, I very briefly outlined my original story because I just wanted to get something down, start to finish so that I could leave it for six months and then go back to it with fresh eyes and analyse. That idea went straight out of the window because, if you’ve been reading my blogs, you’ll know that I am super-analytical and can’t go five minutes without reflecting on what I’ve written… it’s a burden. As a result, my story now doesn’t even marginally resemble my original story outline. I found myself starting to write the book itself and I am really happy with chapter one (which I’m considering putting out there for you lovely people to read) but then I went off my original story and went on a bit of a tangent. What was originally going to be a paranormal thriller has turned into a crime thriller. Go figure. So, after learning a bit more about my characters and the world that they live in, I’ve decided to go back to the story board and do some more outlining now that I know exactly how I want the story to go. My original outline was so simple but, if you hadn’t already guessed, I’m going deeper. Therefore, I need a structure. I need a plan. It’s not that outlining doesn’t work but it needs time. So, this is the seven-step structure that I’m going to follow. Courtesy of the Writer’s Digest at www.writersdigest.com – Not sponsored, by the way!
Okay, well what about structure? We will be touching on that in the next blog piece – there are lots of different ways to structure the novel. Outlining is about knowing what the content should be and structure is how it all comes together. Some authors don’t even outline their stories because it’s not something that works for them. It just goes to show that you must do what works for you! So, if outlining isn’t your thing, don’t worry… just free-write and see what comes. It’s how I do all my blogs. Free-writing is also a good way to overcome writer’s block, too… but that’s another story for another blog! What do you think? What methods do you use? Do they work? Let me know and until next time, thank you for reading! Starting book number one, I was supposed to just write a novel start to finish, not worrying about grammar or plot holes, etc. Then put it away for six months and return to it with fresh eyes to analyse. The act of finishing the novel supposedly giving me the power to know that I can.
Along the way though, I am teaching myself things that I would like to adopt as I write. This might be slowing the process down somewhat but I think it will be even more beneficial for me in the long run. Thus, I’ve started reading up on point-of-view writing techniques and how to build tension in my prose. I’ve watched a few videos on YouTube from the Author Learning Centre who interview established authors to get their perspectives. I’ve also read some interesting articles covering the subject. The general consensus that I gleaned from this was that a writer should stick to either the first person, or the third person. Only switching between the two if you know how to pull it off. A nod to the book Stone Cold by Robert Swindells. A great read that I would recommend. If you are new to the concept, then just briefly if you write in the first person then you tell the story through the eyes of the character; I did this, I did that, I am, etc. If you write in the third person then you are writing about the characters from an outside perspective; they did this, they did that, they are. There is also tense: past, present, future. I’ve yet to see a novel written solely in the future tense. I imagine that would be an incredibly difficult read. Basically, past tense is when you write about something that has happened, present tense is when you write about something that is currently happening, future tense when it has not yet occurred. You probably already knew that. So, to put all of that into context, I am writing my book in the third person in the past tense (and that last sentence was in the first person in present tense. Mind. Blown.) and I have found it a challenge to keep myself from doing what we authors call ‘head-hopping, where you are writing from multiple character perspectives in one scene. Ideally, I would like to limit this as much as possible because it makes it confusing for the reader. In chapter three, which I have just finished, I fell victim to this. Therefore, I will be going back and re-wording it. I still want to tell that scene from different perspectives but they don’t warrant their own chapters individually. So… what do I do to combat this? Easy, split it up. Compartmentalise. Leave a couple of lines with a spacer to indicate that the reader is about to change perspective. So, I am going to do that and I’ll let you know how I get on. Now, about building tension. How does perspective help with that? You can build tension by leaving things out. A good story doesn’t give you the entire thing on a plate. How many times have you been in touch with your insurance company to get a quotation and they’ve read out the terms and conditions to you? Have you understood everything and taken everything in first time? I very much doubt it, because it’s not interactive… it’s not engaging. Writing is about leaving things to the reader’s imagination and getting them immersed in the world you have created for them. The more you leave out, the more the reader will cook up their own stories in their heads and they will want to get to the end to find out what happened. Usually, they’ll do this to find out if their interpretation was correct. Another trick would be to anticipate what the reader might think, or manipulate it by pushing it in one direction and then flip it on its head and add a twist. Experienced writers add multiple twists. I’m likely to stick with just the one for now, though… although I haven’t figured out for myself what that twist will be just yet. I’m learning so much about my characters as I write about them. What I need to do is just slow down. I hope this has been helpful for you. Any thoughts? Anything to add? Let me know. Until next time! I want to talk today about dialogue.
It's a challenge I'm facing at the moment because I just love a book that can make conversations seem real. It's so easy to fall into the rhythm of something like below: "What's that you have, there?" asked Mr. Y. "Just a report I'm about to hand in to the boss." Mr. X replied, showing him his report on last week's sales figures. "I've just run the exact same report" Mr. Y. responded. "Oh, dear." said Mr. X. "Yeah." Mr. Y replied. See... not particularly dynamic and as I am sure all authors/writers would agree, I really don't want readers switching off simply because of bland dialogue. So I've been doing what I do best. Research! Yes, that old chestnut again. It should be an aspect of everything you endeavour to do and I cannot stress that enough! "Dialogue is easy, It's what you've been doing almost every day, most of your life" - Josip Novakovich Very good point Mr. Novakovich. Execution, on the other hand is a different matter. A lot of you might be thinking along the lines of 'well, you could use different words instead of said... like whispered, shouted, chortled, etc. to add flare'. You would be right in suggesting that. However, I learned about that at age eleven and it's time to step it up a notch. So, how else do you dress it up? From articles I've read, and books that I've read myself, it lies within setting the scene. Dialogue is part of it but shouldn't be relied on solely to tell the entire story. For instance, silence is sometimes even more powerful. Consider this: "What's that you have, there?" Mr. Y asked. "Just a report to hand in to the boss. How about you?" Asked Mr. X, showing him his report on last week's sales figures and nodding towards Mr. Y's file. Mr. Y. didn't respond. He glanced at his own document, it was the exact same information. He ran his fingers through his hair. He had just wasted an entire afternoon, his boss was going to be livid. "Oh, dear." said Mr. X. "Yeah." Mr. Y replied through gritted teeth. This is already showing much more because Mr. Y.'s silence adds emotion and adding a little context. Now, going back to what I said about setting the scene. It's important that dialogue is contextual. Dialogue doesn't occur in a blank space, it is spoken and influenced by many external factors like where it is being spoken (you speak more quietly on the train or in a library than you do on a busy street, for example). Like so: The office was sweltering, it was forty degrees Celsius outside and the large office windows were acting like a greenhouse. Mr. Y had the task of running the report for last week's sales figures and he had already spent an hour and a half compiling the documents. The air conditioning unit had been out all morning. An engineer had been called but there was no way they could get one to come out on such short notice. Mr. Y could already feel the beads of sweat starting to collect in the small of his back. Now he was stood at the printer which was old and slow. He swore under his breath. He really detested Mondays. At least the end of the day was drawing near, only a couple of hours and he could finally get out of this hell-hole. At least his bosses would be off his back until at least Wednesday after he handed them this report. There was a light at the end of the tunnel. Mr. Y collected the report from the printer, headed over to the desk and started stapling. He tilted his head and saw that Mr. X was coming along the corridor clutching a thick envelope. Mr. Y nodded in acknowledgement. On a personal level, he couldn't stand Mr. X. He was such an ass-kisser at work, a real pain in the neck but Mr. Y had to be civil. "What's that you have, there?" Mr. Y asked. "Just a report to hand in to the boss. How about you?" Asked Mr. X, showing him his report on last week's sales figures and nodding towards Mr. Y's file. Mr. Y. didn't respond. He glanced at his own document, it was the exact same information. He ran his fingers through his hair. He had just wasted an entire afternoon, his boss was going to be livid. "Oh, dear." said Mr. X. "Yeah." Mr. Y replied through gritted teeth. His fingernails starting to pierce the flesh in his palm. Mr. Y is not having a good day. Also, notice that I ended the prose with dialogue. This is not an unnatural thing to do. It adds suspense... what happened next? Did Mr. Y flip out like an insane person? Did he keep his cool and calmly tell Mr. X that he was given the task, so it should be his report that gets handed in? Nobody will ever know. So, as you can see there is a lot of fun you can have with dialogue. In the end, although the dialogue is showing a conversation, it is not the main focus of the story at hand. The main focus is about how you feel about Mr. Y's turmoil. That's the way I like to write, evoking emotion. I'm sure there is an awful lot more to playing around with dialogue but I'm going to leave that for another blog piece. I can't keep you coming back for more if I give it all to you at once now, can I? #HonestBlogger Let me know your thoughts, anyway. I want to know what you think. Until next time! |
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Hi, I'm Phil Williams. Welcome to my blog.
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