Tag: books

Keep Your Story Fresh, Or Be Lost

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[found on matthewdunnbooks.com; by Matthew Dunn]

“Make Sure Your Story is Fresh in 5 Years Time.

If you choose to set your story at a point in history, then your book won’t age for obvious reasons. But, most thriller readers like their stories to be contemporary which on the one hand is great for writers because it doesn’t mean we have to do painful extra research on e.g. what clothes a man would have worn in 1934.

On the other hand, there are pitfalls. Your book can take over a year to be written and edited, many years to get an agent and a publishing deal, and another year or two to become a finished published novel. Want to write a spy novel featuring the rogue state of Iran? If so, you need to be confident that Iran is still a rogue state in at least 5 years’ time.

The Western world applauded the collapse of communism but I guarantee you there were a large number of spy writers who tore up their draft manuscripts in disgust when the USSR fragmented, because their stories were supposed to be contemporary yet featured the Cold War and the Soviet Union.”

For more tips on writing from Matthew Dunn, click here.

[found on http://www.matthewdunnbooks.com/writing-a-thriller-novel-10-tips]

Comparison Jokes Are Gold

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[found on darkcargo.com; by Alex Shvartsman]

“Comparison Joke is Your Best Friend

Comedy is hard, but some aspects of it are easier than others. Arguably there is nothing easier than a Comparison Joke. They are effective, and reasonably easy to come up with. Comparison joke can be a well-placed and unexpected metaphor, or simply comparing a thing to another thing for comedic effect. Here’s one of my favorite examples, source unknown:

Game of Thrones is a lot like Twitter: There are 140 characters and terrible things are constantly happening.

This joke is asking a lot of its audience. You must be familiar with both Game of Thrones and Twitter in order to appreciate it. But if you happen to be a part of that target audience, you might find this hilarious. You will nod sagely, recognizing that the Game of Thrones book and/or TV series has an unwieldy cast of characters and something terribly unpleasant is happening to most of them at any given time. You won’t even stop to ponder whether terrible things are actually happening on Twitter. You won’t dissect it, chuckling at the comparison instead, because the joke works.

You can always spice up your description of absolutely anything with a comparison joke. Take care not to over-rely this tactic. Like everything else in life (with possible exceptions of coffee and chocolate), it is best used in moderation.”

[found on http://darkcargo.com/2013/04/29/five-practical-tips-on-writing-humor-by-alex-shvartsman]

Who Are You Talking About?

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[found on tylerlehmann.wordpress.com; by Tyler Lehmann]

“The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.” — Mark Twain

“A good writer knows his characters better than he does his closest friends. Oh, that sounds nuts, you say? Yep, probably.

But the reality is, no one will give a rip about your characters if you don’t make them come alive, as good ol’ Twain points out above. Humans are infinitely complex, and if your characters don’t mimic that complexity, the illusion that is reading is lost.

    1. Gender
    2. Age
    3. Ethnicity
    4. Body type
    5. Hair color and style
    6. Eyewear
    7. Facial hair
    8. Clothing style
    9. Tattoos and piercings
    10. Scars and birthmarks…”

For more tips on writing, and the complete list of traits from Tyler Lehmann, click here.

[found on http://tylerlehmann.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/80-powerful-questions-you-need-to-make-a-character-traits-for-creative-writing]

Sight Is Not the Only Sense

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[found on thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com; by ]

“Remember to use more than SIGHT to describe.

Sight is only one way to get an image across. The other senses like smells, sounds or touching can also reveal a lot about a character and create intimacy ties between the character and the reader through recognition. Use them to characterize! Our pal Melvin would probably steer clear of heavy scents, careful to always consider both his guests sensitivity to strong colognes and to maintain his background role. Yet I could imagine standing next to him in the elevator and catching a whiff of clean soap, or perhaps a touch of aloe from his hair gel.”

For more writing tips from Angela Ackerman, click here.

[found on http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/2010/04/writers-bane-describing-characters.html]

Prevent the Hatred of the Main Character

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[found on jodyhedlund.blogspot.com; by Jody Hedlund]

“How can we know if we’re crossing the line and making our main characters too unlikable?

We hear this writing mantra over and over: Add tension to every page, increase the conflict, and get our main characters (MCs) into trouble. In humble obedience to the rules of fiction, we try to heap mountains of problems upon our MCs.

We do this externally in the form of villains, trauma, or drama. And we do it internally in the form of emotional struggles, character weaknesses, or relationship problems. A story wouldn’t be a page-turner without the conflict to move it forward.

However, at the beginning when we’re trying to establish the problems and the need for character growth, we may tip the scales too far. Yes, our MCs need flaws, things they have to work through as the story progresses (aka character arc). But in the process of making our MCs imperfect, we can’t turn them into bitter, whiny, selfish, angry, mean, cold-hearted jerks.

I’ve learned that in making my MCs have real, everyday, human problems, I have to be careful not to shape them into the kind of people no one wants to hang around for 300 plus pages.”

For more writing tips from Jody Hedlund, click here.

[found on http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-avoid-trap-of-creating-unlikable.html]

See Your Scene

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[found on thewritepractice.com; by ]

“Visualize Your Scenes.

If you, the writer, cannot visualize the fight, expect the readers to have trouble as well. Visualize how each moment of the scenes will take place.

Try writing multiple ways of how the scene plays out. Ask other people to read them out. Did they like what they read? Were they able to picture out a clear image of the fight?

Remember: Action scenes don’t always involve fights. They can also be about your protagonist trying to race against time to stop a time bomb. But they always must be clearly written.”

For more great tips on writing from The Write Practice, click here.

[found on http://thewritepractice.com/pow-fight-scenes/]