Tag: editing

Trouble Your Readers Effectively

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“The Inciting Incident as a Trigger

The inciting incident is the crucial event—the trouble—that sets the whole story in motion. It triggers the initial surface problem and starts to slowly expose the protagonist’s story-worthy problem. Now, the protagonist won’t fully realize the extent of his story-worthy problem in the opening scene, so the initial surface problem has to be so compelling that it forces him to take immediate action. The protagonist’s understanding of his story-worthy problem, then, will grow clearer to him as a direct result of what he goes through in his journey to resolve it.
Also keep in mind that each of the protagonist’s attempts to resolve the initial and subsequent surface problems must end in failure. There can be partial victories, but once an action ends in success, the story is effectively over. Success, in this case, means that all the problems are resolved. That cannot happen until the final scene of the story.
So, if we were to broadly outline the shape of a publishable story—the inciting incident and all its intertwined surface and story-worthy problems—it would look something like this:
    • The inciting incident creates the character’s initial surface problem and introduces the first inklings of the story-worthy problem.
    • The protagonist takes steps to resolve the initial surface problem.
    • The outcome of the major action the protagonist takes to resolve the initial surface problem is revealed, triggering a new surface problem. The scope of the protagonist’s story-worthy problem continues to unfold.
    • The outcome of the major action the protagonist takes to resolve the additional surface problem is revealed, and yet another surface problem is created. The story-worthy problem continues to become more apparent to the protagonist, as well as to the reader.
    • Another outcome is revealed, and more surface problems are created. The story-worthy problem continues to become clearer.
    • All lingering surface problems are resolved, and the story-worthy problem is fully realized. The resolution of the story-worthy problem is represented by both a win and a loss for the protagonist…..”
-found on http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/write-fiction-that-grabs-readers-from-page-one

Show Not Tell

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“If you take a course on writing or attend a writer’s conference, you’ll likely hear the phrase, “Show, don’t tell.” In other words, “show” your readers what is happening, don’t just tell them.

Don’t tell readers what you did; describe doing it.  One of the reasons we tend to tell rather than show is that it’s easier and faster. Showing how to do something requires time and effort. In teaching, it’s easier to tell students what’s wrong with what they did than to show them how to do it right. The latter, however, is more effective.”

-found on Our Daily Bread [www.odb.org]

Who, Which, and That…Oh my!

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[found on wsuonline.weber.edu]

Who, Which, That:

“Do not use which to refer to persons. Use who instead. That, though generally used to refer to things, may be used to refer to a group or class of people.

    • I just saw a boy who was wearing a yellow banana costume.
    • I have to go to math next, which is my hardest class.
    • Where is the book that I was reading?”

[found on http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm]

Enquire or not to Inquire

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[found on dailywritingtips.com]

“These are two spellings of the same word, which means to seek information about something or to conduct a formal investigation (usually when followed by “into”). The corresponding noun is enquiry or inquiry.

Either spelling can be used, but many people prefer enquire and enquiry for the general sense of “ask”, and inquire and inquiry for a formal investigation:

  • I enquired his name
  • The first enquiry in my inbox today was about lost property.
  • We are going to inquire into the incident.
  • The lawyers asked when the inquiry will be completed.”
[found on http://www.dailywritingtips.com/inquire-vs-enquire]

Active / Passive Voice

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[found on plainlanguage.gov]

What is active/passive voice?

“To know whether you are writing in the active or passive voice, identify the subject of the sentence and decide whether the subject is doing the action or being acted upon.

  • Passive Voice: the subject is the receiver of the action.
    The tax return (subject) was completed (action) before the April 15 deadline by Mr. Doe.
  • Active Voice: the subject does an action to an object.
    Mr. Doe (subject) completed (action) the tax return (object) before the April 15 deadline.

When we write in the passive voice, we add some form of the helping verb “to be” (am, is, are, was, were, being, or been) to an otherwise strong verb that really did not need help.

  • Passive: Additional information (subject) can be obtained (action) by employees from our website.
  • Active: Employees (subject) can obtain (action) additional information (object) from our website.”
[found on http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/quickreference/dash/dashactive.cfm]

Writing Prompts

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[found on dailywritingtips.com]

Examples of Writing Prompts

“The following are twenty writing prompts that you could use to spark your imagination. If you want to use one, don’t worry about where the ideas take you or whether what you’ve written is “good”. The point is just to get into the flow of writing. You can come back later and polish if you wish to. [dailywritingtips.com]

    1. It was the first snowfall of the year.
    2. He hadn’t seen her since the day they left High School.
    3. The city burned, fire lighting up the night sky.
    4. Silk.
    5. She studied her face in the mirror.
    6. The smell of freshly-cut grass.
    7. They came back every year to lay flowers at the spot.
    8. The streets were deserted. Where was everyone? Where had they all gone?
    9. This time her boss had gone too far.
    10. Red eyes.
    11. Stars blazed in the night sky.
    12. He woke to birdsong.
    13. ‘Shh! Hear that?’ ‘I didn’t hear anything.’
    14. He’d always hated speaking in public.
    15. She woke, shivering, in the dark of the night.
    16. The garden was overgrown now.
    17. He’d never noticed a door there before.
    18. She’d have to hitch a ride home.
    19. ‘I told him not to come back too!’
    20. His feet were already numb. He should have listened.”

[found on http://www.dailywritingtips.com/writing-prompts-101]

Implement a Writing Schedule

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[found on fictionwriting.about.com]
“Carve out a time to write and then ignore the writer’s block. Show up to write, even if nothing comes right away. When your body shows up to the page at the same time and place every day, eventually your mind — and your muse — will do the same. Graham Greene famously wrote 500 words, and only 500 words, every morning. Five hundred words is only about a page, but with those mere 500 words per day, Greene wrote and published over 30 books.”

How to Write Fiction: Ernest Hemingway

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[found on openculture.com]

Ernest Hemingway’s tip on How to Write Fiction (from openculture.com)

 “To get started, write one true sentence. Hemingway had a simple trick for overcoming writer’s block. In a memorable passage in A Moveable Feast, he writes:

“Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written.” “

[found on http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/seven_tips_from_ernest_hemingway_on_how_to_write_fiction.html]