Tag: novel
How to Make a Who-Dun-It
[found on blog.karenwoodward.org; by Karen Woodward]
“1. Know who your murderer is and why they did it.
– What was their goal?
– What are the stakes?
– What motivates the killer?
By the end of the story make sure you’ve answered these questions in your manuscript.
2. Leave clues
The clues “do not have to be obvious or even fully explained. You’ll want to leave some “mystery in your mystery.”
3. After you finish the first draft add in clues where needed
Price’s tip: Red herrings are much easier to add in after the book is written as long as you don’t write yourself into a corner with your characters, such as explaining everything they do and why.
4. Don’t fully explain everything
Price writes: “Let your characters retain some mystery.”
People aren’t fully explained any more than they are wholly good or bad, your characters should reflect this.
5. Your protagonist doesn’t have to know everything, at least not right away
Like you and me, it’s okay if your sleuth doesn’t have all the answers and is unsure about what happened … as long as she gets there in the end.”
[found on http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2013/04/5-rules-for-writing-murder-mystery.html]
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Control the Voices
“Writers are nothing more than borderline schizophrenics who are able to control the voices.”
― Jennifer Salaiz
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Fiction Writing Tips
[found on writingforward.com; by Melissa Donovan]
“The writing tips below focus on the technical and creative writing process rather than the business end of things….
- Read more fiction than you write.
- Don’t lock yourself into one genre (in reading or writing). Even if you have a favorite genre, step outside of it occasionally so you don’t get too weighed down by trying to fit your work into a particular category.
- Dissect and analyze stories you love from books, movies, and television to find out what works in storytelling and what doesn’t.
- Remember the credence of all writers: butt in chair, hands on keyboard.
- Don’t write for the market. Tell the story that’s in your heart.
- You can make an outline before, during, or after you finish your rough draft. An outline is not necessary, nor is it written in stone, but it can provide you with a roadmap, and that is a mighty powerful tool to have at your disposal.
- You don’t always need an outline. Give discovery writing a try.
- Some of the best fiction comes from real life. Jot down stories that interest you whether you hear them from a friend or read them in a news article.
- Real life is also a great source of inspiration for characters. Look around at your friends, family, and coworkers. Magnify the strongest aspects of their personalities and you’re on your way to crafting a cast of believable characters.
- Make your characters real through details. A girl who bites her nails or a guy with a limp will be far more memorable than characters who are presented with lengthy head-to-toe physical descriptions.”
For more tips from Melissa Donovan, click here.
[found on http://www.writingforward.com/writing-tips/42-fiction-writing-tips-for-novelists]
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Sane Writers Wanted
Prompt Your Way
[found on writingforward.com; by Melissa Donovan]
“Creative Writing Prompts
- You’re digging in your garden and find a fist-sized nugget of gold.
- Write about something ugly–war, fear, hate, or cruelty–but find the beauty (silver lining) in it.
- The asteroid was hurtling straight for Earth…
- A kid comes out of the bathroom with toilet paper dangling from his or her waistband.
- Write about your early memories of faith, religion, or spirituality; yours or someone else’s.
- There’s a guy sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper…
- Write a poem about a first romantic (dare I say: sexual) experience or encounter.
- He turned the key in the lock and opened the door. To his horror, he saw…
- Silvery flakes drifted down, glittering in the bright light of the harvest moon. The blackbird swooped down…
- The detective saw his opportunity. He grabbed the waitress’s arm and said…”
[found on http://www.writingforward.com/writing-prompts/creative-writing-prompts/25-creative-writing-prompts]
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Strong Words Where Stand Ye?
[found on writershelper.com]
“Writing Tip #5: Use strong verbs and nouns
The verbs are the action words. They put things in motion. Make yours as strong as possible.
The verb to be (am, is, are, was, were) puddles on the floor. Eliminate it wherever possible. I spent a year in Ukraine and experienced Russian, where the verb to be exists, but almost never appears. People simply leave it out and I found the effect powerful. In English we can’t leave verbs out of our sentences, but we can make those we use work hard for us.
Nouns name the people, places, and things in our world. English has multiple words for almost everything. A male parent can be father, dad, pop, daddy, the old man, pater, progenitor, sire, begetter, conceiver, governor, abba, papa, pa, pap, pappy, pops, daddums, patriarch, paterfamilias, stepfather, foster father, and other family nicknames. Choose the noun that does the best work for you.
Short words are usually best. They have more punch. They hit the gut hard.
The paragraph above has only one word with more than one syllable.”
For more exciting tips on writing from Writer’s Helper, click here.
[found on http://www.writershelper.com/writingtips.html]
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Authors on Authoring
“Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.”
“You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.”
“Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don’t follow it.”
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Which or That?
[found on writetothepoint.com; by Gary Kinder]
“The difference between “that” and “which” might be the most confounding piece of grammar in the English language, but it doesn’t have to be. Here’s what you need to know: Grammarians call the words following a “that” or a “which” a “relative clause.” That relative clause either “restricts” (I like the word “distinguishes” better, but grammar texts have long called the word “that” “restrictive”) what it modifies, or it “does not restrict” what it modifies. The writer tells us which it is by the word he chooses to introduce the clause.
“That” at the beginning restricts; it means that the writer wants the relative clause to distinguish one thing from a universe of like things. “Which” at the beginning means the writer addresses only one thing, and he simply wants to add information.”
[found on http://writetothepoint.com]
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A Good Editor
“A good editor will not just point out errors; she explains them, providing you with an education to enable you to perform a stronger rewrite. For instance, if your manuscript includes point-of-view violations—a major reason for fiction rejection—she will offer a thorough explanation of the concept and provide easy-to-understand examples. A good editor will encourage you and compliment you on your strengths, but she will not hold back in showing you where you need improvement or are making repeated mistakes. She does not expect you to know all the book publishing rules for copyediting—that’s her job. But she does try to help you understand some basic underlying principles that you might need to learn in order to be a better writer. A good editor knows your book is your “baby” and that you have poured many hours into writing it, but her goal is to help you make that book the best it can be, and sometimes that requires you, the author, to make drastic changes. In other words, a good editor is “on your side” and wants to help, but she is mostly concerned with getting your book in the best shape possible.”
— C. S. Lakin / critiquemymanuscript.com
Editing Addict, LLC 