What do your characters like to do? Why do they do these things? Keep watching what they say and do.

Bird watching at 65 miles per hour

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Bird Watching is Like Writing

Yes, texting while driving can be dangerous to your health. If you’re not watching the road, looked down at your cell phone, the best that would happen is that you land in the ditch. Distractions caused disasters. That is something we all know. Then, why do we allow ourselves to become distracted?

Most of the time I drive down the highway I find myself distracted. For me, I like to count birds every year. I have this desire to count different bird species. This is a fascination I had ever since I was a teenager. I’ve created lists of different species each year and watch the list grow when I see a new bird. This strong desire could prove difficult while I drive on the highway.

Well, hey, what if a bird flies in front of me? What if I see a bird through my side window? If I look in the rearview mirror and see no cars followed behind me, I will put on the brakes, slow to stop, get out my binoculars and look. And if need be, I would back up the car on the highway to get a better view.

Why do I do this? Is it just me?

What are the personalities of your characters in your stories? You know what they’re all about? For me, my behavior process shows a persistent, maybe close to obsession. What do your characters like to do? Why do they do these things? How obsessed are they?

When I was a teenage bird watcher, I spotted my first redheaded woodpecker. I was with friends. The bird flew into an occupied campground. Two men, who owned that site, sat on their lawn chairs, enjoyed the scenery and the nice weather.

“Excuse me,” I said and walked in without invitation and looked through the binoculars up the tree to see the bird. They smiled and allowed me to watch. When the woodpecker flew away, I walked back to my friends. They looked at me as if I was nuts.

“What?” I asked.

“You just walked into another campground just to see that bird? They looked at you as if you were some kind of stupid.”

What’s my character in this situation? I became determine despite onlookers who thought I was an oddball? All I wanted to do is to see something important. No harm, no foul. What was the character of my friends? Reserved, with no inner strength, to take chances for something they wanted?

One of my favorite movies was ‘The Big Year’. It stars three dynamite male actors obsessed with bird watching. Though the film, I understood because I also found myself in trouble when I count birds.

Let’s get back to storytelling. Someone told me that stories are stories about people. Writers create the story as they go along. Each came from different upbringing. Their back-stories help makes the character come to life, and with more realism. And/or how they would hinder the process of the story, the plot line? What resulted from their actions?

Maybe I’m not the best example for a character in your story. It is true. You can find your character by watching your friends and colleges. Like the birds of the world, each species has characteristics specific to them.  This is the same as humans. If one example does not fulfill your character’s personality and traits, then mix and match. A little of what he is and what she does is the heart of your story. Maybe he slammed on the brakes just to look for birds. If you find yourself behind him, just slow down and go around. It’s what all writers have to do to make their character’s characteristics fit.

Tell everyone about your stories. Show them where they can buy your novel. Lure them in. More…

Need more help brainstorm the character traits in your story? More…

Don’t forget to edit your colorful character’s story. Do you use too many adverbs? Are you using the right words to describe them? More …

Start Writing Now – This book is for the dreamers who say one day they will write their stories and become a writer. Then they forget their dreams of writing. But they can write now – write those stories now. I mean right now.

How Not To Write A One Star Novel – Do you want to create a five star novel? Learn from other writers’ mistakes and prevent yourself from receiving any one star reviews for you hard work. Here is your free e-book.

R. M. Scott Author Site

Use clarity. Don’t assume your readers will see what you see

Tighten the loop! Bring Clarity to Your Writing

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Use Clarity in Your Stories

Today, I’m thinking about fly-fishing and writing; two unrelated topics. You have may have seen fly fishermen with their funny hats and vests covered with tackle, standing knee-deep in a brook. Their long rod bows waving high in the air as they pull their line back and forth. The fly follows the line and drops, hopefully, in front of a trout’s mouth. If the trout does not take the bait, the stream carries the fly back to the fishermen and the cast starts over again, back and forth.

My brother tried to teach me the art of fly-fishing. I went through the motions to bring the line back and forth. My teacher kept an eye on my learning progress and shouts, “tighten the loop, tighten the loop” (scaring away the fish in the process). In layman’s terms when the bait moved one way and the pole switched and the line went the other direction, the line created a loop overhead. It was important to make a pinched loop, so the wind did not take the fly and send it off course. I knew all that, but what I didn’t know was how to tighten the loop. How should I handle the pole? How should I stand and everything else necessary to create a tight loop? To this day, I don’t recall him ever explaining how. He kept shouting, “Tighten the loop. Tighten the loop.”

Learning how to write, like learning how to fly-fish requires clarity from the teacher. A writer needs to learn how to lay out in a logical order to become understood and followed by a reader. Readers are not willing to work too hard to follow your story. If they become frustrated, they will give up as I gave up on fly-fishing.

Here are some techniques for improving clarity in your writing:

  • Don’t assume your readers will understand your intentions for your story – Produce clear statements. I do not believe in the philosophy of “let the readers fill in the blanks.” I want my readers to understand the story from my mind. If you cannot lead readers to your creative thoughts you will lose them.
  • Don’t believe your story will make sense without your focus – You came up with the characters, setting, and plot. You can see the story unfolding in your mind. If you want your readers to see what’s in your mind, you must give details. Do not write a few words assuming the reader will “get” what you mean. Consider your story from the reader’s perspective as he reads from scratch with no preconceived ideas.
  • Don’t assume your readers will see what you see – Use the five senses in your stories. See the color, write the color. Hear the sounds, write the sounds. If possible, smells and tastes will add a greater dimension to your story and put the readers deep into your scenes. If you don’t use the five senses in your writing what you see (and sense) you will lose your readers.

Remember, “Tighten the loop! Tighten the loop!”

More on Bring Clarity to Your Writing

Use this formula to bring clarity to your writing

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Tell everyone about your stories. Show them where they can buy your novel. Lure them in. More…

Need more help brainstorm the character traits in your story? More…

Don’t forget to edit your colorful character’s story. Do you use too many adverbs? Are you using the right words to describe them? More …

Start Writing Now – This book is for the dreamers who say one day they will write their stories and become a writer. Then they forget their dreams of writing. But they can write now – write those stories now. I mean right now.

How Not To Write A One Star Novel – Do you want to create a five star novel? Learn from other writers’ mistakes and prevent yourself from receiving any one star reviews for you hard work. Here is your free e-book.

R. M. Scott Author Site

Building your character. Allow her to be open to unexpected personality traits that come out and add spice to the story.

My Nine Steps to Building a Character

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Building Your Character Helps Building Your Story

I have fun bringing great characters to life. Characters tell the story.  Building their personalities become colorful. They interact and respond to other characters and situations. These people change the typed letters from a computer screen or paper to a simple plot and timeline with a living story, from the beginning to the end. My characters are the moving parts that make the story work.

These are steps should help you develop your characters.

  1. She needs to stand out.

The first question I ask myself is what purpose will this character serve in the story? Is she the hero, the villain, the sidekick, the love interest or the comic relief?  How will other characters interact with her? What is her name? How will her name help the story? Is her name suitable for her personality? Where does she live? How will she respond to her surroundings? Is this a secondary or main character? And how is she treated by others?

  1. Build her personality.

I want to bring color and clarity so the characters’ personality brings depth to my story. Start with the basic statistics; age, height, weight, appearance, religion, eye and hair color? How was she raised (back-story)? Her likes and dislikes will make a good foundation of the personality. Then add skills, hopes and desires to the mix. Don’t forget to add how she visualizes herself and how she visualizes the surrounding characters.  However, do not limit her to the sets of behaviors you have created. Allow her to be open to unexpected personality traits that come out and add spice to the story. This will make her more interesting. Let her have unexpected reactions based on unforeseen events.

  1. Make her personality come out.

I like to put characters in a jar and give it a big shake. Characters have conflictions with their emotions and the emotions of others. How will she respond to other characters in these situations? How will other characters respond? She must react in all situations. What are her opinions about events, other people, or obstacles in your story? Be careful about changing the personality of a character during your writing process. Characters change during, and by the end, of the story.  But their basic values and moral beliefs will be consistent.  If you need to change your character drastically, you may have to go back through the entire story and re-write the changes for consistency.

  1. Create a past life.

How well do I know my characters? A back story for your character will show motivation to her actions and reactions. What trouble has she been in? Her back story will haunt her and cause her to do the things she does. How this character reacts and responds to situations moves your story along. But she does not need a traumatic past.

  1. Define her strengths.

Let’s put your characters back in the jar. This time we’ll add spiders and snakes. Give the jar a good shake and see how they respond. Is she brave? A brave character takes on responsibilities to survive or get ahead. Is she loyal? A loyal character will have no problem making and keeping friends. Does she seek justice? If so, she would do anything in her power to make sure justice will be served. Whatever the strengths are make sure she responds as she should. Define the strengths through actions in different situations. If one of her strengths is to improve, then don’t forget to bring out her flaws and weaknesses in the beginning.

  1. Define her weaknesses.

I go deep to look and bring out their flaws. This is not just about physical weakness, but imperfections within your character. Imperfections may cause other characters to react in embarrassment and loathing. Her weakness can include lying, cheating, drinking too much, or breaking the law.  Diving into your character’s past and revealing deep dark secrets could show her weakness. How did she deal with the weakness in her childhood?  How does your character hide the weakness?

  1. She must have a goal or goals.

What do they want? The characters need to tell me so I can help. Goals push her to respond. Her personality, emotions, strengths and weaknesses drive the story. Make her pay to achieve her goals. Achieving a goal can lead to a boring story. Have her strive and fail several times and make your readers route for her. Describe the steps she took to reach a goal.

  1. Create her based on someone you know.

This is fun for me. Shopping malls and public pools have oceans of characters. Use traits from someone you know or fictional people to build your character. Observe how real people react to situations. Dig deep. If you have someone in mind, take notes. These notes will help you writer her more three-dimensional and more believable. When you create characters by using your own life experiences, you use elements of reality to bring them to life in your writing.

  1. Make her real.

You may tend to make characters perfect. Everyone is imperfect. The more perfect the less believable she will be. If you delete all her flaws, she may become less realistic in her interactions with other characters and to the plot. Flaws make characters believable.

Conclusion:

Characters need to have a purpose in your story. They need to have dreams and beliefs that will lead to inner growth. A character must grow and develop through the story process. Experiences and memories affect their thoughts, attitude and actions. Let your character tell the story of how she changed and grew during the time it took from day one to the last page. Characters dictate

More on Character Building in Your Writing

How Do You Build A Strong Character In Your Writing?

Character Questionnaire

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Tell everyone about your stories. Show them where they can buy your novel. Lure them in. More…

Need more help brainstorm the character traits in your story? More…

Don’t forget to edit your colorful character’s story. Do you use too many adverbs? Are you using the right words to describe them? More …

Start Writing Now – This book is for the dreamers who say one day they will write their stories and become a writer. Then they forget their dreams of writing. But they can write now – write those stories now. I mean right now.

How Not To Write A One Star Novel – Do you want to create a five star novel? Learn from other writers’ mistakes and prevent yourself from receiving any one star reviews for you hard work. Here is your free e-book.

R. M. Scott Author Site

Shadows show the depth of the piece.

Depth in Wood – Depth in Writing

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Carve Out the Depth in Your Writing

I have been a woodcarver for over 15 years and a fiction writer for over five years. I’ve read Dean Wesley Smith’s articles about the depth and Stages of a Fiction Writer. His post led me to a comparison of the stages of a woodcarver.  In stage one Smith says fiction writing is all about sentences, grammar and punctuation.

In the first stage of woodcarving is all about the knife, the wood and making those first cuts. There is a level of fear involved as you try to avoid cutting yourself and bleeding all over. You fear the knife and fear making cuts that are too deep. The fear causes you to carve deep.  You nick the surface without a strong impression. To your eyes you feel you have created a masterpiece of art. To others the piece is boring and lacks depth. After years of experimentation and development of skills you no longer fear the knife and cut away with confidence and create pieces with depth and emotion.

The Same Holds for Fiction Writing

At first you fear going too deep into your characters’ point of view. Then you fear making your characters bleed on the page and you end up with a shallow piece of writing that nicks the surface and give shallow emotions. You don’t want to hurt your characters or have to struggle too hard to fix their wounds. You might think your piece is a work of art. But your readers feel no spark of emotion and the characters all end up in shallow, happy lives. It’s boring and lacks depth.

I read a piece by P.J. Reece (Story Structure Expedition: Journey to the Heart of a Story). In this article, he discusses finding the heart of your story as a writer.  He talks about writing to a depth to which your protagonist has reached the “pits of despair”. Only then will he be able to experience a “subsequent change of heart.”

Reece says: Down there, that’s where we discover the truth about our human condition. The best protagonists glimpse the ugly truth and see a way to rise above it–above themselves.

 In my experience writing a romantic comedy I had all the elements of a good story. But it fell short of shining as the piece I wanted it to be. Going back over it I realized I had not caused my protagonist to suffer enough, even though this was a romantic comedy. I feared going too deep into the character so focused on the words, grammar and punctuation more than the story itself. I went back in with a sharper knife and made deeper cuts. The protagonist reached the pits of despair to lost her love, lost her job, lost her old way of thinking and being.

Reaching the bottom freed her to see what was possible and what would make her happy again.  The protagonist now had room to change and grow and the story took on a new depth and possibility.  Reaching the bottom did not lessen the humor of the story but enriched it through more intense contrast of despair and joy.

Like the finished work, a wood carving shows shadows in its cuts. The more cuts, the more shadows. Shadows show the depth of the piece. As we say in the wood carving world – keep carving. So, also, to you writers – keep carving.

More on Depth in Writing

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Tell everyone about your stories. Show them where they can buy your novel. Lure them in. More…

Need more help brainstorm the character traits in your story? More…

Don’t forget to edit your colorful character’s story. Do you use too many adverbs? Are you using the right words to describe them? More …

Start Writing Now – This book is for the dreamers who say one day they will write their stories and become a writer. Then they forget their dreams of writing. But they can write now – write those stories now. I mean right now.

How Not To Write A One Star Novel – Do you want to create a five star novel? Learn from other writers’ mistakes and prevent yourself from receiving any one star reviews for you hard work. Here is your free e-book.

R. M. Scott Author Site

Being Collaborative. Sometimes we are so close to our story focus our writing becomes narrow and we fail to see possible new directions to follow.

Does Collaborative Fiction Writing Work

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The Collaborative Connection

Writing is a solitary endeavor, most of the times.  Each writer expresses their personal experiences, observations and opinions while they write. They claim ownership of their characters and stories and take pride in, or become protective of what they’ve created.

So is collaborative fiction writing possible? Does it work? Or, do too many cooks spoil the broth?

I have completed five novels in collaboration with another writer.  Writing with a partner can be difficult and frustrating.  However, it also has numerous benefits. 1) Speed up production by increased volume – two vs. one. 2) Strengthening tasks by working together – two heads are better than one.

Here are some of my observations about collaborative fiction writing:

  • Inspiration – Having another person to discuss plot points or characters gives you a new perspective. Sometimes we are so close to our story focus our writing becomes narrow and we fail to see possible new directions to follow.
  • Motivation – Working a full-time job plus normal daily living provide ample excuses not to write. Having another person wait for you to finish your part gives you a push to get it done. It also helps when the other person is a nag who won’t leave you alone and makes you feel guilty for not writing.
  • New perspective through differences of opinion – Arguing over a story direction or character can give you a different perspective about your writing. Voicing strong opinions can help you to see your story from a different angle. You can talk (or argue) out problems and find a resolution if need be.
  • Something to talk about – Writing with a roommate or partner gives you something to talk about on long car rides or when going out for dinner together for the millionth time. Discussing ways to kill your characters, or motivations for keeping them from falling in love, can be stimulating. It’s also amusing to observe the faces of other diners in your vicinity who listen in on your conversations.
  • Provide a reason to avoid conversation – When you don’t feel like socializing collaboration gives you a legitimate reason to avoid talking with your partner. We always bring along notebooks and pens and if we don’t feel like talking, we write (or pretend to write). It works great.
  • Trust, compromise, giving in – Successful collaboration requires building trust in your partner’s writing. Compromise may help your work. Sometimes giving in will end arguments and keep the project going.
  • Letting go to move forward – Sometimes if compromise does not work you need to learn to let go of a collaborative piece and work on your own for a while. And as the dust settles, you can forgive each other and get back to the project. It becomes easier to join forces once again and combine the work you have done independently into a cohesive piece.
  • Communication – It is important for collaborators to communicate while working on a joint piece of writing. Sometimes the best ways to keep lines of communication open are through the use of humor. Be flexible and do not get so attached to your fictional characters, so you put them ahead of real live people.
  • Learning – Collaborating with another writer can teach you how to improve your own writing by observing their successes or failures and applying them to your own work. You can also learn through the shared research or life experiences each of you bring to the story.
  • Research – Taking research trips together or spending time in archives hunting down research for your story can be exciting. Almost like an archeological dig during which you unearth some unusual item, character, letter, diary, myths, or legends that bring a new twist to your fiction.
  • Slowing down production – having to wait for the other person to finish their part of the story can cause delays and loss of interest. By the time they finish their section you may have moved on to something new and fresh. Sometimes it is difficult to bring your mind and enthusiasm back to an old story.
  • Disappointment – Working with a collaborator can lead to disappointment. This may be true if you have worked hard on a section and you become excited by the direction your characters are going. But then you share your ideas with your collaborator their comments show they didn’t share your vision at all. You may have to change to another direction.

Working with a writing partner who is also a life partner reminds me of an old movie, Best Friends, starring Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds. The story is about two screenwriters who lived and worked together. At one point they are locked together in a room and forced to finish writing a script. Too much togetherness leads them to argue and break up.

Collaborative writing doesn’t always work. It is important to make sure you don’t have too much togetherness.  Having separate adventures, friends, experiences and interests allow you to bring unique perspectives to your collaborative work. This strengthens you work and gives your work more depth and emotion

More on Does Collaborative Fiction Writing Work

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Tell everyone about your stories. Show them where they can buy your novel. Lure them in. More…

Need more help brainstorm the character traits in your story? More…

Don’t forget to edit your colorful character’s story. Do you use too many adverbs? Are you using the right words to describe them? More …

Start Writing Now – This book is for the dreamers who say one day they will write their stories and become a writer. Then they forget their dreams of writing. But they can write now – write those stories now. I mean right now.

How Not To Write A One Star Novel – Do you want to create a five star novel? Learn from other writers’ mistakes and prevent yourself from receiving any one star reviews for you hard work. Here is your free e-book.

R. M. Scott Author Site