The Pros and Cons of Going On and On and On …

Posted on by besinoz
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When a Pencil is Just a Pencil
It’s easy to fall into the rambling trap. Taking up an entire paragraph where a simple sentence will do the same job. There is little point, for example, describing all the uses of a pencil (its colour, its size, the smoothness or scratchiness of the lead, and so on). Even with technology taking over nearly every aspect of our lives, I think it’s safe to say we have all used a pen or pencil, so we already know these aspects without reading about it.

Re-Discovering a Pencil
Is it ever useful to describe the details of a commonplace item? Sticking with the pencil idea, we would describe it if it were new to the character. Perhaps technology has completely taken over and manual writing instruments no longer exist and haven’t done so for centuries. If a character unearthed one and the character has never seen it before, then a description would be appropriate, but the challenge would be to make it come alive for the reader, after all let’s not forget that the reader still knows what a pencil is. The writer may try to make it a bit comical until the character finally works out the pencil’s purpose and how to use it correctly. Then there’s another opportunity when the lead becomes blunt and the character has to work out how to sharpen it.

When a Pencil Reveals More
There is a reason to draw attention to the pencil without describing its purpose. How a character treats and uses a pencil can benefit a writer in developing that character. A pencil with a chewed end shows the user’s habit of gnawing on a pencil. Perhaps the user does this subconsciously while thinking about what to write, or it may be a nervous habit that surfaces during exams. It shows the reader more about that character.

Let’s call our character Jim. So what happens if Jim’s pencil is broken and he borrows a pen – is the urge to chew on the pen overwhelming even though Jim doesn’t own it? And how would the other person (we’ll call Melanie) feel when receiving the pen back with the end crushed and evidence of saliva still clinging to it? Melanie might get some satisfaction if the pen’s ink is now spread all over Jim’s lips, mouth and teeth, but what will Melanie do? Would she yell, cry or become violent because it was a gift or an expensive pen? Would she bin it in disgust or tell Jim that he can keep it vowing never to loan him anything ever again?

A chewed up pencil shows the reader more about a character, but a row of perfectly maintained pencils on a neat and organised desk will also reveal a character’s habits, nature and mindset. What if the owner of these pencils and tidy desk was Melanie? Imagine the conflict between Jim and Melanie then. It poses the question – what is their relationship? Are they merely students in the same class? Co-workers in a training session or general meeting? Are they related or have they recently started dating? Their relationship could impact Melanie’s reaction to her chewed pen.

Unleashing the Pencil
Developing characters, creating conflicts or even writing about a pencil’s description are good ways to ignite the creative flow and unlock writer’s block. It doesn’t matter what is written as long as you write. It might trigger an idea, inspire a story or help with solving a writing issue. Even if it ends in the bin, at least you’re moving forward with your writing. So, pick an object and write about it.

Put in every detail you can think of. Ask questions – who would use this object and why? You may find that you move onto other things as ideas start to form. Don’t fight it; go with it. This isn’t the time to worry about where a comma should go.

Exercising the Pencil
As a writing exercise, create a character and give that character good and bad aspects, habits, a job, family, and then put an odd object into the character’s possession. This creates more questions. Why would this character have such a thing? Does the character treasure the object, or is the person ashamed of it? Has it ever been lost before? Did the character try to get rid of it, but couldn’t for some reason.

Questions move writers forward. Never stop questioning, never stop moving forward and never stop writing.

Sharpening the Pencil
Once you have finished your draft, go back and tighten your writing. If one word can do the work of multiple drawn out words or one sentence gets to the point better then a paragraph then replace it. With the exception of the writer’s style, each word has to earn its place on the page.

Simplifying How to Plot a Story

Posted on by besinoz

Plotting a story can terrify even the most gifted writer. But it sounds scarier than it actually is, and it can even be fun once you embrace the challenge. Let’s simplify the process to get a better understanding of how things work.

Think about your plot as driving from your departure location (the beginning of the story, which we’ll call Point A) to your destination (the end of the story, which we’ll refer to as Point B) with a few scenic stops along the way.

Using the familiar ‘boy meets girl’ scenario, let’s look at the basic story plot. ‘Boy meets girl’ is our Point A.

One such story that comes to mind is Grease where Danny meets Sandy on a summer vacation. Of course, the first meeting could be a bumpy ride where the boy doesn’t impress the girl. Just Like Heaven is an example of this when architect David leaves a bad impression for Elizabeth who doesn’t like his carelessness when it comes to her furniture. Or another example is Elizabeth Bennett’s distaste of Mr Darcy’s behaviour in Pride and Prejudice.

No matter how the initial encounter goes, the boy has met the girl. Along the way the boy manages to peak the girl’s interest and then that’s usually when he does something to cause her to become angry, hurt or disillusioned. Other characters in the story may have initiated the problem, but the boy has allowed it to escalate. Or it can even be a series of misunderstandings that has caused the rift. That’s the ‘boy loses girl’ part of the story.

Following the pattern, it’s now up to the boy to win the girl back. This usually means he must prove his worth to her. Perhaps he makes a difficult decision or performs a heroic act to show her how much he really does care. Depending on the circumstances, the girl may make it easy for him, meet him half way, or make him work hard to win her back.

In Grease, Danny decides to lose his ‘coolness’ and jeopardise his relationship with his friends in the attempt to win Sandy back. Sandy in turn meets him half way with a symbolic gesture when she turns up in that well-known skin-tight black outfit. A song or two later, and all is well and everyone is happy.

That’s the basic idea of where we start and where we want to end up, but how do we get from Point A to Point B?

To keep the explanation simple, every story is based on a series of events (or focal points) that drive a story from Point A to Point B. These events may be things that happen to a character, or it could reveal something about a character, or a character’s actions or reactions to a situation. It’s the author’s job to know the sequence of events that establishes the story’s plot. There are a number of ways to map out your story.

You can write each focal point onto a piece of paper or card so you can move them around as you map out the entire story. Something that you thought should go early in the sequence of focal points might actually be better at a later stage, so the movability of the cards is extremely helpful.

Some people prefer to use software that has the capability to plot a story and the ability to move the focal points around until the story has been completely mapped. Pick whichever way works best for you.

Remember though, each focal point should move the story forward. While focal points are the basis of the story, it’s the author’s prose, description and uniqueness in telling the story that makes it shine. However, the plot must be sound or it won’t matter how brilliant the writing is – the story will struggle.

Happy writing (and plotting)!

The Key to Being a Professional Writer: Create, Rework and Edit

Posted on by besinoz

Hello to all the writers out there. The best advise I can give regarding grammar is don’t let it consume you. Sit down in front of your computer or pick up a pen and writing pad and start creating. Don’t worry about grammar or where to stick commas; this isn’t the stage to allow yourself to be distracted. Write! Emerge yourself into the creative process and allow it to flow from you to the page.

But you haven’t finished yet. Here comes the ‘roll up your sleeves and start digging’ part of the process. Explore the possibilities until you have your start, middle and ending. Develop your characters so they act, speak and react in believable ways while remaining true to themselves. Use the full scope of colour and depth, smells and noises, and make it come alive for the reader. Play the ‘what if’ game and challenge yourself. What if this happened then how would each character act or react, and how would that affect the plot and sub plots. Keep working on it until you make it as good as you can get. Keep delving deeper with each draft moving closer and closer to the story that it’s destined to be.

Now here’s an important step: put your work away and don’t look at it for at least a week (longer if possible). If you can’t leave it for that long, then enjoy a coffee break at the local cafe, dance around the house as if no one can see you, or go for a long walk. Do whatever it takes to break away from using your creative side and distance yourself from your newly created work.

Return to your written piece with a fresh mindset and look at your work as if it’s the first time you’ve seen it. Now it’s time to start editing it.

Check your grammar and punctuation. Look up any word you’re unsure of in a good quality dictionary. Once you think the piece is at its best, give it to someone (or multiple people) you trust to read it that can provide insightful feedback. It doesn’t matter if it’s a family member, friend, neighbour or work colleague, but pick avid readers who are capable of providing quality feedback. If you don’t have someone like this in your circle of friends, then have it professionally assessed.

Listen to their comments regarding the content and understand they are trying to help. They are giving their point of view, perhaps uncovering an area you haven’t considered. Pay attention to what they question because that can identify storytelling problems. Are they having trouble understanding a particular section, and that’s why they are questioning it? Perhaps it’s not clear enough and the section needs reworking. Perhaps the sequence of events has been revealed in the wrong order and isn’t working with the timeline. If they point out a word or punctuation mark that seems inappropriate — look it up!

Rewrite the piece taking the feedback into consideration. You don’t have to take all feedback on board when reworking your story if it goes against what you want to achieve. For instance, a suggestion about changing the plot might tell a different story to the one you want to tell. However, understand why a suggestion was raised and if you can improve your work without compromising on the story you want to tell. It doesn’t matter if it takes 20 drafts. A story takes as long as it takes until it’s right.

Have you finished yet? Not quite. I’d recommend hiring a professional editor. Family and friends can help knock the rough edges off and highlight understanding difficulties within a story, but you still need a professional who knows the rules and who has been trained to see the inconsistencies in a story.

If your goal is to have your work published then you have to be professional — that means your attitude as well as your work. You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s important. If you were applying for a job that you wanted, then you’d make sure your résumé was impressive before sending it anywhere. Sending your manuscript to a publisher works the same way. You’re competing against all those other writers.
Even if you opt for self-publishing, you’re still competing with other writers to get a reader’s attention.

Another important rule, perhaps the most important of all: don’t give up! Hard work and dedication will get you there, but be prepared for the long haul. Everybody wants their dreams to become reality today, but the most important dreams – the ones that mean the most to you — take time. And when those dreams start to turn into reality — you’ll know you’re on your way.

Active and Passive Voice

Posted on by besinoz

Many writers drift into the passive voice. When this happens, teachers and other writing professionals often say, ‘You’re writing in the passive voice. Use an active voice instead. It will make your writing more interesting.’

Most likely they offered the same explanation: With the active voice, the subject undertakes the action. With the passive voice, the subject is being acted upon, (or words to that effect).

No one seems able to describe it in any other terms, which leads many writers surrounded by open books trying to understand this conundrum. It’s actually surprising how many books use this same phrasing.

Writers want a simple way to detect when they have moved from active to passive. So, for those writers who have trouble with the concept, here are a few hints to let you know when you have slipped into the passive voice.

Look for the word ‘by’. Here is an example of passive voice:

The trespasser was chased by a bull yesterday.

The bull is actually the subject and it’s the one carrying out the action. A simple rewrite changes the above example into the active voice:

A bull chased the trespasser yesterday.

Of course there are also passive sentences that don’t contain the word ‘by’. (You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?)

Have a look at this example of a passive sentence:

The matter will be looked into further and a solution will be found.

Notice that there is ambiguity with the above example. Who is looking into the problem? A sentence that is unclear who is the subject can indicate it’s written in the passive voice. Don’t be afraid to reword the sentence to transform it into the active voice, as in this example:

The mailroom personnel will check into the problem and rectify it immediately.

Now we have a clear subject – the mailroom personnel.

Not all sentences have a subject, such as fragments.

Why is the active voice more desirable than passive?

Active voice can make a sentence more exciting by speeding up the pace, and it’s especially useful when the writer wants the reader to feel anxiety or suspense. Creative writers (fiction and non-fiction) use the active voice for these reasons.

Does that mean we shouldn’t use passive voice at all?

The passive voice does have its place. It can help readers to catch their breath after an exciting, fast-paced section.

It’s also extremely useful in corporate writing and to soften the effects of blame on an individual or group, as in the following example:

The letter failed to be sent on time by the mailroom personnel.

(Did you notice the example had the word ‘by’ in it?) The example clearly blames a particular group, but is softened with the use of the passive voice. (Was the previous sentence written in passive or active voice?)

This next sentence is written in active voice and delivers a more brutal attack:

The mailroom personnel didn’t send the letter on time.

Hopefully these hints will help alert you to the passive voice and clear up the confusion about whether the subject undertakes the action or if it’s being acted upon.

As always, happy writing!