Description is key to a developing story. You want the reader to picture the scene in their mind - what the background looks like, the characters and their, etc. To give the reader a complete picture you want to try and get every one of the senses involved: sight, sound, touch, taste, and scent. Not always are all five sense going to be relevant, though. We tend to spend all of our time on sight, because that's what we notice right off the bat. But when you walk into a restaurant or an especially dirty house, scent is definitely going to prominent there. Every where we go there's always sound. Touch is only really relevant if they're, obviously, touching something. Taste can be used when their eating or have something in their mouth, but can also be used in combination with scent. Our taste buds and noses are definitely connected. When you smell something really strong you can usually taste it too.
With adjectives you have to be careful that you're enhancing the reader's understanding of the situation and not bogging it down with just more words. "The bright blue sky had not a cloud in sight." While this sentence is perfectly fine, couldn't it be better with fewer words? If there's not a cloud in sight, isn't it understood that the sky is blue? "There wasn't a cloud in sight." is so much more concise. Here's a good link that touches on this topic of adjective/adverb overuse: Screenwrightist.com
There are a few adjectives that aren't helpful at all in accurately describing anything. Vague adjectives are useless - might as well have nothing there instead. Avoid using these words: very, extremely, perhaps, maybe, kinda, sorta, just, really, sometimes, and probably more that I can't think of. Another issue is that authors use words that they don't truly know the meaning of or using them inappropriately. When I'm not 100% sure on a word, I look it up in the dictionary. When you use words wrong you give the reader a false description and overall you'll end up confusing them. Dictionaries are your friend - learn to love them as I do.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Maybe I Want My Readers to Be Completely Lost Throughout My Novel. Ever Think of That?!
One of the biggest problems I know all authors make is not giving the reader enough information. We're so caught up in our own heads, we don't realize that we've completely left out the part where aliens are a common thing and that's why our MC wasn't surprised when they met the SC. It's just so blindingly obvious to us, but to someone who has never heard of your story they'll be infinitely confused. "Shouldn't he be surprised this chick is blue and has a tail?"
It's always useful to have a friend to read your story. They can ask you questions about things they're confused about which you can in turn go and add in to your story - unless it's something you want them to be confused about, (but you have to be sure you give at least a tiny bit of clarification later. Can make it as subtle as you want - makes the reader feel oh so special when they figure it out). If you don't have a friend to read it for you, then you need to get one. Or if you prefer no one read it, then you need to question yourself as you read through your work. Did I already explain why this is true, why my MC is behaving this way - if not, do I explain it later? It's easy to get lost in your own thoughts, but since you're hoping others will enjoy your works and they'll actually pay money for it, I suggest you keep in mind that it isn't for you. It's for your readers, and they want to know what the deuce is happening.
It's always useful to have a friend to read your story. They can ask you questions about things they're confused about which you can in turn go and add in to your story - unless it's something you want them to be confused about, (but you have to be sure you give at least a tiny bit of clarification later. Can make it as subtle as you want - makes the reader feel oh so special when they figure it out). If you don't have a friend to read it for you, then you need to get one. Or if you prefer no one read it, then you need to question yourself as you read through your work. Did I already explain why this is true, why my MC is behaving this way - if not, do I explain it later? It's easy to get lost in your own thoughts, but since you're hoping others will enjoy your works and they'll actually pay money for it, I suggest you keep in mind that it isn't for you. It's for your readers, and they want to know what the deuce is happening.
Dialogue Punctuation Is Only For Cool Kids
The first time I go over a new piece of my own written work I always start with the obvious, spelling and grammar. After that I read it out loud - it makes it easier to spot awkward sentences that either make no sense or just don't flow with the rest. At the same time I'm trying to spot inconsistencies. Like in chapter 3 when I said Dergan was below deck in his cabin, but then on the next page I mention him on the bow of the ship. Yeah...that's the kind of inconsistencies I'm lookin' to fix.
Grammar wise, one of the most common mistakes I see unpublished authors make is punctuation and capitalization with dialogue.
"I don't understand why you think that hat is cute", the girl said to Felix.
"Just because you're hot doesn't mean you're immortal." He told me.
"Say what?" They said in unison.
"I know for a fact I'm better than you," She said with a flip of her hair.
Those are all examples of the mistakes I see. In the first, the comma goes within the quotes. The second example shows a fragment. "He told me" is an incomplete sentence, so why would you capitalize the "H"? The third one is the same in that "They said in unison" is a fragment, so you wouldn't capitalize "they". And the last one is also the same. I don't care what kind of punctuation you use IN the quotes really, but you don't capitalize the first word in the fragment that comes directly after it! Here's the correct way to say the above examples.
"I don't understand why you think that hat is cute," the girl said to Felix.
"Just because you're hot doesn't mean you're immortal," he told me.
"Say what?" they said in unison.
"I know for a fact I'm better than you," she said with a flip of her hair.
"I haven't wet my bed since I was five." He said it with a false sense of accomplishment.
The last one there is an example of how you can easily change the fragment so it isn't a fragment. It sounds awkward and I kind of hate it, but it's grammatically correct. My best friend goes off on rants about people capitalizing the first word after quotes, so this is for her benefit - that maybe one day we can rid the world of dialogue-uneducated authors! So here's a list of fun links about this same topic.
Be A Better Writer
Writing World
Bownet.org
Glencoe Online Writer's Choice
Grammar wise, one of the most common mistakes I see unpublished authors make is punctuation and capitalization with dialogue.
"I don't understand why you think that hat is cute", the girl said to Felix.
"Just because you're hot doesn't mean you're immortal." He told me.
"Say what?" They said in unison.
"I know for a fact I'm better than you," She said with a flip of her hair.
Those are all examples of the mistakes I see. In the first, the comma goes within the quotes. The second example shows a fragment. "He told me" is an incomplete sentence, so why would you capitalize the "H"? The third one is the same in that "They said in unison" is a fragment, so you wouldn't capitalize "they". And the last one is also the same. I don't care what kind of punctuation you use IN the quotes really, but you don't capitalize the first word in the fragment that comes directly after it! Here's the correct way to say the above examples.
"I don't understand why you think that hat is cute," the girl said to Felix.
"Just because you're hot doesn't mean you're immortal," he told me.
"Say what?" they said in unison.
"I know for a fact I'm better than you," she said with a flip of her hair.
"I haven't wet my bed since I was five." He said it with a false sense of accomplishment.
The last one there is an example of how you can easily change the fragment so it isn't a fragment. It sounds awkward and I kind of hate it, but it's grammatically correct. My best friend goes off on rants about people capitalizing the first word after quotes, so this is for her benefit - that maybe one day we can rid the world of dialogue-uneducated authors! So here's a list of fun links about this same topic.
Be A Better Writer
Writing World
Bownet.org
Glencoe Online Writer's Choice
Monday, June 27, 2011
Here's What My Novel Entails...
Just so you know a bit about my novel so you don't get all confusled about things when I refer to them. My main character is Elune. She's about 16 years old. My main supporting characters are: Dergan, Bara, Anya, and Andrus. Later in the novel we add Arieanna and Zeek to the mix. I'm writing a fantasy novel and I've created my own world for it. I'm kickin' it old school, so they don't have much in the way of what we consider technology. In fact, I haven't really gone in to depth on what "technology" they do have - certainly no electricity though. They do have magic which i refer to as the Forces. And uh...I think that should cover all my bases with what I'll likely talk about in my posts. =D
Crossing the "I"s and Dotting the "T"s
I'm going through what I think is my fifth major revision for chapters 0-6. Right now I'm on chapter 5 and I'm lovin it. I haven't changed anything with my prologue since the first big revision, where I gutted the entire thing... but everything else has had a major face lift. One of my SCs, Kinue Noretti, is completely gone. My sister suggested I just kill him off, that way I wouldn't have to re-write so much. I asked, "but how would I do it?" "A bus" she suggested. Then I got a little off track thinking how comical a big yellow school bus, full of children, coming out of nowhere and running down Kinue. My world is anything but modern, they don't have technology like that yet! I just keep hearing grade school kids singing "The wheels on the bus go-" before my MC and the other SCs start shouting "HOLY MOTHER OF - WHAT IS THAT?!" ahaha...
*Ahem* so... Kinue is being completely written out, and so the other SCs are forced to pick up the slack and take on the roles that he had played. The whole story really flows a lot better now, though, so I'm glad for it. There was too much competition for attention before with five SCs.
In chapter 5 a lot is happening. They're traveling through unfamiliar ground, a monster attacks them, and they meet someone new. Also, this is where we catch up with what my villains have been up to. I have two main villains at this point, Haivera and Daign. The two serve very different gods so naturally they have no love for each other. I haven't yet written the scene for Haivera, but I'll be getting to it today; I'm excited. After Chapter 4, you don't really hear from the villains much after that - which I'm definitely going to remedy. Haivera is a very snooty and calculating type of person. She never acts without thinking through the possible outcomes first. Daign on the other hand is very rough and maybe a little crazy. All that's left for me to go over in this chapter is the last bit that's in my MC's POV, (Elune), and to write Haivera's new scene. Then it's on to chapter 6, dun dun dunnnnn.....
*Ahem* so... Kinue is being completely written out, and so the other SCs are forced to pick up the slack and take on the roles that he had played. The whole story really flows a lot better now, though, so I'm glad for it. There was too much competition for attention before with five SCs.
In chapter 5 a lot is happening. They're traveling through unfamiliar ground, a monster attacks them, and they meet someone new. Also, this is where we catch up with what my villains have been up to. I have two main villains at this point, Haivera and Daign. The two serve very different gods so naturally they have no love for each other. I haven't yet written the scene for Haivera, but I'll be getting to it today; I'm excited. After Chapter 4, you don't really hear from the villains much after that - which I'm definitely going to remedy. Haivera is a very snooty and calculating type of person. She never acts without thinking through the possible outcomes first. Daign on the other hand is very rough and maybe a little crazy. All that's left for me to go over in this chapter is the last bit that's in my MC's POV, (Elune), and to write Haivera's new scene. Then it's on to chapter 6, dun dun dunnnnn.....
Whoop-die Do, I Wrote A Novel... Now What?
Here's a little bit on how my novel came into being. Three years ago in my creative writing class of my senior year in high school I attempted to start a short story. I only got as far as like five pages, but it was enough of a start to get me really thinking about it. It was based around a preadolescent girl who lived with her grandparents, growing up under the belief that her parents were dead. One day while exploring in the woods, she fell in the midst of climbing a tall pine. Instead of crashing to the ground, a stranger catches her. Then she grew wings, blah blah blah. It was all very boring, really. The stranger tells her that she's from an secret winged race, that her parents are still alive, and that she's a princess. All that in five pages? Yeah, it was pretty awesome...
So I went back I deleted the entirety of the "short story" but took the foundations of it to create a novel. The girl still grows wings, she still finds out she's a princess, but other than that I changed everything. With the help of two years of NaNoWriMo, (if you don't know what that is, then you need to be educated right here and now. Click Here to find out more about National Novel Writing Month!), I finally got the basis for my sprouting novel underway. I only made it halfway each year, but whatever.
The first week of December 2010 I had finally made it to the last page. Whoop-die do, right? With a motto like "quantity over quality" it's no big surprise. But the work is FAR from over. I've gone over half the book about five times now, making radical changes each time and I'm still not finished. I figured, why should I go through the entire novel all at once when there's so many inconsistencies just in the first five chapters? So I'm getting the facts straight in the beginning, then I'll continue to go through the rest with a firm knowledge of what the deuce I'm talking about.
So I went back I deleted the entirety of the "short story" but took the foundations of it to create a novel. The girl still grows wings, she still finds out she's a princess, but other than that I changed everything. With the help of two years of NaNoWriMo, (if you don't know what that is, then you need to be educated right here and now. Click Here to find out more about National Novel Writing Month!), I finally got the basis for my sprouting novel underway. I only made it halfway each year, but whatever.
The first week of December 2010 I had finally made it to the last page. Whoop-die do, right? With a motto like "quantity over quality" it's no big surprise. But the work is FAR from over. I've gone over half the book about five times now, making radical changes each time and I'm still not finished. I figured, why should I go through the entire novel all at once when there's so many inconsistencies just in the first five chapters? So I'm getting the facts straight in the beginning, then I'll continue to go through the rest with a firm knowledge of what the deuce I'm talking about.
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