Alternative Ways to Describe Character Reactions

By Janice Hardy

Human emotion is universal, but you don't want to use the same descriptions all the time. Here are ways to keep your emotional descriptions fresh. 

I frequently receive questions about finding good alternative ways to use common reaction/emotion words. He smiled. She gulped. He frowned. She cringed. (Actually, that’s a story right there, isn’t it? He sounds like a stalker to me.) Anyway…

These words get used a lot because they’re good words and get the point we're trying to make across. They convey meaning quickly and clearly—smiling shows happiness, frowning shows displeasure, gulping shows fear. But after a while, characters reacting to the same emotions the same way over and over feels repetitive.

However, trying to make every emotional description original can lead to overwriting. 

If a character never smiles, but beams, smirks, grins, curls a lip, the corners of the mouth rise, and all the other various ways we write to say "smile," it can feel awkward. Like "said," "smiled" and the like are fairly invisible, so while readers do notice them, they don't tend to stick out unless they are too many of them.

The Difference Between a First Page that Hooks and a Novel that Hooks

By Janice Hardy

Do you really need to hook a reader on the first page?

Common writing advice says to hook your reader from the first page. I've stopped reading many a book when that first page didn't click with me, or worse, turned me off the story.

But I've also kept reading past so-so first pages when the cover copy was intriguing enough that I was willing to see how the first chapter panned out. If it kept me reading, I stayed with the book.

So, does the first page need to hook if the novel’s premise hooks?

Which is a really loaded question.

What to Do When You Really Don’t Want to Write That Scene

By Janice Hardy

Some scenes are hard to write, and others fight you every word. Does that mean something is wrong with it?

In every first draft I’ve ever written, I reached a point where I forced myself to finish a scene that didn’t want to be written. It fought me for every word and took days to write, and I just wanted it done and over with. When it was really bad, it threw me right out of my writing groove.

But my outline said to do it, my daily plan said to write it, so I did. And it was terrible. It didn't matter what scene or which book it was in, it always turned out the same.

Eventually, I realized this was a huge red flag that something was wrong with the scene. 

If I didn’t want to write it, what made me think someone would want to read it?

5 Ways to Develop Character Voices

By Janice Hardy

If you want memorable characters, don't forget to give them unique voices. 

One of my earliest experiences with how voice affected fiction was in seventh grade, when my English teacher played us a record (yes, record, I'm dating myself here) of Harlan Ellison reading his short story, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktock Man. Not only was I blown away by the story, but the way Ellison crafted the narrative was mind-blowing. The voice was unique.

It wasn't until years later that I learned there was a difference between author voice and character voice, but the lesson on "strong voice = strong story" had been stamped into my brain. 

A well-crafted character steps off the page and into readers' hearts, and a big part of that is their voice. 

Readers can hear personality in the words a character uses, from the thoughts they think to the things they choose to say—or not say. How they sound reflects who they are.

Goals, Conflicts, & Stakes: Why Plots Need All Three

By Janice Hardy

A strong plot is built on strong structure. 

Goal - Conflict - Stakes. They're the engine in every scene and the backbone of every novel. When something feels “off” in a story, when the middle sags, when scenes feel random, when tension fizzles, it’s almost always because one of these three pieces is weak, vague, or missing.

All three exist no matter what genre you’re writing:

• The protagonist wants something (goal).
• Something stands in the way (conflict).
• Something bad will happen if they fail (stakes).

What trips up many writers, is that each of these can be used in multiple ways. 

There are story goals and scene goals. Internal conflict and external conflict. Personal stakes and larger story stakes. If you don’t know which aspect you’re working with, it’s easy to stall around page 100, wondering why your “great idea” suddenly has nowhere to go.

Let’s break all this down.

A Common Reason Novels Fail

By Janice Hardy

Discovering your novel doesn’t work is heartbreaking, but there are things you can do to fix it.

Story ideas are wonderful things, because they hold so much potential. Every spark of inspiration has the ability to become the next Great Novel and make a writer’s whole career. Or at least lead to a solid book readers might want to buy.

Not all ideas lead to good books, though.

Sometimes it’s the idea itself that’s the problem, but frequently, it’s the execution—but not in a “badly written” kind of way. The reason the idea (and the novel) falls flat is this:

It doesn’t tell a story, it explains a situation.

The “situation novel” isn’t about characters trying to solve problems, but scene after scene that tells readers how a situation occurs, offers a flat play-by-play of how something came to be, or even examples of why this idea is so cool.

An Age-Old Question: How Do You Show a Character's Age?

By Janice Hardy

Some details are difficult to slip seamlessly into the story, but you can show a character's age without it feeling awkward. 

In some novels, age doesn't matter. The characters are adults, and whether they're thirty or fifty the book unfolds pretty much the same way. Readers can assume the characters are about "the same age as they are" (if they're adults of course) and it still tracks. 

It's more about the characters being relatable to the readers' experiences than the actual age, and this also holds true for younger readers as well. As long as the characters fit the reader's expectations of age, the story flows smoothly. 

But imagine a young adult (or worse—a middle grade) novel if it was suddenly revealed halfway through the story that the protagonist was thirty. The entire book would change, and everything read so far would probably feel...icky. Readers would have interpreted the entire story through the wrong perspective.

Character age provides context. It tells readers how to judge decisions, mistakes, and emotional reactions.

Does Your Novel Just…Stop? What Makes a Good Ending

By Janice Hardy

Your novel’s ending will have more impact than everything that came before it.

Some writers have troubles with beginnings, or more commonly, middles, but for me, it’s always been endings.

I tend to rush them once I reach the book’s climax, and summarize what happens instead of dramatizing scenes to the big finish. Then I have to rewrite those last three or four chapters several times before I get them right.

There are two reasons for this—impatience and story fatigue.

I reach a point where I’m tired of planning and want to move onto the writing. When I’m drafting it, I hit another wall of fatigue, where I’m so ready for it to be over and I rush past the ending I didn’t develop enough in the first place.

How to Sneak Clues Past Your Readers and Keep Them Guessing

By Janice Hardy

Some writers weave clues so seamlessly into a novel, readers never realize they’re there until they all converge in the end. 

My subconscious is a better writer than I am. It drops in details and makes connections in my first drafts that I don’t see until the next draft—if at all. 

Sometimes, it takes the sharp eyes of my critique group to spot the "clever things" I’ve written that I’m totally unaware of (grin). 

I suspect your subconscious does this, too. It’s only natural. 

Stories churn in our heads even when we aren’t consciously thinking about them. 

Our brains remember throwaway details and build on them without our input. And when we make the connections, we get that rush and think, “Ooo that is soooo cool.”

5 Questions to Turn a Character from Flat to Fabulous

By Janice Hardy

Sometimes we just need to ask the right questions to create a memorable character.

Some writers develop incredibly detailed characters before they ever start a story.

I am not one of those writers.

I do the bare minimum necessary to create a character, then I throw them into my story and see what they do. By the time I’ve written the first draft, I know who they are and can revise accordingly.

Although I’ve written this way for decades, I’m not sure I’d recommend it. It’s an interesting tactic, but it has left me with a lot of revising I might not have needed if I’d done a bit more character work before I started writing. Characters drive the plot, and I’m a plot-driven writer, so my process is missing a critical aspect when I think about it from that perspective.  

It doesn’t take much effort to build a solid foundation for a character.