How Could You Do This to Me? When Characters Betray Other Characters

By Janice Hardy

Betrayal can come in many forms, and most of them make for great stories.

The "unexpected betrayal" has always been a popular trope, but there was a time when it was everywhere, especially in young adult novels. 

The "trusted mentor suddenly turning on you" was the most common, but betrayals were coming from all quarters. Close friends, random people, family. They started to feel a bit deus ex machina to me. It was like yanking off the mask at the end of Scooby-Doo and seeing Old Man Withers.

So instead of a betrayal surprising me, I was playing the “I wonder which one of these allies will turn on the hero in the third act?” game. I knew it was coming, and more times than not, the same old "Aha! I was secretly working for the villain" was the big twist. 

The problem here...

The Practical Guide to Using Character Archetypes in Your Novel

By Janice Hardy

Character archetypes are a useful tool in creating characters for a novel.

At some point in your writing journey, you’ve probably come across the term "archetype." This has no doubt led you to articles quoting Carl Jung (the father of psychology) and his twelve character types. Pursuing that further, has likely led to multiple articles about the variations of those and the common archetypes used in fiction.

And then your head likely started spinning and you wondered how the heck any of that was going to help you write a better novel.

But there’s a difference between Jungian archetypes and fictional archetypes. 

Jung’s focus was on defining the human psyche, not telling a grand tale, so his list tends be more thematic in nature. Which is great if you’re writing literary fiction with Deep and Meaningful Themes, but not so great for the rest of us.

5 Ways to Turn Off Your Inner Editor and Get More Writing Done

By Janice Hardy

Our inner editor is an enemy to our muse—here’s how to shut it up.

I think writers would get a lot more written if there was a "first draft keyboard" without a delete or backspace key. 

Sure, those first drafts would be a mess, but we’d be free to just type and let the words flow without the ability to fix them—so there’d be no inner editor telling us to go back and tweak them.

It’s only natural to want to write the best draft possible, but sometimes the creative process needs to be set free to get anywhere. 

Constantly stopping to tweak or fix a word can sap our creative energy and lower our productivity.

You Get One Page to Hook a Reader. Yes, Really.

By Janice Hardy

Many readers decide before the end of the first page if they’re going to keep reading.

A lot of pressure is put on the opening page of a novel, and for good reason. It’s the first impression the reader gets, and if that reader isn’t hooked in some way, they won’t move on to the second page. 

As unfair as it seems, 250 words (roughly one page) are often all you get to convince readers to stay with your story and read your book. It might be tempting to pack the entire story into that first page, but that's absolutely the wrong approach.  

All you have to do is give readers something that promises them that your novel will be worth reading. 

Which is much easier to do than you might think.

Are You Missing Opportunities to Make Your Writing Stronger?

By Janice Hardy

Little tweaks can make a big difference in our novels.

It always amazes me how many decisions go into writing a strong novel. There's the big stuff, like the plot and characters, but something as simple as your title, or where you break your scenes can be the difference between a good book and great book.

Use too many clichés? The novel feels familiar and unoriginal. Throw in a ton of adverbs? Your readers don't feel the full weight of the story's emotional layer. 

You have so many opportunities to write a strong novel, and more writers should take advantage of that fact. 

How a Story’s Genre Influences the Role of Fear

By Angela Ackerman

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Fear is at the heart of so many stories, because it’s often what’s keeping the protagonist from whatever it is they want in the story. It has so many potential uses in writing great fiction, and Angela Ackerman is here to share some genre-specific ones for us today.

Take it away Angela…

No matter the genre, fear is always present. It anchors readers in the character’s experience by closing the gap between story and reality. Fear taps into our instinct for self-preservation and the universal struggle to manage it without letting it take over.

But fear doesn’t look the same in every genre. Reader expectations shape the kinds of dangers characters face and the fears that drive their choices. In some stories, fear centers on emotional vulnerability and relationships; in others, it comes from danger, secrets, or the loss of control.

Seven Tips for Building a Literary Community That Makes You Happy

By Tess Perko

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Becoming part of a writing community can be a rewarding and beneficial experience for the often-lonely business of writing. Jess Perko takes to the lecture hall today to share her publishing journey and how she found her "writing home." 

Take it away Tess...

Writing can be a lonely process, but not if you have a writing community. I wake up each morning enthusiastic about connecting with other writers and readers. That’s because I’ve made a promise to myself to enjoy the process of publishing my book and social interaction with other people I meet along the way.

First Look at a First Draft: How to Revise Your Manuscript

By Janice Hardy

A first draft is a wonderful thing, but it always needs more work.

There's something exciting and rewarding about a first draft. The story that's been in our heads is finally down on paper, and we can see how it developed. Sometimes it unfolded exactly how we pictured, but more often we encountered snags here and there and discovered fun twists and plots as we wrote. The draft might even be, shall we say, a little messy.

And that's okay, because first drafts are often messy and filled with holes.

It's what you do with it from there that really matters. As the adage goes...writing is rewriting. Often, a lot of rewriting (sigh).

This is why taking an objective first look at your first draft is so important. 

You're taking stock of what you have and looking for what's working, what's not working, and what could use a little more work to get it right. It's much easier to do the heavier rewrites in draft form before the story becomes mentally "set in stone." First drafts are supposed to be messed with. 

The Hidden Danger Backstory Poses for Writers (And It’s Not the One You Think)

By Janice Hardy

Uncovering backstory isn’t the same as plot, and focusing too much on the story’s past can hurt your novel’s future.

One of the very first outlines for my urban fantasy novel, Blood Ties, focused on revealing the twist and secrets of the novel. It was mostly about how readers were going to learn all the cool things I’d created and less about a character struggling with a problem. Which was an actual problem, since struggling with problems is what makes a novel a novel.

Weak as that early outline was, writing it was worth it, since it helped me figure out those backstories and secrets. It also made it obvious that I’d outlined a novel that didn’t truly have a plot. Sure, my protagonist had goals and she acted to achieve them and did all the things a good protagonist is supposed to do, but if I’d written the story to that first outline, it would have been terrible.

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.