Bob and Weave: How to Mix Character Actions and Internal Thoughts

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The smoother the flow between action and thought, the stronger the scene will be.

Although some scenes (and some writers) naturally find the perfect balance between action and internal thought, other scenes take work to get that balance right. Tip it too far in either direction, and the writing can come across as too slow (too much in a character's head) or too flat (all description, no character).

There's no rule or ratio for this, since a writer's voice grows from how they string words together. If we all wrote the exact same way, all books would sound alike. And who wants that?

A strong action/thought combination is when the character's actions flow smoothly with their thoughts and work in tandem to tell the story. 

The genre will affect that balance, such as a more thoughtful novel typically tips more to the internal thought side, while a thriller usually leans toward the action.

What “Mama” Can Teach Us About Tension & Suspense

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Want a bestselling novel? Grab your readers and don't let them go until the end.

Once in a while, a story comes along that blows me away. It might be a novel, a movie, a game, or a TV show, but how it’s written or structured illustrates an aspect of storytelling that expands my writer’s mind.

The film, Mama, by Andrés and Barbara Muschietti is one such story.

If you haven’t seen it, the basic premise is this: Two young girls abandoned in the woods are rescued by a tormented spirit who decides to raise them as her own. When the girls are found five years later, things get…complicated.

Although classified as horror, this film is really more psychological suspense in the “peek through your fingers while on the edge of your seat” way. It will utterly creep you out, but also make you laugh so hard you can’t breathe. And it makes you care—deeply.

6 Ways Your Setting Can Create Conflict

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Setting can play a much bigger role in your story’s conflict that you might realize.

No matter what form it takes, conflict is at the core of every story. It’s part of what drives the plot, and it’s what makes readers eager to read on to see if the protagonist succeeds. Characters face problem after problem, and with each trouble found, they’re forced to make tough decisions about what to do next. It’s this constant flow of dealing with problems that keeps the story moving.

But conflict also exists in the world around the characters which has nothing to do with them personally—it’s just the inherent conflict of the world. The setting can be rife with problems that prevent your protagonist from solving their problems and even add to their internal conflicts.

A Step-By-Step Plan to Create Compelling Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Strong characters are vital to a strong story, so don't scrimp on their development.

Developing characters is one of those things where everyone has their own method (which is totally fine). But it also often takes a writer multiple tries to find that perfect process that works for you. No matter what you might read out there, there's no right or wrong way to do it.

Some folks love to interview their characters, others make lists of key traits, some fill out pre-designed forms with a variety of details, and even find photos online of what they look like (I find this photo bit particularly useful).

One friend of mine creates collages that represent that character, letting her mind find images that feel right to her, then thinks about the kind of person who'd create that collage. Another friend dives deep into the emotional states of the characters and needs to understand how they tick before she can do much with them. And me? I only know the bare bones going in.

4 Tips on Writing Action Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A good action scene starts with the character. Seriously.

I love action in my entertainment. Books, movies, TV shows, even games. I also enjoy a great story to go with it, but I like the external forces that cause the true nature of a person to bubble to the surface. I want to see what people do and discover why they did it. 

At this point in my career, writing action comes pretty easily to me, but that wasn't always the case. My early work was way too descriptive in how my fight scenes played out—I explained every detail, I created special names for fighting styles and whatnot. It took longer to read the action that it did to actually perform the action.

Which is the opposite of what you want when it comes to writing action. 

How Do You Know if Your Writing is Getting Better?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy 

Without objective feedback, it's hard to know if you're improving or just making the same mistakes. 

Almost every writer at some point has wondered, "Is my writing getting any better?" I've wondered about it, many writers I know have wondered about it, and odds are good you have, too. It's a normal question when what you're doing is so subjective. 

Sadly, there's no easy checklist to verify if you're improving or not. It's also really tough to judge our writing, because it's hard to be subjective about our own work. We can love our bad writing and hate our good writing—and we often have trouble telling the difference. 

Of course, you can always get a paid critique or manuscript review from a trusted professional source, but not everyone has or can afford that option. For this post, I'm focusing on what we can do on our own.  

Stepping Out: A Look at Point of View Shifts

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Slipping out of your point-of-view-character's head can jar a reader right out of the story.

Years ago, I started a book and set it down before I'd finished the first chapter. The precise moment, was when a paragraph began in one character's head, and ended in another character's head. Even worse, those two characters were in different countries, so it wasn't as if it was an omniscient narrator with characters in the same scene. 

That point of view shift killed the book for me, and I've never tried anything by that author since.

If you're unfamiliar with the term, a point of view shift is when the author shifts out of the point-of-view-character's head, either into another character, or showing/explaining something that character couldn’t possibly know.

4 Must-Ask Questions Before You Start Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A little thinking before you start writing can make a huge difference in how easy that story is to write.

For some writers, a blank page is a scary thing to face. For others, they see all that white space as an opportunity, and can't wait to dive in and tell their story. The vast majority of us probably fall somewhere in between, with some ideas making us eager to write, and some fighting us for every word.

I've discovered through (often painful) trial and error, that my novels go smoother when I spend some time planning them before I write them. I don't have to figure everything out, but knowing what my core conflict is, what my protagonist needs to do, and who my antagonist is makes it a lot easier to write the first draft. I struggle less, my plot comes together more quickly, and the manuscript turns out much cleaner.

You Can Fight Mama Nature: What to do When Your Antagonist is Nature Herself

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Some antagonists can't be fought—they can only be survived.

It's common to hear "antagonist" and think "villain," but the two are not synonymous. An antagonist is just who or what is preventing your protagonist from achieving their goal. Often, that is a person and a bad one at that, but it can also be from a conflict type that has no personal stake in the game. 

Like Mother Nature. 

Your antagonist can come from any of the four basic conflict types, and they each focus on a different type of conflict opposition. We've discussed the person vs. society conflicts, and person vs. self antagonists, so let's look at the person vs. nature conflicts.  

Person vs. Nature conflicts have often undefeatable foes to deal with, because they focus on taming the untamable or surviving the overwhelming threat.  

A great example of a nature antagonist is a traditional disaster movie like Volcano. 

An Easy Tip for Tightening Your Novel’s Plot

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A loose plot can easily unravel, but tying up the threads strengthens the entire novel.

One of my favorite things when writing is when I make an accidental connection that fits so well it looks like I’d planned it all along. It’s my subconscious working in the background.

One day, it dawned on me that I didn’t have to wait for my inner writer to clue me in—I could consciously look for those connections.

Once I started looking, I found multiple “hidden connections” per book that deepened the plot and made it more unpredictable. The obvious characters became red herrings for the more subtle characters lurking in the background doing “plot things” and making the story work.

Plus, it’s a ton of fun.