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. 

Stuck in Your Story? Try This Fun Exercise to Shake Up Your Muse

By Janice Hardy

Sometimes, we get so focused on what’s supposed to happen in our novel, we forget to consider what could happen.

Unless you're incredibly lucky, at some point in your writing life your creativity is bound to stall.

The novel you loved yesterday feels flat today, all your ideas sound "meh" and nothing really excites you about your current manuscript. It happens, it's scary, but there are ways to knock your muse out of her slump and get things moving again.

Sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to look at the novel from a different perspective.

Changing your perspective can shake loose preconceived ideas and allow you to see the story and characters in ways you hadn't considered before. These different views often spark ideas that breathe new life into a novel that needs it.

The Question You Should Ask for Every Scene

By Janice Hardy

If you can’t explain why a scene exists, you probably shouldn’t write it

Writers ask a lot of questions while drafting a novel—who are the characters, how does the worldbuilding work, what are the goals, motivations, and plot twists? And readers have their own questions driving them forward. Will the hero win? Will the lovebirds fall in love? Will the hockey team survive?

But we don’t always ask the question that can save us a ton of time and frustration.

What’s the point of this scene?

This question isn’t about the story's theme or the protagonist's goals—it’s about why you decided to put this scene into your story in the first place.

If you can’t answer why a scene is in your novel, it's a huge red flag that the scene might not be serving the story.

The Best Advice on Plotting I've Ever Heard: Two Tips That Make Plotting Your Novel Way Easier

By Janice Hardy

A good story is more than a series of things that happen. It's all about the cause and effect.

Way back in 2012, I read a few pieces of plotting advice that are just as good today as they were then. They're nothing new, nothing ground-breaking, and things countless writers have said before (including me), but the way they're said is sheer genius. They're probably the most applicable and easiest plotting tips I've ever heard.

The advice refers to full scenes, but I quickly realized it was just as effective on diagnosing the action in an individual scene as well as the big picture of the novel's plot. It's an incredibly useful tool for pinpointing problems in a scene you know has issues, but can't figure out what they are.

Where Was I Going Again? The Benefits of Re-Reading During a Revision

By Janice Hardy

A re-read might be the right path to find your story and fall in love with it all over again.

Many writers shudder at the very thought of revising their novel. Others curse. But I’ve always enjoyed the revision process (don’t hate me). I’ve found it’s where my best writing happens, because I know how my story turned out and I have a much better understanding of who the characters are and what they want and need to do.

Even if you’re a meticulous outliner, your final draft rarely matches your original plan exactly. And if you’re a pantser or discovery writer? Well, your manuscript may resemble your initial vision about as much as a squirrel resembles a spaceship. Though honestly, that can happen to plotters, too.

Because things change as we write. Motivations shift. New ideas pop up halfway through and suddenly alter our understanding of the plot. Characters do things we didn’t plan, and sometimes what sounded brilliant in Chapter Eight feels like a complete mistake by Chapter Twenty.

The Rule of Three and How it Helps Our Writing

By Janice Hardy 

Three is a magic number in writing, and can help you craft stronger stories.

There was a joke in my house growing up, that things always happened in threes—good luck, bad luck, it didn't matter. If the car broke down, that meant two other things were sure to break within a few weeks. Someone got a raise, well, then two more good things were certainly on the way.

Most of the time it did actually happen—but probably not for the reasons you'd think. Good and bad things happen all the time, but we don't always notice them or make the connection to other similar events. It’s part of our culture and so ingrained in our subconscious that we notice (if not seek out) patterns that fit this rule. 

5 Edits to Strengthen Your Writing, Right Now

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Making some simple word edits can turn a flat scene into one that sings.

Back when I was first learning how to write, I loved discovering a great writing tip--the ones I could immediately apply to my work and see actual improvement were the best. I got especially excited over lists of words or specific examples, because I could search and find the weak areas right away. Which is probably why I like to do a lot of lists and examples now in my own articles.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with a "weak word," they do tend to hang around trouble areas--just like those red flag words with show, don't tell. They're good places to start when something feels off in your work or you're getting negative feedback and aren't sure why. 

If you're looking for easy ways to improve your writing, here are great words to search for to identify potentially weak areas.

Let's a take a peek at a few of the more common troublemakers that often pull readers out of a story.

Stuck on Your Plot? Change Your Story Question

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A strong plot starts with a compelling question.

A lot of writers I speak with struggle with plotting. They can come up with great ideas and wonderful characters, but getting those characters from page one to the end causes plenty of sleepless nights. And from my many conversations with frustrated writers, I see a common thread.

They’re asking the wrong story questions.

You have an idea, you know your story’s conflict, and you write the plot to solve that conflict (which is what you’re supposed to do). The problem occurs when you get too focused on your plot in a, “this is what the protagonist needs to do to win,” type way, which can sometimes put literary blinders on you.

You’re so caught up on what the right path is, that you forget to let your protagonist make mistakes and struggle to find that right path.

Description Tip: Make “Sense” of Your Characters

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

You have five great tools for writing better descriptions, so why not use them all?

I’ll be honest—description is my least favorite thing to write. I always have to do a revision pass specifically to add more description, and I have critique partners who regularly whack me with the description stick when I slack off. 

 

So I created little games to make it more fun for me. One of them helps me focus and guides my brainstorming toward how my characters might see their world, and what ways they might describe their surroundings and experiences.

If you have a similar distaste of descriptions, or struggle with knowing what details to use, or you’re just looking for fun tips to help with description, try this:

When Stuck in a Scene, Look Around

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Sometimes the answer to making a scene work is inside the scene itself.

I’ve been struggling with a major turning point chapter revision the past week, and one scene was really giving me a headache. It’s the end of Act Two, and the scene that triggers my protagonist’s Dark Night of the Soul and All Is Lost moments. So yeah, it’s important.

What’s worse, is that I knew how the chapter needed to end (because of those oh-so-critical moments), I just wasn’t sure how to get there based on where the story was after all the new revisions. I had to connect Point A with Point B, mixing the original mystery plot with the new personal subplot I’d added.

This scene depended on my protagonist getting face-to-face with the antagonist’s minion and realizing something world-shattering about himself and the Big Problem of the plot. And after all the revising I’d done, I had no idea why that minion was in the scene now.

Three Questions to Get to the Heart of Your Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The story is why readers picked up your book. 

Writing is such a strange thing. As writers, we get these characters and stories in our heads and put them down on paper. Sometimes we know exactly what happens and write what we imagine, other times we have a character shouting in our heads and we transcribe what they tell us. We all have different processes and write with different voices.

What I find interesting, is that no matter what genre we write in or what age group we write for, one thing stays the same.

The story.

Not the plot, not the series of events that unfold, but the story that causes those events to happen as they do. Because story is bigger than plot or any of the other mechanical and technical aspects of writing. It’s the heart and soul of an idea and what brings the reader along for the ride.

Are You Missing These Opportunities to Write a Better Story?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Transform your story by mining its hidden gems.

One of the many reasons I adore my critique groups is that they push me to tell better stories. When I slack off, they call me on it. When I miss something, they point it out. When I’m not sure what works and throw all kinds of gunk into a scene, they tell me what worked and what needs to go.

After a while, their words started echoing in my head even when we weren’t meeting. When I slack off, miss something, or have too much gunk, and I hear what I know they’re going to say when they read those pages.

Which makes me change it.

Granted, I don’t catch everything, and my changes aren’t always the right changes, but it’s made me much more aware of what I’m doing when I’m drafting a novel. I’m much better now at spotting the gems hidden in the rough words and turning them into diamonds (or at least cubic zirconia).

I guarantee you’re not taking advantage of all the hidden gems in your story.

An Unpredictable (and Fun) Trick to Keep Your Plots Unpredictable

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy 

To write unpredictable scenes, try being unpredictable.

Plotting a novel can be a lot of fun, but it can also get a little tedious at times—trying to figure out the next step of a puzzle, crafting the perfect response to every choice your characters make, deciding when, where, and if you need a plot twist. When the muse is on your side the story flows quickly, but when she's not?

For those days, try treating your scenes like a game of chance to kick start the muse and keep readers guessing.

All you need is a single die or a random number generator, and the courage to think outside the box. This exercise is fun, but it can also send your scene in a direction you never anticipated—and might not want to go. And that's okay. You don't have to go where the Muse of Chance sends you, but at least try to think about how that direction might affect the story.

Take the Work Out of Writing a Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Don’t try to write the whole scene at once.

Last week, I was having a bit of trouble writing a scene for a new book. I’d been away from writing in general, and this book in particular for a while, so I was no longer in the writing flow. I had my outline summary, I knew what the scene entailed, I just couldn’t start it. So I did what I always do when a scene doesn’t want to start.

I took my summary and turned it into the individual moments that made up the scene.

This is as easy as just hitting a hard return after a line, and turning my summary into something closer to bullet points. That let me focus on smaller moments in the scene, and not the entire thing. I didn’t have to worry about the end, because I was working on the little bit at the start.

Scenes are easier to write when you break them down into bite-sized pieces.

Don’t Let These Plotting Errors Knock Your Novel Off Track

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Here are five common plotting mistakes to avoid when writing a novel.

Plots are tricky things. They ought to be easy, since they’re just the steps characters go through to resolve a novel’s conflict, but for a lot of writers, those steps are loaded with traps and pitfalls. These writers have no trouble creating deep, fascinating characters and crafting compelling character arcs for them, but how they get those characters from Point A to Point B mystifies them.

Plotting doesn’t come naturally to all writers, same as developing characters, world building, or writing snazzy dialogue. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Once we identify (and accept) what we’re weak at, we can work on improving those areas and paying a little more attention to them in early drafts.

When plotting, it helps to remind yourself that a plot is the series of events that illustrate a story. It’s not the theme, the characters, the character arc, or the idea behind the novel—just what the characters actually do.

Beware the Vague Goal When Outlining a Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Vague goals can trick you into thinking your scene is ready to write when it really isn’t.

Vague goals are nobody’s friend. They creep into our scenes, make us think our structures (and stories) are solid, but they’re really undermining those stories, especially in the drafting stage. “Stop the bad guy” tells us noting about what will actually transpire in a scene. Neither does “Protect the witness.” How is the protagonist going to do that?

Then there’s the king of the vague goals—“Survive the threat.” As Kristin Lamb hysterically puts it, her goal every day is to not die. Every protagonist in every book has this same goal. What the threat is and how the character survives it is what creates the plot and tells the story.

How Writing with Constraints Can Boost Your Writing Skills

By Sherry Howard, @SherLHoward

Part of The Writer's Life Series

JH: Sometimes we have to trick ourselves into getting better as a writer. Sherry Howard shares a trick to improve your writing skills.

Sherry Howard lives with her children and silly dogs in Middletown, Kentucky. Sherry is the author of the picture book ROCK AND ROLL WOODS, with a starred Kirkus review. Her poems and stories have appeared in multiple journals and anthologies. She also writes for the educational market, with about a dozen books. Her middle grade book, SPIRITS AMONG US, releases in October.

Sherry Howard | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Take it away Sherry...

The 3 Minute Scene Fix

By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: Getting stuck on a scene isn't just frustrating, it can throw off your whole writing session. Laurence MacNaughton shares an easy three-minute fix for getting that scene back on track.

Writing good fiction takes time. But that doesn't mean you have to spend endless hours agonizing over a scene that's just not working. In most cases, you can fix a troublesome scene in just three minutes.

All you need is a kitchen timer and the willingness to brainstorm as fast as you can.

Set your timer for one minute, and answer the first question below. Don't stop to think, because you don't have time for that. Just jot down as many answers as you can possibly think of. Keep going until the timer beeps. Then move onto the next question.

What Doesn’t Work? Learning from the Mistakes of Even the (gasp!) Greats

By Bonnie Randall

Part of The How They Do It Series 

JH: Some authors are bestsellers in spite of gaffs in their writing, not because of them. Bonnie Randall share a few things to avoid--even if a Big Name Author does it. 

Stephen King said “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write” and it’s true. Writers collect ribbons of prose, excellent syntax, and well-executed transitions like precious stones in a jar, for once you’re a writer you can never be ‘just’ a reader again. Your eye becomes keenly honed for what works.

It’s also honed for what stinks.

Right now I am reading a novel by someone pretty prolific and very famous, and what I enjoy about their work is the mastery of pacing and plotting.

Cut to the Chase: Tools for Revision

By Rochelle Melander, @WriteNowCoach

Part of The How They Do It Series

JH: Starting a revision can be can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Rochelle Melander shares tips on how and where to start your revision.

Rochelle Melander is a speaker, professional certified coach and the author of 11 books for adults, including Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (and Live to Tell About It) and Level Up: Quests to Master Mindset, Overcome Procrastination and Increase Productivity.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Take it away Rochelle…