Basic Writing : From Pre-Writing to Editing
Pre-Writing
Concept/Idea (Brainstorm about chosen idea. Write
everything that comes to mind.)
Conflict/Problem (Without a problem
there is no story. Be sure the problem is solvable.)
Possible
Conflicts: man vs man, man vs nature, man vs self, man vs society, man vs
circumstances
Characters (No more than 7 main; the story becomes
unmanageable and readers lose track.
Devise: Names, Personalities, Relationships,
Appearances, What makes them special.)
Plot (Devise 3 attempts to solve the problem. Then
figure out why they won't work?)
Solution/Climax (How does the main
character solve the problem? Is it reasonable as you’ve written her/him?)
Conclusion (Wrap up loose ends with all of the
characters.)
Also Pre-Writing
Opening-be sure your beginning snatches the reader’s
attention (pull action from within the story then go back and begin at the
beginning to catch the reader up)
1st Plot
Point-main character
discovers there is a problem
2nd Plot
Point-main character feels
threatened but unsure what to do
3rd Plot
Point-problem is at its worst
and seems hopeless THEN main character figures out what to do
Climax-problem or antagonist pulls out all the stops
to ‘get’ main character
Denouement-main character about to give-in then finds
courage and knowledge to solve the problem
Resolution-main character ends the problem for good then
wraps up loose ends with other characters
Writing
There are two main types
of writers, although many of us fall into combo categories: Planners
and Pantsers.
Planners don’t write until they have a basic
outline of how the story will unravel. Some even outline each chapter. Planning
doesn’t mean you can’t change something, or add more while writing a chapter.
It simply helps you remember everything you wanted to include in the story.
(This is how I write.)
Pantsers (writing
by the seat of your pants) begin writing and don’t stop until the story is
told. This technique is very popular but requires extreme editing and revising.
It also allows for free flow of imagination and creativity. (This is how Odessa
came out and why it needed (and still needs) so much revising/editing.)
New paragraph for
each new thought or idea or speaker.
Use quotation marks
around the “words” spoken by the character. Instead of dialogue tags (he said,
she remarked) use action. (His gaze flicked away from her face. Her voice
dropped so low he could barely hear her.)
Each speaker requires a
new paragraph.
Watch verb tenses: if you start in the past keep all of
your verbs past tense; if you write in the present tense make sure they are all
present tense verbs.
Right-He ran down the road then stopped at
the intersection.
Wrong-He ran down the road then stops at
the intersection.
Present tense is seldom
used. I find present tense confusing and disarming. You are telling a story
that occurred in the past, so use past tense verbs.
Watch out for point of
view (POV).
POV confuses
a lot of beginning writers. It means knowing what a character is thinking or
planning. Knowing
their viewpoint.
Many
MG stories are generally told in third person while many YA books these days
are in first person. HOWEVER, there is no rule about this. Write the story in
whoever's point of view you wish--just keep it balanced.
If writing in the
first person (I, me, my , we, our) you CANNOT know what others are thinking or
planning. It takes a lot of dialogue to understand others’ thoughts
or desires.
· The only way to know what everyone is thinking
is to use third person omniscient.
· But be careful because even that gets tricky.
· If you switch POV, be sure to designate it with
a space or asterisks *****.
· Never change POV inside the same paragraph (called mind hopping, it
becomes very confusing).
Beware of ‘Purple
Prose’. This is highly descriptive writing that may sound awesome but
sometimes does nothing to promote the story. You should have some description
so the reader can visualize what the character is sensing, just don’t go
overboard.
Every word, action or
dialogue should propel the story forward. If you have chapters or
even paragraphs for character development alone, remove them. Chapters with too much description of surroundings or too much
backstory/history get boring and readers will skip ahead anyway so edit down to only what is necessary to tell the story.
Don’t tell too much of the story up front. Let out the line
slowly, keep most of the story as a mystery with clues until the climax when
you can reveal more. Too much too soon and the reader loses interest in the
story.
Revising
Don’t be afraid to revise,
revise, revise. Get feedback from others and make changes to your story that
YOU think will improve it. NO ONE writes the perfect story the first time.
My first book, Odessa,
was revised about 8 times and even after publication I'm itching to revise it
again because by five books later my writing has improved so much I'm no longer
happy with Odessa.
Let your story sit
on a shelf for several weeks or a month. Work on another project. Then
reread the story and errors, misspellings, weak characters, weak plot lines,
etc will jump out at you.
Editing
Once you have the story
to a level you are happy with it is time to edit.
Remove as many adverbs as
possible and replace them with stronger verbs. To locate adverbs easily,
highlight them using the ‘replace’ box in the ‘editing’ box of MS Word.
Highlight –ly and most adverbs will appear. Read through and eliminate as many
as you can.
Highlight the following
words in the entire manuscript then go through removing or replacing them with
more powerful words/phrases:
AND
THAT
SAID (or ANY speech tags-replace with action)
any word you see
repeated often
Remove as many adjectives as
you can. Do not use duplicate adjectives such as “very beautiful”. If something
is beautiful that is enough. Very becomes redundant. Better yet, describe HOW it
is beautiful without using the word. Beauty is subjective.
WEAK: The river was beautiful that morning.
BETTER: Sun rays leaking through the early morning
mist, lent the river a mystic quality.
Use Spell Check and
look-up words that are misspelled.
Pay attention to punctuation. If
you’re not sure about its usage this website will help http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/566/01 .
Probably MOST
IMPORTANTLY--learn from your editor. My first book, Odessa, looked like a dying
warrior after a lengthy battle with dragons--it was covered with red gashes. My
latest book, ending edits now and soon to be released (Harpies Book Two of
Seraphym Wars Series) looked as though it had taken a short walk through nice
woods--a couple of little scratches! Even my editor was surprised and happy
with my writing progress. So the bottom line is this--make notes of your
mistakes then PRE-EDIT after your final revision. You'll save your editor a lot
of time and frustration and yourself money and embarrassment.
Here's a little blurb
about Harpies. Watch my website for its release: Under the Hat of MG/YA Dark Fantasy Author Rebecca Ryals Russell
Transported to a planet
he'd never heard of was the least of fifteen-year-old Griffen's problems.
Learning to control his suddenly increasing strength and new ability to pull
lightning from the sky takes some getting used to. Angry preteen Seth
joins the quest; meanwhile discovering his combusting ability as a
fire-starter. Driven to find the last Vigorio, a young girl able to experience
others' emotions, they journey together toward their destinies as warriors
against Narciss, Ruler of Tartarus and his Legio of demon-dragons. Narciss’s
Harpy henchmen have other ideas, however.
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