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30 Days to Publishing

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Note: I actually wrote this lesson yesterday. I wrote halfway through this and realized it didn’t belong as lesson 6. This is a good example of letting go of control as a writer. I outlined each lesson, organized them, researched for them, and still managed to run into a hiccup. No worries. Just postpone one chapter and figure out where to put it later. In our Editing lesson, we will talk about this more.

Without further ado…

Point of View

PoV (Point of View). The PoV alone can set the tone of the book. Do not take this lightly, this may be the single most important aspect (not really, but it is important!) It is the view point of which your readers will follow, and will determine how they connect to the characters.

First Person:  First Person is written from the main character’s (or any character of your choosing) view point. It is the direct link to the character’s thoughts and feelings and, when done appropriately, can be very impactful.

E.g. The sound of my shoes click-clacking on the cobblestone was soothing. The air was cold, and my breath came out in ghostly puffs. I walked slowly, trying to draw out this trip as long as possible–even though I was running five minutes late. John was surely waiting at the coffee shop already. I didn’t want to talk to him. But I had already agreed. Why was I always so agreeable?  He knew something, I had seen it in his eyes–the suspicion.

When writing in First Person, remember to use pronouns of “I”, “me”, “myself”, etc., because you are writing a direct line from the character’s thoughts. Think of it as the MC’s personal diary. However, unless you are writing straight from a diary, be careful not to treat First Person as such. Note in the example, I maintained a past tense, giving it the same flow of a story being told. Now take into consideration that excerpt written like this:

Click-clack, click-clack–I love my tappy shoes. I love high heels! I’m so short, I feel like this gives me an extra edge, lol. Brr, it’s cold out here. I wish it was summer. Omg, why did I agree to meet that weirdo John? Geez! What is with that guy? I think he knows my secret. But what does he care anyway? I don’t even know him.

Notice the lack of description, and the intimacy of the text. This writing certainly gives you a strong voice of the main character, but the average reader will not suffer through this long. This loose and exaggerated writing works well with middle school to young adult books (e.g. Diary of a Wimpy Kid). If you’re trying to write a serious novel, I would caution you from this writing. Editors and agents will not take you seriously, because this is not good writing.

Second Person:  Rarely will you see second person point of view in a novel, because it is a difficult view to write. This is not to say it’s a bad style, it is just difficult for both writer and reader. However, it can be done. Second person is used when the narrator (meaning you) is telling the story to another character using ‘you’, or when the narrator is telling the story directly to the audience in which pronouns of ‘you’, ‘your’, or ‘you’re’ is used. This blog is an example of Second Person, as it is a narration from me to you.

E.g. You walk along the cobblestone street, listening as your shoes click-clack noisily. The cold wind bites through your light jacket, and you shiver.

If you’re up for the challenge, fiction can be written using Second Person. You might struggle with it, but it can be done, and it can be done well. But mostly it is reserved for email correspondence, educational blogs, and manuscripts.

Side note: I always thought second person was weird. What if you portrayed your MC as a girl and it was a man reading your book “your high heels, your luscious long hair”, etc.

Third Person: This is the most frequently used form of writing. It is versatile in the fact that you can cover a variety of characters with your story and can illustrate the world from a panoramic view. It uses pronouns of “he”, “she”, and “it”, and allows you to get into any character’s head–even an animal’s, such as a dog.

E.g. John tapped his foot absentmindedly. The bustle of the coffee shop surrounded him, voices mingling in the air, a never ending buzzing drone. He wasn’t a coffee drinker–to be honest, he never liked the stuff. It was too bitter and reminded him of dirt. But he had found coffee shops to be the ideal place to meet strangers. His thoughts were on the woman he had met the other day–the incident. He hadn’t been able to get it out of his head, even now, his hands shook just thinking about it. She had tried to cover it up, tried to run away even. So why had she agreed to meet with him–a stranger, the only witness to the incident, but a stranger none the less? Seven minutes after. She was late…or not coming at all. He leaned forward on the table, raking a hand through his blond hair.

Homework: Decide which PoV you will use in your story. Commit to the view point, to your decision to write this story. You’re on an adventure, and it started when you conceived this brilliant idea. Write three paragraphs in your MC’s PoV in a setting of your choosing. Discover the “voice” of the character, get a feel for what they will sound like on paper. And for gravy’s sake, have fun!

30 Days to Publishing

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World Building

We touched on this briefly in our Research chapter, now we will break this down more clearly and discover what World Building entails.

Setting > Real world or fictional

See why research is important? What if you wanted to write about Paris, France and realize you know nothing about France? For the story to feel real, you will need description of buildings, names of real streets, local highlights, parks, even culture. But say you’re writing fiction–your very own Middle Earth.

We have already talked about drawing out maps. This is a good habit whether your book is set in Paris or in [insert-epic-name-here]. You as the writer needs to understand where you are, where you are going, and where you have been (not ‘you’ you, but your characters of course).

Take Middle Earth, since we brought that up. A vast world is explored over the course of those books. There are mountains and rivers and countries and kingdoms. Each geographical monument is drawn on paper for clarity. Directions–north, south, east, west–are set in stone. As a writer, you can watch your characters traipse across the land and not worry about whether the sun is rising in their faces, or urging them on from behind. The goal is to be as accurate as possible, because while poking fun at the discrepancies in your favorite movies is entertaining, it can be embarrassing to experience first hand. It’s going to be hard enough not to have typos, let alone correctable mistakes in a world of your own making.

Give your readers credit. They are incredible intelligent and observant.

Enough about maps, let us talk about description.

What not to do:

E.g The old coffee shop was directly ahead. It was full of people, chairs and tables. A bell rang when people walked in and out. Jane could smell coffee as she sat down with John.

What a blah description. I wouldn’t read that book, would you? Depending on your reading level, I suppose you might. But I’m going to assume you are educated which, in itself, denotes an intelligent individual. You’re welcome.

What to do better:

E.g. Jane approached the quaint coffee shop. It was an old building, the walls sagged and the red paint covering the door had long since faded and chipped. But such wear and tear did not affect the shop’s business negatively. When she pushed through the door, the bell overhead jangled softly. Voices bubbled and fluttered through the room. It was bustling with activity. The family owners hastened to and fro, stirring up the famous concoction known as coffee. She had smelled it blocks away, that earthy, robust aroma which boasted of sunshine and better days. She breathed it in a moment before searching for a blond man seated alone.

Notice the difference? Good description works in an orderly pattern, whether chronological or in order of importance. It gives color and detail to an otherwise black and white world.

When building a world, it is better to have too much than too little. You can always trim down too much, and a good editor will instruct you on what to trim. But it is difficult to look at something and say, “I can’t put my finger on it, but it needs more.”

Homework: Select a descriptive scene and spend fifteen minutes writing it.

Option #2: Draw a map. ;D

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Character

This is the character development of your outline.

Protagonist
Antagonist
Supporting characters
Guides and/or guardians
Animal companion (optional)

You can break this down as detailed or as simplified as you need, but to have some statistics on hand is always helpful when you just cannot remember whether John’s eyes were green or blue, and you do not feel like going back to reread everything you last wrote.

Hair color
Eye color
Skin tone
Age
Personality
Culture/heritage
Weapon of choice
Strength
Weakness
Name & nicknames

This is a basic format and you can use all or some of these stats. It would be confusing to have Jane’s sandy blond hair in the beginning end up as dark as a raven’s feather in the twilight hours at the end. Your readers will pick up on that. Trust me. Now that is just scratching the surface of your characters. As you begin writing their stories, keep an open mind because even a well developed character might surprise you.

For instance, I once had a love interest turn out to be the evil villain. Who could have predicted that?

Moving on. There are a few fun exercises you can practice to develop your characters.

Create a dialog between your protag and antag. What would your protagonist want to ask the antagonist?

If your antagonist had a hobby, what would it be, and write a scene in which he/she/it is working on that hobby.

Explain in three sentences why the Guardian is helping your protag.

If your protagonist was villain for a day, write a paragraph or two of his/her goals. Why is he on that path? What drove him to the “dark side”? Does he continue down that destructive road, or does he reform in the end?

“What is the point of this,” you may ask. When you try to write your characters outside the realm of the story, you’re free to discover more. The reader may not know every detail of every character–indeed, they should not, some things are best left a mystery–but this will inhance your experience. You as a writer should never stop asking questions, you should never stop learning. Think of yourself as a talented journalist, willing to travel into the battlefield to get The Story of a Lifetime. Follow your characters around relentlessly, get inside their heads, haunt their dreams, become so connected to them that you almost become the serial killer on his angry rampage.

…On second thought, do not get that close. That is just a little frightful.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dive one level deeper…

What will your character ultimately gain from this adventure?

What will they lose?

Pain can be a powerful driving force. Readers connect with characters that are struggling. Knock them off their pedastal a step. Some of the most iconic, well rounded characters have a difficult past.

I have never met a strong person with an easy past.

In my new book coming out, I delve into the whole idea of give and take. In order to earn something, you must lose something else, and the greater the gain, the bigger the loss. There is a battle of emotions, the anger against seemingly unfair circumstances, and the bitter resolve to accept their situation. But this is what makes the characters feel real. This is what makes them leap off the page and into your readers’ lives. Do not skimp on the pain your characters feel, do not gloss over it. Explore it, dig deeper, and ask the hard questions.

Are you ready? Get to work. Research, outline, and start developing your characters.

Homework today involves fleshing out your characters. Fill out the description sheet and play with some of those fun exercises, post in the comments section your progress. Do you find this helpful?

Good luck and Dream Big!

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Outlining

Are you excited to get to the meat of the factor? We covered a little about outlining in our Research chapter, so now let us segway into a basic outline. I really do not care how you see fit to outline, you could write all your notes on scraps of paper and throw them into a hat for storage. If that is what works for you, who am I to judge? But why not lay down some basic principles and what outlining really looks like.

Characters
   Protagonist
   Antagonist
   Supporting characters
   Guides and/or guardians
World
   Terrain
   Geographical map
   Cities
   Roads and rivers
Plot
   General build up
   Climax
   Result
Timeline
   Beginning
   Middle
   End

We are going to assume you have a preset genre in your mind–whether it be scifi, fantasy, horror, or nonfiction. There is a fundamental asset to outlining which will help to ensure your cows do not turn out pink when they are clearly as green as grass on Pluto. Let inspiration drive your story forth, but allow outlining to be the guiding hand. As before mentioned, it does not have to be steps one, two, and three all in numerical order, and you do not have to have every detail planned down to the last comma. You make it what you need to keep track of your thoughts, so do not feel the need to idle over minute details if that will not help you. Gloss over a little and let inspiration fill in the blank spaces.

With outlining, what you are working on is building the basic concept of your story. You know Jane must meet John so that John discovers her family secret and together they unravel a thousand year old curse. That is the bones of the story. But now you need to lay down how they meet, when John discovers afore mentioned secret, how she spills her secret, why he agrees to aid her, what else they learn about the curse, when they set off on their journey, and what awaits and then how they deal with obsticals. At this point, you do not necessarily know the hows of conquering the obsticals, and ultimately the curse, but you should have a rough idea.

Outlining versus “Pantsing”

Did you know “Pantsing” was a word developed by writers for writers? In the oh-so popular Urban dictionary, it states…

What many high school students will do to fellow classmates if they decide to wear sweatpants. It is far to easy to catch the wearer of the sweatpants off-guard and pull their sweats down. Any other form of clothing on the bottom is not to be messed with…..only sweatpants.

…..Well. Yeah. Moving on.

Pantsing is for writers. We all know this.

I have done both in my time. Pantsing is raw inspiration. It is when you sit down to write and you simply cannot stop the flood of words off your fingertips. Everything is coming effortlessly and you feel on fire. You forget to eat and sleep, you somehow overcome your bladder in your single-minded, other-worldly focus. Well, guess what, inspiration drains out. Before you even realize it, the meter is tipping at empty and you are left with an empty belly, a full bladder, and sagging bags under your eyes. You couldn’t possibly convene to write a single word more. So get up, relieve yourself, and refuel, because you are about to get to work.

This is where outlining comes in.

Luckily, you don’t freak out or become woefully sorrowful at the burnout of your Muse–you have a backup. Dig out your outline and scroll through the plethora of scribbled notes and ideas. This will not make writing easier after the inspiration has left, but it will give you something to fall back on. You will have to grunge out a few paragraphs–maybe even pages–before catching your stride again, but those are paragraphs–and pages–worth editing. Now put to work determination, recommit to the cause. Everyone suffers exhaustion or momentary disinterest in their goals, but determination and perseverance will stay your butt to that seat. This is your dream, your goal, your brainchild. And the world needs your story.

***
Take some time to work on the outline of your story. Don’t be concerned with how clean, neat, and pretty it looks, and don’t worry if you’re missing details. We will be going through this together, and we’ll dive into deeper exploration of this basic outline. Post in the comments any questions or struggles you may be facing.
  

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Research

Each project is dependant on some amount of research–even fiction, conceived from the bowels of your own imagination, requires research.

How are you doing? Are you groaning in frustration? Cursing the heavens–maybe even me? Good. Take that energy and direct it toward your task. Turn negativity into positive creativity.

From here on, I will be focusing on the fictional elements of writing, since that is what I know best. It would not be prudent to question me about the metaphysics of space flight, the gastrial anomalies of deep space, or even the gravitational pull of moons versus planets. I know not of such things. What I do know, I will share with you throughout this study. Which brings us back to the topic on hand:  research.

When it comes to fictional writing, I caution you to use caution. Cautiously. Because you can fly by the seat of your pants only so long. Trust me. I know. I have many a novel penned with inspiration and ambition which I am now gutting and rebuilding. That’s all part of the process, of course, and you will be drafting and redrafting and proofreading to boot. But if this tool can aid in the process, take it and run with it.

When you sit down with your story, what do you start with? World-building? Let’s work with that.

World-Building: Set the tone of your book with a world. I’ve always found it helpful to scratch out a map, because it’s depressing to send your heroes north to the mountains of doom…when the mountains of doom are actually south of the border. It’s not a matter of changing “left” to “right” and “north” to “south”–think of all the terrain you just covered three chapters in, with bogs and monsters that aren’t digenous of the south.

Animal Life: If dragons are relevant to your story, make sure to incorporate them into the culture and habitat. Change that frozen, bulky northern dragon into a slender, serpent-like character more suited to the south.

Culture: Build up the cities and villages to reflect the story of world your heroes will be traveling. Are there nomadic tribes wandering the midwest, and are they peaceful or war like? Keep these in mind. It might be helpful to have a notebook or Doc file just for these notes.

Who are your heroes, by the way? What thought have you given to the main characters trudging through deserts and across swampy landscapes?

What is the Point of View (PoV) of your story? Will it be told from the main character’s view, or will it be a narrative, or maybe you will be writing to the audience in second person?

Do you have a plot for the story? Where is everyone going and where will they end up in the end?

What do you want the ultimate take away to be or is this simply an exciting adventure and you’d rather your readers not think too hard about life?

These are a few of the things we’ll be discussing in the coming month which I hope will give you the tools to creating beautiful and exciting fiction.

If you’re looking for something to do now, today, start giving thought to your own research. Then start writing out those thoughts. The best way to solidify an idea is to put it to concrete on paper (or a computer file. Just as good).

Feel free to write in the comments your noble plan and share some fears or trepidation you might have about all this spooky research.

Also, I encourage you to apprise me of errors in these lessons, as my 500 words a day for 31 days restricts the editing process to complete, unaltered writing. As we’ll talk about later, proofreading is not “editing” and thus there will be errors occasionally.