Time to Write

52 Tips for Writing Success: don't stay stuck!

If you get stuck in the middle of writing your book or screenplay, don’t give up and don’t be tempted by the lure of starting a different story. That one will also have a difficult middle. Instead, use the first two methods below to get into a constructive state of mind, and the third to solve your story problems. 

Go back to the basics

Remember what you wanted this project to be, what would make it special for readers, what you would enjoy about writing it. It’s easy to lose sight of these when you’ve been writing for a while and encountering obstacles. Reconnecting with your initial drive will revive your enthusiasm for the project and give you new energy for solving the problems. (There's more about these questions here.)

Feed your head

Take a short break and read or re-read works by the writers you admire most. Revive your love for the written word.

Write or rewrite an outline

If you didn’t write an outline because you wanted the freedom to write the story as it occurred to you, now may be the time to re-think that. Spontaneity may have taken you as far as it can, and now it’s time for a bit of left-brain analysis. 

Start with the big picture: write one sentence about the beginning, two or three about the middle, and one about the end. Then expand those to a paragraph for the start and end and two to three about the middle. Develop the outline as far as you think will help you the most. 

If you did write an outline, it’s possible that writing the story to its middle has revealed some flaws or weaknesses in the structure. Rather than fiddling with the existing outline, follow the same process described in the previous paragraph. Don’t be bound by what you’ve already written, be led by what works best.

(If Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Robert Louis Stevenson and many other classic and modern writers were able to give you writing advice, would you be interested? You'll find it in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It's published by Nicholas Brealey and you can get it now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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52 Tips for Writing Success: keep your readers guessing

Are you writing a novel or screenplay?

Your goal is to keep your reader wanting to know what happens next. 

Your strategy is not to tell them--at least not yet. The authors who write thrillers you can’t put down are masters of this method.

As you write your story you can create questions by making the reader wonder:

• Who did something (like send a threatening message).

• Why somebody did something (like apparently betray a best friend).

• What is the meaning of something (such as offering somebody a drink--is it drugged?).

• When something will happen (like a bomb timed to go off).

If you answer those questions as soon as you’ve raised them the suspense goes away immediately. You can delay answering them by:

• Switching to a different character, a different location, a different time

• Providing clues that lead to several possible answers

• Having your character pursue a wrong answer

• Having something even more urgent come up

Don’t wait too long to reveal the answer, or at least part of the answer, or your readers may lose patience and stop reading. But when you do answer one question, make sure you’ve planted another one. This pattern will keep your readers turning the pages.

This is one important thing to consider when you are doing a second draft and it can help to have a trusted friend read the manuscript and tell you where their interest lagged. That would be the point to raise another question that will revive the reader's interest.

 (Would you like some friendly guidance writing your book or script? The reason I called my book "Your Writing Coach" is that it's a supportive writing coach in the form of a book and extras you'll find on the book's website. The book is published by Nicholas Brealey and you can get it now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

52 Tips for Writing Success: get unstuck with forced association

“Forced association” is a method for generating ideas when you’re stuck. It can be useful anytime you are stuck for a fresh idea.

Forced association means finding a connection between one element you choose and one that is random. Let’s say you are writing a romantic comedy and you’re stuck on the scene in which a young man first asks the young woman out on a date. You know you want it to go wrong in some way, but you haven’t come up with anything specific that you like.

The guy asking for a date is the known element. Now make a list of a dozen or more words you choose randomly from a newspaper or magazine or dictionary. 

Next see what ideas come up when you juxtapose the two elements. For instance, asking for a date + “hospital.”

Generate as many ideas as you can without judging them. Perhaps he asks her for a date as they’re having lunch. Before she can answer she has an allergic reaction and he has to rush her to the hospital. Or she’s a nurse at a hospital and he goes there to ask her for a date but faints when he sees a blood transfusion going on. Or he accompanies her to the pet hospital to pick up her dog and the dog attacks him. 

Go through the same process with each word on your list. If there is one that doesn’t bring up any new ideas, skip to the next one. You can do the same thing with images you choose randomly from magazines or newspapers. 

When you have generated at least 20 or 30 notions, pick the best ones. If none of those are good enough, repeat the process. 

 (If you're having trouble getting started on your book or screenplay, the main thing stopping you is yourself. That's why I dedicated the first part of my book, "Your Writing Coach," to how to have the right mindset--that includes overcoming fear of failure, getting support for your writing, and more. You can get that book now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

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52 Tips for Writing Success: create your plot in five steps

If you want to write a screenplay or a novel it’s getting started that’s the most daunting. Here are five steps that will help you work out your plot:

1: Write a two-sentence summary of the story. The first sentence should include the protagonist and the conflict . For example the first sentence might be: “A retired school teacher takes on a gang ruining the school he’d proudly built into a center of excellence.” 

Normally this is the extent of the logline. I suggest adding a sentence that gives more information about the conflict and reveals the outcome. This could be: “When lawful methods fail, he resorts to violence that ends in his death but motivates the community to join together to drive out the gang.”

2: Brainstorm about all the key elements of your summary. You can put your thoughts into a mind map or onto index cards.

•  What ideas come up about your protagonist? Why does he care so much about this school even  after he’s not working there any more? What is his background? What is his life like now?
•  What’s the nature of the opposition—the gang? Why is this school important to them? Who leads  the gang? What makes him or her tick?
• What are some possible escalations of the conflict? What would a teacher try first? Second? Third?   What could push him over the line into violence?

Don’t stop at your first good answer to each of these. Jot down alternatives. Try not to judge your ideas, just make sure to record them.

3. Winnow. Go through all the raw ideas you came up with in step two and cross out or put aside the ones that won’t work or are too familiar.

4: Use the remaining elements to construct a rough outline. It may be useful to employ a three-act structure: beginning, middle, end. 

5: Start writing when you’re happy with the outline. Some writers like to go from a very rough outline to starting to write the novel or the script. Others prefer to refine the outline until they have all the building blocks in place.

Often I will start writing with only a very rough outline, until I get to about a quarter of the way through the book or script and then stop to outline the rest of the story in greater detail. 

Experiment with what works best for you.

(To find out what writing advice was given by the greatest writers like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Robert Louis Stevenson, as well as more modern greats like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Kurt Vonnegut, get a copy of my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It also guides you in how to apply their advice to whatever you are writing. You can get the book from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

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52 Steps for Writing Success: Stuck Strategy Number 1

When we have writer’s block or other challenges, sometimes the hardest thing is to get in touch with what we already know. One way to prompt fresh thinking is to consult the I Ching, the Chinese classic Book of Changes. 

The written version of the I Ching goes back more than 3000 years and it may have been around in oral form for long before that. Traditionally you would pose a question, cast coins, and match their patterns to the key in the book.

Some people read it every morning for guidance on how to conduct their day. Carl Jung considered it an important work and wrote an introduction to one edition. 

 

You will get an ambiguous answer, but certain statements will ring true for you and those are the ones to heed. 

For example, I just asked what the protagonist in my children’s book should do to find the missing person in the story. One of the key phrases that came up is “gathering together,” which prompts me to think about who he could involve in the search. 

There are several virtual copies online that allow you to write a question, virtually cast the coins, and get your reading. One I have used is here:

http://flytrapinteractive.com/~complimentary/iching/index.html

You can use it to find out more about what the protagonist of your novel or screenplay should do—or what you should do!

(Do you want to find 25 easy ways to be more creative? How about 25 ways to turn your ideas into action? How about 25 inspirational case studies of people who have turned their ideas into successes? You'll find it all in my book, "Creativity Now," published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

52 Steps for Writing Success: Overcome fear of failure

The thing that stops a lot of writers from finishing writing a book or screenplay is the fear of failure: what if nobody wants it? What if I get horrible feedback? What if I’ve done all that work for nothing?

 My tip is: step back.

The scenario in which you imagine getting rejections from publishers or producers is only one part of the larger picture. The more we zoom in on that, the greater our fear. Here are some questions to help you step back and put it into the context of the greater picture:

How many rejections equal failure? One? Ten ? A hundred? Here, from BubbleCow, is a list of half a dozen writers and how often their work was rejected:

1. Madeline L’Engle’s book, A Wrinkle in Time, was turned down 29 times before she found a publisher.
   
   
2. C.S. Lewis received over 800 rejections before he sold a single piece of writing.
   
   
3. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind was rejected by 25 publishers.
   
   
4.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected 121 times.
   
   
5. Jonathan Livingston Seagull was rejected 40 times.
    
6. Louis L’Amour was rejected over 200 times before he sold any of his writing.

Set your number at the start: how many rejections will it take for you to give up on a particular manuscript? If you say 100, for instance, rejection number 20 will not bother you all that much.

What will you learn along the way? Selling your work is not the only positive outcome of writing it. What will you learn about the subject? About yourself? About writing? Stepping back means not focusing only on the sale.

What would you have done with that time if you hadn’t been writing? The fear of wasting time suggests that if you weren’t writing you’d be doing something more worthwhile. Would you? Or would you be watching or TV or surfing the web? 

If you find that a fear of failure is threatening to derail your writing, step back!

You'll find lots of friendly guidance for your writing in my books, "Your Writing Coach," and "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," both published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazonor your other favorite bookseller.

52 Tips for Writing Success: Build an arc

Many novels and screenplays feature protagonists who change as a result of the trials and tribulations they undergo in the story.

Dorothy discovers there is no place like home,

Scrooge learns to be generous and warm-hearted,

George in “It’s a Wonderful Life” realizes his life does have meaning. 

Such stories appeal because we like to think change is possible even if we find it hard ourselves.

This change over the course of the story is called the character arc. The trick to making it work is to match the size and speed of the change to the events in the plot. 

The most common mistake is creating big jumps in changes that don’t feel motivated enough. It takes a lot of pressure to create massive change. In our examples, Dorothy went (apparently) to another world, Scrooge was confronted by three ghosts and time travelled, and George faced a life and death decision.

It’s also a good idea to build in some setbacks. Change seldom is a straightforward process--remember, Scrooge backslid between the visits of the first two ghosts.

The challenge of revealing change is harder for screenwriters than it is for novelists. The latter can include descriptions of a how a character realizes something. In a screenplay all realizations have to be turned into things people do and say.

A useful method is to draw an arc (like a rainbow) and at the left end jot down what the character is like at the start. At the right end note what he or she is like at the end. At points on the arc note what changes and what triggers each step of the change. 

Of course not all characters do change. Some try but fail, and often that leads to a tragic ending. Othello cannot overcome his jealousy, King Lear cannot overcome his vanity and pride, and Emma Bovary cannot overcome her hunger for a more romantic life. 

Others, like James Bond and the heroes of many action books and films, stay basically the same over the course of many adventures.

(SPECIAL OFFER: for a friendly guide to take your from your idea through to publication, get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach. The UK Kindle edition is on sale for only £2.99 for a limited time--you can get it here.)

52 Tips for Writing Success: Escalate the Conflict!

I’m sure you’ve heard or read that the way to keep your reader interested is to escalate the conflict. If you don’t do that, there’s a good chance he or she will lose interest somewhere around the middle of your book or script. How do you do that? 

Let’s assume you have established something your protagonist wants, and someone or something stopping him or her from getting it. Here are the useful questions to ask if you find the conflict is running out of steam:

1. Who or what can be added as a source of conflict? For instance, in many thrillers the innocent person being pursued by the baddies does something that also puts the police on his or her trail (come up with something more original, though!).
2. What hidden flaw might there be in a move or tactic that originally helped your protagonist, and now makes things go the other way? For example, the person who agreed to hide her from the bad guys turns out to be in collusion with them or fears them too much to keep the secret.
3. What new information could come out that could help the antagonist? Does your protagonist have a secret from the past that might be damaging?
4. What additional handicap can you lumber your protagonist with to make his or her task even harder? Perhaps the character on the run gets injured along the way, which will slow him or her down.
5. What natural force might complicate things for both the protagonist and the person or people trying to stop him? This could be a huge storm, an electrical blackout, etc. It can be enjoyable to see both of them struggle against the same thing.

These questions should lead you to plenty of conflict that will keep the reader turning the pages of your script or book.

(SPECIAL OFFER: for a friendly guide to take your from your idea through to publication, get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach. The UK Kindle edition is on sale for only £2.99 for a limited time--you can get it here.)

52 Tips for Writing Success - 25: Comedy comes from drama

 

Comedies are always in demand, especially in the realm of screenplays. Even serious novels benefit from the occasional lighter touch to vary the tone.

How do you come up with a good comedy or a good comedy subplot? Here's what actor/writer Jason Segal said about that:

“The best way to write a comedy script is to write a drama. I’m not joking. That was the first advice I got from Judd Apatow, and I think that’s why his movies are so brilliant. He told me when I was writing Sarah Marshall, that the first draft he wanted from me was a drama. He said, ‘We’ll make it funny, it’s going to be funny because we’re funny, and we’re going to add jokes, and the cast will be funny — but the people will see it and keep seeing it and connect to it because it’s a drama.’"

That's the same thing comedy writing master Danny Simon taught me years ago, and I've followed that advice ever since. Make it real first, then find the funny. The person who taught Danny that was veteran comedian Sid Caesar (look him up). 

Of course you don't have to write the whole script or novel as a drama, you just need to work out a storyline that works dramatically. Then the attitudes of your characters will make it funny. Nobody outside of the business will understand this. They think you have to start with the jokes. Big mistake! 

(For friendly and helpful guidance on writing your novel or screenplay, see my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

Marketing Your Writing: Don't forget the real world! (no. 5 of ten things you must do)

Writers who want to market their books often get so focused on using social media that they forget the real world and traditional media still offer some excellent ways to get the word out. Here are a few:

Public speaking - if you are an entertaining speaker, giving talks can be a good way to reach large audiences in person. This is one author’s take on it: http://jeanoram.com/blog/2012/06/11/public-speaking-writers-afraid/

Radio - both traditional and radio programs sometimes interview authors and review books. This very brief article has some further useful links: http://bookmarketingmaven.typepad.com/book_marketing_maven/2009/07/promote-your-book-on-radio-talk-shows.html

Television - if you have expertise or are outrageous enough you may find that local or even national TV shows are open to having you as a guest. It may seem a high goal, but see how one author did it: http://writerunboxed.com/2012/07/23/7-23/

Sponsorship or special edition - is there a natural association between your book and a business or group of some kind? They may be willing to work out some kind of collaboration. For instance, the Institute of Chartered Accountants sponsored a special edition of 8000 copies of my book, “Do Something Different” (Virgin Books) and gave a copy to each of their members. Here are some good tips on hunting for corporate sponsorship: http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/04/authors-take-advantage-of-corporate-sponsorships/

Book signings /events - it’s quite difficult to set up a book signing unless you are a celebrity; even if you do, the likelihood of attracting a significant number of strangers is low. However, if you can create an interesting event your odds will be better. Some authors have joined with musicians and poets to create an entertaining evening, during which the author reads a bit of their book or gives a short talk. If you manage to get a slot, here are tips to remember: http://theharperstudio.com/2009/07/an-author-walks-in-to-a-bookstore-for-a-signing/

(For more on marketing your writing, see Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing and avaiable from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. It has a chapter on traditional marketing and another on guerrilla marketing. I also do a very limited amount of consulting with authors who need help developing their platform strategy. If you are interested, please email me at jurgenwolff@gmail.com for details.)