I’m on a bunch of mailing lists for literary magazines, and a while back, one sent advice for writers which pissed me off. This was directed toward BIPOC writers, and it said that writers should seek to emulate writers like Faulkner and Hemingway with their simple, straightforward language, and not to try writing like Toni Morrison with her rich, poetic style.
Write however you want, folks, but seriously, why would a magazine specifically centred on BIPOC authors elevate a couple of dead white dudes while throwing the Black woman under the bus like that? Grr.
Hey everyone, my writing advice article about villains to heroes is now up on my blog! If you read it please let me know what you think, (you can even leave anonymous replies if you wish).
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 6 Nbr 28 — Should you avoid running around the Wrekin, beating about the bush, and avoid colloquialisms?
Think of colloquialisms as salt. Too little in the soup makes it insipid. To much makes it unpalatable. Moreover, you must judge whether your colloquialism will be understood by the audience, and if not whether it is still appropriate. The Wrekin one went over my head as a north American reader.
In Dialogue: Use colloquialisms as appropriate to the character speaking. Like using dialect, I would suggest choosing clearly understood ones and opting for not using them most of the time.
In 1st Person Narration: This is the narrator as the main character or the Watson character. They are protagonists in the story and you must use them in narration as you would in dialogue.
In 3rd Person Reliable or Objective Narration: Best practice is to make your writing as transparent as possible. Make the prose in narration neutral and unopinionated. Remove colloquialisms and clichés from the narration during revision, recasting sentences as necessary. You reap the benefit of contrasting the narration against the dialogue.
In 3rd Person Storyteller or Subjective Narration: Whilst all narration can't escape being authorial to one extent or another, there is a great tradition of storytelling where someone, vague or identified, is telling the story without actually being in the story (as in 1st person). This person may speak familiarly to the reader, sometimes as if they are actually in the storyteller's audience. They jump between character's thoughts. They give opinions. They explain stuff. They criticize. They foreshadow, like spreading butter thickly, what is going to happen and even why. The voice may or may not be entirely folksy, but a good colloquialism or two /that is appropriate to the audience/ but /contrasts (usually) with what the characters would use/ will make the narration shine. This goes for clichés and salty language. Like 1st Person Narration, the Storyteller is a character in your story. Note, however, you may be speaking instead as the actual author. If you think the reader can sense this, you might want to tone it way down lest the story come off as opinionated or written by a rube—which is why many authors hide behind a storyteller.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 6 Nbr 20 — What's the secret to writing a good blurb?
Since I have no secret, I'll give you what I would do. (Example below.)
Pick an interesting cliffhanger, realization, or quote (or a combination) from the middle of your novel that stars your most empathetic character. Think of it as cover art in word form.
Summarize it in five sentences.
End with a "but they didn't know, or dreaded that they did know, " that they were "in danger, found a lover, or was being kidnapped, etc." type of last line.
Do not explain place, politics, or personalities or /anything/ that could be considered /getting into the weeds/. Only "plain words" or "common genre jargon" may apply. No exceptions. This is the same rule for the first half page of a short story, and first three pages of a novel.
If 3rd person, give a name for the reader to latch on to.
If 1st person, make the 1st person POV sound like they know they are in deep doo-doo.
Do give a hint of whether it is space opera, high fantasy, romance, historical, etc.
If the story revolves around gender, gender roles, sexual preference, body image, eroticism, or other potentially niche sub-genres that would sell to your intended audience, or cause the wrong audience to never to read a story by you again, ensuring that's clear may be advisable. Your choice.
You need to make the five sentences intrigue the reader. You may want to make them mysterious, also.
You are under no obligation to explain the whole story. /So. Don't./
It is okay for the blurb to mislead about the broader story so long as:
The event happens as portrayed.
How you portray it is valid in the context of the story.
/Keep it simple./
Example: (For /Inklings/)
/Beasts/ I could understand. /Beasts/ were straightforward in their dangerous natures. Not so much /human beasts/. Because Her Highness had figured out it was me who'd spoken to the red dragon and convinced it to stop setting farms afire, and that I lived amongst and hunted with wolves I'd also befriended, she forced me attend her magic university to learn to become more human. What I didn't know about acting like a "normal" human female wasn't simply embarrassing in society's eyes—like you don't wear only a loincloth in public—certain offenses could also get you killed.
Analysis:
Five sentences, some much larger than others.
First three sentences are a quote.
They signal fantasy, as "magic" and "dragon" later do in plain genre jargon.
"Human beast" is intriguing.
Convincing a dragon makes the POV sound strong.
Wolves makes POV sound dangerous.
"Her Highness"is a name to latch on to and signals royalty.
University suggests a milieu, modernity, and suggests character ages.
"Befriended" says not in Kansas Toto and adds mystery.
Loin cloth and embarrassment set body image issues and possibly nudity, possible suggestive content.
Last sentence suggests POV is a fish out of water and is worried she might get killed despite seemingly powerful. It makes you wonder why and worry how?
Events all taken from story, though emphasis is changed.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 6 Nbr 2 — Do you agree with Jodi Picoult who says you should finish writing a book even if you think it might be garbage? CW: Preachy writer hard truths I live by.
I'll admit first to not researching Picoult. However, I'd say the worst sin authors commit /is/ never finishing. I've encountered dozens who giddily say they write, are writers, but never finish a work, in love with the imagined romance and not the task. The only good story is a complete story. For this reason, I'd advise:
/Don't start by writing novels;/ write short fiction. Aim for a thousand words no one need ever see.
Until you can execute from idea to character to beginning the story to completing the story, /finish what you start./ It's only a thousand words!
Start the next story /immediately./
Remember there are no original ideas, just your unique take on the idea. Ideas are a dime a dozen, stories aren't.
Presume everything you write (or at least 90% of it) is crap. What did you ever do that didn't require lots of practice? Remember, you can always write the idea differently. You are creating a story, not history.
Graduate to larger and larger works (if you desire to write them), after you're confident you can complete the smaller ones.
Yes, I stop writing stories, even novels if I lose enthusiasm, or realize I'm wronging not writing. That doesn't mean I can't come back to them!
I'm starting a thread of books, blog posts, videos, podcasts etc that have good #writing advice. I'll also use a hashtag #WritingTips in case anyone wants to join.
Inspired by an episode of @adapalmer and @Bluejo's excellent podcast where they talk pacing with Ken Liu:
I find it so hard to judge whether or not my pacing's good. As they mention on the pod, familiarity with a story can affect your sense of pacing, and who is more familiar with a story than its author?
One of many good #WritingTips from developmental editor and writing coach extraordinaire, Beth Weeks. (I am slowly going through her #WritingAdvice tag, there will be more from her.)
Body language is something as an #author and #writer I strive to include in a story. Much of the emotion and truth in face-to-face conversation is communicated this way, especially if it is heated—and is lost when the conversation is voice- or text-only. I include body language queues to add these qualities to dialogue.
I ran into a mini goldmine on the topic. I'm going to quote items 6 and 7 from /a political pundit blog run by a couple of university professors, so if politics bothers you, please move along to the next toot./
If not, study these gems about how people can telegraph important nuances (good and bad) about their true character or intent. You don't have to read any of the links to level-up your body language writing IQ, but your fun might be doubled if you do.
** Body Language Items from ElectoralVote.com Article**
Item 6:
It's the Little Things, Part II: Meanwhile, Politico hired former FBI agent Joe Navarro to write an assessment (link: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/01/11/6-body-language-tells-from-the-gop-debate-00134995) of the two candidates' body language. Navarro was largely unimpressed with DeSantis, observing that his habit of grinding his jaw left-to-right conveys insecurity and anxiety, while his unwillingness to look Haley in the eye conveys weakness and submissiveness. Navarro's review of Haley was more mixed; he asserts that her broad, sweeping hand gestures convey strength and confidence, but her habit of holding up her pen in hopes of getting called on by the moderators makes her look weak.
Item 7:
It's the Little Things, Part III: And finally, Slate wrote an entire piece (link: https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/01/ron-desantis-iowa-republican-debate-smile-height-boots.html?sid=5388d9badd52b8870b01b6b1) about DeSantis' smile, which most people tend to find off-putting. According to experts in facial expressions, there are reasons for that. His smile is obviously fake; he does not produce the wrinkles at the temple characteristic of a genuine smile (also known as a Duchenne smile). He also tends to smile at the wrong times (a few seconds later than he should) and to hold his (fake) smile for too long. If that were not enough, his smile is asymmetrical, and he has the habit (presumably not conscious) of sometimes sticking out his tongue when he smiles. On a visceral level, the tongue bit, for viewers, reads as "I'm about to vomit."
So I try and give writing advice because I enjoy it, however, I don’t know everything and I would like to ask for your advice on this topic. I received some feedback from a beta reader, not to end my chapters with dialogues and when I tried to look up what other people's opinions were, I couldn't get a clear reason.
Before I begin, I want to state that I don’t hate my beta reader, I think they did a fine job. I just want to understand the no dialogue endings as maybe it’s a rule within the writing community which I missed.
Some of the points that my beta reader gave me are that it feels like the chapters end mid-conversation, it’s annoying, and repetitive (to be fair I did it a lot).
In my beta reader's opinion, a chapter should end with one of the following: a surprise, a promise, a question (that’s not huh?), humour or themes. I don’t disagree with these statements, I’m just curious why can’t a chapter ending with a dialogue still address one of those points?
To answer your question, eleven out of 15 chapters ended with dialogues. Yeah I can tone it back a little but my beta reader said they could only handle one or two chapters ending with dialogue so I asked the question, does this come down to reader preference or am I missing something in the writing community? I tried looking this up but couldn’t find anyone giving me a good reason to not end chapters with a dialogue. What are your thoughts?
Huh? Never in 50 years I've been writing have I heard that.
What the beta reader is correct about is that the dialogue or whatever at the end of the chapter needs to end with something to make the reader breathlessly turn the page. My opinion.
I write first person, so my narration is practically dialogue, but ending a chapter with...
She spun around. "Oh, shit? Was that a cannon blast?"
"... authors expected to attract the most attention and resources from consumers are given the most attention and resources by their publishers..."
This is true. I had a novel come out the same month a Marion Zimmer Bradley novel came out. Guess who got the resources?
However, my novel sold through its first printing.
That said, on long reflection, I realize now that my last name put my novel on the same shelf in the bookstore as her novel.
It is, however, the nature of the business. It takes savvy editors to look beyond the bean counters, and those do exist! A good agent that has a good report with said editors can help.
In this day and age, you can also self-publish without branding yourself as a vanity publisher, getting yourself blacklisted by the big NY publishers. If making reasonable money while writing is a goal, it doesn't take all that many diehard fans to achieve this end. A couple self-pub author friends set the lower limit at around 1000. Remember, you keep all your profits, less editorial, art, and publicity costs, minus taxes. It is a lot of work, though.
#WritersOfMastodon: What are the WORST featured images that you see ALL THE TIME on blogs and articles? Like, the guy with the hat who's hunched over a journal or the kid in the vest with the shocked expression.
It's 1746. You are the Crown Inquisitor of Salomon's House--a secret order of daemon hunters--appointed by the king. The London Horror has spawned again.
Hunt it.
Learn about the whys and hows of inclusive language ... on your own time! Topics include race, gender, sexuality, body size, disability, socioeconomic status, religion, age, & more.
This class is for intermediate and beginner inclusive language explorers including fiction and nonfiction writers, communications professionals, editors, and students.
"Slow-motion multitasking is when we have several projects in progress at the same time, and we move from one to the other and back again as the mood takes us or the situation demands."
"I would go so far as to say that, if one must make a choice between reading and taking part in a workshop, one should read." --Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook
I have SO many novel or novella story idea but I can't ever seem to get them beyond that.... an idea. I have a character(s) and can probably summerise the story in a short paragraph but then I do that and am like, hmm, but how does it end... It's so boring. It cliche.