I’m as open to change as the next person; in fact, I know that life is transient and the only thing that is permanent is change itself. But if there’s one thing I can never get used to or bring myself to use is what we now term “text lingo” – the fashionable language that allows you to delete the vowels from words to shorten them and mix them with numbers that sound that parts of words to form totally unrecognizable words, all of which are fully accepted by anyone who uses a cellphone or is familiar with instant messaging. Apparently, if you frown at this usage, if you’re so focused on grammar and spellings, you’re not current or living in the present.

But, even at the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, I beg to differ from this point of view. While I think it’s each to their own when sending personal messages on your cellphone or when chatting online, when it comes to email and writing for websites, there are certain rules that need to be followed, even if you think they’re not “hip” and “relevant” to the times. No one likes to read emails that are grammatically incorrect and riddled with spelling mistakes. And believe me, if you’re getting away with the same kind of usage on your blog, it’s only because you haven’t noticed the drop in your readership.

You may think that language is a form of communication and that as long as you’ve included all the relevant information and facts in your missive (be it a letter, a blog post or a website page), it doesn’t matter that it’s peppered with grammatical and spelling errors. But what you don’t realize is that even a simple mistake like the misplacement of a comma or the transposition of words can change the meaning of whatever you’re trying to say. So because your knowledge of the language is poor, you may end up misleading your readers.

Some mistakes are just plain annoying – like the wrong placement of an apostrophe (saying you’re when you actually mean your) and the usage of I instead of me and vice versa. But there are others that could end up confusing your audience – like the placement of the world “only” in a sentence. For example, the sentences “John was only trying to help Jane” and “Only John was trying to help Jane” have totally different meanings. The first sentence is a sort of explanation for what John did because he somehow messed up while trying to help Jane, while the second praises John as the only person trying to help her. As another example, consider these two sentences – “Only children are allowed to play here” and “Children are allowed to play only here”. The first one has the word “children” as the subject and restricts the playing to children while the second has the location as the subject and restricts the location where the children are allowed to play.

So if you don’t want to end up making such mistakes when writing for your blog or website, it’s best to brush up on your language skills by including your vowels, cutting out the numerals from your words, and reading through what you’ve written to ensure that the meaning is loud and clear.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of degree online . She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

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You have the passion to be a writer or a daily blogger. It’s there gnawing at you every moment of every day until you give in and start writing. If you’re not writing, you’re thinking about writing, you’re jotting down ideas, you’re thinking up great blog posts, new angles to share with your readers—this is your life; you are passionate about being a writer—you are a writer.

So what happens when the passion goes to sleep? Has the flame of desire completely gone out and killed all your enthusiasm about writing? Not necessarily. Often, you just need to take a break. Everyone else gets a vacation, there’s no reason a writer can’t take a vacation from work.

Is this another post about writer’s block? Not really. I’m not even sure what writer’s block is, even though I’ve written about it on numerous occasions. I’m starting to think only fiction writers get “the block.” As a freelance writer there isn’t a book or magazine I can’t open and not get an idea brewing. I can write about topics that I have no interest in at all—and I’ve done that. I think it may boil down to passion.

What is passion and what do you do when it just isn’t there? Passion is “any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate“. The dictionary also relates it to strong sexual desire.

Can we relate writing to sex and relationships? I think we can. Writing is like a long love affair or relationship. After awhile, and unless you’re still in your early twenties, you don’t have sex on the brain constantly. It doesn’t mean the relationship has gone bad—it just means other things are allowed to occupy your thoughts. The passion is still there, it’s just taken a back seat for the time being—sometimes you’re just not in the mood. The passion a writer has is the same way. It doesn’t die; it just takes a back seat.

We all have days that we’d rather scrub the toilet or fix the lawn mower than to sit down and write (or have sex). It’s human nature and it’s inevitable. If you’re like me, you may feel like your passion has failed you. It hasn’t, it just needs a break.

How do you get it back? Well, after you scrub the toilet and fix the lawn mower, you write. I know, that’s my answer for everything—but until you try it, you don’t know how powerful it really is. Simple? Not always. I had to force myself to sit down and write—but once the words started flowing it gave me an awesome feeling of power over the passion (or lack thereof).

It doesn’t matter if your passion is waning or if you have full blown writer’s block—the key to this writing gig is to write. My personal journal is full of entries about not wanting to write—often I have a whole week full of entries like this:

“I don’t want to write today. I’m supposed to be a writer, but how can I even call myself a writer if I don’t want to write. Writers are supposed to write—but I’m not writing. I’m sitting here whining into my journal over not writing and not wanting to write. Why don’t I want to write today? No one else is having this problem, they’re all writing.”

When you sit down and write about not writing or even asking yourself how you can call yourself a writer when you aren’t writing—there’s something about seeing your own words rip you to shreds that gets your butt planted in the seat and your fingers on the keyboard. The muse doesn’t like to be scolded.

The muse is like a child. It needs love and affection, but sometimes it needs to be scolded too. When you tell someone they can’t do something, they often become hell-bent on doing the thing they can’t do—just because. It’s like a challenge and they will rise to the challenge. The muse works the same way—if you rip him/her to shreds for not allowing to do what you do, she will usually prove to you that she is still there and willing to work.

If you can’t find the words to write, just write about how bad you suck at being a writer. Sometimes it’s good to piss the muse off.

Be sure to check out my guest post at Storyfix.com: Writing and the Laws of Motion. If you’ve found me through Larry’s site, thanks for the visit and welcome to The Stafford Scribe!

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I recently posted about listening to music while you write. In Words & Music I said that music can inspire your writing, “Poetic stories told with captivating music are not only inspiring but magical in many ways.” In that piece I mentioned some American songwriters; Bruce Springsteen and Ronnie James Dio. I also covered British bassist, songwriter and founder of Iron Maiden, Steve Harris—who I will also cover again in this post—he’s just that good.

Today I want to cover how you can improve your writing by following how lyricists write. Many songs are just short stories. Some are just crap (sorry, that’s my opinion) but the lyrics I want to highlight are, in fact, epic tales.

I’ve only used partial lyrics for these examples on some of the songs. Repeating the chorus and last verses are not completely relevant to make my point.

As you read these lyrics a whole tale will unfold. The importance of this and what you need to pay attention to is how few words a lyricist uses to tell a story.

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY (5:03)
Lyrics written by Gary Moore (former guitarist for Thin Lizzy)
Best performance of song by NIGHTWISH

They came for him one winter’s night.
Arrested, he was bound.
They said there’d been a robbery,
his pistol had been found.

They marched him to the station house,
he waited for the dawn.
And as they led him to the dock,
he knew that he’d been wronged.
“You stand accused of robbery,”
he heard the bailiff say.
He knew without an alibi,
tomorrow’s light would mourn his freedom.

Over the hills and far away,
for ten long years he’ll count the days.
Over the mountains and the seas,
a prisoner’s life for him there’ll be.

He knew that it would cost him dear,
but yet he dare not say.
Where he had been that fateful night,
a secret it must stay.
He had to fight back tears of rage.
His heartbeat like a drum.
For with the wife of his best friend,
he spent his final night of freedom.

In this song, it’s evident a man is sent to prison for a murder he didn’t commit. He could have been found innocent but he refused to let the police and judges know where he was; he’d been with his best friend’s wife.

I agree, lyrics are more poetic than short story or novel writing, but one of the main rules of writing is that “less is more.” Song lyrics reiterate this rule of writing.

DANCE OF DEATH – IRON MAIDEN (8:36)
Lyrics written by Janick Gers and Steve Harris

Let me tell you a story to chill the bones
About a thing that I saw
One night wondering in the everglades
I’d one drink but no more

I was rambling, enjoying the bright moonlight
Gazing up at the stars
Not aware of a presence so near to me
Watching my every move

Feeling scared and I fell to my knees
As something rushed me from the trees
Took me to an unholy place
And that is where I fell from grace

Then they summoned me over to join in with them
To the dance of the death
Into the circle of fire I followed them
Into the middle I was led

As if time had stopped still I was numb with fear
But still I wanted to do
And the blaze of the fire did no hurt upon me
As I walked onto the coals

And I felt I was in a trance
And my spirit was lifted from me
And if only someone had the chance
To witness what happened to me

And I danced and I pranced and I sang with them
All had death in their eyes
Lifeless figures they were undead all of them
They had ascended from hell

I have to admit that Steve Harris is one of my favorite lyricists. I love epic tales and if you look into many of Iron Maiden’s song titles, you will see he pulls from a rich history of literary stories and mythology. With titles like, “Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Ides of March, Genghis Khan, Phantom of the Opera, Flight of Icarus, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and The Wicker Man—you know the man has read many literary classics and even studied Greek mythology.

WHISKEY IN THE JAR (link to Wikipedia entry) (5:44)
Irish Traditional Song performed by Thin Lizzy

As I was goin’ over the Cork and Kerry mountains.
I saw Captain Farrell and his money he was countin’.
I first produced my pistol and then produced my rapier.
I said stand o’er and deliver or the devil he may take ya.

Musha ring dumb a do dumb a da.
Whack for my daddy-o,
Whack for my daddy-o.
There’s whiskey in the jar-o.

I took all of his money and it was a pretty penny.
I took all of his money and I brought it home to Molly.
She swore that she’d love me, never would she leave me.
But the devil take that woman for you know she tricked me easy.

Musha ring dumb a do dumb a da.
Whack for my daddy-o,
Whack for my daddy-o.
There’s whiskey in the jar-o.

Being drunk and weary I went to Molly’s chamber.
Takin’ my money with me and I never knew the danger.
For about six or maybe seven in walked Captain Farrell.
I jumped up, fired off my pistols and I shot him with both barrels.

Musha ring dumb a do dumb a da.
Whack for my daddy-o,
Whack for my daddy-o.
There’s whiskey in the jar-o.

Now some men like the fishin’ and some men like the fowlin’,
And some men like ta hear a cannon ball a roarin’.
Me? I like sleepin’ specially in my Molly’s chamber.
But here I am in prison, here I am with a ball and chain, yeah.

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia regarding this Irish folk song (see link above to visit):

“Whiskey in the Jar” is the tale of a highwayman who, after robbing a military or government official (“for I am a bold deceiver”), is betrayed by a woman; whether she is his wife or sweetheart is not made clear. Various versions of the song take place in Kerry, Kilmagenny, Cork, Gilgarra Mountain, Sligo Town, and other locales throughout Ireland. It is also sometimes placed in the American South, in various places among the Ozarks or Appalachians, possibly due to Irish settlement in these places. Names in the song change, the official can become a Captain or a Colonel and is variously called Farrell or Pepper among other things. The protagonist’s wife or lover is sometimes called Molly, Jenny, Ginny among various other names.

Many artists have performed/recorded this song, but I’m partial to Thin Lizzy’s version. (Rest in Peace, Phil)

ROMEO & THE LONELY GIRL – THIN LIZZY
Songwriters: Downey;Robertson;Lynott;Gorham

Romeo and the lonely girl
They seemed to hit it off
Till Romeo told the lonely girl
“I must take my leave, my love”

It was these few words I overheard
And thought, “I would move in”
But before I could the lonely girl
Had fallen in love again

Oh poor Romeo
Sitting out on his own-ee-o
Oh poor Romeo

Romeo he had it rough
The guy you’d like to burn
But everything that Romeo had
You can bet it was well earned

For all his good looks there were scars that he took
And a lesson to be learned
Never judge lovers by a good looking covers
The lover might be spurred

Oh poor Romeo
Sitting out on his own-ee-o
Oh poor Romeo

Romeo he like to put it around
He was everybody’s friend
But in the end even Romeo found
On no one could he depend

For all his charms in someone else’s arms
Lonely girl safely lay
When the train came in it had to leave again
And Romeo pulled away

Song writers write tight and that’s the lesson I wanted to share today—one I often need myself. I’m known to write what some may call babble, but following the lead of great song writers will help polish your work, remove unnecessary wording and leave your writing crisp and clear.

Fiction writing requires some description in the story—but trust me—the reader will have the mental image play out in their mind if the writing is good. These are songs I’m obviously familiar with, but the first time I heard them I saw the scene play out in my head. All accomplished with very few words and little description. Trust your reader; less is more. This doesn’t mean you don’t have to be elusive, it means you shouldn’t go overboard.

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Dancing With the Muse – An Introduction to the Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling

We are inundated with writing wisdom. It cascades around us like political fallout, right and left, plotter and pantser, light and dark, first person and third, commercial and literary, nuanced and smack in your face.

How to unblock. How to craft compelling characters (an alliterative gem in its own right). How to write scenes. How to write genre fiction. How to not make your English teacher turn over in her grave. How to get it published.

And how to keep from going insane trying to make sense of it all.

It’s like newsstand health and fashion magazines – different cover model, same old rehashed shit, issue after issue. It’s all just recycled conventional wisdom, and – here’s the really confusing part – none of it is inherently wrong.

The New Language of Writing Advice

And yet, nobody has been able to define what it means, what it really takes, to write a successful – as in, publishable – novel. For the most part it’s all theory and rhetoric, a fluid mass of tumbling ideas, tips and techniques, none of which covers the cradle-to-grave process of it all.

That is, perhaps until now.

The problem is this: we have been trying to stuff the conventional wisdom of writing fiction into a bottle using right-brained, soft-edged literary jargon. When in fact, it all becomes much clearer, much more doable, when we step back for a moment to regard the craft of writing stories from a cold-blooded engineering perspective.

The underlying proposition, or if you prefer, supposition, is that the sum of what goes into a successful novel, screenplay or short story, can be categorized and poured into six separate and highly definable buckets.

Regarded separately, each bucket comes with a user’s manual that delivers standards and criteria for excellence. Fall short of the criteria within any one category and your story suffers for it.

Nail them all, times six, and your story gets a dust jacket and a review in Publishers Weekly.

An Engineering-Oriented Approach

Of course, every engineer knows that the key to success goes beyond functionality to embrace the nuance of aesthetic elegance. Which is why a writer can indeed nail all six of the requisite core competencies and still create a story that ultimately tanks.

It’s like an athlete with all the tools, but lacks the spirit and heart of a champion.

It’s like a musician with a God-given ear who lacks the love of music itself.

It begins with an understanding of a set of core competencies. It flourishes with the artful and inspired combination of them into something, an organic whole, that exceeds the sum of those parts.

That’s the art of it. That’s why, even through this engineering lens, there is still no way to fully convey what it takes to write a successful story. The writer needs to arrive at that place of their own volition, and in their own time.

But first, they need the tools to put it all together. And the tools arrive in six buckets of writing elements and executional processes.

Trouble is, most of us are stuck at square one. From the moment we enter a creative writing classroom, and then in writing workshops, critique groups and in every how-to book ever written, we hear the siren song of character and sub-text, of organic storytelling that relies on nothing other than the writer’s inherent sensibilities.

All without ever really understanding where to start, what comes next, what follows what, and what elements glue it all together.

That’s What the Six Core Competencies Do

There is really nothing about writing a successful story that resides outside of these six basics, other than the source and inspiration for the story itself. From that point on, these six buckets define both the process and the product.

Because at the end of the writing day, all six have to be there. Come up short on any one of them, and the story won’t work as well as it could.

What are they? What are these six magic buckets of brilliance? Be prepared to be under-whelmed. Because you know this already. Just like you know that that all it takes to fly is a set of wings, sufficient forward motion and a weight-to-life ratio that defies gravity.

And yet, flight eludes you.

Within the simplicity of these six core competencies resides a key that unlocks the much more complex essence of storytelling. And that is the balance, pacing, power, emotional resonance, dramatic tension, compelling allure, vicarious experience and the electric thrill of resolution that a successful story delivers.

If you write your story knowing what they are, what the target and its criteria are, then you’ll get there all the quicker.

The six core competencies include:

1. CONCEPT… a stage upon which a compelling and richly layered dramatic narrative may unfold, an irresistible “what if?” proposition.
2. CHARACTER… a multi-dimensional protagonist that demands the reader’s vicarious interest and allegiance as a silent partner in their quest.
3. THEME… the real-life emotional relevance and resonance the story evokes within the reader.
4. STRUCTURE… a four-part sequential context that defines what scenes go where, resulting in optimal pacing and character arc across an unfolding series of expositional revelations.
5. SCENE EXECUTION… the building blocks of narrative exposition that artfully unleash the story, moment by moment, with the delivery of both information and character shadings.
6. WRITING VOICE… the writer’s unique way of crafting words, phrases and sentences that, when combined, evoke an experiential essence that adds value, power and intimacy to the story.

There is nothing else in the storytelling universe, other than the initial determination of genre and the intention to publish it when it’s completed.

Unless you have honored all six of these, that moment has not yet arrived.

Larry Brooks is a bestselling author and writing instructor, and the creator of Storyfix.com, an instructional resource for novelists and screenwriters. He is the author of Story Structure – Demystified, an ebook available through his site. His groundbreaking new book, The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling, will be available in early 2011 from Writers Digest Books.

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If you don’t know, how can you write compelling characters? All our characters, in a sense, wear a mask. Some wear many masks and until we can “see” behind those masks, we don’t know who they are. Sure, you can give them a past and all the other “typical” information that goes with creating a character, but you have to step into their shoes, slip into their skin and get inside their head—almost literally.

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” ~Oscar Wilde

As the writer, you’re the mask; you must put yourself on the character so he can tell you the truth—tell you who he is.

I know one writer—I’m sure there are others—but she writes character journals, from the perspective of the character. This material never makes it into her novels, but she knows who her characters are, what they think, how they feel—she knows them inside-out. She does this almost on a daily basis, either covering what her character experienced the day before or what he needs to experience today.

This is something I’ve just started experimenting with. It seems a little odd at first, but I believe it will be well worth the learning curve and oddity.

I can create good characters, but they’re only a mirror-image. My weakness is creating their whole life story and background—and getting deep inside their head. I’ve read tons of information on filling out charts about your character, creating characters from traits of people you know, yadda, yadda, yadda. This really just doesn’t get it for me. There should be more to it. I think journaling is a great idea and really helps you to know your character, but before the point of it feeling comfortable, there should be something fun and intriguing to help you out.

This is one of my weak areas, and the traditional methods don’t “do it” for me. I’ve been brainstorming some ideas and working on a method to get down to the meat and bones of character creation. I will post my results and any epiphanies I have as I go along. These will include situations, prompts, POV, and interactive ways to work with your character instead of just writing out a past for them. There will also be some unconventional methods—just for fun! If it’s not fun, chances are, you won’t do it.

One, off-the-wall and slightly generic, prompt I’ve been working on is getting into an odd-ball situation with an odd-ball character.

You’re a 6′5″ Japanese man named Bubba Hinkle. Your best friend is a Hobbit. Describe how you feel about going to his house for afternoon tea.

Have fun with it! You can leave your results in the comments section if you’d like.

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If you arrived here through Blogging Tips to see how often I update this poor little blog. . .Welcome to my World.

Was it a ploy to get you here through trickery? Not really, it was more sinister than that. It was actually a ploy to make me update the thing.

If you arrived here by other means, Welcome to my World.

At the time of this writing, I have no title for this post or even a clue what this post will be about. A blog post should be specific and cover one topic—or so I’m told. I don’t always follow the rules though. I’m a writer; we’re also told we can break the rules—to a degree anyway.

I think I’ll cover a few thoughts I’ve had lately, a few blog posts I’ve read and why they may have sparked these thoughts, and I may even throw in something useful and meaningful. Don’t hold your breath, just read. . .or click away, you have that option too.

My Life as a Writer:

Once upon a time—is that too cliché? Well, once upon a time there was a writer who loved to write fiction. She had stories, scenes, characters, plots—you know all the stuff a writer is supposed to have.

One day as she was traveling along the writing highway, she came across a blog post, an ad, or maybe it was a hobo with a sign, but whatever it was it said something like, “Make Money Writing.” What a concept, huh? So she clicked (which means it must have been an ad or a blog post and not the hobo with the sign) and she discovered she could make money now—not down the road after writing her great novel, going through the edits, revisions and submissions, she could make money now.

What was the catch? It was all non-fiction. Hey no problem. She can write during the day and make money, and write her great novel at night. It only takes balance and a good juggling act.

Well it turned into all non-fiction writing. The muse didn’t mind at first, she needed a break. She didn’t have to plot, scheme, or come up with a fancy way to describe a decadent hot caramel, chocolate latte. This was cool.

But one day, while taking a nap in a tree, the poor muse fell out and broke both her arms, her legs, and cracked her skull. This infuriated the muse because she had to take more time off to recover.

Years later, which wasn’t that long ago, the writer realized how much she missed the muse, but the muse was still recovering—a very slow process.

Once the muse discovered that she was needed, she started making progress towards recovery. Some days, just for amusement though, she would torture the writer and not give her anything to say.

The moral of the story? There really isn’t one. It’s taken much longer to heal the muse than it should have. Enter NaNoWriMo.

My First NaNaWriMo:

This is my first year to participate. I knew something dramatic would have to happen to fully recover the muse and get my butt planted in the seat with some good old fashioned fiction.

Before NaNo, I didn’t really have a clue what I would write for my novel. I had a character idea in my head from a writing prompt I did over the summer and that little lady has bugged the crap out of me.

All of the blogs I get time to read is done through email—it’s like magic—they come in the middle of the night—or early morning and go directly to their specific folder. This way, if the headline catches my attention, I can read it. If it doesn’t grab me—well I get to it eventually. One catching headline appeared in my email. I had to read it immediately; it was related to NaNo, which would start soon.

As I was reading through it, I thought I was screwed. The advice was solid and made perfect sense, but I hadn’t planned for any of it. But, as always, Larry has a solution. Of course I sort of botched his solution and came up with something I could do. (I’ll link to the post in a minute—patience grasshopper.)

Larry believes in having a plan, as opposed to organic writing (and you’ll get his feelings on both if you read his blog enough). I was going in organically—it worked before my muse got broken, why won’t it work now? Well, because the muse also matured as she healed. She liked the idea of a plan. Okay, great! I’m screwed now because I’ve never written an outline or planned a story out. I’ve let it flow—organically.

Well, with barely two days left to plan for NaNo, I made a simple outline—it contained a beginning, a middle and an end; no juicy stuff in between. I was thrilled with it. I’m still thrilled with it. The first few days I was just happy to be writing my passion again. As yesterday dawned (Day Four) I started having a small panic attack. I needed a scene change, a direction or something and it wasn’t planned. I was doing timed sprints with two other writers. We were going to write for twenty minutes this time—and I had nothing.

What did I do? I decided to just wing it—or go organic as Larry calls it. Well something amazing happened. At the end of 20 minutes I had written 1640 words. I have no idea where they came from, but one thing I did notice as I was writing and I couldn’t stop it—my character took over and changed my plan.

The moral of this story? I really like the idea of a plan and using an outline. I will learn to do this better. But at the same time, you have to let your characters go where they’re going too. Don’t beat yourself up if he/she does something you didn’t have planned out.

The link? Oh, you’re waiting for the link. You have no patience do you?

Okay, I’ll give it to you, but you have to promise that you’ll read other posts at Larry’s blog. Why? Because I said so!  And the fact that he gives really solid advice is a plus too.

About NaNoWriMo – Three Ways to Thrive, One Sure Way to Suck

I promised links to a few blog posts didn’t I? Well, this one became such an epic tale, I should hold off sharing the others. Hey, it gives me another reason to update this thing in the near future—you can’t blame a writer for that. J

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Today we’re going to talk about scenes. This is part of the writing series I mentioned about writing styles and helpful tips. Remember these are merely guidelines and may or may not work for you.

As writers, we must each fine what clicks for us. Hopefully you can use some of the information listed to help you build memorable scenes that propel your story along.

A scene has often been defined as “a single action or a series of connected actions taking place in a single setting in a finite period of time.” That boils down to; if you change the setting from the bathroom to the character being in his/her office or outdoors, etc., that’s a scene change.

We write scenes to propel the novel or story. The scenes are where the characters act, just like in play. The difference is you have to create the visualazations in the readers mind. That action drives the drama; scenes are the elements of drama. Scenes are structural building blocks. You can’t build a home with a structure nor can you build a book (or story) with scenes.

Scenes are used to control turning points in the story. They contain the twists, turns, hints and suggestions that keeps the story moving.

One of the best ways to learn about scenes is, of course, to read fiction. If the writer’s scenes aren’t popping out at you try studying one of your favorite novels. Most of us have at least one novel we’ve read more than once and wouldn’t mind reading again. Use that one! Use it as a study guide! Note how the writer uses scenes in the book.

The Construction of a Scene

Beginning: This is where you set the stage, introduce the characters involved, set the tone and rhthym.

Middle: This is where the action takes place. Characters have conflict, the drama unfolds, secrets are revealed, questions are answered or more questions are raised, more secrets begin to appear.

End: This is where the scene closes. This often leaves the reader hanging and propels them to keep reading. The characters or character generally makes some kind of emotional decision. This choice/decision should lead to the next scene and raise more conflict and drama.

Story Board

Some writers use a story board to map out scenes. This method often allows you to write scenes in pieces. Lets say you have 3 scenes* you’re working on. What comes to a close in scene 3 was brought up in scene 1, came to a head in scene 2 and resolved in scene 3. At this point you can create more drama in scene 3, as one thing closes it raises something else. This would carry you through 3 more scenes.

*I’ve used 3 scenes as a guideline for ease of explanation. You can carry a story through as many scenes as you like, but what happens in one scene affects the other scenes and can be written simultaneous if you like. There’s no rule that says you have to write one scene at a time before moving to the next.

Setting the Stage

For some writers it helps to set the stage for a scene. They jot down notes or use an outline. Things you should consider when setting the stage include:

time/place, season, weather, location, mood, sounds, smells, images, surroundings, furniture, etc.

Knowing and describing these things will help give the reader a vivid image of the scene.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share for scene building? We’d love to hear from you!

Write On!
Patti

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In writing the story before you write the story we’re going to discuss a method that some writers use to workout their back story and characters.

Back story is, in a sense, the character’s driving force, the motive for why he/she wants something so badly. Back story should be cleverly injected into the story. No one wants to sit and read pages and pages of back story. For this reason, you should give the reader just enough back story throughout the main story to keep them wondering. Sometimes it will spark the readers imagination and sometimes it will be one of those “ah-ha” moments for the reader when something finally clicks in the reader’s mind.

Good back story will build momentum up to the “ah-ha” moment. We do this with subtle little remarks throughout a section of dialog or a chapter that doesn’t seem to quite fit—a quirk of the character maybe, and it should lead up to a grand finale’; the “ah-ha” moment.

To have good back story and to inject it properly into the story you must know your character as well as you know yourself. The character must have a past, just like we all do, the character is no different. The character did not just appear.

Some writers like to use timelines to lay out their character’s life in a linear fashion. Other writers will spend quite a bit of time simply writing back story about their character. If you follow that route, it is likely that none of the material will end up in your story. It’s simply for your use of getting to know your character. However, some small bits or portions of it may be added to the story in subtle ways.

No matter which method you choose to get to know your character, it’s important to know what events brought the character to where he/she is at this moment in time. What drives this character? What trauma has scarred this character? What motivates this character?

There are many events the character has gone through in life; some good, some bad, some horrific. Whatever it is, you, the writer, must know about it, regardless of whether or not the reader does.

Some writers use character journals. They simply keep a journal and write it from the characters point of view. The majority of this material is never written into the main story. It’s simply a way to create and get to know a character.

Other writers do interviews with their characters. They simply sit and write out interview questions to get to know who their character is.

In a way, all of this work with characterization and back story is simply “writing the story before you write the story.”

Our readers would love to hear your opinion or what method you use. Feel free to share in the comments section.

Happy Writing!

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