Reprinted with permission from the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine.

The secret to writing novels that readers can’t put down is simple — in theory.

All you have to do is making the ending of each chapter so exciting that your reader can’t help but turn the page.

That’s a nice theory. How do you do it in practice?

The answer depends on the kind of novel you’re writing. The purpose of a novel is to give your reader a Powerful Emotional Experience.

Each category of fiction creates its own mix of emotional experiences. Each category makes a promise to deliver a certain kind of emotion at the end of the novel. A romance promises to deliver love. A suspense novel promises to deliver safety. A mystery promises to deliver justice.

As your story progresses, your reader tracks how close you are to delivering the final emotional payoff for your story. If the payoff looks like it’s getting closer, your reader’s tension eases. If it looks like the payoff is getting further away, your reader’s tension tightens.

When something happens at the very end of a chapter to make the payoff suddenly look dramatically less likely, that’s a cliffhanger.

Lee Child is a master of writing cliffhangers. Child is the author of a series of thrillers starring Jack

Reacher, a drifter who left the Army after 13 years as a military cop. Now Reacher hitchhikes around the country, running into one set of bad guys after another and reluctantly puttings right.

Reacher is a skilled street fighter who knows every dirty fighting trick in the book and uses them to get out of trouble. That’s a great skill to have when you get in fights with thugs three at a time, or you’re threatened by guys with guns.

In one scene in KILLING FLOOR, the first novel in the series, Reacher and a businessman named Hubble are put in prison on a trumped up charge late one night. There’s been a murder in town, and both Reacher and Hubble are incidentally connected, even though they’re not suspects. They’re supposed to be put on the holding floor for nonviolent prisoners. By mistake, they’ve been put on the floor with the hard guys — lifers.

By the time Reacher realizes the mistake next morning, the guards aren’t around and he’s got a pack of toughs in his cell, and they’ve got rape on their minds. Hubble is cowering in the corner and is clearly not going to be any help. Reacher is on his own.

A lot of authors would end the chapter right there. It would be a nice cliffhanger.

Lee Child doesn’t do that, because that’s not good enough. Instead, he continues the scene. Reacher takes on the first guy, smashes his face with one good head-butt, and then shoos the other thugs out of his cell.

A lot of authors would bring on more hard guys to make some sort of threat against Reacher and end the chapter there. That would make an even nicer cliffhanger, because it would increase the number of Reacher’s enemies — and now they’re forewarned that he’s a good fighter.

Lee Child doesn’t do that either, because it’s still not good enough.

Instead, Reacher talks to his cellmate Hubble about the reason they’ve been arrested. He learns that Hubble’s been involved in something crooked that he can’t talk about and he’s been threatened by somebody he won’t even name. If he tells who, Hubble says, they’ll nail his limbs to the wall. They’ll cut off certain parts of his body and feed them to his wife. They’ll cut his throat. They’ll cut his wife’s throat. They’ll make his children watch. Then they’ll do unspeakable things to the kiddies.

That’s where the chapter ends. That’s a cliffhanger with some bite to it.

The reason this works better than ending the scene with a physical threat to Reacher is because Jack Reacher can take care of himself, and the reader knows it. A threat against Reacher is just an invitation for a great fight scene.

A threat against Hubble, though, creates conflict. Reacher is a drifter who just walked into town, and he barely knows Hubble. Reacher would just as soon walk right on out of town. But now he has to make a choice — will he get involved or will he leave Hubble in trouble?

The reader doesn’t know the answer to that. The reader wants Reacher to get involved, but Reacher hasn’t really got a reason yet. He knows he can’t be responsible for fixing all the problems of the world, of which there an unlimited number. So he’d just as soon walk away. Will he or won’t he?

In the next chapter, Reacher and Hubble go down to the bathroom. They’re trapped inside by five huge guys — Aryan Brotherhood types. Two of them hustle Hubble out of the way, and the other three single out Reacher. It’s clear these guys have come to kill.

Again, Lee Child doesn’t choose this as the cliffhanger ending to his chapter. Instead, he lets the fight run its course. There’s a guy choking Reacher from behind and a guy in front about to punch his lights into next year. Reacher kicks the guy in front of him where it counts the most, breaks the little fingers of the guy choking him, and gouges out the eye of the third wannabe killer. All in a day’s work for Jack Reacher.

Next thing you know, the guards rush in, break up the fight, and take Reacher and Hubble up to the holding floor where they should have been to begin with.

Reacher does a little thinking and it’s clear to him what’s going on. The whole thing was a setup. The guards must have put the Aryan boys up to killing Reacher. Not just any guards. The head guy. Somebody important wants Jack Reacher dead. Somebody who controls the people who run the prison. Somebody big and nameless.

That’s where the chapter ends. Again, it’s a good solid cliffhanger. Jack Reacher is in danger from somebody he can’t see, can’t name, and therefore can’t fight. The reader doesn’t know if Reacher is up to this kind of danger. Neither does Reacher.

But this puts tremendous pressure on Reacher to get out of town as soon as he gets bailed out of jail. If he doesn’t, he’ll be in over his head against somebody he’s unqualified to fight. Leaving Hubble still in massive danger.

The next two chapters have Reacher getting bailed out of jail with Hubble and talking with the cops. He’s planning to leave town, but some of the cops are good guys, and they’re trying to get any information they can from him before he goes.

Then the fingerprint information comes in on the murder victim. The cops have a positive ID on the corpse. They show it to Reacher, and suddenly he’s got all kinds of reasons for staying in town and getting to the bottom of this mystery.

Because, by some awful coincidence, the dead man is Reacher’s brother.

That’s a cliffhanger.

Reacher doesn’t owe Hubble anything, and he could leave him to his faceless foes. But not when Hubble’s enemies are the ones who killed Reacher’s brother. Now it’s personal. Now Reacher is committed to battling Big Faceless Evil, whether he wants to or not. He’s in the crucible now. How in the world is he going to get out?

And the story is launched — with a cliffhanger.

What makes these cliffhangers work? We can extract several principles from the scenes we’ve seen:

* A good cliffhanger attacks the weak character, not the strong one. It was better to end a chapter with a threat to Hubble than a threat to Reacher.

* A good cliffhanger attacks a strong character at his weakest point. It was better to threaten Reacher with a politically powerful and invisible enemy than to threaten him with a thug.

* Moral obligations are strongest when they involve people close to your character. Reacher might not stay in town to rescue the stranger Hubble, but he has to stay to find justice for his brother.

You’re probably in the middle of reading a novel this week. Keep an eye out for any chapter endings that qualify as cliffhangers. Ask yourself these questions:

* Why did the author end the chapter where he did?

* Would the cliffhanger have been stronger if it came earlier or later?

* What emotional forces is the author using to make you turn the page?

* How can you use what you learned about this cliffhanger in your own novel?

If it’s 3 AM and your reader hasn’t finished your book yet, she really has no business going to bed yet. If you can keep her up all night, she’ll hate you in the morning.

But she’ll buy your next book for sure.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, “the Snowflake Guy,” publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing E-zine, with more than 23,000 readers, every month. If you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction, AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

by James Adams

Besides finding work that pays more, writers can increase their income by producing more in less time. The danger is, however, that speed will diminish quality, thus negating anything gained by working faster. Here you will find 10 techniques that will improve your writing speed without adversely impacting your quality so you can get more good work done in less time.

1. Practice writing: Through experience, you should expect to make productivity gains over time. By constantly being on the job and producing quality work, you will notice that you meet deadlines easier week after week. No matter how patient you are, you probably will eventually reach a plateau where you need some other techniques to prod you along.

2. Get ideas ready in advance: As you go about your work and get new ideas for writing, start your work early by listing points in your document. When the time comes to complete the job, your subconscious is already on task and you have some thoughts to help you overcome inertia and get right into producing your content.

3. Plan: Get your jobs organized in a useable “getting things done” system that works for you. It helps to know what you are going to do and when you are going to do it. You will get more work done just by introducing organization into your chaotic schedule.

4. Do something else if you run into snags: Rather than forcing output, get your mind on something else for a while. This puts your time to good use and avoids racking up the minutes on a task that carries with it a flat rate that is barely worth your while. When you return to your original work, you’ll have a refreshed mind that’s ready to get the job done.

5. Group jobs by topic: If you are fortunate enough to have several writing tasks that have related topics, try to group them together. This will often help you get more done faster because your mind is already on the topic. You’ll get some jobs done ahead of schedule while making the most efficient use of your time.

6. Use shorthand: Especially if you’re taking notes at a lecture or a press conference, you’ll save a lot of time if you develop a way to write or type thoughts faster. This way you’ll spend less time filling in gaps when preparing your final copy.

7. Get control of your research time: If you’re not careful, you can spend more time on your research than is necessary especially if the topic interests you personally. Set some time limits and do your research in an orderly manner.

8. Organize your research: If you’re working online, you can easily become overwhelmed with too many open browser windows and tabs. Try using Google Notebook or Evernote to keep all your links and documents sorted so you can find them easily when it’s time to create your finished product.

9. Use an orderly writing process: Sometimes writers want to save time by jumping straight to the final copy stage of writing, trying to outline, distill, and edit all at the same time. This often makes your efforts take longer because you didn’t take the time to establish a logical flow. By doing it all at once, you have to go back anyway because you left things out or have presented your material in an illogical manner. Your mind will play tricks on you to make you think you can cut corners, but in the end there’s no substitute for an orderly process.

10. Avoid distractions: Your personal circumstances may make it difficult to find a place and time to write that is free of distractions, but there are some things you can do to improve things. Find a quiet place to work, or go to the library so you can concentrate. Fewer distractions will almost always result in getting more work done.

Writers are special people that do amazing work that often pays more in pleasure than in income. Use these 10 techniques that will improve your writing speed to increase your productivity and income and leave you more time for other important things in your life.

This post was contributed by James Adams who covers technology developments and reviews new hardware products such as the CLI-521 for an online supplier of ink cartridges based in England.

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!

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.

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.

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.

There are writing prompts all over the Internet that you can choose from. I’ve used several of them myself. It recently dawned on me that I always picked prompts that sparked my interest. This is not a bad thing but it really doesn’t force you to exercise a true creative spark.

I’ve recently been picking random writing prompts; I simply close my eyes and point. Whichever prompt my finger lands on is the one I use–even if I don’t like it or think there’s no way I can get into a character or situation like that.

I’ve been quite surprised to discover that this is a very good exercise and you CAN do more than you thought. It’s a very good exercise for working that creative muscle and in a sense forces you to use parts of your brain that may be lying dormant or are just a bit sluggish.

Give it a try and see if it doesn’t help your writing.

Samples from Milli Thornton’s Fear of Writing book:

http://fearofwriting.com/creative-writing-prompts.htm#FMsamples

This is a few of the writing prompts from Milli’s book. If you like these, order the book, you’ll love the rest!

Creative Writing Prompts

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

This site is a little different. You mouse over the numbers and the prompt pops up in a small window. Pretty neat!

Writer’s Digest Writing Prompts

http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/

Writer’s Digest is probably the leader in the writing world. The magazine is awesome and these prompts are interesting.

Be sure to just randomly pick the prompt and write the first one–whether it appeals to you or not.

It will seem a bit daunting at first, but over time it gets easier.

Writing strong narrative is a difficult task even for seasoned writers. They know to use strong verbs and to cut out the clutter and material that isn’t necessary, but do they follow any certain rules for doing this? I’m sure each writer has their own set of guidelines for writing good narrative and you will device your own set of rules as you become more practiced in your craft, but here are a few guidelines to help you get started.

As a writer you already know you’re a storyteller, this is what grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them interested. If you stray from your main storyline too often and too much, you’ll lose the reader. Backstory is important, but it should only be used in small amounts throughout the story.  Never give too much backstory too soon, slip it into your writing in small details.

What’s your story about? Is it about the mountains or the weather? Generally, a good story is about people.  Your character can be an animal and I’ve read many good stories with an animal as the main character. The point is your story isn’t about places or things but about the characters; the people or the animals. Keep your story focused on the characters. When using descriptive narrative about a room, scenery or an object, make sure you write it from the characters point of view. Doing this will ensure that the story is still about the character and their perception.

Use your words to paint pictures. This is often what sets great writers apart from mediocre writers. They’ve learned how to paint images with the use of words so the reader actually “sees” what the writer intended. Show the story through the character’s eyes. Many writers want to go into great detail describing the character or telling about the character. It’s better to give few details about the actual character, but show their world through their eyes and let the reader “discover” who this character is, what makes this character tick. It engages the reader and gives them something to think about. If you lay your character out like spreading mayonnaise on bread, that’s what you’ll  get–a thin character with no substance and a reader that’s gotten up to make a sandwich instead of reading your story.

E.B. White and F. Scott Fitzgerald both used this technique. They described what the character saw more than the character himself/herself, but the reader comes away with a good sense of who that character is.

Use specific details. Readers will remember specific details before they will vague ones. Details lets a reader know the writer did their homework; they took the time to find out the facts instead of making vague guesses or observations about something.

Be consistent with your images. If you’re trying to describe something and relate it to something else, stick with that association; don’t switch to something else to try and give a better description. If you’re describing something like an apple, stick with the apple relation; don’t change it to an orange.

If you read my piece Writer’s Lament, you can get a good idea of how narrative works. It’s a short piece but you can see the writer with vivid images. By describing his surroundings you get a clear picture of a disheveled writer who’s had writer’s block for several weeks, at the expense of personal hygiene. Even though I’ve described the conditions of the room, you learn about him as well.