Tag: writing tips

Life-condensed, Writing Mechanics

Tips for Writing a First Draft and Life Update

Karen

I was too tired this week to contribute to my word count so now I’m playing catch up. If you haven’t participated in word sprints, I would highly recommend that you do it. They are super fun and super productive. I’ve been hooked on the Word Nerds word sprints – they are doing a four-hour word sprint today that I fully intend to participate in. I’m figuring out what I want to write for that time period.

I just finished a short story which I will post tomorrow. It’s a long one – over 3000 words. It’s amazing to me how I can look at a prompt, close my eyes and my imagination just takes over and before long, I feel compelled to write. Then I go into a writing trance and it’s almost like a high – I am transported to a world of my making. It’s a pretty powerful feeling, not gonna lie. Anyway, if you’re stuck or you need some support I would highly recommend you type in word sprints into YouTube and you’ll find a bunch of fun sprints to take part in.

I spent the first half of yesterday getting my hair done. I’m determined that I will NOT go gray any time soon. I feel like coloring my hair takes ten years off my appearance and I will continue to color my hair as long as it doesn’t look stupid – i.e. I’m trying too hard and people look at me and say, “wow. Look at that old woman trying to look young” then I’ll stop.

But I’m not there yet.

Anyway. I went to my salon and we’re chit-chatting and I ask her how things are going for her. They were shut down for six(ish) weeks during our lockdown in .. April (I think it was April) and that really took a toll on them. I had an appointment with them in May and they were just beaten down. It nearly destroyed them and they were working hard to play catch up. I tipped her $20 bucks back then just to try and help her in any way I could.

Fast forward to today. When I asked her how they were doing, she said not very good – they were closing their doors on December 16th. I was sick to my stomach for her. It breaks my heart that their business, and so many other small businesses, simply couldn’t sustain the insane reaction we had to this damn virus. It’s unfair and criminal, in my opinion, to strip someone’s livelihood away from them like that.

I asked her what she planned on doing next. Both her and her business partner (they have been best friends for 10 + years) had already gotten jobs in phlebotomy. I have no idea what drew them to that field but they both got a job at clinics with different medical facilities. One of them is actually going to be working for the same hospital that I work at. I told her that she should think of becoming a medical assistant. She said she had thought of that and is interested but she didn’t want to go to school for it. I told her that it wasn’t necessary to go to school for it, though of course the hospital would prefer that you did. However, we have hired several people who have not gone to school for it and have been trained on the job so she should definitely keep her eyes out for openings and apply. She asked if I was certified, which I am, and I told her that if she gets a job as a medical assistant, she has to work for one year before she can take the test. The hospital pays a bonus and you get a significant raise if you become certified because it looks good for the hospital to have CMA’s on staff. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for her and let her know if anything becomes available. With her phlebotomy experience she will be a strong candidate even without formal training.

She said she went into phlebotomy because she was tired of working in an industry that didn’t offer any security. It’s too stressful to always wonder if today will be the day she doesn’t have a job. And I can’t blame her. That’s the biggest reason I went into the medical field – because that’s a field that will ALWAYS need people and I figured the insurance would be decent. (The benefits are … fine – not that great – but not that bad, either).

It makes me wonder how many other people out there have had to rethink their professional careers because of this damn virus. And now there’s talk of shutting down again. I heard through the grapevine that my hospital is working very hard thinking of ways NOT to shut elective surgeries down again. It’s true that we have a lot of COVID cases in the hospital and that a lot of employees have been tested for COVID and that entire departments have been shut down because there hasn’t been anyone to work them, but what’s the alternative? Go into hiding and go through this again and again every time cases go up? It’s like Ground Hog day. When does it stop? No. We can’t continue to hide from this thing – we have to grit our teeth and get through this. We need to urge the groups of people that are vulnerable to COVID to stay home while the healthy get out there and live their lives. I know herd immunity is sort of a dirty phrase right now, but that is exactly what we must do to get back to normal.

And any COVID cases overflow? Let’s designate large facilities and turn them into a MASH unit and take care of them that way. That has to be a better alternative than shutting everything down further destroying the economy. We can’t sustain this insane pattern. At some point, cases WILL go down, they have to. We just have to ride this high.

The vaccine is available but thank God the hospital is not going to make us get it. I would rather continue wearing a mask than get the vaccine. You just don’t know what sorts of poisons are being injected into your body and I would rather not have any unknown long-term effects, thank you very much. No job is worth my health. Period.

Moving on to a different topic ..

I bought a new Christmas tree. We have literally had our Christmas tree for over 25 years and I noticed, for the first time last year, when I took a picture of it how ragged it looked. It’s been losing more and more needles every year and now it just looks like a six foot Charlie Brown tree. I stumbled across a Black Friday deal on the Target website and bought a 7.5 foot tree for $100. We just got it last night and I’m excited to put it up after recording our podcast. It comes in three pieces – I’m looking forward to spending a fraction of the time setting it up. Our old tree was the kind where you had to put every single branch on and then fluff. It took forever.

Not sure what we’re doing for Thanksgiving this year. I know one of Kevin’s sisters will not be joining us as her children don’t feet comfortable getting together because COVID. They only want a get together of just their immediate family. I know it’s disappointing but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Since we’re short staffed at work, management has approved over time. I will DEFINITELY be taking advantage of that these upcoming weeks. Of course, it would be happen during NaNoWriMo but that’s okay – I’ll just get less sleep. I can sleep in December, right?

Enough with the life updates, let’s get back to writing. I thought you all might enjoy Jenna’s tips on writing a first draft. I like her style – she’s informative but funny and doesn’t take herself too seriously. I have watched A LOT of writing videos and some of these writers are so snooty I can’t even stomach it. We all have different styles and ways we approach our writing – there is no wrong or right way of doing it. It takes trial and error before you find your groove. I’m finding my groove. I’m starting to understand how my brain works and what my creativity needs to be coaxed out of the recesses of my mind. I’m being a NaNoWriMo rebel this year and I’m really enjoying myself. My rule is there are no rules. I write when I want and what I want because ultimately, I’m writing and that’s all I care about, no matter what that looks like.

(warning if you’re sensitive: language)

Video Summary:

1. Accept it will be bad
2. Outlines save lives
3. Don’t read it
4. Don’t edit
5. Edit if you can’t stop thinking about editing
6. Habit over motivation
7. Set goals
8. Understand your distractions
9. List your weaknesses
10. Calm down – refer to #1

My thoughts:

  1. I think this is a very important point. It’s true. Your first draft will be bad. You will re-read it and think, “wow – I suck.” But that’s normal. You can’t edit and revise something that doesn’t exist so just write it. Give it a few days before you read it and then work on making it “pretty.” I post my short stories without editing them – and I know they are not my best work, but every time I write a short story, an angel sings. At least, in my head. lol And it becomes easier for me to write the next one, then the next one. I have to exercise my writing muscles and I can’t do that unless I WRITE.
  2. Yes / no. It all depends on how you approach your writing. Remember – there is no one size fits all when it comes to writing styles and preferences. For me, I like outlining to a point, write it, then re-assess my story and where I need to go depending on where my characters took me to begin with. Then I will outline a bit more, write those bits, and so on. This works for me because it gives me just enough material to write but it doesn’t feel stale and boring.
  3. I 100% agree with this. I write it, then don’t read it again for quite some time. Then when I go back and read it, I think, “hhmm, this is not half bad.” I need some distance from my creativity – she can be an all-consuming bitch. Not to mention, people who write, then go back and edit .. I could never do that. To me, that’s like taking one step forward and two steps back – ugh, just no.
  4. I’ve never really gotten to this point because I’ve never stuck to a project long enough TO edit it. So I guess this tip doesn’t apply to me … yet.
  5. N/A
  6. This is me, hands down. I rarely have motivation to write, unless it’s NaNoWriMo and only then it’s because there are thousands of other people in the same boat and I love rewarding myself. I am working hard to make writing a habit and I hope to have that habit firmly in place in 2021.
    1. By the way – my weekly writing rewards to myself are: 1. new glasses 2. new Christmas tree 3. Rhodia bullet journal (because I’m about halfway through my first one – yes, I’m still journaling!) and 4. wireless earbuds – because my earphone jack on my phone is on the bottom and it’s super annoying trying not to yank my earbuds from my ears whenever I’m walking)
  7. Long-term goals, like quarterly goals, do not excite me. It excites me to see a daily blog post go up so that is my goal for this upcoming year – to write daily, or nearly daily, blog posts. But how many times have I said THAT in the past. (Hint: a lot).
  8. Jenna likes noise when she writes, I’m the complete opposite – it has be absolutely dead quiet when I write. I have honed my skills to always be aware of my surroundings with my job so focusing on one thing with something going around me completely derails me. I know my distractions – YouTube. But, I also think YouTube helps me because I get a lot of ideas and inspiration by watching YouTube. I love YouTube because it’s real people with real thoughts and real problems as opposed to paid actors that like to lecture me. No thanks.
  9. I know for me, writing descriptive prose is a weakness. I’m great with dialogue, not so great at describing the setting. I really need to work on that. And when I do describe a setting, I absolutely have to have a picture, or some sort of visual aid, to help me write it. Knowing this, I know that when I go back to edit, I will have to pad the story with description in order to give the reader a sense of where my characters are interacting. I hate to write setting, but it’s a necessary evil. Otherwise, my characters are in a green screen and that’s not fun to read, I’m sure.
  10. Your first draft will suck. Refer to point one.

It’s the saggy middle, ya’ll, pull your pants up and keep writing!

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo Workshop – Character

Karen

This post was originally published on Write Anything, October 20, 2008.

Welcome back to Write Anything NaNoWriMo workshop week!

Did you miss the idea/synopsis workshop? What about the setting workshop, or Paul’s setting workshop? No worries. We’ll wait for you to catch up before we proceed …

Ready?

Excellent. Today, let’s talk about developing characters.

For me personally, this is one of my favorite aspects of writing. I heart characters. Though ironically, I don’t spend a lot of time developing them. I tend to just throw in a vague caricature, a stick person with hair and eyes really, into the story and see what sort of personality develops through interaction.

Though fun, I wouldn’t recommend adopting this haphazard method of creating your characters as they tend to emerge more like (pretty) cardboard cutouts as opposed to something tangible and believable. Readers tend to not care about characters that look, and act, like paper dolls.

Me, Tammi, Dale and Andrea all participated in the 2007 Blog-a-thon together and Tammi posted quite a few character sketches in her posts. (Look in our July 2007 archives, category Blog-a-thon 2007, for more character sketches). Not only did she post them, she posted them “on the fly.” She’s quite an expert at developing interesting characteristics quickly and efficiently. So Tammi, if you have any tips for our readers on filling out character sketches, please share them with us!

I love this opening line in Josip Novakovich’s Fiction Writer’s Workshop about character: “Most people read fiction not so much for plot as for company. If a character matters so much to the reader, it matters even more to the writer.”

Characters become readers’ friends, they become aspects of ourselves. A great character will stay with us for a long time – mainly because we can relate to their struggle in some way.

But where do you find fictional characters?

The ideal method is “You can completely make them up, using psychology textbooks, astrology charts, mythology, the Bible or, simply your imagination,” says Novakovich.

Another method is the autobiographical method where you project your own experiences into the fictional character, though this is not necessarily one you should use most.

Biographical method is when you use people you have observed (or researched) as the starting points for your fictional character. Novakovich says, “using the biographical method, writers often compose their characters from the traits of several people … this is the fusion approach: you fuse character traits the way you fuse atoms.”

Another way to compose characters is the mixed method. In essence, you take a mixture of the approach approaches and make a potpourri of characteristics that blend nicely and are pleasing to the reader.

Karen Wiesner, First Draft in 30 Days, has some great advice about making character sketches:

When you flesh out character sketches for your story, write down everything that comes to you, no matter how trivial. Remember to give all your main characters (including the villains) internal and external conflicts.

Wiesner also recommends cutting pictures of interesting people out of magazines and keeping a notebook to help you visualize your characters. I personally used this method last NaNoWriMo and found it INVALUABLE; seeing pictures of my characters helped me stay true to my character’s personalities, goals and conflicts.

“If you can picture your characters clearly (says Wiesner), actually see them, chances are you’ll write about them in a more intimate, comfortable way – as if you know them well.”

To help you get a better feel for the type of information that belongs in a character sketch, consider the following sections when making your character sketches:

  • Physical Description – age, race, eye and hair color (and style), height/weight, skin tone, physical flaws, disabilities, mannerisms, etc.
  • Personality Traits – happy, somber, bookish, strengths, weaknesses, vices, hobbies, kind of entertainment and food, colors, etc.
  • Background – “Background is very important to defining a character and making her three-dimensional,” says Wiesner. “[It] can include information on the character’s parents, siblings, relatives, friends, old lovers, pets, life-shaping events and their long-term effects, etc. Did this character have a good home life during her childhood … what kind of schooling did she have? Was she popular, unpopular, in-between?”
  • Internal Conflicts – emotional turmoil.
  • External Conflicts – outside or situational conflict that’s preventing your character from accomplishing her tasks.
  • Occupation / Education – “A character is defined by what he does (or doesn’t) do for a living.” (Weisner)

From Victoria Lynn Schmidt’s 45 Master Characters:

Now that your hero stands drawn before you, she needs to have her personality colored in.

What does your character care about? If your character was stranded on a desert island, what are the three things he would want to have? Each character has a different set of values that dictates what these things are.

What does she fear? What would give her nightmares? Ask yourself what happened to this character at a young age to create this fear … then sprinkle this information to the reader along the way.

What motivates her?

  • Survival?
  • Safety and Security?
  • Love and Belonging?
  • Esteem and Self-Respect?
  • The Need to Know and Understand?
  • The Aesthetic? (Need for balance, a sense of order, to being connected to something greater than ourselves).
  • Self-Actualization? (to communicate who we are, to express ourselves).

How do other characters view her? How do your character’s clothes and desires fit in? What do other characters say about him behind his back?

Schmidt goes on to list, and explain, 45 master characters from mythic models- these are great springboards for developing full, rich characters. Here are a few examples:

Aphrodite: the seductive muse and the femme fatale.

Hera: the matriarch and the scorned woman

Ares: the protector and the gladiator

Poseidon: the artist and the abuser

Remember, readers want to identify with the characters they are reading. “It is what they do that makes them interesting,” says Nigel Watts, Writing a Novel. “A fascinating character is made fascinating, not because of who he is, but because of what he does. Looking into this matter further, we see that the interest in the character’s actions is not so much in the action alone, but in the anticipation of action: now what are they going to do?”

Identifying with characters happens two ways:

Empathy – recognizing something of yourself in the character

and

Sympathy – liking what you see … identifying the nice bits of yourself with the nice bits of others.

And lastly, writers need to care about the characters they create.

If you want to move people, you have to move yourself first. You must care about your characters in order for your readers to care about them. That means you should sympathize with them as well as empathize. You must have some sort of affection for your characters, particularly central characters, otherwise your disapproval will infect the story and your readers will be repulsed by them. Make your protagonists bad, by all means, fallible, two-faced and self-centered, but don’t despise them. (Watts)

Here are some exercises to help you get to know your characters better from What Would Your Character Do? by Eric and Ann Maisel.

** Family Picnic: Your character spends several hours at a family picnic attended by parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts/uncles and other extended family members. Does she enjoy the event or spend it hiding in the bathroom?

** Poolside Encounter: Your character is on vacation and while sunning herself by the pool, has an encounter with a stranger who asks a too-intimate question. How does she respond?

** Stranger in Town: Your character finds himself a stranger in a seemingly sinister town. Does he keep moving or try to investigate?

** Poker Night: Your character finds himself in his first high-stakes poker game. How does he play at the beginning? When he’s winning? When he’s losing?

** Stalked: Your character is being stalked. What hidden aspects of your character’s personality does this bring to the surface?

A little extra work goes a long way toward developing well-rounded, and interesting characters. Have fun!

Next: Point of View