How to Write Better Stories

What really drives your story?

I'm going to share with you a secret that will knock your socks off. This tip will make your plot richer and deeper and... more meaningful. Okay, when I say secret, it may be that I'm the only one that didn't know about it before. But I'm still excited, it's made a world of difference for my writing. Alison Goodman, author of the well known series Eon, revealed this writing technique in her course on narrative structure. Goodman passes on this golden advice from Robert McKee, who outlined the method in his book on writing screenplays, Story. 

The importance of character motivation in fiction is obvious. Characters must want something real bad, this is their goal. Your character might even have more than one goal. They should have an existing goal before we meet them, you know - they want to travel the world but they've been stuck in a small town since they were born, they want to meet their prince charming but only meet pigs in the strip club they work in, or they want to be a rock star but their parents expect them to become a priest. This goal drives a lot of the protagonist's decisions. In Warracknabeal Kids, Harry Conner's existing goal is find his mother, or at least uncover what happened to her. But then something happens...

We have the sneaky old inciting incident. The moment that things change for the protagonist and their everyday life is shaken up in some way. The inciting incident may provide a new goal for your character. My inciting incident involved a fire and the discovery of a body. Now Harry has a whole new mystery to solve. 

I always thought the protagonist's goal drove the narrative. But that's a limited view. There's something missing here. If you want to have a character with realistic depth then they need more than motive. They must posses an underlying need.

This need is something your protagonist won't be aware of. And here's the kicker, it's this need that will drive your story, everything in your novel should in some way address the character's need. 

I was floored by this news. I always thought Harry NEEDED to find out what happened to his mother. She disappeared and left him alone with a father who can't connect with Harry. But when I explored the fact that Harry can't know what he really needs, I realised... Harry NEEDS to connect with his father. These two people need to find a way to be together, because Harry's mum is gone, but his dad is here.

Suddenly my narrative developed a new thread and theme. A stranger comes to town, and he was important to the story before, but now he is important to Harry as well. The charismatic stranger encompasses all the traits Harry wishes for in a father. 

Your character's underlying need should contradict or conflict with their goal or desire. The character who wants to travel the world, might really need to recognise the value in belonging in a small town and the satisfaction of living up to your responsibilities. They might NEED to stay.

When your story reaches its climax, your character should be facing a serious dilemma. It is at this time they need to make a difficult choice. Go for the goal or the need? This dilemma is resolved when your character manages to acknowledge their need and unify the goal and need. That is, either they will find a way to have both, or they will release their grip on one and be satisfied with the other.

Knowing about my character's need to connect with his father has added a theme of fatherhood to my mystery novel. Other characters in the novel either compliment or contradict this theme. The theme touches everyone in this town in some way. 

I've fallen even more in love with my novel and my very flawed characters. So here's what I want you to do right now, start brainstorming your character's need. You might not hit it straight away, keep going, you'll feel it like a punch in the stomach when you get the right one.

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Creating a Writer's Website

The wonderful Linda Jackson from Writers Do Laundry, Too has interviewed me! Head on over, and you might pick up a free copy of My Zombie Dog.

Most writers understand the need to have a strong presence online (or 'build a platform'). As a writer, where should you be online?

I believe this comes down to choice and market. There are so many social media sites now, you can settle into the ones that feel right for you. But, you also want to consider your readers, where do they hangout online?

A website is a good start. This is a page where your readers can find you if they search. It can also host all your contact information, so readers can then connect with you on Twitter or Facebook, or wherever you provide links.

I have a dear friend who is very talented with Graphic Arts and Design. Rhonda from Mercieca Designs, created a special website for me. You can find Rhonda at her blog Toxic Designz:

Your website can contain blurbs for your books, or even sample pages, as well as links to make it easy for readers to purchase your products.

I've had this blog for a few years and so there's not much chance I'd relocate or walk away from it. However, if I was doing my time again, I'd have my blog hosted within my website. This way you could have yourname.com/blog rather than yourname.blogspot.com. My blog would also be easier to find, the way I have this blog set up, it's called Wagging Tales, the web address is clancytales and the name I promote is charmaineclancy. It's a wonder any of you turn up here at all! (I'm very glad you did).

Before you rush off to hire a graphic designer, or attempt to put your own site up, make a list of all the information you want to have included. Then group that information into logical 'pages'. Also shop about, look at other author's websites. Try seeing what writers in your genre use. Mystery and thriller writers often use blacks or reds in their design, whereas children's writers use cheery colours like yellow, blue or pink.

Make it professional. Your site represents you as a writer. Whether you want readers or potential publishers to view it, you want them to see that you are serious about your craft and work, even if your site has a fun or comical theme.

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Bookmarks as Promotional Tools

Designing bookmarks for the book - will have rounded corners when I'm done.

What a busy time it's been! My Zombie Dog ebook has been selling well on Amazon, and I'm now producing a paperback for the Australian market with help from The Book Cover Cafe. Exciting times. So, I've started thinking of different ways to promote the physical book. One popular idea is bookmarks.

Like most booky people, we love bookmarks in our house. Instead of giving birthday cards to their friends, my girls create bookmarks on the computer, print and laminate and usually finish off with a bit of ribbon through a hole in the top. These are usually treasured by the receiver. So, how do you do up bookmarks for your novel?

I had to play around with design. At first I tried putting the book cover at the top of the bookmark. I've seen this done before, but it didn't work well for me, the book looks too small. So instead, I put the title of the book on the front of the bookmark, and you don't have to stick to the traditional portrait direction (vertical), I went with a landscape (horizontal) look. I stuck with the same font as my ebook, because that's what will appear on the paperback book cover, plus I just love it. You can find out more about using fonts in this post: How to Font your Cover. I went with a bright purple background because it makes the font colour pop and... well, purple is magic.

You can design your bookmark in Photoshop, Word, almost any design program. I like to use InDesign and Photoshop. Before you start, you'll need to know what size your bookmark is. I've been a long time fan of Vistaprint, but sadly they don't do bookmarks (but if we all keep tweeting them about it, they might give in). I found this printer: Overnight Printing they print bookmarks and even provide a template for you to download.

If you go through a regular printer, you can choose your size. If you have a business that gets a lot of things printed up, you might be able to get them printed cheaply at the same time, because they are long and thin, they can be printed in the 'off cut' area.

If you only need a few to start with, you could always design them on your computer, print them yourself (you should be able to fit 4-5 to a page) cut them out and laminate. Home laminating machines are easy to get and quite cheap now, ours was under $20.

Back to the design; I also found too much text cluttered my bookmark. Now my novel is aimed at kids 8-13yrs (even though my readership seems to include a lot of grandparents), so that's another reason for me to keep it short and snappy. You want to make sure the design suits your genre. Mine is humour/horror, so I wanted a funny tagline. 

Some authors prefer to keep the back of their bookmark plain, so it gives them something to sign. It's a good idea, but I've decided to put the important details on the back. Here's some things you could include:

• Very short blurb, what's the book about?
• Testimonial from happy reader, or another author if you can get it.
• Who would like your book?
• Where can they buy your book? This is the most important.
• Where to find out more about the author and other books they may have, so a link to your website or blog. I chose my website, because my blog is aimed at writers, not really kids. I also have a QR code for my website, so if the kids scan it with a smart phone, it goes straight there.

Have fun with the design, something quirky is more likely to peak the interest of potential readers. You could play with shape, or try folded bookmarks with magnets... the only limit is your imagination! These will be great to hand out when you have book launches, or host a stall at a market/expo, or just when you meet people. And if you want to generate a QR code for your site, try: QR Stuff, it's easy, here' mine:

Do you have any other bookmark suggestions?

And it's that time again! Insecure Writer's Support Group - hope this post was supportive for you! You can find a lot more great posts by clicking on the picture and heading to Alex J Cavanaugh's site.

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Marketing your ebook and links

Today you'll find a post by me over at Romantic Friday Writers. The post is all about marketing your novel once you've published, and has some helpful tips for self-publishers. Please head over and say hello!

So that my blog is not completely empty this week, here are some fantastic links on story structure and finding a formula for your plot:

1. The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot
2. Structure by Screenplay Mastery
3. Get a Little Conflict in Your Scene
4. Writing Novels - Formulas and Structures
5. How to Write Your Novel Using a Formula
6. Story Structure and Plot - Novel Writing Tips
7. Plot and Pacing Part One, Plot and Pacing Part Two and Plot and Pacing Part Three
8. Story Elements Checklist for Brainstorming Index Cards
9. Writing Lessons by Richard Setlowe
10. Novel Endings 

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How to Font your Cover

I've blogged before about creating your own book covers in DIY Book Covers, today I want to get more detailed on one major part of covers - fonts. 

Most self-publishing or Indie publishing authors spend a lot of time looking for, or creating, the perfect image for their book cover, but sadly, many fail when it comes to font choice or application. Here are some points to remember:

Choose a style that suits your genre, but is easy to read. I see many swirly, formal script fonts that may give a luxurious feel, but are often hard to decipher. Simplify, and then... simplify more. For example, if you have a grungy urban novel, whether it's fantasy or a boy's adventure read, this font could look good:

The above is also a good example of understanding shade and tone. The light/white-ish font contrasts nicely with the green background. It helps to understand your basic colour wheel, colours that sit opposite on the colour wheel are complimentary colours. The picture below takes you to a good site that explains colour:

But having light font against dark or vice versa is simple, what if your background image is not one tone and varies from light to dark or has different colours, right where you want your title? Well, you could choose a different background, you really don't want anything too busy (a lot of amateur covers seem to have lots of floating heads or items that will appear in the story, remember this is a visual representation, it doesn't have to be literal). No? Ok, here's a little trick:

If you use a professional design program, such as InDesign (my choice), you'll have the option to outline your lettering, this line is called the 'stroke'. You can have a thin stroke, like in the image above. This is just enough to make the text stand out against the background. I like how the above cover mixes a white stroke and black stroke (black stroke on a black font does not work for this effect, it just makes the font look thicker). Or, you can make the stroke thick, so it becomes an important element in your cover. I took this font from KC Fonts:

And added a stroke to create this effect:

I wanted an old horror movie style, so I added a shadow to the text. Here's a tip, with shadowing, you can also change the strength of opacity, that is, how solid it looks. I wanted a soft, smokey shadow, so I don't have 100% opacity.

Also, use your space wisely. Don't have your title run right up to the edge of the page. Make it look like it's comfortable there. Of course you can break all these rules if you're artistic enough to make it work.

My last point is on license. There are many sites that offer free fonts, but did you realise that they're only free for your personal use? If your kids have an assignment or you want to decorate a non-profitable blogsite, sure. But, if you are using a font for a commercial purpose, such as a book cover for an ebook you plan to sell, then you need to pay for a license. This works the same as purchasing a license for your cover image (if you purchase from sites such as Shutterstock). Don't panic, you can find very reasonably priced fonts. Check out KC Fonts guidelines on Personal and Commercial use. Kevin from KC Fonts gave me a very good price on the use of my font (I'm sure font designers understand the reality of ebook revenue).

Images and fonts are people's creations and art, the creators deserve acknowledgement and remuneration for their services.

Here's some more covers I think do a great job with font:

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Structure Complicated Plots

I posted about epic fantasy and its need for multiple plot lines, you can find tips on Creating Multiple Plot Lines here. It's one thing to come up with lots of ideas for multiple plots, but this can become confusing when you try to outline or compose your epic fantasy novel. Here's some different ways to keep track of and add structure to complicated plots:

Time-lines

Create a time-line for the events of the story, beginning just before the inciting incident and ending just after the final climax. Now using the same time frame for each main character, plot out their story events on that time line. Next you will compare each character's events. You want everyone's story to come together or peak at the same major climax point, but the events that confront them on their individual journeys could happen at differing times. This way, you don't get too much overlap or repetition and keep a constant pace with tension rising right up to the big climax.

Index cards

Many authors use index cards to plot out their novels. Write a short synopsis of every scene on the cards, labeling each card to identify which main character it relates to (some will relate to multiple characters when their paths cross). Then lay the story lines out in order, in rows of character plots. This way you can coordinate when they should cross, move scenes around to suit and identify unnecessary or repeated scenes.

Colour coding

A very simple idea, but whichever structure style you prefer, assign different colours to the main characters, it will make it easier and quicker to identify each plot line.

Story arcs

You'll probably already know about story arcs, this is the path your character takes and the changes to your character throughout the story. Almost always, a character should grow and learn through their experience. You can chart a character's story arc similar to the time line, the overall arch will be your leading protagonist, but they may have other characters they meet along the way, and those characters will have their own arcs. Some might stay to the end of the story and others might come and go (or just go, if they die). By using a different colour for each character, your story arcs might look something like this (apologies, I found a great example online, and then couldn't find it again when I was ready to do this blog):

Mix up the structures

Some of your characters may be on a hero's quest, or some might be experiencing growing tension until the climax, other characters might follow the classic three act structure. You can mix it up, and probably keeping track of their comings and going in the time-line will be enough.

I've also been reading James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure, and he suggests when writing complex plots you understand your theme, which can emerge from your characters' struggles. He also says that in an epic plot, the lead's (protagonist) objective may change to suit the stage of their quest, for example, in the beginning of the story they might want to fulfill some personal desire, during the middle they might be just trying to survive, but in a later stage/setting, their objective might be more selfless and they may set out to save someone (like a princess from a dragon). If you have two or more parallel plots (two characters, each with their own quest and objective), cut back and forth as each character heads towards the shared climax.

My study into writing fantasy fiction continues. To help on my quest, the kids and I visited a local games store and for the very first time in my life, I have now played:

It totally baffled me. 

As well as the two instruction manuals included, we were talked into taking another 300+ page manual on character creations. Turns out, there's lots of maths and recording to this game. Day two of instruction reading, and I was still not any closer to understanding the game so we could play. I then paid a nice sum to subscribe to the online community. Still confused. Matilda, who is all of eleven, got frustrated with me, sat down and read through the thinest manual and quickly became our Dragon Master. She has been talking me through. What I have discovered, is it's a great way to create novel plots and... I really like squishing goblins.

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7 Tips to Fix Dialogue Suck

It's time again for Insecure Writer's Support Group hosted by Alex Cavanaugh. You share any insecurities you have about writing and offer support and advice to help other emerging writers. I like the idea of sharing weaknesses, if we drop the pressure of measuring ourselves against others, we can have a lot of fun, even with the stuff we suck at. 

It's okay to suck sometimes, because if you keep trying, you'll suck a whole lot less. Eventually you won't suck at all! Or at least that's what I hope.

If I look at my strengths and weaknesses in writing I would say my descriptive language needs a lot of work, but that I capture the voice of my character well. This reflection came as a surprise to me, because when I started blogging in 2009, I admitted I sucked most at dialogue. So, I set about to learn what I could about writing dialogue, here's some tips I picked up:

1. Watch out for 'Talking Heads'...

If your conversation runs too long, you'll have endless he said/she saids, and the reader loses a sense place - all the reader sees is floating heads rambling on. The solution? To break it up, insert a few actions and descriptions to remind the reader where the characters are. 

These are the sort of lines you can insert.

"He makes me feel like a woman."

Max slammed his fist on the pine table, causing the china cups to shake. He pushed his chair out and it fell - he didn't pick it up, instead he stormed out of the room.

Susan followed him."We need to finish this."

Swinging around to face her, Max's profile filled the doorway to their bedroom.....

Get your character to move around, pick something up, stare at the sky... anything to put your reader in a physical place.

2. Said is fine...

When writers start out, they often worry about their limited vocabulary and can abuse thesauruses in an attempt to find more loquacious ways of speaking. You can have characters yell, declare, admit or whisper, but if they are truly just 'saying' something, then use 'said'. It's simple and does not distract from the voice. Said is one of the magic words that disappear as we read, so it's a lot less intrusive than other tags.

3. Where to begin...

Don't feel like you have to start at the beginning of the conversation. Does the reader really have to hear: 

"Excuse me Mike, can we talk for a moment?"

"Sure Lacey, what it is it?" blah blah blah.

You can start halfway through conversation, or create impact by starting after one character has dropped a bombshell to the other. Jump straight into tension and drama. 

4. Language... 

Have fun with your characters, slip a joke in or highlight their personality in the way they speak. In any room full of people you will find a mix of personalities, funny people, rude people, boring people, shy people, etc etc etc. Make sure there's variety in your characters when they speak, don't have them all sound like one generic character voice.

Speaking out loud when you write the dialogue can help you create individual voices for your characters. 

5. Name calling...

Don't overuse names. When you speak to someone you know, you don't use their name in every line. It's okay occasionally when you want to make it clear who's speaking, and Mum's often do it when they're mad at you (in fact then they usually use your whole name - no abreviations!). 

6. Accents... 

I loved Wuthering Heights and the gothic but romantic language used. There was however, one character, a gamekeeper or some such thing, and I could not understand a word he said. Thick accent? Consider either not making it extreme, or making it extreme only occasionally. When this character has something important to say, make sure your reader can understand it. If necessary, include a translator.

7. Quality versus quantity...

There's no one formula for the quantity of dialogue you should use. Stream of consciousness text may have almost no dialogue and others quite a lot. Think about your audience. Teens tend to talk a lot, so if you are writing about them or for them you may want to have lots of dialogue. If your descriptions seem to drag on, you may need more dialogue, or if your narrative looks like a script, perhaps you need less (or insert more movement between lines).

Have fun writing dialogue, make it as different, quirky or dramatic as you can! As with all writing techniques, if it doesn't move the story along, cut it out. (I know I promised something on narrative structure, but soon, really)

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