|
Keep Asking Why
Your character wants something. Why? Asking why can reach past external goals and reveal the inner motivation that will drive the story. Our external goals merely solve problems. Our internal goals answer life’s questions.
Fewer Regrets
Our greatest regrets about life don’t come from what we think others should do. It comes from believing we should have spent our time more wisely. Make time to write, and you won’t have to say you’re sorry.
What Works Best
Writing instructors often say, “Do whatever works best for you.” That’s great advice when it works, but what if you’re not satisfied? If you’re looking for improvement, you should make a few changes and see what happens.
Keep Writing
The top reasons people aren't published: (1) Not writing the article. (2) Not submitting. (3) Quitting after rejection. (4) Not rewriting to improve the text. (5) Not submitting again. Failure is never final until we quit.
Writing Progress
The mirror won’t show the difference, but improvement is unavoidable when we work at the craft. Just as the photo on your driver’s license isn’t who you are now, your writing ability gains maturity with each effort.
Motivation
We need to understand the culture and learn the language of the people we want to heed our messages. If we don’t understand what they want and how they think, our writing will just push them farther away.
Talent
The one who has only five talents shouldn't complain that she doesn't have ten. She should only be concerned that she's not like the one who buried her potential, so afraid of her inabilities that she couldn't use her abilities.
Desperate Need
Create a need that demands resolution, and you have an issue that can earn your reader’s attention. Define the situation and focus on what the main character desperately wants, and you have the beginning for a great novel.
Driving Force
Our words are not as important as the forces that drive those words. We'll be more effective as writers if we can break away from the writing styles we learned in school and allow our thoughts to flow freely and creatively.
Yes or No
Adjust for interruptions. You may say yes or no to requests for help. Whatever your choice is, spend each moment in the way you believe is most pleasing to God. You can do no better than that. All the other work can wait.
Time Management
Unlike money, you can’t save time for another day or make more of it. For a while, keep track of what you do with every quarter-hour of the day, so you can see where your time went and whether it was used wisely.
Learning
We are constantly learning new things, but can you remember what they were? In your journal, write one thing you learned and something that was funny. Then, when Mom asks, "What did you learn today?" you can answer with a humorous twist.
Success
Our ongoing investment in writing is more important than counting the times we've been published. Countless great stories haven't been printed simply because they were never written. Keep planting seeds, and the harvest is sure to follow.
Make Readers Care
Just the facts—telling what happened—won't bring tears or laughter. Readers must identify with a character who wants something important to them and wonder whether he or she will get it.
Effective Details
For an effective description of rain, stand outside in a thunderstorm and get soaked. Make yourself a participant in what you write about, and your words will be better than your imagination or window observations.
Change the World
Know your audience so you can choose the best words. Many Christians want to change the world yet write only to believers. To make a difference, write to an audience outside the Christian community, in a language they understand.
The Unchurched
Most readers won't look up unfamiliar words. Expecting unchurched people to be gripped by a message filled with Christian jargon is like believing Australian aborigines will understand Chinese.
Flashbacks
If at all possible, stay with the present moment and avoid trips into the past. Invariably, flashbacks turn out to be "telling" from an omniscient perspective that distances readers and calls "time out" from the action.
Be Specific
Change the vague "I cuddled the dog" to an immediate, unmistakable picture with concrete nouns like poodle, collie, or dachshund. Your readers will appreciate the difference between calming a dog, Chihuahua, or Rottweiler.
Make a Clear Scene
When a scene fails to limit itself to who the characters are, what they want, and what stands in their way, we have fogged the picture and left readers to wonder if they should hang around.
Concern More than Conflict
Readers want more than to watch a fight. If they share a passion for what their hero wants and see what stands in his way, they will emotionally join the fight. Their participation keeps them turning pages.
Actions Speak Louder than Words
Use dialogue sparingly. When actions and expressions reveal a character's personality and desires, readers will understand and believe your story more readily than when they only hear what is spoken.
Commas in Series
Items in a series are normally separated by commas (CMOS 6.19). When publishers follow the AP Manual of Style and don't include the comma, the meaning isn't always clear. Correct example: I had a dime, nickel, and quarter.
SCOOP
Good stories apply the acronym SCOOP-Situation, Character, Objective, Obstacles, and Plight. If a character wants something in the face of costly challenges, you have the essential elements that make readers want to know what happens.
Show, Don't Tell
In the role of an observer, readers may be informed, motivated, or entertained. But when the words make readers a participant in your stories, the truth is made obvious by the experience and can be life-changing.
Goldilocks
Like in the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," there are three kinds of writing-too much, too little, and just right. Be sensitive to what your readers want because they will decide what they like and don't like.
Care
In your story's first sentence, make your character's goal obvious and something readers will care about. Think of "character" as "care actor." The desires of your characters are crucial to creating conflict and building compelling stories.
Rejections
Focus on giving publishers what they want. Celebrate each rejection as a learning opportunity. Look for clues to better style and topic selection. If you're not getting worse, you're getting better. Improvement matters most.
Rules
Our language constantly changes, so rules of grammar and punctuation are changing too. What we learned in school isn't always the best choice today. The Chicago Manual of Style may be the most up-to-date and reliable publishing authority.
Goals
Consultants preach the importance of vision. "Plan your work and work your plan," they say. "Without a vision, the people perish." The truth is, "vision" caused the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for forty years because they relied on their own judgment, resources, and strength. God's vision is much better than anything you could figure out on your own, so trust his direction, taking each step as he leads you.
Become an Expert
The most authoritative expert in any field (1) understands his personal experiences, (2) studies the experiences, research, and opinions of others, (3) interviews many people who represent the target audience, and (4) is led by the Holy Spirit, who guides us in all truth (John 16:13).
Following Grammar Rules
Supposedly someone complained about one of Winston Churchill's famous speeches, pointing to his grammatical error in ending a sentence with a preposition. His response was: "That's the kind of meaningless pedantry up with which I will not put." Maybe that's a true story. Maybe it isn't. But the saying shows how blindly followed rules can make our writing look bad. First, we must know the rules. Then, when we have a good purpose in doing so, we can break them.
Titles
The best titles stir curiosity so people are eager to discover what the story is about.
Tarzan Isn't Bothered by a Chimp's Critique
If a monkey put a question mark on your manuscript, couldn't you find a way to make the section better? Probably so. Critique group members aren't monkeys, but what if they were? You'd consider the source and never be offended. If their comments didn't make sense, you could still focus on the mark and find a way to improve. No matter who it is, whether monkey or master of the craft, you should consider the outside perspectives that you can never have.
Release the Flow of Words
Imagine your reader asking a question. He (or she) needs help. What can you say that will lessen his problems? In your mind, seat him in the chair beside you. Then respond as if you were talking to a close friend who is desperately searching. That practice will stire creative enzymes that help your words to flow.
Fear of Plagiarism
Don't worry about someone copying what you've written. You should be flattered if anyone thinks your work is worth stealing.
Surviving Rejections
To get a magazine article published, identify your target and take careful aim. Get sample copies, study the topics, and write in similar style. Publishers have never failed to buy something they wanted. A rejection doesn't mean you got an "F" on your report card. It simply means they buy apples but your article was an orange.
Writers’ Group Meetings
Go for what you’ll get out of it, and you may not get much help. Go for the opportunity to help others, and you’re sure to get something out of it.
Identify Your Audience
Fiction writers fill out charts that describe their main characters in depth—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Besides the character charts, when you're writing fiction or nonfiction, complete a chart about the most-important person who represents your audience. When he or she becomes your sole focus, your writing will be better. Your audience will be more eager to read what you have to say. Also, your book proposals will be easier to write.
Success
Writers fail because they give up, not because they are bad writers.
Adjust Your Focus
To write twenty pages or more each day, you need to eliminate interruptions. Unplug your phone, close your e-mail, and turn off the television. As best you can, avoid snacks, something to drink, and frequent trips to the bathroom. Force yourself into a private world where your creative mind can run free.
Get an Agent
You can make God your agent and have the best person working on your behalf, but you should let him have at least ten percent.
Use It or Lose It
If God gave you the ability to write, do you dare not put it to steady use? You shouldn’t worry as much about your success or failure as whether you have done your best.
Driving Dialog
Want a quick study on dialog? Pick up a favorite book and skip the narratives. Just read the dialog and tags for a while. Your thinking will naturally adjust more toward dialog.
Walk in Strange Shoes
All writing is autobiographical, but the best words explore the space beyond. Instead of journaling your own experiences and feelings, push your imagination to create a journal as if you were someone else.
Playing the Odds
Readers love stories about people who have succeeded despite impossible odds. First, identify a success. Then find all the obstacles that could have kept it from happening. Add a little suspense or mystery, and you have the makings of an interesting article.
A Beautiful Day
Avoid using the word beautiful. It perfectly describes the image we have in our mind, but it does nothing to create the same image in the reader’s mind. We need details. So it was a beautiful day. Describe what made it so beautiful. Perhaps, a few clouds wandered like newborn lambs above the horizon. The grass had turned from winter brown to a carpet of green with scattered patches of pink and yellow wildflowers. Trees had covered their winter nakedness with leaves, creating a haven for the birds hiding among the branches and singing like a choir.
Reader Sensitivity
When we’re writing an e-mail, our language is different from talking face to face. What we write while sitting at the keyboard can lack the consideration we naturally give when standing before an audience. Try putting an empty chair next to your desk and imagine your reader sitting there. Read aloud what you have written and see how your voice should change so it is more sensitive to your readers.
|
