Nothing is black & white.

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

This blog is now an archive!

I’ve been splitting my energies between too many blogs and to streamline my own dash experience and be more productive in general, I’m moving blogs. I’ll still totally follow a lot of people I’ve been following here. Don’t feel obligated to follow back. 

I’m now at @greywrites

The blog has been revamped as a main blog instead of it’s previous incarnation as a sideblog. 

Thanks!

Brevity is difficult to accomplish. For me, it takes several rounds of edits. For authors more experienced than I, it might take less.

Stick to your point. Don’t keep all your dumped thoughts on paper. Find the point of all those thoughts and edit them down to  a singular point.

Don’t waste words. So I found these edits from that one action chapter I spoke of in my Writing Effective Action Scenes post. Here is both the unedited and published versions.

Theosodore is right. My anger is my strength. If there was anything that could ever persuade me to fight in a situation that seems beyond hopeless, it is seething rage. The rage takes me back to the barn where Colette was trying to teach me how to control my fire. I almost had a grasp on the tempting flames then, almost felt like I would have had full control had Colette not invaded the blackness of my thoughts. Now that feeling is back, and this time, I have the fear just underneath the skin of my palm. All I have to do is snap my fingers and–

Published version:

Theosodore is right. My anger is my strength. The feeling takes me back to the barn where Colette tried to teach me how to control my fire. I almost had a grasp on the tempting flames then. Now the feeling is back. I focus on it, drawing the anger down into the skin of my palm, letting it heat my skin until it’s almost unbearable. All I have to do is snap my fingers and–

Notice that the published version is two lines shorter than the unedited version. There was no reason for me to repeat that “seething rage” could help her fight, when “My anger is my strength” is enough to signal that all it takes is anger. I also didn’t need to repeat that the RAGE helped her remember. That’s treating my readers like they’re dumb. Then “I ALMOST had a grasp on the tempting flames then” is all that needs to be said. Readers can already infer why she couldn’t grasp her flames from a previous chapter. As for the next sentence, it was edited to emphasize her anger. So the published paragraph says more than the unpublished paragraph, yes?

Don’t think about word count, but value. Having a 100,000 word novel (this is often only accepted for sequels) doesn’t mean you’re being wordy. Oftentimes it means you’re developing your world and characters more from the previous book in the series. So think about the value of each word you’re using.

Passive voice.  This can add unnecessary words. Sometimes you can’t avoid passive voice, but oftentimes you can.

Passive voice: Canes and wheelchairs are used by people who have some form of physical disability.

Active voice: People with physical disabilities often use canes or wheelchairs.

Not only did I change it to the active voice, but I also cut out some words.

Use strong verbs instead of adverbs.

I ran quickly to the door.

Use I dashed to the door instead. ‘Dashed’ has more urgency than ‘I ran quickly.’

Avoid redundancy. Refer to the ‘don’t waste words’ point with the unedited version. The third sentence is redundant.

Use punchy sentences. Long sentences aren’t a sin, but if you can convey your point in fewer words, do it.

Unedited version of a scene in When Stars Die: A loud rumbling breaks through the shadows, hurling my entire back back into the present, where I’m dodging fire while being subjected to cruel words.

Published version: A loud rumbling breaks through the shadows, hurling me back into the present as I make a hard turn to dodge another ball of fire.

Don’t say something over and over again. Not only does this assume your readers are dumb, but you only need to state your point once. The sequel to When Stars Die is still going through revisions, but my publisher caught me on this one. He even said I’m treating my readers like they’re dumb, so even I’m not perfect.

Keep your sentence structure varied. Don’t use long sentence after long sentence after long sentence, unless there is a stylistic reason for this.

Experience is your ally. Just keep writing and receiving critique from experienced writers.

I’d say this is less a screenplay question and more a story question. I tend to park my twists around the midpoint and the end. Why two?

To that I’d reply, “Why not two?”

Okay. So let’s do a little exercise.

First, why do you feel it’s predictable? Make a list of reasons and get those out of your head.

Now, can you group those reasons into categories like characters, plot/structure, and general self-loathing, do it, because you might notice some trends.

Once you’ve got those trends noted, that’s when you can do one of my favorite things as a writer: screw with people’s expectations! 

Structural stuff, I think, is the hardest. Movies in general are formulaic to the point that it makes me want to vomit, but they’re so formulaic because it’s works, so you walk a delicate balance. Too far in the other direction and people won’t understand or be able to follow along, and that’s no good either. Regardless, play with the pacing.  Try moving up some events or drawing them out. Worst thing that happens is you try some stuff out and it doesn’t work. 

Pro Tip: Write your plot points on index cards and rearrange till your heart’s content. Snap a picture or something, then rearrange it again. Repeat.

Sometimes you have a great structure, but the characters are taking the shine off it. Do you have any Mary Sue/Gary Stu’s running around being the character equivalent of Wonder Bread? Ditch ‘em or re-work them. I can’t tell you how many great plots–and twists!– I’ve seen ruined by shit characters. One thing that has helped me is to always know the character’s motivations and to think in terms of verbs. It’ll make your life easier and make your actors happy.

Also, don’t forget to think about the overall environment in the scene, too. You can contrast or highly things effectively with the surroundings as well, and not enough writers do it.

Hope this helps,