#cqreads

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- A good story transports the reader to a new place via experience. Not through arguments or facts, but through the illusion that life is taking place on the page. Not his life. Someone else’s. Your characters’ lives.

- Solid plots have one and only one dominant objective for the Lead character. This forms the “story question” — will the Lead realize her objective?

- In his book, The Art of Creative Writing, Lajos Egri asserts that the key to originality in fiction comes from characters.

- Whatever you do, don’t show characters practicing their chosen professions in the same old predictable way. Dig deeper and find original details.

- [As an exercise that details writing a prologue, and just a prologue, to get your creativity flowing] The ideas you generate with a good prologue may lead to a full story. And writing a prologue of 1,000 to 2,000 words every now and then is great practice for writing page-turning fiction.

- [If seeking inspiration for something new] One reference I treasure is Dictionary of Occupational Titles.

- If you begin [a book] with long, descriptive passages (something that was much more acceptable in the past), the feeling you’ll create is not one of motion but of stasis. Don’t misunderstand. Descriptions are not out of bounds — so long as you include text that gives the feeling of motion. And only a character can be in motion. So — give us a character as soon as possible.

- [Methods of grabbing readers’ attention from the start] 

Action [in medias res]

Raw emotion scene

Look-back hook (the idea that there’s a not-to-be-missed-story about to unfold). For example:  The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years — if it ever did end — began, so far as I can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain. — IT, Stephen King

Attitude [share a strong, distinctive character straight from the get-go]

Action prologue

Framed narrative prologue [For the most part, I think this is similar to the “Look-back hook.” JSB emphasizes using the prologue to show how the events about to unfold are affecting the prologue character now. For example, your prologue may start with the description of a boy in a hospital. The rest of your novel is about what landed the boy there. Etc.

- First, you probably already have an ending in mind. You’ve been writing toward that ending, especially if you prefer to work with outlines. And that’s okay. Keep writing. But as you get closer to the end of your first draft, pause and come up with ten alternative endings. Yes, I said ten. And I don’t mean take four weeks to do this. It should take less than thirty minutes. Brainstorm. The quicker the better. Let yourself go, and don’t worry about justifying every one of them. Once you’ve got your list, let your imagination cook the possibilities for a day or two. Come back to your list and take the top four. Deepen them a little bit. Let them cook some more. Finally, choose the one alternative ending that seems to work best as a twist — not an alternative ending at all, but an added surprise. Figure out how to work that into your ending, and then go back into your novel and justify it somehow by planting little clues here and there. There is your twist ending.

- If a scene seems to sputter to a close and you’re not sure what to do, here’s a great tip: try cutting the last paragraph or two. You don’t have to write every scene to its logical conclusion. In fact, it’s often the best choice not to. Cutting creates interest, a feeling of something left hanging — and that makes readers want to find out why.

- Plotting 

Use the LOCK system  [Define some unique aspect of your Lead, their objective, the source of a primary confrontation, and a knock-out ending or peak to the story]

Write the “back cover copy.” What you want to do is create a few paragraphs that excite your own interest, enough to compel you to move on to the next step.

Set a writing quota

Begin your writing day by rereading what you wrote the day before. I recommend you read your previous day’s work in hard copy. You are not to make major changes at this time; you can only clean up minor things or add to what you have written. Here’s how you add. When you reach a place in the previous day’s pages where you want to add something, put a letter with a circle around it. Start with the letter A. You may have an A and a B and a C. (This, by the way, is a Natalie Goldberg idea.) Now begin your new writing by doing the added portions. For example, you’re writing a story about growing up in Los Angeles. You decide that in the section describing your street you want to add something about a creepy neighbor who lives around the block. You have placed an A where you want this copy to be inserted. Write about the creepy neighbor. Let yourself go. This section could be one paragraph or it could turn into an entire chapter. When you’re done with it, cut and paste it into the master document. Or you may not want to add anything to your previous day’s work, and that’s fine. After reading it over, begin writing today’s pages.

- Tips on Using Index Cards to Plot Points of Your Story

If your plot involves multiple leads or numerous subplots, each of these can be recorded on different colored cards.

Or you can put your cards out in a plotline and character line. The plotline records the action, and a character line records what’s going on inside the character along the way. You can then create a nice character arc for your story.

Once you’ve got a pretty solid order, number the cards in pencil. Then you can get them back in order after you shuffle the cards! That’s right. Shuffle them like a Vegas poker deck. This is a cool idea from Robert Kernan’s excellent Building Better Plots. Now go through the cards two at a time in this random order. What you’re looking for are new connections between plot elements, some fresh perspectives on the story. You may then want to revise your structure accordingly.

- The Headlights System: I believe it was E.L. Doctorow who compared his plotting to driving at night with the headlights on. You have an idea as to your direction, but you can see only as far as the headlights. When you drive to that point you can see a little farther. And so on, until you reach your destination. [Every time you finish a chapter, write an outline -- anything from a few words to a paragraph in length -- to guide you when you begin the next chapter. Do this as you move along. Pretty much a half-pantser, half-plotter approach.]

Also for Plotters: Rather than headlighting, before writing your story, name your chapters and/or write outlines (250 words or less) to guide you along the way. Summaries can include the characters, locations and times involved.

- The David Morrell Method: Morrell’s method is geared toward getting deeper into your story idea, finding out why you really want to write it. It’s a trip into the subconscious and the place where real writing power resides. It’s a simple concept. You write a letter to yourself. You ask yourself questions about your idea. The most important question is, Why? Keep asking that one over and over.

- When editing your completed first draft, try reading through it quickly, marking trouble spots along the way. Don’t get bogged down with corrections until you make it all the way through; this way, you have an overall picture of your story’s development.

- Every scene should have that moment or exchange that is the focal point, the essential part. If your scene doesn’t have a hot spot, it should probably be cut.

- You’ve decided that a flashback scene is necessary. Then make sure it works as a scene — immediate, confrontational. Write it as a unit of dramatic action, not as an information dump. How do you get in and out of a flashback, so it flows naturally? ...  put in a strong, sensory detail that triggers the flashback.

- I can’t remember who suggested the following exercise, but it’s a good one for generating new plot material based on getting to know your character better. Close your eyes and see your character vividly. Dress her up for a night on the town. Have her go to a social event where she will see a number of old friends as well as some of the most powerful people in her world. She opens the door, steps into the party, and then what happens? Watch this scene in your mind. Hear the sounds, smells the smells, make it as real as possible. At some point have someone come over to your Lead and throw a drink in her face. What does she do? What do the others around her do or say? Let the scene go on of its own accord. Then take your character back home, have her getting ready for bed. She’s talking to someone she lives with, or her dog, about what happened. What is she feeling? Get into her emotions.

- [when stuck] Open a dictionary at random. Pick a strong word from that page. Now open to another page and pick another strong word. Write something that puts those two words together. Get the literary muscles moving again.

- Writers usually become stuck when they are planning too much and trying too hard to control the flow of the story. By injecting a surprise, it forces new visions and connections. The technique works with any surprising element: A telegram arrives. An alarm goes off. A dog bites. The hero is fired. Whatever happens that is completely unexpected will help you break the barrier you have run into. Next time you get stuck in your story, make a quick list of things that could happen. They must be unexpected and unplanned.

- And sometimes, as we’ve discussed elsewhere, it’s best to start your novel with chapter two. That’s right. You drop chapter one altogether and jump in with chapter two. Later, you drop in information from chapter one only if it’s essential. [I’m very interested in trying this!]