Writing Help

Investigating your family tree can lead you to more writing prompts that you might think! Blogger Jolie Tunnell shares her experience and advice with us today on using real people and events from the past to inspire your historical fiction:

History has a way of repeating itself. This March, I completed my second historical novel using the NaNoWriMo template. I have to admit, the excitement, sense of accomplishment, and celebration is just as fabulous this time around.

I don’t have to tell you that writing a novel in a month is one rollercoaster of a ride. Getting to “The End” is a matter of putting one word down after the other and I want to remind you of a great cheat for those times when you are terrified that you’ll run out of words.

Let me encourage you to steal your best story ideas from historical events or items from the past. They can fuel your story with plot twists, unexpected heroes, or surprising conclusions. Fact is stranger than fiction and twice as fun.

I present to you a - probably quite incomplete, I’m sure I’m missing a lot of speech sounds - reference list and a bit of a guideline for the different ways one can describe the sounds your characters make whilst writing smut. I’ll definitely be referring to it, because I sometimes get stuck on exactly how to describe a particular noise. (aka, “he can’t groan again, he just groaned last paragraph”)

Sounds (noun, both independently and describing speech): breath/breathe, gasp, moan, groan, pant, whimper, whine, shout, yelp, hiss, grunt, cry, scream, shriek, sob, growl, curse, sound, sigh, hum, noise, squeak, snarl, howl, roar, mewl, wail, choke, keen, purr

Sounds (noun, describing speech): rasp, husk, drawl, plea, murmur, whisper, beg

Descriptors (adjective): loud, hushed, quiet, low, high, high-pitched, little, tiny, soft, deep, unrestrained, restrained, strained, breathy, rough, sudden, short, drawn-out, sharp, harsh, hard, thick, smooth, thin, heavy, impassioned, insistent, hungry, passionate, repeated, filthy, debauched, sweet, slow, deliberate, guttural, languid, surprised, husky, distracted, happy, pleased, satisfied, wordless, cut-off, bitten-off, contented, hoarse, extended, long, depraved, aching, choked, strangled, broken, helpless, shuddering, shaky, trembling, urgent, needy, desperate, wanton, shattered, pained, eager

Combine a descriptor and a sound for best effect - for example, “needy moan,” “pleased hum,” or “sudden scream.” You can even use two: “low, rough grunt,” “sweet little cry,” “desperate, filthy noise,” as long as you don’t repeat a word that means the same thing, unless you really want to emphasize it. Avoiding repetition is pretty key here. You don’t usually want to say “hushed, quiet gasp” except on rare occasions when it’s very important how soft the sound was.

Use your own common sense, as well; some sounds and descriptors don’t generally work well together. “Deliberate shriek” probably wouldn’t work well, and neither would “languid grunt,” but again, this is all very situational - play around! Have fun.

Seven Steps to the Perfect Story

Historical Romance - How to add layers to your scenes

by Anthony Ehlers for Writers Write

In terms of historical fiction, we look back. We look back because that is where the answers lie. It is all about context. The research must be fun. It must also fit your story, and lift the narrative. Show us the ‘personality’ of that era, so that the historical setting becomes almost another character: show the sexual, gender and social politics, the mood of the times etc.

Five ways to add context

History itself. Who was in power at the time? Why? What was the main trade? What were the marriage laws? Historical detail is a great way to inform or give impetus to the plot, such as the London Season for Debutantes, etc.

How circumstances affect characters. We must never just lay on historical information, but rather weave into the story and it should ideally be seen through the lens of the character. How does she feel about how society treats women, etc.?

Sense it. Make use of the senses—the smell of the docks, the latest French perfume, the sight of a new ship or a building, the type of music in vogue, etc. – and tie those to the historical ambience of the world

Dress it. Make sure you know what your heroine is wearing, what undergarments support it, what was considered appropriate or risqué, and what kind of dress would suit your character best

Detail it. Go for small details that signal the reader that you’re building an authentic world – the dress, the dinner plate, the food, a cherished pet, an artwork or an objet d’art etc. Other details that may lift the narrative: modes of transport, whether it is a carriage or a horse (what kind?), the architecture,  furniture, the literature of the day, details of places of worship and churches, the type of medicine, etc.

We need to go under the surface of the story, to know what life was like in that era and how your character is experiencing it. Remember that your reader may not know anything about the period or time—they need the writer to build the world, paint the picture, give colour, texture and emotion.

The characters don’t live in a vacuum-we need to build the characters’ world through details, sensory description; the world must be believable and entertaining.

Five exercises to help you

Print images from Internet or collect photocopies from books and create a collage of these for your writing desk

Describe the interior of the heroine’s bedroom as if you were writing for a nostalgia magazine or for a new experiential museum

Describe the morning ritual of the hero: how he shaves, dresses, what ritual he may follow

Create a dinner menu for a typical social meal of the time, and source ingredients for it – imagine the trip to the market

Nearly every book I’ve read has a protagonist. And all of those protagonists were surrounded by several, if not a great many, friends. Within my own stories, my protagonists have quite a few friends. Among those friends, there are usually one or two, maybe three, friends that the protagonist is especially close to. One of my all time favorite series, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, follows best friends Lissa and Rose, who act like sisters most of the time. While reading, it’s clear that the two have known each other for a long while, see each other as their closest allies, and see their lives as them against the world. It’s obvious that they’re very close. The question is how does Mead accomplish this? How does any author establish these types of close friendships between characters without blatantly telling the reader?

If you think of your own close friendships, or your best friends, you’ll probably recognize five or more of the following in your relationship with these particular friends –

Understand without speaking.

When you’ve known someone a really long time, or have spent so much time together, you get to know the person so well that you pick up on their habits and quirks and body language. When they bite their lip, you know it’s not that they’re confused, but that the water works are about to begin and it’s time to get them out of there. If their jaw tenses, you take their hand and squeeze it to show they don’t have to face the world alone. They do the same for you. You understand each other so well that no one needs to say anything, and it’s obvious that it’s time for coffee and chick flicks, or that it’s time to head to the soccer field to kick around a ball and de-stress. You might not be able to read each others’ minds, but you understand each other well enough that neither of you needs to say anything. You just do.

Tease each other.

There’s artificial teasing, there’s bully teasing, there’s flirting teasing. But among friends, it’s the way we gently point out each others’ issues and faults without being cruel, it’s how we remind each other of good times, it’s how we show each other that we don’t have to be adult or grown up (regardless of age), it’s how we connect and communicate. Between best friends, teasing is just another way we talk to each other. There’s no malice, jealousy, anger, or bitterness behind it. It’s often light, fun, laughable, and in good humor. It’s a way to make your friend laugh when they’re on the verge of tears. It’s the way we build each other up when our plans fall through. Teasing is always there, but it never, ever becomes a way of putting each other down.

Rely on each other.

Through good times and bad, friends can always be relied upon to be there and help each other. There are no excuses, there is no distance, there are no events that could prevent two best buds from helping each other out in times of emotional and physical need, and friends rely on each other for that. But friends also rely on each other for comfort, for support, for encouragement, and for all the things it seems the world wants to take away from us. Friends are there to remind us that what we want to do, where we want to go, is completely possible and achievable.

Seek each other’s advice.

Perhaps more than our parents, teachers, advisors, and mentors, we seek advice from our friends first. This might be a perfectly faulty action, but because friends understand each other and rely on each other, it’s natural that we seek advice from those we know, and who know us, best. This advice seeking might be as simple as wondering which outfit to wear for an interview, to legitimately questioning your life’s direction and wanting to know whether you should keep on that path. And because you can rely on your friend, they help you out, if only to making fun of something to help you laugh and remind you to loosen up and stop worrying.

Feel comfortable around one another.

As with all of the above, friends are comfortable with each other enough to seek that advice, tease each other, and rely on one another. Even more than that, friends are comfortable with and around each other that they don’t care if they do something stupid, or say something idiotic, or accidently snort and spew food from the mouth in response to something funny (guilty.) Because they’re comfortable with each other, these things happen and no one cares, because these silly things hardly define us. It’s the same with crying, or showing how truly angry we are, or how hopeless we feel. Friends know each other so well that they be vulnerable and sensitive, and the friend won’t misuse them.

Miss each other when gone.

Probably the greatest understatement of all these, but best friends will miss each other. They might be separated for only a day, maybe one has moved away. But miss each other they will, just the same. The effect this has on each other is anyone’s guess, as everyone reacts differently to separation. Some might become depressed, others might lash out, and some might just have that aching sense of loneliness in their gut that seems like it can’t ever be filled. There is most definitely a reaction, and missing each other is just the surface.

Have similar interests/hobbies/goals/pasts.

Whether they grew up together, or met at summer camp, or took the same art class, friends have similar interests. There’s something that initially drew them together, and in writing a book you can’t just put that aside. It will always be their foundation, and while the foundation can grow, there’s that one point, however small and insignificant in the present, that brought them together and caused them to meet (in Vampire Academy, Lissa and Rose both had long names they had to spell in school at young ages. Later on, they grew even closer together when they both survived the car accident that killed the rest of Lissa’s family.)

Grow together as individuals and as friends.

If any relationship is to last and get stronger, growth is a must. Trials, tragedy, celebration, joy; all these add to and change a person, their actions, and how they consider new situations, and this happens in a friendship as well. While going through similar occurrences, if friends cannot grow together, change, and mature together, then their friendship will remain the way it was when it started, and it won’t be able to adjust and react properly to new situations that the friends encounter. Without the ability to grow, the friendship will become stagnant and brittle, and eventually break. Make sure to show the friends, and their friendship, grow through the story.

Don’t judge.

It’s simple. Close friends, who understand, rely, advise, and help each other, just don’t judge. Regardless of what one does, or what the other thinks about a topic, they don’t judge. They accept that they’re individuals with different views and opinions on some things. After all, you can’t have the exact same views as someone else. There are similarities, there are differences, but despite what those are, there should never be any judgment. Friends accept each other for who they are.

Don’t try to change each other.

As I said, friends accept each other. They don’t try to change one another, or mould each other into what their ideal would be, because that would be the farthest thing from acceptance. Friends understand, they don’t judge, and they don’t try to change their friends’ personalities, opinions, views, likes or dislikes, or their hopes and dreams. They accept everything about each other, and celebrate their differences.

Confide everything.

Friends naturally want to talk with each other and discuss the things that happen in their lives, but best friends, as I’m sure you know, will talk about everything. They confide everything in each other without fear of being rejected or judged. They share their thoughts, their dreams, whatever comes to mind, and in sharing so much with each other, their bond grows.

Fights sometimes happen, but making amends occurs quickly.

No friendship is perfect, and because there are two people involved, disagreements are bound to occur. But when fights begin, whatever the topic, close friends will try to move past the argument and come to a conclusion, generally in the form of an agreement or better understanding of one another. They won’t linger on their differing opinions, and will try to make amends as soon as they can. This leads to stronger friendships, and is a way that the friendship can grow and develop.

Can’t imagine life without each other.

Perhaps more than anything else, best friends simply can’t imagine what life would be like if they weren’t together. It’s something they don’t want to think about, and is the last thing they’ll focus on when confronted with the real possibility of lifelong separation. They’ll come up with excuses, plans, arguments, anything that might be able to change the impending separation. They literally can’t picture their life being apart, because their personalities and dreams and emotional selves are so connected that the very idea of being apart for good is like imagining themselves being split in half (this goes for a romantic relationship as well, though more specifically within one where the two were best friends before they fell in love).

These are just a basic few things that can comprise a close friendship. You don’t need to use all of these, and by all means, don’t limit yourself to using only the ones I’ve listed. Use some, use none, but make sure you really look at the characters you have and focus on showing that closeness where it’s supposed to exist. It offers greater development of both characters, adds to the realism of the plot, and helps with the overall story.

For more on this topic with examples, check out Livia Blackburne’s awesome article –

http://blog.liviablackburne.com/2011/06/twenty-ways-to-describe-your-characters.html

Good luck and good writing!

Many writers aspire to have their novel released via a publishing house after or instead of self–publishing, but have no idea how to approach the subject appropriately. When submitting your manuscript, it’s necessary to write a covering letter that is sent either before or alongside your work. It’s best to keep cover letters short and simple, while at the same time including enough vital information about your piece. We have listed below a few dos and don’ts when it comes to writing a cover letter.

Do:

Mention any positive reasons that you chose the publishing house, without using too much obvious flattery. Editors are interested to know why your work is so well suited for that particular company.

Very briefly summarise the novel, describing the genre and touching on the basic plot synopsis, and perhaps including what current market or trend the novel fits into. Next time we will be touching more on how to write an effective synopsis for submission.

Keep the submission about the novel; personal biography should be kept short and to the point.

Don’t:

Be aggressive or arrogant; try to stay as humble and polite as possible. After all, it is unwise to suggest you are doing an editor a favour by writing to them.

Use flowery or over-complicated language. Recipients will not be impressed with an overly formal, unreadable letter that suggests you do not know what style is appropriate. Keep it well written, simple and to the point.

Challenge the editor. Fairly obvious, but questioning whether a publisher is bold or brave enough to take on a groundbreaking new manuscript may not give the best impression of its writer.

By RowanvaleBooks. Make sure to check out the website for more interesting articles.

More on Publishing Process and Manuscripts

The Danger of The Published Author Fantasy

Five Lies Writers Are Told

How A Book Gets Published

How Do You Go About Getting Published

Formatting your manuscript

How to research the best literary agents for your book

What I’m not going to blog about

Signs that you’re not ready to publish

Anatomy of a query letter, step by step

You’ve finished your manuscript! Now what?

E-queries, how to submit online to agents and editors

Literary agents, good or evil?

How to get published

The Publishing Industry and Making Money Off Books

A self-publishing guide of sorts

Choosing a Publishing Path

How to Publish a Short Story

Anonymous asked: Whenever I try to write , I’ll find that I have a good idea of my plot and setting, but not characters. I know how many I need, and a few traits that are necessary for the plot, but that’s it. Any suggestions?

Here are some steps which might help you figure out who your characters will be: 1) Determine Necessary Roles - There are several specific roles which need to be filled in any story. At the very least you need a protagonist and antagonist. Here is a helpful list of roles you may wish to fill in your novel. If you haven’t already, figure out which of these roles will be essential to telling your story. Make a list of the roles you will need to tell your story.

2) Character Assignments - Now that you know what roles are important, you need to decide who will fill them. Let’s say your story is about a village besieged by a dragon which is later slain by the protagonist. Who is this dragon slayer? A willing warrior? An unwilling villager? Is the character male, female, or asexual? Perhaps you decide that your dragon slayer will be a female villager—but who is she? The teen daughter of the village baker? The young wife of the local lord? An orphaned girl who lives with a farmer’s family? Make a list of each role and the character who will fulfill it. The list might look something like this: 1) Protagonist - The Dragon Slayer - 17 year old baker’s daughter, 2) Antagonist - the dragon - 200 year old purple beast named Meldemauch, 3) The Mentor - the old wizard - 90 year old village wise man. 3) Sample Scenes - Now, go through your plot and pull out three sample scenes. You could choose the inciting incident, the climax, and the ending if you want. Figure out what needs to happen in each of these scenes so that you can imagine them. Write a paragraph or two describing each scene. Sometimes that’s enough to start to get an impression of what these characters look like and what their personalities are like. 4) Casting Call - Now that you know the approximate type of person you need for each role, hold a “casting call” to find potential actors that could fill each role. This method is used only to give your brain some raw data to pull together into a unique character in your mind. Choose three to five potential actors for each role. Faceclaim masterlists and Actor Lists are especially helpful for this step. Once you have a few potential actors for each role, look at each one and write down the physical attributes that appeal to you with each one. Narrow the list down to your favorite attributes and use that to write a one paragraph description of the character. 5) Musical Inspiration - It helps a lot to have a musical playlist that you can listen to when your muse needs firing up. Sometimes listening to music can help you envision scenes, and envisioning scenes can help you “see” the characters in your mind’s eye, allowing you to flesh their details out in your head. If you have some songs already in mind, go ahead and put them onto your playlist. Otherwise, put your iPod on shuffle, listen to the radio, or go to a site like Sound Cloud or Pandora and listen to music. Just be sure to write down any playlist possibilities so you can buy them or at least bookmark them on YouTube.  6) Fleshing the Characters Out - Last but not least, you’ll want to flesh out all the remaining details of each character: their goals, their inner conflicts, their fears, their hopes and dreams, their likes and dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses, and so on. Take a look at this earlier post here at WQA for more information about fleshing out a flat character.

Wind down. The stress of the day stays in your system until you give yourself time to detox. Do something relaxing, even if that means scrolling a few pages on your dash – but be careful, because Tumblr and other social media sites are time thieves. Two hours later, you’ll realize you’re on page twenty of your dash and still on page 1 of your story.

Wind up. Spend some time getting yourself into the mood. Look at awesome art, play the right music for the right scene, doodle, even if your doodles suck. Sometimes windup time is also taking a shower or folding the laundry – mindless chores where you can let yourself immerse your brain in your story and get excited again.

First drafts suck. “I wrote too much of [thing]” or “My opening is just not working” or “I hate every word of it” are all legitimate thoughts, but leave all that in the past. It’s done. When you finish, you can go back and revise all you want (and you might even find that the beginning isn’t as bad as you initially thought). What matters is not the quality, but finishing. Give yourself permission to suck.

Gain momentum. For me, the first few minutes of writing are absolutely agonizing. Focusing is pretty much a physical strain, but once I’ve forced myself to focus for a good ten minutes, the next time I look up from writing, it’s dark outside. Let yourself get started before you get frustrated or distracted.

The beginning slump. Openings are always the worst part for me, and by “opening”, I mean the first few chapters. All I want is to be completely submerged in the story, and the opening is far from that. But once I labor through these first few chapters, I find myself writing a lot more proficiently with fewer agonized groans.

The post-beginning slump. For others, the slump happens after the opening chapters are finished. The shiny newness of the story is gone, and now we face being married to these characters and this story until the end. Find ways to keep yourself interested in your story, if that means simply writing through the agony or transforming your outline to make it fun again. Sometimes the scenes we don’t want to write are scenes that drag the story anyway.

When you’re stuck, outline. When we hit the “Now what?” problem, sometimes that stops us from moving forward. I get to a point of “I didn’t plan this out as thoroughly as I should have,” and then it’s easy for me to get distracted by other things instead of figuring out the perplexing problem. Oftentimes, I’ll take a moment to outline each step I need in order to clear the problem, using it as a guide to conquer the scene.

Don’t edit. It’s easy to get caught up in wondering what we’ve written, wanting to take a step back and look at it, but then we chance getting caught up in fixing things that don’t need fixing until the revision process. It’s like productive procrastinating, but it’s definitely not building your word count the way actually writing can. That being said –

Reread. I used to reread in order to get my brain back into the story, and I allowed myself only micro-edits here and there. Rereading can work for some writers, revving the fingers for plenty of words, but it can also work against other writers who might have trouble with confidence in what they write. Figure out what helps you versus what hurts you.

Read. If rereading doesn’t work, try simple reading, but read something that’ll get going that drive to write, something that inspires that absolute need to type a million words into your story.

Write with someone. Word sprints and word marathons are good ways to keep up morale. If nothing else, having a writing buddy to whine with about writing woes is always good for morale. But –

Don’t compare your word count to others. I can write for long periods of time, but just about all of my writing friends can write nearly twice as fast as I can. I’m a slow writer (and a slow reader, actually), but my writing stamina has built up over the course of a decade. You’re not in the same place in your life that others are, so set the goals that are right for you, not for them.