– Extras

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The Difference Between Writing and Editing

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In this last post of the year, we are circling back to the beginning of the whole writing process: idea creation and self-editing. Before any writing can take place, you need an idea, or even just a glimmer of an idea, and then after you do some initial writing, comes the job of self-editing. In between the idea and the editing is the creative process.

The major difference between the Writing process and the Editing process is that writing is creative and editing is analytical…which is the opposite of creation. When you create, you put things together…when you analyse, you take them apart—possibly to put them back together in a different form.

Hands on Jail bars, showing locking away your inner editorEach of those tasks takes a different part of the brain…and should be done separately. If you stop writing because your inner editor is complaining about what you’ve written, you’ll end up switching from one mind-set to the other, and it’s difficult to get back into the creative mood once you start analysing what you’ve written. If you have a good, productive writing session going, you want to keep it going, not interrupt it, so keep your mind free to create by locking away your inner editor for the entire writing session. The best way to ruin a positive writing session is to break the mood…and your inner editor is the best one to do that.

Be careful of that nasty old inner editor even before you start writing. He can bring your creative efforts to a complete standstill before you even have a chance to get them down on paper.

Writing

As we said above, the first step is an idea. Unfortunately, many folks believe that’s the only thing they need to write a book…they feel that just by thinking it over, it will somehow magically happen. Thinking about writing doesn’t get anything done…actually writing does. Sitting at your desk and forming words is the only thing that will eventually turn an idea into a book.

What often happens next is that the idea stimulates words, and folks sit down to start writing, but then they start questioning what they’ve produced. That’s the ugly head of the inner editor popping up to criticize their work. The worst thing you can do is listen to him. Pack that nasty old inner editor away and just let the story flow.

If you don’t get those ideas that are floating around in your head out of there, they’ll just keep swirling around. Old ideas will clog up your ability to form new ones, so you have to get them out. Free up your mind to move on to the next part of your story by getting the existing ideas out. Committing them to physical reality lets your mind know that it is safe to wander on to other ideas.

Once an idea forms, get it down on paper…even if it’s just a note in your pocket. Always carry a small note pad to capture those momentary ideas that float through your head. Whether you’re driving around town, chatting at a party, drifting off to sleep, or suddenly become aware of something unique when watching a show, make note of it. The mere fact that you’ve written it down, that you’ve locked it in some kind of fixed form, lets your mind know that it’s all right to release that idea and move on to the next.

Just Write!

I’ve often said that I can’t edit a blank page, but if you find that blank page staring at you worrisome, then just close your eyes and type. It really works. Don’t look at what you’re typing…just keep at it. If you can’t come up with the precise word right away, just write down what the word feels like. You’ll come back to it later. Hit <enter> a few times when you’ve got a shift in your topic, but don’t concern yourself with what’s on the screen. You can clean it up later…and you will.

Editing

This first type of editing is where you are working on the story itself…not the words, rather the concepts and how they are connected. You are improving the basics of the story without regard to how the story is going to be told to your eventual readers. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, or even word choice. Just ensure the story flows at least somewhat. You can do more clean up later.

This type of editing is self-editing, and it comes well before any of the services we could possibly provide. Here you are still figuring out what your story is going to be all about. Now is when Beta Readers can come in handy. You bounce ideas around with your close confidants and see how they react. There’s nothing Turner Editing can do for you at this point…you are still crafting ideas, but once you are done with this step, you’ll need a second set of eyes looking it over.

You can be your own set of second eyes if you set your writing aside for a month or two (even six if you can stand being away from it for that long). Coming back to it with fresh eyes, you’ll be amazed at how much different things seem. You’ll see things that you didn’t know were there…and you’ll discover things missing that you thought were there. Some parts may seem a bit herky-jerky, so look at the connections between scenes.

Speaking of scenes, consider each to see that your Scenes and Sequels alternate, and that each is complete with their required parts (GCD or RDC). Once you’ve achieved this level of self-edit, it’s time to seek outside assistance.

Here at Turner Editing, we hope you will continue to pin down those wonderful ideas, and we hope to read all the brilliant stories soon.

Weather in Your Book

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People are always talking about the weather…at least in real life, so why not in your book? Weather can have an incredible impact…not only in real life, but in fiction as well. It is constantly affecting us, so why shouldn’t it be included in any story you tell? It can be used to set a mood, suggest events yet to come, or act as a complication to the aims of the characters, and calling attention to the weather makes the world seem real, inviting the readers to experience the story more fully. Even just a bit of weather will enhance the interest in your story.

If you don’t involve the weather, you not only fail to use an effective tool, but also your readers might have a vague feeling that something is missing…fortunately a quick mention is all that’s needed. Right at the beginning of a scene, just make a quick remark about the weather, then move on. Your readers will picture the scene more fully and feel included. Just as you don’t want talking heads in a dark room, you don’t want to leave the whole world in the dark…enlighten your readers with a general setting of weather. If you don’t…if there is never rain, snow, or wind…and the temperature is a constant mild warm, then it must be a future story, and the climate is under total control…of the government. Hmmm….

Weather as a Description

When you’re adding in the weather as a minor scene setting, you have a rare opportunity to Tell, not Show, so take advantage of it! However, you may find that the best way is actually not to tell what the weather is…but to show how your characters are reacting to it. (There we are, back to Show, don’t Tell.) The weather by itself could be, and should be, boring, but how people respond to it is critical. Be certain to use plenty of good, solid, descriptive words, with as many of the senses as you can. It isn’t just cold—the wind is whistling around the corner of the house making Amy’s cheeks burn.

Weather to Avoid

Be aware of the many clichés that abound when discussing the weather:

  • Rain: lashing, ducks, parades, never rains but pours, depressing, funerals, mixing with tears, end of the rainbow giving hope
  • Clouds: on horizons, silver linings, confused, unclear, foggy
  • Storms: lull before, brewing, sideways trees, hell or high water, trouble, change
  • Sun: baking, rain or shine, broad daylight, happiness, cloudless afternoon
  • Snow: white stuff, nipping at noses, bone chilling, winter wonderland, pure as, cleansing

This is just a quick list, so take your pick…and avoid them all. Instead, skip the first description that comes to mind and see if you can come up with something new and original.

Even better, consider the effect of the weather rather than the weather itself. As with all your descriptive pieces, include as many of the senses as you can…how does the weather sound, smell, taste, feel…as well as how it appears. Do the characters have to stop talking because the rain is so loud, or is the lightning so close that they can smell the ozone, or does the flavour of snowflakes on the tongue remind them of childhood? Be creative.

Just be certain to avoid On the Nose Writing where you describe some particular condition, then a character says or thinks exactly what that condition is supposed to mean. Use plenty of metaphors…and make up new ones!

Weather as a Writing Tool

Besides using weather to depict scenes, you can use it to indicate the mood of the characters, hint at some symbolism, or act as a complicating factor.

Mood: To establish the feeling of a scene, a sunshiny day will make your reader feel warm and happy…and an approaching storm will encourage them to anticipate upcoming dread. Also, instead of just watching out for those clichés mentioned earlier, you might want to flip them upside-down. Don’t have the character’s tears masked by rain, have such a bright sunshiny day that it seems the whole world is untouched by her difficulties…deepening her emotional pit—she’s the only one who feels that bad, isolating her even more.

Symbolism: Snow, softly falling on a clear winter night, could make a character pine for home and Christmas…even if he’s in a foxhole in the midst of combat. Your characters could even portray weather. Are any of them so bright and sunny that they are welcome wherever they go? Have any thundered his words? Or storm across a room? Use weather in descriptions and actions, hinting at ambiguous results…bad weather can make a scene more suspenseful, and a sunny day foretells a happy ending.

Complication: Your main character is about to solve the immediate problem…when a sudden downpour interrupts his search of the river bank. You can easily introduce more complications to the story by dropping in some weather. The worst of it is that the characters can’t really do anything about it—the weather isn’t under their control…even if you’re writing a fantasy novel (though it is under your control, so do something about it!).

More Weather

Picture a 90th birthday party…the guests are all sitting around, quietly chatting, and the guest of honour is wandering through the crowd…when suddenly a storm strikes. If it’s an outdoor party, everyone might rush for cover, but the birthday girl instead dances in the rain, enjoying the chance to get away from all the formality. If it’s an indoor party, the power might go out, but instead of calling it quits and everyone going home, they just pull out their phones, light the room, and continue with the party.

—Don’t do the expected.

Picture an early spring morn…a slight fog filtering the sun’s rays, the sound of birds echoing across the field, frogs croaking down by the creek…and soldiers crawling through the mud. Use the weather to emphasise the discrepancies…bad news on a sunny beach, marriage proposal during a lull in the storm, bad guy surrounded by police on a warm summer afternoon.

—Contrasts make the details more intense.

Show or Tell?

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You hear it all the time: Show, Don’t Tell…but just what does it mean? And how do you avoid telling? After all, you are telling the story, aren’t you? Well, that may just be the predicament. To make it clearer, we really should refer to stories as being shown…just as movies are shown. We want our readers to experience the story…not be told what happened as if it were a newspaper article. Are we reporting the facts or showing active events?

As you write, envision your tale as a movie…show what can be seen, avoid telling. How many movies have a voice over to explain things? Probably not very many—if any at all. In fact, you’d probably be offended if a movie told you that the main character was angry…instead of showing him slowly crumpling up the note she’d left for him. Would you consider walking out If the voice over told you that the girlfriend was sad, instead of showing her devouring half a chocolate cake, washing it down with beer? You’d feel as if the producers thought you were an idiot if the cop stood in the doorway, scanning the room…and the voice over told you, “Sergeant Murphy looked for clues.” Yet many times, we see authors doing just that…telling instead of letting the reader figure out for himself what the characters are thinking or feeling.

You’ll find that most of your readers are pretty smart…think about it…they picked up your book, didn’t they? That’s a good clue that they know a few things already. Imagine that they are reading your book because they want to enjoy a bit of escape from the cold, cruel world. Give them something they can really get into.

Examples

Now we’re going to get into specific instances that could be found in novels all across the web. In most cases, the expanded showing gives you an opportunity to give the reader more insight into the characters than the curt telling does.

  • Amy was cold.
    • Amy pulled her collar tighter around her neck, turned away from the frigid breeze, and shivered slightly.
  • Bob was tall.
    • Bob could have played center on a basketball team…if it weren’t for the fact that his gangly limbs flew in all directions every time he tried to run.
  • Carl was tired.
    • Carl stared off into the distance, only occasionally rubbing his eyes and shrugging if anyone spoke to him directly.
  • David looked as if he’d slept in his clothes.
    • David tottered out of the bedroom, his sweater wrapped half way around one arm, his pants crumpled up almost to his knees.
  • Eric drove an old car.
    • Eric tooled around town in his classic Chevy, every surface polished until it gleamed.
    • Eric managed to get to the 7-11 with all the parts still attached to his old rust bucket.
  • Frank squinted at the rising sun.
    • Frank winced in pain as the first rays of the morning’s sun pierced into his bloodshot eyes.
  • George liked what he saw when he met Holly.
    • George sucked in his breath as Holly entered the room, feeling as if the whole building were spinning.
  • Holly enjoyed her date with George.
    • Holly gazed at George, entranced by his stories, hardly touching the expensive meal at the fanciest restaurant in town.
  • It was mid-winter.
    • Snow draped the bare trees, pushing their branches closer to the ground.

Sometimes You Need to Tell

Just because you constantly hear Show, Don’t Tell, doesn’t make it a hard and fast rule that must be obeyed at all costs. Occasionally telling is the right thing to do. A newspaper article demands that you report the facts…the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The same thing can apply to fiction as well: often the glossed over facts will suffice.

We can’t follow the Main Character around all the time. You will always have moments when the camera fades to black, time passes, and we refocus on a new scene. You can summarise what happened during the blackout in a short paragraph or two. For example:

  • John fumed about the conversation last night. Kelly was getting really demanding…insisting that he get a job. She knew her income was plenty for the two of them, but he’d give it a try. He walked into the doughnut shop, put his elbows on the counter, and said, “Got a manager back there?”

That short paragraph gives us enough information about what went on last night that we don’t really need to hear or see the whole thing—we can imagine the worst.

Minor characters can get their few seconds in the spotlight then move on, some without even being named:

  • The girl behind the counter was surprised by the request.

Compress the passing of time into a telling paragraph:

  • Spring came and went, and John still hadn’t found anyone to hire him.

Add a bit of backstory in either a flashback…or a telling paragraph:

  • John remembered back to how his father had worked for a construction company. He shook his head. “Nah, that’s not for me.”

When you need to tell, go ahead, but keep it short to avoid boring your readers.

Follow the Rules…Sometimes

Showing…Telling…which to use, and when? Using both appropriately will thrill your readers and entertain them as well. Show to bring them into the story—Tell to move them quickly to the next exciting spot. For readers to experience your story, they need to be shown, but not shown too much. Used judiciously both will work for you.

Maybe it should be Show and Tell.

How to Tell and End a Story

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In this extra, I’m going to share with you part of a presentation that I gave to a local writers group almost five years ago. I’ve covered most of the session in previous posts about Story Elements (Characters, Plot, Theme, Action & Solution, Setting), but now we’re going to discuss the how of getting your story told…and how you’ll aim to end it.

Telling Your Story

It’s important to include specific items in your story, but avoid anything that’s irrelevant. Make certain anything you include are telling details. Use something that means something to the story or the character. The best way to approach the process is to visualise your story as a series of images (almost as if it’s already been made into a movie), because that’s how the reader will experience it. That also makes it easier to reveal only what can be seen. One of the problems with pictures is showing emotions—you can tell the reader that the character is mad, but we want the reader to feel the anger, so how do we do that?

Think about an emotion, then remember a time when you felt that way. Why did you feel that particular sensation? That is what you need to put in your story. If you want to show a couple in love, show them walking hand in hand. If you have a mother who is proud of her child, show her smiling at the burnt toast next to her breakfast in bed. Surprise can be shown by focusing in on the shattered glass lying at the wife’s feet as the husband steps through the door. When you want to show that someone is sad, describe the motionless puppy curled up in the box next to their bed. Fear can be expressed by portraying a rabid dog growling as he slowly advances.

Use the Senses

Remember to involve the senses…all of them. Use real images your readers can visualise—colours, sounds, lights, flavours, smells. Don’t tell them…let them feel the rough stair railing as they cautiously ascend to the attic, let them hear the siren quickly approaching the house that has flames billowing from every window, let them squint into the fog to see the school bus approaching the train crossing, let them smell the coffee gently warming over the campfire surrounded by their friends, let them shudder as they taste the lemon squeezings dripping down their fingers onto the freshly caught salmon. You want to invite your readers into the story, so make it real for them.

Use concrete details—no theories or abstractions here. Don’t tell them he had a dirty shirt…show them the grease stains and coffee dribbles on the cloth so tightly stretched across his belly that it’s starting to split. Don’t tell them that the truck carried some cargo…show them the green truck speeding down the dirt road, filled with soldiers sitting around the large wooden crate. Don’t tell them that betrayal is terrible…show them the smirk on your best friend’s face as he deliberately points you out to the waiting policemen. Don’t tell them that the hero is afraid…show them the hesitation as he feels sweat roll down his ribcage when he steps off the sidewalk to approach the car full of hoodlums.

Ending Your Story

As you approach the ending, remember the Transformation that has taken place in the Hero. He must emerge from his ordeal changed…significantly (for the better…we hope, but not necessarily). There are different styles of endings…and you’ve probably seen most of them. Disney stories all seem to end “and they lived happily ever after.” Benjamin Franklin’s stories usually end “and from this we can see…” Aesop ends his stories with “and the moral is…” All different, but all good, depending on what the author wants the reader to learn from this story. You might want to decide what you want this lesson to be early on in the writing process—write it on a big piece of paper and hang over your writing area.

  • Better safe than sorry
  • Be friends with those you don’t like
  • Don’t judge by appearances
  • The dark path will hold you in control
  • Slow and steady wins the race
  • Overconfidence is weakness
  • Evil deserves no aid

No matter which ending style you decide to use for your story, remember that the Hero has changed, the world is different, ‘normal’ is not what it was before, and what lesson you had in mind is now clear to the characters and reader alike. All must adapt to the new now and move on…in spite of what has transpired.

Romance—How Hot Can It Get?

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For our first Extra this year, we are going to delve into the murky world of romance writing…not that romance is murky…just the jargon that is used to keep the stories in their proper categories. If you are new to the speciality of romance, you’d best be aware of the way stories are ranked as far as heat or sexuality. The challenge here is consistency…amongst readers and publishers. What one thinks is too hot may be just right for someone else and vice versa. Disappointing a reader who is expecting more (or less) is frustrating, but until the industry can agree on set standards, we just have to try our best to fit into the scale as it exists.

Because there are variations at the publishing level, if a reader moves to a new author or imprint, what used to be just right for them may no longer fit their needs. It’s similar to finding just the right spice level at a restaurant…then trying a new one across town. What was good at your favourite may not be even close at the next, so every time you expand your horizons, you have to experiment to find the right level…either that or never try anything new.

Then there are personal preferences…just because someone recommends a book to you doesn’t mean it will be to your liking…though if it is a friend’s suggestion, they should know you well enough to anticipate your tastes. The lack of consistency is annoying, but there are a few clues to get you at least close to what may satisfy you.

Light Heat

One pepper rating out of fiveWholesome, sometimes called Mild or Closed Door, is rather mild. It would rate only one chili pepper on the heat scale or a PG rating in the movies. Think of a Hallmark movie…no explicit sex, though there may be scenes or situation that imply something is going on, but it never appears on the page. You know it happened, but you don’t read about it. Hand holding is fine, and a chaste kiss at the end is expected…hopefully one to rank in the five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This level of heat is appropriate for Amish and Inspirational romances as well as many Regency or Historical.

Also considered light heat is the category of Sweet or Medium. This one is worth two chili peppers or a PG13 in the theatre and has a bit of sizzle in it. Although we now know that the main characters have sex, there is still no description of the act. Any physical intimacy scenes are described from an emotional aspect…no body parts involved. A lot of kissing, a lot of touching…more than would be in a Wholesome romance. A bit of undressing may occur but nothing that would make you uncomfortable.

Heavier Heat

Three pepper rating out of fiveNow we get to the middle of the scale: Sensual Romance, also called Hot or Steamy. Here we have three peppers or an R…and maybe a Parental Advisory, too. The majority of romance writing falls in this rather broad group and includes love scenes that are an essential part of the story. Action packed sex moves the story along but is still not the main focus…that comes in later levels. You may find words included that don’t come up in daily conversation, but the attention will be on the emotional facets of love.

You won’t feel as though you’ve been left out…instead of closing the door, you’ll follow them right into the bedroom…and into the bed. There is no ‘fade to black’, instead you get to go along for the ride, and hang on…it may be a rough ride…but enjoyable.

Heaviest Heat

Near the top end of the heat scale is Sexy, aka Explicit or Carnal. This one is a scorcher! A four out of five peppers or NC-17 and definitely an Advisory. Graphic sex, impolite language, detailed portrayals of the sex act all drive the story along. Also included may be mild kinkiness such as sex toys and new ideas you hadn’t considered before. In addition to blunt language in the bedroom, there may be gratuitous profanity in the rest of the story. A wealth of sexual tension throughout and multiple love scenes are a feature of this type of story.

Usually the relationships still end in monogamy, and expectations are good for an HEA (Happily Ever After—yet another term specific to the Romance genre) at the end, but you’ll want to keep the paperback version out of the reach of children (anyone under the age of 18!). These stories are just one step short of the next level.

Five pepper rating out of fiveThe final level outdoes all the others: Erotic. This one gets all five peppers, earning an X at the movies and top shelf status at the store. Just to be clear, this is not Erotica, which stresses the sex over any plot…here there is still an emotional passage…just portrayed by the sexual encounters. Here the sex is part of the story and can’t be removed or it will break the narrative. In fact, the volatile attraction is paramount to the main characters’ relationship. Pushing boundaries, these stories contain multiple, explicit sex scenes that may include BDSM, anal sex, and multiple partners, but because this is still romance, you can hope for the expected HEA, though in the most radical instances it may not happen.

More Heat

Beyond romance, there are stories that seem to fall just past the end of this scale. They are full blown Erotica where the whole purpose of the story is the sex, no real plot or character development needed. The only limitations to these stories are often set in publisher’s guidelines where illegal or taboo subjects are specified.

In Conclusion

No matter what level of heat you desire in your reading…or in your writing…there is a market for it. Just be certain to properly identify what your readers can expect from you…or you risk bad reviews from miscommunicated expectations.

How to write a novel

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Perfect timing for this topic, considering that NaNoWriMo starts this weekend. Whether you decide to participate or not, it’s a good excuse to start writing…and keep writing. Setting the habit of writing every day is one of the most recommended activities in writing of any sort, but is that even possible? Of course, it is. As with any other habit you plan to develop, it will take a bit of effort, especially at first. Think back to your first visit to the gym. Painful, wasn’t it? And you never wanted to do it again…but you did.

It may not be a daily habit for many of us, but you still go stretch those muscles every so often—do the same for your mental muscles—the more you do it, the easier it gets. As with the gym, set aside some time…each day. As little as twenty minutes can work, but if you manage to get a full hour, you’ll accomplish much more. The first few days, you may end up just sitting there staring at a blank screen, but once the ideas start flowing, it will amaze you how much you’ll accomplish. The trick is to stop at the end of the day in the middle of a scene…in the middle of a paragraph…in the middle of a sentence. When you return the next day, you’ll be impatient to get back and finish that bit.

Write, just write

Now, all you are doing is writing. Don’t scroll back to read…at least not farther than needed to get back into the scene. Reading…and editing…are far off in the future. Worry about them later, much later. Don’t concern yourself with perfection either. Completion is your goal, not a wonderful book. It’s reasonable, even probable, that your novel stinks. That’s normal. In fact, if you accept that your novel won’t be any good, all the better! When you get to the slow spot in the middle, give it a kick. Add in something you hadn’t planned on—a car crash, a talking dog, a lover from the past—just keep writing

If you follow the NaNoWriMo plan, you should be done with 50,000 words by the end of the month. Don’t worry if you don’t get that far…or if it takes you a bit longer. The plan is to finish. If your story is shorter than some, that’s fine. If you take three or four months to get to the end, that’s outstanding as well. Just finishing and you are ahead of 99% of the world. How many of your friends can say they’ve written a novel? Odds are, they are the ones who will soon be bragging that they know someone who has: YOU.

Done, now what?

The next step is to put that novel in a box and hide it somewhere. Don’t look at it, don’t share it, don’t even mention that you have it. Instead, start writing the next one. Yes, start your second novel right now. You have the habit of writing daily—use it! Keep those mental muscles active—you’ll find it to be much easier this time. The words will come with ease, the plot will unfold before you, when you get to that sticky spot in the middle, you’ll continue because you’ve done it before. You know you can do it…again.

In six months or so, after you’ve finished the second one, you are allowed to pull out that first one and gawk at all the problems you used to have. If you feel like it, you can go over that first one and clean it up, but that’s not necessary…just having it in hand gives you the strength and will power to continue, and if you toss it, you’ll still have learned from it. Take your second one and move forward. Congrats!

Character Transformation

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Once again time for an Extra. Following the pattern, we will explain a bit about content, rather than process. In the last Extra: What is a Story?, we talked about how to tell a story, mentioning that Transformation is an important aspect. This time we’re going to discuss how that transformation takes place.

Transformation is not only integral to any story, it is just about the only reason the story even exists. Initially, the Hero, in spite of trying to solve the problem, continues to fail, but in failing, learns something. Although disappointed, the Hero continues to strive forward, sometimes by Wit, piecing together the clues, sometimes by Grit, sticking to the job despite complications.

As the story progresses, the Hero is blocked from victory again and again, finally resulting in the highpoint of the story. It is at this point that the Hero comes to a realisation and makes a decision. This decision can’t be by chance or luck, nor one foisted upon him by his mentors (the Wise Answer-Giver can guide and direct but never actually do anything). The decision must come from the Hero’s own internal conversion.

This decision will change the Hero’s life, either by resolving a problem in the external world or by understanding an internal truth. In either case, it will reshape the Putty Person.

We know that readers will try to predict the ending, but in spite of doing so, they really want to be wrong. They find it so much more satisfying if the ending is unexpected yet still logical, following from what came before, obvious in hindsight, though not predictable.

The Transformation:

In the transformation, the Hero, as a caterpillar, enters the cocoon to emerge as a butterfly—becoming more mature, insightful, at peace. The Hero undergoes a Physical Renewal, a Psychological Understanding, an Emotional Healing, or a Spiritual Awakening.

OR the Hero dies in the cocoon, plunging into despair or even death, whether physical, psychological, emotional, or spiritual death.

BUT the Hero never returns as a caterpillar.

This transformation resolves the crisis introduced at the beginning of the story. The old ways are gone, never to return. The process of moving through the struggle has changed the Hero, giving a new and different life. This is the new normal, the new shape of the Putty Person, different from the beginning of the story. This is the whole reason for the story, and it has now happened.

What is a story?

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Time once again for an Extra topic, and as with the previous Extra: Story Essence, we’ll be focusing on the content of your work, rather than the production. In fiction, we try to tell a story…and in non-fiction, we have some knowledge to share. Both can use similar concepts to get the message across, though in fiction we are appealing to the reader’s emotion, in non-fiction, intellect.

So…what really is a story? We’ve heard it described as a narrative of events…with a beginning, middle, and end. It that it?

Consider this:

  • Bill woke up. He ate breakfast. He left for work.

Is that a story? It has the requisite three acts, a protagonist, some form of choices, and it’s a natural progression, but something is missing. It’s a news article, not a story—there is no passion, no crisis, no struggle, and most importantly, no change. The main character ends the same as he started.

Let’s step through the process of creating a story. Right up front, we have to get the reader’s attention, create a connection, and set the scene (build the world). In other words, we need to entice the reader to continue reading—we need to set the hook.

Starting the story:

Question: But when do we start the story? Answer: When something extraordinary happens. We don’t care about boring lives—we want to break that routine. Ask yourself: Why is this day different from all others? That’s where you start the story, and it sets up the Story Question asked in Act I: Will things get back to normal? We’ll have to wait for the resolution to get that answer.

Once started, we need to introduce the rest of the characters. There are two kinds: Pebble and Putty. Pebble people don’t change over the life of the story, bouncing back from whatever acts on them, set pieces, not interesting. Putty people are the central ones. We’re interested in watching them to see if they’ll ever get back to the shape they were in the beginning…but they won’t.

Middle of the story:

The middle part of the story is where all the action takes place, but anything that happens has to be the result of our hero doing something…no happenstance allowed. Don’t forget to throw in a few clues and red herrings for the end of the story.

“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”—Anton Chekhov

The bulk of the actions should be the hero trying to solve the problem created at the beginning, and though all attempts need to make sense (something logical, something you might try in that situation), none of them work—things just get worse.

Tension is created by unfilled desire, so give the hero something to crave, then prevent success. What is wanted? What is to be avoided? Focus on external struggles that need to be overcome or internal ones that need to be understood—the more intimate, the more personal, the more devastating they will be.

End of the story:

When the end finally arrives, it needs to follow from what happened earlier, almost unavoidable, but not obvious until it happens. Tie up loose ends, show us how the hero has changed, and answer the Story Question. Remember, the entire story is one of transformation—no change, no story. Don’t worry…we’ll cover details of Transformation later.

Story Essence

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In the Extra category this month, we’re touching on the content of your ms, assuming fiction, but many of these concepts apply equally well to non-fiction: keep the reader reading…and talking about your book when done!

We want happy readers, not confused or annoyed ones, so look to see if all the right words are used, they’re spelled correctly, and the grammar matches the current standards. A smooth flow is vital, too. Be careful of jumping from scene to scene without bringing the reader along. At the beginning of every chapter (and section), set the scene—we want to know where we are, who is there, and what’s happening.

You may need to hide some information from one of your characters, but unless he’s the POV character, don’t leave the reader out. (If the POV character doesn’t know something, then the reader can’t know it either—everything the reader gets comes through the POV character, but remember that readers really like it when they know something the characters don’t!) Also, we want to know why someone is doing something. Do the characters have a reason, a motive, for doing what they do? (You can fix that by having a foil—as Robin is to Batman. When Batman does something baffling, Robin asks why. Batman explains it to Robin, and the reader listens in, understanding the motive behind the action.)

Most people have spent their entire lives in only one head, so if you need to switch to a different POV, make certain that the reader knows: new chapter, section break, different font. Starting each chapter with the name of a character reminds you that he’s the POV for the entire chapter.

Readers like your work because it’s entertaining, so be careful to avoid painting yourself into a corner with all the plot twists. (Beta readers or Critique Groups can help spot these and other similar problems.) Avoid coincidences. If it happens once, it’s an accident, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a conspiracy! Yes, a bag of money can fall out of an armoured car in real life, but if you have it happen in your book, readers won’t believe it.

“The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.”—Tom Clancy

“Truth is stranger than fiction.”—Lord Byron

A good ending will stick with the reader, so make it strong. The ending is the last impression the reader will have before going out talking to friends and neighbours about your book, and the best (or worst) advert is always word of mouth. Having a surprise ending is good, but make certain that although it’s unpredictable, it’s logical and fitting (avoid Deus ex machina).

Bottom line: for fiction, Escape. What readers really want is to get away from the real, mundane world. Give them excitement, adventure, and emotional new experiences.

For non-fiction, the bottom line is Information. Readers come to you to learn something. Did they learn what they wanted? Did they learn more?