Writers on Writing

What's on Your (Character's) Mind?

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Sam Lawrence, an athletic man of thirty-five, hiked north of Enchanted Rock, a pink granite dome covering 640 acres. He squinted. Was that someone sprawled in the brush ahead? Good thing the hiker was wearing a red jacket or she might have been missed. He sprinted toward the victim, who had a slim build and thick, shoulder-length brown hair. What was a woman doing out here all alone? Of course, he was also on a solo hike and, as an Eagle Scout, Sam knew--and had violated--the rule about the buddy system.

“Hey! Are you all right?” Sam called as he reached the hiker. “I’m a doctor. Where are you injured? What hurts?”

The hiker turned and opened brown eyes. Dark peach fuzz grew above his upper lip. “My . . . my ankle. I fell and twisted it."

A teenage boy. Sam shook his head at his dumb assumption that the hiker was a female.

“Okay, relax." Sam knelt, then slid the hem of the youth's jeans up his calf and searched for bleeding. None. Good. Just an ankle the size of a cantaloupe. "Before I splint your ankle, I’m going to check your pulse, that sort of thing. I’m Sam. What’s your name?”

“Uh . . .” The youth hesitated and struggled to sit up. "The name's Bond. James Bond.”

Sam grinned. “I've always wanted to use that line, too.”

~~~

Literature has been widely influenced by the film industry. We want our books to unfold for us in immediate scene, just as they do in movies. We've all heard: "Show, don't tell." Movies are all show, no tell--unless there's an irritating narrator. But movies lack an important quality that's readily available in books: the ability to know a character's thoughts. One of the most powerful weapons in your writer's arsenal is interior monologue, which is a character's unspoken thoughts.

Besides getting to know a character on an intimate level, interior monologue allows the author to disclose information that would be awkward in a conversation, to reveal a character's reaction to an event, to expose what a character is really thinking, which may differ from what he says.

In the first paragraph of the scene with our hiker, the reader shifts seamlessly from descriptions of Sam's actions to his thoughts without italics or speaker attributions.

The reader experiences both the external world and the point of view character's thoughts without realizing something powerful is taking place--an advantage movies don't have. As you create a scene ask yourself what your character has on his mind. Chances are your reader wants to know too.

Tools You Can Use: Make Any Web Page Print Friendly

"Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own".—Carol Burnett

By Scoti Springfield Domeij

Save Paper. Save Printer Ink. Save Money.

When you print off the web, does it include a lot of printed gibberish that you don't want? Need to print something off the Internet for research or a teaching handout, but dislike how printing from a web page uses up precious ink and paper? PrintFriendly provides a button to add to your browser, blog or website that strips down and prints the bare bones document of a web page. Plus, PrintFriendly even reformats the info to look great.

How It Works

• Prints Clean:
  PrintFriendly removes ads, navigation, and all the junk you don't want to print.
  
• Prints Pretty:
  PrintFriendly uses best practices in print typography to format your document for great readability.
  
• Customize the Printed Page: Save even more paper and ink. Remove images, paragraphs, and get a PDF.
  

Add These Features to Your Web Site or Blog

Bloggers and website owners want repeat readers. If content adds value to people's lives, adding the PrintFriendly button to a website or blog allows your audience to print info they can use.

• Print Preview: Readers will see exactly what they'll be printing.
  
• Provides Great Looking Pages: Print with no effort or technical experience.
  
• Reader Customizes Printed Content: Cool print tools like "remove images," or select to remove content.
  
• Get PDF: Your readers will love this easy-to-use feature.

What to do with bad reviews

Suspense novel writer Brad Meltzer has an interesting way of dealing with bad reviews for his book, The Book of Lies.

Get in Late, Get Out Early

Some of the best writing advice--"Get in(to the scene) late, get out (of the scene) early"--is offered by David Mamet, an American author, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and film director in his book, On Directing Film.

One mistake new writers often make is to start scenes at the beginning, which Maria von Trapp said is a "very good place to start," but only if you're learning to sing; it's not such a good idea if you're trying to write compelling fiction.

New writers often try to justify their reason for starting slow, but you've only got five pages--if that--to convince an editor to keep reading your manuscript. You've got to grab the reader by the lapels and make sure s/he cares about your character and needs to find out what happens next in your plot.

Pay close attention the next time you watch a movie or television show. They don't waste lot of time opening and closing doors. To write riveting fiction:

1. Start your scene in the middle of the action.
2. End the scene with a hook. (I prefer a bit of punchy dialogue, when possible.)

Many published authors have had to omit the prologue to their stories when prologues fell out of favor. An editor told other author that her story really began in chapter three, so she had to delete the first two chapters of her novel. Editors urge writers to look at their first chapter critically. Is it necessary? Does the story start with a quick hook or more of a slow build up? Try omitting the first chapter to decide if it makes the story stronger. Carefully consider where your story really starts.

Overcome Deadline Stress, Laugh!

"Silence is not only golden; it is seldom misquoted." —Bob Monkhouse

By Scoti Springfield Domeij

Stressed out by a deadline? Irritated by family interruptions sabotaging your nonnegotiable writing time? Exhausted after meeting that deadline? A writer's response to deadline stress is often not a laughing matter. The University of Maryland Medical Center study "Laughter is Good for Your Heart" (2000, November 17), reveals that a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at stressful situations lessens the physical effects of distressing emotions.

I enjoy laughing hard, long and regularly. Do you need a good laugh to…?

• relax
  
• protect your heart
  
• raise that bad mood
  
• decrease your stress
  
• make you feel better
  
• lower your blood pressure
  
• strengthen your immune system
  
• restart your nonfunctioning brain
  
• de-stress your relationship with others
  

Then I hope you'll stretch those facial muscles heavenward and enjoy these quotes overheard in New York City.

Harry Potter Fans

Chick on Cell: Look, there are only two people other than me who can construct a sentence that awesome: Severus Snape and Keith Olbermann, and one of them isn't even real!

Another Chick on Her Cell: Is he one of Voldemort's friends from high school?

Loud Girl to Friend: Because seriously, how many real redheads do we actually know? And Ron Weasley doesn't count!

IT VP: This guy at work told me the ending to the last Harry Potter book before I read it. So I fired him.

The Grammatical Correctness Capital of America

Cashier: Wow, you speak really good English. Where are you from?

Hipster Asian Dude: I'm from Tokyo and I've been taking classes since I was three so I'm really articulate and speak great English.

Cashier: Really?

Hipster Asian Dude: No. I'm from Queens.

 

Twitchy Dude to No One in Particular: What? You selling something? What you selling? You all are devils! Devil worshipers! Bunch of devil worshipers! Devils, devils, devils! See you in hell! Oh...I won't be there, though.

 

Young Guy on Cell Talking about a Video Game: I gave them my soul. I gave them my soul! See, my soul legally belongs to you, so you tricked them. (pause) Give him his soul! Give him his soul! What? What? Too late!

 

Woman Looking for Friend who Got Lost in Massive Crowd: Marco! Marco!

Massive Crowd of People: Polo!

Bestselling author Elmore Leonard's 10 tricks for good writing

Bestselling author Elmore Leonard has written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, including Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch.

While researching for a workshop I'm teaching on dialogue, I discovered Leonard's writing "tricks" -- and loved them all!

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”… he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

* Excerpted from the New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle”