Tips and Techniques

Ok it's not a rule, more of a guideline, but it goes something like this: once is an accident, twice is coincidence, thrice is a pattern.

So if you are walking down the street and a snowball beans you in the noggin, you look around, see nothing, and keep walking. If a second snowball hits you, you stop and look around more carefully. You start walking, warily, because you think it will probably happen again. When the third snowball arrives, you know someone is targeting you, and it's time to take evasive action or find ammunition of your own.

I got this concept from a writing class. It's used all the time in writing. My teacher called it the try-fail:

(1) hero tries something, fails;
(2) hero tries again, a bit differently this time, fails again;
(3) hero tries again, succeeds.

This is a simple and easy way of creating tension.

When the hero tries the first time, there is no tension, so he must fail. When he fails the second time, we have now established a pattern. When he tries the third time, the reader expects him to fail again, but no! He succeeds! Surprise! Wow, what an ending.

As examples:

- Goldilocks tried two lumpy beds before she found one she liked.
- The wolf blew down two little piggies' houses before finding one that could stand against him.
- Luke Skywalker faced Darth Vader twice and lost (once in the cave on Dagobah, once in Bespin) before he finally defeated him.

In class we did an exercise where we had to create a story with the try-fail, and it was really easy.

Naturally this technique has been done enough times that people know what is coming by the third try, but still, it works. If your story is lacking in tension, throw in a try-fail or two and see what happens.

I read somewhere a remark from an editor that went something like this: "I know it's an amateur's work when I can't smell anything."

That line really stuck with me. Because words are a visual medium, and when I write I am visualizing the scene and translating it into words, I forget to include the other senses.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I have seen entire stories where the hero doesn't hear, smell, touch, or taste anything. When you read them, you can tell there is something missing -- they just don't feel "alive". It's like watching from the sidelines instead of being there and experiencing it.

Most of us manage to slip in some sounds, and occasionally some tactile sensations, but rarely do we stick in odors. Yet smells create the most immediate emotions.

Another thing I read was you should appeal to at least 3 senses in a scene to make it seem real. It can be any 3 of the 5.

When I look at professional writing, I see this. The best authors put you in their scenes by serving you a sensual buffet.

In the pursuit of sounding snooty, people often use "better" in place of "best". This trend seems to have started in the world of atheletes and sports commentators (top grammarians, all) and has spread from there.

"better" is the comparitive form, used to compare 2 [i]and only 2[/i] things.

"best" is the superlative form, used to compare more than 2 things.

-- "He is one of the better defencemen in the league."

Are there only two defencemen in the league? Should be:

-- "He is one of the best defencemen in the league."

-- "This is one of the better movies I have seen in a while."

You have only seen two movies? Should be:

-- "This is one of the best movies I have seen in a while."

People seem to think saying "better" softens the sentiment. They are too scared to say "best". They would rather be grammatically WRONG than risk offending anyone.

Be bold! Be correct! Write the [b]best[/b] sentences you can!

People constantly get confused with it's and its. I see the wrong useage in professional memos and signs all the time, and once on CNN (smack that editor!).

So here it's:

it's = contraction of "it is", e.g. "it's confusing, true, but still"
its = possessive of it, e.g. "CNN should be ashamed of its mistake"

So only use an apostrophe for the contraction, *never* for the possessive. This goes against the way all other possessives work, but it's the only way to avoid confusion with the contraction.

From King's excellent book On Writing (highly recommended), he makes two observations that I thought were unique, and they resonated with me:

(1) stories are fossils waiting to be uncovered. They are already out there, buried, and the author's job is to dig them out. This thought is encouraging, because it means anywhere you see earth, there will be a story buried underneath.

With practice, you will get better at excavating them without ruining them. Of course, once you remove the top layer of dirt you will see some stories that are not for you. It's best to leave them for someone else.

(2) he doesn't plot out his stories, rather, he creates interesting and believable characters and lets them tell the story. I love this approach, in fact, I was already using it. I didn't realize it was a "legitimate" way to tell stories.

I find it makes writing fun. I have tried plotting out stories and it's boring. Instead I start with a protagonist, antagonist, setting, and initial conflict, and start typing. I let my story entertain me as I write.

After a while I see a conclusion to my conflict on the horizon, and start guiding my characters toward it. But I let them take their own path.

I find I get my story ideas mainly by looking around and saying, "What If?" I can usually get an idea quickly that way. Whether I can do something worthwhile with it is the challenge, but an idea is a start.

After a while in the same place, though, the well runs dry. There are only so many "What Ifs" lurking in my office. So then what?

Simple -- I go do something else. Go for a walk/run/swim, go to a museum, or a movie, whatever. I travel a lot with my day job, which sucks mostly, but it's a terrific way to stoke the muse. And long flights and lonely nights in hotel rooms are perfect opportunities to write.

The spider story I submitted to this group came out of a business trip to the UK. I spent the weekend at my sister's place, and I saw a huge spider iclimbing up the drapes in front of her garden window. Her boyfriend said he didn't mind spiders, so we left it alone, and I started thinking "What if?" (He also took me to a few pubs, which gave me the idea of setting the story there. Pubs in the UK are a homey meeting place, not just a place to drink like in the US and Canada.)

BTW, Europe in general is a terrific place to go for writers of fantasy. The history, the culture, the architecture -- I like just standing in an old castle or building and trying to imagine life in its heyday, and trying to absorb the history.