Where You At? Setting

In its basic definition, setting is a story's time and place.  Setting can help illustrate a historical moment or create a story within a particular social context.  Years after 9-11, writers began to integrate this horrific event into stories and use hints of the tragedy to reflect societal issues that erupted after the event, such as fear, safety of one's self and his or her family, and love loss.  Setting can also create mood. A story set in Maine in January has a different feel than a story set in Louisiana in August, or Paris in the spring.  The first could help create a mood of entrapment as piles of snow fall upon the state, closing people in, perhaps giving them cabin fever.  In the third scenario, a writer might find the perfect opportunity to illustrate a romantic story as Paris in spring gives off a romantic air.  In some way, characters have to interact with the story's setting, and their interaction can reveal characters' traits.  Oftentimes, setting is developed within narrative description; however, writers can show setting through character's thoughts, action, and/or dialogue.

Setting has, at its core, at least four components:

Geographical Location
Baltimore, Paris, DC, and Jamaica are all geographical locations.  One of my favorite books, Sugar by Bernice McFadden is set in Bigelow, Arkansas.


Time Period
Time periods could be 1948, Great Depression, today, and the 1960s.  Sugar is set in the 1950s.


Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Location
This can include specific information, such as the earnings, employment, income, poverty, and wealth within a particular location. Sugar is set in a tiny Southern town, where the vast population consists of blacks who are neither rich nor terribly poor; however, they work hard, very hard to survive and create a slice of normal living for them and their families.


A Specific Building, Room, ETC.
This can include the specific "places" within a geographical location where characters interact, such as a bus, a school, a military base, lawyer's office. Sugar has several specific places, as most books do.  One specifically that I recall is church. Faith plays a big role in this story, but that's not why it's such a searing remembrance for me.  In one scene, the main character Sugar is in the church, where she faces the gossipmongers, the adulterous men she's slept with, Pearl (the woman who has become a good friend to Sugar), and Joe (Pearl's husband and a man with an unknown connection to Sugar). The church itself is almost a character in this setting and definitely, I would argue, in the story overall, and this specific scene paints an extraordinarily poignant moment that brings the story, really, full circle.

How Solid Is Your Plot?

Every story should have a main plot; most stories have several sub-plots within the main plot.

What is a plot?

Plot refers to the pattern of events within a narrative or drama; these events culminate into the story’s resolution.  The development of the events and how the main character(s) react to these events often give a story its meaning.

Most books that you read about plot will tell you that to have a solid plot, your story should have five components:

• Conflict
• Complications
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action

Conflict refers to the basic tension, predicament, or challenge that propels your story’s plot.  The conflict is experienced by your main character(s).  The character can be at battle with him or herself, or the character can be at battle with outside forces – like a pain-in-the-butt boss, an overprotective mother, or a cheating spouse.  The conflict will propel the character forward in order to resolve the conflict.  Question to ask yourself:  what is the initial conflict that propels your main character(s) forward in your story?

With any good story, the main character can’t solve the problem simply and ride off into the sunset.  Not if you want a novel, anyway.

There have to be Complications, those obstacles that prevent the main character from resolving the problem; these complications are what causes the tension to heighten in a work.  Question to ask yourself:  you know what your main conflict is.  What are the things that keep your character from resolving his/her issue quickly?

Rising Action occurs when the complications have created enough tension that the character realizes that something must be done and it must be done quickly.  Question to ask yourself:  now that you have your character on a tight rope of stress, anxiety, and conflict-driven insanity, what is the last thing that drives your character to resolve his/her issues and to do so NOW?

Once the character has done whatever is necessary to “kill” the conflict(s), we reach the story’s Climax, and Falling Action quickly follows, ending the story.  By the end of the story, something has changed – usually in the character or in the situation the character had to go through.  Question to ask yourself:  What is the result of your character taking on his/her conflict and resolving it?

Here’s a brief summary of the movie Fatal Attraction using this five-part model:

    Conflict:  Man has affair with woman who wants more than an affair.

    Complications:  Man learns woman is pregnant.  Man also realizes woman is crazy.  Woman wants him to be a part of her and the baby’s life.  Woman calls repeatedly.  Woman shows up at his house in the attempt to buy his place.  Woman destroys his car and leaves a tape for him to listen to.  Once man actually moves away, woman still finds his home and kills his daughter’s bunny; he’s forced to tell his wife about the affair and baby.

    Rising Action:  Woman kidnaps the man’s daughter, which causes his wife to drive off, frantically looking for the girl; she’s injured in a car accident.  Man realizes he needs to fully face his actions and gets the police involved; he vows to protect his family.

    Climax:  The woman breaks into the man’s home and tries to kill his wife.  He and the woman get into a huge fight, but ultimately, the wife shoots and kills the woman.

    Falling Action:  Police and paramedics arrive and take care of things.  Movie ends with man shaking the hand of a police official, going inside his house, hugging his wife, and walking off camera into another part of the house.  Very last image, a photo of their happy family on the mantel; we can assume they try to patch things up, but besides that, we can safely say things have CHANGED – for the characters and for the situation.

The “Questions to ask yourself” above?  Think about those as you develop your work.  If you’re a pantser (someone who gets an idea and writes without organizing most of the work), then think about this once you’ve gotten to a “quiet” part of the book.  If you’re a plotter (pretty self-explanatory, but it’s someone who likes to outline work before jumping in), then definitely think about these components before you delve into PAGE ONE.

Camping vs. Marching

In this short piece, I'll be talking about camping vs. marching.  Before I pursued my MFA degree, I knew nothing about this “concept”. 

Many writers, for fear of losing readers, will explain everything in their story, not realizing that they will definitely lose their readers this way.  So, how do writers tell us everything?  They might tell us everything a character has on, explain every piece of furniture that’s in a room, detail an entire conversation from beginning to end, relay every minute feeling that comes through the narrator’s mind, and bring us into every sight, smell, taste, sound, touch that occurs within a story – all in the name of making the story feel real to the reader.  In the end, this may make the reader so full off “stuff” that’s unimportant to the actual story that he/she may close the book and find a less tedious (or as I like to say “less chewy”) book to read.

How do writers avoid the clutter?  They focus on the story’s purpose.  They focus on the themes and ideas they want to convey.  Now, let me preface this by saying that this idea should be thought of after writing the book.  I can’t state this enough (and I’ll state it in every article I write); if you’re a writer that can easily get hung up on little things and stop yourself from writing, then TURN OFF THE INTERNAL EDITOR AND WRITE.  Do not think about grammar or story development.  Think about only getting your story – from beginning to end – on the page and then become the perfectionist.

Once you have a story before you, ask yourself the following questions:

·         What’s my story’s purpose?

·         What themes, ideas am I trying to convey?

·         At the end, what do I want the reader to take away from the story?

Having answers to these questions will help you to return to the story and to begin de-cluttering by focusing on each scene you developed.

When you're in a scene, you have to ask yourself, "Is this scene vital to the understanding of the story?"  This, in essence, is the camping and marching question.  If a scene (and all of its components) is important to your story and readers will be lost if you do not put it in, then you want to "camp" in that scene for a while and show the reader what he or she needs to continue with the story.  If the scene is not vital, then you want to "march" right through it, giving the reader exactly what he or she needs and then moving on to the next scene of your story.  What this does is present the reader with a clean, tightly written story – a story in which all the components connect to the reason for the story’s “being” in the first place.

Showing vs. Telling

In a previous article, I talked about camping vs. marching.  At first glance, showing vs. telling seems like the same concept, but there is a difference.  Both concepts examine how much a writer writes in a story; however, camping vs. marching tends to look at the development of scenes and their connection to the story’s purpose while showing vs. telling looks at the visualization of the things the writer writes in a story.

For example, if a writer has a scene that lulls and doesn’t connect to the story’s purpose, then the writer should cut and march through the scene, develop the scene so that it connects to the story’s purpose, or delete it altogether.  This is camping vs. marching.

For example, if a writer summarizes action or tells the reader that a character is happy or sad, then the writer should revise the material to show the reader a character’s emotion or show the reader the action as it’s happening.  This is showing vs. telling.

Showing vs. Telling is an old adage.  It’s one we, as writers, will hear about for the rest of our lives and then some.

It is always important for readers to feel that they are experiencing your story.  If your main character is angry, don’t just tell the reader this.  Show it.  Let the character smash a vase, or go off on a rant, or smack someone across the face.

As I stated last month, many writers – for fear of losing readers – will explain everything that occurs. It’s important to remember that 1) not everything that occurs in your characters’ lives is needed to tell the story you are telling, and 2) you don’t want to just tell, point by point, what occurs.  Give the reader action.  Give the reader emotions.  Give the reader a story he or she can immerse him/herself into.

Use dialogue to show us your characters’ motives, beliefs, feelings.  Use all the senses so that the readers can feel as if your characters and their situations are real.  Use picture nouns and active verbs to bring your story to life.  Write in scenes – which I talked about last month.  Have scenes that do something, that move the story, that develop your characters and push us toward the climax and resolution of your story.  Use point of view to get into your characters’ minds, which will enable you to see what the characters see, to feel what the characters feel and then you will be able to express these things to the readers.

Some writers believe that telling communicates facts; whereas, showing invites understanding.  I’m one of those writers.  A story is not a report; its goal is not to just impart facts to the reader.  You want the reader to experience the story, to connect with your characters.

Does this mean never tell? NO.  Notice the title of this piece is “Showing vs. Telling” not “Show, Don’t Tell.”  There are some things you as writer have to inform readers on, those things in which visualization and understanding may not be necessary.  In growing to become a good, great, excellent writer, part of the process is learning to discern what needs to be revealed as fact, as information and what needs to be developed for experience and understanding.

Point of View

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines point of view as "a position or perspective from which something is considered or evaluated."  We can find that for writing to state point of view is the position or perspective from which a story is told.

Every story has a point of view, and it's important to know what that POV is for two big reasons:

1)  To make sure that your story adheres to that POV
2)  To help your reader have a "smooth" read without blips, hiccups, and jarring moments because of awkward POV shifts


What Are Commonly Used POVs?
Most novels are written in first or third person.
FIRST PERSON

First person always uses "I" or "we."  The narrator of a first-person narrative is always a character within the story being told.  He/she does not have to be the main character of the story; however, many times, he/she is.  In first-person, we get intimacy with the one character, the narrator.  We see how he/she thinks, and we learn about him/her through the narrator's style in storytelling.  One downside to first-person is readers are not able to see the views of other characters; they see what the narrator sees, experiences what the narrator experiences.  Because of this, readers of first-person need to read to understand who the narrator really is to determine what's "really" going on within the story.

THIRD PERSON
Third person, unlike first person, comes in many shapes and sizes.
Third-Person, Subjective

When a story is told using this POV, the reader either follows one character throughout the story, or he/she follows the thoughts and feelings of more than one character.  The latter may SOUND like Third-Person Omniscient, but the difference is here, it feels as if the character being focused on is narrating the story because we are so close to the character.

Third-Person Objective

We see this POV a lot in newspaper articles.  When a story is told using this POV, the reader learns nothing about the characters' thoughts, opinions, or feelings.  Often called the "Fly on the Wall" POV, the third-person omniscient narrator states only what is seen and heard of the story's characters; the narrator is neutral in regards to the plot.  With this type of story, the reader is a major participant because he/she must make his/her own interpretations of the story.

Third-Person Omniscient

Most commonly used -- When a story is told using this POV, the storyteller/narrator plays no part in the story; however, he/she knows everything - characters' thoughts, actions, feelings, opinions, etc.  The narrator may even have a personality, too, illustrating his/her opinion of the story being told.

Some people have made a distinction between third-person omniscient and third-person universal omniscient.  In universal omniscient, not only does the narrator know everything about all characters, but also he/she knows what the characters DON'T know.  This is often called the "Little Did He Know" POV.  A character does want to be mindful of using the universal omniscient POV, especially in mysteries and suspense works because too many "Little did he know he wouldn't be alive tomorrow" may come across as hokey and "dunh dunh dunhhhhhh" - like in every scene ending of Murder, She Wrote (which I love, by the way).

Third-Person, Limited (or Close Third Person)

TPL most closely resembles first-person POV.  When a story is told using this POV, the reader experiences the story through ONE character that is almost always the main character.  Everything that is seen, heard, experienced comes through this one character - using he/she/etc.

Can You Mix POVs?

I love stories that have different POVs.  Some new writers, however, attempt to use various POVs, but they begin new POVs in awkward places in the story.  I recently began reading a 'script that started in a close-third person.  It followed, very closely, a male character's thoughts and actions.  In the middle of a scene, I went from his POV to a woman's POV, and I was confused.  I didn't know why we needed the shift; as a result, the glitch paused my reading.  Later in my read, there was a scene break and the new scene began with a new character's POV.  This POV shift was seamless and didn't bother me at all.  The lesson behind this is it's perfectly okay to have POV shifts in your work; however, you do want to try to place them at scene changes or new chapters.  Readers are expecting something new to occur with each scene or chapter, so changing POVs will go down more smoothly there than if you dropped one in the middle of a scene.

Writing the Synopsis

One of the biggest things writers moan about, at least to me they do, is the synopsis.

They absolutely hate to write it. How am I supposed to take my 90,000-word manuscript and condense it to a few mere pages?

With a lot of rewriting and revising, that’s how.

First, let’s define. What is a synopsis? Two things are important to know here:

1. Synopsis is a summary (not an outline) of your story’s plot
2. Synopsis is used to SELL your story

In a synopsis, we tend to be asking the question, What is this story about?

In an outline, we tend to be asking the question, What’s in this story?

You might say the questions ask the same thing, but not really.

That “in” within the outline question allows you to write everything in an outline. Most of us, when we write outlines, throw everything into them. We pinpoint every scene, every move of every character, we even explain why characters do what they do and state what our characters look like. We are giving ourselves a detailed road map to making the story cohesive, coherent, and well-developed.

The “is” within the synopsis question puts focus on “this story.” It is making you focus on the central storyline of your book.

And in your response to the synopsis question, we are not looking for everything and the kitchen sink; we are looking to see who the main character is, what the overall conflict is, and what the major plot points are that get us from the point of conflict to the resolution. Giving us a physical description of character is unnecessary unless it is pivotal to the overall story. Minor sub-plots and characters are unnecessary unless they, again, are pivotal to the overall story or main character.

Now that I’ve handled #1, here’s a comment about #2 above. The synopsis is not a tool for you; it’s a tool for an agent or an editor, for someone you hope will like your story idea enough to want to read the whole manuscript and will want to BUY it. As such, the synopsis shouldn’t be a dry recount of your story. It should have some verve; it should be made with some of the same flavor as the story it comes from. For example, if you’re story is about a woman recovering from the loss of her family, your synopsis would not sound HAPPY. Whatever the tone, mood, style of your book is you will want to try to replicate that within your synopsis.

What I’d like to do in the rest of this article is present some ways in which you can begin to think about your book in smaller doses that lead to small to large-sized synopses.

Some writers will cringe, but I tend to write my synopsis before I write the story. I write up a loose idea for a story before I get into writing my detailed outline, then the book itself.

You don’t have to write your synopsis first; however, I think it’s important to think about how to develop your process for writing it.

Typically, I go through four stages of synopsis writing, each stage creating an important marketing tool for me and for the book: a one-liner, a one-pager, a three-pager, and a longer synopsis. I do this for two reasons: one, ME. I like having different versions so that I can see my story in snap shot form and in a modified panoramic form. Two, you never know what an agent or an editor will ask for. These days, neither has the time to read pages upon pages of your synopsis to decide if he/she likes the story. It’s smart to develop as many of these styles as you can so that you can be prepared for whatever an editor or agent might request. And what you’ll notice, the key to this is layering. Each larger style simply builds upon the style before it.

The One-Liner

Movie people would call this a “logline,” a one-sentence summary of your script. Yeah, I know, condensing a 90k novel into 25 words. Hard. But doable. Don’t believe me? Here’s one or two from movies:

Independence Day – Aliens try to invade earth on Independence Day.

Liar, Liar – An attorney, because of a birthday wish, can’t tell any lies for 24 hours.

Dead Calm – A married couple, trying to recover from the death of their only child, are terrorized at sea by a handsome maniac.

In writing your one-liner, you want to ask yourself three questions:

1. Who is the main character and what does he or she want?
2. Who or what is standing in the way of the main character?
3. What makes this story unique?

If you look at the above loglines, particularly the one for Dead Calm, you see all three of these questions answered:

1. Who is the main character: married couple. What does he or she want: to recover from the death of their only child.
2. Who or what is standing in the way of the main character: a handsome maniac that terrorizes them.
3. What makes this story unique: they are AT SEA.

The “unique” aspect is important here. We all know that every premise that can be written about HAS been written about…it’s the unique twist we add to that story that makes it our own.

The One-Pager

This, for me, is the back copy, something I talked about in one of the very-first TWL4U articles in September 2008.

Picture going to Borders – you’re rifling through books, reading back covers.  Pretend your book is on the shelf.  Pick it up.  Flip it over.  What does the back copy read?

Back copy runs between 100 to 225 words. It contains the same information you’ll place in your query when it’s time to submit the work to agents and publishers:  your main character, his or her want, the major conflict that prevents the main character from achieving the want, and a “twist” that arises and seems to forever keep the main character away from the want.

In the move from the one-liner to the one-pager, we are allowed to flesh the components of the one-liner out a bit more and then develop the “twist” further.

Here's a sample of the one-pager (which is really a paragraph, sometimes less); it's from Kami Garcia's book Beautiful Creatures. 




There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

The Three-Pager

In the three-pager, we move from the succinct development of character->conflict->twist to actually developing information regarding plot points. Here, it is important to think of the HIGH POINTS of your story, those major plot points that keep your story from sagging and that move the overall story arc from point of conflict to point of resolution. Many talk about (and this will be even more important in the longer synopsis) the idea of ACTION->REACTION->DECISION when developing scenes for your synopsis. And this doesn’t need to be told in several paragraphs. In fact, in your synopsis, you want your paragraphs to be lean, tight, and fluid. You could easily write these three points in three great sentences. Remember, synopses should be lean and concise.

Longer Synopsis

These days, it’s hard for me to see anyone that asks for a synopsis over five pages. Having said that, some publishing industry insiders make note of the following formula (and ones pretty similar to it):

1 page of synopsis = 10,000 words of manuscript

Which simply means that for every 10,000 words you have of your story, develop one page of your synopsis around those words. So, if you have 90,000-word manuscript, then, conceivably, you could have a longer synopsis of nine pages.

A longer synopsis simply provides you with more room to develop scenes, to highlight your main character(s), to rev up the plot points, etc.

In closing, here are two things important things, for you to make note of:

1. In the three-page synopsis and longer synopsis, it is DEFINITELY ok – and necessary – to show your main character’s reactions to the things that are going on around him or her. The agent/editor wants to know about your character’s story, so knowing how that character reacts to the plot twists is integral. This doesn’t mean we want paragraphs of the character’s thoughts; we want his or her reaction, which I talked about above.
2. Synopses are written in present tense.

Here’s a [link] to some great synopsis samples – books were actually sold to major publishing houses.

Developing Scenes

When I pursued my MFA degree a few years ago, my fiction professor/mentor discussed the concept of Camping and Marching.

He began by stating that many writers, for fear of losing readers or of leaving readers “in the dark”, will overwrite, overstate, and overdevelop every scene so that readers are in on EVERYTHING. That's how you will definitely lose a reader! When you're in a scene, you have to ask yourself, "Is this scene vital to the understanding of the story?" This, in essence, is the camping and marching question. If a scene is important to your story and readers will be lost if you do not put it in, then you want to "camp" in that scene for a while and show the reader what he or she needs to continue with the story. If the scene is not vital, then you want to "march" right through it, giving the reader exactly what he or she needs and then moving on to the next scene of your story.

Camping and marching are extremely important when one discusses developing scenes, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's take a step back and discuss scenes.

What is a scene? Well, it takes place in one setting -- though if there are flashbacks, a scene could conceivably have more than one setting. It involves one or more characters. It has a beginning, middle, and ending. And most importantly - it MOVES a story FORWARD. Think about some of your favorite TV shows. Imagine a scene from one of those shows. As you visualize it, think about how the scene starts. Typically, we are "placed" somewhere (setting). People are revealed to us (characters). Some idea, point, purpose, situation is presented to us (beginning). There is interaction amongst the characters (middle), and the scene concludes in a way that propels the story forward and makes us want to know what happens next (ending).

EACH SCENE in your novel should work toward doing all of these things, too, and a scene's purpose determines how developed the scene will be. Sometimes, there will be scenes that do not move the story's conflict(s) along. In these types of scenes, writers should MARCH; they should give the reader exactly what he/she needs and move on to the next scene.

Most of your scenes should, however, develop your story's conflict(s) and move the story's purpose toward its conclusion. These are the scenes that writers should "camp" in. How does the setting affect the story? How do the characters' internal thoughts affect the story? How do the characters' facial movements, actions, words affect the story? In these scenes, you will want to make the atmosphere literally jump off the page so that the reader can visualize the scene and understand its importance to the story - if not right then, then surely by the end of the story.

Now, it's always important to preface any advice by saying that as you're writing your first draft, you should solely focus on getting out a draft. Do not think about if each word is perfect or if every scene begins or ends wonderfully. It's in the revision stage that you should consider scene development as one of your ISSUES to develop and fine tune.

Tips to Editing a Screenplay

A few years ago, I took to writing screenplays…again. As a teen, I wrote them and then moved to writing short stories and novels. Something last year called me back to scripts, and it’s been a wonderful learning journey so far. In the last three years or so, I’ve braved the contest world and submitted feature-length scripts and short scripts to competitions. Didn’t win, did make quarterfinal round, semi-final round, and this year, the finalist round, giving me enough gumption to continue the journey.

A friend of mine mentioned the idea of writing more short scripts because they could be used as calling cards – if produced – for larger works. Short scripts can be as short as one page or as large as 60 pages though most tend to fall within 3 to 25 pages. It’s important to note that in the script world one formatted page runs about one minute of airtime.

The advice my friend gave me happened to coincide with The Muse Online Writers Conference, put together by the awesome everywoman Lea Schizas. If you don’t know about the conference, you should.

One class I took during the conference was Writing the Short Screenplay with produced screenwriter Kristin Johnson. I knew the class would give me the opportunity to crank out a short script in a week, and it did. Within a week, I had written SOCIAL NETWORKING, and I was elated.

And then came editing.

For me, there are four major KEYS to editing a screenplay – whether it’s short or feature-length.

FORMAT is KEY.
Yep, just like a novel manuscript, format is vital. If you attempt to submit a badly formatted screenplay to an agent or production company or contest, then you will receive the “slush pile” treatment just like any novel manuscript would. There are several books you could get to help you with format, but the one I LIVE by is David Trottier’s “The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script”. If you’re like me, you also may want examples of formatted scripts to see what a script really looks like; one place where you can purchase both feature film and TV scripts is Script Fly.

VISUAL is KEY.
Movies, TV shows, and made-for-TV movies are visual. The scripts are primarily parsed into two categories – dialogue and action. The dialogue is not stale and typical; it reveals the characters, the conflict, etc. Just like in a novel. The action shows us the movement that occurs within the movie.

Recently, my media writing students wrote short scripts for me, and the major problem they had was differentiating between “action” and “narration”. In a novel, it might be perfectly OK to write the following: Sarah’s tears continued to fall as she thought about the death of her brother and the evil bastards who took his life without a care for the ones left behind. In a novel, that’s narration. In a screenplay, this type of writing is not VISUAL. We couldn’t, as moviegoers, know Sarah’s thoughts or know this is why she’s crying. That knowledge would have to be conveyed either through action or through dialogue.

As an editor, you have to put yourself in the place of a moviegoer and ask yourself, “Can I see these things occurring?”

If you can’t see it, and it’s integral to the story’s plot and to character development, then you need to figure out the best way to visualize the material.

TALKING is KEY.
Strong dialogue is very important in scriptwriting. Dialogue, as state above, should do at least two things: reveal character and develop the story’s conflict. When reading the script, it’s important to look for stock, generic dialogue. In real life, we have dialogue like, “Hey, how are you doing?” “I’m doing OK. Tired. You?” “Good, thanks for asking.” Unless dialogue like this…those hellos and goodbyes of conversations…is integral to character development and/or story development, it is often not needed.

READING is KEY.
At some point in the editing process, you should print a copy of your script and read it aloud. The more the merrier, actually. One of my students corralled a bunch of his friends into his dorm room and they acted out the script. Having seen the rough draft of the work, I can guess he caught some minute things during the “performance”. You can read aloud the action and attempt to visualize it, remembering that if you can’t visualize it, it needs to be restructured. You can read the dialogue for authenticity. Like my student, if you’re lucky enough to get a few friends to act it out while you sit on the sideline, you can actually see and hear the story unfold to catch things regarding the story’s pacing, interest (to other potential viewers), building of conflict, climax, and resolution.

What you’ve probably noticed is that most of these key elements are vital in editing a short story or a novel, too. The major difference is the visual element that gains prominence in screenplays.

Before the editing even begins, however, you want to make sure you have a GOOD STORY to SHOW your viewers. Much money is put into the production of a movie and even more is put into the marketing and promotion of a movie. If your story – like with a novel idea – is not fresh and marketable, it won’t see the light of day…unless you produce it yourself.

To conclude, I have to share this article, "Three Approaches to Developing a Screenplay" by Gina Vanname. If you’re actually interested in writing a screenplay, it’s worth the read!

Let Me Tell You Something – Dialogue, Part Un

One of the most important tools you need in your arsenal as a writer is DIALOGUE. With great dialogue, a story can have depth; with weak dialogue, a story can fall flat.

Dialogue should do more than present TALKING HEADS. Dialogue that is rich and integral to a story does several things…

--It can reveal character and motivation. We don't learn about characters simply by what they do, or the exposition that is written; we can learn about them through what they say, too.

--It can establish the tone or mood. If you're writing a comedic piece, at least one of your characters is probably a wise-ass, joke-cracking person, always with the witty comeback.

--It can foreshadow. Have you ever read a book and after reading a conversation think, "Oh no, something's about to happen?" That's the writer's ability to integrate foreshadowing into dialogue.

--It can provide exposition and backstory...and you want to use this judiciously. Nothing will bore a reader faster than you using dialogue to tell your main character's entire life story. That being said, dialogue is a tool in which you can "quickly" give some additional information, such as backstory so that you won’t end up with long, tedious passages of exposition.

--It can develop a conflict and move a plot forward.

Another thing that dialogue can do is create a great hook, and there are some writers who try to create that hook by starting a novel or starting chapters with dialogue. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but a writer must make sure that that piece of dialogue used is stellar, that it provides enough context to intrigue the reader and make him/her want to continue forward.

I recently edited a manuscript in which the first two pages of the story contained nothing but dialogue with few taglines. As a reader, I had no idea where the characters were, I didn’t know the characters (thus, I couldn’t care for them and their predicament), and I didn’t know what the characters were doing. A reader should always know these things when reading a book.

Keep coming back…a few more parts to this talk on dialogue!

Let Me Tell You Something – Dialogue, Part Deux

To become a great dialogue writer, there are several things for you to keep in mind; here are a few:

1. Walking and Talking. Avoid having pages upon pages of dialogue with your characters being mere talking heads. Just like in real life, when people talk, they are often moving or looking a certain way. Take the time to think visually about the scene that your characters are in. What do the "silent" characters do as another is talking? Is the talker gesturing with her hands, pacing the room, rolling her shoulders to release the tension that's building inside her?

2. He said/She said. Many writers will attempt to go beyond "said" and use words like articulated, screamed, yelled, sighed, interjected. No one is going to think you have no talent if you only use "said". Here are a few other "tagline" tidbits: change up where you put your tagline (you don't have to place the tagline JUST at the end of a piece of dialogue). If a character has a long stretch of dialogue, don't wait until the end to drop a tagline. Place one in the middle of the dialogue. If you have two characters talking, initiate their dialogue with taglines and then drop the taglines. The reader will know who is speaking.

3. Characters' Conversation vs. Real-life Conversation. Many writers suggest that you should go listen to how people talk to each other. I, when I have the time, like to go to my fave café and sit and write and just listen to everything around me. Listen to how people talk, what they talk about, how they interact with one another. You want your characters to sound real; however, you don't necessarily want them to sound like "real people talk." What does that mean? Well, real people stutter and pause and um and ah and oh. To many, these are considered unnecessary and can look unprofessional when someone reads your manuscript. In a story, there is a purpose, a point, and with dialogue - as with any other fictional element - the goal is to write it in the most concise way to accomplish the goal and get the reader reading!

4. Despite number 3, it is still a good idea to study how people talk because you can determine how YOUR characters will talk. Will an auto mechanic and a high-maintenance partner in a law firm talk the same? Probably not. Depending on who your characters, you will create their voices, which should be distinct and separate from the voices of your other characters.

In Part Trois, I'll finish up the tips.

Let Me Tell You Something – Dialogue, Part Trois

Here are a couple other things to consider when writing dialogue:

1. Oy, Chica, Pa. Though you do want your characters to sound as real as possible, you do not want to rely on stereotypes to get your point across. Your character should be authentic and real-to-life. A person from the rural South would obviously sound different than a Yankee from Boston, and you would want to reflect that; however, you would want to avoid the hackneyed, clichéd terms of a type of person; don't pigeonhole your characters. Now, does this mean your Southern character can't say "fixin'"? That you can't have your Italian character get angry and go off on her mate in her own language? Obviously, the answer to that is no. It really is a fine line. I think a good question to ask yourself is MUST my character say these exact words. If you feel in your gut that there is no other way to state something, then go for what you know.

2. F*ck you, motherf*cker. Now, this comment might get a lot of people talking - well, good. Some say that it is best to avoid using a lot of profanity and slang in stories. Slang dates a work, and profanity may "convey" toughness, anger, but it can also be used as a crutch to avoid supplying great dialogue and action to convey the toughness and anger. Some writers believe that using slang in your dialogue is fine; it illustrates how the characters talk; however, if your narrator is not part of that "slang/profanity" culture, then you should use standard English in your works. Once again, I say understand your character, BE your character. What does he or she HAVE to say in order to get his/her point across and to move the story along? Figure that out and write it.

The important things to remember about writing dialogue are 1) your dialogue should have a point and do more than simply present talking heads and 2) your dialogue should sound real and authentic to your characters and the situations to which they find themselves talking.

Below are some books, articles, and sites that talk more about dialogue...

Writing Great Fiction - Dialogue by Gloria Kempton [link]

"Writing Great Dialogue" by Rob Tobin [link]

Let the Dialogue Speak [link]

The Writer's Writing Guide: Dialogue [link]

Writing Dialogue - from BookEnds, LLC - A Literary Agency [link]

What's Your Story About?

You’ve written a novel – congratulations! Believe me, I know about the struggles that writers go through putting pen to pad or fingers to keys. There were probably a million times you wanted to give up and walk away from your words. There were bouts of writer’s block. There was doubt. There were those who just didn’t get why you wanted to write. And despite these and other issues, you rose above them and finished a story from beginning to end.

Stop. Smile. Pat yourself on the back. Tell yourself you are awesome. Call at least three people to tell them the good news. Treat yourself to something special. Take a few days to put some space between you and your glorious words.

Then come back to the manuscript because there is some major work to be done.

Many new writers make the error of finishing a story, running a spelling and grammar check on Word, and then submitting the novel to agents and publishing houses as if the work is perfect. Many take a better route and at least send their work to be edited by a professional before sending it into the universe. Even though it is important to have at least one set of eyes – other than your own – read/edit your work, it is just as important for you to become a "scholar" in the craft of writing so that the material you pass off to an editor or an agent isn't ridiculed instead of praised.

So, tell me – what’s your story about?

If you plan to submit this work, pitch this work, and talk about this work; you need to have a clear and quick description of your work.

You should know your work’s genre: is it a romance, mystery, thriller, horror, sci-fi, literary, street, an urban, or erotic novel? Is it a combination of these genres?

In one clear sentence, state the following: (Title of Novel) is a (Genre of Novel).

Good – now you know the genre.

Now, you need to state what your story is about. Picture going to Borders – you’re rifling through books, reading back covers. Pretend your book is on the shelf. Pick it up. Flip it over. What does the back copy read?

Just flipping through ten books on my bookshelf, I noticed that back copy runs between 100 to 225 words.

The back copy contains the same information you’ll place in your query when it’s time to submit the work to agents and publishers: your main character, his or her want, the major conflict that prevents the main character from achieving the want, and a “twist” that arises and seems to forever keep the main character away from the want.

Here’s the book description of Victoria Christopher Murray’s Too Little, Too Late:

Jasmine Larson Bush returns to her devious ways in this tale of two marriages -- each threatened by lies and betrayal.

She took marriage vows to be honest and true, but Jasmine's still hiding secrets to keep her husband, Minister Hosea Bush, by her side. When Hosea's ex-fiancée, Natasia, suddenly appears in New York, Jasmine knows it's not a coincidence. A former manstealer herself, Jasmine is very aware of Natasia's motives -- even if Hosea is not.

Complicating Jasmine's life is the secret she's kept from her baby's daddy. Luckily for her, Brian Lewis has problems of his own. His wife, Alexis, is convinced he's cheating on her -- but Brian's real betrayal is much worse. Revealing the truth to his wife could lead him back to the biggest mistake of his life...Jasmine.

Two marriages are in desperate jeopardy. Will Jasmine be able to scheme to save her own? Or will she have to choose between protecting her past and compromising her future? Even if Jasmine and Brian find the courage to stop the lies, it may be too little, too late....

In less than 200 words, we know who the main characters are, we know what they want, we know what is keeping them from having that want, and we have a sense as to why they might never get what they want.

What is your book’s back copy? Write it. It might change after you begin the revision and editing stages, and that’s okay. On the other hand, having your story’s description can also help you tighten your novel by making sure everything in the story supports the “idea” behind your story.

Developing Your Writing Style, Part One

If I told you to develop your writing style, would you know what I meant?

If your answer is “No,” then this article is for you.

Here’s a quick definition of style: the way you put together a sentence or group of sentences.

The problem with figuring out style is there is no one sure way. It’s subjective. Depending on different forms of writing (essays, articles, stories, etc.) and different disciplines (science, art, humanities, etc.), style may differ.

To develop your writing style:

1. First, focus on YOUR STORY. What’s your story about? What themes are present in your story? Who are your characters? What is the tone of the work? Before you can even focus on the nuances of style, you have to understand your work as fully as possible. You are the creator of this work – no one else. Everything we are to know and believe of the work must be derived from you.

Once you have a firm sense of your work, focusing on the other tips can be an easier journey. Now, this doesn’t mean your story is PERFECT; it just means that you understand what you are trying to do with your creation.

2. Avoid WORDINESS. If you have a clear understanding of what your story is about, you can read your work to erase wordiness and leave your work with strong, concise prose. Wordiness includes clichés, qualifiers, and stock phrases. If you spot a cliché, ask yourself, “What am I really trying to say here?” By doing this, you’ll more than likely find a stronger way to write the line. Qualifiers are words like (very, often, hopefully, practically, basically, really, mostly) – they take a strong statement and muddy it with vagueness. By eliminating most of these, your writing will only improve. Stock phrases are groups of words that replace one or two words. Here are a few examples (the shortened version of each is in parentheses): Due to the fact that (because), Despite the fact that (although), In the event that (if), Concerning the matter of (about), It is important that (must). By continuously asking your, “What am I really trying to say here,” you can help eliminate many of these wordiness issues.

More tips to developing your writing style coming soon!

Developing Your Writing Style, Part Two

Last post from me, I wrote about developing your writing style and offered a few tips to help you on your writing journey.

Here are more tips to consider when you get before the page with the idea of revising your work to heighten the STYLE of your work.

1. Check your VERBS. Do this for two things: to have active voice in your writing and to create strong verbs. Readers expect to see ACTION in your story. They want the characters to perform, to act – not necessarily be acted upon. When characters perform the action, we have active voice. When the characters are acted upon, we have passive voice – which is seen with the use of “to be” verbs. Let’s say Stella is the main character of a story. If we write, “Stella was killed by the angry mob,” are we doing passive or active voice? If you thought “passive,” you’re right. We could make this a stronger statement by writing, “The angry mob killed Stella.” Look for “to be” verbs and “have” verbs in your writing; if you can find strong, more meaningful verbs to replace them, you can help develop your style and the strength of your prose.

2. Pay attention to WORD CHOICE. Listen to your work with your narrator’s ears; the words you use must illustrate the natural reflection of your narrator. Your words must illustrate the natural reflections of your characters, too. For example, most people talk in contractions. When I read prose that is full of “cannot” and “is not” and “do not” and “should not,” I hear elevation in the voice of the character, I feel a coldness, a stiffness to the character; it doesn’t sound real to me. At the end of the day, you want your characters and your narrator(s) to be as real as you are. Make sure their words reflect that.

3. Avoid STEREOTYPES. It’s easy to fall into the “stock character” trap. People in the hood act “this” way; whereas, people in metropolitan areas act “that” way. Black characters must be X, and white characters must be Y. Though some (and I’m part of that some) would argue that for every stereotype there is a drop of truth, using stereotypes shows that you are not using your creativity, you are not making your characters, your storylines intrinsically yours.

The last two tips seem silly, but you’d be amazed at how many writers DON’T follow them.

4. READ voraciously. Read, and read everything. Don’t just read the genres you write in. Don’t just read the genres you love to read. Read a myriad of things. We often develop our style – in the early stages of our writing – by emulating those before us. I adore Toni Morrison for her poetic style, and once in a blue moon, someone might find a line of mine that’s full of poetic verve. By reading, you can learn what you like and don’t like, and knowing that can help you focus your writing to where you want it to be.

5. WRITE. Write whenever you can. You can’t work out the bad things in your writing if you don’t write. Simply reading about how to be a better writer won’t do. You need to practice your craft, to have an eye for what to fix in your work, and then practice some more. Someone said “Practice makes perfect” for a reason.