Hello! Hello! Last time I was here, I introduced myself and touched on what I’d be posting. Today I’m gonna give out some advice to new writers. I hope this helps someone out there. J

Have you ever heard anyone say that they could be a writer if only they had the patience? Their nonchalant tone makes it sound like writing is the easiest thing to get into and make a living at, don’t they? I’ll agree that patience is part of being a writer, but the same goes for being a parent or teacher and those aren’t easy jobs.

I’m willing to bet that those who think they can just pick up writing and treat it like second nature most likely couldn’t write out a story if they did have the patience. Why? Because writing isn’t easy, and although we do all have a story to tell, writing for others is much more than simply jotting down words. Real writing is an art form that takes skill and imagination, even in nonfiction. Writing is a delicate dance that requires coordination. Sure, anyone can write, but only true writers can puzzle together a tale worth telling. Granted, writing rules have been bent, if not broken by big-name writers, but their big-name writers and they can get away with it. You can’t. Hell, I can’t either.

As a writer, ask yourself these types of questions:

Do you know how to stick to a POV?

   Is your fictional world believable?

Can you see your story as your readers would?

Are your characters memorable? Do you portray them to be loved, likeable, tolerated, or hated, depending on what that character’s purpose is in the story?

Does your story make sense?

Do you show and not tell?

These are just some inquires to ask yourself when writing for publication. Let’s start with POV, point of view.

Within every scene in a book it’s usually seen through the eyes of a character. (A) Meaning singular. How does that character perceive the world around him/her? What does that character see, feel, and know? Example, if one character is a stranger to the character in POV even if said character had already been introduced to the reader, his or hers name shouldn’t be mentioned until the name is reveled to the character in POV.

Example:

Jaeden entered the dinner and saw Robert sitting at the corner booth. He seemed distracted by his Smartphone. She approached with her hand on the Colt Special hidden under her coat.

Chapter 14

Robert was too engrossed in searching for the best way to get back on the freeway on his Smartphone to notice the woman sitting down across the way from him. He turned his chin up to her and asked, “Uh, can I help you?”

The woman stared at him a long moment, her cool eyes radiating with malice.

“I’m Jaeden, Kim’s sister. You and I need to talk.”

“I’ve got nothing to talk about with you,” he said coarsely.

Something clicked from under the table.

“Me and my Agent .45 says we do.”

His phone fell out of his hand when realizing the trouble he was in. Jaeden stood with her hand under her coat. “Let’s go.”

See? Jaeden’s name wasn’t known to Robert until she said it herself.

If a POV change is required there are a couple of ways in doing so. One is to start the new POV by beginning a new chapter. Another is to simply put a couple of spaces between POVs. Sometimes adding *** or some other symbol will also suffice.

The point is, make it clear which character’s POV the story is in. Here’s an example of POV change in The Warning.   

Osborn left Grant without the captain even noticing. He raced around to the side of the building, where the SWAT team came around the corner. “Get back in there.”

“We were told to stand down,” the team leader said.

“I’m the boss, and I say get your asses in there and flush those rats out!”

The man shrugged. “All right.” He motioned for his people to follow him back around to the garage.

Osborn’s phone rang inside his coat pocket. “Osborn … Hey, Shaw. You got ’im? … All right. Has he confessed? … What? Get ’im to my office now.” He hung up before Shaw could reply.

As Quill pressed buttons on the assembled machine inside the storage container, Dog and Ari remained fixated on their monitors.

“Shit!” Ari blurted.

Kip shot his gaze over to a team of well-armed SWAT personnel rushing to the garage door. Sparks flew from a ball of bright light as one of them used a blowtorch to cut their way in. Once through the door, they would have a clear passage into the garage, where they could break down the inside door and swarm the bank. This tactic, approved by the More Aggressive Law, was highly dangerous for both suspects and their hostages.

“Damn it, they’re busting in again!”

“It won’t be long before they get inside,” Ari said.

* * * * * * *

Grant came to his senses. Acting brain dead wasn’t going to save his daughter. He got on the radio to speak to the SWAT team leader. “Derrick, come in,”

“Yes, sir.”

“Where are you?”

“At the garage.”

“What the hell are you still doing there?”

“We got orders from the chief to proceed with the raid.”

Grant’s heart stopped cold. “Abort! Abort!”

“But the chief …”

“The subjects know you’re there,” Grant shouted. “They can see you from inside!”

  

(END)

These different POVs are clearly separated. Still, you wanna keep POV changes like this to a minimum. Don’t (Romney) your book by flip flopping between POVs within too many scenes. Try settling on one POV for a good chunk of your chapters.

Is your fictional world believable?

Creating is fun, yeah? Spawning something right outta your head is an awesome experience. But does the story work? Let’s say you build a fully functional R2 unit from scratch. When complete, does it move? Does the head swivel from side to side? Does it make beeping sounds? If not, what went wrong and how is it fixable?

Building an R2 robot and creating a fictional world is pretty much the same thing. Even though this fictional atmosphere is completely made up, or partly fabricated, it still needs to be believable. Your readers must feel like they’re actually in that very world and that the characters can interact in it as realistically as you do in your own. Otherwise it won’t work.

Can you see your story as your readers would?

Keeping your readers in mind while writing isn’t a bad idea. Writing for yourself is wonderful, if not cathartic, but when constructing a story for others, try and maintain a level of an outsider’s perspective. Remember, just because you know what something means, or how something works, your readers may not. Try to make your point clear without bogging the story down with an ass load of information. Trust me, you might think you’re coming off as smart and informative, but by throwing in too much, you’re boring readers to death, which may cause them to rise as the living dead and start a zombie apocalypse. Okay, maybe that’s being a tad dramatic.

In one scene of my short story, Movie House Murder there was a film splicer involved. I wanted those who didn’t know what a splicer was or its function to understand, so I put in a long boring description about it. After a friend/beta reader of mine gave me some sound advice, I ended up tossing out the whole bit. After all, I was writing a story, not an instructional manual, right? The scene was summed up like this: 

“Hold this,” Vic ordered, handing something over to her.

She took hold of the object so that Vic could set his laptop down on the table.

“What the hell is this?”

“It’s a splicer.”

Alicia studied it as Vic logged onto the Internet.

The splicer wasn’t large but it was heavy and awkward looking, with a small slanted cutter that resembled the blade of a Guillotine.

         There. Short, sweet, and to the point. A brief description while keeping the reader in the story: priceless.

Are your characters memorable? Do you portray them to be loved, likeable, tolerated, or hated, depending on what that character’s purpose is in the story?

Good memorable characters are a must to any story. When you think about The Dark Knight, what’s the first character that sticks out? The Joker, right? Why? Not just because of Heath Ledger’s superb portrayal of the villain, but also because he had rooted himself into the origins of the Joker character. Because the Joker is such a memorial character he’s usually the most thought of in the whole batch of the Batman villains. I’m not saying the movie wasn’t great, ’cause it was, but it was made even better with Ledger’s brilliant performance of bringing out the true nature of such an amusing and fearful criminal. Another example is Crowley, the demon in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s novel, Good Omens. For me, Crowley stuck out more than anyone else. This character was entertaining as well as funny, and for being a demon he wasn’t such a bad guy. The entire book is loaded with memorable and unique characters, but for me Crowley stood out from them all.

Now imagine a handful of creative and yet believable characters in your book! I’ve read books and seen movies with bland or typical storylines, but it was the characters that intrigued me enough to see their story through. Don’t get me wrong, storyline is very, very important, in case you didn’t already know. It’s a double edge sword, if you think about it. A good story with forgettable characters will only keep your readers half interested, as well as a hum drum, or even lame storyline with entertaining and creative characters. You want an awesome storyline with awesome characters, therefore guaranteeing readers to come back for more.

Does your story make sense?

It can be tough to write and to keep up with all the little details along the way. That’s where re-reads and reliable beta readers come in handy. Typos and grammar is one thing, but does the story make sense? Such as do your characters act appropriately in their situations? I once beta read a friend’s story and in one scene two friends are in a bookstore and one girl watched as her friend got sucked into a magical book. What was her reaction; panic, shock, disbelief? No, she cracked a joke and it wasn’t until way later that she went into panic mode. It’d be different if getting sucked into books was a common occurrence for them, but it wasn’t in this case and so the comical reaction didn’t make sense. While doing a read through, make sure that the killer has a knife, not a gun unless it’s written that he switched. Take down notes as you go. Make sure the goals of your characters are creditable to the story. Don’t have someone start off on some kind of journey or task that has nothing to do with the plot, or worse, send this poor sap off and not mention him again. I’ve seen character just drop off from the storyline without any conclusion, leaving me to say, huh?    

Just make sure that everything you put in has a purpose to the story, otherwise why write it?

    

Do you show and not tell?

What sounds better to you?

An oak table sat in the center of the room with a scroll on it. I set the lantern down next to a map, pinned on each corner by a Mora knife. It was a map of the Atlantic, although many Caribbean islands were missing. There were over seven thousand islands in the area, but the map showed no more than two hundred. Even the Gulf of Mexico—the ninth largest body of water in the world—was missing, and Cuba was listed as Isla Juana. The date in the right-hand corner read 1804.

If the ship and everything on it was really two hundred years old, why did it all look brand new?

Or…

I saw an oak table sat in the center of the room with a scroll on it. I set the lantern down next to a map, pinned on each corner by a Mora knife. I saw that it was a map of the Atlantic, although many Caribbean islands were missing. I knew there were over seven thousand islands in the area, but the map showed no more than two hundred. Even the Gulf of Mexico—the ninth largest body of water in the world—was missing, and Cuba was listed as Isla Juana. I read that the date in the right-hand corner was 1804.

I wondered if the ship and everything on it was really two hundred years old, why did it all look brand new?

      I don’t know about you, but I felt more into the story with the first example. Even though the POV belongs to the main character, having him say, I saw this, I felt that, I smelt something, is redundant as well as annoying. First off, we know he can see, feel, and smell. It doesn’t need to be interrupted so much. Secondly, by simply showing what’s around the character instead of adding his five senses, the reader will be more drawn into the scene and feel that they’re part of it.     

Another example:

Telling— The deck was decorated in lights. It confused me because there was no electricity.

Showing—The deck was decorated with a web of lights strung overhead. Some were party lights of various colors; others little square glass lamps, each lit by fire.  Yet, torches tied to the railing provided the most light.  Why fire and no electric lights?  Probably because an old ship like this had no way to charge batteries.

See the difference? Just think of it as a beautiful person with nothing interesting to say. “Shush. Show, not tell, my sweet.”

These are just some things to keep in mind. A great way to sharpen your writing skills is to join workshops and critiquing groups. Two that I highly recommend is Critters, www.critters.org that offers critiquing and other helpful resources for writers. The other is Wolf Pirate, http://wolf-pirate.com, which offers a workshop class that allows a one-on-one with an instructor. Check out their creative writer classes as well. Very helpful. Both of these are not only useful, but FREE, and you’ll befit so much from them.

I hope my advice helped. If there are any questions, please email them to me and I’ll answer them as best as I can. Chat at ya soon!

P.S I’ve just released my short story collection, Spine Shivering Stories! now available for FREE at Smashwords.