Why Is Everyone's Stomach Clenching?

By Julie Daines

I've been thinking about physical clichés a lot lately. And by thinking about I mean battling with.

There's this kind of evil Catch 22 thing with show don't tell. We don't want to say our character is mad, that's telling. (I was so mad = telling.) So we try to show it. But then we're stuck with a physical cliché. (I clenched my fists = physical cliché.)

So we swing back to the telling, only we try to make it sound better. (Red hot anger pulsed through my veins = fancy telling.) What's a writer to do?

I wish I had an easy answer. But writing is hard. And good writing is really hard.

We've got to figure out how to show our character's emotions in other ways that are subtle and yet get the point across.

Here are a few ways to accomplish that, but they are NOT the easy answer we're all hoping for.

• Well written dialogue can carry a lot of emotion. 

• Well written interiority will open the door to a ton of emotion--especially if that interiority includes motivation. If the character's motivations are clear, we will already know exactly how the character will react to any situation.

• Use an objective correlative. See my post here. If you don't know what that is, you really need to, so go read the article. But like most things, less is more, so don't overuse the objective correlative.

• Avoid naming emotions. See more tips about that here.

• Read. Read the good books that expertly accomplish the show don't tell rule. And look out for physical clichés and other forms of telling as you read.

• There is a place for some description of physical emotions. Just be sure to use it sparingly and judiciously. And avoid the really overused ones. (Stomach, jaw, or fists clenching, tears, all manner of breathing and heart pounding...) On the Bookshelf Muse blog, they have an Emotional Thesaurus. This can be useful for finding a less cliché way to show a physical reaction.

Those are a few I thought of off the top of my head. What are your suggestions for avoiding physical cliché? 

Julie Daines

A Blind Eye (Feb 2013)

Is Your Writing Too "Tell-y"?

By Julie Daines

Show don't tell. It's a phrase we hear over and over again. But how can you know if you have too much telling and not enough showing?

Here is a quick list of signs that indicate you are telling instead of showing:

* Using too many adverbs. A few well placed adverbs are great. Less is more.

* Using inactive verbs. Such as to be, including was, am, is, are etc. "She was running through the trees" is weaker than "She raced through the trees."

* Using look or feel. A sign that you're taking the easy way out. "Angie looked sad" or "Mark felt tired" are both weak and telling. See my post on never naming emotions and using an objective correlative instead of telling.

* Using cliches. "flashing a perfect set of white teeth" or "steely gray eyes" tell us what the teeth and eyes look like, but not anything deeper about the character. Find a better, more meaningful way to show it. A way that makes us care.

* Too many adjectives. Just like with adverbs, less is more. Find a better way to write description. When in doubt, limit description passages anyway.

This list is from author Deborah Perlberg's book Writing for Young Adults.

What is Fiction with VS Grenier

I loved how the ICL broke down what fiction is to a writer when I first began my journey down the world of ink. They say, “Fiction is something made up—a story that originates in the mind of its creator and is then set down in writing. The whole idea is to use language in wildly creative ways, invent incredible worlds and develop wonderful—sometimes crazy—characters and plots.”

Simply put, fiction is based on facts or circumstances from our everyday lives. You can use memories, real events or even elements of facts you have learned in school, from an article, documentary or book, however, fiction only has touches of truth. The rest of fiction is an altered reality that seems real, but isn’t. Things happening can be plausible or not even possible as long as you can get your reader to believe in what is happen and suspend their disbelief.

Types of Fiction

When you begin shaping your story, keep an eye on the end product—genre of fiction. Is it an adventure? Sport story? A mystery? Comedy? Fantasy? A mixture?

• Real-life fiction—Contemporary characters coping with problems, from everyday concerns to serious moral and social issues. Can be set in any historical backdrop to present day.
• Multicultural fiction—Ranges from contemporary stories with ethnic elements to folktales and stories set in other lands.
• Adventure—A quest, a flight, a challenge and plenty of obstacles along the way. The emphasis is on the fast-paced action.
• Sports—What it takes to win, what it means to lose—in the context of a specific sport, specifically presented.
• Mystery and Suspense—Puzzle solving in all its forms, from small backyard mysteries to real-world crime; though without depictions of actual violence except at the older teen to adult level.
• Romance—Classic plots using authentic details of today’s culture and often bittersweet rather than happy endings.
• Humor—Amusing characters and situations, quirky plot twists, neat resolutions. Humor that builds—not jokes or one-liners.
• Fantasy and Science Fiction—Instant make-believe, invented worlds (whether past, future or extraterrestrial) for all readers. Highly appealing to YA and under readers.
• Historical Fiction—Believable characters, a good story and imaginative research can bring even the most distant time and place alive.
• Animal Stories—A beloved genre that’s been updated to stress documented animal behavior and habitats. Animals-as-humans remain fine story characters for young children; for older readers, realism in depicting animals is necessary.

Understanding the different types of fictional genres is important so you understand how much you need stay within our reality. 

Let’s look at Harry Potter for a moment. The story is a fantasy, however the story always starts in London—a real place and within our reality to a point. The “Magical World” of Harry Potter normally happen when he gets on the Hogwarts Express or enters into the Leaky Cauldron. However, some magical things do happen while Harry is in “Our World” and these things are easily explained away in the readers mind as “magic” so they are able to suspend their disbelief. 

But if you look deeper into the Harry Potter story you’ll notice it’s more than just a fantasy. You also have Romance, Humor, Sport and Multicultural elements as well. To make a great story, you’ll find there is always a blending of fictional genres. This makes the story come alive and believable to the reader.  

Writing prompt

Look at each sub-genre of fiction and write the FRIST word that comes to mind. Take those words and brainstorm a story idea. This is call “Free Association”. Using free association can provide a great springboard to help stimulate your creative adrenalin.

What I Came Up With

If you want, use it as an idea started and see where it takes you. Or  do your own “Free Association”.

Real-life fiction—friendship

Multicultural fiction—New York

Adventure—Exploration

Sports—Baseball

Mystery and Suspense—Stanger

Romance—New love

Humor—Uneatable things

Fantasy and Science Fiction—Aliens

Historical Fiction—Baby Ruth

Animal Stories—Talking dog

I didn’t use everything I came up with, but here is the general idea that came to me.

A spot story set in New York City. The main character is an alien who was sent here to learn about Earth. He is in disguise as a human kid age 12, but looks totally different than us normally. He also has a companion who is a talking dog. The alien eats things that humans don’t eat such as paper or wood. He does make a friend with a kid who is loner but not by choice. They end up on a baseball team together and the alien because famous as a pitcher. This leads to more conflict as he becomes the first youngest major league ball player and he is worried the humans will find out who he really is. 

Of course this is all just random ideas I’m throwing out, but you see how one thing leads to another and then another? Now it’s your turn and remember, JUST HAVE FUN WITH IT. The actually plotting comes later. Just get your ideas down first.

BIO:VS Grenier is an award-winning children's author, founder & owner of Stories for Children Publishing, LLC., award-winning editor-in-chief of Stories for Children Magazine and chief editor for Halo Publishing, Int, and also, the host of the blog talk radio shows Stories for Children, Families Matter and What is Success on The World of Ink Network. Learn more at http://vsgrenier.com or at http://worldofinknetwork.com

 

Glueing It All Together

By Julie Daines

An element in story crafting that I frequently find missing is cohesion. Each story needs a few elements that bind it all together and carry the protagonist--and the reader--through to the end.

For some reason, I find that adventure type books struggle the most with this problem. Often, the main character sets off on the adventure, but it feels more like they are strolling through the zoo. They wander along the hero's path, going from one interesting animal (scene) to the next. It feels like a series of random events that happen to the main character.

So the question is, how do we keep our story unified?

There are many ways, but here are a few to get you thinking:

The Main Character's Goals Must Be the Driving Force: Whatever it is that the main character wants, that should be what influences all their choices and actions.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's goal is to go home. It is what motivates everything she does. In The Hunger Games, Katniss wants to protect her sister Prim. That is why she volunteers for the games, and that is why she wants to win the games, so Prim is not left alone with a wacky mother.

This is perhaps the most important element in cohesion. If your main character's object of desire (goal) is not present throughout the story, the reader will loose interest. Why is he/she doing this? If we don't know, we don't care.


The Threat of the Villain: Keep the threat of the villain ever present and constantly hanging over the hero's head.

JK Rowling did a great job with this throughout SEVEN Harry Potter novels, always upping the stakes with each one. Never once do we forget He Who Must Not Be Named lurking in the back of Harry's mind. And, every other "mini-villain" Harry faces ties back to Voldemort in some way, such as Draco Malfoy and Professor Umbrage.

And not only should the villain be always present, but the stakes. What happens if the villain wins?!


Keep the Main Conflict Front and Center: This is good for books that are not adventure stories and don't have a specific "villain," like Twilight. Not much happens in the story, but the conflict is always there, hanging over Bella's head--forbidden love, is he or is he not going to eat her.

These are only three. What other elements of cohesion can you think of?

Julie Daines
www.juliedaines.blogspot.com

Can Fiction Be Fiction?

By Julie Daines


I've been following the story of Greg Mortenson and his book "Three Cups of Tea." So sad. And yet, it is the perfect reminder to me of why I tend prefer the novel over nonfiction and memoir. How do I know what the author wrote is true? Everyone is prone to embellishment. But when it's out there in a book, it doesn't feel like embellishment, it feels like lies.

So then I started wondering ... is there room for embellishment in fiction? We watch TV and movies where stuff that could never happen happens all the time. And we say, "Cool! They just figured out who the killer is and saved the world based on a grain of sand." Or "Wow, that car just did a triple back flip over a cliff and the driver didn't get hurt at all." We accept it and move on. Maybe with film, seeing is believing.

It seems harder to get away with stuff like that in a book. I don't know why. Maybe the printed word carries more weight. Maybe we don't have that "real life" visual image to help us suspend disbelief. Instead, we read with skepticism, questioning the "reality" of what is happening in a book of fiction. Then we scoff and say, "Ha! I don't buy it."

Every genre of fiction has different standards of realism, of course. And things have to fit into their specific realm of reality--all with some sense of believability.


But it makes me laugh when a child looks up from a book and says, "Mom, I don't think a giant, poisonous worm would actually be strong enough to crack the mountain like that." 

So why is it that fiction can't just be fiction?