TECH: 10 Tips for a Stellar Revision (Moldy Oldie!)

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Original Posting Oct. 14, 2015

Writer's Digest, April 2003, pp. 24-27, had an article by Laurie Rosin with the title 10 Tips for a Stellar Revision. The focus was on 10 basic concepts to help you do revision. While the details are worth reading, here's a short summary of what I thought were the important points.

1. A revision takes as long as it takes. Don't get in a hurry. Relax, take your time, and see what you can learn from the process.
2. Revise toward a marketable length. Especially first-time novelists often write too long, and have trouble revising this huge mass of material. Think about cutting unnecessary material before you polish. Is everything as tight as possible?
3. Torque the power of your scenes. Scenes, characters, settings -- make sure it all works towards your story. Frame your scenes with a quick here's where we are, who's there, how much of a gap from the last scene, who is the point of view and what are they thinking?
4. Begin scenes close to the action. In media res isn't just for openings!
5. Tease the reader forward into the next chapter."Each chapter's conclusion should leave the reader excited, anticipating what might happen next. Good endings, linked to powerful beginnings in the succeeding chapter, keep your audience fully engaged." What is the protagonist planning/worrying about? What is the antagonist doing? Look ahead, but save the full impact for the next scene.
6. Replace discussion with action. Meetings and routine activities are dull. Skip it, and keep your characters in action!
7. Give your antagonist some depth. Bold, intelligent villains make heroes shine! What does he want, why, and what is he willing to do to get there?
8. Make sure your dialogue matters. Characters should talk like themselves, not all the same. Make the dialogue real!
9. Incorporate your research where appropriate. The job is inform and entertain. Help the reader learn something new, give them some fun facts, something interesting.
10. Dramatize, dramatize, dramatize. Make the events immediate and real. Watch for stretches of narrative without dialogue -- you're probably telling! Let the point of view character show us the story, instead of the storyteller.

Okay? So rvise. Revse. Revise!

TECH: Bad as He Wants to Be (moldy oldie!)

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Original Posting Oct. 20, 2015

Writer's Digest, April 2003, p. 28-31, have an article by Earl Murphy with the title Bad as He Wants to Be (which makes me think about a line from somewhere "Bad to the Bone!" Oh, no, google turned up the old rock and roll on YouTube, so now I've got an earworm... B.b.b.b.b.ad to the BONE!)

Anyway, Earl wants us to pay attention to the villains! That's right, the bad guy. "... the polar opposite. Either he has already acquired power and position and seeks to acquire more, or he is bent on maintaining some behavioral pattern that, if not stopped, is destructive enough to change lives."

So, what's the role the antagonist plays? Right -- force the hero to act, making the hero move! Powerful, aggressive, nearly invincible... driving the hero to transform, to become strong enough to beat those impossible odds. Make sure you know why the bad guy is doing this! "this person must be an individual who has made the choice to pursue the darkest elements of life."

Believably bad? Yes. To make them interesting, they need to be deep, complicated, and understandable. Sometimes having two (or more) bad drives can help -- which one is stronger?

Basic bad? Simple, well-defined? Take ye old western. That simple bad guy may not seem big enough for today's novels, but... it provides a pattern you can use where you need it. He needs to be good at what he does and driven to achieve those goals.

How do you understand bad? Get to know him. Why does he do these things? What gets under his skin? Read about real-life criminals and abnormal psych. Then pick and choose what you want to include in your story, so that we all know Mr. Bad is bad to the bone...

"If you follow through with everything you can must to make your antagonist real and believable, you'll discover that, quite naturally, he is also very, very bad."

Exercise? Well, consider the story you are writing. What can you add to make the antagonist a bit darker, a bit more real, a bit scarier? How does that make your hero react?

Did he really tie Nell to the railroad tracks? And kick the dog, too?

TECH: Swallowing a fly (aka a novel plotting method)

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Original Posting Oct. 30, 2015

First of all, the Mad Geniis (One genius, many geniis, right?) have been busy this week contemplating Nanowrimo. It is right around the corner, starting November 1, but if you are interested, take a look at their reflections on the issue, and then drop by nanowrimo.org and give it a shot. All you've got to lose is your sleep...

Now, over here

http://madgeniusclub.com/2015/10/28/swallowing-a-fly-2-how-to-plot/

The lady with the pointy boots provides us with a lesson on how not to lose the plot in the muddle, based around one of those odd old time songs that we all know, about an old lady who swallowed a fly (I know not why... Ezaferalderay?) That is the inciting incident! And from there... Well, she swallowed a spider to catch the fly, then... Yes, she swallows a whole string of interesting things, getting in more and more trouble. And that is what your plot needs to do to the main character. One attempt after another to solve things, but it just gets worse and worse!

Until, naturally, the climax. Which you might have been slowly building towards, with foreshadowing and clues and hints buried in the logical chain of disasters, or perhaps you prefer the sudden drop into deepest darkness, followed by a mirror moment when the character takes stock and decides to do something about it, and... We get a sudden turnaround, a breakthrough, and stand-up-and-cheer, he's back off the ropes and fighting!

Or something like that.

The key, of course, is that the little old lady swallows a logical, reasonable chain. She doesn't decide to swallow a bowl full of flowers. Nope, spider, cat, dog... Was there an elephant on there?

So, go check your chain of events. Does it follow right along, getting the character in deeper and deeper?

Good!

And by the way, if you are doing nanowrimo, just let the words flow. Remember the little old lady who swallowed a fly, and keep writing... Maybe she'll die?