Even knowing what I do about the Universal Story form and plot, or perhaps because of what I know about the Universal Story form and plot, I marvel all the more at the creative ways authors push at the edges, play with the unexpected, build excitement, and provide plot twists.Creative writing is an art. Writings' artists -- writers -- balk at structure and rail against limitations, discipline and order. (I've written extensively in earlier posts about the biology and rebellious nature of …
Writer’s Journey Mirrors Hero’s Journey
The middle of the Middle is the territory of the antagonists both for the writer and for the protagonist, too.Antagonists, internal and exterior, sabotage the protagonist from reaching her goals. The very same antagonists plague the writer as well. In the Middle, the writer begins to doubt herself. Her way becomes murky. She looks to others for validation. Old beliefs of not being smart enough, good enough, or productive enough turn from a murmur to a roar. She rails against never receiving the …
Writing Your Second Book
Yesterday's blog -- First Draft Twitters -- was in response to a writer who has written one very successful book and is now slogging her way through draft one of book two.I've found that for most writers Book Two is at least as difficult to get written, if not more, than Book One. Doubts about ability, luck, the depth of the creative well crop up more in draft one of book two.Same advice applies for draft one of any book -- just get it down. Can't finesse that which isn't written. …
First Draft Twitters
In my Twitter today I chose the wrong words.To be sure there is absolutely no confusion = when I say "Keep going back to the key scenes", I do NOT mean go back to rewrite the key scenes. NEVER GO BACK AND REWRITE YOUR FIRST DRAFT UNTIL YOU WRITE ALL THE WAY THROUGH TO THE END. (I apologize for the caps -- my zeal to make my point sort of looks like I'm yelling. Not my intention. I apologize.)What I meant to Twitter (or is it Tweet??), is that as you make your way through your first draft keep …
Backstory / Flashbacks
Watch your delivery of backstory ~ the story of what (in the past) made the characters who they are today (in story time). Writers want to cram everything right up front. "I know all their history, why would I want to withhold it from the reader?" "I wrote it that way." "It's the good part." Writers spend lots of time imagining and writing every little detail about a character's past, be it for a child or an adult. So, of course, writers would want to tell everything right away. Perhaps, in the …
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