Tuesday's Writer's Tip - A Bit about Beginning, Middle and End #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #writing

 When writing a story, do you need to know the ending when you write the beginning? Not completely but you will need to know which of the characters will reach his or her goal This fives the viewpoint to the story. So let's look generally at the three parts of a story.

The beginning should tell youwhat kind of story you are telling be it romance, mystery or one of the other genres. In the beginning the characters are introduced along with the goals of these characters. Who are they and what do they want? Also there should be a hint to why each one wants a special outcome.

In the middle, the characters approach their goals. They face problems about reaching their main goal. Small problems can be silved but always there's the driving force toward that goal. During this part of the story, there can be points where the characters may make a reversalBut pointing them back to the goal helps. Try to avoid having a character step in and solve everything. Miracles may happen but this usually causes the story to fall flat.

The end must be the logical outcome of what is shown in the beginning and the middle. This is the conclusion of the action and the promise of a satisfactory ending.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Plot #BWLAuthor #MFTWAuthor #writing #plot

Many years ago, I imagine perhaps 40 or 50, I went to hear a writer give an all day talk about writing. Wish I could remember his name but memory goes as one ages.  He said one thing that stuck with me "A PLOT IS JUST A PLAN."

I've been a writer for all those years and I've spent time with new writers. Many of them worry about the plot and sometimes make it so complicated it makes no sense. I repeat those words to them. I sometimes tell them to think of a road map when you're going from one place to the other. This is essentially what a plot is.

There is the Beginning. when you set up what the story is about. Is this a romance, a mystery, a look at history, a peering into the future or finding a place that doesn't exist. The beginning is when you introduce your characters and what they have as a goal. You might hit a bit on their reasons for wanting something but you may save much of this for the reader. In the beginning you need to let the reader know about the character's worlds and how they fit into this. So the beginning sets you on the road.

Then comes the middle and this is where the road may not be straight. There are complications that may set your characters on a different path for a time but they must come back to the original road or the story becomes confused. The middle deals with interactions and also with actions and reactions to what's happening to the characters. Sometimes the road goes straight up to that point where the end is in sight. Other times this is a rocky road with many twists and turns but as the writer you know you need to drive the characters back to the road and to that peak.

The end is where all the problems are solved and the characters find a satisfactory ending. Note I say satisfactory. This means the reader will smile and nod and believe the ending of the story. The ending of a book must be just right. Not too long and not too short. Too long bores the reader and they want to yell "get on with it." Too short leaves them wondering what really happened during the story. I've been guilty of both kinds of ending and often rewrrite this part many times. Sometimes adding words and sometimes cutting them out.

Just remember A PLOT US JUSY A PLAN> 

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip More on Openings #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Opening scene #writing

 You've now considered more about the story you intend to write but facing the opening of a book or story can be difficult. There are three things the first few  pages of a novel should do.

The first is to get the story moving, This can be hard. Some writers have a clever first sentence but so often the rest of the opening doesn't follow this sentence. There must be more and that is to show what kind of story this will be. Is it a romance, a mystery, a coming of age, a historical, a suspense or an action adventure. Is it fantasy or science fiction. The first few paragraphs should give the reader a hint to the kind of story.

The second is to introduce and show a picture of the main character. Since some has appeared to change this person's life the character must be shown. Not always through the character him or herself but at times from an observer. Creating a character the readers will root for is important.

The third thing the opening should do is to interest the reader and to make them want to read on. These three are important.

The opening can do more than these three things but those are the important reasons for getting the story off to a good start. This is for the very beginning the first few paragraphs or pages. I've been judging for a contest and am sometimes stopped since the writer may have done one of the above but not all three. More on how this can be done will follow in the next few weeks.

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Tuesday's Writer's Tip Revision - Beginnings #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Writing #Beginnings

When beginning a story, one must start at the beginning and also when revising this is a good place to begin. You want these opening lines to draw the reader in to read what you have written. There are some things to look at.

When I began writing I often started the book and finished the rough draft and went back to revise. One thing I had trouble with was finding the right place to begin. I often had to restart the beginning, sometimes in a different place or from a different character's eyes. Another problem I had was starting with descriptions of the character or the setting and forgetting about what would draw a reader inside. One bit of advice I heard from a writer years ago was to begin either when a change is about to happen to a character, in the middle of the change or moments after the change has occurred. Of course in the opening, you do need to give the reader a senseof what the story will be about and the genre you're reaching for.

The length of the opening matters. Too much description of places or people make the reader scratch their heads. Or to open with a huge cast of characters all talking about something can confuse the reader. Whose story are you telling? Another kind of beginning starts with the character waking up. This can be fine but going through every moment of him or her getting out of bed, going to the bathroom, dressing and you get the picture can bore the reader.

Overdoing the opening. Writing and re-writing the opening scene of a story can suddenly amke this too long and too detailed. I once had a writer friend who came to critique group and read the same opening every day for nearly a year. The opening had gone from a few pages to about fifty. Didn't leave a lot of room for the rest of the story.

Tuesday's Writer's Tip - In the Beginning #MFRWauthor #BWLPublishing #Book openings #Writing

The Hook - Every book should open with some kind of hook. An event has happened or will happen or is happening that changes the character's life. There are many events that can shape the book and carry the hook through the story. Let's look at one or two.

The change - The character has lost something important to them. A job, a loved one, a possession. Using this loss as a change in the opening scene, the character must come to grips with the problem and perhaps work out a plan to change the event. Their initial plan may fall apart but they are showing they want to move forward. The plan may undergo revisions or be scrapped for a new one. But the character needs to be shown they"re reacting to the change and taking action.

What if the change isn't immediate. Think of a teen starting a new school, someone facing an coming war or tragedy. The change looms and they must react to what might happen soon.

Perhaps we see the character during the moment of the change, How they act and react are what draws the reader to turn the pages.

I've just begun a story where the hero realizes a change must be made but he isn't sure of what to do. The first scene ends just as he decides where the road he needs to take will lead.

Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Pacing in the Beginning #MFRWauthor #BWLPublishing #Pacing #Beginning

Once the opening scene is finished, there are things that can improve the pacing. I've been judging contests for years and often the opening scene becomes slow and tedious or this scene goes so fast the reader had a problem knowing what is happening to who and why, Here are some things to make sure are happening in the opening scenes.

An opening can drag when you've put in every thing you know about the character's past. This is back story and will slow the pace and irritate the reader. If you need a bit here, make it short and perhaps in a dialogue sentence, internal or externl/

Does the book start with a bang. I once read one that began with a heroine's frantic run from a villain. Exciting but I really had no idea why she ran or even who she was. The scenes that followed didn't hold up to that exciting opening.

Once a book I read started with a battle with bombs exploding, people screaming, buildings toppling but the characters weren't there and I had no idea why this scene was there. If you're going to start with this king of bang make sure there is a character for the reader to focus on.

Then there are the openings that introduce a cast of character, so many the reader can't decide which character to focus on. Trying to bring all these characters on the scene at once will confuse the reader and  make them put the book aside.

So from the beginning of your story, pacing is important. Pacing is one of the things driving the book forward. Make sure not to bore, confuse or any of the other problems when opening your story.

Tuesday's Writer's Tip - More on In the Beginning of the Story #MFRWauthor #amwriting #openings

 Here's more on beginning your story. Remember, the reader wants to be entertained and there are some questions you should address in the beginning.

Where are you? The reader needs to have a sense of where the story is taking place and this is fairly easy to establish with some words. The city sidewalks burned hot enough to fry an egg. This gives you a sense of where the characters are and even the season of the year. Through out the opening scene bits of the scenery, the time and the place can be woven in.

Who are you? This is the character who in this opening scene is focusing on. The reader needs to get a sense of this person. So let's continue with the above The City sidewalks burned hot enough to fry an egg. Sally Stevens danced along trying to take as few steps as she could. The cracked soles of her shoes couldn't take much more of this. Now we have a person to focus on,

What's happening? This element needs to be shown as well. So let's put this in the opening. The city sidewalks burned hot enough to fry eggs. Sally Stevens danced along trying to take as few steps as she could. The crackes soles of her shoes couldn't carry her much further. Her breath came in rapid pants. She had to reach her aunt's house before her father caught her.

So now we have something to interest the reader to continue to read on. The opening here gives the reader information but also raises questions.

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Wednesday's Tip - More on Patterns

First a bit on Originality. Are there new stories? Probably not. What there are are writer's takes on stories that go back to the days when men gathered around a fire in a cave and someone told stories. What a writer needs to do is find their own unique way of telling the story. Learning about Patterns is one way of doing this. We were read to as children and heard all those wonderful fairy tales, some of them changed from their original pattern and sometimes not. We've seen adaptations of these classical themes in a variety of ways. Some author tales a story and adds a twist. One has to do this with care. Taking what someone has written and just changing the names and location is plagerism, but taking the basic pattern and using it in isn't. Perhaps a hard line not to cross. There's a lot of "fan fiction" out there that takes a writer's world and uses the characters to create stories. The problem here is when the writer of the "fan fiction" goes overboard and changes very little. I've never done this kind of writing but there are authors I have studied their works to look at the basic patterns and used these patterns to create my own world.

Basic patterns look at archtypes. There are characters who turn up in many stories and these are found in patterns from the beginning. Look at the use writers have has of taking the story of lovers torn apart by a family feud. This is a recognazible pattern but it's what the writer does with this. To copy long passages isn't where it's at. To follow the pattern blindly isn't where it's at. Taking a pattern and adapting it to your own work. We've been listening to stories since we were small. Finding the patterns beneath the story is where a writer should shine. Taking another writer's characters and changing little about their personalities is bordering on plagerism.

Now I've had my small rant let's look at the basic pattern of a story. Every story has a Beginning, a Middle and an End. Leave one of these out and you don't have a story. The Beginning is where the characters are introduced, setting is shown and the problem begun. The Middle is where the story has twists and turns with the hero or heroine sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. All this leads to the End where the problems are solved and a resolution is formed. A story with a beginning and an end is found odd by the reader. So would a story with a middle and an end or one that has just one of the three pieces of the pattern. As a writer I've probably done all of the above but then I've had to look at the story and decide what's wrong and then go back and make the changes so the story has all it's parts and has a pattern that flows.

Wednesday's Writing Advice - Strategy

Whether you're a seat of the pants author or a compulsive planner there are some points you need to consider when starting a book. Finding a middle path between the two styles is hard but it can be done. No matter what your style, there are two points of the story that need to be in your head before you can begin.

The first is the beginning. Now this doesn't mean the writer needs to know this as a specific scene. The need to know is the general event that triggers the story. Could it be a death, a disappearance, a disaster of nature. When sends the characters off on an adventure helps either style of writing.

The second is the ending. Again, this isn't a specific scene. What the writer needs to know is whether the story ends in happiness of tragedy. Knowing this will allow then to find the right words through out the story to bring their work to a satisfactory ending.

Once these two points are there the writer can decide if they're going to plan or they're going to just start writing, The trick to keep this going is to move from scene to scene rather than set your plan for the entire book in concrete or just go with the flow. Things happen during the writing of a story. Characters sometimes rebel about the direction they're headed. And this can happen no matter what style of writer you are. Flexibility is important.

For myself, I'm a planner, but I also do a lot of seat of the pants writing. I plan a scene or a chapter and then sit down to write it but when something takes a turn, I keep going and then change the plan for the next chapter. Another thing is that I'm a draft writer. For me this works. To sit and revise every scene before I go on to the next one would bother me. I need to know the whole story before I can go back and make the needed changes. That means planning again.

So no matter how you work, you need to have a strategy that allows you to finish the story. This is what I tell new writers when I'm involved in critiquing sessions. Finish the book. If you don't finish it you can never revise and revision is where the story becomes complete.