Action-Tracking Outline: Best Writing Tool Ever

this is not your grandmother's outline

Not your grandmother’s outline Today’s post focuses on what I call the action-tracking outline, an outlining/tracking tool that might change the way you think about the “O” word. I’ve published seven novels with the big houses and I’m the author of two upcoming novels in their final stages of revision and polish–and this tool is one of the best in my writer’s toolbox. Yes, I’m talking the “O” word We’ve all heard the debate about ‘pantzers’ and ‘outliners’ and you can find many wise bloggers waxing on pros and cons of one or the other or both. That’s not what …

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Revising Your Novel or Memoir in 2019: 9 Must-Know Tips (Part 2)

help writing novel-revision

Want to start and finish your first, fifth, or tenth novel in 2019? Read on! In my previous post, I wrote about 1st drafts, and I shared my best suggestions for finishing draft 1 of your novel within 3 to 6 months (without losing your mind). Your 1st draft is the one Anne Lamott aptly dubs the “shitty first draft.” Give yourself permission to work quickly with forward momentum. When your 1st draft is complete: Set it aside for days, weeks, maybe even a month or more. Give yourself time to let it go and separate yourself. When you come back to the …

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Write Great Scenes to Build Great Stories – Quick Writing Tips

writing conflict

Action, Conflict, Scenes! Scenes and summary are building blocks of stories–both fiction and memoir. A scene is a piece of story action, rendered continuously moment-by-moment, without summary, but with action and, often, dialogue. A scene can be acted out on stage. She wants, he wants: Characters work in conflict. If they both want to go to the same party and they go, sorry, no conflict, no scene. In contrast, let’s say Joe and Suzy are on their third date and Joe wants to take Suzy to Dave’s party. Dave is Joe’s best friend. But Suzy absolutely doesn’t want to go to Dave’s party–Joe just pointed …

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Character Arc Transformation-Get to the Heart of Your Story

Get to the heart of your story: character arc transformation This simple exercise provides you with a powerful tool whether you are just beginning to understand your story, you’ve written a full draft, or you are somewhere in between. Take a picture Imagine your protagonist at the beginning of the story, just as it opens. Take a virtual photo of her/him–and carefully observe and study the details: expression, posture, clothing, surroundings. Is she alone? Is she surrounded by others? Is she smiling? Is she looking away from the camera? If so, what is she seeing?  What is she hearing? Is she holding something in …

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#NaNoWriMo2015–Get to the Heart of Your Story (writing tip #4)

When I’m drafting my novels I think in threes: first draft is fast and lean and messy (remember Anne Lamott and shitty first drafts); second draft (aka revision) comes after I’ve had the chance to take a breather and then give my book a focused read so I can sense what needs expanding, cutting, honing, deepening, this time moving at a slower pace–remember that revision is seeing again with fresh eyes; if all goes well my third draft is about “housekeeping”–tidying up, freshening up, tossing out, and adding the final touches. When I speak with writers, some new to the …

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The View from Here: One Writer’s Thoughts on Viewpoint Any in-depth discussion of viewpoint or point of view (POV) is a complex undertaking because viewpoint is perhaps the most intricate element of fiction. Because in this blog, I aim for simplicity, I will cover a few basics, and, with the examples interspersed, encourage you to register and reflect upon your impressions. For the moment lets consider point of view as the person and perspective used to narrate the story. More simply yet profoundly put by author and teacher Janet Burroway, viewpoint is the vantage point from which a story is …

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The Loose Novelist

This advice from Alan Watt’s wise how-two, THE 90-DAY NOVEL: “I didn’t try to figure out the ending, but rather, imagined a sense of my hero at the end of the story. How was he relating differently to his father? What had he come to understand as a result of his journey? How was the dilemma resolved? What was the visual metaphor, the image that captured the essence of my story at the end? As I pondered these questions, ideas came to me, and I realized that they were a goldmine of images for what preceded the ending. Imagining our …

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WORD PLAY

Every writer knows word play is addicting. And, happily, readers flock to those writers who express themselves with originality and authenticity. By that I mean, the images evoked are vivid and often surprising, and the words feel “right” for the narrative world they bring to life. My seven-year-old daughter and I are currently enjoying the series, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. We look forward to our nightly installment, and always we end up laughing out loud. Today’s playful description comes courtesy of Cressida Cowell, the series author, and Toothless, Hiccup’s tiny and sleep-deprived dragon: “Toothless crawled up from his place …

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Life of Fiction

From Kenneth Atchity’s A WRITER’S TIME: Fiction isn’t identical with reality. Instead, dramatic fiction gives the impression of reality. Aristotle described it as an “imitation” of action. In many ways we prefer the imitation to reality. Fiction has a definable shape, a satisfying closure. When you read a good book or see a good play, you walk away with a feeling of having experienced something definite, something conclusive. Unfortunately, life itself doesn’t often provide such a well-rounded feeling. We go to the theater or the bookstore to find fictions that are philosophically, morally, or dramatically more meaningful than those we …

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Fiction, the Mind, and Ghosts

“So far we’ve looked at two places where you can put the character emotion you’ve stripped out of your dialogue mechanics–into the dialogue itself and into the language of your descriptions written from an intimate point of view. A third place is interior monologue. Movies and television may be influencing writers to write more visually, using immediate scenes with specific points of view to put their stories across. But fiction can always accomplish something that visual media will never be able to touch.” From Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King In other words: The fiction writer …

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