“Show Don’t Tell”? Not Always. Here’s When To Use Summary.

Underwriting: ways to boost your word count

I wrote a fic recently and the word count for the first draft came to about 40,000 words – roughly the length of a novella or ficlet. And that’s fine because I wasn’t striving for a novel or a 100K slow-burn coffee shop AU.

But coming to edit my first draft I realised something about myself. I am an underwriter. My fic could actually be at least 10k (maybe 20k) longer. Of course it’s not all about word count, it’s about the story, but in this case a smaller word count isn’t because I’m a fantastically efficient storyteller it’s because I’ve missed out a lot of stuff. Like, Important Stuff.

So as I set out to add muscle to the skin and bones I’ve already created in draft one I thought I’d share five tips for my fellow underwriters to help you flesh out your writing too.

1)     Make sure to describe the place and space in which the action happens.

There are quite a few places in my first draft where there’s no indication as to where things are taking place– or there is, but it’s the bare minimum and not really enough to build up a clear picture. This probably because as the writer I know exactly what the place looks like so I make the assumption that a bare minimum description will mean the reader knows too.

Now I’m not saying go into masses of detail about what your settings look like. In some cases it’s not useful to describe setting in a lot of detail (e.g. during really fast paced action sequences) but doing a verbal sketch of the space is essential for putting your characters in context and reader understanding.

I really is a fine balance (which is why beta readers are your friend!) But definitely go back to your setting descriptions if you’re an underwriter, they might need some work.

2)    Make sure to describe your character’s appearance.

Similar to the above point – you know what your characters look like, but unless you describe them, the reader won’t.

It’s fair to say that descriptions are open to reader interpretations, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t describe them in a healthy amount of detail. So you might try to nail down some of the interesting quirks about your characters to help the reader build a picture – not only will it help the readers understanding, it’ll boost your word count too!

Note: This one functions a little differently in a fic because the readers are probably familiar with how the character looks, but there is nothing wrong with adding your interpretation (or even reminding them, especially if the characters are from a book.)

3)   Include character reactions outside of what they say out loud.

Real life conversations aren’t just about the stuff that comes out of our mouths. So much of human interaction is about body language – so include it in your writing! Saying that the character covers their mouth with their hand when they talk suggests shyness. While another character crossing their arms shows they’re defensive -perhaps because they’re feeling threatened. In real life we don’t always say what we mean – but a lot of the time our actions give away what we’re really thinking. By including these actions around dialogue writers can influence how we as readers view characters and how we interpret interactions between characters. And it can boost your word count too.

The big stuff:

4)     Check your pacing.

When you write it feels like your scene is taking place over hours, days, weeks because when you’re writing it takes time. Reading, on the other hand, is much quicker. A seasoned reader can fly through a 100 page novel in a few hours – a seasoned writer can spend hours writing a 100 words.

When you read back your writing, make sure to check your pacing. You might just find that the Impossible Task you set for your characters at the start of the story is suddenly resolved within the next fifty pages. To boost your word count you might want to start by adding more obstacles between the character and their goal.

For example; your character has to find an object such as a precious jewel. Sounds relatively easy, right? But what if the jewel is lost in the mines of an ancient people, amongst thousands of other treasures that look very similar? What if no one has found this jewel because it’s guarded by a fire breathing dragon? What if the ancient mines and dragon are located in a mountain which is miles and miles away across dangerous lands? What if your characters need to enlist the help of someone with a very specific skill set?

You take one simple objective (finding the jewel) and you put into play a series of obstacles that must be overcome in order to complete the objective. Your underwriting tendencies, like mine, might just mean that there aren’t enough metaphorical (or real) dragons in your story!

5)    Sub-plots.

A sub-plot is a smaller scale plot - often involving the supporting characters - which runs secondary to the main plot. It can be directly linked to the main plot, i.e. the info provided in the subplot directly influences events in the main plot. Or it can simply be linked through place, time or themes of the overall story (e.g. Hermione’s elf rights campaign ‘S.P.E.W’ in Harry Potter and the OoTP is linked to the overall theme of oppression.)

Sub-plots are great because they can serve as some respite from a traumatic main plot; your character is fighting a war (main plot) but also fighting and failing (in hilarious ways) to win the affection of their love interest (sub-plot).

Plus, sub-plots can also help with characterisation, can cause your main character to have the moment of realisation which allows them to overcome the obstacles they face in the main plot and is generally a better reflection of real life! Sub-plots often centre on side-kicks and other characters – people who might not be as devoted to the end goal as the protagonist is. In fact, well written side characters seemingly live their own lives with their own goals. You might choose to showcase this in your sub-plot by letting the conflict of interest cause more problems for the protagonist to overcome.

Either way you could find your word count sky rockets as soon as you add in a few clever sub-plots.

I hope this helped!

Got any questions? Send me an ask

WHY DO CHARACTERS MATTER? 

I’m a big fan of characters, obviously. (That’s not even all of my characters. I have two BINDERS worth of character sheets.) But why? Surely other elements of story are just as important, like the plot, setting, tone, etc. And they are! But I think characters are the most important aspect of the story, for a few reasons: 

They are the lens through which we view everything else. Characters color the world we create. Sure, you might write a world guide, but largely, we see the world through the eyes of the characters, so they have to be good eyes to see through. (Even if they’re blind.)

They can save a bad story. Not to say any of you have bad stories, but they can add something to a lackluster story that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Think about Bioshock Infinite. It’s one of my favorite games, even though the gameplay is okay and the story is convoluted at best. I praise it almost entirely for the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. They make that game, and if the characters (especially Elizabeth) weren’t as memorable as they are, I doubt anyone would really care much about Bioshock’s failed prequel. 

The more complicated and intricate a character, the more you can do with your plot. If you have a flat character, you can’t make them act. They can’t do much except react to the plot happening around them. But a complex character with a good backstory and interesting motivation will interact with the world and change things in it, which is the basis of plot. 

HOW I MAKE MY CHARACTERS

I’m going to walk you through my process, and hopefully do my best to make it easy for you to understand.

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Hey, a chart! This is inspired by an ask I got (I’m gonna be honest, I promised the person I’d tag them, but then sent the reply before I wrote down the URL. So, if I told you I was gonna tag you in this, tag yourself!!)

Give yourself freedom to create something different.

“The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance.”

— Richard Price (via promptly-written)

Wanderlust

I never wanted to leave

I've only ever know here

It's all I dreamt of

And now you want me to go with you,

Sweep me far away from the only life I know

The only life I ever wanted to know

And the scary part is

I want to go with you

— write-away-from-here

WRITBLR A-Z CHALLENGE

hi, friends! i simply cannot believe the amount of interest in this project!

and credit where credit’s due: i became exposed to the idea through @ibuzoo’s multiple [a-z aesthetic challenges]. i highly recommend following them, their graphics are always so lovely and i periodically look through their blog for inspiration. c:

anyways, i thought the idea seemed like a great way to explore themes and aesthetics for my project [holiest], and i made myself some guidelines/instructions when i started working on it. since so many of you are also interested, i’m posting them here!

GUIDELINES / INSTRUCTIONS

write out the letters A through Z on a paper or in a document, and brainstorm any/all words you can think of for each letter that relate to your WIP or project.

decide on a template. i like @ibuzoo’s idea of the 8 or 10 panel layout because it challenges me to come up with as much visual information for each word as i can. but it doesn’t have to be that many panels, it can really be any template or number of images you like! here is a link to [the template i use] by @dreamsymphony

gather your visuals! i like to compile images in folders on my computer or in pinterest boards. again, try to come up with as much visual information as you can. i also use this part of the process to decide on a color palette for each word.

start designing your graphic! and honestly, you don’t even need photoshop in order to do this. you can even use instagram and the layout app to make it!

optional: for [my own graphics], i chose to exclude characters and specific places, since i’ve already made a good amount of character moodboards and have a different project in mind for places. but you can use whatever options for words that suit you!

optional: to relate the words and aesthetics to my WIP more, i decided to search for the words in my draft to see the different ways they were used in my story! i will then choose one of the lines containing the word and use it as a caption. this also lets me know which themes i need to expand upon or include more about in my second draft.

and that’s it! feel free to add or change any of these to suit you! and anyone can do it, no need to sign up or ask to join! c:

you are also more than welcome to tag me (@sancta-silje) in your posts! all my reblogs go to @saintcherubim, and i absolutely will check out your graphics! :3 and if you like, feel free to tag it with ’#writblr a-z challenge’, i’m following this tag now and will peruse it periodically!

Building an Unforgettable Character

Character building is one of my favorite parts of writing a novel. I love seeing where they’re going to take me and where their journey is going to end up. Even though I plot extensively before starting a new novel, I always leave room for the characters to lead me somewhere new.

So, what’s the secret to building an unforgettable character? Here are some tips to lead you in the right direction:

They need to be relatable

If your audience can’t relate to your character, that’s usually a huge problem. We relate to characters like Harry Potter not because we’ve been to Hogwarts and practiced magic, but because we can relate to his pain and to his connection with his friends. He represents emotions that a lot of us have struggled with and he doesn’t quite feel like he fits in. His struggle to find himself is relatable.

Take some time to figure out what your character ultimately represents and don’t be afraid to bring emotion into it. We want to feel connected to your characters and we want to find something in them that matches something in us.

They need to be realistic

It’s important that your character’s actions should remain realistic. Not in the sense of remaining true to our world, but to theirs. Their actions should make sense in context to what they’re going through. If you’re constantly questioning why a character would do something because it just doesn’t make logical sense, you’ll have trouble respecting that character. It’s important that we understand their actions.

They need to be proactive

A good character is a go-getter. I’m not saying they will always make the right decisions or that they’re all good people, but all main characters/protagonists should be able to do things on their own. I’m also not saying they don’t need help, but they need to overcome the big challenges on their own or through what they’ve learned. They can’t just stand around waiting for everyone else to finish things. They need to take initiative at some point, and this should be due to their personal growth throughout the story.

I understand that this point does depend on the story you’re writing. Maybe your character is an unmotivated person. Maybe they’re lazy.  This usually doesn’t matter because a story isn’t interesting if that person remains inactive. They can have periods of inactivity and become unmotivated during parts of your story, but ultimately that does need to change at some point.

They need to have flaws

Flaws will humanize your character and are usually what stands in your character’s path to success. A character that does everything right all the time and doesn’t have any growth because they’re already perfect is VERY BORING. They should fail and they should learn lessons. I’m not saying all their flaws should be fixed by the end of the novel because that’s not how people operate in real life, but character flaws should help build interesting layers.

-Kris Noel

how to use three act structure in your writing

Ah, three act structure! While I learned about this in a screenwriting workshop as a method for constructing screenplays, the model has worked wonders for every fiction piece I’ve written and just about any modern story is constructed in this way. If you’re struggling in finding the arch of a story, this outlines it very well!

First of all, let’s cover the structure itself: i. status quo: how things are at the beginning of the story, before things change. Doesn’t have to be included in the novel/screenplay/etc explicitly, but is the ‘before’ circumstances. ii. inciting incident: this is where your story really starts! It’s the thing that makes things change, like your protagonist finding out they have super powers or that their best friend is in love with them. iii. plot point one: this is where the story transitions from the beginning to the middle section. After the inciting incident, the character reacts to that change, and this is the reaction. It’s usually a decision made by the main character and their final goal is introduced. iv. complications: fairly straightforward. When a goal is set, there are complications that come along the way. A good model to follow is three main complications, though it isn’t so strict. v. midpoint: the midpoint is usually the most emotional point in the story, aside from the climax. It can be either an extreme high or an extreme low, dependent on the ending; a story with a happy ending has an extreme high in the middle, but a bad ending has a very low point. For example, a superhero story where the protagonist changes the world’s midpoint might be a montage of the hero rescuing civilians, while a more disappointing superhero story would show our hero in a funk where he’s unable to save anyone. In modern film, a lot of midpoints are montages, but that’s not a set rule. vi. more complications: don’t think our characters are getting a break just yet! Generally, three more complications will happen post-midpoint– usually either continuations of earlier complications, or problems that happen as a result of solving those. vii. plot point 2: circumstances change yet again! This time, a big decision is made to resolve complications. It can be thought of as the inciting incident of the climax. Transition from middle to end. viii. climax: the most intense part of your story. This is where every complication, including the main complication, comes to a point and either gets resolved all at once.  ix. new status quo: same as the status quo, it isn’t always directly shown. It’s the way things are now, how things settle down after the journey our characters went on earlier. Should be different from the original status quo.

As three acts this is:

Act One: Before plot point one. It’s the beginning of the story, when things are beginning to change but haven’t yet. Act Two: Between the first and second plot points. The middle of a story, where action is happening and the story is in rapid progression. Act Three: Post-plot point two. The end. Things are settling down into how they’ll be in the new status quo.

For an example, here is a basic love story told through three act structure:

i. status quo: character A and character B are best friends. ii. inciting incident: character A accidentally discovers character B is in love with them. iii. PP1: character A decides they have to make character B stop loving them. iv. complications: 1— character A doesn’t want to lose their friendship. 2— character B doesn’t know why A is being distant. 3— A isn’t completely sure of their own feelings, and is feeling intense jealousy in their attempts to set B up with someone else. v. midpoint: character A realizes they have a crush on character B, shown via a montage of closeness and internal panic of character A. vi. more complications: 1— character A doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, now for different reasons. 2— character B doesn’t know why A is acting so weird. 3— A struggles to hide their crush well, even though character B is completely oblivious. vii. PP2: character A has enough of this, and decides to just tell B everything they know. viii. climax: character A arrives and character B’s house and confesses everything; they kiss. ix: new status quo: characters A and B are happily together.

OR

Act One: Character A and B are best friends, but A knows B’s secret. Act Two: Character A decides how to deal with B’s secret. In the process of dealing with this, A discovers a secret of his own. Act Three: A confesses to B, and B’s reaction is positive.

A few things to note:

Status quo and new status quo’s difference.

How the inciting incident leads into PP1, same with PP2 into the climax— I’ve heard it described as the inciting incident/PP2 being the pulling back of the slingshot and PP1/the climax being the releasing of it.

PP1 and PP2 are both decisions being made by our protagonist.

The similarities between the first and second set of complications. Essentially: 1– character A doesn’t want to lose B. 2— B is confused. 3— A is also confused.

If you set up your story with this structure, there will be drama and change. The main problem I find in the structure of new writers’ works is that either there is insufficient conflict, the conflict is too short compared to the story, or, after the solving the conflict, everything is completely normal again. With this method, it’ll be very easy to prevent that; if your story doesn’t fit this, it likely needs altering. The structure can honestly be difficult to understand, but watch a few films or reference previous things you’ve watched/read and find the structure— eventually, you’ll be doing it subconsciously every time you consume any media it applies to!

On implementing it effectively:

All three acts shouldn’t be given equal screen time. Generally, the ratio of Act One:Act Two:Act Three should be about 1:2:1 (aka, in a 100k word novel, 25k Act One, 50k Act Two, 25k Act Three), but that could altered (like in the case I stated— 25k of intro? No thank you). All the time, though, Act Two should be at least as long as the first and third act combined. All three acts are necessary, but I’ve seen some films with less than ten minutes of Act One where it helps the story.

When your story’s introduction requires much explanation or backstory, such as building a fantasy world or even a vital relationship between characters, it might be on the longer side, while a love story between two characters who are only just meeting might take shorter— it’s extremely dependent on the narrative itself and requires you, as the author, to gauge the situation and decide how it should be. Even with a structure as formulaic as this, writing is still an art that can never have any general rules applied to fit all situations. 

Good luck in your writing! My DMs and ask box are both open!

How to Handle Blocking in Your Story

Hopefully by now you know that in most of your scenes you need to have a character in a setting with tension, but there is an area of writing where I don’t feel like we spend enough time talking about, which is blocking. And I’m not talking about writer’s block. The term “blocking” is borrowed from play performances. Blocking is just about anything an actor does that isn’t dialogue: where they stand, where they look, how they interact with the setting, how they move across the stage, how close they are to what, how they interact with props. Often audiences pay little attention to blocking, or rather they don’t think about it enough to appreciate it. But if a play has little to no blocking, well, that’s a tough play to sit through as an audience. They may not always have an eye for great blocking, but they’ll notice if it’s not there. Blocking is just as important in fiction writing. And like with plays, it’s likely the reader won’t appreciate great blocking, but they’ll get antsy and annoyed if there is no blocking, and they’ll get confused if there is poor blocking. If you don’t use blocking, not only does it make it difficult for the audience to imagine where your characters are relative to the setting, but you’re selling your story short by not using it to your advantage. As an editor, I see blocking problems crop up from time to time, usually in dialogue scenes. The writer will tell me where the characters are (for example, cooking in the kitchen), but then as I read the scene, I get no sense of specifically where each character is in the room, what each one is doing, if they are standing at an island or sitting at the table, chopping lettuce for a salad, or loading the dish washer. Next thing I know, not only are they done cooking, but they are done eating and are outside getting in the suburban. Sure, some scenes don’t require much, if any, blocking. But in most scenes, you need some sense of blocking. Likewise, you can over-block a scene–putting so much blocking in, that it becomes unnecessary, sucks up the scene’s focus, and slows the pacing. A great narrative hand knows how much to guide the reader and when to back off. So let’s get to some tips about blocking:

Watch out for:

- Continuity Errors. One of the main problems I see with blocking in unpublished fiction is continuity errors. In one line, a character is sitting on a couch in the living room, and a few lines later, she’s sitting on her bed, in the same scene with no sense of motion. Often it can happen with objects characters are holding. Misty is knitting a scarf, but then a few lines later, it says she’s knitting a blanket. It can happen with food. Zack has a cup of orange juice, but later it talks about how he’s enjoying the taste of coffee. Watch out for when characters’ hands are full or when you have them doing something they aren’t capable of. For example, say it’s been recently established that Sandra glued back together two broken figurines and she’s holding one each hand. While she’s waiting for them to dry, she doesn’t dare put them down , and then suddenly she’s buttoning up the jacket of her little boy. What happened to the figurines? In some cases, motions can be assumed–but make sure they can be, or that you imply them somehow, so that it doesn’t read like a continuity error. Watch out for having characters sit down, who were already sitting, or characters standing up who were already standing. Characters who put on their shoes twice, or turn off the fan twice.

- Spatial Vagueness. I’m trying to decide if I see this one more than continuity errors … and I have to say probably. Another one of the most common problems with blocking, is vagueness. This usually happens because the setting, objects, or characters’ distances from one another or other things haven’t been properly established. I might get a line that says, “Joey walked down the street”–and as the scene goes on, I get no sense of what street, what city, what it looks like, what season it is, or where or why he is walking in the first place. Sometimes I don’t get any sense of setting and only conversations and body language, and next I know, I read the line “Tiff walked inside.” What? They were outside that whole conversation? And what did she walk into? When blocking is vague, the audience has to fill in the blanks, which can be a problem if it’s not what the author actually pictures. As an editor, this often happens to me. I’ll be picturing the characters sitting in opposite places in a living room, and then suddenly I’m reading how one put her arm around the other. In my head, they weren’t close enough to each other to do that. Use:

- Specificity. Being specific isn’t necessarily the same as being detailed. Details can help make something be specific, but they aren’t the same thing. And with blocking, in some cases, the more detailed it is, the more it hurts the story because it slows the pacing and changes the story’s focus. In my example above, “Joey walked down the street,” the sentence can be more specific by adding and changing a few words. “Joey walked down Mulberry Street, autumn leaves crunching under his feet.” In certain kinds of action scenes, it can be very important to be specific in word choice, and not in details. “Joey leapt for the fire escape.” “Margaret hit Lolly in the jaw.” But if you try to put too much detail into action, it can slow the moment way down. In some cases, it’s helpful to establish the setting before the characters start interacting with it. This makes the setting or “stage” more specific in the reader’s mind. They know there is a pool table and pinball machine in the room, so when one character slams the other into the pool table, it makes sense. Be specific, not vague. How much detail you include depends on pacing and the focus of the scene. - Blocking to contribute to or emphasize points. This is especially true for conversations. As an argument gets more intense, a character may invade the other’s personal space. If one character suddenly says something that makes the other uncomfortable, the latter may take a step back. If one character is vulnerable, whether the second draws closer or steps away can convey a lot. Of course, you can use setting and props to do the same thing. As an argument gets intense, one character throws something at the other. If someone is uncomfortable, she might put something (an island, a couch, a car, a teeter-totter) between them. If she’s feeling vulnerable, she might “hide” or “block” herself by getting a blanket, picking up a book to look at, or turning away from the speaker to pretend interest in a rose bush. When Sherlock gets frustrated, what does he do? He stabs the mantle. He puts a bullet in the wall. This is blocking that emphasizes and contributes to the situation or point at hand. Even in a scene where blocking is the primary focus (building an invention, competing in America Ninja Warrior, forging a sword, hunting), how the character interacts with the setting and objects can emphasize points–how tightly he holds a screwdriver, how sweaty her hands are against a climbing wall, the way he beats the metal, how many shots she shoots. You can also use blocking to heighten tension. “He picked up a knife and concealed it under the table,” immediately adds tension and anticipation to a scene.

- Blocking to Convey Character. Similar, yet different from, the last section, you can use blocking to convey character, rather than just the moment at hand. The fact that Sherlock stabs the mantle whenever he gets frustrated is something specific to his character. It helps establish who he is. And actually, that fact becomes specifically important in season four–when we understand that he, someone who is supposedly not driven by emotion, sometimes manifests more raw emotion than any one else. A character who sees litter at a park and picks it up is much different than one who adds to it. A character who comforts a crying stranger is different than one who ignores them. A character who always makes sure she’s near an exit is different than one who could care less. Blocking is great to show character and their feelings, rather than tell them. - Blocking to give motion to still or stagnant scenes. You may sometimes have scenes where all that really matters is the conversation between two of your characters, or maybe you need to have your character delve into a moment of introspection to solve a mystery. It might not matter even where this moment takes place. A lot of beginning writers will open a story with a character sitting and thinking. One of the reasons this is a problem is because there is no motion, there is nothing happening in the present moment. Use blocking to add motion. Instead of having your character sit and think, maybe you can have her catching insects for her bug collection while she thinks. Not only does this create more motion and interest, but also gives you material for the two bullet points before this one, so that it can actually add to the introspection and characterization. The fact she just caught a monarch butterfly might not be important to the main plot, but it tells us more about her, and in fact, you can even use that event and butterfly as a type or symbol of whatever she’s thinking about for added emphasis and tone. With that said, some conversations are very important, interesting, have high tension, or natural draws–they may have incorporeal motion–and already carry the audience, and sometimes when you put in blocking, it actually takes away from that, instead of contributing to it, by drawing away the audience’s attention. Their attention to the conversation is competing with the blocking. So watch for that. - Blocking for natural pauses, lulls in conversations, and for beats in dialogue. On the topic of dialogue exchanges, when there is a natural pause in dialogue or a lull in conversation, instead of saying “There was a moment of quiet,” you can put in a bit of blocking to convey that. “Forget it,” Fred said. “I didn’t want your help anyway.” Nancy looked down at the scarf she was crocheting and realized her hands had stopped moving. She put the scarf down on the coffee table, and flattened it out as she tried to find her words. “You like her, don’t you?” she asked. You can also use blocking for beats in dialogue. Rather than always using dialogue tags, you can use a beat to imply who is speaking what line. “Cedric Diggory was murdered,” Harry said. “Whatever you’ve been told,” Professor Umbridge said, “that. Is. A. Lie.” Harry shot up out of his desk. “It’s not a lie!”

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