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2002-07-25 - 4:48 p.m. No writer is so accomplished that she or he couldn’t use a little improvement. We should all strive to be better writers, to change, to evolve, to gain something from all this time spent on the web, to benefit humankind, to save the world… whoops, got carried away. You might find you can churn out a pretty good story and get some decent feedback, but you’re basically the same writer you were two years ago when you started. And the question needs to be asked: How does one evolve as a writer? With the help of the Zenites I’ve collected some hints, tips, dos and don’ts that we hope will give you food for thought. 1. Change tense. Most of you probably know the difference between past, present and future tense. But, what the hell, here’s a recap: “She went to the shop” (past) “She goes to the shop” (present) “She will go to the shop” (future) (“she had gone to the shop” - past perfect with participle. Use with caution) The majority of fanfic is written in past tense. If this is you, why not try something different? You’ll notice a change in the mood and pace of your fic. 2. Change point of view (POV). “I will go to the shop” (first person) “You will go to the shop” (second person) “She will go to the shop” (third person) Most of us are used to experimenting with POV – but why not try mixing and matching POV and tense? For example: you’ll find second person and future tense go very well together. 3. Read Out Loud. Those of you who take creative writing classes have probably been told to do this. It’s a heavily under-utilised method for spotting run-on sentences and awkward syntax. When reading out loud, look for the places where the language doesn’t flow. It should be easy to read and you should be able to take breaths in all the right places. 4. Become Challenged. Zenites recommended challenges as a way of getting your mind to think along lines it doesn’t normally think along. However, you want a challenge that lends itself to something new. An example of this is the Wing Swing challenge set up for West Wing girl slash writers (/shameless plug). Being forced into a pairing caused some of the writers to think up scenarios and personalities that were perhaps not familiar to them. But you don’t have to have to be given a pairing to take up a challenge (although it is fun – and an easy way to think outside your normal parameters). Some common challenges that show up from time to time: Write the story from the perspective of a minor character Write an alternative universe (eg. what would have happened if Buffy hadn’t sacrificed herself at the end of “The Gift”?) Write a back-story for a character Write a crossover (always a challenge – and lots of fun) Challenges that require you to play with the structure of your writing are always excellent writing exercises. Be creative and imaginative with challenges – and if you think of any good ones, send them to me! 5. Play With Time. It isn’t always necessary to write a story chronologically. I’m a big fan of the flash back or even the flash forward – or even the jumping around all over the place. This can be played with. Start with the past, jump to the future, jump to even further in the future, and jump to the past again. Start in the future, jump to the past, jump to even further in the past, jump even further back… (you get the picture) wind up in the present. And remember it isn’t always necessary to signpost what you’re doing. Readers like a little mystery. Write your story without identifying the jumps, and hand it to a reliable reader. If she or he doesn’t have a problem with the jumps then go with that. 6. Take Notes. Most people will refer you to a good writer in order to derive pointers on how to writer, but do you really know what you are looking for? What makes a good writer good? Some things to look for: How does the author set the scene? What did the author do that let you know where the characters are and what they are doing, how they felt? Later in this article one of the Zendom members suggests taking coloured pens to your own writing, I recommend taking coloured pens highlighters to someone else’s writing. Highlight every time the writer tells you how a character is feeling, highlight every time the writer tells you where the characters are, highlight every time the writer told you what the character’s movements were. Look at the words used, look for uncommon phrases, look for ways the action is progressed (how did the author move the characters form their home to the bar downtown? How did the author change scene or setting?), look for ways a character is introduced. (Incidentally, I found this method particularly helpful for sex scenes!) And don’t just make a mental note –make notes on paper that you can refer to later. 7. Research. Know your stuff! Really know your stuff. Get a map of the area you are writing about (a Google search will usually find you a good one). Get a feel for the area by looking up the touristy webpages, check out things like population, industry, nightlife and so on. Research an issue, research some unexplained phenomena (helpful for Buffy and the X-Files), research scientific concepts such as wormholes and dark matter (used in Trek, Stargate, Farscape). A little bit of research can not only make your fic sound more credible but can actually inspire your story if you’re feeling a bit of writer’s block. Fanfic resoures: Harry Potter The Lexicon - http://www.i2k.com/~svderark/lexicon/ http://www.dreamwater.net/nomadsrealm/hp/hpsource.htm FictionAlley And also on FictionAlley: The Mary Sue Litmus Test Farscape http://www.snurcher.com/ - episode guides, annotations, cast & crew comments http://www.scaperoute.com/ - more directly fanfic oriented, with writing guides and interviews with fanfic authors on top of discussions of technology, genetics and other fun stuff. Stargate http://rdanderson.com/stargate/stargate.htm http://trickster.org/arduinna/stargate/main.html Buffy BtvS Writers Guild *Nsync http://www.squidge.org/~theforest/owlet/nsync.html - strictly *Nsync based and provides a lot of info on things like albums, band chonology, fanfic recs, pairing names etc. http://www.popslash.com/primer/ - has sections on both *Nsync and Backstreet Boys with info on both the guys themselves (stats etc), the bands and possible crossovers between the two groups. Trek - General The Official Star Trek site Star Trek: Voyager Delta Blues
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine The Deep Space Nine Encyclopedia Medical Log Supplemental
Star Trek: The Next Generation http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/st-tng/ Smallville The Smallville Fact Checker Quantum Leap Quantum Leap Cheat Sheet for Fanfic: The Waiting Room The Accelerator Chamber: The Professionals http://www.personal.u-net.com/~carnfort/Professionals/home.htm - essential viewing as it carries every single bit of info you could ever want to know about the show. 8. Get a Grammar and/ or Writing Guide. Do you know the difference between active and passive voice? Do you know what a qualifier is? Can you spot an ambiguous modifier? Do you know how to use a hyphen and a colon? A lot of good writers write by “feel” which means that a familiarity with language and syntax allows them to avoid common errors. Most of us do this to an extent. We know a sentence is “wrong” but we’re sometimes not sure just what is wrong about it. However, knowing what constitutes a grammatical error will help you spot the error and correct it. Zenites recommend: Unfit for Society (Links page) Writing Tips by Macedon (co-author of the classic "Talking Stick/Circle: Sugarquill's List of Common Mistakes And books: “Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. Really neat style, quirky but friendly, yet lots of meat on the bones, advice-wise.” “On Writing by Stephen King. He's the 500 pound gorilla for a REASON. As a fan of his, it was interesting to read (like a autobio of his writing life, but again, plenty of stuff you can take to the bank).” 9. Dos and Don’ts from the Zendom Mailing List
Dos “Write a page from the middle of a novel. In other words, you have one page, and it's the random page someone pulls out of a book - but it has to be complete in the sense that the reader knows *who* the characters are, where they are, why they are there, and what they are doing. A different kind of sudden fiction, if you will, as there are obviously events that happened before, and there are obviously things that will happen later. It's like just opening up a book and reading a random page. It's actually pretty tough, because you have such a small space so you have to restrain yourself from going overboard at the same time you have to have action! plot! character development! and dialogue!. It's a great way to write because you're jumping right into the action and forgetting about exposition and unnecessary detail. Everything that you write *needs* to be there. There's nothing useless.” * “Read something other than fanfic. Let your imagination run wild on a challenge, especially if it's out of the realm of what you usually write.” * “Think about pacing and structure. This doesn't necessarily require printouts and colored pens, but colored pens are fun. There should be a reason why things happen when they happen in the story, a point to when important information is revealed, some consideration of how a narrative climax is foreshadowed and constructed. This can be done in a lot of different ways, but it's nice if the writer has thought about it. If we find out important and mysterious fact A in the first few paragraphs, how long do we have to think about it and try to figure it out before we find out what it means? Is the most important incident in the story described in two sentences or ten pages, and why? Are there four more chapters after the main plot point has been resolved, and if so, what (on earth) happens in them? Is the regular appearance of a black cat significant, and how regular are those appearances, anyway? If the story switches between the POVs of persons A, B and C, it could be a good idea to see when, and how often, and if person C's POV is really necessary if there's only a two-paragraph segment of it. Or are those two paragraphs the hub that the entire story revolves around? If character A's segments are full of atmospheric background description and character B is more focused on events, should action sequences be written from character B's POV? Or would they have a more interesting effect from character A's? And will the reader need a slow scene to catch her breath between action scene 1 and action scene 2? The short version is probably, "Try to do things on purpose rather than by accident." Not necessarily at the planning stage, but at some point. I do a lot of "write first, figure out what it says later," which is why I'm a great believer in slow and thoughtful editing. Not everyone's cup of tea, of course.” * “The most useful piece of advice I was given when I first started writing was to stick to a single POV within an individual scene, or better yet, throughout the entire story. I know many of the so-called 'pros' switch POV's frequently, even within the same paragraph (!) but that's not the way to go. It's much more effective to have a single 'voice', than one which (to quote my mentor) 'hops around like a bad alien possession.'” * “The best thing I picked up from reading and classes is to think through very carefully which character's point of view you're going to use for a story. Some points to consider when deciding on a point of view for a story: -- Is there information that can only be revealed from a specific character's POV? -- Do you really need more than one POV to tell readers the story effectively? And just a general observation: many times, the best POV to tell a story from is that of a character who knows the least about what's going on, because then the readers can discover what's happening along with that character. Digging out one of the books I have on writing (Writing Fiction (4th ed.) by Janet Burroway) - here are the questions about point of view she says writers must answer to themselves before writing on the story, with summaries of what they refer to: -- Who speaks? This is where the choice of person is made - first person (central narrator, peripheral narrator), second (you-as-character, you-as-reader-turned-character) or third (omniscient, limited omniscient, objective). -- To whom? The reader, another character or characters, or to character's self. -- In what form? What style is the narrative portraying? (Written story, spoken story, reporting, oratory, internal monologue, journal, confessional, stream of conciousness, etc.) -- At what distance? How far away from what's happening in the story are readers? Do readers completely identify with a character? Are they removed from the characters by the presence of the narrator? Distance is also present in these forms: temporal, spatial, moral, intellectual, aesthetic, physical, educational and experiential. -- With what limitations? Is the narrator reliable or unreliable?” * “Throwaway comments, or a single scene idea. I keep a notebook and scribble ideas into it.” * “Talking heads. It's easy to get going with dialogue and forget they have bodies with which to move and gesture, and a setting with which they should interact once in a while. I'm prone to it. I've seen instances of "stapling" scenes at the beginning and end - a paragraph of setting info at the front, lots of dialogue, a paragraph where everyone leaves or exchanges looks, end of scene. There's a lot you can convey with a gesture or a silence or interaction with a prop.” * “I carry pen and paper everywhere, discuss plot bunnies in my head during boring work hours write them down as soon as I can. At the moment I'm filling a notebook with HP background info. Most of it I won't use, but there might be a great line or two to throw in. Believe it or not, discussing plot/ideas with non fanfiction writing people, has been fruitful. My mother and my boyfriend have strange and vivid imaginations, and have both caused me to write certain stories.” * “Listen to people. Listen to how they talk, and watch what they do while they're talking.” Also, a line in an interview or another story or just in conversation can totally strike me and send me off - especially a misheard or misunderstood line. I also second the person who said read things out loud – especially dialogue. If it trips up your tongue or sounds like it's been written, scrap it and start over. While people in stories are slightly less prone to stutter and stumble as they speak, they should still resemble real, live people and not mouthpieces for your perfectly crafted prose. Trust your ear. If it doesn't sound right, it's probably not. One of my personal peculiarities is that I write prose almost like I write poetry. I listen for rhythm and meter in my sentences, and if it's off, I have to change it. So even though my word choices are necessarily deliberate in the first round of writing, I tend to go back to them, because when I start editing, substituting words changes the rhythm of the sentence, and sometimes the new rhythm is good, but sometimes it's awful, and I can't handle that.” Don’ts “Weed out most adverbs and adjectives. Try to come up with the best possible nouns and verbs instead. In speech, let the words express the emotion. "I hate you!" says it all; "'I hate you!' he said angrily" is redundant.” * “Weed out unnecessary speech identifiers. In a two-person scene, you can go for a very long time without having to identify who's speaking.” * “Kirk is Kirk. In narrative, he's Kirk. You can use "the captain" or "Captain Kirk" but go easy on it, OK? Calling him "Captain James Kirk"or "Captain James T. Kirk" or "James T. Kirk, Captain of the Enterprise (or youngest captain in the Fleet) is overkill. We know who he is. Keep the title, rank, and position identifiers to a minimum. (However, they can be effective when used ironically.)” * “Stay away from language that calls attention to itself. Get over your fear of "he," "she," and "said." They're perfectly good words.” * 1. What's wrong with 'said'? He opined/he joshed/he chortled make me grind my teeth. 2. Keep sentence structures simple. One thing I dislike is what I call inverted sentences. I give the following example in handouts. In my view the first one works. The second goes all round the houses before getting to the point: a) A heroic driver fought to get his 30-ton lorry under control after the brakes failed. b) After attempting to brake, a driver fought to get his 30-ton lorry under control because the brakes had failed 3. From a fanfic point of view, I can't stand stories which haven't been Brit or Yank-checked (whichever is appropriate!) I get chucked straight out of a Pros story, for example, if I read 'gotten' or 'sidewalk'. If I was reading an American fandom, I'd be miffed if Brit-speak had crept in. 4. Floating point of view is annoying. I suspect fan writers get caught up on it, but it's not a complicated thing to deal with once you get your head around it. I now see all these commercial novels with pov spinning all over the place.” * “I find myself annoyed by habitual usage of certain words. It differs from author to author, and we probably all do it to some extent, but I'm talking about that word or phrase you see every chapter, sometimes more than once per chapter. The example I'll pick on comes from a pro Trek novel -- every few pages, one of the crew on the bridge "plied his console." I felt like slamming the writer's fingers in a door so he'd feel pain equivalent to mine at the end of the book.” * “Descriptive identifier abuse. "The young, blond, blue-eyed pilot laughed. Tom Paris strode down the corridor carrying a bunch of flowers. The cheerful lieutenant was on his way to visit his girlfriend." How many people are we talking about?” Christinecgb is an average writer who has just completed a course in plain English for lawyers. Did it help? Yes, crazily enough. In her spare time she hangs at the Zen resort and gets all her martinis from the Bordello.
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