Writing Tips (#TuesdayTips)
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TuesdayTips88
Earning Their Place
Justifying A Character.
Welcome to this week’s #TuesdayTip!
This week, I want to examine the right of a character to exist.
It sounds rather brutal, and I suppose in some ways it is. But the nub of what I want to discuss is whether or not a character belongs in a story. Have they earned their place?
I have just completed structural edits on a forthcoming novel and one of the questions asked by my editor was whether we could trim the cast somewhat. It was a very valid question and one that made me go through the manuscript with a critical eye, asking if individuals were absolutely necessary to this story (or were present because of their role in the series as a whole).Characters in crime fiction can be roughly divided into three groups. A character is not limited to one group – indeed an individual might fall into more than one category, or may move between groups as a story, or even a series, progresses.
Broadly speaking there are:
Protagonists: Crudely put they are the “hero” of the story. That doesn’t mean they are necessarily the good guy, but they are the ones that we are following, and often cheering on.
Antagonists: These are the characters that act as a foil to our protagonist.
In a classic who dunnit, the protagonist might be the detective, and the antagonist the person they are seeking to bring to justice. But the wonderful thing about this genre is that characters can move between the two camps as the story twists and turns, and they might be complex enough that the protagonist is a bad person, whilst the antagonist that they are chasing has admirable motives. And of course, your story might deliberately keep their role ambiguous, only choosing to clarify their role in the big reveal.
The third group are the secondary characters: These are those people that don’t fall easily into either of the first two camps, but without whom the story doesn’t progress. In a book with twists, a secondary character might suddenly become a protagonist or an antagonist, perhaps surprising the reader.Regardless of their role, each character needs to justify not only their existence, but also how much space they take up on the page. When it comes to “killing your darlings” during the editing process, it may be necessary to excise the character completely, reduce their role or perhaps reassign or distribute their functions and actions to other characters.
So why would we do this to a character?
First, space and pacing. You might just need to trim some words or speed things up, in which case cutting down or excising the richly-described person that serves our hero their coffee – no matter how much you like them – is low-hanging fruit.
Second, your readers need to remember all of the characters. In a genre such as crime, where many of your readers will be paying close attention to every person that crops up, in case they are the culprit, too many characters can make things confusing. You don’t want to excise all of these characters – obviously, you want to keep a few red herrings so readers are kept guessing – but ask yourself if there are too many? One trick is to remove their name. Instead of talking in detail about Kelly the barista, perhaps just acknowledge that your character is served coffee by someone. If your officers find a dozen folks out and about without an alibi the night of the murder, only one of whom was the killer and three of whom are persons of interest and will become red herrings, why not cut a couple, or at least describe them in the sparsest of terms and then rule them out ASAP?So how can you decide who to cut or trim?
Presumably your protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) are the backbone of the story. So their existence is pretty secure. But they can take on additional duties. In one of my books, a previously unknown officer made a useful suggestion that the team followed up on. The officer doesn’t feature again and losing them would have no impact on the story. So at the suggestion of my editor, I cut them and “gave” their idea to one of the established characters. It saved a couple of hundred words, and my readers won’t spend the rest of the book trying to remember their name.So for each character, ask yourself these questions. They are not intended to tell you who to cut – that’s an artistic choice to be made by you – but what they can do is help you make that choice. You don’t have to answer every question for every character, but I would suggest that asking them of a few, especially secondary characters, can help you justify their existence.
What would happen to the story if they didn’t exist?
Do they play a pivotal role? Can that role be assigned to someone else?
Are they necessary for later stories?
If you write a series with an ongoing story arc, do you need to introduce a character in a previous book, even if their role is tiny? There is a running joke that in Star Trek, any red-shirted security guard that is played by an extra that you’ve never seen before, will be dead by the first ad break. If you decide that in book 5 one of the police officers will turn out to be corrupt, try not to introduce them in that book! If possible, introduce them – perhaps in a minor role – in earlier books, that way readers are used to them being around and are less likely to suspect them.
Does their importance to the story justify their wordcount?
How you define ‘important to the story’ is a matter of perspective. In my books, Warren’s in-laws feature regularly. They rarely have any role in the crime being solved. However, they impart an insight into Warren as a person, and are a source of internal conflict for him. So in that way, they are justified. For narrative purposes, they can also act as a page break to slow the pace of the story, or add humour if it is too bleak.Cutting a character can be hard, especially if they have been in the book since the first drafts. But sometimes we have to make hard choices for the good of the story. As a sweetener though, there are some crumbs of comfort. First of all, if you really like the character that you’ve crafted, save them for another book. The film industry is full of examples of actors who failed an audition, but were called back and offered a different part or cast in another production. I wonder how many interesting, quirky characters started life as a well-crafted secondary character who couldn’t justify their place in the original book but were so good the author recast them in a different role in their next book? And of course, if you have already come up with a great name for them, you can use that name in a different book!
How do you decide if a character has earned their place? Have you ever reused an excised character in a different project?
As always, feel free to comment here or on social media.
Until next time,
Paul.
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TuesdayTips87
Block Buster
Ideas To Thwart Writer’s Block
Today’s Tip is another suggestion to help move you on if you are suffering from writer’s block.
Writer’s block is a funny old thing. Sometimes it’s more about getting your head in the game and starting your day’s work than what you actually need or want to write.
I liken it to a sportsperson warming up before a match. It’s all about stretching those writing muscles, ready for the game.
In this case, a simple free-write exercise can be enough to get you going. These sort of things are popular in creative writing classes. Regardless of the topic being studied that day, the class often starts with one of these. It helps you mentally switch to writing mode, rather than whatever other things your mind is on today.Googling “Writing Prompts Generator” delivers dozens of hits, but here’s one that looks quite nice.
https://randomwordgenerator.com/writing-prompt.php
Don’t worry if the prompt doesn’t relate to what you are writing. This isn’t about adding to your manuscript’s wordcount. If you watch a training session for an athlete, their warm-up exercises don’t always link to the sport they are competing in. The goal is to get everything running smoothly.
And don’t worry about “wasting time”. When writer’s block is really entrenched, you can spend all day writing, re-writing, deleting and stressing, with nothing to show for it at the end.
If a few minutes writing something that you’ll junk at the end is enough to start you working productively, there’s a net gain there.Setting some constraints can be useful.
Give yourself a time limit. What can you get down in 10 minutes?
Don’t lift your pen. This is a classic in creative writing classes. The rule is write any old nonsense, just go with the flow. Don’t stop and start to overthink it. Obviously, this is better suited to a pen and paper, but if you are a reasonable typist or use dictation software, you can still do it.
No editing. Once it’s down, it’s down. Own your previous choices!
Don’t spend too long choosing a prompt. If you do this, you can waste even more time. Pushing yourself to write something outside your comfort zone can be good – and remember, this is just for you. If the end product is gibberish, who cares? Nobody minds if a goalkeeper looks a plonker during warm-up, if the end result is a clean sheet at the end of the game.At the end of the activity, open the manuscript you are working on and start. Get at least something down whilst you are still warmed up. Hopefully, it’ll be like jump-starting a car – once the engine is running, you just need to drive it for a bit to charge the battery up.
Good luck!
Have you got any suggestions about overcoming writer’s block?
Feel free to comment here or on social media.
Happy writing,
Paul
If you are a writer and have a tip you’d like to be featured on my blog, please don’t be shy. Contact me on social media or using the email link above.
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HappyChristmas
Happy Christmas
See You In the New Year
The #TuesdayTips will return in the new year.Have a great holiday.
PS If you are a writer and wish to be featured as a guest blogger, please email me.
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TuesdayTips86
Uncomfortable Truths
Listening To Your Editor
A few weeks go, I received the structural edits for DCI Warren Jones 8. At the same time that they landed in my inbox, I started reading a book by a very well-known giant of the crime thriller genre. Now before you try and guess what book it was, and who it was by, don’t bother. The book is a few years old and as a professional courtesy, that’s all you’re getting.
What is the link, I hear you ask?
Editing. Or rather the fact that nobody is too big to edit.
On the whole, the feedback for book 8 was actually very good. My editor really liked the story and thought that it would be popular with my readers. But she had some suggestions; primarily about pace, shortening the book, moving some of the key revelations earlier to keep things moving quickly and perhaps cutting or trimming some set-pieces.
Intellectually, I know she is right, and her advice is always extremely good and valued. But like all writers, I feel somewhat possessive about my book baby. It represents many months of hard work, including a lot of editing both before and after my beta readers went through it. Leaving aside my ego, I always feel, when I hand in that first manuscript submission, that my work is done, and I never want to see the damn book again.
Of course this is nonsense, and it is also the same reaction as most authors.
By the time I received these edits, I was already well into my next project and so a small part of me resents putting that aside to pick up something that emotionally I felt I was done with.
Boo hoo.
Suck it up, that’s part of the job.In fact, after a few days of tearing my hair out and wondering how the hell I was going to do what was asked of me, the old excitement returned, as the ideas started to flow.
The book will be better by the time I hand it back, and I will feel even more satisfied with my effort, and my editor will get the credit she deserves.The fact is, whether you are traditionally published, or independently published, a seasoned writer of decades experience, or a nervous debut, a professional editor is essential, and you will not convince me otherwise.
I don’t get to choose my editor, they are assigned by my publisher, but I have been extremely fortunate over the years. Every suggestion that she has made has been thoughtful and smart. That doesn’t mean I will be implementing them all. In fact, the accompanying editorial letter acknowledges that – for narrative reasons – it would be impossible to follow them all, because some would essentially contradict each other, or make things too complicated. Rather, I have been given food for thought and a series of choices. How I use them is up to me; ultimately, it is my name on the cover.
So back to the book I am reading. I have enjoyed this author’s writing for many years, but a few books back, I felt they started to dip. The reasons are many, but primarily there is too much backstory with numerous characters that have over-stayed their welcome. The books have become more of a soap opera with a couple of very cool ideas thrown in to justify them being crime thrillers. The author is writing to their target audience now; those fans who will pick up the next in the series without even thinking about it. And I think it’s a real shame, because they’ve lost something special.It feels arrogant of me to pretend I can critique someone who was selling more copies a week than I sell in a year, two decades before I even completed my first novel. Yet perhaps that is the problem. I suspect that somewhere along the line, they became “too big to edit”.
The latest novel is a case in point. It is basically a short story stretched to fill 400 pages. The first 100 pages are essentially about the lead character’s woes. We don’t even find out there has been a death. The next 200 pages (genuinely, I’m not exaggerating) are at the crime scene.
Now I love a bit of backstory – it’s why I enjoy a series. The prose is also extremely good; this is a very experienced writer with a confident and assured writing style and a strong voice. But I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that had I submitted something similar, my editor would have immediately sent it back. The editorial letter would have been encouraging, kind and professional, but would essentially have said thus: Too slow. Cut the first 60 pages. Bring the death forward. Get them to the morgue before page 75. Do we need all these characters? Who are persons X,Y and Z and why do we care about them? We get that these characters have a complicated history, but you don’t need to keep on telling us. Cut back on the technical detail, it’s not a manual. Can you introduces some more tension, it’s too slow burn? etc etc.
And perhaps that’s why I’m not a multi-millionaire and they are?
But, despite that I still can’t help think that the book would have benefitted from a damn good edit. The sad thing is that I probably won’t read anything more by this writer; they peaked several books ago and now they are just a cash cow. And that’s a real shame.
What are your thoughts on the editing process?
As always, feel free to share here or on social media.
Best wishes,
Paul
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TuesdayTips85
Guest Blogger
GB Williams
The Benefits Of Reading Aloud.
For this week’s tip, I am delighted to welcome GB Williams.
GB Specialises in fast paced, contemporary crime that doesn’t hide from harsh reality (not too much gore). She says “Nor do I hide from the fact that people have a heart, I will run through the gamut of emotion, and sometimes make the reader cry. There are many elements in my work, but it’s all about people and what they go through.”GB’s Writing Tip
Read out loud.
When you think you’re ready to go, think again and read your work aloud. It doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing, or where you are on your publishing journey, to know if your manuscript works or not, the best way is to read it out loud.
This is a struggle for most authors, but stick with it. No one expects you to go all Shakespearean, enunciating each syllable and clipping every vowel, but it is important to know that the words sound right when read out. Reading aloud will highlight a lot of issues you would otherwise not know were there, and the various grammar checkers won’t tell you either.
The inability to listen to your own voice doesn’t exclude you doing this either. There are many programmes which will read your work out for you. They are utterly expressionless, but I find that means I don’t get caught up in the story, I listen to the actual words and mistakes jump out. The latest versions of Word have a read to me option, as does the free download of Adobe, not sure about Pages as I don’t have a Mac, but I suspect that something is available for Mac users too.
Reading aloud also has another benefit, it lets you know what is easy/difficult to actually say. There’s a surprising difference between what we can read in our heads and what we can read aloud. The added benefit of course, is that should your book got to audio, you’ve made life easier for the actor reading it.GB specialises in complex, fast-paced crime novels, most recently, “The Chair”, but also the “Locked Trilogy”. GB was shortlisted for the 2014 CWA Margery Allingham Short Story Competition with the story Last Shakes, now available in Last Cut Casebook. Crime novels are her stock in trade, but she has had success with short stories in other genres including steampunk, horror, and erotica, and has penned a successful steampunk series. She has a husband and two grown up children, not to mention the worlds most imperious demanding cat. GB is such a cat slave, even the neighbourhood cats come demanding dinner. Now working as a fulltime writer and freelance structural editor. GB hates every photo ever taken of her.
She is published by Black Bee Books.To learn more about her and her writing, visit her website or her Facebook page.Or you can follow her on Twitter @GailBWilliams or Instagram @gbwilliamsauthor.
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TuesdayTips84
The Male Gaze
(Oh Dear!)
It’s time to tackle another thorny subject! Today I want to look at “The Male Gaze”.
Before we start, remember that I am writing from the perspective of a middle-aged, heterosexual male, and so that is doubtless reflected in my opinions (translation: don’t shoot the messenger!).For those not familiar with this phrase, that until relatively recently was largely confined to scholarly studies, it refers to the way in which men describe or portray women’s bodies, or represent their sexuality in art.
The easiest way to explain it is to start by using TV or movies as visual examples, before moving onto the written word (by the way, I love the Carry On films, so the image above is not a criticism of these wonderful examples of British humour).Much of the film industry is still run by male directors and cinematographers and all too often, this is reflected in the choice of shots and camera angles in these scenes. How many times have you seen a naked couple lying in bed, the bedsheets artfully concealing their lower bodies, but the female actor is topless, whilst her male counterpart is largely covered?
What about during sex scenes? There are sweeping camera shots of the female actor’s sweaty body, leaving little to the imagination, whilst her male colleague is barely shown. How many times have you seen a female actor showering or bathing in intimate, lingering detail, whilst (Hugh Jackman aside) there is barely a bare male bottom in sight?In crime dramas, female murder victims are often lying naked on a mortuary table in the background, whilst the detectives discuss the case with the pathologist. Not only is this often gratuitous, it’s also unrealistic. Those who work within morgues, treat their patients with dignity. The body will be covered to preserve their modesty until it is necessary to remove the sheet to perform the autopsy, then they will be covered again.
Comic books are infamous for the way in which male superheroes wear sensible, practical costumes, whilst their female counterparts wear tight, gravity-defying bodices with their cleavage spilling out, and tiny miniskirts. I laughed out loud when, in a recent season of Supergirl, she was given a new version of the iconic suit and was delighted when it had trousers (pants) rather than her traditional red miniskirt!
A number of high-profile actors have become so fed up with what often feels like an unnecessary sop to male fantasies, that they will no longer perform intimate scenes unless they are directed by a female.In literature, there exists the same phenomenon, almost exclusively in books written by male authors. Female characters are described in forensic detail, whilst all we know about our male is protagonist is that he has brown hair and dark eyes.
Many of the most egregious examples are shared on social media, and held up for ridicule. So if you don’t want your literary masterpiece being discussed by the Twitterati for all the wrong reasons, let’s look at how to avoid falling into these old habits.
(Note: I am going to assume that you aren’t specifically writing erotica, in which case the rules are obviously different).Points to consider.
Women don’t, as a rule, frequently spend lengthy periods of time in front of a mirror considering their naked body.
And if, for strong narrative reasons, such a scene is necessary, there’s rarely any need to relate their inner monologue in intimate detail, for several paragraphs!
Less Is More.
This is a rule that is applicable to all manner of description, but especially important here. Is it really necessary to describe your female character’s breasts in such intimate detail? Do you absolutely have to spend ages devising graphic metaphors so that the reader knows exactly what their nipples look like?
Let The Reader’s Imagination Fill In The Details.
For example:
It was clear to see how the young woman had captured his attention. Tall and slim, her short skirt revealed smooth, toned legs, her lightly-tanned thighs soft like pillows. Her breasts were large, but not too large, barely constrained by her vest top, the indentations of her nipples revealing that she had neglected to wear a bra … Etc etc etc.
How about instead:
It was clear to see how the young woman had captured his attention. Tall and slim, in a short skirt, and a revealing top that left little to the onlooker’s imagination, she wouldn’t have looked out of place on a catwalk.
I’m certainly not claiming any literary greatness for what I have just written, but rather than painting a picture in toe-curling, forensic detail, why not just give a few tantalising brushstrokes and let the reader do the work?
Are You Projecting Your Own Fantasies?
As writers, we often have a strong image in our mind’s eye of what our characters look like. But unless it’s directly relevant to the plot, be sparing with the detail. One of the reasons that books are so wonderfully immersive, is that whilst a great writer is able to conjure up a picture in their readers’ minds, the form that a character takes is ultimately determined by each individual reader. I have a clear image of what Harry Bosch looks like – and it isn’t anything like Titus Welliver who portrays him on screen. And it probably wouldn’t be recognisable to Michael Connelly or the millions of other readers of his books.
It’s also quite common for authors to have one of their characters representing their ideal woman (or man). It’s generally harmless and part of the fun of being a writer. But I’d urge you not to spend a disproportionate amount of time describing that person. Keep a bit back for yourself!
Do Men And Women Get Equal Billing?
Go through your character descriptions with a critical eye. How many lines do you spend describing a male character? How many do you use to portray an equally important female character? Is there a big disparity? What about language? Think about the types of descriptors you use – are they factual (hair colour, height etc) or objective (voluptuous, pretty etc) – there’s nothing wrong with either, but are your male characters described in the same way as your female characters?
Ask An Expert!
It’s a generalisation, but if you are a male writer and aren’t sure if your male gaze is asserting itself, why not ask a woman for her opinion on your rough draft?What are your thoughts on the male gaze? What about the female gaze – it surely exists, but is it as prevalent, or as awkward?
Feel free to comment here, or on social media.
Best wishes,
Paul.
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TuesdayTips83
Guest Blog Post
Fiona Veitch Smith
Finding Your Writing Rhythm.
This week I am delighted to welcome Fiona Veitch Smith. Fiona is the author of the Poppy Denby Investigates novels, Golden Age-style murder mysteries set in the 1920s. The Jazz Files was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger (2016), while subsequent books were shortlisted for the Foreword Review Mystery Novel of the Year and the People’s Book Prize. She worked as a journalist on Cape Town newspapers in the 1990s before returning to the UK to work on regional magazines in NE England. Thereafter, she spent a decade lecturing creative writing at Northumbria University and journalism at Newcastle University. She is now the Assistant Secretary of the Crime Writers’ Association. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her husband and teenage daughter.
Fiona’s #TuesdayTip.
Find your OWN writing rhythm. You will hear writing gurus (many of them famous authors) telling you that you must write every day to be a ‘real’ writer. That you must set yourself a word count. That you must carry on writing and not go back over what you’ve written before you reach the end of your novel. Well, I do none of those things. Due to caring duties and other work commitments, I only write three days a week, for only a few hours at a time. I rarely set myself a word count. I always go back over what I have written before I move on. And yet I have managed to write a novel a year for the last 10 years as well as a couple of dozen children’s picture books and hundreds of magazine and blog articles. If the ‘write every day, never go back over what you have written, and set yourself a word count’ style works for you then stick to it, but if it doesn’t, don’t be scared to work to your own rhythm. The important thing is that you write. Your way and in your time. And that it brings you, and hopefully others, some joy. Happy writing.
(c) 2021 Fiona Veitch SmithThe Poppy Denby Investigates novels are Golden Age murder mysteries set in the 1920s dealing with issues of social justice while sizzling with jazz-age style. Poppy, dubbed the 1920’s most stylish sleuth, works on a London tabloid and solves murders on the side.
The first in the series is The Jazz Files and is available on Amazon.
The latest, The Crystal Crypt has just been released and is available here:
To find out more about Fiona and Poppy Denby, you can visit her website www.poppydenby.com and Facebook page or follow her on Twitter @FionaVeitchSmit and Instagram @fionaveitchsmith_author.
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TuesdayTips82
Block Buster
Ideas To Thwart Writer’s Block
The first in an occasional series of #TuesdayTips looking at ways to beat writer’s block.
Ugh! We’ve all been there. The term writer’s block is such a dramatic term, conjuring up images of tortured writers moping around like the world is about to end.
It’s not usually quite that bad – and try explaining it to your non-writer friends who all have ‘real’ jobs, and see how much sympathy you get!
Sometimes it can be little more than the desire to do anything other than write. Other times it can be staring at a blank screen awaiting inspiration, whilst knowing that it isn’t going to come. At its worst it’s the paralysis caused by an upcoming deadline.
(Side note about punctuation here. All writers suffer this, but it feels incredibly personal and even isolating, so I have decided to go with the singular possessive writer’s block, rather than th plural writers’ block).
Either way, we need to bust that block (credit to my partner for the cringeworthy blog title).
Today’s Tip.
Write something different.
It sounds trite and easy, and it is one of those rare occasions where writing out of sequence, like I do, is a bonus, not just a colossal headache of rearrangement at the end of the book! But I think it is something that even those who plot their books to the nth degree can do.
Sometimes the words just won’t come. The scene that you are trying to write just will not flow. It’s not necessarily that you don’t know what you need to write – for some reason, today you just can’t.
For me, switching to a different scene often solves the problem. I had this issue recently with my current work in progress. I had been writing a scene where my team were investigating a particular incident. I knew what needed to happen, the actions that the team would be taking, and who would be involved. I even had some snatches of dialogue that I wanted to use. I could bullet point the scene if needs be. But for whatever reason, I just couldn’t get into the groove.
So instead, I started working on a different part of the book. It was almost like starting a fresh story, and before I knew it, I’d banged out a thousand-odd words.
That’s one less scene to write. My writing day had turned from what could have been a bit of a write-off (no pun intended) to a pretty productive one. A couple of days later, I returned to that original scene. Nothing had changed, but I finished writing it in a couple of hours. No drama, the words flowed as they always do, and when I went over it the next day, the prose was exactly what I wanted.
Stay tuned for more tips, including some exercises that can kickstart your day’s writing and get you into the groove.
Do you have any tips on how to overcome writer’s block?
Feel free to comment here or on social media.
Happy writing,
Paul.
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TuesdayTips81
Guest Blogger
Candy Denman
Finding A Character’s Voice.
For this week’s gues blog post, I am very excited to introduce Candy Denman. Candy is not only a novelist, but has also written TV scripts and therefore has a special insight into characterisation.
Candy writes a series of crime novels about forensic physician and part-time GP, Dr Callie Hughes. The first in the series is Dead Pretty and can be bought from Amazon.
It is not unusual for Callie to see a dead body, but this time, the young woman’s corpse rings alarm bells. Her medical knowledge gives her unique insight into the killer, but convincing the police is a challenge.Candy’s Writing Tip
When writing both scripts and novels, getting the ‘voice’ of a character is critical. Just as the reader/viewer has to believe in the story, it is just as important that they believe in the characters and what they are saying or how they are acting. Once the reader loses that suspension of disbelief, they lose interest in the story.
So how can a writer make sure they get the voice right and that they make the different characters sound sufficiently different? This isn’t about just giving them different accents, it’s more about making them distinct from each other.
When I write the back story and character traits for each character, I find it helpful to do it in the first person, so that each character describes themselves to me and give me their own potted history.
It might sound bonkers, but it works.
I’m a young lad, not bad, but I don’t take any shit, know what I mean? I didn’t mean to do it, it just sort of happened.
I’m not complaining, not really. I haven’t had an easy life, but nothing is as hard as this being on your own. Sometimes I might not see anyone for weeks in a row and I find myself talking to my cat, what was her name? Tiddles. That’s right. My long gone, dead cat Tiddles.
I do about half a page on each, depending on how big a character they are in the story and save them for reference. This is particularly important if you are writing a series, to make sure you get them right each time. A character can develop and change in time, depending on what has happened to them, but their overall voice will remain the same.
(c) 2021 Candy DenmanCandy trained as a nurse, and worked in the NHS almost all her life, until managing recently to disengage herself in order to become a full-time crime writer. She has also written a large number of scripts for such highly-acclaimed TV series as The Bill and Heartbeat which gave her the idea to write a crime series that also includes medical stories.
You can learn more about Candy by visiting her website www.candydenman.co.uk or Facebook Page and by following her on Twitter @CrimeCandy or Instagram @CandyDenman.
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TuesdayTips80
Taking The Plunge.
Using Scrivener.
Three weeks ago, I finally bit the bullet, took the plunge, threw caution to the wind (insert cliché of choice) and installed Scrivener.
For those unfamiliar with this piece of specialist software, Scrivener is a writing package sold by Literature and Latte that is raved about by writers, both professional and amateur. In addition to being a word processor, Scrivener has a number of really useful features that make organising the writing process easier. For example it acts as a binder for all the notes and research etc used in your project, and has a virtual corkboard that allows you to easily reorder scenes within your book.
Despite the glowing testimonies of friends, I held off installing it for a couple of years for purely pragmatic reasons. First, I have already been writing my DCI Warren Jones series for several years. I have cobbled together a somewhat clunky, but effective, system using MS Word, MS OneNote (for my research and ideas) and MS Excel (for my timelines etc). Whilst I was keen to improve my method (for example, Word is a pain if you write out of sequence), the system worked, and I didn’t think switching mid-project would be sensible.
The second is that version 3 for Windows was repeatedly delayed. Scrivener was originally written for MacOS. Version 2 for the Mac was ported to Windows (and confusingly called V1). Version 3 for Mac was released a couple of years ago. There are big improvements in V3, and so I didn’t fancy installing the available Windows version, and then having to upgrade and relearn everything for V3 (they decided to skip the label V2 for Windows). But more importantly, I’m a proud Windows user and I’m buggered if I’m playing second-fiddle to Mac users. 🤣. The software is also available for iOS (I know writers who use it exclusively on an iPad), although it doesn’t look as though it will be coming to Android anytime soon, which is a shame.
Installation and Setup:
Installing the software is a doddle and a cheap, single licence (which will last for the lifetime of the product) can be used on multiple machines (although you’ll need separate Windows/MacOS/iOS licences if you want to mix and match). I was pleased to see that it works very happily on my portable “writing laptop”. That has just 2Gb of RAM, a basic processor and a tiny hard drive. As long as the machine has a minimum 1024×768 screen resolution it works fine.
The software automatically creates backups and autosaves on close. I simply saved the Scrivener working folder to my Cloud account, so that it is more secure.
Important tip: You can only have a Scrivener project open on one machine at a time – which is sensible, it stops versions of the same file getting corrupted. Therefore, when closing a project on one computer, give your computer a few moments to synchronise to the cloud before switching it off. Then, when switching on a different computer, again, make sure that everything has synced before opening Scrivener to stop it clashing. From what I can tell, as soon as you open a Scrivener file on one machine, it makes a temporary lock file that blocks any other machine trying to open it. When you close, that file is deleted – hence the need to wait for your cloud account to sync.
A rather nifty function allows you to save your preferred layout for that machine or setup. I have a layout saved for when my laptop is plugged into my large screen and a different one for when I’m working on my little laptop – it saves having to resize windows etc.
Things I Like About Scrivener.
A project is simply a set of related text files. This means that whether you are writing a single document, have a separate document for each chapter, or separate documents for each section/scene, you are catered for.
Reorganising Sections Is A Doddle.
If, like me, you write out of sequence, then Scrivener allows you to easily reorder your scenes. You can do this either by dragging and dropping on a virtual corkboard (as if you have a board on the wall with each page pinned to it). This comes with a number of different ways to visualise the layout, including on a series of parallel lines, which allows you to see a visual representation of your book – for example, looking at pacing, is chapter one really busy, but chapter two very empty?
There is also a linear ‘outliner’ that allows you to reorganise sections by visualising the metadata or keywords etc.
Another useful feature, is the ability to group documents in folder. I often write subplots consisting of several sections, that will then need to be threaded throughout the story. Having them all together in one folder – from which they can be easily dragged out of – makes life very easy.
You Can Add MetaData To Each Document.
Metadata is information that essentially adds tags to each document that isn’t included in the final draft, and is invisible to the reader. Scrivener allows a wide-range of different types of information, ranging from keywords, links, pictures, dates and custom labels (which can be different colours). You can also define your own metadata. I have added some custom labels to mine (eg “To Write”). You can also write notes, and even a synopsis for the document. This is great for organising and searching your project, as well as sketching out what a document will contain (for example a list of things that need to be revealed in an interview or dialogue ideas). I have added characters as keywords, so I can see at a glance if there is a clash, where a character appears in two different scenes that take place simultaneously.
Word Count Function and Daily/Project Targets.
Each section you write will have its own wordcount. However, Scrivener also tracks the total number of words in the full manuscript. It also has a deadline function and you can set daily targets, or a total project target. This is really useful. I generally aim for about 120,000 words. I have set myself a rather ambitious target of completing a first draft by the end of the year. I’ve told Scrivener that I will write Monday to Friday. Scrivener has calculated how many words I need to write each day to hit 120K by December 31st and will update this if I have written more or less on a particular day. You can easily see how many words you’ve written that day, and there is something especially satisfying when the notification to tell you that you’ve hit today’s target pops up on the screen!
Writing Tools.
Scrivener has a rather nifty name generator that is very customisable, and it will also open highlighted words in Wikipedia or Google with a single click. It also supports comment and review functionality, similar to Word.
Keep Your Research To Hand.
You can import a wide-range of research documents into your project, so that you can easily access what you need. For example, I have imported some PDF maps and reference documents; no need to go hunting around my hard drive for where I saved the damn things!
You Can Make Templates.
If you simply add a blank document, Scrivener defaults to a strange font I’ve never heard of. I found the best thing to do is create a series of template documents that are formatted how I want. I have a basic section with my preferred font, line spacing etc, and a number of more specialised ones, such as page or section breaks (I have three asterisks separating sections) plus New Day and Title pages. The advantage of this, is that you can give these new sections their own default labels, which makes organising them on the corkboard easy.Limitations Of Scrivener.
No software is perfect. The word processor is a perfectly acceptable piece of software, but obviously it lacks the refinements of later versions of Word. It has a spellchecker that underlines miss-spelled words (and can be set to UK English), but I’ve yet to figure out how to easily upload my custom dictionary from Word. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the proprietary grammar checkers etc that Microsoft have spent millions of dollars developing. I’ve become somewhat reliant on these, over the years, which means that I will need to export the completed document to Word and do a big edit.
I have also had some small issues with page breaks. I think that’s something I will either have to play with, or just fix in Word.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a thesaurus. Instead, it links out to the Thesaurus.com website. That site is US-based and it isn’t as easy, or user-friendly as Shift-F7 in Word.
I have only had a brief play with exporting a completed document. Scrivener supports a wide-range of document types, including PDF, Word, RTF and open-source formats. However, there are a lot of options for when you “compile” your document. I had some very funny results when I tried. I suspect I’ll need to spend some time fiddling to get what I want.
Some HotKeys are different to what you may be used to. I know many of the keyboard shortcuts in Word. However, Scrivener is very customisable, so I spent some time changing the shortcuts to what I am used to. It’s my own copy, so it’s not like it’ll confuse anyone else.
I have also yet to find a timeline function. You can add dates and times to documents, so there are work arounds, but there’s no simple way to plot out the order of events like I used to do in Excel. I may have to revert to that old method.So, it’s been three weeks or so, and thus far I’m pretty happy. The very well-written manual hints at lots of other functions that I may or may not find useful. I am a novelist, but it also caters for scriptwriters and those writing reference works.
I might write a follow-up to this in the future if I learn enough to justify a blog post.What are your thoughts on Scrivener? Do you have any tips that you think are worth sharing?
As always comment here or on social media.
Happy writing!
