Tag: creativity

Writing Exercise of the Week: Examining Your Subplots

Posted on by Ian Dawson

This week, we explored the characteristics of subplots and how they can be character- or story-driven.  If you are working on a writing project or outlining one, you probably have ideas for subplots bouncing around in your head.

As you develop or revise, take some time to ask yourself some questions that can help you make them stronger and more effective.

  • Does each subplot tie into the main story through related characters or events?
  • Do the subplots serve a purpose?
  • Do the subplots enhance the main story?
  • Does each subplot have its own story arc?
  • Does each subplot have a clear ending?
  • Which characters are central to each subplot?  Does one of the characters have some relationship to the main character or primary storyline?
  • Is each subplot vital?  Would it impact the main story if you removed one or two of them?
  • Is one or more of the subplots overtaking the main story in terms of being more interesting or compelling?  Could this subplot be its own story?

These are just a few questions to mull over as you delve into creating subplots for your story.  Making sure each subplot matters and helps move the main story along.  I also think it’s important that at least one subplot helps give us further insight into the main character’s development and growth as a person throughout the story.

I hope you enjoyed this look into subplots.  

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Tip of the Week: The Nagging Idea

Posted on by Ian Dawson

You think about it all the time.  It replays in your head over and over and over again.  It seeps into your thoughts in traffic, in a meeting, or in line at the store.  And it won’t go away.

It’s a nagging idea.  A story idea or a little snippet of a story that lives in your brain 24/7.  You add to it, subtract from it, and fine-tune it, but it remains locked inside your head.  

Time to let that nagging idea escape.

Let’s talk about it.

When in Doubt, Write it Out

The time has come to let your nagging idea find a new home.  It’s time for you to write it down.  Just sit down with a pad and paper or at a computer and write it out.  It can be a seemingly incoherent mess at this stage, but you have to get it down on paper.

By doing this, other ideas may be linked to the initial thought.  Suddenly you have a basic story idea, a character or two.  The main thing is to give the idea space to breathe and roam free.  Seeing it visually in front of you can go a long way to making the idea more than just a nagging thought in your head.

Talk About It

“So, I have this story idea…” 

You can tell yourself about it when you’re alone or pitch the idea to a trusted friend or relative.  Verbally expressing the idea can help gauge if it’s a solid concept or if it is just something your brain has become fixated on for no reason.

Talk it out, and if you like what you’re hearing, write it down.  

Ideas Are Like Legos

Ideas are the building blocks of a complete story.  Even if the nagging idea is a small piece of what could be a larger work, it should be given a chance to connect with other ideas.  Think about the millions of ideas we encounter in films, tv, books, and podcasts.  All of these started with someone having a small idea they added to, built upon, and eventually used to create a project now out in the world.

Final Thoughts

Ideas can come and go, but a nagging idea is worth paying attention to.  By writing it out, talking it through, and building on it, you may be able to take a small idea that’s been living in your head and create something larger and more significant.  Only when you decide to act upon that small idea can bigger things emerge.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Tip of the Week: Follow That Outline!

Posted on by Ian Dawson
A story outline can keep you focused and prepared for what’s to come in your story and how it ends.

Writing a story outline is a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing since you know where the story is going and don’t have to worry or panic that you don’t see how it will end. On the other hand, an outline can feel like it’s stifling your creativity. You want to deviate, change course, or even cut a whole section that worked in your head and in the outline but fleshed out is lifeless and dull.

What to do, what to do.

For NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) last year, I drafted an outline to use as a roadmap to keep me focused and on track while I was working on my story. It wasn’t perfect, but it gave me enough information and story points to keep me writing each day and staying focused on the story I was writing.

But, as I said in the opening, there were places where I could feel the air getting sucked out of the story. There were moments when the conflict or even story-based information vanished during the drafting process. I could even see while writing weaknesses in the story that I hadn’t initially seen in just the outline.

So, let’s look at ways to work through these problems to avoid bigger headaches in the later stages of your writing project.

OPTION #1: Lock in Your Outline BEFORE You Start

Make things easy on yourself, and outline exactly how you want the story to go. Revise, refine, read and re-read. Make sure the outline is bulletproof and everything you want to say and do with your story and characters is embedded in the outline.

By starting off on solid footing, you now have the confidence to jump in and get that draft done faster than you would if you were making things up as you go along.

OPTION #2: Stick to the Outline You Have Even if It’s Not Working

This is the easiest solution. Maybe in subsequent drafts, you can cut or refine any rough patches that appear, but you have the story planned out from start to finish and want to get it done.

Living with the outline you have already completed will ensure you get to the story’s end. It also will help you feel a sense of accomplishment for tackling that cumbersome first draft.

OPTION #3: The Page One Re-Write

Scrap the whole outline and start over. There may have been a few things you liked and plan to keep, but the rest is out, and you’re starting fresh.  

This is an effective solution if it’s clear your story has more problems than rewrites and edits can fix. This will be a time-consuming process, so take your time with this outline and ensure the story works before you enter the drafting phase.

OPTION #4: Change as You Go

Another idea is to make changes to the story as you write your draft, using the outline as more of a reference than a hard-and-fast rulebook.

However, if you do this, make sure you’re checking for consistency. If you start making significant changes later in the outline, go back and see if what you previously wrote fits in with what you’re writing now. This could be anything from changing a character’s appearance, location descriptions, or story points. Yes, these can be fixed later, but making sure they are fixed while still top-of-mind is less stressful later.

Final Thoughts

These are only a few suggestions for working off a story outline. If you notice yourself deviating way too much from the outline, take the time to figure out where the story is headed and how you want to end it.  

Ideally, Option #1 is the best course of action. It may take longer to complete, but that will make the actual drafting process go smoother and faster in the long run.

While it is fun to let the Muse take over and decide the fate of your story and your characters, you may also want to get the story done in a timely manner. An outline can help you achieve your goal and move on to the next project. 

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Tip of the Week: Creative Confidence

Posted on by Ian Dawson

While I was home over the holidays, I gave my mom the classic movie musical, The Sound of Music.  As Maria (Julie Andrews) heads off to her new life to become the governess for the von Trapp children, she sings a song called “I Have Confidence.”  

If you listen to the lyrics to the song, you will find that it’s a great motivator.  This song encourages you to face your fears, take on new challenges, and dive headfirst into the unknown.

Check out the song in the clip below:

Being confident when it comes to your creativity and your creative ambitions can often be a daunting task.  We’re surrounded by other peoples’ creative content all the time, so it can sometimes be overwhelming to think about throwing yourself into that great creative abyss. 

We must remind ourselves that we have the ability, skill, and ambition to face our fears and any challenges that may come our way.  We have the confidence to write that novel, sing that song, or perform that monologue. 

Self-confidence regarding your creative ambitions is important and can help you fight self-doubt.  Giving yourself the green light to create and permission to be confident in your abilities can be the difference between reaching your goals and allowing them to remain unfulfilled.

In the film, Maria has no clue what she’s walking into when she takes her new position, but the song allows her to psych herself up for the job ahead.  You, too, can do this with your creative ambitions.  Even if you don’t feel confident now, mentally put yourself in that space and allow that confidence to motivate you to work on your creative endeavors.

If you ever feel yourself faltering, I recommend listening to “I Have Confidence” or another song that can get you in the right mindset to be confident, creative, and get the work done.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Tip of the Week: It Costs Nothing to Create

Posted on by Ian Dawson

Happy 2023!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season and gave themselves some solid writing, reading, or other creative goals for the New Year.  

Starting this week, I will post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the rest of the year.

So, let’s get started!

Creativity.  For some people, it flows out of them like water over Niagara Falls.  But even the most prolific creatives among us had to start from square one of their creative journeys.

They all had a Day Zero.

We’ve all been there.  You may be there right now, deciding to work on your creative side this year by sitting down at a computer or with pen and paper to start your journey.

Whether you churn out novels as fast as James Patterson or you’re still outlining your first story, the concept of creativity is a free and consistently renewable resource.

And we all have the power to access it 24/7, 365 days a year.

Creativity begins with you.  It starts with the ideas inside your mind and imagination, which are available to you without a monthly subscription or annual renewal notices.

Yes, creativity takes time, takes effort, takes energy.  Still, the overarching results of tapping into your creative side to write, paint, perform, or sculpt can pay out much more significant benefits in the long run.

We think.  We overthink, and we agonize and worry.  We look at published novels and finished films and panic that we’ll never be at that level.  But even those projects started with a free spark of creativity.  A moment where someone said to themselves: “What If….”

Tonight, write something down.  An idea that’s been racing around your brain like a caffeinated hamster.  A creative endeavor you want to pursue in 2023 that you know you can accomplish if you dig in and focus on what needs to be done.

You have the power, the ability, and the freedom to create, and all it takes is a visit to the Free Library of Creativity inside your imagination.

Make it happen.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Update: NaNoWriMo 2022 – Week #1

Posted on by Ian Dawson

Hello! I know it technically hasn’t been a week since NaNoWriMo began. Still, I wanted to update you on my progress and give you insights into some things I’ve also learned so far.

As of this posting, I have written 15,064 words. I’ve been doing my best to write daily for a few hours. Sometimes I can squeeze in an hour; other times, I can do three or more, depending on when I plan to write.

Week One Takeaways

• It’s amazing how much extra time you have to write when you aren’t glued to your phone or tablet, binge-watching a TV show, or doing other unproductive activities. By eliminating these distractions, I could easily find more time each day to write.

• I found writing at night a very productive way to write over multiple days. For example, if I started writing at 11pm on Tuesday and wrote until 1am on Wednesday. I now have written for two hours, but also for two days. This helped keep the daily writing consistent and kept the words flowing.

• Unlike a marathon, it’s okay to leap out of the gate with your writing at full force. If you can write more a day in the first week than the 1,667 words needed to hit 50,000 by the end, do it and keep going. Don’t pull back, and don’t stop once you hit that goal. Eventually, you might hit a creative wall, and those extra words will help you when you do.

• I’m using an outline for my third novel, and I’ve found that what I initially had for the opening once I fleshed it out wasn’t working like I thought it would. No worries. Since your goal is word count, this is a great time to play around and experiment if needed. You can write scenes for your characters that might not end up in the final project but are helping you explore your story and character and increase your word count.

• Even if you write something you don’t like, keep it in for now. Again, while you may be working on a project during NaNoWriMo, your main goal is to hit the magic 50,000-word goal. You can always cut, change, or move things later, but keep writing.

• I have been leaving myself notes in brackets [like these] at the start of each writing session to remind myself of any changes I wish to make to the previous sections I’ve written. That way, I can go back later and fix things.

The main goal is to keep writing and moving forward in your progress. Get through the story from start to finish and edit and change things later.

Keep on writing, and I’ll be back with more updates and maybe an article or two in the next week.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Tip of the Week: A Writer’s Leap of Faith

Posted on by Ian Dawson

Starting a new writing project can be challenging.  It’s a new idea.  It’s in a genre you’ve never written before.  It’s a screenplay when you mainly write novels.  But here you are, ready to go.

And you freeze.

Creative Paralysis

Why does fear paralyze creative people?  Why do we allow it to stop us from doing what we love?  We clearly enjoy writing, crafting stories, and creating characters.  So, why do we prevent ourselves from just sitting down and writing?

Allowing external forces to invade our creative space hinders our ability to be creatively free.  With the overflow of content all around us 24/7, it can be overwhelming to tune it out and be in your own writer’s world for a few hours a day.

I’ve struggled with this, and it can be difficult to overcome.  But I’ve had to overcome it and defeat it, and I know you can, too.

Taking That First Step

We may often feel like Indiana Jones staring into a vast chasm, our destination perilously out of reach with no possible way to reach it.  But like Dr. Jones, we have to take that seemingly scary first step off the creative cliff and know – by faith or instinct – that there will be solid ground to catch us.

It really is a matter of trusting yourself and trusting your creativity.  You have the idea; you know the story you want to tell and why you want to tell it.  Take that first step and get the process going.

One Word at a Time

Every novelist, poet, screenwriter, and journalist starts at the same place with each new project: the blank page.  Soon, they fill it with words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, scenes, characters, dialogue, and settings.  

You can do that, too.

Get your story down on the page.  One word at a time.  Keep the flow going.  Don’t like something?  Yep, that happens.  Fix it now, or fix it later.  But keep writing.  You are the only person who can prevent you from getting your story on the page.  Don’t allow negative self-talk to affect your productivity.  Write, write, and write some more.  

One word at a time.

Poke Perfection in the Eye

Lack of faith in our creativity can happen since we’re surrounded by so-called “finished products” daily.  But all the scripts, novels, and articles we encountered went through – hopefully – several drafts until they were worthy of publication or production.

A screenwriting professor I had once wrote on the board, “Write badly with pride.”  This is an excellent motto for all writers and one that I encourage you to remember or write down and post near where you write.

A first draft is just that: a first draft.  Once it’s out and on the page, you have multiple opportunities to improve it, fine-tune things, and make your work shine.

But you can’t do that if it’s stuck in your head.

Final Thoughts

By allowing yourself as a writer to take a leap of faith and trust yourself and your creative process, you give yourself power over your creativity.  By shutting out negative external and internal forces that cause you to lose faith in yourself and your work, you can push through and begin writing that project that has been living in your mind for far too long.

So inhale, exhale, close your eyes, and take that first step toward creative fulfillment.

You’ll be glad you did.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Exercise of the Week: What’s Your Biggest Fear?

Posted on by Ian Dawson

What are you afraid of?  What makes you scared?  Why are you afraid of it?  What event shaped your fear?  With Halloween less than a week away, I felt exploring our fears and writing a short story about them would be a fun activity.

The Pre-Work

  • Pick something you’re afraid of or causes you fear.  It can be something as simple as clowns or spiders or something deeper like loneliness or fear of failing.  Whatever it is, write it down.
  • Now, think about what life was like before you had this fear.
  • Next.  Think about what led you to have this fear.  Was it a specific moment or event?  Maybe you saw a movie that affected you psychologically.  
  • How has this fear impacted your life or the lives of others?  
  • Do you want to face your fear and overcome it, or do you think it’ll be a part of you for life?

The Exercise

Write a short story (500 to 1000 words) about the fear you chose.  You can make it autobiographical or create a fictional character that has to deal with this particular fear.  Whatever you choose, try and write the story showing the character’s life before and after the fear impacts them.  Then, explore how they conquered the fear or if the fear conquered them.

Using yourself as the story’s subject, you could use this as an opportunity to work through and find ways to overcome this fear.

Final Thoughts

Utilizing your own fears and anxieties when creating stories or characters can help make them more relatable to readers since you have an intimate understanding of them.  Whether the fear is rational or irrational, anxiety can help increase a story’s stakes and create suspense for the reader.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Exercise of the Week: How Fast Can You Write 1000 Words?

Posted on by Ian Dawson

One-thousand words.  Most writers probably can pound that amount of words out rather quickly.  But if the thought of sitting down and writing 1000 words at one time is intimidating, here are some strategies to make the experience more enjoyable.

Have a Plan

Before you sit down to write, know what you’re going to write.  This exercise can be about anything, but the key is to have a basic framework for what you plan to write about.  

Let’s say you are writing 1000 words about your favorite pet.  Take some time to plan out what you will talk about in the 1000 words.  What will you open the story with?  What will be at the heart of the story?  How does it end?  Having milestones like this can keep the words flowing since you know where to go next.

All About You

Give yourself time away from distractions to work on this exercise.  Life can be busy, so try your best to make the time to just focus on the 1000 words at once.  It’s understandable if something comes up while you’re writing, but do what you can to stay focused.

Time Yourself

Set a stopwatch and see how long it takes to write 1000 words.  Sometimes you’ll be faster, sometimes slower, but with practice, you should get a general average of how long it might take you to write 1000 words.

If It’s Too Easy…

If 1000 words are too easy for you, try 1500.  Or 1750.  Or 2000.  Even if you start at 1000 words, you want to try and bump up your daily word count to maximize your output.

But don’t get too crazy and dive into writing 5000 words and overwhelm yourself.  Baby steps.  Baby steps.

Final Thoughts

As a writer, you can control how you write, when, and how much you write.  If you want to write more, write faster, or write with a purpose, having a plan in place can help you achieve your creative goals.  Remember that every word written brings you one step closer to completing your writing objectives.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!

Writing Tip of the Week: Gearing Up for NaNoWriMo 2022

Posted on by Ian Dawson

In my last post, I talked about the upcoming NaNoWriMo November writing challenge, where you are tasked with writing 50,000 words in 30 days.  While that may seem a bit overwhelming to some, let’s talk about ways to make the experience better and your success possible.

By the Numbers

If we do some quick math, 50,000 words in 30 days equate to around 1,667 words per day. 

It’s always good to have some writing-based goal written down that you plan to accomplish each time you sit down to write.  Some days you’ll burn through those 1,667 words in no time, and other times it will feel like your brain is struggling to come up with the next word to type.  The key is attempting to reach this magic number each day.

You can keep track using a spreadsheet, copying and pasting each day’s work on your NaNoWriMo novel page or on a piece of paper.  However you do it, seeing your progress is fun and encouraging.  After some time, you won’t want to break the productivity chain.

Plan Ahead

With this writing challenge, knowing your story and where it’s going from start to finish is a good idea.  Take the guesswork out of what you’re writing daily, and know before you go.  

Whether you create a simple outline or a detailed one, have a plan in place and a general idea of where you want the story and main character to go throughout the story.  You can always rewrite and change things later, but getting the story down and the word-count goal met is the primary focus.

Live in Reality

As humans, we have stuff to do.  Work, family, shopping, sleep, etc.  Plus, November has Thanksgiving and Black Friday toward the end of the month.  

Life happens, and you will get busy and possibly not have time to hit the minimum word count for a day or two.  Don’t worry about it.  You can make it up another day.  Remember that you have 30 days to reach 50,000 words, so give yourself some slack in the event things arise that prevent you from writing for a few days during the month.

Just remember to get back to it and keep writing.

Have Fun

The key to making this challenge a positive and fun experience is to enjoy the process.  Be motivated to hop on the computer and write each day.  It shouldn’t be a slog, feel like a punishment, or make you dread sitting down at the computer.

Don’t think of it as work.  Think of this as a creative escape where the destination is 50,000 words of a story you enjoyed writing and bringing to life.  

If you burn through 50,000 words early, keep going.  Write, write, write.

What if I Don’t Make it?

Writing 50,000 words is a marathon.  And like marathon runners, sometimes things can get in the way that prevents us from hitting our goal in the time we planned to complete it.  

Again, life happens.

No matter how much you get done by November 30, I encourage you to keep writing.  Even if you hit 50,000 words a week or two into December, you still have reached the goal.

Then, next year, try again.  See what you can do to reach the goal sooner.

You can do it!  Hit that 50,000-word goal no matter what!

Final Thoughts

All the suggestions above can be used for any writing project and help you map your pathway to success.  While any big writing project can initially feel daunting, breaking it down into manageable chunks can keep your creative momentum going and ensure you cross the finish line.

Happy Writing, and I’ll see you next time!