Tag: novel

Writing Tip of the Week: Communicating Your Story

Posted on by Ian Dawson

Has something crazy ever happened to you, and you want to tell someone, but you need to figure out the best way to present the story to them?  This is what being a writer can feel like, more often than not.  We have a great story idea, all the elements, and an outline, but we’re not sure how to best communicate the story.

Let’s talk about it.

Structure

While most stories have a beginning, middle, and end, the way each story travels that path varies based on how the events are presented.  As you develop your story, decide if you want to communicate the storyline linearly, jumping back and forth in time or using flashbacks as a story device.  

POV

Whose POV are we getting the story from?  This character will be the conduit through which the reader is given information about the events in the story.  Are we getting one character’s POV or several POVs?  How does each character’s POV give the reader new insight into the story?  

Medium

Decide the best way to convey the story and its elements.  Does the story have enough material to be novel, or is it a novella or short story?  Could it be a screenplay or a play?  Each of these requires a different type of communicative style that uniquely delivers information to the reader.

Genre

How have others handled stories similar to yours?  What genre would it fit into?  How have those authors effectively communicated their stories to readers?  How can you apply that information to your story to communicate it better?

Put It Out There

If you’ve written out an outline or a draft, give it to someone to read.  Let them ask questions.  Find ways to communicate the story that keeps them wanting more.  Are there points where they lost interest or were confused?  Ask them why?  Then you can work on fine-tuning those areas to make them stronger and more effective.

Learn From Others

We’ve all seen at least one movie or read a novel where the idea is there, but how it’s communicated and presented fails to capture our interest.  Why did this happen?  By learning from others, we can strengthen our work by avoiding mistakes.

Final Thoughts

We often talk about the basics of writing: who, what, where, when, and why.  But the final element, how, is just as important when you set out to communicate your story effectively.  Deciding the best way to present the narrative can help strengthen your story and give it a greater impact.

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

When Writing a Novel, Don’t Rush Your Story

Posted on by Ian Dawson

We live in a society where the majority of people want things fast, and they want them now.  From food to other products, people demand immediacy, and any time period above that can often result in one-star Yelp! reviews or complaints on social media. 

Even with entertainment or news we’ve become accustomed to soundbites, YouTube clips, and quick hits on the News app on our phones, giving us the gist with no real depth or further information.  And the majority of society is just fine with this.

So, what happens when you are planning out a novel or screenplay with that mindset of how the world is with its lack of attention and need to get things fast?  It can make a writer think they have to deliver story, character, and more at a breakneck pace, which is contradictory to what the point of a novel is.

SLOW IT DOWN!

Your story can be fast-paced, but if you start to rush through chapters just to get to what you think is the “fun stuff” it can cheat your reader – and yourself, the writer – out of delving deeper into the world you are creating.  Take your time and deliver chapters that have meaning to the story, develop character, and bolster the themes you want to communicate.  Don’t be afraid to slow it down a bit.

As a writer, I often find myself doing this, especially if I know that something really fun, action-packed, or exciting is coming up soon.  You get the feeling to just gloss over things in order to get to the fun stuff.  But if you cheat the story, you cheat the reader, and that’s the last thing you want to do. 

The big sequences should be earned, and the reader needs to feel that they have taken a journey with the characters where both get the big sequences when they are deserved in the story.  Not because the author got impatient and wanted to jump ahead.

That being said, if you are a writer – like myself – who likes to write those sequences when they pop in your head, don’t be afraid to just write them.  You can always write the connective tissue that comes before and joins the fun stuff to the rest of the story.  This can also help you as you write the chapters prior to the scene create momentum that drives the story and the reader toward the big event.

It’s also key when you’re writing to give your reader as much information about what’s going on as possible.  Utilize the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell.  And also the sixth: thought.  As the author you can describe all of these things and use them to teleport your reader into the world you have created for them.  Put the reader there with your characters, in their heads, and make them feel like they are part of the story.

Novels are meant to be long.  They are meant to take their time to tell stories that have a lot of moving parts, the delve into the psyches and inner-workings of the characters, and give the reader an immersive experience.  While we do live in a world where it seems like less is more and faster is better, don’t forget that novel readers don’t want to take a trip in a car going 150mph, they want to take the train with it slower pace and multiple stops. 

Take your reader on a journey they don’t mind being on for a while.  They’ll be happier when they get to the final destination, and as the writer you will be satisfied that you wrote them a quality that took its time a really delivered.

What do you think?  Does taking your time and developing story, character, and description still matter?  Or have readers become impatient with novels that take their time?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Remember, Everything Begins as a Draft

Posted on by Ian Dawson

As consumers of entertainment, we have become accustomed to seeing the best version of what is being presented to us.  Whether it’s a novel, a movie, a TV series, or a play, we are witnessing this project at its highest level of completeness and – for lack of a better word – perfection.

You may read a novel and think to yourself, I could never write something that good.  Maybe you’ve come out of a movie thinking, I don’t think I could create a screenplay that great.  This is the big mental block that can invade the minds of creative people in any medium.  We see what has been produced, printed, or staged and our minds begin to doubt our own creativity.  

We wonder if we can ever be that good at what we do.

Consider this: Every film we see, every novel we read, every play we watch started as a draft at some point. Whoever wrote it had to start just like you: with an idea.  They had to cultivate it in their mind, then begin jotting down ideas that bloomed into a rough outline that was then filled with things crossed-out and put in that were better.

We often forget that prolific authors like Stephen King or Judy Blume deal with creative highs and lows while they are crafting a story.  And everyone has to tackle a rough draft at some point in order to get to the next step of revision and editing.  Yes, even the greats have to go through the same process every time they write.

It’s easy to get hung up on what has been published or produced and be intimidated.  But you have to remember that even people who are well-versed in their craft often struggle the same way all creative people do.  It’s just how the creativity game is played.

Creating is hard work for anyone.  We look at artists we admire and think that it comes easy to them.  It really doesn’t.  They, too, put in hundreds of hours to create what we are watching, reading, or listening to. With that perspective in mind, it’s easier to realize that we also have the ability to do great works; as long as we are willing to invest the time, effort, and creative energy to do so.

So, the next time you finish reading a novel or watching a movie and begin to wonder how you could ever write something as good, remember that at one point that brilliant work began as a rough draft that evolved into what you just read or saw.  

You, too, can begin at the draft phase and watch it evolve into something greater.  You just have to take the first step and begin writing and creating.

You can do it!

The video below is a snippet of an interview with Wings and Frasier co-creator David Lee discussing the evolution of the Wings pilot into what it eventually became.  A perfect example of how even those we revere as talented creative types often have to work hard to create something that works.  Enjoy!

Thank you from Ian Dawson

Posted on by Ian Dawson

Hello!  I wanted to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has read and reviewed my novel, The Field, this year, and also thank those who interviewed me about the book.  It was quite the journey getting it published, and I truly appreciate the support and positive reviews I have received.

I also want to thank all the people who have subscribed to my blog (www.thefieldya.com) and have followed me on Twitter (@thefieldya).  I haven’t posted in a while, but I assure you that more blog posts will be coming in 2019!

Thank you again, and I look forward to publishing my next novel in the new year!