Category Archives: Writing/Craft

Writing Tips – Mini Story Arcs Within Your Story’s Arc

The other day an author had a post on his blog where he talked about writing a weekly serial and how he had to write such that he always left off at a part where readers were dying to find out what happens next. That way they’d come back the following week and read the next installment. I commented that I naturally wrote in chunks of 2,500 – 5000 words at a time, which turned out to be very helpful. My writing process has evolved over the years such that with those 2,500 to 5,000 words I subconsciously include a small story arc within each chapter.

I thought the subject would make a great blog topic. Typically when people talk about ‘story arcs’, they’re referring to the plot line of the book. The story arc usually follows a bell curve style like this:

Story Arc: Where the beginning of the story starts out ramping up, then it peaks in the middle and then by the end, there’s the story’s resolution, leaving the reader fulfilled by time they finish the book.

Within every book, each chapter also includes its own tiny story arc. Each chapter will follow a similar pattern as the main story arc with the exception of an up-turn on the tail-end of the bell curve like this:

Chapter Arc: The goal here is that each chapter has a ramped up beginning, heightened middle and then a ramp down until you get near the end where the plot jumps back up yet again. This is a “hook” to keep the reader engaged and turning the pages.

So back to my comment on the author’s blog where I said, “I naturally write to 2,500 to 5,000 words per sitting.” What I meant was, each time I sit down to write, I’m leaving off at a highpoint (either at 2,500 words (ie, the middle of the chapter (the peak of the chapter bell curve) or at the end of the chapter (the up-turn right after the bell curve’s decline). In both cases, that’s a highpoint in the small chapter arc.

If you put all the chapter’s side by side within the story’s overall arc, they’d look something like this:

As you can see, each chapter arc moves upward, building upon the overall story arc, then peaking before coming back down to the final conclusion in the book.

This is how I “visually” see writing a story in my mind’s eye. It helps me in terms of pacing and avoiding the dreaded “sagging middle”.  Hopefully you’ll find it helpful to think in these “visual” terms. 🙂

Writing Tips – Hiding in Plain Sight

A couple summers ago, we went blackberry picking. Er, well I should say I was the “camera toter” and “bug spray applier”, not the “blackberry picker” in this adventure.

Along the way, we had to pass a few uninterested bystanders. They were a bit white-faced that we had the audacity to invade their territory, but hey, I was a bit white-faced, too.

Ah, the fresh smell of cow patties… Phew!

Much fun was had and tons of blackberries were picked, despite the prickles! Before an ominous thunderstorm rolled in, I snapped some fun photos. And of course, being the one behind the camera, I never seem to be in any photos.

Well, unless they turn out like this. :roll:

There really is a writing lesson buried in this text, promise.

Many writer friends and I have talked about the unconscious muse phenom. What we’re talking about is when we’re working on a current book and down the road we discover that some innocuous item we’d added much earlier in the story–just to give some authenticity or because we wanted to further flesh out a setting–turned out to be pivotal in the storyline later. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!?! And even though it has happened often enough to lead me to believe my own muse sometimes runs in the background in my subconscious, there is a lesson to be picked up here. One that I can consciously implement into my stories and so can you!

There’s an expression in the screenwriting world called “Laying the Pipe” (er, I believe I have the correct expression (someone correct me if I’m misquoting it), and NO, it’s not that meaning. Git yer minds outta the gutter :lol: ). The basic gist behind this idea is that as the story unfolds you want to plant items early in the storyline that will have an impact on your story later, but you do this by integrating those items in such a way that the viewer/reader doesn’t KNOW you’re planting them. It’s done this way so that later on in the storyline when it’s important that your audience “recalls” the small item they missed before and how it relates to the big reveal now, then they’ll nod their heads and say, Oh, yeah, I get it now. 

So, what does blackberry picking have to do with this fun writing tip above? Check out that first photo again. What do you see?

Do you see the praying mantis? If you saw it the first time, good for you! This insect’s body is MADE for camouflage. He was there all along, hiding in plain sight. That’s what you’re doing with your story. When you layer little items in so that they are a seamless part of the story, give them more of a reason for being there than just to support a reveal later. How do you do that? One way is to make them a true integral part of the character or storyline. Like Nara teaching herself Latin in BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS. Um, if you don’t know how that ties into this writing tip, hopefully it’ll click with you if you read Nara and Ethan’s story.  8)

 

Writing Tips – Worldbuilding

Brainstorming BRIGHTEST KIND OF DARKNESS's world!

On a message board I’m on, someone asked about worldbuilding, ie how do you do it.

I’ll admit, world building can be both fun (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!) and intimidating (MY WORLDS AND PLOTS GROW LIKE KUDZU, AND THERE I AM BLITHELY SPRAYING MIRACLE GROW ON THEM. Of course, after the fact, I can be found pulling my hair and wandering around the house mumbling, “How am I going to get all this into one book and the romance, too”), but I did try to find a way to answer the question that might help things click into place.

You know me…I gotta make it visual…well, at least relate it to something one can visualize. :wink: So here goes.

The Puzzle of Worldbuildlng

Try to relay tidbits of the world in the natural course of the story…via characters discussing things or visiting places or events happening where the world building can be woven in seamlessly piece by piece.

Maybe one way to think of laying out the mythology in the story is to do it the same way you would approach working on a 500 piece puzzle. For instance, the bits of your worldbuilding you DO know–the basic framework of your world–would flow easily early on in your story and should be slipped into place without much effort. Consider this first layer of worldbuilding like the puzzle’s outside pieces, where that one straight edge helps you form the main border.

Once all the outside pieces are placed, you then work your way inward, using the picture on the front of the puzzle box to help you decipher the colors and shapes stamped on the pieces, turning them until they all finally come together in a completed puzzle and overall picture. You do this secondary part of your worldbuilding via creative dialogue, action/fight scenes, flashbacks, dream sequences, a hunt for something/discovery of something, etc…anything that flows into the natural unfolding of the story. This deeper level of worldbuilding happens throughout every scene, even down to the last few pages.

P.T.