Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something!

By Cheryl St.John

In Do it Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, Mark Forster says, “I have coached quite a few PhD students over the years. They often come to me because they got stuck over writing their thesis. The first question I usually ask them is, ‘How long since you last did any work on your thesis?’ The answer is usually weeks ago, months ago or even in extreme cases years ago. I tell them the reason they are stuck is they haven’t done anything, not the other way around.”

Sometimes when we say we’re stuck, we’re just not doing anything! We got to a point where we didn’t know where to go and we stopped. We might have talked about our predicament. We have certainly thought about it. But how many steps have we actually taken to do something about it?

When you’re stalled out, you have to do something. If your car stops, you don’t just sit there and think about the problem. You don’t simply call a friend and tell him so he can sympathize with you. No, you call either a tow truck or your husband/wife to come get you–or you get out and walk. Maybe you even have to push the pile of bolts out of the middle of the road. When your story stalls, either call a tow truck and fork out for repairs or get out and walk. But do something. No matter how big, how small, or how relevant to your story, do something. Then repeat that or try something else the next day. Keep at it all the way, until you know where you’re going again—even if that’s not until the last chapter or the last page.

Sometimes getting through the difficult middle chapters takes a lot of rusty or wooden writing before anything-halfway golden takes shape. It ain’t the Mona Lisa, baby. Nobody gets better at anything without practice or without screwing up numerous times. The great news is: Crappy words on the page aren’t going to kill anyone. Imagine what the Mona Lisa looked like when old Leonardo first sketched it on the canvas. Suppose his internal critic thought, “Whoo-ee, this broad is u-gly. I’ll never make her look the way I see her in my mind?”

It’s our pride and vanity that doesn’t let us break loose and write freely.  And sometimes it’s laziness that doesn’t let us put words on paper.

So, you make up your mind not to sit in that stalled car, and you jump-start it. I’m not a big fan of exercises that don’t apply to my story or of writing many words that I’m not going to use, but everyone is different, and sometimes something out of the ordinary is what it takes.

* Write a short biography of the characters.

* Write a monologue.

* Write a scene with another character.

* Write dialogue that reveals a secret.

* Go on a date with your character and write the dialogue.

* Jump ahead and write a scene that you do know.

* Watch a movie. Note plot points and figure out why it worked for you.

* If books inspire you, read a book.

Same principles as the movie watching apply. Better yet if it’s a favorite book, and you already know the scenes and dialogue inspires you and reach your emotions. Sometimes you just need to be emotional to write. I’m not saying hormonal, God forbid, but emotional. A story is feelings. Remember what these characters make you feel. Remember the feelings you want to get across. Make notes. Jot down snips of dialogue that occur to you.

* Make a list of words while you’re at it. Grab a dictionary or a thesaurus or take notes during a movie. Make a list of interesting words you’re going to use and work them into your next scene.

Do whatever it takes to move forward. Do something!

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Cheryl St.John is the author of over fifty novels, both historical and contemporary, print and indie published. Her stories have earned numerous RITA nominations, Romantic Times awards and are published in over a dozen languages. One thing all reviewers and readers agree on regarding Cheryl’s work is the degree of emotion and believability. Words like ‘heart-warming, emotional depth, touches your soul, tugs your heart, endearing characters and on my keeper shelf’ are commonly used to describe her work. In 2015 her Webinar Blockbuster Fiction was featured in the Writers Digest Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. She has a chapter in Creating Characters, Writers Digest's 2015 release. With a 4.9 star rating on amazon, Cheryl’s bestselling non-fiction book, Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict by Writers Digest Books is available in print and digital. Cheryl is an avid movie buff, and Writing With Emotion, Tension & Conflict reflects that by using examples from popular films to show examples of emotion and conflict. Her Social Media LINKS are: email Cheryl at: SaintJohn@aol.com

Visit her on the web: http://www.cherylstjohn.net/ Read her blog: From the Heart: http://cherylstjohn.blogspot.com/ Like her Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/CherylStJ She's a Pinterest junkie! http://pinterest.com/cheryl_stjohn/

There Oughta Be a Flaw

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director, Southern Writers Magazine

In virtually every story we write, it's a given that we will give our hero challenges to face.  Those obstacles we put in his/her path are likely to be external in nature, delivered by either circumstances or an antagonist.  But we can increase the drama further by slipping in some internal struggles for our hero too.

Besides making our protagonist more lifelike, a character flaw has the power to add the fascinating element of irony.  A hero who becomes the guardian of his brother's kids will have a worse time of it if he had vowed never to have children.  An eyewitness in a murder trial will find it harder to testify if he was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

The "inner demon" doesn't have to be anything illegal, immoral, or fattening.  It can be a guilty conscience, a moral dilemma, the fight between the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.  Anything that creates personal turmoil is material for mayhem.

It can feel against the grain to make our hero imperfect, especially if we write in first person, because our own voice is inherently caught up in there on some conscious or unconscious level.  If it helps distance you from your character, seek out a trait you don't possess.  Need some ideas?  The Seven Deadly Sins could be a source of inspiration.  If you can remember all seven and don't have to look them up, more power to you.  I can usually only remember the ones I've gotten good at.

If you're totally uncomfortable giving your beloved hero a flaw, consider a vulnerability instead.  What's the difference?  One would consider chronic grouchiness a flaw, whereas a fear of heights is a vulnerability.  Simply put, a flaw is something we can change; a vulnerability is something we can't.  It's not Indiana Jones' fault that he's afraid of snakes.  (Although I suppose he could get therapy for that.)

Depending on what you're going for, a vulnerability can elicit sympathy more than a flaw.  By the same token, a flaw is something you can work into your character arc.

The most unflawed character in all of fiction would probably have to be Superman.  Here's a guy who possesses superhuman powers and uses them for the public good.  Yet he is vulnerable to kryptonite, much less the designs of a femme fatale who steals his invincible heart.  If Superman didn't possess qualities that could weaken him, he would be as plastic as the toys made in his image.

Whether our protagonist is a "hero" in the truest sense of the word, or an underdog who must rise from the ashes, we give our story layers by including an Achilles heel above and beyond the main conflict.  The reader may not have personal experience with a tsunami or a kidnapping, but everyone knows what it's like to be human.

Crocodile Tears

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director


We've all gotten them, usually thanks to a well-meaning relative, or a friend who doesn't know us very well:

A forwarded email sharing a supposedly touching story that you absolutely must read.

Never mind that it usually ends with, "If you have a heart, you'll send this to twelve people you love."  Or that 99 times out of 100, a quick check on Snopes.com will verify that this "true" story -- like most other forwards -- is completely bogus.

What I find most offensive is the uncredited writer's weak attempt at conjuring emotion out of us merely by stating that one of the characters cried.

How many times have we read lines like these, toward the climax of one of these tepid tales:

"With tear-stained cheeks, she thanked the kind stranger."

"With a tear in his eye, the panhandler accepted the old woman's last dollar."

"Choking back the tears, he..."  Oh, knock it off already.

Whoever originates these anonymous forwards has an uncanny knack for overestimating their own ability to create emotion through story, to the point where they must wave a flag and show that this moment is supposed to be touching.  Trying to elicit sorrow from a reader without actually giving them something meaningful to feel is like trying to make someone laugh with a bad joke.  In both cases they'll leave groaning.

So how do we create emotion in a story so that the reader feels it, instead of just our overemotional characters? 

First, the reader must get personally involved in order to even care. They have to empathize with or understand the main characters. (Granted, that's a lot to ask of an email forward, so instead of bothering with them, let's just learn what not to do from them.)   By giving the reader real people with authentic personalities -- including the bad guys -- our fictional folks become people they want to know, or maybe want to avoid, and either way they're involved.

Clever writers also create a mood with setting; perhaps the most blatant and overused -- but still effective -- being rain when the hero's future is suddenly gloomy.  Empty or broken objects in the scene are oft-used echoes of the hero's potentially lost cause.  There is much that can parallel the circumstance and suggest "this is sad" besides tears.

Not that characters can't cry, of course.  Giving them true-to-life personalities demands that they are capable of waterworks.  We simply have to save it for moments of genuine anguish.  If our heroine becomes inconsolable because she lost her wedding ring, how will we top that emotion later on when her mother dies?  Save that beat for when you really need it.

A savvy reader will pick up on inappropriate and overblown character reactions.  Sometimes it's best to let the scene speak for itself and let the reader decide how sad they think things are.  In the words of Lemony Snicket:

"When someone is crying, of course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. But if someone is trying to hide their tears, it may also be noble to pretend you do not notice them."