Omnivoracious

Bad Romance: Star-crossed Lovers, Love Triangles, and Bewitched Boys

Romance brings all the readers to the yard—and has ever since Adam first crushed on Eve, with Lilith waiting in the weeds. But far more interesting than a match made in heaven is an affair borne of hotter stuff. Star-crossed lovers, treacherous love triangles, and bewitched boys. An affair filled with as much blood as beauty. A bad romance.

Because a good romance is too easy. Love’s power can only be seen when it’s forced to fight—either against some other affection, some magic spell, or even the world itself. And the tension in such strained relationship is palpable. The danger adds a dose of adrenaline to the already electric affair, and the feeling of impending tragedy adds a fragility, preciousness, and urgency to each moment spent in a forbidden embrace. After all, what price would you put on a loved one’s kiss if you knew it was your last?

But besides all that, bad romances are fun! You should try them! They create endless story opportunities and put your characters through an emotional—and fascinating—hell. So, in the hopes of spurring more ill-gotten affairs, here are a few tips for how to stir up a little bad romance of your own.

Star-crossed Lovers

Star-crossed lovers—two characters desperately in love whose romance will end in tragedy no matter how they strive to avoid it. Romeo and Juliet it is the classic example of star-crossed love, but it remains a popular theme to this day, from the angel who dared love a demon, to the two students magically bound and pit against each other in mortal combat. The tension is centered on the conflict character vs. destiny, as the characters strive against the relentless forces that drive them to their inescapable and unhappy end. However, “destiny” is often just a fancy word for “everybody hates a rebel,” as the cause of the lovers’ troubles can often be laid at an unbending society’s feet.

Valentine’s Day Special: Six Steps to a Sizzling Subplot

Storm the castle, defeat the dragon, rescue the princess, land a proper smooch and—BAM—instant romance and happy endings for everybody! Right? Call me jaded, but I think that story is missing a little something. Sure, the dragon fight might be interesting, and of course I’m appreciative the lady wasn’t eaten by a dragon, but is that really the right way for a hero of that proportion to find a soul mate? And does that mean that once you get married, your heroic deeds are at an end? I mean, either you’re going to have one seriously disappointed second princess, or else your first princess is going to have one helluva surprise! And then, your hero will be engaged in a fight of an entirely different nature—and far less heroic.

But the problem here isn’t that a damsel is being rescued and that they fall in love—the problem is that, for all intents and purposes, there is no damsel. There’s only a golden, damsel-shaped statue in a lockbox of a castle surrounded by the cutting edge security of the day—I mean, it doesn’t get much hotter than dragons, now does it?

And while the damsel-shaped statue may be sparkly, don’t be fooled: it won’t keep you warm at night! (Also, it’s not fooling anyone—seriously.) Take it from me, if you can do a search-and-replace for a love interest with an inanimate object, and the story remains essentially the same, then it’s not love--it’s property. And dating your legos? Totally unsexy.

So, how do you keep your romance riveting and your damsels animate? Here are a few tips, just in time for Valentine’s Day, to help you heat things up for your characters.

1. Play Hard to Get. Falling in love is an exhilarating affair shot through with enough adrenaline to hopefully help you survive the crazy-stupid decisions you’ll make. Add to that the fear-based adrenaline of the dangerous and the forbidden, and you have one hell of an electric romance. So, while most of us don’t pray every night that someday we’ll be lucky enough to be a part of a treacherous love triangle, that's precisely what makes these situations so interesting for a novel. So have an angel fall for a devil, have a woman who craves a rough touch fall for a chaste man, or even turn the whole notion on its head and have a society where love is considered a dangerous disease—and have your character fall for someone. Not only will that keep things interesting, every sacrifice made in the name of love will make the love ring truer.

Some Write it Hot (Or, How to Make Your Editor Blush)

I read a lot. For work, for fun, and sometimes, just because it’s there (hello, cereal boxes!). But I can count on one hand the number of times a manuscript made has me blush. Romantic subplots are hard to do, despite being a fantasy staple. The lines between saccharine and sweet and sexy and crude are razor thin, and too often romance is thrown into a book haphazardly like a bit of spice, without first building up the proper heat to let the flavors sing. And even if your sexy scene is comfortably toasty, making the tension fierce enough to steam up the glasses of an experienced editor is something else entirely. But if you can make an editor blush? Then you can make anyone blush.

The key to a sizzling romantic subplot lies in the foundations of strong writing: evocative descriptions, sound climactic structure, and characters that don’t open their mouths and ruin the moment. But, of course, applying these techniques to one of humanity’s most controversial and central themes is no easy task. Here are a few tips to help you turn up the heat.

Love the Way You List

“O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty: it shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labelled to my will: as, item, two lips, indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. Were you sent hither to praise me?”—Olivia, laying the smack-down in Twelfth Night, by Shakespeare

This bit by Olivia always cracks me up. But it perfectly hits upon the point: a collection of statistics does not a beautiful woman make. Helen of Troy we know was beautiful because her face launched a thousand ships--and face with that kind of a naval effect has to be beautiful. But your characters don’t need to incite WWIII for us to find them attractive. It’s enough to show their effect on others. If others find a character attractive, your reader is likely to find them attractive. As an added bonus, delving into their attraction and interaction gives you a chance to shed light on both characters.

The Take-Away: Don’t list someone’s attributes to make them attractive. A slender blonde with long eyelashes, longer legs, and crimson lips is easily forgotten. Even adding a more interesting word for red would be helpful—are they the color of blood? Are they crayon red?—as it adds character by association. If you really want to turn up the heat, focus on the sensations, feelings, and reactions of other people when they come across your character.

Curse Like an Orc, Woo Like an Elf: The Secret to Fantasy Languages

Fantasy languages hold undeniable appeal. They are transportive, offering you a treasured glimpse into the secret minds and daily lives of elves, Klingons, wizards, and dragons. They are evocative, lending elves their otherworldliness, Klingons their intimidating nature, and the Sims their emotiveness. And they create an almost instant kinship between those devoted to these magical languages that cross fantasy worlds.

I remember the thrill of discovery when I picked up Magician: Apprentice and realized that Raymond E. Feist had used one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Elvish languages as the basis for his Elvish—as did countless other fantasy works. It made the mystery and the magic of the elves somehow that much more tangible. I cherished each decoded word, for by studying the language I felt closer than ever to the mystical elves I had read about. And I’m not alone.

Something about fantasy languages captures the imagination. It can be the final touch that sets your creations apart—that spark that gives them a feeling entirely their own. But regardless as to whether you’re featuring full conversations, or using a couple words here and there for flavor, or even just need a few names of characters and kingdoms that fit together, making up words is a tricky business. Here are a few quick-and-dirty tips to get you started:

A Pretty Language for a Pretty Elf

Most people create fantasy languages to enrich their fantasy worlds. Tolkien created a fantasy world to enrich his fantasy languages. Assuming you’re not a linguist and fantasy languages aren’t the point of your whole creation, it’s important to think about the purpose your fantasy language will serve in your book.

Give Your Characters a Voice: Writing Strong Dialogue

Ever finish a book and feel like you were losing some of your best friends? Or ever get addicted to a series just because you had to see what happened to the characters, plot be damned? Finishing a book can be ruthlessly traumatic because the characters you have spent so many cozy hours getting to know will never say anything new ever again. You know these characters better than you know most people. You know exactly what they would say in any given circumstance. And, most interestingly, you could write whole books of fan fiction with your favorite characters—and other fans could tell you when you mislabeled bits of dialogue.

Because when your dialogue is strong enough, and each character has a unique voice, readers not only feel like they’ve known your characters their whole life—they fall in love with them. It’s the inspiration behind fan art and fan fiction. It’s the source of daydreams and cosplay. It’s the font of almost all book quotes, and it’s the only thing that remains (mostly) the same when a movie is made.

Strong dialogue defines memorable characters. So what can your characters say to make readers fall in love with them?

DO Keep It Real—Only Better

“There are, ah, problems with the boy, yes. But the problems are unique to his situation in my care. Were he under yours, I’m sure they would, ahhhh, vanish.”

“Oh. You have a magic boy. Why didn’t you say so?” The priest scratched his forehead beneath the white silk blindfold that covered his eyes. “Magnificent. I’ll plant him in the [censored to protect the innocent] ground and grow a vine to an enchanted land beyond the clouds.”

“Ahhhhh! I’ve tasted that flavor of sarcasm before, Chains.” The Thiefmaker gave an arthritic mock bow. “That’s the sort you spit out as a bargaining posture. Is it really so hard to say that you’re interested?”

The Eyeless Priest shrugged. “Suppose Calo, Galdo, and Sabetha might be able to use a new playmate, or at least a new punching bag. Suppose I’m willing to spend about three coppers and a bowl of piss for a mystery boy. But you’ll still need to convince me that you deserve the bowl of piss. What’s the boy’s problem?”

“His problem,” said the Thiefmaker, “is that if I can’t sell him to you, I’m going to have to slit his throat and throw him in the bay. And I’m going to have to do it tonight.”—The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch

This scene is a brilliant introduction of character and concept. You gain truckloads of information about the plot, the city Camor, the priest, the Thiefmaker, and Locke Lamora himself, even though the latter is not in scene. Much more than listing their exploits or statistics, or using adjectives like sneaky and sly. In addition, you cannot predict a single response in this witty back-and-forth. Substantially different from standard salutations, you are forced to hang on every word the Thiefmaker and the priest say, because these two charismatic characters are so inventive that their interactions, while natural feeling, are anything but rote.

Total Reader Immersion: Writing Evocative Descriptions

Have you ever read a book whose language was so lush, so vivid, so incredibly realistic that you felt, even just for a moment, that the characters, places, and events of the book must actually be real? That’s total reader immersion, right there. The holy grail of writing. To be able to, with a few words, make someone feel as though they were really there, in your story, alongside your characters. To let them actually experience exactly what it feels like to cast a spell, to fly, or to touch a dragon’s scales. So that once they are done with your book, they will never be the same. They will wear red scarves over black-and-white outfits and go to circuses. They will buy wands and drink Butterbeer. They will go to book launch parties, dressed in their midnight best. They will read your books by day, and dream of your worlds by night.

With solid description-writing skills, you can do that. You can do more than tell a story: you can bring it to life. All it takes is a little practice. And since you're practicing . . . here are a few do's and don'ts it may help to keep in mind, inspired by some of my favorite descriptions in fantasy fiction.

DO Read It Out Loud

“It was deep and wide as autumn’s ending. It was heavy as a river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.”--The Name of the Wind

Have you ever heard a poem in a language you don’t understand? It is fascinating, how even without knowing the language, you can often understand the emotion behind the poem, just from the sound and pacing of the words. Good description is like that. Try saying these words out loud: susurrus, balk, encrusted. Each of these words has a sound that extends beyond its definition in a dictionary. The sound, shape, and length of their sounds carry associations. Are they short, staccato sounds? Sibilant and hissing? What does it say, if you use smooth, liquid sounding words to describe a brutal act? Or clipped precise words to describe a dance? Choose your words carefully, and you can convey emotion as eloquently as the soundtrack in a movie.

Beyond Orcs & Elves: Stacy Whitman on Writing Cross-Culturally

“Write what you know” was never really on the table for fantasy writers. At least, not in the literal sense. Trucking with elves and dragons is something sadly left up to our imaginations. But that doesn’t mean that we can just make everything up. Just like having dragons in your book doesn’t mean you can ignore the laws of physics—except, possibly, when it comes to letting dragons fly. Even when writing a fantasy book, you still have to do your best to write well-researched, complex characters who are more than the sum of their stats, whether you’re writing about someone who can play with magic, someone who is living life backward, or someone from a culture not your own—be it real, or imagined.

Creating fantasy cultures and writing cross-culturally in particular can prove a challenge. It’s also a hot subject in fantasy right now, and to address it, I knew I really needed an expert. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of Stacy Whitman for some much-appreciated guidance.

Stacy Whitman is the editorial director of Tu Books, a multicultural fantasy, science fiction, and mystery imprint for children and young adults--an imprint she originally founded as a small press before being acquired by Lee & Low Books. She’s a veteran of publishing as well as many discussions and presentations on writing cross-culturally, and I know of no one better to help guide authors through creating their own rich, diverse fantasy worlds.

 

1. What are the benefits of writing cross-culturally?

I think anytime we reach outside ourselves and our own view of the world, we can benefit with a greater understanding of other people. Whether that’s writing the opposite gender, writing about real-world cultures other than our own, or in fantasy writing, making up a new culture entirely--or even writing within our own cultural influences, your character is not always going to think the way you do. Seeing the world through your character’s eyes will make your story richer.

Too often I hear writers say, “I don’t know anything about being [insert ethnicity or race here]. Why would I include diversity if I don’t know anything about it?” But then we run the risk of populating our books with a monoculture, and so few places nowadays are still monocultural. There are exceptions--I come from a town in the Midwest that isn’t very diverse--but even in those exceptions, when we look for diversity, we’ll find it. And we should reflect that diversity in the worlds we create.

Resolve to Write: 52 Writing Exercises to Hone Your Craft

Want to be a better writer? Resolve to write! Writing regularly is the single most important thing you can do to improve your craft. After all, practice does make perfect. Of course, this obvious answer is easier said than done. The muse is notoriously fickle, and half of just about anyone’s dedicated writing time gets compromised by a lack of inspiration, by more “important” things to do (dinner, laundry, work…), and by the lure of the ever-present internet.

So, this year, to help make resolving to write easier, I’ve pulled together 52 writing exercises inspired by some of my favorite books. Each of these is intended to go from one paragraph to around a page, and there are 52 of them so that you, too, can write every week. Remember, these are just writing exercises—if you want to turn them into a full-length project, please make sure you’re not violating any copyrights.

Happy New Year, and most importantly, happy writing!

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Week 1: Write a haunting description of the eldritch beauty of an abandoned elf kingdom. (Inspired by The Lord of the Rings)

Week 2: Write a page of dialogue between a dying but powerful dragon and the boy who stumbled into his lair in search of something with which to save his people. (Inspired by The Riftwar Saga)

Week 3: Write a fight scene between a priest wielding a holy spiked chain and a vampire. (Inspired by Realms of the Dead)

Week 4:  Write a humorous scene about a warrior who is brave in battle getting all nervous when getting her ears pierced in preparation for a ball. (Inspired by Song of the Lioness Quartet)

Week 5: Write a description of a macabre party in the catacombs under Paris. (Inspired by Revolution)

Books with a Bang: Troy Denning on Writing the Ultimate Climax

A great book with a bad climax is like a joke with no punch line: it leaves readers with a bad taste in their mouths and a reluctance to indulge you further. An average book with a fantastic climax, on the other hand, can turn even the most reluctant readers into die-hard fans.

Such is the power of the climax: they make or break books. They are, in some ways, the whole point of the book, as every torment you put your hero through, every obstacle they have overcome, every creative horror they’ve faced, leads up to that singular point. And the fulfillment of all that ink, sweat, and tears is left dependent on just one thing: your climax.

For such an important part of a story, I can think of no one more qualified to speak to it than New York Times best-selling author Troy Denning. Best known as the author of countless Star Wars books, such as the acclaimed Star by Star and Invincible--which in itself is the epic climax of a series--Troy Denning has written in such dark and imaginative worlds as Dark Sun, Planescape, and the Forgotten Realms. His mastery of tension and emotion has kept readers up late into the night for more than twenty years, and there’s a reason for such fierce loyalty: his writing is complex, suspenseful, and builds to a perfect climax, time after time.

1. What are the goals of a climactic scene, and what makes for a memorable climax?

The way to build a powerful literary climax is to build suspense. Suspense creates tension; the release of tension creates pleasure. That’s the key to memorable climaxes--and to holding reader interest.

That being said, I don’t think of climaxes as single scenes, but as major building blocks in a story’s structure. Climaxes are the high points in the story, where the protagonist’s efforts to solve his problem reach a crescendo, and where he learns something from his efforts that will change his approach to solving the problem the next time.

The Art of the Epic Battle

“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”—Braveheart

Nothing sets fire to our hearts and minds like a good old-fashioned climatic battle. That epic clash where good stands against evil in the face of almost certain death, fearlessly protecting that which is most sacred to them--be it honor, freedom, or the world itself. Few things are more inspiring than seeing those brave, proud few draw a line in the sand and throw down for what they believe in against almost impossible odds. Because these people believe in something greater than themselves, and believe it so strongly they have chosen it over their own lives.

Sacrifice has the power to lend tremendous credence to a cause—as well as an unbelievable amount of heart-wrenching drama to your book (I think I will always cry during Theoden’s speech in The Lord of the Rings). But writing a scene that takes every emotion you have built up and every thread you have set into motion throughout the entire story--and sets them on fire--is incredibly intimidating and difficult. With so much build up, you really don’t want to disappoint--or, heaven forefend, bore--your readers at this point. Here are a few tips to help you figure out what sets a climactic battle apart, and how to make it the epic conclusion to your epic fantasy you’ve always dreamed (epically) about.

What Are They Fighting For?

A climactic battle is at its heart a fight scene (read Master of the Fight Scene R.A. Salvatore’s advice on writing fight scenes here) with just a few differences:

 

Tell it Like a Trickster: How to Write a Good Twist

If a Trickster told a joke, it would be a pun. If a Trickster wrote a poem, it would be a limerick. And if a Trickster wrote a novel, it would have a twist. A classic, beloved archetype, embodied in Loki, Coyote, Iktomi, and Puck among others, Tricksters love to make us gasp--and often end up making us groan. They can be cruel, whimsical, wise, and foolish, all in the same story. And their goals range from educational to punitive to the simple desire to have a little fun at our expense. But whether their intentions are golden or ghastly, Tricksters steal our hearts with their clever ways.

When you tell a story with a twist, you are taking on the role of the Trickster. As the reader’s sole experience of your story is in your authorial hands, we readers kind of expect you to tell it to us straight. So when you take that trust, then give the story a twist, you’re tricking us! And nine times out of ten, we love it. Like five-year-olds, we’re fascinated when adults break the rules, and we love a good surprise or a clever trick. But, of course, as many a Trickster has learned the hard way, you have to be careful when playing the Trickster, because while we may love to be tricked, we hate being made to look foolish.

Think of the books or movies you know that feature a memorable twist: The Sixth Sense, The Maze Runner, Ender’s Game, The Watchmen, Never Let Me Go, Fight Club, The Da Vinci Code, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister . . . Even Star Wars features a prominent twist (you know it’s prominent when it becomes an internet meme). So what separates the twists that make us scream with delight from those that just make us scream, and how can you make sure your book has the right kind of twist?

Five Steps to a Heart-Stopping (Literary) Climax

A good climax can leave you breathless. The best climaxes can make you weep just thinking about them. And without a climax, the most epic story is just unsatisfying. But despite all the hype, a climax is simply the release of the tension you have built up throughout the novel—one perfectly logical step at a time—by way of literary foreplay.

In a short story, this means each detail is used to add to the suspense. In a novel, on the other hand, suspense is built through a series of tension-building scenes and turning points that tease the reader with the possibility of release. All this builds up, in your traditional fantasy, to an epic clash between good and evil, like the classic battle between the White Witch and Aslan at the end of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Of course, climatic battles are only the beginning where literary climaxes are concerned. But no matter what form your climax takes, when done properly, it’s the snowflake that starts the avalanche, releasing all the tension that built up over the course of the novel in a thrilling, pulse-pounding scene... just as when done poorly, it’s a fizzled disappointment that can ruin the whole experience of the book. There’s nothing like practice to perfect your climaxes, but here are few tricks that should help you keep your climaxes tense, exciting, and ultimately satisfying.

1. Employ Foreplay
The chilling short story “The Lottery” is one of the best examples of literary foreplay I’ve ever read. Each detail builds the mood, mystery, and suspense: the stones the boys collect, the whispers of the girls, the carnival atmosphere, the crumbling black box no one replaces for tradition’s sake, and the ceremony most have forgotten—which leads to the climax no one can forget. The foreshadowing is so deft that even after we know who has been chosen, we do not know what it signifies—we merely know it is important—until the end. A climax like that leaves readers thinking about a story for years to come.

NaNoWriMo Special: "The End" Is Nigh

The end. We’re not talking about the climax or the resolution here, we’re talking about those last few lines. The last words your reader reads. The last sentences an editor sees. We’re talking about not needing to say “the end” because it feels right and natural. We’re talking about the difference between leaving your readers in state of awe . . . and meh.

First lines are important, because they hook your reader. And because of that, authors obsess over them. But last lines are almost equally important. Like the last notes of a glass of wine—they leave a strong taste in your mouth. So if your ending falls flat, it can dampen the enjoyment and appreciation of the whole. On the other hand, if the last lines of your book are resonant, they can amplify reader appreciation tenfold.

So how do you find the perfect ending for your story? There is no one answer for every story. The best endings are those that suit the work in question. That said, here are a couple of tips on how to work four of the most common kinds of endings.

The Cliffhanger

JANE: Gee willikers, I’m so glad we got away from that pack of angry red balloons!
DICK: By golly, it was a close call! Lucky for us, we had our Swiss Army knives!
JANE: The way they swarmed all over Ginger and Roger . . . I . . . I can still hear their screams!
DICK: There, there, Jane. Come here. [DICK takes JANE’s knife, gently puts both knives down] It’s all over now. . .
[DICK puts an arm around JANE, they walk off stage. Ominous music starts again. RED BALLOON drifts after them, its string dragging on the ground. Fade to black]

Tips from the Pros: Kemp, Pauley, and Cordell on How to Wrangle Your Muse

It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, and with NaNoWriMo over in just a few days, surely you are taking advantage of the holiday for a weekend of writing to remember! (I know I am!) But just in case that turkey has you dozing, here are some inspiring words from award-winning and New York Times best-selling authors who’ve learned to wrangle their muse against all manner of temptations and distractions.

This culminates a week-long party celebrating the thousands writing for NaNoWriMo. If you missed it, be sure to check out Monday and Wednesday's posts for more inspiring tips from some of my favorite professional authors.

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Kimberly Pauley (read her books)
Author of Sucks to Be Me (YALSA Quick Pick) and Still Sucks to Be Me (VOYA Best Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror list 2010)

We’ve all been there: transfixed and empty, staring at the blank page, our head in our hands and our hair standing on end. Usually, it happens when you’re under a deadline (either official or of your own doing) or when there’s some other pressure upon you to GET THE WORDS DOWN. And that’s the key thing--we often get stuck because we don’t have the time to get stuck. So, how do you get un-stuck?

Tips from the Pros: Greenwood and Evans on How to Jumpstart Your Writing

Deadlines seem anathema to inspiration. But for some writers, deadlines are actually quite inspiring. And not just in the “my editor’s going to kill me” kind of way. These writers take a strong work ethic, shape it with a little creativity, and come out looking at inspiration in an entirely new—and surprisingly efficient—light.

To celebrate the deadline-driven inspiration of NaNoWriMo, this Monday, Wednesday (today!), and Friday, some of my favorite professional authors are spilling their secrets on how they write even when the muse is M.I.A.

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Ed Greenwood (read his books)
Creator of the Forgotten Realms world, and author of over 140 Books, including Bury Elminster Deep

I never get stalled in writing. No, I'm not boasting or preening, I'm sharing my survival strategy.

I don't get stalled because I'm brilliant or so frothingly full of ideas that they pour out of me whenever I so much as pass a keyboard, but because I always have six to eight projects on the go at any one time, and when I start to run down or hit a wall on one, I just switch to another.

Tips from the Pros: Shelly Mazzanoble on How to Be Inspired

Inspiration. It strikes some people like lightning. Others wrestle their muse every night. And still other cajole and bribe their muse with Bridezillas, burritos, and time on twitter. But no matter how you find your inspiration, one thing’s for sure—when you have a deadline, you don’t have the luxury of waiting.

To celebrate the writing sensation of NaNoWriMo, this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, some of my favorite professional authors have offered to share the techniques they’ve mastered for writing even when the muse is bad.

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How to Be Inspired
(Or, how not to forget to write a monthly column every month)
by Shelly Mazzanoble

1. Dungeons & Dragons editor emails asking where your monthly Dragon column is.

2. Type array of pithy, juvenile responses like, “It’s up your butt” or “Ask your Mom” but respond with “Just proofing it now!”

3. Spend next 37 minutes looking at calendar marveling at how it’s been a month already. Didn’t you just finish writing last month’s?

4. No idea what to write about this month so you scan DVR in search of inspiration. Tim Gunn mentoring young mages tasked with creating robes appropriate for day and evening adventuring? Special guest judge: Elminster.

5. Realize DVR is 98% full, which you equate with a cluttered mind. Watch four episodes of House Hunters in effort to unclog the creative juices.

NaNoWriMo Special: The Blank Page Blues

Intimidating. Infinite. Deadly. Don't let its calm façade fool you: nothing has inspired so much fear in the hearts and minds of writers. The mere sight of it can be paralyzing, and the longer you stare at it, the stronger it gets. It doesn’t even have to say a word to murder more manuscripts than the most capricious of editors. It is . . . the blank page.

No seriously! Every step of the writing process has its share of knock-outs. But most people don’t start a book without an idea (stage one), and if they do, they at least made it to the next stage. And the outline (stage two)? Technically, you can skip that, too, which gives the actual writing of the first draft (stage three) the most knock-outs by far.

The problem with the blank page is that it is perfect. An endless spread of white representing infinite possibility—for both success and humiliation. Your story—your perfect story—could be on that page. But so could something so awful, you’d fear to use your pen name on the internet forevermore.

But it’s important to remember that this is just the first draft, and that your keyboard has a delete button. You want everything to be just perfect, but your manuscript, like a kid’s knees, is going to suffer a few scrapes and bruises in growing. And that’s okay! Because you learn with each Band-aid. No written word is wasted. Every one of them will make you a better writer. Besides, the sooner you get your first draft down, the sooner you can get to fixing it!

Playing with POV

A book is not just an accounting of events. Books famously leave things out. And it’s a good thing, too! Having to experience every moment in every character’s life, from every possible perspective, would be a total nightmare. One of the most important—and invisible--parts of writing a book is choosing what scenes and points of view (POV) you’re going to use to tell your story. Do it right, and readers will be hooked. Do it wrong, and something just won’t feel right.

NaNoWriMo Special: The Quick and Dirty Outline

I have a love-hate relationship with outlines. On the one hand, outlines force you to do all the hard parts all at once, up front, which sucks and can take forever. On the other hand—they force you to do all the hard parts at once, up front—helping you avoid pitfalls that might cost you significant word count later, and meaning that once you get to the actual writing, it will be smooth(ish) sailing! Or at the very least, easier than it otherwise would be.

So how do you go from killer idea to awesome outline? First off, it helps to remember that the outline is not the law: it’s more like a guideline, really. The second thing to remember is that writing things down—and saying them aloud, too—allows different parts of your brain to work on your idea. So, the sooner you start getting bits of your idea down, and the sooner you start talking about it, the more of your brain you can bring to bear on shaping your idea. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first go round—writing it down is part of the process.

There are as many different methods for outlining as there are authors out there. That being said here is one method I’ve used and recommend for quickly and efficiently turning your idea into an outline.

Step 1: Find the Heart of Your Idea

A good first step is to try to put your idea into a one-sentence summary: the legendary elevator pitch. A humble man finds a dangerous, powerful ring. A good, innocent southern girl falls in love with a vampire. An outcast boy who grows up in a dragon-hunting town befriends a dragon. If you don’t have an idea yet, try one of the simple combinations from “Found Objects” in my last post on coming up with ideas.

NaNoWriMo Special: The Shotgun Approach to Writing

By which I don’t mean take a shotgun to your computer or anything so dire. I’m talking about doing some rapid-fire brainstorming to quickly move through a lot of different ideas--from a variety of different approaches--until you find one that suits your fancy. Because you need a good idea if you’re going to participate in National Novel Writing Month, and NaNoWriMo is not about taking it slow.

NaNoWriMo is about getting hooked on writing. You kind of have to be if you’re going to hit 50k in just one month! Of course, to get to even 1k, you first need to do one very important thing: start. Starting is for many the hardest part. And the hardest part of starting is coming up with an idea you're crazy enough about to spend all your Friday nights cuddling up to your computer.

So, listed below are five of my favorite ways to get an idea. Try all of them! Who knows? You might just hit on something good. After all, legend has it Erin Morgenstern’s acclaimed The Night Circus started in a story she wrote for NaNoWriMo . . .

1. Picture Yourself Legend Tripping

There's a reason legends stick around for so long: something about them grips the human imagination. Which means they make damn good stories. You can tackle the big ones--like the fall of the mythical city of Atlantis, or the smaller ones, like the lost colony or Roanoke, in which 128 people disappeared, leaving only the word "Croatoan" carved on a solitary post of the fort. Either way, trying to explain the unexplainable is always a fun way to spend some words. Here are some of my favorites (inspired by Jeff Belanger's excellent Picture Yourself Legend Tripping):

Halloween Special: How to Scare Your Reader (Tricks from the Movies)

In honor of Halloween, I’d like to focus on what writers can take away from Halloween’s most sacred and time-honored tradition: the horror movie. I know, I know: books and movies are natural enemies. Books have long-lasting, deep affairs with their readers, and movies have quick, memorable flings. Books resent the popularity of movies, and movies are turned off by book’s need for commitment. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few tricks books can learn from movies—after all, there’s a reason they’re so popular!—and movies have always had particularly effective scare tactics.

Even if you’re not writing a horror story, knowing how to scare your reader is an important skill to have. We like our villains frightening, our monsters terrifying, and our unknown horrors to reduce us to a quivering goo. Otherwise, we can’t appreciate the heroism of your hero—or their abject fear—when they face whatever horrors you have in store for them. Being able to effectively communicate how scary something is for your hero is key to reader immersion and empathy.

So what makes things scary? Sure shock, gore, and the exploitation of common phobias have something going for them, but to make something really scary? That’s the art of the psychological thriller. It’s also the easiest to translate to a book. There are two basic principles of scaring your reader that we can learn from the movies: the power of everyday objects to evoke horror, and the implications of a single, perfect detail.

Everyday Horror

You are at your most vulnerable with those you trust. You let your guard down. You begin to relax. So something that makes you question the things you took for granted as safe is naturally terrifying. Doctors should heal you. Showers cleanse and refresh you. Wooden blocks are for children to play with. Cheese graters are for cooking. After you read a scene from a book that twists something you trust, you will never look at those objects quite the same way again. And it’s that ability of the everyday turned horrific to haunt you that makes them so powerful.