Spin a Story, Not a Sermon

Recently an idea popped into my head for a new story. “Awesome!” I thought. “People need this book right now. They are so clueless.”

In my defense, this is a book about a very political topic. I’ve been watching newscasters talk about this topic. And people post about it all the time on Facebook. As a nonfiction author, I have to say that the cluelessness of so many people should make me happy. It’s like job security.

But I also know that I’m going to have to be really careful not to write something that is preachy. If your story idea can be summed up as a meme, on a button, or a t-shirt, tread very carefully. You are going to have to take care to spin a top-notch story.

Yamile Saied Mendez did this when she wrote the picture book Where Are You From? This story is about a little girl who doesn’t look like everyone around her. Because of this, children and adults alike assume she is from somewhere else.

Where are you from? they ask.

Is your mom from here?

Is your dad from there? they ask.

See what I mean? This is a story that could very easily become a protest poster.  "Most of us come from somewhere else."  

Instead of letting this become a sermon, Mendez gives our young narrator a problem that resonates in today’s world and an abuelo. When he could lecture, abuelo spins a story about the many lands their ancestors called home.

If you haven’t read this picture book, I’d definitely recommend it for a great way to teach without preaching.  It is subtle, sweet and relatable. 

Not that this approach will work for my topic, but that’s okay. This is a soft sincere story. Mine needs to be humorous, but this has given me some ideas.

I need a narrator with a problem. She’s not happy with the condition of the world around her. People aren’t doing what they should and they need to be replaced with people who will do things right. The first person who needs to go is the lunch lady. 

What did you think I was talking about?

Whether your topic is diversity, acceptance or immigration, there are ways to address it that won’t seem heavy handed or preachy. The best way to do this, whether you are writing a picture book or a novel, is to spin a story.

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards' writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins November 18th, 2019.

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3 comments plot, preaching, theme

How To Win Contests (Or At Least an Honorable Mention)

I sometimes get the opportunity to critique manuscripts for contests; I might be asked to give feedback on essays or short fiction or novel excerpts or even picture book manuscripts. It’s not always easy to find the best manuscript, but there are two basic flaws that’ll quickly kick your work out of the competition:

Same Old, Same Old

I don’t care whether you’re writing an essay or a picture book, you’ve got to bring something unique. But that doesn’t mean you have to write about something that’s never been done. You just have to find a way of making the same old, same old different.

Take, for example, something as simple as fingers and toes. There have been a gazillion picture books written about ‘em because—big surprise—little kids and the adults who read to kids are downright smitten with fingers and toes.

So you want to write about these darling digits because it’s a proven seller and also just because you love the idea of fingers and toes. How can you make your book different from all the gazillion of books already out there? Start with making sure you know what’s already been written and then let your imagination go wild! Don’t worry about being “wrong” so much as just letting your creativity run rampant. That’s where the golden best-sellers are born.

Because here’s the bottom line (which is always about money, isn’t it?): there’s a strong correlation between uniqueness and marketability. So when an agent tells you that it only takes a first page, or maybe even a first paragraph, to know if they’re interested, it’s because of the uniqueness/marketability factor. The same old, same old will get a pass every time. Bring something unique to make your manuscript stand out and you’re halfway to the prize. (And as an added bonus, you’ll probably have found your hook.)

But Is It A Story?

Do you have a friend who loves to tell stories but at the end of one of these “stories” you find yourself asking, “Is that it?”

Oh, dear. Some people just don’t know how to tell a story. But good storytellers do; they know the way story works. They start at the beginning, with a character who’s got trouble. So much trouble! You can’t help wondering, “So then what happened?” The storyteller continues, building tension, until you’re on the edge of your seat. And finally, the story comes to a gratifyingly good end and you’re all like, “Wow!” Or maybe you laugh or cry or sigh. The point is, a good story always has the reader asking, “So then what happened?” Until the story finally comes to an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

You can play around with all the elements, whatever your form. Maybe your protagonist is a force of nature, maybe you have four different points-of-view, maybe you time travel, going back and forth in settings from one century to the other. But through it all, you have to have a good story. Without a story, you’ve just got observations. And possibly an agent who says, “Is that it?”

So before you spend days, months, or years of your life fixing a wonky rhyme or making a character more engaging, make sure your manuscript is worth it. Give it something unique and make sure you have a story. And then sit back and start winning contests (or at least an Honorable Mention)!

~ Cathy C. Hall

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6 comments Cathy C. Hall, elements of story, hook your readers, marketability, plot, writing contests

Diagraming Your Plot: The Big Picture

I have a confession to make – unlike so many of my fellow Muffin bloggers, fiction intimidates me. I have ideas for fictional stories. But actually carrying them out? I can pull off the occasional picture book.

But, as I wrote about in “Putting Your Story Aside,” sometimes I come up with a story that is just too big for a picture book. I quickly realized that in this case the correct solution wasn’t going to be finding a way to shape my premise into a picture book. This time around the solution was going to be finding a different, longer form for the story.

Once I figured that out, I froze up. I needed to figure out my basic plot points. I knew that, but plot diagrams and I have a dicey relationship. All that scrolling from one screen to another or flipping pages is just distracting. And, NO, I can’t get enough information on one page.

I’m not sure why it took me several days to figure this out but eventually I hit on a solution. Years ago, I made a story board the size of a poster frame. That way I didn’t have to flip from page to page when I visually mapped out a picture book. If I could make a super-sized story board, surely I could make a larger-than-normal plot diagram.

Behold! The Big Picture Plot Diagram. In a former life, it was part of a foam core science fair board. I’m using one panel, approximately 1 foot by 3 feet. Then I stapled red yarn to mark the ¼ point and the ¾ point. Then I used black yarn to mark your basic plot line. It seems overly simple but after waffling for something like 10 days it helped me outline my book.

First, I outlined my mentor text on orange post-its. Remember, fiction intimidates me. Outlining a mentor text helped me put together various things I already knew and spot several problems with my original idea. I saw how to better introduce my characters and how the solution to the big problem has to come out of a flaw in one of their personalities. I know, I know. That’s the sort of advice that you read all the time, but outlining my mentor text let me see it.


Next I outlined my own book on green post-its. The great thing about post-it notes on a giant foam board was that when the tension failed to escalate correctly, I could easily move one chapter and insert another. No flipping back and forth. No cutting and scrolling and pasting. You just pick up a post-it and then put it down three inches farther along in the plot.

And I did it without any of page turns or screen scrolls that I find so distracting. Outlining both books took me two hours.

Maybe none of you have these problems.

Then again, maybe, just maybe, there is someone who is just as visual as I am and needs a highly visual, big picture solution. It may not slice, it may not dice, but the Big Picture Plot Diagram may still be just what you need.

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards' writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins October 9th.

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7 comments diagramming a plot, fiction, mentor texts, plot, plot diagram, writing fiction

Pacing: Fast or Slow, Make the Adjustments Your Story Needs

Recently, my critique group noticed that one person's chapter just seemed to be dragging. That was an unusual problem for this particular writer but there was no doubt about it. Although dialogue was clever and his main character still captivated us, it just felt slow. We spend some time discussing how to speed things up so I was already thinking about the topic when I saw this post by K.M. Weiland.

First things first, lets start with three ways to speed things up because what we were discussing in critique group were scenes that drag:

1. Cut as much narrative and description as possible. This isn't to say that you should write as if the story takes place in a vacuum but this isn't the place to wax rhapsodic about the carpet or the drapes.
2. Make your dialogue tight. When are characters speak, sometimes they have a tendency to go on and on. Make sure every word, phrase and sentence is essential. Cut the dialogue that doesn't move the story forward.
3. Add a time element. You can give your story a sense of urgency if a particular task must be carried out by X time. One second later and . . . BOOM.

Just as important as speeding things up is slowing things down. This is most often a problem when we are writing a high-impact high action scene. How do you make a fist fight last for two or three pages? Or we are writing one of those important squirm inducing scenes. If this is a your climax or other pivotal scene, you have to give it the weight of a length. Do this by slowing things down. Here are three ways you can do this.

1. Vary your sentence structure and make sure you have some complicated or compound sentence. Don't just write subject verb object. Add in some dependent clauses.
2. Add some internal dialogue or internal narrative. What is going through your characters head as he fights the villain? What does he think each time he lands a punch? This doesn't have to be lengthy but make it matter. This would be a good time to show his regret that it has come to this.
3. Be sure to add some description. Yes, it is going to have to be description that matters but what do you notice about the room as you are waiting to be fired? What catches your eye about the protagonist who has made your life hell? Include details that set the mood and reveal something about the characters.

Pacing is a pivotal part of fiction writing. If it is too fast for too long, you will wear your reader out. If it is too slow, you will bore them. Learn to adjust things as needed and make your writing sing.

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.

Sue is also the instructor for Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults.

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4 comments dialogue, narrative, pacing, plot, Sue Bradford Edwards

Plot Don’t Preach: The Art of Picture Book Writing

When I meet new picture book writers at conferences, we often end up chatting about our work. We discuss what we’re working on, what inspired our most recent story, and why we started writing for children.

I started writing for children when I couldn’t buy the books that my nieces wanted to read. I also loved to read when I was a child – getting lost in a variety of stories. A lot of people tell me that they want to write picture books because they have lessons that children need to learn.

A word of warning? Never tell an editor that. Seriously. Don’t do it. Editors don’t want books that preach.

 Even books that teach a child a lesson need to do so in an amusing way. The trick is to tell a story that just happens to be about an important topic. That’s what Aaron Reynolds did when he wrote Nerdy Birdy.

This next paragraph is a huge spoiler. I’m going to give away the twist and everything else about Reynolds’ book so be warned.

In short, Nerdy Birdy is an extraordinarily nerdy bird. Although he longs to fit in with the cool birds, they are cold at best, mean at worse. Eventually he makes friends with the other nerdy birds who like gaming and books, just like he does. One day Vulture moves into the neighborhood. This time, it isn’t just the cool birds that are mean. The nerdy birds don’t want to be friends with the goth bird either. Nerdy Bird realizes that his friends are now being the bullies and befriends Vulture although she likes different things than he does.

Reynolds could have easily said “bullying is bad especially when victims become bullies.” He could have, but it wouldn’t have made a very good picture book. Instead he couched the lesson in a full-fledged story with a well-rounded character, a fully developed plot, and a twist. I for one didn’t guess until it happened that the nerds would become the bullies.

A likable, recognizable character pulls readers into the story. Because readers want to find out what happens next, they keep turning the pages right until the end. The lesson is still there but it is part of the story. Part of being a children’s author is trusting readers to extract the lesson on their own.

It doesn’t matter if you are writing nonfiction or fiction. It is okay to teach but if you want young readers, and editors, to pick up your work, the first thing that you need to give them is a good story.

--SueBE

Sue is the instructor for our course, Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins on March 21, 2016.

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Leave a Comment picture book, picture book writing, plot, theme

Characters: Tormenting them for the sake of plot

If you write fiction, you’re probably familiar with having to torment your characters. After all, the story starts when your character has a problem that she needs to solve. As she attempts to solve it, you throw obstacles in her way so that things get worse for her and more interesting for your reader.

Part of making things bad for your character is understanding her personality. One way to do this is by answering, on her behalf, some Myers-Briggs personality type questions:

Does she focus on the outer world (Extrovert/E) or the inner world (Introvert/I)?

Does she focus on just the facts (Sensing/S) or does she interpret them (Intuition/N)?

When she makes a decision, does she look for logic and consistency (Thinking/T) or the people and their special circumstances (Feeling/F)?

In dealing with the world, does she prefer to make a decision (Judging/J) or stay open to additional information and options (Perceiving/P)?

Once you have these answers, you have your character’s personality type and you also have some clue how to drive her batty.

Let’s say your character is ISTJ (Introvert/Sensing/Thinking/Judging). This introvert is good at taking things in, figuring out what needs to be done and doing it. Put her in charge of a big project where she has to work with a large group of extroverts but has no guidelines to follow.

Or maybe your character is EIFP (Extroverted/Intuitive/Feeling/Perceiving). To torment this person, make her have to finish a job on a tight timeline and with minimal information. And her team? They’re not around to help.

For someone who is INFP (Introvert/Intuitive/Feeling/Perceiving) and feels things deeply but quietly, you would have someone betray them by revealing their deepest fears in such a way that they feel mocked or judged.

ESFP (Extrovert/Sensing/Feeling/Perceiving) will go batty in a situation where they have minimal stimulus and have to act alone.

ESFJ (Extrovert/Sensing/Feeling/Judging) is a person who loves harmony and just wants everyone to get along and cooperate. What if to solve a problem they have to create the disharmony or go against the will of the group?

I’m not saying that these personality types determine everything about your character but think about what each element means.

• An introvert is going to be under a lot of strain if she has to lead a group.
• An extrovert thinks that being alone is a punishment.
• Someone who wants all of the facts is going to be stressed when making a logical leap.
• Someone who likes to take special circumstances into consideration isn’t going to handle having to go by hard, fast rules.
• A logical person gets annoyed when things seem random.

Play around with this for a while and see if you can come up with a way to make things even worse for your character. She won’t thank you, but your readers will be in for one heck of a ride.

--SueBE

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2 comments Characters, Myers-Briggs, plot

Something or Nothing? A Writing Exercise

I regularly watch an ESPN program called Pardon the Interruption. (Yeah, I’m a bit of a sports fanatic.) One of my favorite segments is when the hosts debate topics on “Something or Nothing?” Like if losing three games in a row is a big deal? Or is this epic fail nothing to worry about?

And then I realized “Something or Nothing?” could work for my writing—and that maybe it can work for you. So today, I shall illustrate this exercise using zombies because really, what’s more fun than zombies? (Except maybe my teams winning.)


PREMISE: Is it Different Enough?

You have come up with a brilliant premise: Zombie invasion! The world is under siege, the zombie virus spreading, and your protagonist is going to save the day!

But now you must ask yourself if your zombie concept stands out, if there is something in your idea that differentiates it from all the other thousands of zombie invasion stories out there.

If you can somehow get Brad Pitt to star in your story, you may have something. But as your idea stands now, you have nothing. Either move on to the next idea, or consider another element. Like your characters.


CHARACTERS: Do You Have a Unique Character or Characters?

Your zombies are pouring over the wall and your protagonist has just stepped into the scene and it’s…Bob Smith, the bookish, reference librarian. And hold on! He’s brought along his friend, Sarah, the spunky girl who loves to read, with an imagination big as all outdoors! This team of unlikely heroes will save the day!

Or not. It’s true that unlikely heroes can be interesting. But the characters themselves must be interesting, and you must capture their unique voice. Readers want more than stereotypical, cardboard cutouts that you’ve propped up trying to do the job of carrying the story.

Think Johnny Depp, sashaying about in an outlandish piratical get-up, chasing the undead. He’s something quite different. But if your characters are ho-hum, you have nothing. Move on to the next idea or try the next element.

SETTING: Is It Out of the Ordinary?

Watch out! Your zombies are running amok in the…suburbs.

The suburbs? Really? That’s not saying that you can’t take an ordinary setting and use it; Stephen King is the master of this technique. But if you want your setting to be something, you have to think of it as a character in your story. Give it special significance to the plot, like a Civil War zombie infestation (Though you may still end up with nothing.) Time to move on again.


TWIST: Do You Have a Surprising Element?

So, you have zombies invading a suburban neighborhood. Your protagonist is a regular Joe, an unlikely hero, who runs down to the local bar whereupon he makes his stand.

It would appear that you have come up with a big fat nothing of a story. But wait! What if you add humor, dry, British wit, in the most unexpected places? Then you might have something. Specifically, you have Shaun of the Dead, which just happens to be one of my favorite zombie movies, when the comedic twist makes all the difference between something or nothing.

So that’s it, class. Have a little fun with “Something or Nothing?” the next time you start to write a story and go from boring to brilliant!


~ Cathy C. Hall (Shout out to the Atlanta Braves!)

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8 comments Cathy C. Hall, creating characters, elements of a story, plot, Shaun of the Dead, story premise, story setting, story twist, writing exercise, zombies

The Opening Scene: A Review of the Plot Whisperer and the Plot Whisperer Workbook

My first fantasy novel has become an ongoing project that has sucked me in and spat me out countless times. My plot as a whole is solid, but the beginning has been a challenge. When I say that, I’m being polite.

I took my first beginning to my critique group. Nope. It was too confusing, because I had started the story too late. I started the story earlier and tried again.

I took the new first chapter to my critique group. Still not enough backstory so I started still earlier.

When that didn’t work, my confidence deflated. I remembered a plotting diagram in the Plot Whisper and The Plot Whisperer Workbook. They were in my “to review” stack. What better way to test them than this first chapter fiasco? I mentally issued the author a challenge. Drag me out of this writing slump, Martha Alderson. I dare you.

The plot diagram, Alderson’s Plot Planner, includes the character’s emotional development. Although I was convinced that the problem was plot not emotion, I sat down to do the activities. After all, a dare is a dare.

I created character emotional profiles for my protagonist, my antagonist and side kick. Apparently, Mr. Sidekick is not the goody-two-shoes people see; this new knowledge deepened the story.

I typed a list of scenes. Not difficult, but they were more numerous than I had expected.

I found a 6-foot-long piece of paper as recommended by Alderson for a full-sized plot planner. I wasn’t convinced I needed this much, but I typed my scenes including plot, subplot, emotional arc, dramatic action and theme. As I cut and taped to the chart, I realized it would take 6 feet of paper. Then I got another shocker. Original scene #1 was now scene #6, at the first turning point.

I had originally started the story way too late, a fact I would have seen on this type of plot diagram. Alderson has you look at turning points. At the first one, your character commits to a course of action different from his opening goal.

At the turning point, my character decides on revenge. If I had been using the Plotter from the start, I would have plunked down a revenge chapter and realized that the story needs to build to this point, not start here.

I highly recommend these books. The Plot Whisperer explains the concepts you will use, showing how each is essential. The workbook takes you through exercises that get the job done.

There are sections on exploring theme; creating story arcs for your antagonist and secondary characters; how and where to work in details; testing cause and effect; and working in backstory.

I’m looking forward to playing with theme but I’ll also study the sections on backstory and all the rest. Why? Alderson has already surprised me multiple times by supplying tools I need before I understand that I need them.

--SueBE

Find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards and her work on her blog, One Writer's Journey.

*****

GIVEAWAY: THE PLOT WHISPERER & THE PLOT WHISPERER WORKBOOK

Writers, you're in luck! We have three copies of each book to give away, courtesy of the author, Martha Alderson! After Sue's marvelous review and recommendation, I'm sure you'll want to win the set for your writer's reference library. Just enter the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win print copies of The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (AVR $14.95) and The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories (AVR $16.95) or e-copies—reader's choice! The contest is open to US and Canada for a print copies, and internationally for e-copies. We have six books total to give away, and we will randomly choose three winners to receive the set of both books.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck!

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32 comments character development, Contest, critique, Martha Alderson, plot, The Plot Whisperer, The Plot Whisperer Workbook

Where's the Plot?

My illustration is intentionally messy. Many writers would
give the middle-end a steeper slope. Credit: Elizabeth Humphrey

Now that school is back in session, I’m getting geared up to play editor-mom. That is, reading drafts of stories and reports, trying to be supportive without, well, rewriting the some of the work. I love reading the beginning stories, but it continues to astound me that we read countless stories to children, but if you ask them to tell you what happened in a story, the storyline seems bland or flat. The stories don’t seem to go anywhere.

Often the flat story is how the children process the stories, as well--even if the story involves a boy, his dog, kidnappings, and international spies. If I ask my children what happened in TinTin (the movie or the comic books), I may get the response about the cute dog and nothing about the story’s plot.

The plot of a story may be compelling, but it is not necessarily what we notice all the plot points as we learn about storytelling. (After all, when was the first time you diagrammed a novel’s plotline?)

As we develop as writers and readers, we start learning about plotting our stories. It helps us to discern what writers we like—fast-moving books generally have tightly written plots with conflicts that crackle from the pages. But even so, plots can still be a confusing muddle.

How do you plot a story? How do you ensure the plot points are strong and build to the middle and bring the story to a good conclusion? Take your time.

Often the stories our children tell—and ones that we attempt to write—are missing the dramatic question and the conflicts that advance a plot. The question and conflicts help to tease out what the story is really about and helps to answer the question: “So what?”

Work those out as you work with your draft. It’s not a one-time happening, but something that is massaged along your novel or short story’s journey.

Sure, the cute dog is important, but he’s vitally important because he and his actions help move the plot along.

Do you sketch out your plot points in an arc in the beginning, middle or end of writing your story's first draft?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living in North Carolina. She enjoys using various colored pens to plot her novel’s storyline, but sometimes gets carried away and starts doodling instead.

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2 comments Conflict, crafting plot, Elizabeth King Humphrey, plot, plotting

Cooking Up Complications: Making Things Tough for Your Character

Don’t make things easy on your character. In fact, you should make things as difficult as possible. Most of us know this and we throw one complication after another in the path of our beloved character.

When it comes time to cook up a complication, many writers turn to their character’s flaws. Perhaps a character, let’s call her Marie, who is a compulsive shopper needs to get home for her sister’s wedding. Unfortunately, she’s maxed out her credit cards and can’t charge the air fare.

In many ways this works. You have the complications you need to create tension and, if you handle the story in the right way, your character grows by the time your reader reaches the last word. Marie scrambles around returning and selling all that she can. By the time she can afford the air fare she’s realized how little all this stuff meant and how truly grateful she is to make it back to her family.

Not bad for a feel good story but what if you want to create something with more tension? More depth? Then the complications need to go deeper. Create a moral dilemma for your character with complications based on her strengths.

This time we are working with Diane. Diane’s friends and family love her honesty because she isn’t going to hide facts or sugar coat reality when they go to her for advice. This unwillingness to lie could make some people harsh but Diane is also incredibly loyal. She truly has the best interests of her husband and friends at heart.

Now let’s consider how these positives can become negatives.

Scenario: The company Diane’s husband works for is failing. He has confided in his wife but the information can’t be made public for weeks. If it is, he will never find another job in the industry. Unfortunately, Diane’s best friend has come into an inheritance. She wants to invest the money to assure a good life for herself and her children. She is consider the failing company as her primary investment.

Diane can’t be honest and loyal to both her husband and friend at the same time. Instant moral dilemma.

Now its your turn. Look for ways to use your character’s strengths to create tension and soon she’ll face a moral dilemma that will drive the story forward and keep your readers talking long after the last word has been read.

–SueBE

Author Sue Bradford Edwards blogs at One Writer's Journey.

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Leave a Comment characterization, creating tension, plot, plot twist