Mystery Monday - The Victim, The Forgotten Character - Episode 2

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the psychopathology of everyday life - Adrian McKinty's blog: How To Be Boring

the psychopathology of everyday life - Adrian McKinty's blog: How To Be Boring

Overcome Writer Fear

You Are Not Alone Every writer goes through fear at some point. That pit-in-the-stomach, I’m-not-good-enough, my-story-sucks, no-one-will-ever-read-this fear blasts strike all writers. Creativity rides the emotional rollercoaster. Creativity is risk taking. Yes, successful, multi-book authors have the same fears. Self-Doubt Is The Number One Writer Fear Blame it on your amygdala, part of your body’s alarm system. Located at the root of your brain the amygdala does everything it can—automatically—keep you safe. If there is risk, the amygdala sends out signals to keep your body safe. Creativity is risk. Fear will happen. You’ll get fear-lessening signals of every kind. My writing sucks. That just-out-of-college and read 10 books editor who rewrote everything was right. My writing sucks. My Mom/Sister/Uncle/Spouse/Best Friend hates it. No one will like it. I should quit now. You’re a writer. You know what the fears are. They don’t go away. So, if you are a beginning writer, know that these fears are going to pop up. The key is to recognize the fears and calm them down. Best-selling author Caroline Leavitt says in a recent interview on The Writer, So you can’t listen to what people say. There will always be people telling you “you can’t do this,” or “I don’t like this.” There are so many writers who have gotten 80,000 rejections and then suddenly they sell a book and it’s a huge critical and commercial success. So you never know. Just keep writing. Self-doubt manifests as self-censorship, so one of the best ways to calm that fear is to keep writing until you find your voice. That unique voice that makes a reader love what you write. So, keep writing. Don’t get thrown off track. Focus on your current project and your long-term writing goals. Fear of Rejection One major element of writer fear is rejection. Just about anyone can trigger rejection fear. You can find yourself in a shutdown of getting your work out, even for help from professionals like editors. So, you can end up not sharing your work, even bits of it, with other people. Other writers Readers Editors Agents On the one hand, bad reactions happen. I have writer friends who have received devastating comments from editors who didn’t understand their genre and terse rejection letters from agents. They found others and published their books with success. One of the best ways to start combating this fear, is to join a local writer’s group. To start, find a mutually supportive group with fewer than ten people and make certain they are sympatico. Avoid groups with An overbearing “leader” Without group guidelines A group the doesn’t follow the stated guidelines or allows members to captivate time Don’t hesitate to leave if the group doesn’t fit. The people in the group are also writers with the same fears. Every writer has fears. Other writers understand your fears. You’ll discover that other writers are one of your best fear conquering connections. So Many Fears As if self-doubt and fear of rejection weren’t enough, writer and writing coach Jurgen Wolff has identified seven basic writer fears in his book Your Writing Coach: Rejection Inadequacy Success Exposing Yourself Only One Book Too Old to Write Fear of Research And, I’m sure you, as a writer, can add your personal list. With so many fears lurking in your writer mind, it’s easy to succumb. Writers who succeed keep writing. The Determination Antidote Know that doubts are going to creep in. They never go away. But you can work to minimize the fear. The best antidote to writer fear is determination. Author and writing coach Joanna Penn calls working on your work the “palette cleanser.” Get the taste of those fears out and work to find your writer voice by continuing to write. She talks about The Successful Author Mindset in a recent podcast. This is a great talk to bookmark so you can listen when those fears pop up. Non-fiction author David Amerland has found his voice several times as he writes. He’s gone from marketing, to the semantic web, to SEO for business owners. And recently, inadvertently, found the spark for his new book The Sniper Mind: Eliminate Fear, Deal with Uncertainty, and Make Better Decisions while researching something else. If that quote spurs you to determination, he has posted an entire page of fear conquering quotes. You can bookmark this page, too, for quick fear-fighting inspiration. Get To It The one action all of these successful writers recommend is to keep writing. I tell my writing clients the same thing. Keep writing! Zara Altair Zara Altair writes mysteries set in ancient Italy. Argolicus thinks he has retired, but he and his tutor, Nikolaos, are drawn into puzzles, politics, and murder. She consults with a select group of writers as The Story Bodyguard.

Listen To Your Characters

First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him! – Ray Bradbury

The Writer’s Surprise Gift

Writer’s know when they are in the zone and the story flows. If you use an outline to hit the main beats of your story, you’ll know what you want to accomplish in the scene. Your characters may be sitting on a park bench in the snow, digging a ditch as Nazi prisoners, chasing the bad guys, or any other scene you have imagined You begin a dialog between characters and all of a sudden they are saying things you hadn’t planned or considered.

Listen To The Characters

If you are into your story and know what makes your characters tick, when words start coming, listen. Your characters will add new dimension to the scene. You already know to dispense with banalities--hello, it’s a great day, etc.--and get right to the conversation. Think of your dialog in the same way as the scene: start late, leave early. Tweet: Think of your dialog in the same way as the scene: start late, leave early. Dialogue that begins in media res (without preamble) is a strong way to begin a scene, drawing the reader in. Dialogue that ends early is a structured way to end a scene or chapter, often with a cliffhanger moment to keep the reader turning the page or, at the end, waiting for the next book in your series.

Add To The Story

As a storyteller, those unexpected words from a character can foreshadow a later moment in the story, add depth to both characters, complicate the plot, deepen the relationship within the story, and other story dimensions. The benefit of having a rough outline is that as the dialog hints of story change you can make notes in the outline that further incorporate the discoveries as your characters speak. Those surprise moments from the characters often lead to other conversations later in the story.

Character Talk

In order for your characters to have conflict within their conversations, you need to know them inside and out. Know the backstory that is never mentioned that would prompt a character to think, respond, and say the words. Know how the two characters relate to each other with friendship, love, annoyance, hate, or unsuspecting naïveté. The better you understand your characters, each one, the more surprising words will pop out unbidden. Then listen.

Zara Altair

Zara Altair writes mysteries set in ancient Italy. Argolicus thinks he has retired, but he and his tutor, Nikolaos, are drawn into puzzles, politics, and murder.

Character Change for Dynamic Story

Choose Your Challenge  ​​Writers come up with many ways to establish the characters in their stories, especially the main character: character interviews, worst fear, early childhood, habits good and bad, etc. What readers want is action. The easiest way to reconcile your wealth of knowledge about your character and engaging readers in the story is to confront your character with obstacles and challenges. Think of all the character background in the same way you do research: Click to Tweet: Character background is like research. Only 20% actually shows up in your story. Create the Challenges As a storyteller, not just a character creator, find the challenges that reveal your character. The moment the character responds is the moment your reader is right there with the character. Each scene has some small or large difficulty where the character must respond in thought, word, or deed. When the character cares, your reader cares. In traditional fiction and many genre’s this scene by scene challenge is the crux of getting your reader to turn the pages. As your character develops through the challenges your reader experiences the changes. As your story and your main character progress, readers tune in to the changes. By the time your story reaches a climax, your reader knows your character, sympathizes with his situation and the final changes of the culmination of all those challenges along the way. Your character becomes dynamic through her reactions to the challenges you create.  Wait! My Character Doesn't Change Yes, some stories have a main character whose attributes connect them to a world they must change. The strengths of the character meet the challenges of outside forces and reshape (change) those challenges by enforcing their character traits. Thrillers, crime fiction, and mysteries often follow this story path. Miss Jane Marple doesn’t change. She uses her particular character strengths to reveal (change) the perpetrator. Raymond Chandler depicts the perfect non-changing PI. This is the essence of a character who uses his attributes to change an imperfect world. Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him. The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in. Change is the Story Key Call it change or transformation. Whether your character changes or changes the world around, the key to movement and dynamism in your story is the obstacles—great and small-—that build story tension and keep the reader turning pages. Infographic from Reedsy Reedsy came up with a great illustration of different dynamic characters. Different dynamics for great story. Zara Altair Zara Altair writes mysteries set in ancient Italy. Argolicus thinks he has retired, but he and his tutor, Nikolaos, are drawn into puzzles, politics, and murder.

The Secret Source of Support: Fellow Writers

Fellow writers provide a rich source of knowledge. You can use this knowledge to expand yours. From writing groups to indie author idea exchanges you can build your personal knowledge base on writing and publishing skills.

New writers, especially, can fall into the trap of spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars on writing and publishing courses. Before you do that seek out fellow writers for critiques of those courses before you buy in by midnight tonight.

I’m not saying don’t take courses. Education is beneficial. First get feedback on the cost reward of the program. Build a network of fellow writers to learn which courses and which paid blog or advertising spots will serve you well.

There are many ways to gather invaluable knowledge for other writers and authors.

• Join a critique group — before you self-edit, and then send your manuscript to an editor, your critique group will help you find your blind spots from punctuation, spelling, typos, and grammar to plot holes.
• Join a local writing group — this may cost you a few dollars a year, but you will meet a wider circle of writers and authors and have the opportunity to attend group events where you can expand your knowledge even more.
• Join an online group — expand your knowledge globally by exchanging ideas with fellow writers. Social media like Facebook and Google+ have groups and communities where you can exchange ideas, get reviews of courses and paid advertising opportunities, and even get feedback on book cover ideas. Keep in mind the writers are not graphic designers. Or get suggestions on cover designers familiar with your genre. Get tips on what works and doesn’t work with Facebook fan pages, Amazon marketing, Facebook marketing, genre specific book descriptions, or just dealing with Amazon and other book retailers.
• Join a professional writers organization — a good choice is one that is genre specific. Join forums to where authors discuss details of publishing and marketing.
• Attend conferences — meet writers, agents, publishers and learn from experienced authors. If you are working with a limited budget, find one that is close to reduce air travel, stay with a friend to reduce hotel costs. Remember that much of the great conversation and discussion happens outside of the formal presentations. Socialize.

By the time you have expanded your circle of writing and author friends you will know more about how to improve your own writing, where best to spend your writing budget, and you will discover tips and resources you would not have imagined if you had not connected with other writers.

These suggestions are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to learning from other writers. You’ll find offhand remarks that change your thinking and tips that refine your writing, your publishing skills, and your professionalism.

Zara Altair

Zara Altair writes mysteries set in ancient Italy. Argolicus thinks he has retired, but he and his tutor, Nikolaos, are drawn into puzzles, politics, and murder.
She consults with a select group of writers as The Story Bodyguard.

Interior Setting in Historical Fiction

Zara Altair, Author   The puzzle of politics, the mystery of murder in ancient Italy. After Rome, before the Middoe Ages, Italy belonged to the Ostrogoths. Get to know Argolicus in the Argolicus Mysteries starting with The Used Virgin. The Peach Widow will be out soon. Work in progress:  Ravenna: A Mosaic a historical thriller. Archives April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 June 2013  Categories All Author Bio Author Interview Author Platform Background Reserch Book Launch Dialogue Editing Historical Mystery Mystery Writing Novel Writing Story Outline Template Story Scene Story Setting The Hero The Peach Widow The Used Virgin Writing Craft Zara Altair  RSS Feed

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