1) Exposition

The exposition portion of the story arc involves acclimating the reader into the context of the book with relevant details regarding story and character. The way to show rather than tell your readers the exposition of your novel is by interspersing the details within character action. Rather than beginning your novel with this long history of the world, your story is set in, begin with a scene where your character is in action in some way. They could be running late for work, dreading a first date, or even preparing for a battle in more action-based novels.

These details help ground the story in the ‘present’ of the novel and they allow the reader to learn about the character in the ‘now’ as we’re hearing about the relevant parts of their past. For example, let’s say we’re getting exposition about how your character used to be more jaded but we’re seeing them helping an elderly person cross the street as they’re rushing to work. The reader can directly see that the character has changed over time and this poses a question of what has changed, which you can then answer in the exposition.

2) Inciting Incident

The next stage of your story arc is the inciting incident, or the event that sets your story in motion. This is the event that should answer the question ‘why does your story take place now? Why today?’ There has to be something major going on in the life of your protagonist in order for your story to start where it does. And if you’re thinking to yourself that a major event or character moment doesn’t happen in the beginning of your story, then you haven’t found your beginning yet.

When it comes to showing rather than telling your inciting incident, focus on describing the action and emotion of the scene. The event should be obvious enough to the reader for them to know it’s the inciting incident (again, if it’s not your story needs a rewrite). But to help them along, make sure you’re writing ‘in-scene’ and playing up the drama, emotion, dialogue, and action of the moment. This way your reader will know for sure that this is where the story arc that they’ll follow for the entire novel begins.

3) Rising Action

The rising action involves a series of events (connected to the original inciting incident) that continue to further the plot of the story towards the eventual climax. So, for example, if the inciting incident was an announcement that a tornado will hit the protagonist’s town, the rising action would involve trying to stock up on supplies, trying to create a bunker to hide in, and even the beginning effects of the tornado. And your protagonist will have obstacles along each plot point, so when they go to the store everything they need will be sold out.

In order to show your readers the rising action of your novel, focus on plotting out these points prior to writing them. Make sure your plot doesn’t go through too long of a lull without the rising action coming into play. And, when you’re writing a scene with a rising action plot point, make sure the stakes are high and clear to the reader. The most obvious stakes are life or death, but perhaps one of your rising action plot points is that a character overhears his best friend talking badly about him behind his back. Without even needing to state it, the reader can infer that it’s their friendship that is at stake in this moment.

4) Climax

The climax of the story should contain two elements: action and choice. The main plot of your story should eventually lead to a choice that your protagonist must make. Then, the climax and/or resolution of your story should be a direct result of the choice they end up making. You, therefore, must make sure that both the choice and action of your climax make sense for your character and the rest of the plot points in your story.

If you’ve done your job write, the choice should be obvious to the reader at this point. All of the plot points should build-up to this moment and, although the reader may not know what the protagonist will choose, they should know what the choice will be between. When it comes to the climax, however, the way to make it obvious to the reader is to write in-scene. Forgo using exposition, limit any internal monologues, and don’t use long scene descriptors. Instead, focus on using short sentences to increase the pace and urgency. Use lots of dialogue and action in this moment as well.

5) Resolution

Finally, the resolution involves wrapping up the plot of the story. This is a calm point after the high action of the climax of your story where things are falling into place (for better or worse). Focus on tying up any loose ends in your story here. Make sure any consequences of your protagonist’s choice are addressed.

Instead of directly telling your reader that things are being ‘resolved’, focus on dialogue here. Any important conversations that need to be had between characters with rising tension or characters with unresolved issues should be played out before the reader. You don’t need to wrap everything up in a bow for the reader to know this is the resolution of your story. You need only to make sure any leftover moments that need to happen, happen here.

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Tension specifically involves a character attempting to hold in their feelings and battle through them inwardly, rather than getting an emotional release. The emotional release will need to happen in order for the tension to pay off, but the more you build up the tension the better that release will feel for your readers. Writing tension should make your readers feel… well, tense. Here are some tips on how to show rather than tell your readers about different kinds of tension throughout your manuscript.

1) Anger

One form of tension that a character may experience is through anger. Perhaps their friend said something derogatory about their sibling and, though they weren’t brave enough to say anything at the time, the anger is still within them, festering. It may be tempting to simply write ‘[INSERT CHARACTER NAME HERE] is feeling tension because they’re upset.’ but that’s lazy writing. Instead, write about how their leg begins shaking once their friend walks through the door. Write about how their jaw clenches when their friend speaks. Write about how they look down or straight ahead when they address their friend, instead of looking at them directly. Write about how their responses are curt instead of talkative like normal. All of these actions show rather than tell the reader that there is tension between two characters, in the form of anger.

2) Nerves

Another form of tension that can occur for a character is through nerves. A character can react to nervousness by becoming tense and rigid. Let’s say a character who adores theater has a big musical audition coming up after school. Throughout the day, that character may sit with their posture rigid as they bite their nails. They may pick at a piece of their sweatshirt, slowly unraveling the fabric by a single thread. They could clench their fists only to quickly dart out of class, run to the bathroom, and vomit in the toilet.

3) Affection

Tension can also exist between two characters who are romantically involved with one another. This form of tension can be shown through the characters sitting close together, their hands almost touching but not quite. Or perhaps one character says something a little too personally revealing, so they blush and rub their hand behind their neck. Maybe they’re forced to work together on a project, they’re bouncing ideas off of each other excitedly when one of them drops a pen and they both bend down to reach for it, then look at each other embarrassed.

4) Long Build-up

Build-up involves a form of tension that comes from long unresolved feelings. This is something readers would notice over the course of an entire book. Perhaps there’s a character who is constantly being teased by another character (let’s call them character A and B). At first, you see that character A is able to bounce back easily from character B’s teasing. Character A is a very sweet easy-going person and they let the teasing roll right off of their shoulders, smiling along with the joke.

As the book goes on, however, you start to see their attitude change. Perhaps they snap back once after a joke, or maybe they’re frowning slightly after a particular joke. But as the story progresses, their reactions become more pronounced until suddenly they’re walking around frowning, clenching their jaw, and snapping at people all the time. This example allows readers to see how certain types of unresolved feelings can create tension if they happen over a longer period of time.

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1) Excitement

The type of happiness we call excitement can be expressed in many ways by a character. Rather than stating in the narrative “[insert character name here] is feeling excited”, have them rush into the next scene out of breath, tripping and falling all over themselves. They have a huge grin plastered on their face as they attempt to catch their breath so they can tell their friend the good news. As they share the details of their excitement, they’re jumping up and down with glee or clapping their hands together. They may even pull their friend into a spontaneous hug while they’re in the middle of speaking or do a flip by kicking off a nearby wall (if they’re more of the athletic type). Think about when you feel excited about something, how you have all of this excess adrenaline and energy that you don’t know what to do with. Find a way for your character to display those feelings in a way that fits best with their character’s personality.

2) Contentment

Another type of happiness that a character can express is contentment. This is a much less energetic version than that of excitement, but there is also potentially more longevity in this version. Contentment involves a character being happy overall with what their life looks like currently in the story. You can have a character who works to get to the point of contentment or a character who starts content, only to have it ripped away from them. But, sadly, a character arc can’t occur if a character is left in this state for the entire story.

When you’re showing the reader that a character is content, it’s important to use mannerisms, dialogue, and action to do so. For example, having a character wistfully smiling to themselves and, when another character asks why they’re smiling, having them say something along the lines of “I don’t know… just happy I guess.” Having them go out of their way to do something nice for another character just because they want to is another way to show that this character is in a good place with their life. Having them give their friends speeches on how much they appreciate them, take up new hobbies, walk with a certain pep in their step, or participate more actively in their life (talking more in meetings, raising their hand more in class, etc.) can also be ways to show overall life contentment and acceptance in a character.

3) Optimism

Optimism could come from a character who is currently experiencing hardships or it could be a character in your story who is constantly looking on the bright side of any situation. And optimism within the story can either be written as positive or negative, this person is either a beacon of hope or a naive fool. The positive optimist will provide comfort to those around them, always knowing the right thing to say or do to make others feel better. And, if they’re being optimistic about themselves, they will walk around with an air of hope. On the other hand, the negative side of optimism would have this person written as fairly annoying. They will say some vague inspirational quote in the face of a person’s real struggles, telling them to “Look on the bright side…” as though that will magically make that person feel better.

Regardless of whether the portrayal is negative or positive, optimism can be shown in various ways. It can be expressed through dialogue, like a character saying any variation of “Well, at least…” or “Don’t worry, everything will work out!” It can be expressed through action, a person signing another person up for the talent show having the optimistic viewpoint that they’d win. A person going through some hardships and having one good thing happen, giving them the sudden hope that it’s all going to turn around for them. They begin walking around with their head held higher, a new spring in their step, making conversation with someone at the grocery store or starting back up on some of their favorite old hobbies.

4) Joy

This is likely the most unbridled version of happiness and is typically connected to something specific. So whereas contentment is a state of being, joy is something a character will experience based on an event that happened to them. And it is a very heightened sensation so it will be a big event that causes it. A character landing their dream job, the love of their life confesses their feelings for them, they take their dream trip, they become a parent… something as big as joy should connect to a big life event.

And since the feeling of joy is such a heightened version of happiness, how it is expressed should be heightened as well. Your character starts dancing with a stranger in the street or singing to themselves in the middle of a crowded elevator without realizing it. They call a person they haven’t spoken to in years just to say they miss them. They go to the rooftop of their apartment building and let out an ear-shattering scream of pure happiness. There are many ways to express an emotion as complex as joy without explicitly telling the reader.

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1) Level of Stress

When you’re writing a character under stress, you’ll first need to decide on their level of stress. This involves considering two things: a) What would stress them based on their personality and 2) How much would that event stress them. Different events stress varying personalities at different levels. For example, a character could have a very high-stress job working for 12+ hours a day and be content with it, but they get tasked to babysit and all of a sudden they’re losing sleep. On the other hand, you may have a more laid-back or quirky character who gets stressed over being asked to virtually anything, even something as small as picking up a pen delivery. Simply start by asking yourself a few questions: How stressed do I want my character to be? What, based on my knowledge of their personality, would make them that stressed?

2) Body Language

The first way to show rather than tell stress is through body language. Perhaps the character starts to appear jittery, their hands shaking and their foot taping at all times. Maybe other characters start to notice bags under their eyes, their eyes looking bloodshot, and them displaying a series of nervous ticks like biting their nails, scratching their head, rubbing their forehead, cracking their knuckles, etc. You could have them obviously slapping themselves awake a few times, displaying that they are having trouble sleeping. Each of these pieces of body language allow the readers to see that this character is undergoing an event or circumstance that is leaving them stressed.

3) Action

Another manner in which one can show stress to your readers is through action. For example, the stressed character starts to display erratic behavior. They start showing up late to everything, seeming disheveled and dirty. Perhaps they fall asleep at their desk in the middle of class. They start laughing at random and inappropriate moments only to start crying a minute later. If they were more of a homebody, perhaps they suddenly suggest going out and drinking with friends. Maybe they start picking fights with strangers or distancing themselves from friends. Showing how their behavior changes through action can help the reader and the characters within the story note the level of stress the character is under.

4) Dialogue

You can also display character stress or anxiousness through dialogue. Perhaps a very talkative character suddenly has very little to say. Maybe they’ve suddenly become harsh, stress making them lash out at anyone who speaks to them. They could become very sensitive, unable to have conversations without tearing up. Their report with every character will be different, so perhaps someone that they normally love spending time with they suddenly grow distant from knowing that they’ll break down around them. Think about your character’s dynamic with everyone in the story as well as their normal manner of speech. Showing changes in these two aspects of the character will allow the readers to notice further red flags.

5) Arc

As with anything in your story, whether it is background noise or not, there needs to be a purpose. Consider the stress that your character is under a mini-arc. Why are they going through this? What does this stress show about the character? Perhaps it shows that a character that we previously thought infallible isn’t as strong as they portrayed themselves to be. Or maybe it challenges a character in an area that will reveal something new about them. Consider how the stress changes the character and how the audience perceives them.

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1) Imperfection leads to perfection

Many writers go into writing dialogue with the false perception that, since you’re writing it rather than speaking, it must be perfect. The opposite is in fact true. In real life, speech is littered with imperfection. From um’s to er’s to ah’s to pauses to mispronunciations to when people use the word ‘like’ with frequency, these little bits of imperfection help make dialogue feel more realistic. It may feel counterintuitive at first- why would I leave a mistake in my writing? But it actually helps the reader feel that the character is really speaking and also helps separate dialogue from the narrative voice (which won’t include any er’s or ah’s).

2) Each character is different

When starting to perfect dialogue writing, it can be helpful to look to friends/family/strangers as a source of inspiration. Think about what makes each person’s speaking voice unique. It could be that someone has a stutter or uses a word more frequently than they realize. Some people have a more formal speaking voice while others abbreviate a lot of their speaking words. Some are more talkative and tend to ramble while others speak in short concise sentences.

One of the most helpful tools you can give your reader when it comes to dialogue is giving each character a unique dialogue quirk like this so that it can be easy to distinguish who is speaking at any given moment. As you likely know, when you’re writing a scene primarily in dialogue between two characters, you won’t write who said what quote each time (unless there’s a narrative break). So, when characters don’t have distinguishing speech quirks, it can become very frustrating for a reader as they try to track who said what. Giving a unique aspect to each character’s speaking voice allows the reader to not only feel more connected to the characters but to more easily track speech through dialogue alone.

3) Character Interrupted

Another way to make dialogue feel more realistic is to have characters talk over one another. This doesn’t have to happen every time and would likely feel unrealistic if it did, people can’t possibly anticipate everything another person would say enough to interrupt every time. But this can be a tool to use in the way that people do in real life. In speech, people typically interrupt in situations such as when they feel they’re being accused of something, when they’re particularly excited about a point they’re making, when two characters are trying to tell a third character a story together, when someone feels like they know where the other is going (they could be wrong), when they’re worried someone is going to reveal something they’ve asked them to keep secret, etc.

This can also be a helpful tool to use on one particular character as a way to show rather than tell your readers that a character is more self-centered or rude. Perhaps your protagonist tries to make conversation with another character and he just interrupts your protagonist every time she tries to speak. This will tell your reader so much about this character even if this happens in an initial interaction.

4) Train of thought

A common faux pas of speech is losing your train of thought. Seriously, start to pay attention to your friends, family, and even yourself when you speak. People lose their train of thought, start to make a point and then go off on a completely separate tangent, start a story in the wrong place, forget to tell crucial details in a joke, remember a chore they need to do in the middle of a conversation, etc. Although it’s tempting in writing to get from point A to point B in a straight line, utilizing the forgetfulness and flaws in storytelling or giving advice or jokes allows for speech to feel more believable instead of feeling dry and too perfect to ever actually be spoken.

5) Consider setting

One must also consider a story’s setting when they’re writing dialogue. For example, people in Texas have different slang words used than people in, say, Pennsylvania (the ‘pop’ vs. ‘soda’ debate will live on forever). Even further, people in other countries like the UK have their own variations of dialogue as well, for example saying ‘cheers’ instead of ‘thank you’. Having a story set in another country or even another time period will require a lot of dialogue research on your part in order to make the voices feel realistic to the time period and location.

In addition, there’s also the possibility of having a specific character who is from a different setting than the story takes place. For example, setting a story in America but having a character who is from Canada. Doing your research to find the right slang and diction that they would use will help make their voice unique as well as highlight their otherness and how it informs their choices throughout the story.

6) Read everything aloud

If we could give you one piece of advice when it comes to writing dialogue, this would be the most important. This is the most foolproof way of being able to tell if your dialogue sounds like something a person would actually say. You may write a piece of dialogue and think it sounds so profound and interesting, but then you’ll read it aloud and it will sound like something someone wrote rather than spoke. There’s such a huge difference between these two things because it’s rare that a proverbial and insightful quote can come from speech alone (unless your character is a Gandalf or Dumbledore). While your narrative voice can continue to sound insightful and methodical, make sure your character’s voices truly sound like people speaking- flaws and all!

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1) What is grief?

This may seem like a redundant question, but the truth is that grief can come in many different forms. When one initially thinks of the word, one will typically think of the death of a loved one, but grief can mean many different things. Grief can come with the loss of a long relationship, having that person who was so significant in your life disappear without a trace. Grief can appear with the loss of a personal dream or goal, let’s say in the form of not getting a job or scholarship of which you’d always dreamed. It could even involve the loss not of a person in your life, but a loss of who you thought that person was. Perhaps they’ve changed significantly and you have to grieve the person they were. Grief is not as straightforward as we initially think it is and exploring a form of grief in your writing can lead to a significant emotional journey for your protagonist.

2) Denial

You’re likely familiar with the five stages of grief and it’s important that, when writing grief, you find ways to include them in your writing. Whether it’s you’re protagonist who is experiencing this pain or a secondary character, one must find ways to include these emotions through actions/dialogue rather than simply telling the reader. So, for example, denial can be expressed through one character observing that another hasn’t been crying or being expressive about their feelings in this emotional time. As another example, let’s say a character has gone missing and is presumed dead. You could have one character cleaning their room or buying them their favorite candy for ‘when they get home’. Denial can even be shown in the mere refusal to discuss the particular topic that involves the grief. Perhaps the character who is ‘in denial’ leaves the room every time the subject of their grief is mentioned. Through each of these examples, you’re allowing your reader to see that this person is in denial about their grief rather than simply saying ‘Tom is in the denial stage’, which clearly isn’t as strong or emotionally charged.

3) Anger

The second stage your protagonist or a secondary character will experience with grief is likely some form of anger. Again, this could come in many forms depending on this character’s personality. If this character is very emotionally repressed, perhaps they start to snap over very little things like the groceries dropping or not being able to find the remote. If they’re slightly more emotionally aware, perhaps they pick a fight with a close friend or begin to exhibit meaner forms of speech than they normally would. Anger can even come in the form of being completely shut off, someone who just comes home, goes to their room, and slams the door- not emerging for the rest of the night. Whether your character becomes more withdrawn and harsher or whether they become more visibly angry, showing this stage allows the reader to see how the loss is both affecting and changing the protagonist.

4) Bargaining

This is an interesting stage because it allows you the opportunity to reveal things about how the protagonist views the world, either in general or how their views have changed in the face of this desperation. For example, a character who was previously not religious or superstitious could begin praying or going to see a medium in the face of extreme grief. The opposite could be true as well, someone who was previously very religious refusing to go to church and finding more practical ways to bargain could show their level of desperation. Perhaps the previously non-religious character gets cleaned up and begins living in an entirely different way in order to bargain with God to bring home his son. Or perhaps their feelings are more isolated and then begin to believe that if they change a certain behavior of theirs then the universe will bring back what they lost. Think about who this character is and play around with how they would bargain in order to not only show who they are but also how the grief is affecting them drastically.

5) Depression

Again, this one isn’t as obvious as you’d initially think it is. When one thinks of depression, one typically pictures someone laying in a messy room, having not showered for days, watching Netflix with an empty pint of ice cream on the nightstand. But depression can take many different forms. Perhaps the person goes straight from trying to bargain to sobbing at the sudden realization that they’ve truly experienced loss. Maybe their depression takes the form of them becoming more withdrawn and quiet, not going out as often anymore. It could even come in the entirely opposite form, maybe they start going out every night and drinking excessively to the point of being banned from bars. They could even have some bipolar symptoms, where it appears that their emotions are all over the place from one moment to the next. Again, think about your character and how you think they’d experience depression, especially given the specific form of grief they’re going through.

6) Acceptance

Finally, after all of this, the character comes to a stage of acceptance. We think of this stage as peaceful, but it may not be for your character. If your character goes through this process healthily, they’ll likely come out the other side with a sense of peace about what has happened. They’ll either take comfort in the memories they have regarding this person/idea or they’ll still feel connected to them if they’re more on the spiritual side. Showing this feeling to your readers can involve one character observing that another seems to be more positive through their mannerisms, the way they’re walking, smiling, talking, etc. It could also be observed through them having (for the first time) a healthy dialogue about the subject of grief.

If, however, your character either doesn’t experience these emotions in a healthy way or they’re just not emotionally healthy in general, this acceptance stage won’t feel as peaceful. Some get to the acceptance stage and it basically means accepting that life is hard. People can come out of grief more pessimistic about the world and more guarded because they’re now afraid to become so attached to people or their own hopes and dreams. Showing these types of characters can be done through others observing how much the experience has changed them for the worse, through the character’s removal from those around them, through them experiencing unhealthy habits like excessive eating, drinking, anger, etc. Rather than talking, they’ll now grunt or give one word responses to people who try to engage with them. This may not feel as satisfying, but this is where some characters end up in the grieving process. It’s better to be realistic about what your character would exhibit in the experience than give them a happy ending that isn’t earned.

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1) Compare to your own experiences

Think about a time in your life where you were in pain. This could be emotional pain or physical pain but think of a time where you experienced some semblance of suffering. It could be something as extreme as grieving for a lost loved one or colliding with a classmate at the gym- how did you handle it? Did it make you snap at the people around you? Did you try to tough it out? How we react in times of crisis can show a lot about who we are and it can highlight important differences between how we present ourselves and who we truly are.

2) Decide on the type of pain

Within every book, a character should go through some element of pain or suffering because this creates conflict. No one wants to read a book about an awesome character who has no flaws and everything in life works out for them all of the time- that would be the most boring book ever. So assuming you’re going to be creating some sort of pain or conflict for your characters to go through- what type are you going to go for? It could be some type of physical pain, something tangible like an injury or your character discovering they have an autoimmune disease of some sort. It could be that they’re trying to get sober and their pain is them going through the excruciating symptoms on the road to recovery. There are a variety of forms of physical pain in which you can inflict upon your character and their reaction to this tangible pain can help readers learn more about them.

On the other hand, you could have your character experience some sort of emotional pain or distress. Perhaps they’re going through a breakup or a family member becomes estranged to them or they lose their job. This creates internal psychological conflict and pain for your character to either overcome or fall prey to.

3) Decide on the severity of the pain

Next, you’ll need to decide how severe you want their pain to be. Are you going to put them through the most extreme pain that they could possibly go through? Or are you going to put them through something minor and see how they react then? Keep in mind that it’s not about the severity of the act in general, but rather the severity of the act to your specific character. This is where you really get to learn more about your character and see how they surprise you. For example, your character could react more severely or be in more pain from losing their childhood stuffed animal than they would from losing their parent. This raises a lot of questions for the reader- why is that? Why is the stuffed animal so important? Why wasn’t their parent as important to them? Was their reaction an indicator of this or do they react less viscerally when they are in more pain? Really think about your character, who they are, their childhood, their background, and choose versions of pain and suffering that will allow the reader to really learn about them.

4) How does your character react and why?

Now it’s time to throw your character into the situation that you’ve devised for them and see how they react. Did you choose a minor situation like them breaking an ankle and have them react very severely? Did you choose a major pain like going through surgery or getting into a car accident? Use your ‘show don’t tell’ method to describe the pain they’re going through and show how they react to it through their actions, dialogue, and mannerisms. Rather than saying, “Stacy was really upset.” say instead, “Stacy started blurting out curse words and yanking at the ends of her hair.” This way the reader can see the emotions your characters are having and experience them for themselves.

In addition, not only do your readers need to understand how your character is feeling, but also why they are reacting to this pain in their particular way. As per our example earlier with the childhood toy, perhaps the person had a complicated and difficult relationship with their parents and that the toy they lost was their only comfort during their very difficult childhood. People are extremely complicated emotionally, we’re sure you can think of one or two times in your life where you didn’t emotionally react the way you should or thought you would. Consider all of this as you’re examining your character closely and dissecting their emotional state.

5) How do other people react?

This is also a time to consider the roles of the other characters surrounding the one experiencing the pain. This could mean friends, family, coworkers, bosses, strangers- anyone who is around your character during the time they are experiencing the pain. Do they get resentful toward the character in pain, feeling they’re being overly dramatic for the situation? Do they try really hard to be there for your character, only to be pushed away over and over? Do they try in their own way, but they’re saying and doing all of the wrong things inadvertently. This time of pain can give you a way to show things about the characters surrounding your protagonist given how they react to the situation. In addition, how your character treats the people around them and how little or much they depend on them can also be indicators of how they experience pain.

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1) Mannerisms

One way to show your readers that two characters are close friends is by using their mannerisms and body language. When two people are close, especially when they’ve known one another for a long time, they naturally have a higher level of comfortability around each other. So, having your characters pat one another on the back, rest their head on their friend’s shoulder, playfully nudge one another, uncross their arms when one spots the other- these types of actions show the reader that these two characters are close.

You can even use less obvious mannerisms as a way of showing the reader they know one another well. For example, perhaps one character always taps his foot when he’s nervous. Have your other character notice him doing this and call him out on it. This shows the reader that these characters not only display more open/warm body language around each other, but they also know one another well enough to recognize and idiosyncratic body language as well.

2) Dialogue

Another excellent way to display friendships in your writing is by using dialogue. This is also one where you need to be cautious because you can easily slip into lazy writing territory. The last thing you want to do is write something along the lines of, “Hey Tim, you know how we’ve been friends since the second grade?” Authors often make the mistake of writing dialogue like this in order to establish a long friendship. The problem with this is that it sounds super unnatural and is too clearly the author sending a message to the reader. This can have the effect of taking the reader out of the book slightly.

Instead of being so obvious about it, attempt to cite a specific memory that goes along with a conversation that they’re having. Say you’re writing two male characters, one of which is asking the other for girl advice. You could have his friend say something like, “As long as you don’t throw up on her shoes I think you’ll be fine,” and the other could say, “Dude, that was in second grade, when are you going to let that go?” This not only establishes some playful banter between the characters, but also gives a rough timeline on the friendship in a more natural manner.

3) Circumstantial Differentiation

You can also show your readers a close friendship by differentiating between how your characters act around one another vs. how they act around other characters. So perhaps one of your characters is joking around and being very fun and outgoing around their close friend, but then some of their other friends come over and that person instantly becomes shyer or more guarded. Or maybe one of your characters if very boisterous around other people, but when they’re alone with their best friend they’re more relaxed and sensitive. You can also have their mannerisms change, having them cross their arms, ruffle their hair, cover their mouth with their hand- all of these can show the reader that the character has become less comfortable.

4) Confidence/Protectiveness

As you’ll know from friendships in your own life, close friendships offer a certain level of confidence. Having your characters confide their feelings or secrets with one another will help establish the level of trust that they have for one another. This doesn’t have to be a seamless process to show their closeness either. Perhaps the character being confided isn’t going to react well to this secret- friendships don’t have to be perfect and loving all the time to be close. Having the confiding character say something like, “I knew you’d be like this…” or something along those lines to indicate that they know each other well enough to predict their reactions does just as well to show your reader that closeness.

In addition to confiding in each other, close friends tend to also show protectiveness around each other. So, you could introduce a character that one of the friends deems as untrustworthy and show how they stand up straighter and act wary or defensive of their best friend while in this person’s presence. Or you could introduce a character that the best friend is threatened by as another potential best friend and show some jealousy there.

5) Other Characters

Finally, you can use other characters and their opinions to reinforce the friendship you’ve established. Having other characters like your protagonist’s parents or additional friends that also reinforce the reverence and closeness of the friendship will also reinforce this to your reader. So perhaps your protagonist’s parent is always asking, “Where’s Jimmy?” anytime your protagonist is seen without him or maybe the best friends get into a fight at some point and everyone is shocked by this. Having people outside of the friendship notice how close they are gives even more legitimacy to the friendship.

The post Show Don’t Tell: Friendships appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

1) The difference between Comic Book and Graphic Novel

The primary difference between a comic book and a graphic novel is the mode and length of the story-telling. Although superhero comics like Marvel and DC are primarily comic books, the technical definition of the term has little to nothing to do with content. Comic books are serialized stories told over many, very short issues. They typically cover long periods of time in the protagonist’s life rather than one particular event and they span over many issues which correspond with one another.

Graphic novels, on the other hand, are typically individual stories told over one or a few longer issues. These typically detail a particular event, rather than simply spanning over years and various adventures of a protagonist’s life. Because these stories are typically only one or two issues, the plots tend to be much more intricate and complex than that of a comic book because fans aren’t expected to remember details over various issues.

2) Decide which would be best

This is fairly self-explanatory, but (prior to writing) you’ll need to decide which medium would be best for your story. So, for example, let’s say you’re creating your own Batman-like superhero, who will go on various adventures and you’re already overflowing with ideas and origin tales. This will definitely fit better as a comic book than a graphic novel, so you’ll want to keep your issues relatively short. However, let’s say you’re writing a nonfiction story about your specific coming-of-age story. This will be a complete story and, therefore, would work best as a graphic novel. This means you’ll have a lot of writing wiggle room to play around in terms of length and specific scenes you choose to include in the story. If you’re not sure where your story would fit best, do some research to see if you can find a similar book on the market.

3) Find an illustrator

Writing a comic book or graphic novel should be a collaborative process between the writer and the illustrator. All of the greats have done this, including the famed tag team Stan Lee and Kirby. Therefore, it’s best to find your illustrator in the earlier stages of the process. This way you can do a few things. First, you can make sure you’re formatting your script in your chosen illustrator’s preferred way, thus saving you time reformatting later on. Also, your illustrator can serve as someone to bounce ideas off of as far as the visual aspect of the story. A comic book isn’t like any other medium of writing- it is both a visual and a written form of art. It’s only as strong as both of the parts work well together. Seeing the style your story will be in visually may give you ideas on the writing and vice versa. For example, Marvel styled comics like Deadpool are obviously a very different illustration style than The Umbrella Academy series.

The only exception to this rule is if you (like Tillie Walden) will be both the writer and the illustrator, in which case you’ll already have an idea of what your book will look like visually. We’d still encourage you to reach out to other comic book writers to make sure they feel that your illustrations are a good fit with your subject matter. If they don’t fit well, your readers will know (trust us). And (this may go without saying) but write your story before you draw it. Otherwise, it’ll get very messy very quickly.

4) Formatting

Comic books and graphic novels, unlike fiction/nonfiction writing, don’t have an iron-clad standard format across the board. There isn’t a font type, size, formatting design that you see in every comic book writer’s script. If you do some research you’ll see that different people have different styles and preferences on what they prefer in their script. There are, however, a few technical aspects that you’ll see in most comic book or graphic novel scripts.

A header is created for each new page of the graphic novel/comic book. So, your graphic novel page will likely not correspond with the page on Microsoft word. Below the page number, you also create headers for each Panel that will be on the page (Panel One, Panel Two, etc.). The amount that you have per page is entirely up to you and your illustrator (who may have a better idea of how everything will fit together).

Below the Panel label, a comic book writer will typically write a basic description of what the reader is visually seeing in the panel. The length and detail of the description varies greatly between writers, some prefer immense detail to get as close to the picture in their head as possible while others write a brief synopsis and give their illustrator artistic license to play around a bit. Again, this is something that will be decided between you and your artist.

After that, you’ll write below any captions or piece of dialogue that will be included in the panel. It varies how people prefer to have these piece of text written, but we recommend writing them in the order that the viewer is meant to read them. Here are a few suggestions on how to label these pieces of text: Caption 1: [INSERT TEXT], Character 1: [INSERT TEXT] OR 1) Caption:[INSERT TEXT], 2) Character name: [INSERT TEXT].

5) Strong Storytelling

Even though comic books/graphic novels are a shorter medium to tell a story, it’s important that all of the normal facets of a strong story are still present. One mistake that writers often make is focusing too heavily on plot and severely neglecting character development/arc in the story. Make sure, when you’re introducing your protagonist in the story, that you’re immediately giving your reader some character-defining traits. Even if you’re writing a comic and you open on a really dramatic fight scene, have your character go home, take off their costume, sit on their couch in their middle-class house and read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner aloud to their cat. That way you’re still giving us character insight even if you have your heart set on opening with an action scene.

Remember, and this is true of any form of writing: we have to care about your protagonist to care about the events of the story. We know that, with such a short window to write, it can be tempting to submerge the reader in action. But character is still the most important part of the story so make sure you take breaks from the action to let us learn more about your protagonist or even just to give us a funny exchange between them and a friend. Anything that informs us about our protagonist will only serve to strengthen your story and the stakes involved.

The post Genre Spotlight: Comic Books/Graphic Novels appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Remember our dialogue exercise? If you haven’t completed that one yet, follow the link here because we’re going to use it again. If you need a refresher, here are the specs:

Setting: A small dive bar, midday on a Sunday afternoon. The bar is scarce, just a few patrons. There are two younger men who seem to know each other, but it appears everyone else came alone. Most of them are older men, in their early 50’s. The bartender is a relatively handsome young man in his early twenties.

Character One: A young man in his mid-twenties. He loves classic rock and country music, just graduated from a nearby college with a degree in Creative Writing, and he grew up in Texas.

Character Two: A young woman in her early twenties, currently attending a nearby college and aiming to graduate a semester early. She’s double-majoring in business and communications and her favorite shows are House of Cards and Grey’s Anatomy.

Character Three: A middle-aged man with a military history. He has a wife and two kids, grew up in the south, loves watching Sons of Anarchy and The Sopranos. He’s currently trying to quit smoking.

1) Select one of the scenes of dialogue that you’ve already written. Select one of the two characters in that scene and write the scene from that person’s point of view. Remember, think about how they’re perceiving what is said, what they see, etc. And don’t forget to also consider how the other person in this scene is reacting and feeling about what is said, what they see, etc.

2) Take that same scene and these same lines and rewrite the piece again from the other character’s point of view. Differentiate between the first perspective as much as possible. Create misunderstandings, missed opportunities, etc., so the reader can see a clear difference between how the first and second person felt about this conversation and why.

The post Writing Exercise: Point of View appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.