What was your character like before this event?

In order to properly execute your plot points by showing rather than telling, you need to start by examining how the event will change your character. It could be as simple as changing their mind, perhaps they had a certain plan set in their mind but this event shows them that it’s a bad idea. It could be something big that changes their perception of the world, perhaps a loved one betrays them or they find out a dark secret. Or maybe it changes their perception of themselves, maybe the event shows them that they’re braver or more capable than they previously thought. Either way, a plot point should visibly affect your protagonist in a major way.

How did this event change your character or their trajectory in the story?

There are two ways a plot point can change the trajectory of a story. The first is by fundamentally changing the protagonist themselves, thereby changing any decisions they will make after this point in the story. It could also simply change the trajectory by giving them new information or direction that affects what happens next and the decisions being made.

A plot point doesn’t involve every conversation and scene throughout your book, but rather purely those that lead the protagonist where they need to go to get to your novel’s climax. When you’re writing a scene that can be considered a plot point, make it more obvious to the reader by clearly telegraphing the drama involved. Write in-scene with short and quick sentences so the pacing feels faster. Have your protagonist react to the information or events of the scene through action, mannerisms, changes in dialogue, etc.

What choice did your character make?

Major plot points should always be accompanied by character choice. Don’t make your readers follow a protagonist who lets the world kind of happen to them. Instead, allow your readers to follow someone who is an active participant in the world and in their own story (AKA someone who makes choices). Character choice is, therefore, an excellent way to telegraph to your readers that a major plot point is unfolding in your novel.

When writing a character choice into your plot, make sure to examine it thoroughly. Why is the protagonist making this choice? Does it make sense for them to make this choice? Just because you need your plot to lead a certain direction, doesn’t mean your characters can make choices they wouldn’t make.

How is your character or the events of the story different afterward?

What has changed based on this plot point? From your perspective, likely very little has changed, but you need to put yourself into the minds of your readers. Has their perception of the world you’ve created changed based on the information they’ve learned in this scene? Or was the protagonist about to head somewhere very dangerous when they learned of a different way to accomplish their goal, therefore totally changing the protagonist’s physical trajectory in the plot? Or perhaps a major life event occurs from which the protagonist will spend a significant amount of the book recovering? Think about what has changed for the protagonist based on the scene you’ve created and make sure those changes are telegraphed in the text. Showing, rather than telling, how the story or protagonist has changed will allow readers to see that a major plot point has occurred.

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

Do the Work Beforehand

In order to write an engaging action sequence that keeps readers hooked, the work begins prior to the scene actually taking place. One of the main things that separates a good battle sequence from one that readers will skim through is one that your readers truly care about. And in order to make the readers care, they’ll need to care about your characters and story. That involves putting a lot of leg work into fleshing out the characters and plot, making them creative and engaging, and then by the time readers arrive at the action sequence, you’ve got them right where you want them.

Focus on Emotion

Unlike action in film or television, the action itself isn’t what is going to keep your readers engaged. Unfortunately, action on the page just doesn’t translate the same way as it does on screen. In a film, you can begin with an action sequence that lasts ten minutes before you even meet any of the characters, and not a soul will complain. In a book, however, it can be boring to read an entire chapter of just mindless punching and kicking. Instead of the action itself, the scene should focus on the emotion behind the action. Is a character fighting their former best friend? Are they trying to save someone they care about? Are they trying to obtain an object of great emotional significance to them? Focus on what is emotionally at stake for the character and the action itself should be happening around that.

Pay-off

Additionally, you want an action sequence to feel like a pay-off for the reader. As stated previously, action in books can’t be the same mindless fun as it is in film. Instead, when deciding what action scenes are necessary in your manuscript, focus on including ones with the most pay-off. For example, if your protagonist has some snide interactions with a character throughout the book, all of a sudden finding themselves faced with fighting them. Or the final showdown with the villain of your series or maybe a fight with a character who had a hand at killing your protagonist’s parents.

Having your protagonist spend ten minutes fighting one random guard is just going to result in your readers skipping around. If, however, their fight has the potential for a pay-off for them or for their character arc, the readers will remain engaged.

Stakes

Similar to the pay-off, high stakes are another way to keep your readers engaged during an action sequence. Perhaps your protagonist has to scale the side of a building to break in. Or maybe they get into a bar fight with a group of their friends, glass bottles being broken and stepped on all over the place. Perhaps they run into a very deadly and unearthly creature that they once believed was a myth. And their conflict results in the breaking of a priceless artifact. Having something at stake within the fight, something that both the characters and readers care about, will allow readers to remain enthralled.

Language

In addition to all of the story components that add to an action sequence, your writing style and the language you use must adapt as well. When writing other scenes, the language can be flowery with lots of adverbs and time spent on minute details. In action sequences, the opposite should occur. Your sentences should be choppy and short as it creates more of a sense of urgency for the reader. You should also limit your use of adverbs and try to keep minute descriptions to a minimum unless they relate to the action of the scene.

The post How to Write Action Scenes appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Personality

When including an animal character in your story, it’s important to make sure they have a bit of a personality. Any animal owner in real life knows, each of their pets has a very different personality. This can even range based on the animal, cats are typically more aloof while dogs are more fun and friendly.

While animal characters obviously don’t need to have their personalities fleshed out the way your other characters will, you should at least have a few defining traits to play around with. For example, your character could have a German Shephard that is extremely protective and territorial, going off on anyone who so much as goes near their owner. Additionally, depending on the genre of your story, you could invent an animal with its own unique personality and biological traits. Think of at least three words that you could use to describe the personality of your animal character and base their actions throughout the story around those traits.

Quirks

An animal’s quirks will show rather than tell the reader about their personality traits. This can highlight a certain aspect of their personality while also allowing them to become a more unique character. For example, take the character Hedwig, the lovable owl from the Harry Potter series. There are many instances throughout the series where Hedwig refuses to deliver packages for Harry for various reasons. Perhaps he forgot to give her a treat after one of her deliveries or used another owl for a delivery because she wasn’t around. These actions result in Hedwig pouting at Harry, ruffling her feathers, and even pecking him if she’s feeling particularly upset. That is, until he threatens to use another owl for a delivery, and then she quickly drops her attitude.

These exchanges show off Hedwig’s sassy personality and intelligence while also allowing both the reader and Harry to connect with her on a more human level. You should strive to achieve these same goals within your own writing.

Emotional Intelligence

Showing the reader that the animal character has a level of emotional intelligence, which many animals do and all literary animals should, will allow the reader to connect with them on a human level. There’s nothing worse than reading a book with a seemingly useless animal character to which the reader has no real emotional connection. Even when it comes to an animal, a character that doesn’t establish any type of emotional connection with the reader is a waste of page space.

So how do you allow your animal character to connect with the reader in this way? This will happen primarily utilizing action considering that, unless you’re writing in the fantasy genre, your animal character won’t be using dialogue. For example, perhaps your protagonist had a particularly bad day and is laying in bed crying, only to look up and see their pet dog offering them their own favorite toy. Or maybe this comes in the form of your protagonist’s pet lizard refusing to leave their shoulder as they’re having an altercation with a friend. Think about what would fit your animal’s personality and find actions that you can use to show both their emotional intelligence and their relationship with different characters throughout the story.

Story Role

As stated previously, the last thing you want is to write in a useless animal character with absolutely no purpose or role within the story (other than to be cute). Your editor is going to cut them from your book so fast it will make your head spin. Instead, as you’re planning to write your animal character, make sure you ask yourself: what is their role or purpose in this story?

For example, let’s say you’re writing about a very pessimistic character with a tough exterior who had befriended an alley cat near his apartment complex. With everyone else in his life, he is blunt and harsh but when he’s around this cat he is suddenly a sweet ball of mush. The role of the cat in this story is to show the reader another side of this character that we wouldn’t normally see and allow them to draw conclusions as to why the character behaves this way. You must therefore ask yourself, what does this animal show the readers about my protagonist? How does this animal character push along the plot of the story? Does this animal character raise the stakes of my story in some way?

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

When she gets home at first she hates it and faces some clumsy but cute setbacks like missing her bus or falling into the snow. Then she runs into her old high school boyfriend and/or high school crush who now runs a bakery or small coffee shop. They have some sarcastic banter because she only respects business and he’s a humble small-town baker so he doesn’t respect business, of course.

She starts to warm up to the town, and in turn baker boy, and starts to feel the magic of Christmas. Sometimes real magic is involved, but not always. Then, surprise, business boyfriend shows up and she’s forced to then choose between the two sides of herself. Spoiler alert: she 100% of the time stays in the small town and becomes the accountant slash helper at the baker boy’s shop.

Needless to say, Hallmark movies can be cliche and predictable. But for those who love them, they are also addictive. There’s a sort of comfort to the predictability as well as the colorful, bright, and cheery overall tone. They’re full of happy accidents, totally unrealistic turns of fate, and lots of bed and breakfast inns, local bakeries, and gazebos.

Now, picture putting your protagonist in the midst of this cliche and cheery town that we see in Hallmark movies, where there is an almost magical level of holiday spirit. Would they blend right into the plot, seamlessly fitting the role of the lead? Would they be confused, thinking they’ve stumbled into another dimension? Or would they just be downright angry and annoyed when a local inn owner told them they were the only one who could save their business (even though they’ve never met before)?

Writing Prompt: Put your protagonist or one of your characters in the midst of your favorite Hallmark Christmas movie. Because you won’t really have to think about the plot structure, focus on how your character would react differently to circumstances than a typical Hallmark movie protagonist. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with the juxtaposition and add some humor or even darker undertones, let your protagonist take the reigns!

The post Writing Prompt: Hallmark Movie appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

“I didn’t like [Insert Scene]. I don’t know why; I just didn’t like it.”

Translation: I didn’t like that scene purely based on my own opinions and biases, which shouldn’t be taken seriously at all since they have no basis on literary merit. In fact, I don’t even have the language to describe my own biased reasoning for not liking that scene, so instead I will not offer any suggestions on how to fix this mysterious ailment. In fact, I’m so ignorant about the personal nature of writing that I’m completely oblivious to the fact that you’ll be spending the next five days with very little sleep, cycling between rereading that scene repeatedly and crying over a tub of ice cream, purely based on my two-sentence comment.

“[Insert Character] annoys me.”

Translation: This character in your book bothers me, again for inexplicable reasons that I don’t have the language to articulate. They likely just annoy me because they remind me of someone I knew once who I don’t like, thereby giving me a personal bias against your character. Will the fact that I summed up a character that you worked very hard on using one word annoy you? Yes. Will I be aware of that? Nope.

“[Insert Scene] was boring.”

Translation: I have a very short attention span and little appreciation for the subtle nuances of scene writing, so if things aren’t getting blown up constantly or people aren’t in screaming matches with one another- you’re going to lose me. Was that scene being used to build tensions or foreshadow later events in your story? Heck if I know, I was too busy being mad that no one was getting stabbed.

“Why can’t you make [Insert Character] more like [Insert Character Trait]?”

Translation: I’m basically asking you to rewrite an entire character to be more like whatever I want them to be. Do I understand how much work it would be for you to add a new character trait to an already existing character? Nah, to me it’s as simple as changing a few lines- that should be so hard, right? Why do I want your character to be more [insert character trait here]? It’s either a) ‘I just think it would be cool’ (which doesn’t help you at all) or b) I’m having trouble telling the difference between a few of your characters because they both have the same color hair so I think this would make it easier. Will this make you question our friendship? Yup.

“I feel like [Insert Part] came out of nowhere.”

Translation: I didn’t notice all the hard work you put into foreshadowing this part or reiterating character traits through action which made this part perfectly in-character. When you point out all those instances to me, instead of admitting I’m not a very astute reader, I’ll instead say, “Oh… I don’t think anyone will be able to pick up that.” And then I’ll turn around and miss you in the background pulling out your hair in frustration.

“[Insert Character] is kind of whiny.”

Translation: This character either cried or complained maybe twice, but that’s too much for me to handle. I simply have no empathy or patience for people being upset or complaining about their lot in life and not doing something to change it. Take me, for instance. I’ve never once in my entire life complained about some aspect of my life without immediately taking action to rectify whatever I was upset about. Nope, not once. No, sir. So, you can see why I’d have very little patience for someone else doing that very same thing.

“What if instead of [Insert Plot Point] you made it [Insert Worse Plot Point]?”

Translation: Take what is a good and well-planned plot point and change it into a completely different and much worse plot point because the latter would better suit my tastes. I would just rather the latter plot point happen; I don’t care if it’s not earned at all and explaining that to me will only make me more sure that I’m right. And yes, I’m sure my personal tastes will align perfectly with your target audience despite the fact that I’m not an avid reader of your genre, why do you ask?

“I didn’t get [Insert Scene].”

Translation: I didn’t understand this scene. Rather than doing some self-reflecting and wondering if maybe it was my own fault I didn’t understand something, I blame you and your writing. Do you regret letting me read your book? Yes, yes you do.

The post Your Friend’s Book Critiques: Translated appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Now, not just any six words will do. For example, take this one from Buzzfeed, “A lover of all things beautiful.” What can infer about the subject of the story? The characters? The actions? This story is too vague and the reader can infer nothing beyond the sentence itself. Compare that story to this one found on Six Word Stories, “‘Wrong number,’ says a familiar voice.” Just from those six words, we can infer that there is some tension between the protagonist of the story and the person being called because the protagonist recognizes this person, but this person either doesn’t remember the protagonist or doesn’t want to speak to them.

Let’s take another example from Six Word Stories, “‘Total media blackout,’ agreed the President.” Again, this sentence alone infers a lot that is unsaid, mainly that there is some sort of conspiracy or crisis at play if the President is ordering a media blackout. In order for a six-word short story to pack the punch that Baby Shoes has, the words should allude to a more complete story.

So, now that we know the rules, we’re challenging you to a two-part writing exercise.

Write a Six-Word Story

We know the task can feel daunting at first, but know that it doesn’t have to sound eloquent or complex. In fact, the simpler the better because you don’t have a lot of words to fool around with. Focus on accomplishing the task of inferring more than is actually said. If you’re struggling, look up examples from other writers- this should give you some ideas and also remind you that it’s not as complicated as you think. Come up with a few six-word stories and then pick your favorite one from there.

Create a Story From Your Story

Now that you have your six-word short story completed, we challenge you to flesh out that story into an actual short story (no word count limit). Wouldn’t it have been interesting if the author of Baby Shoes had fleshed out their tiny story into something bigger since there’s so much there already? Do this with your six-word story! Give it a protagonist, a plot, a character arc, and a resolution/choice (just like any short story).

WARNING (for people who like to cheat and look ahead): Do NOT do this in reverse, I.E. think about what you want to write and then try to think of a six-word story to match it. You’ll not only be robbing yourself of your best six-word story, but you’ll likely stumble upon a nasty case of writer’s block. Good luck, happy writing!

The post Writing Prompt: Six Word Story appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

If you have devoted readers who are suffering from this affliction at the end of your book or series (and maybe you’re not ready to let it go either) one way to give them a cure without ruining the satisfying ending you crafted is by creating a prequel or prequel series. There is a lot of pressure after a successful and beloved series, so for those finding the prospect both intriguing but terrifying here are some tips on prequel writing:

1) Does the story need telling?

Before you delve into the extremely complicated world that is prequel writing, you must first ask yourself- is this a story worth telling? We don’t mean this as an insult, but simply to say that there has to be a purpose for writing one. Prior to writing a prequel story, here are a few questions you should ask yourself: What are the unanswered questions in your book or series? Are the answers complex enough that they deserve their own storyline? Is the arc of the untold backstory strong enough to carry its own novel? Do you have a readership devoted enough to be interested in a prequel story?

Your prequel could connect the dots in some way by explaining why a certain character is the way they are in your current series or by explaining a lost history. Regardless of what and how, it must provide new information that readers will be excited by.

2) Choose a time period and characters to focus on

Once you’ve made the choice to write a prequel, you’ll need to choose your character subject(s) and the time period. Perhaps you’re writing a prequel story about a long lost history often referenced throughout your current book or series. Your subject could be a hero or legend, who you will humanize throughout your story. Or it could take place a mere few years or decade prior to the events of your current stories.

For example, take the world of Harry Potter. The series takes place prior to and over the course of the second coming of Voldemort, but there’s likely a large readership who’d be interested in a story of his first rise to power. This would center around Harry’s parents and their friends (the Marauders) as the titular characters. Though this time period is often alluded to in the series, the readers only get a vague picture of the events in the series and would likely love to receive a more in-depth look into the time period. Overall, make sure you choose a time period and characters that will allow you to answer these unanswered questions and give your readers new and interesting insights.

3) Continuity is key

This is likely the most important part of prequel writing and we can’t emphasize it enough. No matter who you choose as your subject and what time period you decide to write from, make sure that there is continuity between your first series and your prequel. The readers who will be interested in a prequel love the world you created and want to experience more. You risk ruining the integrity of your first series or novel if your timeline is all over the place or if a character’s backstory completely differs from what was stated in your series.

In order to make sure you get this exactly right, you’ll need to reread your series or book. Make note of any mentions of backstories regarding the time period or characters from whom you’ll be writing. Then spend time mapping out each character’s timelines over the course of the prequel story, making sure each detail lines up with what has been previously mentioned in the book. Of course, new information is crucial, but what was already established must seamlessly fit into place as well.

4) Fill in the blanks

As stated previously, it’s crucial to provide readers of a prequel with some new insight into the story. How did this king become so evil? How was magic wiped from this world and why? How did this war really begin? How did a mysterious assassin get into his or her trade? Allow the reader to have those moments of excitement when they find some crucial information that answers questions they had. Even if you feel like you have an idea of the time period/character(s) you’d like to focus on, it may be helpful to take a poll or ask family or friends what they would be interested to learn about characters or events in your series. This way, if those questions align with the time period from which you’re writing, you can add in more little nuggets of knowledge to make your fandom further geek out.

5) It should be its own story

While it is important that a prequel should provide new information to your story, it should also work as its own standalone story. Don’t make the mistake of solely relying on your series to interest readers, this story should also have a compelling plot, new characters, a suspenseful climax, etc. Therefore, once you’ve done your work mapping the important plot points for the characters individually, make sure you flesh out the overarching storyline as well. For example, though Lord of the Rings is the main series, some readers will begin with The Hobbit series first. Theoretically, there may be readers who do this with your series as well so you must create a compelling story for those readers, not just your die-hard fans.

6) Create suspense by subverting reader expectations

One of the downsides of a prequel series is that some of the suspense is gone because the readers will already know where most of the characters end up. Therefore, you must find different ways to create suspense. For example, let’s say George R.R. Martin decided to do a prequel series about the Mad King (for those who aren’t GOT fans, this king basically brought down the previous ruling family because he was so evil and crazy). Let’s say this story begins and we meet the Mad King for the first time and he seems completely normal, maybe even kind. That would leave readers gasping, wondering, “What happened to him? How did he end up becoming the Mad King?” So, while the reader still knows where the story will eventually go, this creates a certain level of anticipation. Think of similar ways to do this with your story. Fill in the blanks in ways that readers won’t suspect, while still staying true to the continuity of the story. You may think this sounds like asking you to juggle flaming knives…welcome to prequel writing.

The post Genre Focus: Prequels 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.

1) When handling character development through a scene, there is always what’s on the surface and then what’s beneath the surface. Write a scene about a couple fighting while playing a board game. They’re fighting about the game itself, but what are they really upset about? Use the game itself as a tool to show what’s really upsetting them (ex. They’re upset about money, have them play Monopoly or if they are upset about politics, have them play chess).

2) Another important aspect of character development is being able to show character through action alone. Describe a character walking across an expanse field or lot and describe how they walk and their mannerisms. The reader should perfectly understand your character’s personality simply by the way you describe the walk and actions between one side of the lot and the other.

3) Your characters must go through highs and lows over the course of your book- especially when it comes to what they want most in the story. As an exercise in writing this, describe an hour in the life of a character who has recently lost their ability to do what they love most (a pianist who has severe arthritis; a runner who became a quadriplegic).

4) Your characters will have different reactions to different people throughout your story. This will be based on varying factors such as their personalities and familiarity with a particular character. Write a scene where a stranger stops your main character, saying they know them, and insisting your main character is someone they are not. Describe exactly how this case of mistaken identity makes your character feel. Does this upset your character? Does this make your character insecure or paranoid? Does meeting someone new make them happy?

5) Each character in a story must have their own distinct personality. This means each one will handle situations differently- from a crisis to a mild problem. To practice differentiating between character reactions, write a scene where a risk-averse character is stuck in a hostage situation with a risk-happy character.

6) Showing character through action can get fairly repetitive for most writers. How many different ways can someone shrug or sigh? For the next week, watch strangers carefully and take notes in your phone about any peculiar gestures or body language. Combine the three most interesting ones to describe a character as he/she goes grocery shopping. And keep the rest for later use, you never know when you’ll need them!

7) One of the most important parts of character writing is choice. Your characters must be faced with choices throughout your book so your reader can learn about who they are through their decisions. Write about a character faced with a critical decision. This character, then, witnesses a big event (it could be awe-inspiring or disheartening). Describe and show how witnessing the event helps the character make their decision.

The post 7 Tips to Master Character Development appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

Standalone

A standalone novel requires a lot of preciseness. It is a self-contained story so, for readers, it will feel clean and complete within itself. However, because the story will be contained within the confines of a single book–rather than several–not a single moment can be wasted. Every scene has to be important and purposeful, you don’t have the liberty of being able to write cute or heartfelt scenes that don’t advance the plot or develop your characters…it’s crunch time. When writing a standalone novel, every scene needs to answer the questions: How does this further the character arc? How does this further the plot?

This also means preciseness in terms of charting out the plot strands as a whole. A standalone novel must have a main thread that is being followed clearly, so don’t make the plot too complicated. There can be side plot points as well, but there has to be a clear narrative structure. If things get too complicated, you most likely won’t be able to come to a satisfying resolution by the end. Speaking of which, with a standalone novel you absolutely need a satisfying ending. That doesn’t mean a happily ever after per say, but because there won’t be another book you can’t end on a horrible cliffhanger. You have to give the readers–and the characters–the ending that they deserve.

Series

A series is a completely different beast. Think of it in terms of the cinema: a standalone novel is like a movie whereas a series is like a TV show. Because you have multiple books to fill, you’re given a lot more freedom in certain ways. You can have super complicated and intricate plots with overarching themes that will be revealed by the end of the series. Readers will also be able to spend more time with your characters and thereby grow to love and care for them more. However, because you have more time, readers have higher expectations. They want plot points that relate back to the first book of the series: they want continuity and consistency and surprises. You’ll need to do a lot more work charting out your series as a whole, rather than just letting it happen as it goes along and seeing where you end up.

Because a series is longer, you have the freedom to write those little funny or sentimental scenes that may have got the ax in a standalone novel. However, be warned: your pacing must remain consistent. How many times have you heard the phrase, “The second one wasn’t as good as the first one…”? We’re guessing quite a lot. Authors tend to exhaust their ideas in their first book to win over readers and then the pacing of the second book ends up way slower because they’re using filler info. Make sure each book in your series is comparable in terms of pacing, plot/character developments, and payoffs.

What’s right for you?

When deciding whether your idea should be a series or a standalone novel, focus on how complex or simple your book idea is. For example, fantasy and sci-fi books typically work best as a series because those ideas are really complicated and take longer than the length of a single book to tell the full story. On the other hand, contemporary novels typically work best as a standalone. This is obviously not true in every case, so make sure you think through your idea and how long you’ll need to tell the full story. If you feel like it’d be hard to condense the idea into one book, go with a series. And if you feel like it’d be hard to figure out how to expand your idea into multiple books, a standalone is probably your best move. Don’t force your idea to be something it’s not.

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