You also know your characters’ pet peeves, the hobbies that they hate, the people that would annoy them the most, and their least favorite activities. Getting even more specific, you know how the things that they like and dislike blend together. How there are certain hobbies or people that your character thinks they dislike but, should they give them a fair chance, they may actually enjoy themselves. The opposite can be true as well, having a character who loves a certain hobby but then, due to overindulgence or other factors, it can become something they despise.

This is where our writing prompt of the day comes in: opposite day. This exercise involves putting your character in situations where they would never normally find themselves in of their own choice. So if your character hates carnivals, write a scene where they’re forced to go to a local carnival. It doesn’t even have to be something that they hate either, it can simply be something they’d never normally do. If you’ve never thought your character would ever be inclined to try pottery, for example, write a scene where they’re taking a pottery class.

Brainstorming the scene or scenes you write for the exercise will allow you to chart out the different habits and nuances of your character. In addition, writing the scene itself will allow you to not only practice showing (rather than telling) the reader about the specifics of character-building, but may also allow you to learn new things about your characters.

Putting your character in scenes they’d never normally find themselves in will allow you to gain new insights about them. As any writer will know, you can plot and outline all you want but often the characters will run away with the plot themselves. So, oftentimes, we won’t truly know how a certain character will react in a situation until they’re actually in it.

Writing Prompt: Pick a specific character from your manuscript (or a character you’re working on) and put them in a scene or scenes in which they’d never normally find themselves. This could mean a setting or circumstance that they would dislike or one that is simply very unlike them normally. How do they react to being in this situation? Why do they react this way? Is their reaction different or the same as what they’d expect of themselves? If it is different, why is that?

The post Writing Prompt: Opposite Day appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

The statement itself implies that the person who wrote the book drew inspiration from a real-life event or person, but that the audience shouldn’t expect a factually accurate retelling of this event. This statement tells the reader that the author is choosing to prioritize entertainment and good storytelling over staying true to events. Therefore, readers who are interested in these books go in with the expectation that they will be reading a novel that is both entertaining and masterfully plotted. So, if you’re taking on a ‘based on a true story’ novel, here are some tips.

1) Keep the voice neutral

Whether you’re writing a ‘based on a true story’ book about something historical or something from personal experience, you need to remove your own voice from the narrative. You shouldn’t be portraying certain characters or events as right or wrong because readers can very quickly sense personal bias in a novel and, with that, you’ll lose their trust. They want to simply experience the events and have the freedom to make their own judgments about what occurred. So make sure you’re working hard to show the events to your readers rather than telling them how to think or feel about characters and situations.

2) Be the Writer & Editor

This may sound like a writer’s worst nightmare at first, but it’s simpler than it seems. When it comes to the scope of the events that took place in the story, you’ll need to put on an editor’s hat and strategically think about where to cut down. If the event you’re writing about took place over the course of a day you likely won’t have to do this much, but if it took place over weeks or years there will likely be a lot to cut around in terms of scenes and events. As a general rule of thumb, if a scene doesn’t contain a character choice, feeling the effects of a character choice, or someone discovering the motivations behind a character choice, the scene will likely need to be cut.

Just as you may need to omit some scenes, it may benefit the story to combine or eliminate some characters from the story. Remember, since this is a ‘based on a true story’ book, you are allowed to take liberties and make it somewhat fictional. If you know only a few details about a character, perhaps combine them with another character to make them more well-rounded and also less confusing for the reader. If there was someone who was part of the story but didn’t play an integral role, perhaps they’ll need to be cut for the sake of having a well-paced novel.

3) Make Additions Where Necessary

Just as you’ll need to cut events or characters who don’t serve the narrative, you may need to add motivations or events that make the story more exciting or narratively sound. Remember that, in the case of this type of novel, your goal is to tell a good story, not necessarily a true story. So if a character seemingly had a simple unexciting motivation for an action in a story, get creative and add a more complicated motivation that you feel would still make sense for their personality. If the real-life events don’t culminate in a necessarily satisfying way, add to the climax to give it more drama.

Many novels and films of this genre wind up creating stories that have very little to do with the real-life events by which they were inspired, but they created a good story nonetheless.

The post How to Write a ‘Based on a True Story’ Book appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

1) Pick one of your favorite songs. Identify a line in the song and the main emotion behind the line. Write about a character who is experiencing that emotion and hears that song. Or a character who is going through an experience that is paralleled by the song lyrics. Try to describe the type of music and the sounds in such a beautiful way that you will make the reader experience the emotion behind the song.

2) Select a dish representative of a cuisine that your character had as a child. Have the character describe it in such detail that the reader salivates and personal details of your character’s childhood are also revealed.

3) A man is cooking for a woman on their third date. Have the woman describe the aromas of the food in such loving and extended detail that she realizes that she’s in love with the man (Hint: She doesn’t love him because of the food- the food is just a way of showing it).

4) Have a character dine at a blind restaurant- a restaurant in pitch blackness where all the servers are blind. Describe how the table, clothing, plates, food, and the hand of their dining partner feels different in the darkness.

5) Have your character walking down the street and see a specific sight- a building, a park, a tree, a person, etc. and experience a moment of extreme deja vu. Have your character describe what they’re looking at in extreme detail while slowly revealing the memory with which they associate the sight.

6) One of the best exercises for the five senses is to choose one word and to describe it using the five senses. Obviously, each of the five sense won’t be able to be literally applied to the word- this is where you need to use your imagination. Using each of the five senses, for example, describe moonlight. What does it look like? Smell like? Taste like? Sound like? Feel like? Writers often feel boxed into the idea that sensory details need to be real and tangible, but you can absolutely talk about the taste of moonlight or the touch of a shadow in your book. In fact, that’s where some of the best writing happens.

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The post Writing Exercises: Using the Five Senses appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.