Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Turning tricks...

Today I’d like to talk about writing tricks. We all have them, whether they be for getting the work to flow, or jump starting a character, goosing a sagging plot, or keeping the writing fresh after a few books. And what works for one writer may work for others- so please play along!

I’d have to say my biggest “trick” is writing sprints, with NaNoWriMo being the biggest sprint of them all. Ok, in reality it’s a marathon, but it’s a series of sprints or it won’t work ;).

Sprints are my way of working past whatever part of my daily mundane life is interfering with my writing. You can do them alone, or with friends. I’ve seen pro writers shout out writing sprints on the hour or half hour on twitter. Folks join in, then report their count when the time is up. Sometimes the stuff produced is amazing- other times, not so much- but it’s SOMETHING- and it usually gets the juices flowing. Besides, everyone loves a little competition!

Another “trick” is jumping. Sometimes I’ll just have images for amazing scenes pop in my head- of course they are often nowhere near where I am in the story at hand. I usually follow through on writing them though- then during editing piece things together. It’s a great trick for when you feel like you’re stuck or the story is feeling blah. (And probably would give most plotters the hives, so if you’re one of them- don’t do it ;)).

Lastly, if I have a difficult character I try to take them out of the context of my story and find out what they like in our world. What music would they like? How would they dance? What foods? Since pretty much I write characters not of our world, seeing them in our settings (in my head) often helps me get a better grasp on my otherworldly folks (besides it’s fun ;).

Sooooo- now it's YOUR turn- what are some tricks or "best practices" (to steal from the cubical world ;)) you use to keep your writing moving and growing?

10 comments:

  1. I love the writing sprints on Twitter! My only problem now is that I'm editing so I can't really join in.

    I like to picture a scene in my head over and over again, almost like I'm watching a movie, figuring every movement and line of dialogue out before I even start writing. I think it helps to make things more vivid.

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    1. OO! Sarah, I'd never tried writing sprints on twitter- is there a hash tag for it? I love the picturing the scene tip, I have an editor/beta reader friend who says if she can't see the story as a movie in her head when she's reading, she knows there is a big problem with that mss.

      Thanks for coming by and commenting!

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  2. I give my characters personality tests. My favorites are Myers-Briggs and Enneagram. I've turned up some really useful stuff this way.

    Sarah, I picture scenes in my head before I write as well.

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    1. That's an excellent tip, Margaret! Those personality inventory tests can be very revealing.
      Thanks for coming by and commenting!

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  3. When I saw the title of your blog I almost screamed - No! Marie! There are better ways to come up with indie financing! But I see you're just being tricky in your titling.
    Since I also write about people who aren't from "around here" and am also a mapper (maker of maps for the worlds I create) I look at the places my people come from. Are they from a big city or a small town? What kind of lives would they lead in these places? What would the people they grew up with talk about and know? What things would they be familiar with? Was my character a bit of an Artful Dodger growing up or was he a farm boy choring away from morning till night? Was she the prettiest girl in her home town only to find now she's in the huge wide world she was never more than a big fish in a little pond? Did she come from a small place where behavior and destiny are well defined only to find out its a great big world full of possibilities?

    Nice to see what other people use as tricks of the trade.

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    1. LOL!! Yeah, no...I haven't gotten that desperate, Sharon ;). I like those ideas! I wish I could make maps- I am so awful at those I don't even try and just keep a general "this is up, this is down" in my head.

      Thanks for coming by and commenting!

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  4. Well, at first I thought you were talking about tricks for writing blogs--my least favorite thing to do. Still writing tricks are good. I use one from The Weekend Novelist. You write for ten minutes, nonstop, about your character's dream. Something about the nonstop process unlocks things inside the character. Of course, you are supposed to do this by hand, but since I can't read my writing that wouldn't do me any good. It seems to work just fine when I type.

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    1. HEH- well Jackie, for blogs just think if you were sitting down with some folks, what would you talk about? Since this blog is mostly about writing, I think what might I babble on about to other writers :). Nothing fancy.

      I REALLY like that tip! I'm going to try it and see how it works for me!

      Thanks for coming by and commenting!

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  5. Great blog entry, Marie! It's always fun reading how other authors "get it done". When I get stuck, I walk away from the computer and go back to old fashion pen & paper. Luckily I have pretty decent handwriting...

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    1. Thanks, CJ! I actually do the writing by hand bit too sometimes- sadly my writing gets really bad after a short while ;).

      thanks for coming by and commenting!

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