Your Scene Needs a Problem. By Ken Hughes, @TheKenHughes Part of the How They Do It Series Conflict is a must in every scene, but problems come in a myriad of shapes and sizes.
The tricky part is knowing what the right problem for your scene is. To help with that, Ken Hughes visits the lecture hall today to share some thoughts on adding problems to your scenes. Ken Hughes is a Global Ebook Award-nominated urban fantasy novelist, creator of the Whisperers and the upcoming Spellkeeper Chronicles series, and the Power Plays and Unified Writing Theory blogs. He's also been a technical writer for missions to Mars, and a longtime mentor for local authors.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound Take it away Ken... We figure we can’t do the major events of the story without writing quieter moments too. --And there’s the great myth: that the only balance for Big Conflict Scenes is moments that are conflict-free. 3 Tips for Skipping the Boring Parts. I was going to rant about poor editing today, but I closed the wrong window in my computer and lost all 1000 words.
*sigh* So I’ll try it again later when I’m not so sleep deprived from WANACon preparation. Instead, I’m revisiting a different topic today. We’ve heard the saying: Life is a journey. Often this thought will be accompanied by “enjoy the ride” or something along those lines. And that’s great advice for life. In our first draft, our scenes might include all sorts of boring trips to the grocery store or what-have-you.
In addition, our editing eyes should also look out for sections that include boring styles of writing: information dumps“driving” sceneshand-wringingflat descriptions I’ve tackled the dreaded info dump before, but let’s take a look at the other three problematic areas. Problem: Driving Scenes Check out the picture above. Stories shouldn’t create those impatient emotions. In a story, we want to jump to the exciting parts right away. The Solution: Problem: Hand-Wringing. Tools for Novel Writers: The Editing Checklist. A rare and wonderful thing happened to me the other night.
I was at my writers’ group meeting, getting a critique of my rewrite’s first 30 pages. Everybody said it worked—and believe me, they would say if it didn’t, bless them—and, best of all, one person called the submission “flawless.” Let’s just take that in for a minute… Flawless. Ahhh… The Checklist Works Okay, time to snap out of it. After some consideration, I came up with this: After researching best practices, I came up with a rewriting checklist and started using it to grind through my first draft. The best practices come from a variety of sources: My sainted wife, my writing group buddies and books like Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne, The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel, by James Thayer and others. My personal list is set up in Microsoft Project, because it’s great for tracking a sequence of tasks.
The main thing is to have a list, regardless of how it’s physically constructed. Five Words to Eliminate from Your Writing. How to Fix Passive Voice: 7 Steps (with Pictures. Edit Article Edited by Judithavory, June, Abbie_music, Leila and 3 others Voice provides your writing with distinctiveness and a sense of flavor, which may--or may not--give your audience a desire to continue reading your work.
For example, active voice gives your writing authority and a closer connection to your audience, because you're talking directly to them. Passive voice also allows you to talk to your audience, but in a bland, indirect way without conviction. Therefore, for stronger, more authoritative voice in your writing, you must know how to fix passive voice. Ad Steps 1Know the difference between passive and active voice.Passive voice transpires when you place the object where the subject of the sentence usually goes. 7Reread the corrected passive sentence.Read the new sentence making sure it denotes action. Warnings Don't rely on grammar checkers included in software such as Microsoft Word.