Have you ever read a book where the paragraphs seem to go on and on? Or a book with paragraphs so short you look around to see where they disappeared to? There is an art to paragraphing.
If your paragraph/s are too long, you may be telling instead of showing. Ask yourself if there is a way to show rather than tell. By showing you can break that long paragraph up into several small paragraphs, whih will be much more interesting to the reader. Paragraphing frequently can also add tension to a scene.
Long paragraphs can be boring to your reader, especially if there are many of them in a scene. You need to break them up to give your reader a rest and maintain his/her interest in your story. Watch for paragraphs that run longer than a half a page.
A long array of short paragraphs can be just as tiresome as a lot of the long ones, so be careful to have a balance of both and put them in the proper place in the scene. For instance, short sentences to build the tension; but eventually you reach the peak of that tension. Then you need a longer paragraph to give you reaer a chance to relax from all that tension.
Another purpose for a short paragraph is to focus attention or put emphasis on an important development by placing it in its own short paragraph. Also, if you have a scene that seems to drag, try paragraphing more often and have more dialogue between your characters.
Throughout all this shortening and lenthening your paragraphics, you must be careful that everything you write be essential to the story and to the flow of it.
In conclusion be aware of your paragraphs. There is a purpose for long and short paragraphs. Be mindful that balancing them can make or break your scene.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders and Sarah's Secret
Member of: Sisters In Crime
Writers on the Move
http://www.fayemtollison.com/
http://www.fmtoll.wordpress.com/
http://www.fayetollison.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
SPEAK WITH YOUR VOICE
What distinguishes one's writing from someone else's writing? Voice. One of the most important things you can give your story is your voice, and everyone's voice is different.
The author's voice, of course, generally belongs to a character, generally the main character. But you are not born with this voice. It has to be honed, developed, and used unconsciously. If you spend your efforts concentrating on your characters and on your story, your voice will come through more naturally. It takes time and lots of practice.
Spend time analyzing your writing. Is it flat, strained, or awkward? Does it seem forced or vague? Check the sentences before and after. Read your work out loud. Does it ring true or false? Highlight areas that you feel need work and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Listen to your characters, know them intimately. Why? Because not only does your writings carry your voice, but each character has his or her own voice.
Self-editing demands that you keep rewriting until your voice as well as each character's voice sounds right. If you listen, you will hear your voice.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders
Sarah's Secret
www.fayemtollison.com
www.fmtoll.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/fayetollison
Member of: Sisters In Crime
Member of: Writers On the Move
The author's voice, of course, generally belongs to a character, generally the main character. But you are not born with this voice. It has to be honed, developed, and used unconsciously. If you spend your efforts concentrating on your characters and on your story, your voice will come through more naturally. It takes time and lots of practice.
Spend time analyzing your writing. Is it flat, strained, or awkward? Does it seem forced or vague? Check the sentences before and after. Read your work out loud. Does it ring true or false? Highlight areas that you feel need work and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Listen to your characters, know them intimately. Why? Because not only does your writings carry your voice, but each character has his or her own voice.
Self-editing demands that you keep rewriting until your voice as well as each character's voice sounds right. If you listen, you will hear your voice.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders
Sarah's Secret
www.fayemtollison.com
www.fmtoll.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/fayetollison
Member of: Sisters In Crime
Member of: Writers On the Move
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
LINE UP THE TIMELINE
When writing my book, To Tell the Truth, there was one of many elements I forgot to include. It was the hardest for me to correct, my efforts at best mediocre. So as a result, I've become rather conscientious about lining up the timeline.
Differentiating between day and night was the last thing I thought of; and when I did, I realized I needed a timeline. It would help my book to make sense in the reader's mind, plus it helped me keep up with things and where I was in the story. But most of all it was for my reader's sake.
Why is a timeline important? As I mentioned before, it helps keep things straight and prevents confusing your reader. You should orient your reader to whether or not it is day or night or whether or not it is Monday or Saturday. You don't have to be too specific. Subtle hints can be given or it can be mentioned in a dialogue. But however you do it, your reader needs to know or they could get lost and stop reading your book.
Some writers choose to put it at the start of each chapter. Example: Monday, 8:05 a.m. This method can be used to build suspense. You can also use this method to set a location for that chapter. Example: Monday morning, Lambay Park.
A timeline can also help your reader to add visual clues about the changes in light throughout the course of the day. Your character could search for sunglasses to put on, letting the reader know it is daytime. Or you could mention the lengthening shadows of dusk. Your character could find it difficult to read street names or house numbers. Smells can also be used such as the aroma of bacon and eggs being cooked, indicating it is breakfast time. These points should be mentioned briefly. It is not necessary to get too detailed. This could bore your reader.
Little things do matter and can also be used to orient your reader to the timeline. Not allowing your character to meet human needs can make your character seem less real. So allow him/her to take a shower in the morning before starting work, or take a bathroom break, or stop for a cup of coffee and a quick breakfast. In my second book, The Bible Murders, John meets Detective Tony Reeves for a quick lunch and talk about the case at a favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
It is a good idea to keep a record of the story's timeline. Just make sure it is a means of recording that will work for you. I believe in keeping it as simple as possible. This leaves less room for messing it up.
Faye M. Tollison, Author
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders
Sarah's Secret
Member of: Sisters In Crime
http://www.fayemtollison.com/
http://www.fmtoll.wordpress.com/
www.facebook.com/fayetollison
Differentiating between day and night was the last thing I thought of; and when I did, I realized I needed a timeline. It would help my book to make sense in the reader's mind, plus it helped me keep up with things and where I was in the story. But most of all it was for my reader's sake.
Why is a timeline important? As I mentioned before, it helps keep things straight and prevents confusing your reader. You should orient your reader to whether or not it is day or night or whether or not it is Monday or Saturday. You don't have to be too specific. Subtle hints can be given or it can be mentioned in a dialogue. But however you do it, your reader needs to know or they could get lost and stop reading your book.
Some writers choose to put it at the start of each chapter. Example: Monday, 8:05 a.m. This method can be used to build suspense. You can also use this method to set a location for that chapter. Example: Monday morning, Lambay Park.
A timeline can also help your reader to add visual clues about the changes in light throughout the course of the day. Your character could search for sunglasses to put on, letting the reader know it is daytime. Or you could mention the lengthening shadows of dusk. Your character could find it difficult to read street names or house numbers. Smells can also be used such as the aroma of bacon and eggs being cooked, indicating it is breakfast time. These points should be mentioned briefly. It is not necessary to get too detailed. This could bore your reader.
Little things do matter and can also be used to orient your reader to the timeline. Not allowing your character to meet human needs can make your character seem less real. So allow him/her to take a shower in the morning before starting work, or take a bathroom break, or stop for a cup of coffee and a quick breakfast. In my second book, The Bible Murders, John meets Detective Tony Reeves for a quick lunch and talk about the case at a favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
It is a good idea to keep a record of the story's timeline. Just make sure it is a means of recording that will work for you. I believe in keeping it as simple as possible. This leaves less room for messing it up.
Faye M. Tollison, Author
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders
Sarah's Secret
Member of: Sisters In Crime
http://www.fayemtollison.com/
http://www.fmtoll.wordpress.com/
www.facebook.com/fayetollison
Monday, January 16, 2012
WATCH THAT POV
In this day of self-publishing and e-publishing, I have noticed a relaxing of the proper use of point of view. I've read a number of books where the author switches their POV character back and forth at random. This is easy to do. I have done it myself. So a review of the basics will be covered here.
As we all know, there are three basic POVs which a writer can use: First person, third person, and omniscient. The first person is the "I" voice. This is written as though the narrator were speaking to the readers. The first person narrator is one of the characters, not the author. This POV can give the reader a good deal of intimacy with the viewpoint character as it allows the reader to get into the head of the viewpoint character and literary allows the reader to see the world through that character's eyes. This first person POV character has to be a strong character in order to keep the readers interested because he will be limited to only what he knows, sees, or hears directly or immediately. This can prove to be very limiting as the book will be through one character's viewpoint.
All narrative summary is written in the omniscient POV. With the omniscient POV you do lose the intimacy and warmth that you have with first person POV. The omniscient POV is the author speaking.
The third person POV is, of course, the one most authors use and the one that most publishers seem to prefer. It has the most advantages because it allows the readers both intimacy and perspective. Also, with the third person you can move from character to character, giving the reader the ability to view the story from different angles. The biggest problem authors have with this POV is being consistent throughout each scene. It is very easy to change the POV character within the same scene without even realizing it.
Another problem with third person POV is that some authors cannot resist the temptation of having too many POV characters, and they ten to switch between these characters so frequently that the readers lose interest and are apt to not finish the book. It would be more effective to stick with a single POV and show the other characters' feelings through dialogue and actions or, at best, keep the number of POV characters to no more tan two or three. And if it is necessary to change your POV character, you need to end the current scene. You do that by inserting a line space (this can be done with asterisks or simply spacing down four lines) and starting a new scene from the POV character that you need. Also, be sure to establish who the POV character is in the first paragraph of the new scene.
Remember that a POV falls between two consecutive lines of dialogue. A POV does not particularly mean a break in time.
As we all know, there are three basic POVs which a writer can use: First person, third person, and omniscient. The first person is the "I" voice. This is written as though the narrator were speaking to the readers. The first person narrator is one of the characters, not the author. This POV can give the reader a good deal of intimacy with the viewpoint character as it allows the reader to get into the head of the viewpoint character and literary allows the reader to see the world through that character's eyes. This first person POV character has to be a strong character in order to keep the readers interested because he will be limited to only what he knows, sees, or hears directly or immediately. This can prove to be very limiting as the book will be through one character's viewpoint.
All narrative summary is written in the omniscient POV. With the omniscient POV you do lose the intimacy and warmth that you have with first person POV. The omniscient POV is the author speaking.
The third person POV is, of course, the one most authors use and the one that most publishers seem to prefer. It has the most advantages because it allows the readers both intimacy and perspective. Also, with the third person you can move from character to character, giving the reader the ability to view the story from different angles. The biggest problem authors have with this POV is being consistent throughout each scene. It is very easy to change the POV character within the same scene without even realizing it.
Another problem with third person POV is that some authors cannot resist the temptation of having too many POV characters, and they ten to switch between these characters so frequently that the readers lose interest and are apt to not finish the book. It would be more effective to stick with a single POV and show the other characters' feelings through dialogue and actions or, at best, keep the number of POV characters to no more tan two or three. And if it is necessary to change your POV character, you need to end the current scene. You do that by inserting a line space (this can be done with asterisks or simply spacing down four lines) and starting a new scene from the POV character that you need. Also, be sure to establish who the POV character is in the first paragraph of the new scene.
Remember that a POV falls between two consecutive lines of dialogue. A POV does not particularly mean a break in time.
Friday, December 16, 2011
SARAH'S SECRET
It's decided. I have the beginnings of a plot for a romance novel. My first one. I'm excited! Sarah will be a different type of character than Anna Kayce in To Tell the Truth. I need to work up a profile and history on her, but I have an idea what she looks like. Her lover will be an Italian man who is in the Mafia. I still have to decide on a name for him, but I have an idea what he looks like. Al Pacino? Hmmm...a little like him. Their story? Still working that out. I do have an idea for the ending, which will help me know how to direct my story.
This story and the characters will take some research, and that can take some time. So in the meantime I have The Bible Murders to complete, which I'm hoping to be able to get my illustrator busy on a book cover for it. Stay tune as I will mention my progress with this romance in this blog.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders
Sarah's Secret
www.fayemtollison.com
www.fmtoll.wordpress.com
www.fayetollison.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/faye.tollison
www.booksinsync.com
This story and the characters will take some research, and that can take some time. So in the meantime I have The Bible Murders to complete, which I'm hoping to be able to get my illustrator busy on a book cover for it. Stay tune as I will mention my progress with this romance in this blog.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming books: The Bible Murders
Sarah's Secret
www.fayemtollison.com
www.fmtoll.wordpress.com
www.fayetollison.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/faye.tollison
www.booksinsync.com
Monday, November 28, 2011
Bring Your Character to Life
One of the many problems I faced with my first book, To Tell the Truth, was my characters. They had no dimension. Anna Kayce, my protaganist came across as flat. I'm talking flat as a pancake, a very thin pancake! So I hit the books! I read every book on writing I have, and I have about 75 books on writing. That's a lot! I followed every suggestion I could find. I took my character to my critique group and did everything they suggested. Feeling somewhat discouraged, I put my manuscript away for awhile. Then one day, my favorite writing magazine came in the mail and in it was an article that changed everything for me.
It had an article in it on creating characters, and there were several suggestions, most of which I had already done or just didn't feel was for me. But there was one, and all it takes it one, that kept talking to me even after I had closed and put away the magazine. It said to write an interview of your character. So I sat down and did just that.
What did I learn from this interview? Well, I realized what I was missing was a very important connection with my character. I wasn't getting into her mind. I wasn't feeling her emotions, and yes, there is a difference between just writing how she feels and feeling her emotions. So I put myself in her place. What a difference it made. She began to come alive. She became real. She became me.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming book: The Bible Murders
http://www.fayemtollison.com/
It had an article in it on creating characters, and there were several suggestions, most of which I had already done or just didn't feel was for me. But there was one, and all it takes it one, that kept talking to me even after I had closed and put away the magazine. It said to write an interview of your character. So I sat down and did just that.
What did I learn from this interview? Well, I realized what I was missing was a very important connection with my character. I wasn't getting into her mind. I wasn't feeling her emotions, and yes, there is a difference between just writing how she feels and feeling her emotions. So I put myself in her place. What a difference it made. She began to come alive. She became real. She became me.
Faye M. Tollison
Author of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming book: The Bible Murders
http://www.fayemtollison.com/
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