Writers in the Storm

by Jenny Hansen

Most writers I know tell me the absolute hardest part of this crazy life we've chosen is the uncertainty. Publishers come and go. Ditto with agents, editors, and distribution partners. The writing day can be agony or ecstasy, depending on your mood, your muse, your health, or your Wi-Fi. You're in control of your story (mostly), but not always every single aspect of its journey after it leaves your hand. And it drives a lot of writers cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs crazy.

Don't be the frog in the pot.

You've heard the story of the frog in the pot, right?

Frogs have medium-ish survival skills. For example, if a frog is dropped in a pot of water and it is boiling, the frog will save itself by jumping right out of the pot. But... if the frog is put into a pot of room-temperature pot of water, the result is very different. If the water is slowly brought to the boiling point, the frog will stay in the water until it dies.

That lil' froggie doesn't have the gift of discernment.

The frog can't tell when it's in an environment that becomes increasingly hostile and dangerous to them.

Cultivate your own discernment so the ever-changing writing world is less likely to sneak up on you like the water sneaks up on the frog. Learn to recognize when the proverbial temperature has shot up beyond what is healthy for you. Climb out of the pot you're in, or find a new one.

How do you live with the uncertainty?

First and foremost with acceptance. Know that this writing life you've chosen is an incredibly chaotic and unpredictable one. Know that the rules will constantly change for everything from social media to technology to employees at any company you interact with.

Know Your Nemesis (Nemesii??)

I have a friend whose nemesis is technology. It's hard for her to embrace it in the first place, and she feels like every time she masters something, somebody moves her cheese. When the menus (or the algorithms or the rules) of platforms like Facebook change, she gets frustrated. When places like Wordpress change their dashboard, she wants to break things (or cry).

When I told her she had to learn more about Amazon's author dashboard, she threw up her hands and hired some help. Amazon was her breaking point, but she'd been considering help for a long time. She just finally figured out that, for her, she'd rather spend more time writing and pay someone else to keep up with Amazon's rules.

We all have our nemesis, our kryptonite, our wanna-throw-ourselves-in-traffic task on the business side of writing. I'll bet you know exactly what yours is!

Tools in Your Uncertainty Toolbox

There are some habits, people, things you can put in place to help you manage any anxiety around the writing uncertainty in your life.

1. Build your community in the writing trenches.

Perhaps it will be the group you critique with weekly, plot with quarterly, or a place where you ask questions daily on Facebook. Perhaps it is your local writing chapter that meets monthly. Maybe it will be blogs like this one where you can ask questions and play in the comments section with people who are in all different phases of their writing careers.

Wherever it is, be sure you cultivate some writing communities. They'll make you feel better when you cry over things like e-book formatting or your Amazon dashboard.

A recommendation...

I recommend you make sure to interact with a mix of writers. Find people who know more than you, and who are willing to share their knowledge. Then turn around and share knowledge with someone else who is newer to the writing life, and needs the answers that you can provide. That's the cycle that keeps most writers sane.

Note: Remember that everyone's journey is different, and respect their boundaries and decisions. Also, remember to thank them for sharing their time with you, even if you don't plan to take their advice.

Further reading:

• 5 Ways Helping Other Writers Helps You by Eldred Bird
• The Writing Hierarchy of Needs by Me
• The Vital Importance of Your Writing Community by John Peragine

2. Understand that your creativity is the only thing you can control.

Sometimes a story runs away from you, but you can get it back. You've learned the writing craft and you are the one putting time in with the page. You know your characters. If you don't, you will soon.

When the business of writing drives you cray-cray, the way to move forward is to focus on the job that only YOU can do. Write the current story, or the next one. If your story is as good as you can make it, then you have done your job. If your story isn't yet as good as you can make it, learn some new writing craft skills and make it better.

Everything in your writing life starts with a story. When the uncertainty creeps up the back of your neck and gives you anxiety, just know that at the bottom of it all, you have one job that rules all the others:

Finish your story. Then start on the next one.

Further reading:

• Suggestions for When Life Throws a Roadblock Between You and Writing by Lori Freeland
• Does Writer's Block Really Exist? by Diana Strout
• Getting Unstuck and Avoiding Writer's Block by Tiffany Yates-Martin

What formed my own zen?

Like many writers, I had a chaotic childhood. I learned pretty early to "suck it up, Buttercup," and that "this too shall pass."

Those childhood skills have served me well recently as I've navigated the experience of triple-negative breast cancer. If you can't keep your sense of humor and develop some mental fortitude during your cancer journey, it will try to take over 100% of your life and make you cry a lot.

Cancer is unpredictable, sometimes painful, and chock full of uncertainty.

Cancer will make you miss important events, entire days, and just about every deadline you try to aim for. It will constantly present you with an array of decisions that suck, and you will have to pick the one that is least sucky for you at that moment. In return for all this discernment and fortitude, you get to stay alive.

It's not such a bad trade-off when you think of it that way.

My cancer journey has definitely increased my calmness and roll-with-it Zen. And let's face it, embracing uncertainty and making those hard decisions gives you a lot of confidence.

Case in point: I'm writing this post two days before having a surgery that can kill me. But if I don't have the procedure, my long-term survival rate is 30%+ lower. Since I have a daughter to raise and books to write, I'm embracing the Big Scary and having the damn surgery. I'm confident that 15 years from now, I'll be really glad I did.

What are the advantages to embracing uncertainty?

There are advantages to embracing, or at least being able to cope with, psychological uncertainty. There are gifts and opportunities that come from the unexpected. Remember, growth and resiliency usually walk hand-in-hand.

Since the pandemic lockdowns, a ton of attention and research has been focused on this topic. HelpGuide.org offers five not-so-easy-to-follow tips (see below). To their credit, they break each tip down with a full section of actionable advice.

(Cuz it would be unfair to say, "Learn to accept uncertainty," and not provide some sort of roadmap, amiright?)

1. Take action over the things you can control
2. Challenge your need for certainty
3. Learn to accept uncertainty
4. Focus on the present
5. Manage stress and anxiety

Further Reading:

• The science of uncertainty, published by the American Psychological Association
• Dealing with Uncertainty by HelpGuide.org

Final Thought

We can do the hard things, in both our writing and our everyday life. We just have to be willing to try. They say there are two best times to plant a tree -- today and ten years ago. I say, put on those titanium underpants and go for it! :-)

Be brave. Plant the tree. Write your story, even if it is only for 20 minutes.

I would love to hear about your personal journey. Is uncertainty agony or ecstasy for you? Which part of the writing life causes you the most anxiety? Tell me all about it down in the comments!

About Jenny

By day, Jenny Hansen provides brand storytelling, LinkedIn coaching, and copywriting for accountants and financial services firms. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction, and short stories. After 20 years as a corporate trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

Find Jenny here at Writers In the Storm, or online on Facebook or Instagram.

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Article images from Depositphotos.

Have you ever picked up a book excited by the beginning of the story but your excitement fades, yet you kept reading because you liked the characters? Then, at the end of the book, when you’re ready for the payoff—it fizzles. The author got you to the very last page, but failed to deliver.

How can a story or characters carry you all the way to the end and still disappoint? 

Two common mistakes authors make lead to disappointed readers: the primary character didn’t earn the ending or didn’t even show up for the ending. You can make both mistakes regardless of whether you outline or you discovery write. Both mistakes leave the reader reluctant to pick up another book by that author. 

In order to craft a perfect ending, you must write or edit the story with the ending in mind. Every scene. You must also understand the key components of the ending of a story: the crisis, the climax, and the resolution.

Start with the End in Mind

Many writers will protest that if they know the end of the story, they lose interest in writing it. Rest assured. You can write the story without knowing the ending. But unless your story structure instincts are powerful, be prepared. You will need a lot of revision to make the story reward the reader. 

The reason you want to start with the end in mind is because your story needs to have progressive complications. These complications build a Will-she-Won’t she get what she wants tension in your reader. If you don’t know what the end will be, you can’t build effective progressive complications. However, you don’t have to know your ending so well that you can write the last scene first.

How much of the end do you need to know when you start? It depends on your story, the genre of your story, and your writing strengths and weaknesses. Certain genres require certain endings. For example, romances usually require a happily ever after or happy-for-now ending. Mysteries require the revelation of who-done-it or how it was done. Series require an ending of one plot line but an open ending of at least one plot line until the last of the series. So the first decision about how your story ends, you’ve probably already made based on the genre. 

Most likely, you also know what your protagonist wants. What she wants and how she gets, or doesn’t get, what she wants is the story you want to tell. 

But there are more questions you need to answer about the ending to your story. First, decide what type of ending this story will have.

Types of Endings

There are as many ways to label story endings as there are stories. Here are six common ending types. 

The Resolved Ending

These types of endings include the Happily Ever-After and Happy-for-Now common in romances. It also includes The Reveal in who-dun-it and how-dun-it mysteries. A resolved ending has all the subplots and plot threads completed at the end of the story. 

Open-Ended Ending 

This type of ending includes cliffhangers. But it also includes books like Oliver Twist—we don’t know what happens to him after the book ends, but the plot and primary character arc are complete. Or a story with an open-ended ending can end show the character taking an action but we don’t get to see the what’s next. Or it can end with the character anticipating what will happen, an event we don’t see in this book (maybe never).

The Ambiguous Ending

There are readers who love the cryptic or vague endings of stories. They love to speculate what the author meant, what choice the character made next, and the future of the character and plot. 

The Twist

The twist is a popular ending but can be difficult to pull-off. The twist must have enough hints throughout the story that the reader doesn’t feel cheated. But too many hints and you may give away the twist. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christy has a satisfying but surprise ending. The twist ending of the movie, The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis, was a sensation until the secret got out. 

The Closed-Circle Ending

When the ending circles back to the beginning only with more content or context, it is called a closed-circle ending. Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz have circular endings in that they start and end in the “real” world. So does Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. 

Epilogue

This ending is fairly obvious. Sometimes the epilogue is simply another paragraph or another chapter. If it gives readers a glimpse into what happened after the story ended, then it’s an epilogue.

Progressive Complications

Once you know the type of ending you want, you need to understand what progressive complications are. 

Remember, the inciting incident of your story upsets your character’s normal life, her comfort zone. After that inciting incident, she tries to return to her comfort zone. But something or someone blocks her way. She pivots and tries again, only to be blocked again. This happens over and over until she finally figures out the way to beat this obstacle. The wins and losses help her learn what she must in order to face the ultimate battle. That final battle against the obstacle (be it a person, place, or thing) is the ending which we’ll talk about in a moment. 

The way you reward your reader with the ending is not just by besting the bad guys.

Give your character the agency to make choices that change how the story unfolds. Show the reader that the protagonist makes decisions and takes actions that hurt her chances of success.

Your antagonist must have a reason for (unless the antagonist is nature) and a way to stop the protagonist. The fight is unbalanced, favoring the antagonist or it’s apparently too balanced to have an easy win. You need at least one scene where your protagonist faces her antagonist (real or assumed) and loses. Each time she faces an antagonist-generated obstacle, the struggle must challenge her and cost her something. The cost can be emotional, physical, financial, mental, or spiritual. The cost forces her to make adjustments in her way of thinking and/or her way of doing things. And that makes the complications progressive.

Avoid having her take action off stage or between scenes. Keeping the conflict off stage, you rob the reader of the power of that moment and of the feeling that your character has earned her story’s ending. 

Key Components of the Ending

Understanding the structure, or the key components, of the ending is equally critical for creating an ending that rewards your reader. Note, understanding is critical. Developing a detailed outline of the ending of your story isn’t always necessary. It is okay to hammer out the details of the ending after you’ve written the first draft during the editing and revision phase.

The Crisis

The crisis is THE pivotal moment of your story. Each of your protagonist’s previous choices and actions have led her to this point. The crisis usually happens in the last quarter to the last fifth of your story. 

In his book, Story, Robert McKee calls the crisis, “the story’s Obligatory Scene. From the Inciting incident on, the audience has been anticipating with growing vividness the scene in which the protagonist will be face-to-face with the most focused, powerful forces of antagonism in his existence.”

At this point in the story, the antagonistic force must appear to be overwhelming. The protagonist, and the reader, must fear (with good reason) the antagonist will win.

In order for the crisis to work, the choice your protagonist faces must be of utmost importance to her at that moment. You must box your protagonist into a corner where she has only two specific and concrete, life-changing actions she can take. And she must make a choice. 

“At the point of crisis, the protagonist is forced to make a choice whether or not she wants to attempt to restore the balance that was disturbed by the inciting incident.” The Fiction Writer’s Toolkit, Bob Mayer 

The strongest crisis is a genuine dilemma. A choice between two irreconcilable goods, or the lesser of two evils, or the two choices that put the protagonist at the maximum pressure of her life. She must decide if she will make the ultimate sacrifice (whatever she thinks that may be) in order to achieve the object of her desire.

In Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight V. Swain suggests this choice should force the character to stick to a principle she has held dear up to this point. Or act against it. He says “to make a choice between self-interest and principle is difficult for any of us, in any situation, at any time.” 

Climax 

All the choices your protagonist has made up to this point have built increasing tension in your reader. The climax delivers the goods in a big, explosive scene at about the 90% point in your story. It is the point at which the protagonist, having made her choice, reaches her goal, realizes she wants something else, or fails to reach her goal. In his book, Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass says, “Climaxes are both inner and outer, both plot specific and emotionally charged. The payoff needs to fully plumb the depths in both ways if it is to satisfy.”

The best climax pulls together subplots and the main plot into a final deciding action. “In adherence to or abandonment of principle, your focal character proves ultimately and beyond all doubt what he deserves.” Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight V. Swain.

The climax is a big, explosive scene. But the most important explosion this scene has is the explosion of tension. The tension in the reader has been growing with every page, waiting for this moment. This battle of words, or emotions, or weapons causes an explosive release of the reader’s tension. This release is what the reader has been anticipating, so make certain the scene is long enough and big enough to satisfy. How do you know? You may have to ask your beta readers to tell you. 

While the climax releases the reader’s tension, if the story ends with the climax, the reader feels the ending is too abrupt. He struggles to guess the meaning of the ending. He has no sense of closure. You, the author, must provide closure with the third component of the ending, the Resolution.

Resolution

The resolution explains that the crisis is over and the effect of the final decision and action has upon the main characters. It gives a sense of closure by highlighting the emotional impact of the climax. You can accomplish this through the viewpoint of your protagonist or a narrator. In the best stories, the reader has an aha moment when she realizes that this is the ending the protagonist had been working toward since the beginning. However, if the resolution details every character’s emotional reaction, the ending of your story will drag. It will lack the impact it needs. Keep it short. Give it resonance through a powerful phrase, gesture, or setting that the reader remembers from the beginning. The resolution is the reader’s payoff for reading the story. 

Some authors create powerful last lines that deliver that payoff with a punch.

“For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

“We each owe a death, there are no exceptions, I know that, but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”

The Green Mile, Stephen King, 

“After all, tomorrow is another day.”

Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell.

“It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

Charlotte’s Web, E. B. White.

The Earned Ending

Starting a story with the end in mind allows you to create a story that builds tension in the reader. You can write your first draft as free-spirited as you like, but if you want to craft a story readers find satisfying you will keep the end in mind during revisions. The ultimate earned ending uses all the story threads—theme, character arc, complications, crisis, climax, and resolution—to build and release the reader’s tension in a most satisfying way. 

Writing an earned ending is complicated. The protagonist has to have earned the right to stand face-to-face with the antagonist. The antagonist has to have an equal or better chance of winning the last battle. And however the story ends, the reader must feel that release of tension, that sense of satisfaction that the protagonist earned what happened. That is the reward you’ve given your reader. It’s a reward readers will return for over and over again.

How much of the end of your story do you know when you begin writing?

About Lynette

Lynette M. Burrows is an author, blogger, creativity advocate, and Yorkie wrangler. She survived moving seventeen times between kindergarten and her high school graduation. This alone makes her uniquely qualified to write an adventure or two.

Her Fellowship series takes place in 1961 Fellowship America where autogyros fly and following the rules isn’t optional. It’s a “chillingly realistic” alternate history. Books one and two, My Soul to Keep, and  If I Should Die, are available everywhere books are sold online. Book three, And When I Wake, is scheduled to be published in 2024.

Lynette lives in the land of OZ. She is a certifiable chocoholic and coffee lover. When she’s not blogging or writing or researching her next book, she avoids housework and plays with her two Yorkshire terriers. You can find Lynette online on Facebook, or on Mastodon @LynetteMBurrows@wandering.shop or on her website.

by Becca Puglisi

“Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.”

This quote by Karl Lagerfeld is pretty heady. I’m still chewing on it, but what I gather is that clothing and other appearance choices are one way we interpret and reflect reality—the reality of who we are, of our passions. Sometimes, it’s the reality we want to project (as opposed to what’s actually real).

In this way, a character’s clothes can say a lot about them as individuals. As writers, we should always be looking for characterization opportunities that allow us to reveal truths about our characters in natural ways. And clothing choices, as mundane as they may seem, can be a great way to do this. Just zero in on a few details about your character’s clothes, and BAM! You’ve revealed crucial information without having to state it outright.

So, what can fashion choices tell us about a character?

Jobs and Careers

Does your protagonist have a job that requires a uniform? Have them head into the coffee shop wearing their hospital scrubs, stained mechanic’s coveralls, three-piece suit, or steel-toed boots and work belt. By referencing their work clothes, you won’t have to mention their profession overtly.

Temporal and Geographic Markers

If the story takes place in a different time or location, your character’s fashion choices can clue readers in to the where and when. Show your protagonist in crinolines and a corset, a tartan kilt and clan badges, or bellbottoms and a halter top. Use context clues to introduce futuristic, paranormal, or otherworldly wardrobe items. Let a few carefully chosen clothing details show readers where and when your character is living.

Personality

Because clothing choices are deeply personal, they can reflect certain aspects of personality. Looking at the main cast of Stranger Things, you wouldn’t define them as haute couture; they’re self-defined nerds with little fashion sense, and their clothes reflect this. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Cruella from the movie of the same name. Antisocial is her defining trait, and her fashion choices consistently fly in the face of what’s popular, traditional, and accepted.

A character who is flamboyant will dress differently than someone who is simple or traditional or lazy. Our personality absolutely influences how we dress, so know your character’s dominant traits, and outfit them accordingly.

Identity

In specific cases, clothing can quickly establish certain aspects of identity. Traditional cultural garb, like a sari, kimono, or yarmulke, can point to the character’s heritage. The same is true if their dress associates them with a certain group of people, such as the LGBTQ+ community.

Interests and Hobbies

Want to show your character’s interests? Put them in fan merch from a favorite band or a t-shirt sporting a social justice slogan. Reveal their K-Pop obsession by having them show up to a block party looking like a member of BTS. One of the things that makes us each unique is our individual passions. Show those off for your character through their wardrobe.

Individuality

You can’t learn much from someone who looks just like everyone else. But if they take pains to individualize their appearance, it says something about them. Wearing colorful knee socks with a school uniform, only wearing certain colors, or making their own uniquely styled clothes are all ways to show that a character is swimming against the current. More information is needed for readers to know exactly how or why they’re different, but clothing is a good starting point for revealing this desire to break from the pack.

Financial Status

As we all know, clothes come with a variety of price tags. Some are cheap while others are wildly expensive. A character who dresses in name brands, wears only natural fibers, or shops at trendy boutiques is likely to have a bigger bank account than someone wearing hand-me-downs or generic clothes from Target.

Of course, the expensive clothes could be a smokescreen meant to convey the image of wealth. We see this with Coriolanus Snow in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

This book, like the original Hunger Games, opens on the day of a reaping, when Snow will learn which tribute he’ll be mentoring. Assignments reflect prestige and status, which is especially important for Snow because his family has secretly fallen into poverty. He’s got to maintain appearances, and we see this in the opening pages as he meticulously picks out his clothes for the big announcement. He has splurged on a black-market pair of pants, and his tired shirt is transformed with dyes, extra purloined cloth, and a fashion-savvy cousin’s needle and thread. He shows up to his meeting looking like any wealthy Capitol citizen, but it’s all a ruse that is carried off by his clothing.

This is something to keep in mind—that looks can be deceiving, and some fashion choices are meant to portray an image that isn’t real. Those false choices, in and of themselves, can be very telling to readers.

Secrets

So, while clothing can reveal truths about a character, it can also be used to conceal those truths. Fashion choices could be deliberately made to hide things, such as

• Scars, skin conditions, or other imperfections
• Signs of physical abuse
• A pregnancy
• Their financial standing
• An aspect of their identity or heritage that they’re rejecting
• Beliefs that would make them unpopular
• Insecurity and self-doubt
• Their emotional state

Does your character have something to hide? How could you show that through their clothing?

Mental/Emotional State

Sometimes, a person’s fashion choices can hint at how they’re doing mentally or emotionally—namely, when their clothes change unexpectedly and no longer match their personality. If a fashion-conscious or fastidious character starts living in threadbare leggings and stained shirts, that’s a clue that something is going on with them. Likewise, when an emo character suddenly starts wearing bright colors and clothing with cheery slogans, readers will sit up and take notice because it doesn’t fit with what they know about them.

Final Thoughts

It’s clear that clothing can be used to reveal certain truths. But the clothes themselves don’t always allow for a complete interpretation because they can mean different things. Rumpled sweats and mismatched socks may be a sign of emotional distress, but it also could just mean the character is a slob. Or their washing machine is broken. For clarity about the why, pair clothing choices with dialogue, thoughts, body language, and environmental factors to provide context.

And lay the foundation early for readers about what’s normal for the character. Know their personality, preferences, interests, and personal identity well. Identify what they embrace about themselves and what they’ll downplay. Once you’ve really gotten to know your character, you can write them clearly and consistently for readers. Then, when their appearance changes, readers will know something is going on, and the meaning behind the shift will be more obvious.

I hope this post gives you some ideas about how to make your character’s clothes do double-duty. But, of course, it doesn’t cover everything. Can you think of other truths wardrobe choices can reveal about a character?

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About Becca

Becca Puglisi is an international speaker, writing coach, and bestselling author of The Emotion Thesaurus and other resources for writers. Her books have sold over 1 million copies and are available in multiple languages, are sourced by US universities, and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors, and psychologists around the world. She is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others through her Writers Helping Writers blog.

Top Image by Pexels from Pixabay