by Lisa Norman

Two students came into one of my "build your own website" classes. One was geeky and he'd dragged along his friend who described himself as impossibly tech challenged. One of the first things my non-geek student said was, "The internet just doesn't make sense to me. I know that it works for other people, but it doesn't work for me. I just don't get it."

The geeky friend said, "I've heard that you can teach anyone, so I brought him to you."

Non-geek just shook his head and said, "I know it won't work."

After the first lesson, non-geek came to me, frustrated. "There are no buttons! You've made it sound easy. I should just push the buttons. But when I get there, there aren't any buttons!" I asked to meet on Zoom and to look at the student's screen.

And he was right. There were no buttons on his screen.

Why? He’d chosen to use an old browser. It was familiar, and therefore the only one he would use. Problem: it didn’t work with the modern internet. I updated the browser on remote and suddenly, the internet made sense.

Of the two students, guess who finished their website first?

Tech Fundamentals

The world of technology is constantly changing. The internet has just undergone a huge speed boost. Websites are using more graphic elements because pictures and even videos can now be downloaded faster. If your computer can’t handle the speed or the size of the files, it’ll lag and cause you problems. Understand: I detest our modern throwaway culture. I still use a Bluetooth keyboard that I bought before smartphones. I love my keyboard, and it still works with modern tech.

But the computer that it worked with now lives in a box on a shelf, an antique, something I save to show my grandkids what I used before cellphones.

Upgrading our software (programs) and hardware (machines) is an important part of our writing life. Don’t underestimate the destructive nature of hardware and software malfunctions on the life of a creative.

The Mouse Is Not Just for Disneyland.

When I work with people online, I often see them struggling to find a button or to hit it. I’ve started asking, “Are you using a trackpad?” You’d be surprised how often my students who are struggling to handle an assignment are using a trackpad. I can reach through Zoom and magically hit a button – not because I’m just that awesome – but because I’m using a mouse.

You can get an inexpensive Bluetooth mouse these days. If trying to hit a button or select text is just a painful agony, try working with a mouse and see if that doesn’t just make life easier. And as a bonus comment: if your mouse makes your wrist hurt, consider getting a pad to put under your wrist.

My daughter is a digital artist. She wears special braces on her wrists to keep them from hurting when she is drawing. She’s helping to remind me that we need to pay attention to how our joints feel while working.

Movers use back braces to help them lift heavy loads. Writers need padded wrist rests!

Location, Location, Location

Real estate is important! No, not the physical kind, but the virtual kind on your screen! If the button you are looking for is off the screen, how are you going to know it is over there? I’ve learned to look for the little gray lines (scroll bars) on the bottom and sides of the screen when working on student computers. They’re there to give you a hint that there’s more off the screen, but often they’re hidden until you hover over them. Many times, I find the button they can’t find off the screen. I know where to look because I’ve seen it before. They’ve never seen that button. Of course, they couldn’t find it!

I see people struggling with software programs and saying that they just can’t use ____ because it doesn’t make sense. I’ve seen writers unable to handle basic tasks because they are too “hard.” If I share my screen with them, they can see the button and suddenly things aren’t as hard.

Learn to zoom in and out on your screen. If you have a tiny screen, you may need to zoom out to see even basic functions. Software programs often remove options based on the width of your screen! What if replacing a monitor made marketing easy?

Ergonomics

We’ve all learned the value of sitting in a comfy chair as writers. We’re working on keeping our butts in the chair and our fingers on the keyboard, right? But when was the last time you considered the keyboard? Do your fingers fit well on the keys of your main writing machine? Now I understand that our portable machines will lack a bit of comfort, but the machine you work on most: Is it helping you become a more productive writer?

Or is it slowly eroding the muscles in your wrists and triggering arthritis in your fingers?

How do you feel after a long writing session? If you work in a flow state, where you lose track of time and become totally immersed in your writing, is pain pulling you out of your productivity?

My chiropractor had me mount my screens on swing arms to get them at the perfect height. After a recent car accident, one of my screens is practically impossible to use. My head just doesn’t want to turn that way.

Ergonomics applies to every part of your writing experience. Anything that you will be doing for a long period of time will take a toll on your body. Be aware of how you feel after a writing session. If something hurts, look into options. Many solutions are inexpensive.

Things Geeks Notice

A geek will notice that there is always more than one software program to do a thing. A geek will research and choose the best based on their technology (machine), cost, and needs. You want to pick software not because someone else recommended it, but because it works best for your process. If your software doesn’t work the way you do, consider a change.

Geeks notice that keys have resistance and clicks. Geeks will customize their keyboards for just the right amount of click and pressure required. You can, too. Fancy keyboards aren’t just for gamers. Anyone who uses a keyboard as their main interface with their art might want to take a moment and check out the options! Keycaps, for example, are replacement keys for certain keyboards that can customize how the keys feel, giving you a more satisfying touch experience.

A geek knows that there are legions of mice in the universe. They know that a wired mouse will perform differently than a wireless mouse. They know that some scroll wheels work great for scrolling 50 pages at a time while others will make your fingers tired scrolling a few pages.

The first time I heard a gamer talk about their computer as a “rig” it got me thinking. These gamers are athletes, and for them, their machine is the most important part of their sport.

What about writers?

If our computer is the center point of our productivity then why are so many writers struggling with keyboards that don’t fit their fingers, trackpads that don’t allow for fine coordination, and screens that don’t show a normal page width?

Shouldn’t our computers be as important to us as they are to gamers?

When was the last time you looked at your writing rig? Is there one piece of your tech (hardware or software) that helps make you more productive? Share it with us in the comments!

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her brand new classroom where she teaches social media, organization skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image by Deleyna via Midjourney.

by Leon Conrad

How long should a piece of writing be?

There is a huge range of opportunities for writers to explore between the towering masterpiece that is War and Peace and a condensed microfiction six-word story.

But what makes a piece of writing of any length work? Often it is not so much the length of a piece, but the underlying story that matters. More precisely, it is the link between the form and content that makes a piece of any length feel not too long; not too short; just right.

The story so far

In an earlier ‘Writers in the Storm’ blog post which explored the Deep Structure of Story, I outlined very briefly how story structures can be mapped using a set of six simple visually intuitive symbols. Two common patterns can be found at the heart of story. These follow the natural ebb and flow of story, at a level of story structure. They also show how sequences of events can expand and contract:

Mapping the Heartbeat of Story

Handled well, expansions of ‘backward steps’ can increase tension; expansions of ‘forward steps’ can release tension:

For instance: ‘She left it all’—which could be mapped as a single backward step—could be expanded to a series of them: ‘She left her house, her spouse, her wife, her child behind her.’

Alternatively, ‘The dragon took off, soaring higher and higher into the air, way past the cloudy sphere, until cloud-wrapped Noosa was a tiny speck beneath her’—which could be mapped as series of forward steps—could be condensed to: ‘The dragon soared high, high, high above the clouds’, or even further to: ‘The dragon soared high above the clouds’.

Similarly, sequences of different step types can expand and contract as follows. The combinations of forward and backward steps can make the task of keeping things varied and interesting much easier for writers:

For example:

The Heartbeat of Story

Just like a living being, a story needs a healthy pulse rate appropriate to the function it is performing. This can be traced both in the underlying sequence of events that can be mapped in a character’s story line, and in the way in which the story is told, at the level of plot patterning.

Short time, long telling: easy

Long time, short telling: challenging

As outlined above, by visualising how steps expand and contract, we cannot only visualise the tightening or loosening of tension, but because the symbols are visually intuitive, we can embody the ebb and flow of tension and use that to inform the way we shape and tell the stories that want to be told through us.

By doing that, we have a better chance of staying true to the heartbeat of story without losing quality and without introducing unnecessary waffle. Moreover, when condensing a story, we can heighten tension, craft blurbs more easily, and come up with great film poster taglines or elevator pitches for the ideas we are working on or the projects we are pitching.

Try Your Hand at Expansion

The 1:3 expansions described in the example above which mapped condensed and expanded versions of the wolf’s exit from his house in order to find food are pretty common. This is not the only way in which a ‘backward-forward’ sequence can expand, however.

Where we start with a strong inciting incident, and the second step expands in a sequence of three consecutive moves, we end up with a Call and Response structure (Variation 1).

The barbed blade pierced his side. He grabbed the masked assailant’s hand to stop the advance, knowing that if it twisted, or retreated, he would die before he could complete his mission. He gripped harder, his left hand reaching for the cold steel stiletto which lay hidden in the lining of the left leg of his combat pants. In one swift move, he drew it out, thrust, twisted, and slashed, only releasing the attacker’s hand once he was sure they were dead. Making sure to keep the barbed blade in place, he stepped over the blood-smeared body, heading for the door, knowing he would have to make up for lost time somehow, ‘… if I even make it,’ he winced.

The sequence is mapped visually as follows:

Alternatively, a series of three negative steps can lead to a ‘1,2,3, Bang!’ sequence, which I describe as the Call and Response (Variation 2) structure:

You will probably be familiar with Hemingway’s six-word story:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

The back story that unfolded in my imagination started out with an expectant couple, a baby shower, the loss, and the placement of the advert. The account was internally inconsistent, though. A standard baby shower would involve quite a few gifts. What happened to the others? Why the need to dispose of a single pair of baby shoes? I engaged with story structure and the back story found its way from the weaker form above, to a stronger sequence of at least two Call and Response (Variation 2) structures.

The expectant unmarried couple, estranged from their families, conceive, and decide to go ahead with the pregnancy. However, they lose the child. On their return from the hospital, the arrive home to find a package waiting for them. They recognise the writing as being from her parents. They open it and find a pair of baby shoes inside, no note: a peace offering. Overcome with grief, they take a ‘too little, too late’ attitude, and put the shoes up for sale. The story is left open-ended at this point.

The patterns work. But they are not set in stone. The patterns are adaptable, variable. They are open to a variety of treatments. The closer these follow the natural ebb and flow of story structure, the more successful they are likely to be. Rules created by humans are made to be broken. The underlying rules that story follows go deeper. We break them at our peril.

Try Your Hand at Condensation

You can see how the longer story above was condensed into a poignant six-word telling. The taglines on film posters often follow a Transformation structure: ‘Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free’ (The Shawshank Redemption). ‘Fifty million people watched, but no one saw a thing.’ (Quiz Show). Sometimes, they follow a triple unfolding structure: ‘Lake Placid: part mystery, part thriller, parts missing’. The large accompanying image of a huge, toothed monster about to devour a helpless swimmer completes the sequence. ‘Five criminals. One line up. No coincidence.’ (The Usual Suspects).

The visuals play an important part in the framing of the story, but what original back stories you could derive from these condensed lines by imagining a different visual? Use the approach to come up with original taglines for folk tales or stories you are familiar with.

Start with a Quest structure story, one of the 16 linear structures outlined in Story and Structure. Condense the sequences of events in a 3:1 pattern to generate blurbs and elevator pitches, but also to spark ideas for choruses for song lyrics, to inspire poems, and to create micro fiction that works.

Have you expanded or condensed your stories? What are your experiences?

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About Leon

Leon Conrad was born in London, UK, to a Polish father and Coptic Egyptian mother. He moved to Alexandria at age 6, and grew up in a multilingual environment there, among the souks and bazaars of Egypt. He is currently based out of London.

As a writer, Leon sees the written word as sound on the page. Why else do we call nouns and verbs 'parts of speech'? He has written plays, and have published articles, poetry, and books.

As an editor, he offers in-depth proofreading, editing and review of manuscripts, focusing on a work’s structure, the reader’s journey, the narrative presentation, the style of a work, the sound, rhythm, musicality and the flow of a piece of writing.

Find out about his various projects, awards, and services at his website: LeonConrad.com.

Top Photo by Tan Kaninthanond on Unsplash

by Janice Hardy

A novel is about the story, not the technical skills you use to write it.

Fiction is an odd combination of skills. The craft of writing is technical, with rules and techniques that can achieve different results, yet the art of storytelling is visceral, relying on creativity and instinct to pluck the best pieces from our imagination.

While the story is often what grabs us first, it can quickly get overshadowed by the technical aspects.

• Is the opening line hooking?
• Should this be first or third person?
• Are my characters interesting?
• Am I showing or telling?
• Is there too much backstory?

Add in the countless blogs, books, and classes that teach good writing, and it’s easy to see how the focus can shift from telling a wonderful story to writing a well-written book. This can lead to technically well-written novels, but not great stories.

Instead of crafting a story readers can’t put down, we’re counting how many adverbs are in each chapter.

Now, I’m not saying ignore the technical side of writing—that’s how you bring a wonderful story to life—but don’t lose sight of the joy and magic you felt when that story idea originally came to you.

Because the story is what keeps readers coming back, not the technical skill.

How many times have you stopped reading a book that was well written, but the story didn’t wow you? And how often have you only read one book from an author who was clearly skilled, but their books felt flat? Their stories didn’t make you want more.

A story that excites you enough to write it, is a story that can excite readers enough to read it.

And that’s what we all want, right? A story that grabs readers by the shirtfront and hauls them into our worlds so they can play with our characters for a while. We want them to lose themselves in our stories first, and marvel over how we handled our stage direction later.

Here are some things to remember during the drafting process:

1. Make the characters as real as possible.

My high school creative writing teacher said it best: “Stories are just interesting people solving interesting problems in interesting ways.”

Characters are why readers love a book and they’re at the heart of every story. No matter how great the plot, a flat, lifeless character fails to make that emotional connection with the reader. Without that connection, readers don’t care about all those amazing plot elements you worked so hard to develop.

Sure, they might think the book itself is cool, but that memory fades as soon as a great character in another book comes along and captures their heart. Then your story is likely lost, or worse—becomes one of those “I forget the title but it had this really neat twist to it” novels readers talk about, but no one else reads.

Serve the story by being true to the characters in it.

Let them be the best story people they can be, and don’t shy away from showing both their strengths and their weaknesses. Give them motivations only they could have and let them act in credible and plausible ways. The more real a character is, the easier it is for readers to connect and relate to them. Even larger-than-life characters can be grounded in reality. Make sure they:

• Possess a past that shaped their present and who they are as the story opens
• Have flaws that lead them into trouble and allow them to make bad decisions when needed
• Have an emotional center that guides them, as well as makes things harder for them
• Use agency to drive the plot and show the story to readers the way you want them to see it

Stories are about characters, so don’t skimp on yours.

2. Dig deep for emotional connections.

The more emotion a reader feels, the more likely they are to love the story. Make them laugh, cry, gasp in shock or squeal in glee, and those will be the scenes they’re telling friends about the next day. Emotional connections allow readers to feel like they’re in the story along with the characters. Connections make readers care, and when they care, the plot becomes that much stronger and more meaningful.

Serve the story by looking deeper than the surface plot and find the emotional moments that resonate with readers.

It’s not just the stunning plot twist no one saw coming, but the emotional punch that twist caused. Build every tough choice into a gut-wrenching experience, tap into the human flaws we all recognize, and show the fears that we struggle with every day. Make the reader feel right along with the characters. Look for opportunities to:

• Make the internal conflict connect to the theme
• Cause the character’s backstory to be a hindrance to the main problem in the story
• Make other characters mirrors of the problems your protagonist is facing
• Use universal themes and emotions to make your characters relatable to readers, no matter who they are

Connection makes us care, and them more a reader connects to and emphasizes with a character, the deeper they’ll be drawn into the story you want to tell.

3. Pick the best parts to dramatize.

Elmore Leonard famously said, “don’t write the parts readers skip.” Failing to heed this advice has hurt many a story, and resulted in pages of backstory, heavy description, and tedious exposition. You know which moments are the best parts of your story—they’re the ones you can’t wait to write. If a scene isn’t exciting enough to make you want to write it, that’s a good indication that no one will want to read it.

Serve the story by focusing on the scenes that move you.

Find what you love most about every scene and use it to draw readers in so they love it, too. Try to craft every scene so it contains something that makes you want to call your best writer friend and tell them all about this great chapter you just wrote. Embrace the moments that:

• Give you goosebumps just thinking about them
• Get you excited and make you want to tell everyone about them
• Tap into something real and vulnerable about yourself
• Will keep reading thinking about it long after they’re done with the book

Stories come alive when you show them, not when you explain them.

Don’t forget about the parts that move you, and be true to the story you want to tell.

There’s no rule on when to explore the story and when to explore the technical aspects of writing it, so follow your instincts here. You might create the story first and then polish, or get the plot worked out before you focus on the deeper aspects of the tale. However it works for you, go for it. Just take some time before you’re done to develop the story itself, not just how you tell that story.

Free Workshop Alert! I’m giving an online workshop for the Florida Mystery Writers of America on Planning Your Novel in Ten Easy Steps.

When: October 14

Time: 12:00-1:30 pm EST

Cost: Free

The video will be available for on-demand viewing October 15 – October 31.

It’s open to writers of all genres, from beginners to experienced. In this workshop, writers will learn how to create the critical elements of a novel’s plot, how to use goals, conflicts, and stakes to build a story and develop characters, and how to approach a novel in a way that will make it easier to write and be more marketable to agents, editors, and readers.

Here is the link to the event page on the library’s website: https://nova.libcal.com/event/11035820

How do you treat your story in your early drafts? Is it the focus, or does it get refined later?

* * * * * *

About Janice

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy. When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series. Sign up for her newsletter and receive 25 ways to Strengthen Your Writing Right Now free.

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Top Image by 422737 from Pixabay