by Kris Maze

Most writers struggle to find enough time to get all their projects accomplished. Adding other author related tasks can eat away at precious writing time, regardless of your writing style or organization skills level. Whether your plotlines must be prefect before you begin a story or you’re a seat-of-your-pants pantser, all writers can benefit from taking a solid moment to reflect on their past year. 

2022 brought us more changes to the writing industry, but it hasn’t changed the need for storytelling. Storytelling and crafting good tales to tell will always be at the heart of why we write, but the passion for writing can fizzle out without reflection and iteration. 

Invest in your writing by figuring out what went well in your writing this year and consider these suggestions to plan for a successful 2023.

Writing Craft – Educate Yourself

I attended a writing conference years ago and heard a keynote speech by Garth Stein, the author of The Art of Racing in the Rain. The audience of aspiring authors wanted to know his secret for success. During a Q and A session they asked for his biggest recommendation.  He replied, in a word, craft.  Know your craft. Learn your craft. Be the best writer you can be. Wise words.

I took an immersion class this summer with an NYT historical romance writer, and asked her this same question. “What should a writer do to improve and find success?” She told me that she spent five years going to every class and seminar she could, then read and applied everything possible on craft and the good mechanics of writing. 

She invested and poured herself into learning and it has enabled her current work with a large publisher. Last time I heard, she was researching for a novel set in Paris. 

Ah, now that’s a writer’s life I could envision for myself. Where would your writing life take you?  How can you invest in your writing skills?

• Take a class – we offer posts by many wonderful teachers here at WITS. Try a class by one of our writer-teachers.
• Find a regional or local writing organization
• Join a critique group online or genre specific Facebook group
• Find a reading club at your local library
• Attend open mic nights and read your best poetry attempts
• Audit a class at a community college
• Try a writing coach
• Learn more about editing and craft through books and webinars

Improving one's writing craft is a lifelong journey of growth. As we sharpen the tools of the trade, we become better writers that readers appreciate. Try finding a writing class and see how you improve this year.

Writing Time – Get the Words on the Page

There are many ways to stay true to the muse and most of them involve keeping a writing schedule.  Here are some popular ways to keep you building a mighty writing habit.

• Pomodoro method & timers
• Accountability partners
• Keep a paper or digital calendar
• Set a writing routine but mix it up if you need to.
• Set a writing goal based on something you usually don’t measure. Daily word count, minutes writing, times you sit at your writing desk to write. See which one helps you be a more productive writer.
• Stuck in your writing routine? Try a new location. Or put up a new inspiration in your writing space to focus on.

Which of these methods have you used last year? How did those impact your writing? Which would you change or add to your routine in 2023?

Getting words on the page is fundamental to building a writing career. See where your writing routine can take you next year.

Writing Process – Examine Your Writing Systems

Writing a book and getting it into the world is typically a slow, but reward process. A process filled with potholes and squeaky wheels, some may say, but somehow a book must go from concept to story and finally to a finished product. And that process is often messy.

If you haven’t examined how to take a story through the stages of writing, this may help you save time.  Here are some things to think about may help you design a writing process that suits your needs better.

• How many steps do you have in your writing process?
• What was the most difficult part of writing for you last year?
• What did you excel at last year?
• Which steps can you get extra help for? Should you hire out help for some steps? 
• Where do you submit your finished work?
• Where do you intend to submit work next year?
• How did that go this last year?
• What are you proud of?
• What changes would you make?

If you want a better writerly year in 2023, consider examining your writing from an overarching view. Taking a look at your system as a big picture can identify places where your writing process is frustrating or inefficient. Taking time to address any concerns you find could alleviate stressors and allow you to focus on your writing more.

Examine your writing process at the end of this year and reflect on how you can make it a smoother, more enjoyable experience.

Writing Business – The Authorpreneur in You

How do you organize the tools you use for your writing? What are you paying for? What value do you get from these services and products?

Consider keeping a spreadsheet or digital list with links for all the tools you may use in a given writing year.  Keep track of what you pay for and don’t.  This can save you time if you include your writing expenses in taxes. It can also help you keep track of when expenses occur and planning for those yearly or monthly costs.

Seeing your bottom line can be discouraging, or it can feed your writing career decisions.  Knowledge is power, the old after-school-special-commercials used to say, let it inform your decisions this year.

• Word processing (Microsoft 365, Scrivener, Google docs, etc)
• Spreadsheets or other organization online tools,
• Writing Tools and Subscriptions (One Stop for Writers, Writing classes, Resource books)
• Website hosting and related costs (spam blockers, domain names, site security)
• Email list companies (Mailchimp, Mailerlite, etc)
• Sharing Systems for Arcs, Sales, Email building (Bookfunnel, BookBaby, etc)
• Publishing costs (various from Lulu, Publish Drive, Smashwords, ISBNS, etc)
• Ads and promotions (Facebook, Goodreads. etc)
• Social media (Canva, photo sites, Hootsuite, Buffer, etc)

While keeping track of all the tools and their costs can be tedious, it provides writers with valuable information. This can remind you to use the tools you have to make your writing process easier. It can also help you identify what products you actually use versus those that aren't as practical for your writing style.

Take a deep dive into the products help make your writing process work.

Writing Satisfaction – A Quality Writing Life is a Wonderful Thing

Ultimately, we write because we can’t contain the stories within us. Writers are built to share words with the world and when we don’t we are miserable. It’s a true mark of a writer. More than books finished, books sold, amount of followers, or NYT status.  Pay attention to how satisfied you are with your writing and it will continue to be a positive outlet in your life.

Reflect on your writing life last year. What did you appreciate about being a writer? What would you prefer to not repeat again? Start fresh in 2023 with a new outlook if needed, but don’t forget to celebrate the work you did finish.

• Which stories did you complete?
• What new writing habits did you begin?
• What goals did you accomplish? 
• Which new goals will you set?
• What new craft did you apply in your work?
• How did you use new technology (if any) this year?
• Which publications or awards did you obtain?
• What writing conferences or classes did you attend?
• What new writing connections did you make?
• Who are new writing companions that you met this year?

Writing without personal connection becomes a chore, in my opinion. Without an end goal writing becomes a vague travelogue of my thoughts. Writing without care to craft becomes a drudgery of bad sentences.

Simply put, a writing life without reflection can be less rewarding for you and me. Iterating parts of your writing process can alleviate some stress and allow you to focus more on the creative side of writing. Consider joining me in the spirit of my annual writerly overview and celebrate your successes from 2022.

Every day is a new start, a wise fellow writer shared with me, and it has made a difference. When I get upset or uncertain in my writing, I remind myself to get up and do it all over again the next day. And that makes me smile on the inside. Because I can get up and write again. And that’s truly a joy. 

Here’s to capturing your writer joy in 2023, my writing friends! Cheers!

About Kris

Kris Maze is an author, writing coach, and teacher. She has worked in education for many years and writes for various publications including Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish and the award-winning blog Writers in the Storm where she is also a host. You can find her horror stories and young adult writing at her website. Keep up with future projects and events by subscribing to her newsletter.

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors.

And occasionally, she dabbles in drawings.

by Ellen Buikema

Magical Realism portrays the real world with a hint of fantasy. By not recognizing the magical aspects as supernatural, these elements become normal. For the characters, there’s nothing surprising about it.

The Beginnings of Magical Realism

Some say that the genre began in 1920s Germany in painting such as Beach of Dangast with Flying Boat by artist Franz Radziwill. Others suggest that Magical Realism began far earlier.

Author Gabriel García Márquez explained that Magical Realism arose from tales told to children by the Grandmothers as if the events really happened, because the Grandmothers believed they did.

Márquez was raised by his maternal grandparents in Colombia. His grandmother’s belief in magic, superstition, and spirits carries on in his stories.

“The narrator doesn’t get upset when out-of-this-world things happen, nor does he dismiss them or try to explain them. That would be considered disrespectful to the Grandmothers. Instead, he allows the reader to inhabit the expansive possibilities but doesn’t directly state his beliefs about it. It can feel like those dreams where you think: “I knew I could fly,” and the mornings after in which you might be inclined to try. And perhaps, like the supposed rapturous, levitating nuns, you can.” GG Márquez

Writing a successful Magical Realism story requires an understanding of the difference between Magical Realism and fantasy.

Fantasy VS Magical Realism

• Fantasy stories are set in fictional worlds, whereas Magical Realism stories are set in our world.
• Magical Realism stories focus on more everyday issues and concerns. Fantasy often involve a hero’s journey to save the world or special someone from a great evil.
• Fantasy stories often rely on supernatural elements. Magical Realism use some of these elements, woven together so well that they're considered normal by the characters.

Include Subtle Magical Elements

Subtle supernatural happenings add to many parts of the story. This includes the development of the characters, narrative, and creation of conflict.

Deciding how these supernatural elements weave into your story is important. You’ll need to figure out why they occur in your story.

Magical elements should be purposeful. Figuring out how and why they belong helps with their role in the plot.

Magical Realism in fiction

When you think of Magical Realism, consider Latin American writers like Isabel Allende. American authors Aimee Bender, Paul Yoon, and Alice Hoffman, or Japanese magical realist Haruki Murakami may come to mind.

Gabriel García Márquez is credited with reinvigorating Latin American writing. In his novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, he stated that “he was just writing the world as he saw it, that he wasn’t trying to embellish.” In this story, ghosts are seamlessly worked into the everyday world as well as odd details like a rain that lasts almost five years.

As a foodie, I very much enjoy the magical realism that reflect the emotions of the characters in Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate . The protagonist cooks meals that cause those who eat them to feel what she feels. When she is sad, they are sad. When she is feeling amorous while cooking, it’s a love fest for all.

In Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, she stated, “the main character develops a ‘power’ to taste the emotional life of the cook in the food she’s eating.”

You can steep your story with these types of reflective events.

Other examples of the genre in fiction are:

• Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Elements Common in Magical Realism

These include:

• Focus on the everyday: Magical realism often focuses on day-to-day life and issues. This grounds the story in reality and makes the magical elements surprising to the reader when introduced.
• Use a realistic setting: The setting is often based on an actual location, or modeled on one, with buildings and people you might see anywhere.
• Sense of the unsettling: Magical Realism frequently uses elements that are strange. This can be done through descriptions of otherworldly creatures or abilities.
• Blended use: A creature may have both human and animal characteristics. An object can have mundane as well as magical uses.
• Use a non-linear structure: The story may not carry on in a linear fashion, and may be experienced on repeat, or twisted like a Mobius strip. Think an Escher staircase, but as a timeline. There can be great shifts.
  • A moment can be made to feel like 100 years, or vice versa.
  • The story can progress without the use of flashbacks or flash forwards.

With these elements in mind, you can write a Magical Realism story that will hook and enthrall your readers.

What stories do you enjoy that use Magical Realism? If you were to write in this genre, which magical elements would you chose and why?

* * * * *

About Ellen

Author, speaker, and former teacher, Ellen L. Buikema has written non-fiction for parents and a series of chapter books for children with stories encouraging the development of empathy—sprinkling humor wherever possible. Her Works In Progress are The Hobo Code, YA historical fiction and Crystal Memories, YA paranormal fantasy.

Find her at https://ellenbuikema.com or on Amazon.

Image by ThePixelman from Pixabay

A frequent piece of advice writers get is to put ground under the feet of their characters. Yet, advice on how to do that is limited or confusing. Often taking the advice literally, writers attempt to make certain the reader knows where the character is physically. However, the phrase means more than what city or building they are in. It also means where this character is in relation to the objects in the room and other characters in the scene. It reveals who this person is.

Characters fit into a story, into a scene, like puzzle pieces. The right pieces make a complete picture. The wrong pieces can be confusing. Creating a character that involves your reader in the story takes many unique pieces or layers. This article offers some examples of the different things you can do to put ground beneath your characters’ feet. 

Focus

Making characters’ voices, or dialogue, as unique as the instruments in a symphony, helps the reader to identify with your characters. But the reader needs more. Every word in your story (or scene) comes from a specific point of view. Strengthen your story and put ground under your characters’ feet by choosing words that reflect what your character sees, senses, his values, judgments, and opinions.

Example

George, a 36-year-old prematurely gray business manager, walked down the street.

That helps the reader see him, but it doesn’t put ground under George’s feet. 

Be careful

Keep it natural sounding. You don’t think: I, a 36-year-old, struggling writer with her deep brown hair tied in a messy bun, walked down the mud-streaked asphalt street, do you? Of course not.

I’m not saying don’t refer to your character by name. There are certain things you have to do, so your reader isn’t confused, especially at the beginning of a story. However, the larger percentage of your descriptions should be as your viewpoint character thinks of it. So instead of the staying outside of George, try to focus on the inner George:

Example

George, a 36-year-old prematurely gray business manager, walked past his favorite coffee shop on his morning walk.

That’s an improvement, but you can do better.

Use the Five Senses

Your senses inform you about your surroundings. They ground you every day. You don’t have to think about what you smell, or hear, or see, or taste, or feel. You just do. Make certain your characters do the same. 

Example

George sniffed the fragrant aroma of coffee wafting out of his favorite coffee and pastry shop. But he followed his doctor’s orders and walked on.

            Better, but sight and smell are easy to include in your writing. For a deeper dive into your character, try to include all five senses on each page.

Example

George sniffed the fragrant aroma of coffee wafting out of his favorite coffee and pastry shop. He paused at the green and white logo painted window and stared at the coffee drinkers within. A silvery bell rang when a woman bearing a steaming paper cup hustled out of the shop. His mouth watered. He longed for a mouthful of the bitter-sweet smoky taste of his usual cuppa. He rubbed his rough lips, chapped by the cold.

Now the reader sees where George is. We can smell and taste the coffee and hear the bell and feel the chill in the air. You still can do better. 

Go Deeper

When you go about your daily life, your mind sifts through all of your puzzle pieces of your memories and experiences. Remember to include those in your characters’ lives. 

Example

The aroma of fresh coffee wafted out of George’s favorite coffee and pastry shop. He paused at the green and white logo painted window and stared at the coffee drinkers within. A silvery bell startled him. A woman bearing a steaming paper cup hustled out of the shop.

His mouth watered. He longed for a mouthful of the bitter-sweet smoky taste of his usual cuppa. He rubbed his rough lips, chapped by the cold. But his doctor’s orders hovered in the back of his mind like the Ghost of Christmas Past, or was it the Ghost of Christmas Future that he feared? He turned away from the store and continued his walk.

Now we’re getting somewhere. But…

Go Even Deeper 

It’s not only our past that colors everything we sense and do. Our education and our experiences form our attitudes, our opinions, and our voice. 

Example

The aroma of fresh coffee wafted out of George’s favorite coffee and pastry shop. He paused at the green and white logo painted window and stared at the coffee drinkers within. Today’s just-got-outta-bed casual dress code made it hard to tell which ones were good business contacts.

The jangle of a bell startled him. A woman bearing a steaming paper cup hustled out of the shop and down the street. His mouth watered. He licked his dry lips, chapped by the cold. How he longed for a mouthful of the bitter-sweet smoky taste of his usual cuppa. But his doctor’s orders hovered in the back of his mind like the Ghost of Christmas Past, or was it the Ghost of Christmas Future?

He turned away from the store and continued his walk. Only nine thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine steps to go. He snorted. Thirty-six and I’m already old, broken body, gray hair, and all. 

Choose Their Words (and Actions)

The region where we were born, the region where we live, affects our behaviors, our habits, and our word choices. Even the season and the weather affect what we say and do.

If George were less inclined to believe medical science, he might go inside the shop, anyway. A character struggling to make ends meet might look inside the shop and scoff at the posh people who overpay for burnt beans. Those attitudes will shape everything he sees and does and says. If he were born in an eastern country, he might have gone to a tea shop.

The most important piece to remember is that one’s spoken language isn’t the only way a character communicates. Often their behavior, their micro expressions, and what they don’t say reflects more truth than the words they say.

Balance Your Story

Don’t go deep for every single paragraph. If you do, you will slow your story’s pace to glacial. You might choose to use a lot of pieces revealing details about your character in the beginning. Or you might choose to sprinkle those pieces throughout your book. Use your judgment to decide which details need to be included. How do you learn to do that? Read your genre. Read and analyze how the authors you love do it. 

Look at a scene you admired. What details did the author use? Why do you think the author chose those details for that scene in that book? Does it advance the plot or set up a situation in the future? What does the reader learn by the use of those details? How much of the scene is description, action, and transition? 

Most of all, consider the story you are telling. Choose the pieces of your character that help convey your story’s pace, tone, and theme. 

Put it all Together

Don’t let your characters hang suspended in the air. Choose the pieces you need to put ground under your characters’ feet. Create a character whose observations, behavior, and speech make them unique from other characters in your story. A character that your readers will come to know and love or… hate. 

Inquiring minds want to know: what have I missed?

Please share your favorite techniques for putting ground under your characters’ feet.

About Lynette

Lynette M. Burrows is an author, a blogger, a creativity advocate, and a Yorkie Wrangler. She writes thrilling science fiction about women who choose to become heroes.

Her Fellowship Dystopia series, Fellowship, My Soul to Keep and, If I Should Die, takes place in an alternate 1961. The first Prophet saved America from the Great Depression and the war overseas. But the characters in these stories learn the rules aren’t optional. Their must choose to obey or fight back. Readers say the stories are unputdownable. Find your copy at Amazon or your favorite online book seller.

Lynette lives in the land of Oz. When she’s not procrastinating by avoiding housework and playing with her dogs, she’s blogging or writing or researching her next book. You can find Lynette online on her website, Facebook, or on Twitter @LynetteMBurrows. 

Image Credits

Top image by Barbara from Pixabay

Middle image  by Hans from Pixabay 

Bottom image by Tumisu from Pixabay