Writers in the Storm

by Laurie Schnebly Campbell

If you're committed to writing a series, congratulations. If you're committed to writing stand-alones, good for you. If you could see yourself doing either a series or a stand-alone, welcome to the club! There are so many advantages, and so many disadvantages, to writing a series that it can be hard to decide how you'd rather tell your stories.

Stand-Alone vs. Series

Let’s look at some of the up-sides and down-sides for each option:

Readers who enjoy one book in a series are likely to stay loyal and keep reading the rest as long as you keep writing ‘em. You’re pretty well guaranteed a Repeat Buyer (or at least a Repeat Reader) all the way through to the end of the series.

On the other hand, that can be confining. You might have a story idea you’re dying to write, but it doesn’t fit in with the characters or setting or genre of your series in progress. When will you ever find a break from your current project for creating the next?

Then again, it could be easier to write faster because you don’t need to come up with completely new people and places for each book in the series -- you already know how your main characters think and talk and feel; you already know where they live and work and play.

Although, that kind of knowledge might be considered boring. If you stay focused on the same leading character/s in the same setting, it means you’re missing out on the fun of creating new people, new situations, and new worlds for any stand-alone stories you might want to tell.

How Can You Decide?

One way to determine whether you’ll be more satisfied as a series writer or a stand-alone writer (although nothing says you can’t do some of each):

Think about the authors whose books you’ve enjoyed most. It’s a pretty safe bet that some of those books were single-titles, and others were part of a series. But when you think about your top five or ten favorite writers, which category do their books appear in more often?

Sure, some authors are wonderfully prolific in both areas. Nora Roberts’ romantic stand-alones and trilogies appear as often as her alter-ego J.D. Robb’s suspense titles in the Eve Dallas series.

Michael Connolly alternates between two criminal-justice series and books that stand on their own. But most of the world’s celebrated writers are known more for their work in one neighborhood or the other.

Mostly series:

• J.K. Rowling
• Robert Ludlum
• Agatha Christie
• George R.R. Martin
• Debbie Macomber
• Walter Mosely
• Philippa Gregory
• James Patterson

Mostly stand-alone:

• Stephen King
• Danielle Steel
• John Grisham
• Elizabeth Berg
• Michael Crichton
• Jane Austen
• Ken Follett
• Gillian Flynn
• F. Scott Fitzgerald

Choosing Your Preference

If your taste in reading leans more heavily toward one side or the other, that may be a good clue to which storytelling style you find most appealing.

You can also look at other areas of your life for clues to that same question.

Would you rather stay at the same tried-and-true hotel when you visit a familiar city, or choose a new location each time?

Do you prefer binge-watching favorite shows straight through, or watching several different shows in the same week?

When you find the Best Shoes Ever, do you buy more pairs in different colors or treat them as a one-of-a-kind delight?

There’s no wrong answer to any of those questions, nor to the question of whether you’re better off writing stand-alone books or series.

Series Considerations

If you opt for a series, there are a few things to keep in mind about the biggest bugaboo:

The Story Arc

Of course, every story has its own arc. A single book has its arc. So does each book in your series. And so does the series as a whole.

You already know how to figure out the story arc in a single novel, right? (If you don’t, ask me about my class, Plotting via Motivation.) But as important as that individual arc is to every book in your series, you also need an arc that spans from Book One to the final novel.

How do you know which book is the final novel?

If you’re happy to continue writing an open-ended series, like those featuring Nancy Drew or Sherlock Holmes or Stephanie Plum, that can be whenever you decide to call it quits.

If you’re planning a trilogy, or an opening-plus-sequel, or a five-book series about five siblings each finding their own success, it’s likely you know what the last one will contain. And you also know how important it is to wrap up with a satisfying arc that concludes not just that final book, but your series as a whole.

Wrapping It Up

How to "wrap things up" is one of the important topics covered in my “Writing A Series” workshop that starts next Monday. One lucky commenter will win a free registration to that two-week class!

Here is my question:

When you think about the author whose books have most consistently delighted you, at any time during your life as a reader, do you think of someone whose books are primarily grouped into a series or whose books primarily stand alone?

Is it someone you discovered as a child or as an adult?

And if you remember this compelling writer’s name (plus the name of their series if that’s applicable), please mention that as well!

Many thanks,
Laurie

Note: We'll announce the free-class winner TONIGHT. (If it’s someone who’s already registered, your $40 will be refunded.)

About Laurie

After winning Romantic Times' “Best Special Edition of the Year” over Nora Roberts, Laurie Schnebly Campbell discovered she loved teaching every bit as much as writing...if not more. Since then she’s taught online and live workshops for writers from London and Los Angeles to New Zealand and New York, and keeps a special section of her bookshelves for people who’ve developed that particular novel in her classes. So far there are 48 titles -- will yours be next?

Top Image by PatternPictures from Pixabay

by Kris Maze

I don’t know about you, dear writer, but coming to terms with quarantine has been a challenge for me.  Yes, I had extra time at home for the crucible of creativity, but not without a steep learning curve. Writing inspiration has been hard to come by.

During quarantine, my family pushed pause on activities and the daily grind.  We found some comfort in the slower pace of life, dealing with the negative impact as best as we could. As many parts of the world begin reopening, let’s not forget the writing we have accomplished so far.

As always, I am inspired by history. There have been other pandemics, and great works have come from them.

Historical figures can inspire us with their great pandemic creations.

Sir Isaac Newton left Cambridge college when an outbreak of the Plague closed all schools.  His year of uninterrupted self-study and exploration led him to write his theories on early calculus, on optics as he played with prisms at home, and of course, on gravity.

William Shakespeare wrote some of his best poems and plays when the plague forced a closure of London’s theatres. According to Scientific American, "plague was a near-constant presence in the England of Elizabeth I and her successor, James I. When the death toll exceeded 30 per week, London’s theatres were ordered to close, forcing theatrical troupes to take a break or perform in the country. When a particularly nasty outbreak struck in 1606, Shakespeare used his time well, penning King Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra."

Edvard Munch, famous expressionist painter of The Scream, painted during the time of the Spanish Flu. Having contracted the disease himself, he recovered to create many more works.

Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897, inspiring over a century of gothic writing. That same year, “The 1897 Epidemic Diseases Act” was put into place and Stoker’s native Ireland suffered high numbers of typhoid fever and the lingering Bubonic Plague.

Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein during a failed vacation with writer friends. It was 1817, and a volcanic explosion of Mt. Tambora had caused an endless winter throughout the world.  The atmosphere was choked with ash and dust, keeping essential sunlight from crops and leading to famine, epidemics, and a cholera pandemic. Mary’s personal life suffered as well when her poet husband, Percy, drowned in an accident five years later. Her friend, Lord Byron, died of a fever two years after that.

The earth in 1817 was literally dark, cold and uninviting, but was fertile for writing the first science fiction novel.  One thing is for sure: centuries later, Frankenstein lives on, evoking philosophical debate.

Final Thoughts

The hurdles of 2020 are undeniable but perhaps framing your ideas in literature can provide solutions. As society adjusts to the coronavirus outbreak, our stories, our insights, our projects can help bring hope and healing. Even if it isn't Dracula or Frankenstein, every story matters. Yours might just be the one that helps a reader hang on while they wait for the world to right itself.

How has the pandemic of 2020 affected your writing so far? Do you know of other historical figures who took solace in creativity during a world emergency? Please share their story down in the comments!

---

About Kris

Kris Maze has worked in education for 25  years and writes for various publications including Practical Advice for Teachers of Heritage Learners of Spanish and Writers in the Storm. Her first YA Science fiction book, IMPACT, arrives in June 2020 and is published through Aurelia Leo.

A recovering grammarian and hopeless wanderer, Kris enjoys reading, playing violin and piano, and spending time outdoors with her family. She also ponders the wisdom of Bob Ross.  

---

To find out more about IMPACT, click here.

by Ellen Buikema

More than half of human communication consists of body language, which we use to communicate feelings, thought, and ideas without speech. Body language impacts other people’s perception and conveys our emotions far more than we think it does. Physical descriptions of what our characters are doing allows us to show-not-tell what is happening to them internally. It is one of the simplest ways to give the reader a feel for characters’ depth of mood and attitude.

Can you communicate well with others if you sit on your hands? I tried to and discovered that I don’t express myself as well.  I’m a hand-gesturer. Plus, with COVID-19 upon us, I’ve realized how often I touch my face!

I also move around a lot, especially if I’m nervous. The first time I taught a classroom full of adults, I paced the entire time. Thinking back, I wonder if I made anyone dizzy.

Simple tasks require a surprising amount of movement.

Here’s a quick exercise that will give you a feel for how many movements you actually make. It will help you determine the balance needed between dialogue and description in your writing.

Choose an activity you commonly do at home or at work. It can be as small a task as sitting in a chair, working on the laptop, or other computer keyboard. Here are a few possible questions to get you started.

• Where are your hands when not on the
  keyboard?
• Are you leaning in, or away?
• Do you cross your legs?
• Crane your neck?
• Arch your back?
• Tap your finger on the mouse?
• Use the dog as a footrest?
• Lift the cat off the keyboard?
• Roll your eyes?

Write out what you are physically doing, making a conscious effort to write all the steps you take. The first time I tried this I was shocked at how many little steps are involved in doing even simple tasks. Weave these descriptions into your manuscripts to help your characters come alive.

Other Body Language Recommendations

Showing Emotion

Make a list of the emotions your main characters exhibit along with the accompanying body language. Think about how your main characters move and react. How does your antagonist look when she is amused? What body language does your protagonist use when angered?

Avoid repetitive gestures.

Repeating gestures can be annoying. Certainly, it feels forced. Not every character should clench their fists or waggle their eyebrows. One character can habitually use the same gesture now and then, but not everyone. (Although thinking about a town full of people waggling their eyebrows makes me chuckle.)

Use vivid action verbs.

Choosing the right verb helps express the emotion you want to convey. For example, there are many ways to walk and each alternative verb implies an emotion. We can:

• stride into a room
• sashay down the boardwalk
• lumber across the floor.

Each of the three verbs is a form of walking, all with different nuances. Each paints a distinct picture.

For dialogue tags, said is never wrong. Unfortunately, I find myself using smile, laugh, and nod. My current Work In Progress had a whole lot of nodding going on. After someone brought this to my attention, I did a "nod search" on my Word document and was appalled by the many cheerful yellow highlights.

Wise words from my editor about empty words and gestures. (Those are pauses between lines of dialogue that don’t advance a scene or characterize.) She said, “If you point something out by putting it down on the page, it needs a reason to be there. Your job during your editing phase is to second guess every image you put down on the page and make sure it’s clearly what you mean.”

Don’t overdo.

Too many descriptors make readers focus on the details instead of the feelings you want them to experience. Or worse, it gives readers a chance to trip on the details and get pulled out of the story. Meaningless details interrupt the flow.

As with all else in writing, put just enough body language in your prose to get your point across.

Further reading:

• For a great list of body language phrases, see Sharla Rae's post.
• Margie Lawson also gave us tips on writing FRESH body language.

Do you struggle with writing effective body language? Do you have a gesture like nodding that you overuse? Share your body language tips and questions with us down in the comments!

*  *  *  *  *  *

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 Work In Progress, The Hobo Code, is YA historical fiction.

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

Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay