Writers in the Storm

 

Though we are a very cohesive group here at Writers in the Storm, we are split down the middle in writing style. Laura and Fae write their stories in a linear fashion while Julie and I quilt ours together scene by scene. The linear approach kills my stories, but story quilting lets me focus on my story's DNA. I firmly believe, whether you are a plotter or a pantser, it's your story's DNA that gets you through to "The End."

DNA is probably the most famous molecule on earth, but what is it really? There are tons of dense biological explanations, but I like this one when it comes to story DNA:

The fundamental and distinctive characteristics of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable.

What about your story doesn't change?

Physical details

Readers are smart and changing your main character's eye or hair color will pull them out of the story. Many writers find a picture that is close to their character, others keep a binder.

Does one or more of your characters have a physical disability? What does this change about their story line? Keep your research on this disability close for when you get stuck and you need ideas.

What about setting? You can't switch the setting part way through your story without alerting anybody. Readers get pissy about that. A photo or a setting summary sheet will go a long way in keep you focused.

Main characters' misbelief

Lisa Cron posits that a story's entire point is to correct your main character's misbelief. She describes it like this:

Every protagonist enters a story already wanting something. This is what sets her story long agenda – the agenda she steps into the novel with already fully formed. To be super clear: this is something she’s wanted for a long time, since way before page one. 

The key thing is: in all that time your protagonist hasn’t gotten what she wants. Hey, if she could easily get it, sure, you’d have a happy protagonist, but then you’d have no story. In other words, something has long stood in the way of your protagonist achieving her goal. And that is her misbelief.

Lisa recommends posting a sticky with your story’s point, your protagonist’s overarching agenda, and her misbelief near where you write, and always look at it before you start writing. Use it as a yardstick for what your protagonist does, and why. Refer to it when you work — and keep referring to it. 

This misbelief is a key part of your story's DNA and it's vital you focus on it as you write your story, especially if you're a pantser.

Internal and external conflict

Internal conflict typically revolves around the misbelief we discussed above. In other words, how is your main character getting in his or her own way? 

NowNovel offers a great post on Internal and External Conflict with definitions and tips. Here is an excerpt:

In fiction, ‘internal conflict’ refers to a character’s internal struggle. A character might struggle with an emotional problem such as fear of intimacy or abandonment, for example. Internal conflict is important for characterization, since flaws and internal struggles make characters more lifelike and sympathetic.

External conflict, on the other hand, refers to the conflicts between a character and external forces. This type of conflict can be between one character and another or a group (or between groups of characters). It can also be between a character and more abstract forces. For example, a bleak and hostile environment in a post-apocalyptic novel.

Both types of conflict, internal and external, are useful because they create: tension, stakes and character development.

Bob Mayer teaches a wonderful tool called the Conflict Lock. The live video is here. and it explains  the conflict lock and gives examples of the conflict lock table. If you prefer the short version, here are some quick steps shared from Shannon Curtis' post on the subject.

1. Draw four squares
2. Label one row for Protagonist (Hero and/or Heroine), and one row Antagonist (Hero or Villain)
3. Label first column ‘Goal’ and second column ‘Conflict’.
4. Write in your characters’ objective in the GOAL column, and what is preventing your character from achieving that goal in the CONFLICT column.

If your protagonist’s conflict is born from your antagonist’s pursuit of his/her goal, and vice versa, then you have a Conflict Lock. Here is a photo of a solid Conflict Lock.

Theme

Your story's theme is why you're writing your story, whether you know it right away or not. Your theme might be about overcoming shame or the damaging nature of secrets, it might speak to gratitude or how family is all. Whatever your theme is (and you might not discover it until you're done with your first draft), it is a vital constant to your story.

Theme is a key part of your story's DNA.

Linear writers like Laura write straight through to help themselves discover theme. I usually start with theme and then write to it. John August, the screenwriter for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Big Fish, says it much better than I do in this post.

Genre

Genre is a promise you keep to the reader. If you're writing a romance, there will be a "happily ever after." Mystery novel protagonists will solve the crime. Anything less will make your reader want to throw the book across the room because they read your book trusting you will keep your genre's promise. Keep this in mind as you write.

 

If these five areas fail to keep you focused on your story's DNA, take a break. Go work out, bake something, pray to the creativity gods. This noveling business is hard, y'all. Do whatever works to get you through the rough patches.

 

Are there other aspects of story that should be included as "DNA?" What is your writing style: linear, quilter, plotter, pantser or all of the above? What helps you stay focused on your story?

Further reading:

• 7 Elements of Good Storytelling
• 5 Elements Common to All Stories
• What Is Genre Fiction?

About Jenny Hansen

By day, Jenny provides training and social media marketing for an accounting firm. By night she writes humor, memoir, women’s fiction and short stories. After 18+ years as a corporate software trainer, she’s delighted to sit down while she works.

When she’s not at her personal blog, More Cowbell, Jenny can be found on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or here at Writers In The Storm.

Margie Lawson

Are you in control of your life? Or do you let life control you?

You may have expected a blog on writing craft from me. But this time, I decided to use my psychological expertise to help you take charge of your writing life.

Many people let the negatives control their lives. They take their black cloud of doom with them everywhere. You know those writers. Shh… No names.

drawn by Dana SummersT he horse is riding them—and they don’t even try to climb back on and ride that horse.

They think that due to negative circumstances, they can’t reach their goals, can’t have writing success.

Others realize they are in charge of their lives, in spite of the negatives. They ride the horse—take the reins, control where they are going.

I’m awed by Helen Keller. How many of us could face severe adversity with such courage and grace?

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Helen Keller.

One cannot consent to creep when one has an impulse to soar.

 Wow. Talk about riding the damn horse.

 How can you ride the horse?

Your life consists of what you do each day, each hour, each minute.

When you put yourself in charge of chunks of your day, you’re in charge of your writing life.

Consider my Winner and Super Star Lists.Cue the drum roll.

WINNER AND SUPER STAR LISTS

 Keep reading. No skimming!

My Winner and Super Star Lists are way cooler than To Do Lists.

Creating WINNER and SUPER STAR lists every day will boost your productivity and boost your mood.

WINNER LISTS:

WINNER LIST items are things you know you can complete in the block of time you have available that morning, afternoon, and/or evening.

They are DOABLE in the time you have allotted. Doable.

Don’t go all delusional. Don’t load your list with things that would take eight hours and expect to accomplish them in two.

You can’t put everything you need to do, or everything you want to do, on one Winner list.

For a 3-hour block, my WINNER list could have these two items:

But – Super Star items don’t always move to the Winner List right away. It depends on deadlines and priorities.

It’s important to keep assessing your needs. Do what needs to come next, not what you’d rather do.

If you have several chunks of writing-focused time in your day, make a WINNER list for each chunk of time. Revise as needed as you go through your day.

Did you quit your writing task to answer the phone? Make a call? Do laundry? Declutter a room? Check e-mail?

Did you waste 25 minutes supposedly fixing a cup of tea, but you really did five other housey-things or time-wasters too?

SUPER STAR LISTS

 SUPER STAR LIST items are the things you’d like to do AFTER you’ve completed your WINNER LIST.

If you complete your WINNER list in less than your allotted block of time – you have the remaining time to start a Super Star item.

You must COMPLETE THE WINNER LIST FIRST.

 NO LIST HOPPING. 

Here’s where people set themselves up to fail. They make awesome lists, then item-hop, or list-hop, or never look at the list again.

YIKES!  They do what they’d rather do instead of what they need to do to succeed.

You may make WINNER and SUPER STAR lists for your week or weekend also. I call those long ones Master Winner and Master Super Star lists.

But always make a short WINNER list for each block of time. Blocks can range from a half hour to three hours.

Winner Lists keep you accomplishing your goals. You succeed. You stay motivated.

If you create a 53-item mega-list, you may be so overwhelmed, you lose your day to NetFlicks.

Other items will try to sneak on one of those lists.

STOP. THINK.

Do not go on autopilot and slap it on a WINNER or SUPER STAR list. It may belong on one of those lists, or not.

Maybe it belongs on a third list--the MAYBE List.

MAYBE you’ll do it, MAYBE you won’t.

 No snickering.  This is an important list!

Put that item on the MAYBE List. You won’t lose the idea.

MAYBE you’ll put it on one of your real lists (Winner of Super Star) the next week.

MAYBE you’ll look at that item next week and realize it should be on a list for three months from now, after your book is completed.

Start that AFTER MY BOOK IS COMPLETED list. Don’t lose a good idea.

Creating Winner and Super Star Lists should become as automatic as buckling your seat belt.

Create those lists every day, and you’ll be in control of your life. You’ll be riding your horse, and you won’t get thrown off.

I’ll digress. But the story below is all about staying on track.

My husband’s a private pilot. Years ago on a family vacation in Florida, he broke some ribs surfing. But we had to fly out the next day. A hurricane was expected to strike the coast that afternoon.

Since my husband was in pain from his broken ribs, it was up to me, non-pilot me, to do some of the easy-breezy flying from Florida to the mid-west while he tried not to move.

I’d flown single engine planes before for hours at a time. Flying was easy and fun. I maintained speed and altitude, switched fuel tanks every 30 minutes, checked for air traffic, and followed a railroad track.

I was happy about following a railroad track. So much easier than navigating with the fancy avionics.

I told myself I could fly the plane. I enjoyed flying. It was a fun challenge. And -- I didn’t have to land.

I didn’t focus on the negatives. I didn’t catastrophize.

If I needed help, I had the expert sitting next to me. He could take the controls anytime I woke him up.

I had fun flying and followed the railroad track. No problems.

A couple of hours later I read a water tower that named a town I wasn’t supposed to be near. I was 200 miles off course.

I’d followed the wrong railroad track.

Follow the right tracks. Don’t get off course.

Winner and Super Star Lists help you stay on track every day. Keep your Winner Lists doable for that block of time, and you’ll accomplish your daily goals. And weekly goals. And monthly goals.

You’ll ride that horse, you won’t let it ride you.

 Hello Blog Guests:  Thanks for being here!

 If you’re considering Winner and Super Star Lists – JUST DO THEM!

 But commit to doing them daily for 21 days.

 You’re nodding and smiling. Right?

 It takes three weeks for a behavior to become a habit. Do Winner and Super Star lists for 21 days and set yourself up for success.

FYI: If you want to learn more ways to take charge of your writing life, check out my Lecture Packet on Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors. It’s loaded with goodies!

 As always – A Big Lovey THANK YOU to the WITS gals for hosting me.

 Post a comment. Share your time-wasters. The things that keep you from staying on track.

 Post something -- and you have two chances to be a winner!

 You could win a Lecture Packet from me, or an online class from Lawson Writer’s Academy.

Lawson Writer's Academy– September Courses

1. The Sizzling, Scintillating Synopsis
2. Empowering Characters’ Emotions
3. Creative Writing Weapons
4. Story Structure Safari
5. Giving Your Chapters a Pulse
6. Crazy-Easy Awesome Author Websites
7. Editing Magic: Work with a Professional Editor
8. Two-Week Intensive: Your First Five Pages, Reader Glue

 If you’re considering doing the two lists, let us know!

 I’ll draw names for the TWO WINNERS Thursday night, at 9PM Mountain Time, and post them in the comments section.

 Like this blog? Please, please, please give it a social media boost. Thanks sooo much!  

Margie Lawson—editor and international presenter – teaches writers how to use her psychologically-based editing systems and deep editing techniques to create page turners.

She’s presented over 120 full day master classes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and France, as well as taught multi-day intensives on cruises in the Caribbean.

To learn about Margie’s 5-day Immersion Master Classes (in 2018, in Phoenix, Denver, San Jose area, Dallas, Yosemite, Los Angeles, Orange County, Atlanta, and Down Under in Sydney, Melbourne, and Coolangatta, Australia, and on Cruising Writers cruises), full day and weekend workshops, keynote speeches, online courses through Lawson Writer’s Academy, lecture packets, and newsletter, please visit: www.margielawson.com

Colleen M. Story

I attended a week-long writing workshop once that nearly destroyed my confidence as a writer. Though workshops can be very helpful, it depends on the teacher, and this particular one didn’t know how to guide and motivate writers.

There are many times in a writer’s career when something happens to zap our confidence, and that’s not good, because self-confidence may be the one thing that separates successful writers from those who never reach their goals.

The question then becomes: How do you get that confidence back, or find it in the first place?

What Kind of Confidence Do Writers Need?

First, it’s important to know what kind of confidence we’re talking about here. This isn’t about inflating your ego, bragging, or believing you’re special. In fact, these types of beliefs—often associated with the high “self-esteem”—can actually be detrimental to success.

In a 2013 study, psychologist Jean Twenge and colleagues examined the results of the “American Freshman Survey,” which asks students to rate how they measure up to their peers. Results showed that over the past few decades, there’s been a dramatic rise in the number of students who think they’re “above average.”

These students are also more likely to label themselves as gifted in writing ability, interestingly enough, even though objective test scores show that actual writing ability has decreased since the 1960s.

A related study showed there has been a 30 percent increase in narcissistic attitudes over the past few decades. Unfortunately, despite popular belief, the “self-esteem” movement that encouraged parents and teachers to tell children to believe they were great no matter what, has not been found to lead to success.

Students who were struggling with their grades, for example, who received encouragement aimed at boosting their self-esteem, were actually found to perform worse. Scientists believe these types of interventions removed the motivation to work hard, which is always necessary for true success in anything.

Instead, the way to bolster achievement is to nurture a form of self-confidence called “self-efficacy.” This is the belief that you can succeed in a specific situation or accomplish a particular task if you set your mind to it—you can finish that novel, self-publish your book, recover from that scathing critique, or create a successful launch.

"You need to believe that you can go out and do something but that's not the same as thinking that you're great," Twenge says. She suggests you picture a swimmer attempting to learn a new skill, like turning quickly. Self-efficacy means the person believes she can obtain that skill if she works hard enough. Self-esteem is the belief that she’s a great swimmer, regardless of whether she learns the skill or not.

Self-efficacy is the type of confidence we need as writers.

Why Writers Need Self-Confidence

Self-efficacy (or self-confidence) effects a number of things that determine whether or not we reach our goals, including one super important thing—how well we learn.

Learning is a huge part of a writing career. Not only are we continually learning how to improve our skills as writers, but we’re also learning about publishing, self-publishing, marketing, building a platform, and more. With each change in the industry or new technological wonder, we have to go back to being students, just to keep up.

Self-efficacy also determines how well we respond to the inevitable difficulties that crop up. In their findings, Tuckman and Sexton (1992) suggested that participants with higher self-efficacy were better at searching for solutions to problems and were more persistent when working on difficult tasks—qualities that writers definitely need. People with low self-efficacy, on the other hand, were more likely to give up more easily. 

Albert Bandura, psychologist at Stanford University, wrote in a paper on self-efficacy: "Perceived self-efficacy is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave."

Note the huge implications there - self-efficacy effects how we:

• think,
• feel,
• motivate ourselves, and
• behave!

And isn’t that everything that’s involved in writing? If any of these things are off, don’t we falter in reaching our goals?

Says bestselling author and speaker Margie Warrell, “It’s been long established that the beliefs we hold—true or otherwise—direct our actions and shape our lives. The good news is that new research into neural plasticity reveals that we can literally rewire our brains in ways that affect our thoughts and behavior at any age.”

That means if you don’t feel this type of self-confidence when facing the page, or considering any other move in your career, you can change that.

5 Ways to Boost Your Writer’s Self-Confidence

There are several practical, realistic ways you can boost your writer’s confidence. (Find more in the free report, below.) Here are five ways to get started.

1. Don’t Give Up On Yourself

As noted above, those with low self-efficacy give up quickly, while those with high self-efficacy—or self-confidence—continue to work to find solutions. We often put limits on ourselves in terms of how much we can learn—when things don’t go well the first time, we tend to think it’s hopeless.

“[The learning curve] is really steep initially,” says professor and study author Darron Billeter. “There’s some pain associated with it, but we’re actually improving. You’re going to be better than you think you are and are going to learn it quicker than you think you are.”

Here’s where you need to be your own best cheerleader. Tell yourself you can do it, and keep trying.

Here’s another tip: talk to yourself in the third person. Research has shown that you can motivate yourself better that way!

For example: “Eileen, you can finish this novel. Just keep going.” Or, “Adam, just because your first self-publishing attempt didn’t turn out as you hoped, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it better this time.”

2. Remember that Actions Lead to Results

Too often we think we’re just supposed to “believe in ourselves,” but in truth, it’s when we take clear, concrete action that we boost self-confidence.

Typically when you start anything new—whether that be writing, publishing, or some other related activity—you’re likely to feel unsure about it. Your confidence may be low, and your fear may be high. The important thing is to act anyway. The moment you do, your energy and motivation will increase, which will help you keep going.

Then, with every action you take, your skills will increase. You’ll learn something, and that learning will boost your confidence. So don’t let fear stand in your way—just do it!

3. Be Realistic About Your Abilities

True self-confidence stems from knowing exactly what your skills are, so you can take steps to improve them.

“Exceptional achievers always experience low levels of confidence and self-confidence,” says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, “but they train hard and practice continually until they reach an acceptable level of competence.”

For a writer, that means getting those critiques, working with an editor, and being open to improvement. Just be sure to guard your creative self when you’re going about these activities.

Your best approach: always get more than one critique. Submit to contests that supply more than one, or ask two editors to give you a sample edit. That way you can compare and contrast the feedback, ignore the subjective comments, and work on those all the critiques have in common.

4. Imagine Yourself Successful

This is a type of meditation in which you imagine yourself going through all the steps you need to go through to succeed, and eventually succeeding.

Keep in mind—this isn’t simply imagining yourself with your published book in your hands, or your sales numbers rising. It’s imagining the process you’re going to go through and the hoped-for outcome. Imagining each step puts your unconscious mind to work at making sure you follow through on those steps.

If you want to increase those sales numbers, for instance, imagine each task you’re going to complete to reach more readers.

“If you can't imagine yourself being successful,” says Hendrie Weisinger Ph.D., “confidence will be hard to come by. Confident people have a history of having playful positive visualizations of themselves in all sorts of moments.”

5. See Failures as Successes

So your agent wasn’t able to sell your first book. You can look at that as a failure, or you can reframe your view of the event—thus, boosting your self-confidence.

According to the authors of the book, Learning, Remembering, Believing: “If one has repeatedly viewed these experiences as successes, self-confidence will increase; if these experiences were viewed as failures, self-confidence will decrease.”

How can you view what seems to be a failure as a success? Write down everything you learned, including the skills you gained, and realize that even if it didn’t turn out as you hoped, you still pocketed the experience. That means you are, essentially, “more experienced” than you were before, and your next attempt will likely benefit from that experience.

By the way, the more difficult the experience was—writing a novel, publishing a book, launching a book, etc.—the more it may boost your confidence. “The influence that performance experiences have on perceived self-confidence also depends on the perceived difficulty of the task,” the authors wrote, as well as on “the effort expended.”

Stay Confident In Your Ability to Improve

In closing, remember this: you can always learn more and improve your skills, no matter what. Have confidence in that.

"There will always be people smarter, there will always be people richer, there will always be people more competent,” says psychologist Audrey Brodt. “The issue is self-improvement, and that will come if you apply yourself and persevere."

For more information on how to boost your writer’s confidence, get your free report here: “7 Easy & Effective Ways to Increase Your Writer’s Confidence.”

 

What have you done to shore up your confidence as a writer? What tips can you share? Is there one tip from above that resonates with you?

*  *  *  *  *  *

 

Colleen M. Story is the author of Overwhelmed Writer Rescue—a motivational read to help writers escape the tyranny of the to-do list and nurture the genius within. The book was named Solo Medalist in the New Apple Book Awards, Book by Book Publicity’s Best Writing/Publishing Book, and first place in the Reader Views Literary Awards.

Colleen is also a novelist and has worked in the creative writing industry for over twenty years. She is the founder of Writing and Wellness. For more information, please see her author website, or follow her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story).

 

Sources:

Briggs, S. (2014, July 5). Self-Efficacy: How Self-Confidence Improves Learning.

Carroll, P. J. (2014). Upward Self-Revision: Constructing Possible Selves. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 36(5), 377-385. doi:10.1080/01973533.2014.934451

Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2012, July 6). Less-Confident People Are More Successful.

College Foundation of North Carolina. (n.d.). CFNC.org - Article.  

Kremer, W. (2013, January 4). Does confidence really breed success? 

Self-Confidence and Performance. (1994). In D. Druckman & R. A. Bjork (Eds.), Learning, remembering, believing: Enhancing human performance (pp. 173-206). 

Warrell, M. (2015, August 26). Use It Or Lose It: The Science Behind Self-Confidence.  

Weisinger, H. (2015, September 1). The Essence of Confidence.