Writers in the Storm

 

I'll admit to being 'adverb adverse'. It’s one of my reading pet peeves  I’m reading along, immersed in the story when I start to notice them. And once I do, every one becomes a drop of water on my forehead, drip, drip, dripping until I want to heave the book.  They irritate me enough that I will put a book down, no matter whose name is on the cover.

Why? Because it’s lazy writing. It’s the easy way out – the first thing you think of. The problem is, it’s the first thing everyone thinks of. It’s Margie Lawson’s ‘invitation to skim’.

Let's see if I can convince you that I’m right.

I read somewhere that putting in an adverb is like saying, "I really, really, mean this." And as a reader, don't you assume that if an author put it in, they meant it? Adverbs are overkill. If you feel you need an adverb, I'd make the case that your sentence needs work rather than the band-aid of an adverb.

Yes, I know, some famous author's books are littered with them. I use them now and again myself. But my point is — you should scrutinize every one before you put it in. For example - which is better?

“She lightly knocked on the door.”

“She tapped on the door. It echoed in her ears like an axe to a carcass.”

The above example is from Chuck Sambuchino’s amazing blog. You can read it all here.

See what I mean? An adverb can be your signal of a place that you can strengthen your writing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you can never use another adverb. There are times when you need one.

• To see how authors I respect used adverbs I turned to my hero, Pat Conroy. He doesn’t use many, but when he does, it’s for the poetic cadence. How do I know this? He’s been known to spend an hour, just getting one sentence right. This is from South of Broad:

“I went directly from a fearful childhood to a hopeless one without skipping a beat.”

“I found myself thoroughly unable to fulfill my enhanced duties as an only child.”

• Sometimes you want to be over the top; when you DO mean to say, ‘really, really’. This is from my August release, Sweet on You:

Irritation oozed into the cracks in her armor. She now officially hated that accent.

The pulse pounding blood to her face was proof that you couldn’t actually die of embarrassment.

• Adverbs can work in dialog as well – they help give a natural feel. From my other August release, The Reasons to Stay:

“That is exactly the last thing I want.”

“I’m only trying to wake your ass up. Life isn’t safe, or neat and tidy.”

“You really must think I’m an ass.”

So what's the Fix? Easy. Do a 'find' for 'ly' in your manuscript. Read the sentence with the adverb, Unless you really, really need it (Yes, I’m smirking), strengthen the sentence by editing it out. I make the case that your sentence and your writing will be stronger without it.

If you DO decide to leave the adverb, use it consciously. Have a reason for it being there - other than you were in a hurry.

So here's your assignment: Open a chapter of your WIP (work in progress) and do a find for 'ly'.

Oh, and don’t be depressed if you have a lot of them. In writing this blog, I discovered, from my own search, that I’m in love with the word ‘only’ and didn’t realize it.

Sigh.

So have I convinced you to be 'adverb adverse'?

 

About Laura

Laura Drake is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She writes both Women's Fiction and Romance.

She sold her Sweet on a Cowboy series, romances set in the world of professional bull riding, to Grand Central. The Sweet Spot (May 2013), Nothing Sweeter (Jan 2014) and Sweet on You (August 2014). The Sweet Spot won the 2014 Romance Writers of America^®   RITA^® award in the Best First Book category.

Her 'biker-chick' novel, Her Road Home, sold to Harlequin's Superomance line (August, 2013) and has expanded to three more stories set in the same small town. The Reasons to Stay released August, 2014.

In 2014, Laura realized a lifelong dream of becoming a Texan and is currently working on her accent. She gave up the corporate CFO gig to write full time. She's a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours.

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Angela Ackerman

Ah, Fall. Can you hear it, the melody of birds chirping? The rattle of sun-lit gold leaves in the breeze? And of course we can’t forget the click and clatter of keyboards as writers everywhere brainstorm, plot and organize their stories and characters for NANOWRIMO.

Oh...do I detect an awkward shuffle of feet? A side-eye glance? Perhaps it is because you haven’t yet begun prepping for the Big Day. Or maybe it’s because you’re heady with the idea of winging it, determined to let pure creativity spin from your fingertips when the hour strikes midnight on November 1st.

Well, while writing by the seat of your pants is part of the idea behind NaNoWriMo, here’s the truth. Each November, the literary floor is littered with the quivering, sugar-crashed bodies of writers whose plots died mid-steam. Why? Because a novel is still a novel, whether you take a month to write it, or a year. This means that even if you are a Pantser, the more you know about your hero and his motives going in, the stronger the book will be because his actions and choices within the story will have purpose.

Let’s talk turkey. What basic character brainstorming should be done on the hero in advance?

• The Basics: sex, age, job, ethnicity, physical description...whatever amount you need to give him shape (yes, even you Pantsers!)
• Personality: choosing a blend of positive attributes and negative flaws that together make your hero unique and memorable
• Talents, Skills and Quirks: what thing (or things) make your character remarkable and interesting? What special talent or skill does he have that will add dimension to the story itself?
• Moral Beliefs: understanding the compass that navigates his decisions and choices (MORALITY)
• Outer Motivation: what he wants most (the GOAL)
• Inner Motivation: why he wants it (satisfying a great NEED or DESIRE of his)
• Outer Conflict: the forces working against him (like the antagonist) so you can start thinking about how best to provide friction
• Inner Conflict: what inside him is holding him back or hurting his chances for success (his FEARS & FLAWS)
• Damage Assessment: who and what messed with your hero’s head enough to give him emotional wounds that have not healed, and what false beliefs does he carry as a result? (BACKSTORY, WOUND AND LIE)

How do we discover these things?

Simple: Backstory. I don’t mean the sludge of dumpy information that slows your story to a crawl, but the kind that is just for you, the author. Knowing what happened to your character in the past gives you a window into who he is now, on the doorstep of your novel. His history will help you figure out how he thinks and behaves, so you can write his actions authentically and pull readers into the story.

Old experiences, both good and bad, shape a hero, as do people who influence him along the way. Creating a backstory for your protagonist is the best way to create a fully fleshed, compelling hero that will make readers care. Brainstorming is important, even for secondary characters. And while you don’t have to go into as much detail, no one should walk into the story a blank slate. In real life, we all have a past, and our characters should too.

To write a character well, a writer must ask questions. What does he fear most? Who wounded him? What is missing from his life, and what does he need more than anything? What flaws of his trip him up and mess with his life? What strengths are within him, holding the key to achieving what he wants most? It’s all there in the backstory, waiting for you to find it!

Two tools to help you brainstorm character backstory

Character Profile Questionnaire: not your average “height, weight, hair color” type questions...instead, dig deeper into who your character is by asking probing questions about his fears, morals, secrets, emotional wounds, special skills and interests.

The Reverse Backstory Tool: a visual aid to help you see how your hero’s specific attributes, flaws, emotional wound (and lie the character believes about himself), as well as his deepest needs all tie into revealing inner motivation to achieve the outer goal.

(These are simply two of our Writers Helping Writers tools. For more, visit us here.)

Once you know your hero’s strengths and weaknesses (and his fatal flaw), you can plan exactly how to throw a gauntlet of challenges his way in your NaNoWriMo novel, forcing him to face his fears, shed his flaws and rise up to become the hero he was meant to be. (Character Arc, right there!)

Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? Did you prepare ahead of time or dive in pants first?

Happy Brainstorming!

Angela Ackerman is a writing coach and co-author of three bestselling resources, The Emotion Thesaurus: a Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, The Positive Trait Thesaurus: a Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: a Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws. A proud indie author, her books are sourced by US universities and are used by novelists, screenwriters, editors and psychologists around the world. Angela can be found at the popular site, Writers Helping Writers, which specializes in building innovative tools for writers that cannot be found elsewhere.

Heather Webb

The most detested word in the publishing industry, perhaps even in the English language (we writers might argue) is rejection. Even saying it aloud gives you a nasty swirling in your stomach. Whether it be from agents and editors, or readers and reviewers, the word itself embodies our deepest darkest fear—we aren’t good enough. When the “R’s” begin to pile up, we sink into the sludge that mires us deeper in our fears and that horrible message becomes louder, crippling us.

As I’m working on book three, this fear of the dreaded “R” sits on my chest like a fat cat—even after two contracted books at a large publisher. Even with the overwhelming good fortune of having a network of writer friends I’m proud and blessed to call my tribe. I’m pushing the envelope, you see. In my first novel I mashed up historical fiction, women’s fiction, and romance. My second, I skipped ahead to another era and fell in love with a lesser known artist figure and her struggles with madness. Now, I’m taking on a well-known story and turning it on its head. No biographical route for me this time.

Some serious genre pushing.

But WHY I ask myself? Why must I stick my neck out, push my craft to the point of almost physical pain. Why must I risk my publisher saying “no thank you” to this next book, and the one after that.

The answer is simple.

I can’t avoid the challenge, the tugging in my soul that pushes me to grow—in spite of the quaking in my knees. Reach higher, my heart says. Create better, it begs. INSPIRE MORE. Yet I don’t know if I will succeed and this terrifies me. I know many of you know what I’m talking about. You struggle as I do to get a hold of this nasty thing called fear. So what does one do?

Find Your Center
Work on the exercises that bring you to a deeper, centered you. For me, that’s running or biking until the jitters are gone and you can breathe again. Whether it be meditation or exercise, or sketching or journaling, every writer needs a way to disconnect from the voices in your head. Plus you get the added bonus of all that meditative activity adding years to your life.

Put the Risk in its Place
In the grand scheme of life, how does this risk rate? Is it life-threatening, or life-altering? Will it obliterate your reputation or your self-worth? Will it destroy important relationships around you? If the answer is no to these questions, POWER ON. Take the risk and don’t look back. If it’s yes, it’s time to evaluate that risk. Weigh the pros and cons and remember—regrets will follow you your entire life.

Use a Lifeline
My friends are my lifeline—both my writer buddies and my “real life” friends who understand nothing about the pressures in publishing. Sometimes you need both to balance you out, to remind you of all you have accomplished. To remind you of the simple goodness that is you.

Revel in the Risk
What is life without taking chances? A safe, boring affair that passes you by in a cloud of regret. Get a hold of your fear by the throat. REJECT HOW IT RULES YOUR LIFE, YOUR DECISIONS. Embrace the thrill of being bold, of striking out, and of being the best version of yourself—your best writer self. I’m trying like a mad dog. I hope you are, too.

I leave you with a beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson. It’s called HOPE.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

There is always HOPE and ADVENTURE when taking a risk. Don’t let the fear ruin all that beauty. I, for one, am choosing to banish it.

Have you ever branched out, far from the core safety of your tree to write something edgy or different? How did you tackle your fears?

About Heather

Heather Webb is an author, freelance editor, and blogger at award-winning writing sites WriterUnboxed.com and RomanceUniversity.org. Her first women’s historical, BECOMING JOSEPHINE, about the life and times of Josephine Bonaparte set to the backdrop of the tumultuous French Revolution, and her forthcoming novel, RODIN'S LOVER, about art, love, and the lines between obsession and madness releases from Penguin in January 2015.  Heather is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and she may also be found teaching craft-based or publishing industry courses at a local college. Find her on Twitter: @msheatherwebb or her website: www.heatherwebbauthor.com/