Stuck in Your Story? Try This Fun Exercise to Shake Up Your Muse

By Janice Hardy

Sometimes, we get so focused on what’s supposed to happen in our novel, we forget to consider what could happen.

Unless you're incredibly lucky, at some point in your writing life your creativity is bound to stall.

The novel you loved yesterday feels flat today, all your ideas sound "meh" and nothing really excites you about your current manuscript. It happens, it's scary, but there are ways to knock your muse out of her slump and get things moving again.

Sometimes the best way to get unstuck is to look at the novel from a different perspective.

Changing your perspective can shake loose preconceived ideas and allow you to see the story and characters in ways you hadn't considered before. These different views often spark ideas that breathe new life into a novel that needs it.

The Difference Between Tricking Your Reader and Surprising Your Reader

By Janice Hardy

If you’re going to trick your readers, proceed with caution and a lot of skill.

During a world-building panel I once did at the Space Coast Comic Con, we had a brief discussion about tricking readers. Some authors on the panel were for it, some against it, and there were strong opinions on both sides.

It made me think about what makes a good twist vs. a bad trick. Because some novels trick readers and we love the author for it, but others trick readers and we refuse to ever read that author again.

I think it’s the Dallas vs. Newhart difference.

For those who weren’t watching a lot of TV in the 80s, both shows had huge twists that surprised viewers. One worked, one did not.

In the show Dallas, a beloved character (Bobby) died in a season finale. The next season proceeded without him, developing storylines and dealing with his death and all the normal things you’d expect to happen after killing off a favorite character. 

How to Edit (or Revise) a Novel Without Feeling Overwhelmed

By Janice Hardy

If you dread starting a revision, you're not alone. But you can do this.

Finishing a draft is a huge accomplishment, and one every writer should be proud of, no matter what stage of their career they’re at. But after the draft is done, it’s time to edit (or revise), and sometimes, that can be a bit overwhelming.

I know both new and established writers who struggle with this, so this isn’t a matter of skill or talent. There’s nothing wrong with you if you dread having to face a manuscript that needs editing.

I love the editing process, so a lot of writer friends (and readers) have come to me over the years seeking a little editing advice (so much so I even went and wrote a whole book on it). 

Here are some tips on how to make the editing and revision process a little easier to manage:

An Easy Tip to Avoid Infodumps in Your Dialogue

By Janice Hardy

Just because a character says it, doesn’t mean it isn’t an infodump.

Dialogue is one of my favorite parts of writing. It's fast-paced, grabs attention, and usually keeps the reader reading. When two characters are having a zippy conversation, readers feel like they’re hanging out with them and are part of the story.

But those conversations can also contain the dreaded infodump-as-dialogue.

Infodumping (throwing in a lot of "need-to-know" information at one time) doesn't just happen to prose. Characters can have conversations they'd never have, talking about things they'd never talk about, just so authors can explain things to readers.

Which is bad, because...

Infodumps remind readers they’re reading, and can knock them right out of the story.

The Overwritten Novel: How to Identify & Fix Purple Prose in Your Novel

By Janice Hardy

Be wary of going too far and turning a good sentence (or scene) into an overwritten mess. 

The term "purple prose" has been around as long as I've been writing, and chances are you've heard it too. 

If you're unfamiliar with the term, purple or flowery prose is so filled with adjectives and adverbs, similes and metaphors, that it screams "Hey look! I'm fancy writing" and distracts readers from the actual story. You often need a thesaurus just to read it.

Overwritten text is trying too hard to sound "written" or trying to explain too much. For example, a sentence that uses fifteen words when three is enough, and half of them are adjectives. Or a sentence that explains every single step in a task that doesn't need it. 

If you ever thought to yourself, "Yeah, I get it, he was angry, move on" then you probably read an overwritten passage.

Overwriting bloats a novel and usually kills the pacing and narrative drive, because the focus is on the description, not the action. Even when what you're describing is action.

Message for M. Reader: Are You Telegraphing Your Plot?

By Janice Hardy

Hints are great, but be wary of making it too obvious what's going to happen in your novel.

If you've ever watched a TV show or movie and heard a random stranger say something like, "Well now, we haven't use that road since a big old sinkhole opened up ten years ago," you've stumbled upon a telegraphed clue. You know that sinkhole is totally where the hero is going to lead the horrible monster or bad guy chasing him at the climax—and he does.

Kinda takes all the fun out of it, right?

While foreshadowing is a wonderful tool that can heighten tension and make the reader eager to know what will happen, telegraphing steals all the tension and takes the mystery out of those hints. 

Shhh! 3 Things Silent Movies Can Teach us About Storytelling

By Janice Hardy

You can learn a lot from the classics. 

My husband and I are big silent movie fans (well, fans of movies in general, really). But it's especially interesting to watch movies that are 90 to 100 years old, and even more interesting to see how storytelling hasn't changed all that much in all those years. What worked back in 1920 still works today.

What's even more fun, is that the first time many of the classic sight gags were done were in silent movies. These folks created them. 

Filmed in 1926, the Buster Keaton film, The General, is an excellent example of tight plotting and storyboarding. Nothing is wasted in this film. If you see a detail on screen, you can be sure it'll come into play at some point. And the best part? It still surprises you. I can't tell you how often we laughed over something we should have seen coming.

That’s the secret of great storytelling. 

The Question You Should Ask for Every Scene

By Janice Hardy

If you can’t explain why a scene exists, you probably shouldn’t write it

Writers ask a lot of questions while drafting a novel—who are the characters, how does the worldbuilding work, what are the goals, motivations, and plot twists? And readers have their own questions driving them forward. Will the hero win? Will the lovebirds fall in love? Will the hockey team survive?

But we don’t always ask the question that can save us a ton of time and frustration.

What’s the point of this scene?

This question isn’t about the story's theme or the protagonist's goals—it’s about why you decided to put this scene into your story in the first place.

If you can’t answer why a scene is in your novel, it's a huge red flag that the scene might not be serving the story.

Why "Start With the Action" Messes Up So Many Writers

By Janice Hardy

Sometimes really great advice is anything but helpful.

If I took a poll for the most common writing advice, “start with the action” would make the list. 

Which it should, as it’s great advice. But it’s also like saying, “show, don’t tell.” You know you ought to do it, but you don’t always know how, and those four words don’t really help you write the beginning of your novel.

This can be especially hard on new writers, because they might think they’re doing everything right, but still get negative feedback or even rejections on their manuscripts. “I do start with action,” they cry. “Can’t you see that car barreling off that cliff there? What do I have to do, blow up a planet?”

Well, no. And that's where the problem lies.

If you don’t know what “action” means in fiction, you can easily misunderstand how to use it.

Do You Suffer From NWS?: Living With Nice Writer Syndrome

By Janice Hardy

Are you too nice to your characters? 

Do you love your characters?

Do you wish nothing bad would ever happen to them?

Then you might suffer from Nice Writer Syndrome.

This is a common malady. We spend hours and hours creating our characters, interviewing them, filling out complicated character sheets, determining which personality they are on the Myers-Briggs Scale. They become like family, and we can't bear the thought of doing anything bad to them.

We don't throw them into conflict. We don't let them get hurt. We don't make them work for their rewards at the end of the novel (those slackers).

It can get so bad, we stop letting them leave the house, so nothing ever happens to them.