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The Dreaded Suspension of Disbelief Comment

Written Dreams

E. Tip of the Day: The words every writer wishes they didn’t have to hear-This pushes the suspension of disbelief. And the same words every editor holds close, using them sparingly for those times when they think the writer may have gone off the deep end in their plotting.

What does it really mean? Pushing the suspension of disbelief is exactly that. The writer is pushing their character into a scene or situation that character does not belong in. And for the character, there’s no way out of the situation they’re in unless they do something that is not within their abilities and/or personality to accomplish.

How to fix this problem? I’ve given a couple of easy solutions.

1) Set-up. Show your character early on in the story in their normal environment showing that character doing the activity that may save their lives later on. For instance, how to hot wire a car. If your character doesn’t know the first thing about hot wiring a car, and later on in Chapter 20 has to hot wire a car in order to get away from bad guys it’s going to seriously make the reader doubt how this character had the knowledge to do it. However, if you set up in Chapter 2 that the character hung out at his uncle’s garage and played around with junked cars, one day even being shown by the uncle how to hot wire a car, then it’s believable they would have the knowledge to pull off the stunt. Getting the suspension of disbelief comment marked in your novel has been completely diverted–this time. 🙂

2) Listen to your inner muse. If your character is running away from the situation, screaming “I can’t do this, I just can’t!” there’s a reason. That character is right. Listen to your subconscious–your character’s voice. Find a different solution instead.

3) Bring in another character. If there’s another character with the experience you need to pull off the scene, use them. Who says your main character has to solve every problem by themselves? True, the main character should be solving most of the conflicts, but it’s okay for them to get help once in a while from a friend, or even an enemy. As long as the scene is set-up properly, and this other character doesn’t fall from the sky from out of nowhere. Hypothetically, it should work.

4) Using a super power, mental disorder, disease, or other outside influence. Using amnesia as the example here, it is possible for a character to do something out of the ordinary if they no longer remember their previous life. As the writer, you’re starting over with the character’s essence, and rewriting their history–for a time. Use these outside influences sparingly so as not to push the reader into doubting the character’s new abilities. In these situations, be very careful there are only a few episodes of the character doing something out of character. Later, if necessary, you can explain why the character did what they did, and why.

Hopefully these tips will help you avoid getting that comment, “This pushes the suspension of disbelief” the next time you’re getting edits back from your editor. And if you do receive the comment here or there in your manuscript, remember it’s okay. There are ways to fix it. Just don’t be afraid to ask your editor for suggestions on solutions if you can’t think of any. Good luck!

 

 

 

Keeping the Pace

Written Dreams

E. Tip of the Day: Did I get your attention with the photo of the sunset? If yes, that was the idea. 🙂

Wisconsin Sunset

Pacing is a big part of keeping your reader’s attention throughout the story. A writer needs to challenge the reader with equal parts of character introspection, action scenes, dialogue between characters, and beautiful narration. Each has its own part to play, and their own pros and cons which we’ll be exploring in more detail at a later date. But for now, let’s look at the different roles.

Character Introspection: This is one of my favorites because as a reader you can really get to know the character, see how they feel about controversial issues, how they feel about other characters and places, and best of all, how they handle stressful situations.The main character could be backed up into a corner in a sticky situation, and somehow they find a way out of it. Their inner strength shines through to do what it’s best for their situation no matter what the sacrifice is to them. And as a reader, we get to see that struggle and achievement first hand. It’s exhilarating!

Action Scenes: The action is what keeps the reader interested most of the time, so it’s very important to include action scenes often in your story. Although the character walking from one end of the hallway certainly can be construed as action, it’s not really the type of action the reader may necessarily be looking for. So, be careful with adding in too much “boring action”.

In a romance, the reader is just begging for a kissing scene between the hero and heroine halfway through the novel. So, using the romance genre as an example here, walking from one end of a hallway to the other could easily have enough tension in the scene for the reader to stay interested–especially if that hero is waiting for the heroine at the other end of the hallway with a kiss. But this isn’t always the case, so be aware of how you’re using your action scenes.

Dialogue Between Characters: When using dialogue, it’s important that the writer always shows the reader new information with the conversation. So many times I’ve read dialogue between characters where the writer has re-hashed the same information that the main character just told the reader about in the previous chapter using character introspection. It makes the story redundant. Stay away from redundancy, when possible.

Use dialogue as a way to show character emotions and add more tension to the story. One tip: make sure each of your characters has their own distinct voice. I’m not saying give each one of the characters their own accent. Not at all. I mean, use different physical tags and sayings to make those characters stand out. This will help your reader keep the characters straight in their heads while they’re reading, and therefore keep the story interesting for them.

Narration: Choose how much of the story you’d like the reader to see through the main character, and how much of the story will be narrated. Seeing the details through the main character will, in most cases, feel more real to the reader. But there are some details better left to narration.

Having a good balance of all the parts will help you write an edge-of-the-seat story with great pacing, and will ultimately help you reach your goal of showing the reader an entertaining time with your story. Good luck!

 

MIA Winners

Written Dreams

We still haven’t heard from Teagan, Bill, Joanie, and Karen. Teagan won our May contest and Bill, Joanie, and Karen participated in our June contest.

If you know them, please let them know they have a FREE edit to claim. Contact us at brittiany@writtendreams.com with any questions on prizes. Thank you!

Great Inspiration!

Written Dreams 2 Comments

E. Tip of the Day: Great inspiration can come from anywhere. Family members, a piece of furniture, or even an aquarium. Some of the things that have inspired me are: marine life, pets, trees, items at museums, and family members. Keep your eyes open. You never know when or where inspiration will hit!

I couldn’t help but share a photo that seems to have a story behind it. Doesn’t the  sturgeon seem like he’s up to something. What has inspired you to write a story?

Mr. James Sturgeon

Confidence of a Writer

Written Dreams

E. Tip of the Day: Think of yourself as a public speaker in front of a large seated audience in a convention center. For a visualization, let’s say there’s 1000 people seated in front of you, and you’re standing at the podium ready to give a speech. You’ll need to be poised, in control of your words and actions, you’ll need to smile, laugh at yourself for your mistakes, and keep eye contact. Occasionally you may get frustrated when a person leaves the room, or you hear a cell phone ring. But you’ll keep smiling, and soon you’ll be finished with that speech. When you’re through speaking, you’ll thank everyone for being a good audience. Then, you’ll exit the stage, take a slug of water, and exhale. You did it!

Writing is not so different from that. Every day when you sit down to write, you know there’s a reason you’re here writing this story. There’s a reason this story needs to be told to an audience. Believe in that reason. And believe in yourself!

When you feel more confident of being who you are, a writer, it will translate through to the page.

Living with Characters

Written Dreams

E. Tip of the Day: Tension and emotion are key ingredients in getting the characters to live and breathe in the minds of readers. Bringing the reader in nice and close to feel your characters’ emotions is so very important in keeping them engaged in the story. The reader needs to feel the sweat, blood, and tears of the characters’ victories and defeats. Here’s a few examples of showing emotion:

a.      He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation.
b.      He glared at her, not happy.
c.      She bit her lip to keep from speaking, worried she’d say something she shouldn’t.
d.      He shrugged, not caring either way.
e.      He pulled on his ear, anxious, as to what he was hearing.
In my examples I do a little bit of showing and telling so you can see what emotion I’m trying to convey to the reader.

 

Living the Dream

Written Dreams

Learning how to bake bread was one of my dreams. It was one of those things I desperately wanted to learn how to do, but I had no idea where to even begin. One day, I realized I wasn’t going to learn how to make bread by just reading about it. I had to put on my apron, get out the ingredients and get my hands full of flour. And sometimes, that’s what we need to do as writers. We need to dig in and commit ourselves to our writing.

If you want to be successful at publishing a novel, there’s a few key facts you need to know before you start writing. You need to have time to commit to the process of writing. You need to be creative in storytelling, and confident in your skills. And you need to know people.

Commitment is important because a novel won’t get written by itself. You have to pour hours and hours into writing, revising, and making that story perfect. If you write 10 words a day, and you’re writing an 80,000 word novel it’s going to take a very long time to finish. It’s possible, but it won’t be a very fun process. If you write at least 1000 words a day, or more, that process will still take a while. But do the math. You’ll be finished in a lot less time, and you may still have your sanity intact.

How creative are you? Do your words flow when you’re telling a story to a friend? Or is it difficult to share anything? There’s times when I’m editing someone’s work when I will be completely and utterly amazed at their storytelling. It’s breathtaking reading those words, seeing how the writer has strung the words together. And then there’s other times when it can be frustrating for me as an editor, reading someone’s work that isn’t ready to be published. Deep down inside you know where you stand. Be confident in your writing, and show it by using the language. Use synonyms for the word “look” and don’t be afraid to remove “like” or “that” from your vocabulary. Be creative!

The last element you need is people. You need to have your own network of readers and supporters. The profession of writing is not something you can do alone. Yes, the concept of your novel may be your own idea. Even the actual writing of the story may be completely on your own. But most successful writers have friends they can bounce ideas off of when they’re questioning themselves, friends to ask their opinion on what they have written, and share with them their hopes and dreams of being a successful writer.

Family support is very important, too. Your family needs to be aware you are serious about writing. Because if they know what you are doing is meaningful to you, they will be more understanding and respectful of when you need to close the door on them for hours at a time. They may even bring you food occasionally. When you’ve completed your novel, and you’re ready to shop it around (after it’s been revised and fully edited of course), those supporters may be the help you need to market your novel to the masses.

Commitment, Creativity, and Compassion. That’s all you need to get started. I believe in you. Do you?

Brenda Novak’s Annual On-Line Auction

Written Dreams

Written Dreams donated 5 different types of critiques to Brenda Novak’s Annual Auction for the Cure of Diabetes 2012. I know several people who have learned to live with having this disease, so this is a topic that hits home. It’s important to help fund research for a disease that affects so many people. We’re looking forward to being a part of the Auction in 2013!