Author: Ariel Paiement

Thursday Technicalities: Why Beta-Readers and Critiquers?

Ariel Paiement
Marketing

Introduction

This week is the start of a new section on beta-readers and critiquers. For today, we’re going to discuss why you need these special people in your life and looking at your novel. Let’s face it. It’s easier not to bother with it at all. But that doesn’t mean it’s better not to bother.

Why Bother?

This is a valid question. If it’s a lot of work to find the right critique partner or beta-reader and even more to work through a book with them, then why would you even take the time? This post will explain that for those of you who have questions and haven’t worked with a good critiquer or beta-reader (or anyone at all).

Catching Blind Spots

Critiquers and beta-readers can give you an idea of where the manuscript still needs work. Your story is kind of like your baby. You don’t see anything wrong with it, or, at least, you don’t see it as being as bad as it probably is. But a good critiquer or beta-reader is going to notice all the bumps and kinks in the manuscript, and they’re going to tell you. So that’s one big reason you should have a critiquer and a beta-reader.

Knowing the Audience

Your critique partner or beta-reader is a representation of your audience. They can tell you what’s actually working and what isn’t because they (if you’ve chosen well) know the genre. They read it all the time, so if something isn’t fitting or is going to lose the audience, they’re going to pick up on it.

They may even be able to tell you how to fix it. It’s like getting reviews ahead of time on the book without ever having it affect how many people want to read it. Don’t throw away a chance to get this kind of feedback!

Third, they’re going to catch mistakes you didn’t. This is slightly different from the first point. By mistakes, I don’t mean plot holes or long narrative passages. I mean those pesky misplaced commas or grammar errors that can trip a reader up. Or how about when you said on page two that Susan’s eyes were blue but then said they were green on page fifty? Lots of times, beta-readers or critiquers will catch those things if you didn’t. A second or third set of eyes on the manuscript doesn’t hurt.

Thickening Up Your Skin

Giving your manuscript to a critiquer or beta-reader gets your book some exposure and thickens up your skin.

You can’t write in a vacuum. Or, perhaps I should say you can’t write well in a vacuum. What do I mean by that? I mean that you’re never going to get better or go anywhere if you don’t put yourself out there. Writers have to have very thick skins. Not everyone will love the book even if you wrote it in the best way possible. It could be amazing, and someone is going to give it a bad review.

But I’m going to tell you now. If you’re just starting out and you haven’t had many people really work with you to develop your skill, it’s not going to be amazing. It probably sucks. That’s okay because you’re learning and you have to crawl before you walk. But you need to be aware of reality before you’re going to make any progress.

Beta-readers and critiquers give you a chance to hear the bad news from someone you’ve built some connection with. It helps prepare you to take criticism in stride if you respond to it properly. And it gives you a chance to fix what’s wrong before anyone else sees it, which is always a bonus.

Conclusion

Hopefully you can see now why a critique partner or beta-reader is so important. They’re as important as having an editor can be. More so, even, if you’ve been unable to afford an editor and had to self-edit. Don’t write off these important partners. They can really make a big difference in getting to your finished product.

Do you have other ways that critiquers or beta-readers have proved themselves invaluable? If so, feel free to share it in the comments!

Thursday Technicalities: Strong Verbs

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

Okay, everyone! This post is probably going to be a little bit shorter because of the subject matter, but we’re going to be taking a look at strong verbs, how to choose them, and why they matter. This is a pretty important subject to discuss since the words you choose have a big impact on what your reader takes away from your story. So, let’s dive right in!

Why Do Strong Verbs Matter?

First off, they matter because they’re going to make your writing sound and appear more polished. Choosing the right word to give your reader the right image makes you stand out. When another writer uses run and you use sprint, you stand out because you have used a word that gets at what you really mean. It sounds more mature.

Reason two? Imagery is everything in writing. Your reader must be able to envision what you are writing. If they can’t visualize it, they’re going to lose interest in most cases. Strong verbs help you to accomplish that purpose. When combined with descriptive and precise nouns to name the things in your scenes, strong verbs are able to bring the words on the page to life for the reader. It also makes it less work for them as they immerse themselves in your story. That’s a good thing because they’re more likely to want to stay immersed in the story!

And the final reason? Besides just sounding professional and besides bringing the scene to life for the reader, strong verbs help to eliminate wordiness and get the point across the first time. You don’t need as many of those pesky “ly” adverbs that writing instructors constantly warn against if you’re using strong verbs. Generally, a lack of strong verbs or descriptive nouns results in an overuse of those adjectives and adverbs that instructors complain about. If you address the actual issue at hand, you won’t have the symptom of it anymore. Pretty nice, right?

What is a Strong Verb?

Before we go any further, let’s talk about what a strong verb is. Most people don’t ponder their word choices very often if at all. Unless they just can’t find the word to fit, they stick with whatever comes to mind first. This, sadly, results in common and dull word choices that don’t describe much of anything. Here’s a quick list of some of the common verbs people will use instead of strong verbs.

1. Sit

2. Walk

3. Run

4. Smile

Okay, you probably get the idea. All of these are weak verbs because they are generic. It doesn’t mean you can never use them, but they certainly shouldn’t make up the entirety of your piece. If you stop and think about it, what image do you get from these words? Run, walk, sit, smile… Those are broad words that could encompass all kinds of ways of doing those things. For example, running could encompass sprinting or a slow, measured run for long-distance. Walking could mean walking fast or strolling along. Sitting… Well, don’t get me started on the number of ways a person can sit! Same goes for a smile. Not every smile is the same, so why would you use only one word to show your character’s smile to the reader?

Hopefully, if you didn’t already see the problem, you do now. Weak verbs, while they can in some cases be necessary, are generally not the best option you have available to you. You want to choose words that are strong, words that are specific. Here are just a few words that could replace the list above.

1. Perch, settle, sink, rest, nestle

2. Meander, stroll, pace, prance, skip

3. Sprint, jog, race, trot, dash, dart

4. Grin, beam, simper, leer, smirk, sneer

See how each of these more specific verbs evokes a particular image in our minds? For example, when we say someone beamed, we know that means they gave a really enthusiastic, happy smile. But if I tell you someone smirked or leered at me? Well… You get an entirely different mental picture there. That’s the power of using strong verbs.

How to Find Strong Verbs

It’s fine to start with a general verb for what you’re trying to convey meaning-wise. Just don’t stay there. Use a thesaurus or online dictionary to find synonyms for the word you’re thinking of using. Consider the list and ask yourself if anything would fit in better than the general word. When doing this, be sure to think about what readers will understand. Don’t pick a $10 word if the $5 one works just as well and is better-known. While it’s fine for a reader to need to look up a word or two here and there, you don’t want them to need a dictionary just to read your story! So be sensible when you’re choosing strong verbs and go with your gut. If you were the reader, what would you best understand? Use that question to evaluate the words and choose accordingly.

Conclusion

Although it is a little more time-consuming to find strong verbs to lend vivacity to your writing, you should be investing that time anyway. It will be time well-spent because it lends a maturity to your writing that other writers who don’t do this will lack. Plus, you learn new vocabulary along the way, so it’s an exercise with multiple benefits! 

Have questions or something to add? Or maybe you have a topic to suggest for a future Thursday Technicalities post? Feel free to leave those in the comments below or email me at arielpaiement@gmail. com with them! I do my best to respond to each question or comment.

Thursday Technicalities: Writing Platforms

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

 This is a bit of a different angle than I’ve taken in previous Thursday Technicalities posts. However, a few people have asked me about what sites to use and how they can integrate their writing with things like Pinterest or personal blogs. Admittedly, it can be a bit difficult to determine when or if you should have a blog and what to write if you do. Then, it’s even harder to determine which writing sites to use, if any, and how to use them. My aim with this post is to go into some of the pros and cons as well as some guidelines and other things you should know about each post. This will get fairly technical in areas, but this is Thursday Technicalities, of course. So, let’s dive in!

To Blog or Not To Blog?

That’s the major question for many authors, isn’t it? Simply put, you should. If you’re trying to build your platform and bring in new readers, the blog is the way to do it. This may be slow to gain traction, but it’s important anyway. Here’s the thing. As much as social media is great for spreading the word about releases and for doing release parties with readers and friends, that form of media is not under your control. 

At any time, you could lose your account or access to it (Facebook has notoriously given people trouble with this when accounts are hacked or people are put into Facebook jail for posting content they don’t like). If this happens to you, you’ll lose everything. Your entire following. All of the content you had there. Everything. 

A blog and email list, on the other hand, don’t go away. You control them. You control what people see. You can send them to your other writing platforms, such as Amazon, without fear that a site like Facebook might flag your post and ban you due to content that shows up on the Amazon page’s advertisements. Naturally, you have no control over book covers or other pictures that show up on the “suggested for you” section of the product page. And the bots that various social media sites use to look for inappropriate content don’t care if you don’t control it or not. They flag it anyway.

So bottom line is this. If you’re looking to build a following, blog and draw people into your email list.

What to Blog About?

Now that you know you should be blogging if you want to really build a following for your work, the next question is probably what you should blog about. This one is something you’re going to have to decide for yourself, ultimately. But I can give you some guidance.

First of all, pick a niche. There are lots of blogs out there that talk about writing, but you don’t want to be just another blog. You want to stand out in a good way. So narrow your focus to something that you can write about that isn’t so general. We’ll use my blog as an example since it wasn’t so long ago that I went through this very decision making process.

I knew I wanted to start a blog, but I wasn’t sure what to write about. I thought I could write about fantasy, but again, that’s pretty broad, so I didn’t want to just do that either. So, I spent some time thinking about what other fantasy writing blogs don’t cover. And that’s when I found a niche. Most fantasy writing blogs didn’t seem to be filling the needs of both readers and writers. So, I decided I wanted to have a blog that could appeal to writers and readers. To this end, I have posts to teach readers about new genres in addition to teaching writers how to write them. I include reviews of books as well, including both a readers’ portion and a writers’ portion. And then there are portions of the blog meant specifically to teach writers how to write fantasy. That’s why I have posts like this one!

But none of that would have happened if I hadn’t first identified my niche: talking about fantasy with something for fantasy lovers of all types, both writers and readers.

Second, once you’ve decided on your angle and niche, you should start building up content for the day you launch the blog. Don’t start setting up the blog until you’ve decided on a posting schedule and have several weeks of posts ready. This gives you time to continue building up content and ensures that, if you have a bad week or issues that keep you from writing, you have backup content already available. 

Last thing major thing to consider. How you’ll get exposure and who you’ll go with. Personally, I recommend WordPress. It’s one of the best hosting sites for blogs, and it allows you to get started for free until you’re making the money you need to in order to support it. Besides that, when it comes to exposure, WordPress allows you to use Pinterest, Facebook, and a couple other sites with it. Pinterest and Facebook are the two main things though.

Pinterest is a great way to market your blog, the email list, and your own work. The platform, unlike other things like Facebook, is a search engine, meaning that viewers come to Pinterest looking for something in particular. If you use your keywords right and gain traction, you can get your pins all over Pinterest. Best of all, those pins have a much longer lifespan than any post on social media. People pin it again, and you’ve got a pin that’s seen by people you may never interact with in your writing career. There’s much more I could say about this, but that’s not the point of this post, so let’s move on!

Wattpad

Okay, let’s talk about Wattpad. Several people have asked me if I think Wattpad is a good choice. Some have had good results while others aren’t seeing much success. I’ve been on Wattpad for around five years now, so I’ve gotten to see the good and the bad things about the platform. We’ll start with the good.

Wattpad is a great place to network with people. I became a member of my current critique group, The Writer’s Edge, through Wattpad. I met most of the founding members through another critiquing/book club that I got involved with on Wattpad. Not only that, but some of the writer friends I am still in touch with today came from different writing games (called Authors’ Games on Wattpad) that I participated in. So that’s a great thing about it!

Another good thing about it is the feedback. When networking with readers and writers, you’re able to have people help you review your work. Wattpad has threads on their forum that allow you to ask to exchange critiques or to ask people to beta read, either as an exchange or just for fun. (Most people do it as an exchange.) I generally post everything I write up on Wattpad and Inkitt (which I’ll discuss briefly in a bit) because it allows me to gauge reader response and get that early stage feedback to help me understand what might need to be changed.

Now, on to the cons.

First of all, it’s very difficult for certain genres to be found on Wattpad. Hardcore fantasy, in particular, doesn’t get much exposure on the site. Things like teen romance, fan fiction, and adult romance generally dominate the front pages of suggestions. There are ways to get it out, but since Wattpad restricted writers on the platform to only one genre, both on the book’s information page and on their Share-Your-Story Threads, it becomes difficult to be seen. If your book is a bit of both sci-fi and fantasy, for instance, you’ll be stuck choosing one, and you can’t advertise in both forums. This makes it hard to get it out to readers from both genres that might enjoy your work. I really don’t like that. It’s extremely frustrating, especially for authors just starting out. It isn’t impossible, but is a bit of an obstacle to surmount.

Second, I’ve found that it’s hard to move your readers on Wattpad over to your blog and then your book page. This can be a little frustrating when you realize that many of your followers may not read your stuff or aren’t willing to convert from Wattpad to your paid content. Circumventing that is a little obnoxious. My recommendation is to do one of two things with this one, by the way. Either only post the first few chapters or parts in each work or post the entire rough draft and remove the majority of the content when you publish. How you decide to do it honestly depends on what you’re aiming for. If you’re aiming to build your current audience from the ground up, then posting some work that’s complete for readers is a good thing. But if you already have a following and a decent number of readers for your blog, you may not want to do that. You don’t want to give all your content away for free, and most readers can understand that when it’s communicated clearly.

Finally, to really keep your work out in front of readers searching for books with tags like yours, you’ll have to keep posting content on the book and actively promoting it. Once the book is finished, you will mainly be focused on promoting it while you work on your next piece. Either way, this can be just a little bit frustrating if you don’t have the time for a regular update schedule. But for Wattpad, a regular schedule generally gains better results for writers, and creating new content is pretty much a must if you want to continue drawing new readers in.

Inkitt

Inkitt has some of the same pros and cons as Wattpad. However, I would say that Wattpad is set up much better for networking. Inkitt doesn’t seem to have clear forums on the sight, opting instead for writer-run Facebook groups. That makes interacting a little more complicated because the forums aren’t easily collected into one place on Inkitt for the writers and readers. However, I will say that Inkitt doesn’t have as many restrictions on how you label your work’s genre or where you share it. Individual groups on Facebook might, but there are writing groups for Inkitt that are more general in the genres they accept.

The other thing Inkitt has down better than Wattpad (though Wattpad is moving into this area) is publishing. They use algorithms and people to track stats associated with your book to allow them to tell if it has publishing potential. Books that perform very well and are entered into their Novel Contest may be selected for publication with them, which offers a way to monetize your writing on the site. But the system is very much based on popularity with readers, so, once again, romance and teen fiction dominate the platform in many cases.

Royal Road

Okay, so I messed around with this for a little bit. But what I discovered is that this site is pretty much dying. People mainly use Discord for communication, which I don’t use, so I didn’t have much luck networking. And because people use Discord to communicate there, the forums that RR does have are pretty much dead. It’s really difficult to gain exposure for your work because of the inactivity of the majority of the site. So I don’t really recommend this. I would stick with Inkitt and Wattpad, honestly.

Pinterest

While this isn’t a writing site, if you have a blog, you should be using Pinterest to get important posts from the writing site out there. I’ve shared some of the Thursday Technicalities posts there because I knew the content in that post had to do with commonly searched for terms. I’ve also used it to get the word out about things like free giveaways or other things I offer through the blog. It can have a bit of a learning curve because of key words and SEO along with graphics. But, given the things I mentioned earlier, hopefully it’s obvious why you should be using it.

Conclusion

I hope this post has been helpful. It’s longer than most of my posts have been, but that was unavoidable in order to cover the topic thoroughly. If you have further questions or more to share with others about this topic, feel free to comment below! Have a topic you’d like to see covered on Thursday Technicalities? Comment below or shoot me an email!

Saturday Setups – Global Mapping: Terrain Features Pt. 2

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

As a quick announcement, the worldbuilding posts will be moving to Saturdays to be a part of the blog section Saturday Setup, which will deal with different aspects of setting up your story world. The posts will, for now, be up every other week, just as they have been so far. With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Last time we took a look at global mapping, we looked at some of the main terrain features of a map. If you haven’t read Saturday Setups Global Mapping – Terrain Features Pt. 1, you should start there since the features you lay down based on that post will affect what ends up happening here. If you’ve already read it, you should be well on your way to creating a working map for your world, and you’re ready for this step.

With your mountains, rivers, and forests in place, it’s time to consider the last part of your terrain. What type of land are you working with? Tundra, foothills, deserts, or rainforests?

Deciding What Terrain Should Be Placed Where

When considering an area of land, one of the more important decisions is what kind of terrain it will be. Should it be a desert wasteland, a swamp, or a sunny lakeside oasis? Much of this will depend on the land features you already placed. If you have a mountain range nearby, the terrain right below the mountain range is considerably more likely to be hilly than it is to be a flat grassland or frozen tundra.

So, how do you decide what terrain goes where? Let’s take a look at the main kinds of terrains and where they’re most likely to occur. Then, you can put these principles into practice and start marking them in on your map. In the resources section, there will be some links to map-making sites to give you ideas for how to mark different types of terrain as you work.

Deserts

Typically, deserts are areas of terrain without much vegetation due to a lack of water. However, they can also form due to salt poisoning or exhaustion of the soil. They can be sandy or stretches of hard-baked ground, bare rock, or even snow.

Deserts are often located on the equator line because, on an Earth-like planet, the flow of warm and cool air causes the dry, arid climate conducive to a desert that’s incredibly hot. These are the subtropical deserts. For frozen deserts, they’re more often located near the poles or in areas of extreme cold (Siberia in Russia is one example of this on Earth).

There’s another factor in the creation of deserts. Mountains. Those ranges of peaks you placed? Yes, those have an impact on where your deserts may be located. While the air pressure caused by warm and cool air at the equator is one cause for those massive stretches of barren wasteland, mountains are another common cause.

But not every mountain range has a desert on one side of it, so how do you decide if yours should? This has to do with the moisture available in the air and the wind flow. Deserts formed by mountains occur due to the flow of wind over the mountains. As air flows up over the peaks, it leaves much of the moisture in it on the mountain peaks in the form of snow.

This leaves the air coming down from the mountain with much less moisture than it initially had, so as it moves further inland from the mountain range, it can end up creating deserts. This is considered the rain shadow of the mountain. If you choose to create this sort of mountain (and it’s likely you’ll have at least a few), keep in mind that it should always be on leeward side of the mountain.

The third kind of desert is a coastal desert. This one is formed when cold ocean currents contact the warmer air to create a dense layer of fog. These deserts may not get any rain, but they’re usually still wet because of the fog that has caused them to be unable to grow vegetation.

Finally, you have interior deserts. These occur far inland in places where moisture-laden wind simply can’t reach. This kind of desert may also lay in a rain shadow in part or whole. The Gobi desert in Asia is one example of an interior desert. It’s hundreds of kilometers from the sea, making it too far away to gain a moisture-laden wind. The Gobi desert is also in the rain shadow of the Himalayas.

Plains

Plains are flat ranges of land that can be grassland, forest, desert, or tundra. There are also flood plains and volcanic plains. I’ve already covered deserts above, and tundra is just frozen expanses of land that could also classify as polar deserts depending on the vegetation level. (Surprisingly, tundra can support a variety of mosses and small shrubs.) However, let’s take a look at the grassland, forested, flood, and volcanic plains.

To begin, let’s look at the most common type seen on Earth. Grassland plains. These plains are identified by the main type of vegetation: grass. Depending on the region and climate, grassland plains can go by a few different names. For instance, the temperate plains in the US are considered just grassland or prairie. These have warm summers and cold winters. But the temperate plains in Asia are considered steppes, since they don’t receive enough rain to grow any tall trees or bushes. Lastly, the subtropic plains in Africa or other regions are called savannas because they’re warm and have scattered trees.

The second type of plain is the forested plain. These ones can occur in many places but are characterized by their variety of trees, shrubs, and vegetation.

Rivers create the third type of plain. Floodplains occur when a river overflows its banks and begins depositing nutrient-rich soil as it does. If the river floods often enough, the sediment can build up to create a floodplain. The Nile River is one notable example of this.

Volcanic plains, the last kind of plain I’ll discuss here, occur because lava has shoved its way up from underground to flow out over the land. This creates land that’s darker than the rest of the land around it, due to the basalt, a mineral found in lava that breaks down into the earth. The soil can be very nutrient-rich and is capable of sustaining vegetation.

Marshes and Swamps

Marshes are wetlands formed on the edges of bodies of water like rivers or lakes. They often help to transition from aquatic to land life. Generally, marshes can grow reeds, low-lying bushes, rushes, and grasses. They’re divided into three categories based on salinity. Salt marshes are the only marshes that are usually only located at mid-to-high altitudes. The other two types are freshwater marshes and tidal marshes, which are affected by the tides.

Swamps, on the other hand, are regions with a mixture of shallow bodies of water and land masses. They move slowly and sustain plenty of bugs and leeches. Many other animals also call the swamp home, and the vegetation that grows there varies widely. Generally, swamps are dangerous areas that should be admired from a distance. Not only are there many dangerous animals, but swamps also contain quicksand or similar features that lead to drowning. Swamps are also considered wetlands and may also be called bogs or, in some cases, salt marshes.

Conclusion

Using this as a guide, you should be able to map out most of the main features needed for your world. Of course, there will always be more you can learn about different types of terrain, but this should be enough to give you a good start. The other features are often found within these main biomes or terrains, making it simple to add them later on the map or on a localized map.

Further Reading

Photoshop Map Tutorial (A good place to start learning to map digitally if you enjoy digital art.)

Mapping trees (Helpful for marking out those wooded plains.)

Fantastic Maps Tutorials (A bunch of random map-making tutorials to help you get started.)

Examples of Map Symbols

Saturday Setups – GLobal Mapping: Terrain Features Pt. 1

Ariel Paiement1 Comment

Introduction to Terrains

Hey, everyone! I’m back this week with a post on world-building. Today’s post is the first to delve into the global side of mapping, and we’re looking at terrain considerations first. Terrain affects a lot of your world-building. After all, if your characters are living in a desert, their lifestyle will be far different from a character living in the jungle.

Not only that, the distance between various points and the terrain lying between those points will greatly affect things like travel time and how characters choose to travel. What you do with the terrain determines whether it’s easy to find water or difficult to find much needed resources.

With the importance of terrain established, let’s take a look at some of the things you need to put onto your map and work through. Keep in mind as you think about all this that the map you’re building doesn’t have to end up in the front of your novel. It doesn’t even have to be pretty. It just has to be functional so that you can use it for your own reference.

So, on that note, let’s get started.

Mountains

There are plenty of places you could start with mapping, but I recommend you start with your mountains. These majestic features will form the backbone of your world. Where they are placed will determine a great deal about the kind of land (lush and green or barren and sandy), the places where certain kinds of plants and trees can grow, and what types of animals will be found where.

Without being too technical, air flow is changed a great deal when it runs into mountain ranges, and that air current affects everything around it. It even affects how often it rains and how much rainfall an area might get, particularly if the land is close to the mountain range.

So place these first. You can worry about coastlines, forests, and cities later. Those are all important, but not this important.

As you’re placing those mountains, here are a few guidelines you should keep in mind.

First of all, mountain ranges occur mostly where tectonic plates have crashed into each other because land masses were closer than they should’ve been. Some of the mountains in these ranges may be volcanic, but you can have entire mountain ranges with no volcanic activity.

On the other hand, if you have single mountains with no ranges around them, they’re almost guaranteed to be volcanic. This means you shouldn’t place single mountains all over the place. The volcanic activity will have a big affect on everything around it, as you can imagine. Place these types of mountains carefully and with an awareness of what it does to the surrounding terrain and natural habitat.

Using these guidelines, you can end up with chains, ridges, long plateaus, and even circles of mountains.

Wherever there are mountain ranges, there should also be foothills and rugged terrain from where the ranges were worn down and weathered. Make sure you include these in your map for any planning in the later stages. It will change how cities and civilizations in those areas are built.

The last major thing you should consider is the extension of mountain ranges past the places where the coastlines may end up. Mountain ranges often form little islands or peninsulas, so this adds a more realistic feel to your fantasy world. You can use this and sprinkle those features here and there on the coastlines to help add to the believability of the world’s terrain.

Coastlines

The second place to fill in is your coastline. Before you can start mapping out major locations and country borders, you have to know how much space you’re working with. Drawing in the coastlines will help you to do this and will give you a framework to work within.

While working on this step, you should also decide the mileage on your map. In other words, decide how much space your world covers. This will help when you’re working on the global borders between countries, filling in the major cities, and even mapping those cities out on a more localized scale.

As a general rule of them, coastlines are fractal in nature when viewed from a distance. The continents are formed through the sorting of rock and soil by the plate tectonics. The heavier materials are on the bottom and the lighter on the top, which gives the coastlines the fractal appearance you see when looking at the contours of both the coast of a small territory and the coast of an entire continent.

However, there are things that can mess this up. Regions won’t look the same zoomed in or far away when you start including tidal flats or beaches, river deltas, mountains and glaciers (or a combination of the two), flat regions that include shifting barrier islands, or continents that haven’t had sea-level ice in a long time. To better understand how to map these features, if you want to include them in your world, you should study maps of these features on Earth. Understanding what it looks like in the real world and why it works the way it does will help you to develop a system that works for your own world.

However you end up choosing to shape your continents, make sure that the coastlines are–as a general rule of thumb–rough and ragged. They shouldn’t be smooth and pristine because that isn’t true to geographical features or to science. Fantasy may break rules, but even a fantasy world has some sort of plate movement and continental shaping that will be somewhat like ours.

Rivers

Rivers are next up. This is going to play a large part in defining the climate of your world. Plus, water sources are a must for life, and with your mountains and coastlines in place, you’re ready to start placing those rivers where civilizations often spring up.

This might be one of the simpler steps on your map since rivers follow some fairly simple, straightforward rules. And they don’t deviate from these rules unless you get a ton of magic involved. So, here are the rules you need to follow for your rivers:

  1. Rivers flow along the easiest path of least resistance: high elevation to low elevation. Never the other way around.
  2. As your rivers travel toward the coastlines, they will merge. They will never separate.
  3. Rivers going across flat land may change course by creating ever-wider loops. Eventually, however, the loops will pinch off and straighten the river back out.
  4. Rivers in mountainous regions may change course due to blockages or changes in elevation. But they will always find the path of least resistance and follow that.
  5. Rivers provide life to small towns and beginning cities. Wherever you have a river mouth, you’ll probably have some sort of civilization. So, if you know you want a city in a specific location, make sure there’s a fair-sized river close by.
  6. Lakes should only have one river flowing out of it toward the sea, never two. There’s only one lowest point, and that’s where the water will flow. The river may split off later, but it won’t with the lake.
  7. Deltas form when a river carrying sediment hits: a body of water (ie: lakes, oceans, reservoirs), another river that cannot carry away enough of the sediment quickly enough to stop buildup, or inland regions where water can spread out and deposit sediments. Keep in mind that the tidal currents can’t be too strong, or they’ll wash away the sediment.

Finally, the source of the river is important. Most rivers start in a mountain region somewhere since mountains catch a lot of water. However, they may also begin at lakes or in marshy regions. Some may also be fed by heavy rainfall for part of the year and be completely dry for the other part. The key is that wherever the source may be, the river won’t empty into the source as well. It will start at one point and end somewhere completely different.

Lakes

This section is fairly simple as well. Lakes usually form because rivers hit a basin of some sort or were dammed up by something. They may also form as a result of water collection in craters left by meteor impacts, but these sorts of lakes are fairly rare. The largest lakes usually occur because pieces of a continent pulled apart or glaciers carved them.

In cold, rocky regions, there are often many small lakes connected by rivers because the water is unable to carve through the ground and must simply filter from one pool to the next. This causes a tangle of rivers and streams connecting all the little lakes.

In hot and dry regions, you shouldn’t be including any significant lakes unless there’s a large river to feed them. Instead, you’re more likely to end up with salt flats or tiny lakes at the bottom of a dry basin. The lakes are likely to be very salty since they can’t drain off into the ocean. If you do have the river to feed it, the lakes are highly likely to overflow their shores and cause a larger drainage area, so keep that in mind when drawing your rivers in desert regions.

Lakes also shift their boundaries, but when they do so, it’s much more cataclysmic. If they fill or drain too much, they can destroy entire civilizations, so if they shift their boundaries, be ready to include the catastrophes it caused in your world’s history. The historical trauma is fairly common in the earlier stages of a world’s history, but as things stabilize, it becomes less common on a level that would be civilization-shattering.

Forests

The last thing we’ll cover in this post is forest placement. In a following post, I’ll discuss how you can determine where to place hot and dry regions, deserts, swamps, and hilly regions. But for now, this is a lot of information to digest, so I’ll stick to the prominent land features that you need to have a basic map.

That said, what do you need to consider for forests? First of all, forests usually spring up in areas with a temperate climate and ample rain. This means you could have massive forests covering large portions of your map so long as the climate isn’t too cold or dry. You won’t, therefore, see forests in prairie land or areas with a sub-arctic type of climate.

What kinds of trees are growing in your forest depends largely on the region. On Earth, mountains can house fir trees, pine, cedar, oak, dogwood, and a variety of other trees depending on what section of the mountain is being examined and the area the mountain is located.

Of course, on a fantasy world, there are likely species of trees that don’t exist on Earth, so the main goal with those species of trees would be to make sure they have features that will allow them to survive in the climate you’re placing them in. This means you’ll need to do some research on the types of trees and the features that make them suited for one climate or another.

Conclusion

Okay, that’s it for this post! There are a lot of considerations to think about when mapping out your world. As you work, don’t worry about being perfect. The map will be messy. And since it isn’t meant for anyone else’s reference, it doesn’t need to be pretty. If the map is pretty, it will only make it harder for you to trash it and try something different if you aren’t satisfied with it.

So, experiment and feel free to be loose, messy, and spontaneous. Try to be realistic about where you place things, but feel free to try different things, make different layouts, and change things up until you find something that you’re truly satisfied with.

Next time I post about world-building, we’ll take a look at global mapping and some other important aspects of terrain. We’ll also briefly go over the placement of cities and civilizations since you’ll likely want to show the more important locations on your map for your reference. However, I’ll leave the details of mapping the cities themselves for the section on local-scale mapping.

Feel free to share any techniques you like to use for mapping in the comments if you have them. We can all benefit from learning new ways to do things!

Thursday Technicalities – Nonverbal Clues in Writing

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

This week, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite topics in both writing and every day life. Body language and microexpressions. You’re probably thinking, Ariel, what does that have to do with writing? Isn’t that just something for the FBI or movies with super-human characters that act as human lie detectors? My answer: Not at all. And I’m going to show you why.

Why Include Body Language and Microexpressions in Writing?

We’re surrounded by body language and microexpressions every day. Even if we aren’t aware of it, we use these clues in non-verbal behavior to figure out more about those around us. Whether we’re trying to decide if we can trust the new guy or just trying to figure out why a friend seems nervous and down, we use it more than we realize. Some use it more naturally than others.

So, why wouldn’t we include them in writing? Non-verbal body language is such a huge part of our daily lives that it would make sense to include it in fiction. But often, writers without much experience or writers who just struggle with emotionally descriptive writing lack in this area. Adding in the subliminal messaging that body language can provide helps to bring writing to life for the reader. It makes the character feel more like a real person, which is extremely important.

How to Include Body Language in Writing

Of course, as useful as body language is, you also don’t want to overdo. You can end up including more than you should, which leads to writing like this:

Erica tossed her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. She rolled her eyes and tapped her foot. “I cannot believe you thought I’d cooperate.”

Daniel glared at her and crossed his arms too. He took a step forward and leaned closer to her. Step by step, he pressed her back against the wall. He locked her in between his body and the wall. His lip curled. “I don’t care if you want to cooperate or not. You’re going to.”

She snarled and pushed at his chest. Her fingers curled into fists against his chest when he didn’t release her or move back. Her jaw clenched. A vein in her temple throbbed.

Okay, hopefully you can see this is certifiably awful. There’s too much here. If you saw this in a published book, you would feel the author had overwritten, right? It isn’t something you’d want to read at all. So, if you don’t want to do this, how can you use body language sensibly?

It’s about giving the reader an image, so sometimes, less is more. Often, if you drop just subtle hints here and there, it will be more effective than using all of the different body language imagery you can come up with. So, here’s a way to rewrite the previous piece to make it cleaner and no longer overwritten.

Erica rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “You really think I would cooperate with you?”

Daniel took a step forward, his lip curling up. She took a step back, heart pounding. He took another step and then another until she was pressed against the wall, her fingers trembling against the brick behind her. His warm body locked her between him and the wall. She shoved him, but he didn’t budge, and her fingers curled into fists against his chest.

This second example is shorter, but it also uses specific cues to show first defiance, then contempt from the guy, and finally fear and anger from the girl when she can’t get rid of him. But I didn’t need all of the descriptions I had before. So think about the body language you want to draw attention to and make sure that body language will give the reader the clearest image of the emotion you’re trying to paint.

How Can You Learn Non-Verbal Cues to Incorporate Them?

I recommend reading Joe Navarro’s book What Every Body Is Saying and any of Paul Ekman’s work on microexpressions. The first one, in particular, is a good resource for readers who aren’t as into this kind of thing because it’s less about the science behind it and more about teaching normal, every day people how to better understand non-verbal cues. So use his book if you need a clearly explained, non-sciencey explanation of the topic. He’s got some pretty neat stories from his days in the FBI too, and he shares some throughout the book to illustrate his points.

Besides that, there are resources for writers specifically that can help you understand what emotions are associated with which body language displays. You can usually find those for free on the internet. Just know that you should vary up the different displays of body language associated with that emotion because not every person will display the same exact manipulator or pacifying behavior (terms that are explained by Navarro to be comforting behaviors that humans reflexively use when they’re uncomfortable or feel threatened). People may have something specific they do, such as playing with hair or jewelry for women or readjusting a neck tie or playing with a wedding ring for men. Different genders also go about comforting themselves differently when they’re nervous. Women may be more prone to one behavior than men in some situations, while men may be more prone to a different behavior than the women are in another. Knowing the differences can be tremendously helpful!

Conclusion

If you haven’t already, start doing the research on this area so you can better incorporate it into your work. It’s an important area that doesn’t get as much notice as it should. Do you have tips for finding good tips on body language or advice on incorporating it into writing? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Work-in-Progress Wednesdays #40

Featured Ariel Paiement
Lightning

This week’s WIP Wednesday comes from my ONC novel, again, since that’s mainly what I’m working on right now. This piece is from my most recent chapter.

~~~

He frowned. “Viv, hate to break it to you, but unless I’m going mad, nothing’s here. Is Mr. H meeting us here?”

She grinned. “Nope. Come on. We’ve got to go behind the buildings around this lot and under the fence. Follow me closely once we cross the fence line. The field’s an abandoned minefield, and only certain marked paths are safe.”

He sucked in a sharp breath. Wait for it… He’d ask the same things she had when one of the Deixebels had brought her here. He cleared his throat. “What do you mean abandoned minefield? They built this close to something that could blow everyone here sky-high?”

“Look around, Seb.”

He did as asked with a deepening frown.

“What do you see?”

“Run-down apartments that should have been condemned by now.”

“And who lives here, do you think?”

His gaze wandered around the space then returned to her, and understanding lit on his face then morphed to disgust. “All the people the government deemed unfit for a button or a good life. The ones they’d get rid of if they weren’t so useful for all the work no one else wants to do.”

“Precisely.” She headed across the lot, sidestepping debris and trash piles. “They’re citizens just like us, but no one cares if these people die. They’re all slotted for labor camps or execution based on age. But most people in their cozy two room apartments or big houses have no idea these people exist. No one respectable comes here. No one wants to risk ending up like them.”

He made a sound between a growl and a snort. “Are you serious? They just turn a blind eye?”

“You have to understand,” Viv said. “The people here live and die on the government’s whim. Too young to work? You live here with those who are too old for the labor camps or mines. Too old to do that either? You’re exterminated. Who would want to risk ending up like these people? There are rumors, of course, about this kind of thing happening to those who dissent, and even though no one says it, they’re scared they might end up that way.”

“And these people? Did they dissent?”

“No. Most were like you. Too outspoken for their own good, too freethinking. They didn’t dissent. They just questioned. But unfortunately for them, none of them were from the upper class. They were from the lower class.”

His lips pressed into a thin line, and he shook his head. “And they claim they take care of everyone.”

“They do. But some get taken care of in a very different kind of way than others.” She crossed her arms. “The Supreme Council believes they are gods, and gods hold life and death in their hands.”

He scowled. “How can anyone allow this?”

Her gaze fell on a young girl sitting in an alley, her belly distended and her eyes hollow. The girl seemed familiar, and then it struck her. This was the young woman from meeting last week that she’d seen giving her own share of bread away to another little girl even though she clearly needed it. Viv’s heart squeezed. If only she had a chip or two to give or even food if money wasn’t an option. She glanced down at her barely touched coffee. This was all she had, so it would have to do. She hurried over to the girl and knelt in front of her, ignoring Seb’s questioning stare. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

The girl’s gaze fell on the coffee, and her face lit up with interest. But distrust still lurked in her eyes when she lifted her gaze to Viv’s. “Evia, Miss.”

Thursday Technicalities: Imposter Syndrome

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

We’re going to take a break from some of the really technical stuff this week to discuss a problem all writers go through at some point: imposter syndrome. This is the point where you’ve finished writing something or you’ve published a book, maybe two or three, and you suddenly think something along these lines: 

  • What am I even doing? 
  • No one is going to read this. 
  • Can I even consider myself an author? 
  • All I’ve done is post my book up on Kindle with Amazon, so I probably don’t qualify as a real writer. If I tell people I am, I’m probably lying to them!
  • I’m too young to say this is my career.
  • What am I thinking trying to make money off this? I’ll never make it.
  • No publishing house wanted me, and there must be a reason, so why am I even bothering?
  • Indie publishing isn’t real publishing, so can I really say I’m a published author?
  • My good reviews are probably all coincidence.
  • I’m not as good as a real author.
  • I don’t have enough books out.
  • I got bad reviews, so that must mean my writing is awful.

And so on and so forth. These may seem out there to you now if you’ve never experienced this before, but most of us go through it. These thoughts and questions are ones that real authors and writers I’ve spoken to have said run through their minds, even after they have several or even many books out. It happens somewhere after the occurrence of the giddy feeling of finally being in print or releasing a new book. And, frankly, it sucks. You become your own worst critic and not in any kind of healthy way either.

Addressing the Problem

So, we’re going to talk about a few of the reasons for not believing the lies you tell yourself and about how to handle these feelings when they come up. Let me preface this discussion, however, by leveling with you. If you’re just putting your book out there for your 60 seconds of fame and you aren’t doing any work or trying to really do well, these feelings are merited. Then again, if you’re one of those individuals, you probably don’t feel any of this because you already know all you need to know and have a great book. Sarcasm aside, chances are, if you’re feeling these things, you’re actually doing something right. You recognize that you have areas where you can improve or spots where you’re maybe not doing so well. The problem is, you have to know when there is a legitimate concern and when there is not.

I can’t address all of the thoughts that will run through your mind on this topic, but let’s talk about some of the most common misconceptions that can lead to feelings of inferiority or self-hatred like we saw in the statements and questions above. Some of these may get a little bit blunt or very real in the responses to the issues. You’ve been warned! But seriously, I do address some of these in very real terms with concrete facts to help you to understand how you can combat the false thinking and the lies that plague writers who have imposter syndrome.

1. Indie publishing isn’t real publishing.

This is just plain wrong. Indie publishing IS publishing. Now, it doesn’t have the benefit of the gatekeeping function editors and agents provide, so there’s plenty of junk out there. There are plenty of people who publish just to be able to say they’re published. This has, of course, given a bad rap to those who indie publish, whether they’re one of those individuals or not.

However, you should know that if you’re really doing the leg work, indie publishing is usually just as much, if not more, work than traditional publishing because the author has to find their own editor or edit the entire book themselves, get a cover designer or figure out how to create their own, and be their own salesman. You have to do so many different things and wear so many different hats as an indie author. It’s hard work.

So don’t buy into the lie that it isn’t publishing or that you shouldn’t consider yourself a published author just because you indie published.

More and more people, including many good authors, are going this route because publishing houses aren’t providing them with the support and solid editing framework they need. They turn to freelancers to help them with the areas where they can’t do it, and then they do what’s called going wide (selling on as many online platforms as possible). But enough about indie publishing on this point. Let’s move to the next point.

2. I’m not as good as a real author.

First off, why are you comparing yourself to others in a negative way? Does being better than someone else or worse than them make you more or less an author somehow? No.

Being an author has nothing to do with whether or not you’re better than another author.

In fact, I’ve seen more than enough books from authors published by traditional means that suck. It’s not a pretty fact, but it is a fact nonetheless. Authors both indie and traditional can be bad writers. Unfortunate, but true.

Don’t judge your status as an author based on where you rank in comparison to the authors you grab off a Barnes and Noble bookshelf. (And p.s. Some of the titles you find on a Barnes and Noble bookshelf may actually be indie published books. More and more indie authors are getting their print and digital titles into physical bookstores and their online equivalents.)

Focus on improving yourself and looking at those better than you for new ways to grow and improve your own work. Do not focus on how much you stink at writing in comparison to someone else.

3. Good reviews are a coincidence and bad reviews mean my writing sucks.

Just no… Listen, your book can’t be all things to all people. Unless you’re getting only negative reviews, all of which are saying various parts of your writing like plot or characterization stink, do not assume your negative reviews mean you suck at writing! Usually, they’re an indication that a particular individual did not like your writing. It wasn’t their cup of tea, and they felt the need to tell everyone.

That’s fine.

Same goes for mixed reviews where they say both good and bad things (to be fair, these are the majority of my reviews unless I just loved the book too much to pay attention to flaws). There will always be someone who is discontent with something and feels the need to vocalize it.

Think of it this way. They’ll get rid of readers who will dislike the work for the same reasons. So less bad reviews for you.

Oh, and the good reviews are not coincidence. Just as the bad reviews are someone’s negative opinion about your book, good reviews are someone’s positive opinion about the book. Unless you bribed them to write it, which I doubt is the case, it’s not coincidence. So you should be proud of yourself and excited to see those good reviews come in. They’re honest expressions of someone’s delight with your work. Don’t let imposter syndrome steal the joy out of seeing those types of reviews!

4. No publishing house wanted me, so that must mean my writing is worthless.

Nope. It doesn’t. I mean, maybe it’s true in some cases, but publishing houses are looking for one thing and one thing only: what they think they can sell. For new writers, they add a criteria to that: what they think they can sell with minimal money spent.

Most publishing houses are about the bottom line, not about you. And furthermore, one of the reasons authors are moving to indie publishing has to do with the fact that many publishing houses don’t have the time to really edit or work with a manuscript, so they’ll only buy a manuscript they can pretty much throw into print after a proofread and basic edit.

They’re not going to put resources into an untried author, and many times, they aren’t even willing to do that for authors they’ve worked with for a while because authors move on to the highest bidder. Why develop talent for your competitor?

So, if publishing houses aren’t accepting you, it doesn’t automatically mean your work is trash. It often just means it isn’t what they’re looking for, isn’t something they think they can sell as is, or isn’t something they think they can sell with minimal advertising or marketing on their part. 

5. I don’t have enough books out or I’m not old enough to claim this as my career.

Okay, to be quite honest, this one is a very real concern for many. I’ve felt inadequate due to this one before. But here’s the thing. Age isn’t the determining factor in whether or not you’re a good writer, necessarily. Experience is!

You can have a fifteen-year-old who is a better writer than a thirty-year-old. Why? Because the fifteen-year-old has been working at it for the last five years and has been seriously trying to improve while the thirty-year-old has no experience in writing and is just starting out.

I’ve edited for clients quite a bit older than me before, and I’m able to do a lot to make their writing and their narrative better. Why? Not because I have a super power or am special, certainly. It’s because I’ve been doing this much longer than they have and have far more knowledge than they do in this area as a result. So age shouldn’t be the first thing you look at to determine whether or not its your career.

As for the other issue, you don’t go anywhere if you let yourself become paralyzed because you don’t have many books out. Every author must start with a debut novel and build up from there. Buy into this lie and insecurity, and you’ll be writing books until you’re grey and old but none of it will ever be published.

Publish that first book when it’s ready, and publish another when it’s ready. Have a publishing goal and a schedule for when you want to have things out so you’re consistently building up content, but stop worrying about how much you have out right now. It will build up as you go. I promise!

6. I’ll never make it. Why did I ever think I’d make money off this?

Last one! This one is a huge concern for almost any author. When you don’t see those sales numbers moving and you’re wondering how you can make the sales you need to gain traction, this one’s a really tough one to work around. I’ve been here, and I continue to be here as things don’t do so well at times. It’s depressing to see those low numbers.

But here’s the thing.

Other people have made it.

Not a tiny fraction either. Granted, you may not. Some people just never do, and if that’s what an honest assessment reveals about your trajectory, then fine. Keep writing but find another job you can do to bring in your main supply of income. It’s okay to do that, whether permanently or temporarily. But don’t buy into the idea that you can’t ever make it just because you haven’t yet.

Please know, I don’t advocate pinning your hopes on a pipe dream. I do believe that you should work on this over time. Work a regular job with decent pay while you get it off the ground. Don’t be stupid about how you go about it. But keep reaching for that end goal because people have made it, and if you are able to learn what works well for you as you experiment and work on getting to the goal, you can too. 

Conclusion

Okay, so this was a really long post! But hopefully this has been helpful to you. This is a common problem among writers of every kind, and it’s not talked about as often as it should be. It’s tough to admit our insecurities to the writing community, especially if one of those insecurities is that we’ll be invalidated as a writer.

But it’s also really important to talk about it. It’s important to address the fears we have so we’re not paralyzed by them and kept by success only because we were too insecure or scared to move on. Don’t let that be you!

Thursday Technicalities: Show Vs Tell

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

This week, we’re going to switch gears and talk about something that’s often discussed in the writing world. Show versus tell. Three words that both confuse and terrify lots of beginning writers. After all, it seems that everyone has a different idea of what exactly this means and how to go about achieving this. Not only that, some people say to eliminate all telling while others say some is okay. How do you know what’s right for your work and what the balance looks like? Well, there’s not necessarily a set of hard and fast rules. But before you panic about that, let’s take a look at what can be said about showing versus telling and some of the ways you can utilize it regardless of what you’re writing. We’ll also take a look at some instances where telling is okay. This will be a longer post because I’m going to give examples to make sure that everything is as clear as I can make it.

What Does Show vs. Tell Mean?

Simply put, when you show, you are describing. You’re giving the reader a picture instead of dictating to him what he must, necessarily, see. This probably doesn’t make much sense immediately, and if it doesn’t, I don’t blame you. Those who have been writing for a long time probably know what I mean and have fought the battle of editing for those pesky lines where they didn’t manage to achieve it. That’s just part of the writer’s life. But for those of you who are just starting out or who don’t know much about the technical side of writing, you’re justifiably confused.

So, let’s see if we can’t make this clear with an illustration.

This is telling:

Kendall was nervous.

All you have done here as the author is to state a fact. We now know Kendall is nervous, but this doesn’t necessarily paint a specific image. We can’t determine what Kendall is doing, how the viewpoint character (or narrator) might know such a thing, or why we should believe this to be fact. Aside from the fact that the narrator has stated it, we don’t have any solid footing here.

Compare the example above to this:

Kendall crossed her arms and gripped her upper arms tightly. With each passing moment, her grip tightened. She kept glancing at the clock on the wall, and Darren looked too. Why wouldn’t she stop staring at it? Was his company that disconcerting? She stopped looking at the clock and lifted a hand to toy with the blue pendant dangling at her throat. He cleared his throat to ask her to quit fidgeting, and Kendall jumped, leaning away for a moment before taking a step back with a shaky laugh and a darting glance at him. Did she think he hadn’t noticed her reaction to him? He just wished he understood why she was acting this way.

Okay, so we don’t necessarily know why Kendall is nervous here, but we do know it has something to do with Darren’s presence, and we also know for a fact that she is nervous. But Darren never states it. Instead, he notices the strange behavior she’s displaying, all of which points to her nervousness. 

One other important thing is different between these two samples. I’m sure you noticed that there’s a huge difference in length. Generally speaking, when you tell, your word count will be lower than if you had shown the same thing. Now, it may not be as drastic as what I have here. If Darren were a less observant person, he might only notice how she leans away from him or the darting of her gaze to the clock. He might only see one or two key behaviors that make him think, Wow, Kendall’s really nervous today. 

But we all pick up on clues from the people around us that tell us about what they’re feeling, especially in relation to us or to the other individuals around them. We may not consciously understand what we’re seeing, but we understand subconsciously. 

So, in this particular instance, you can use that to your advantage to show instead of tell. If this were to have been in Kendall’s point-of-view, things would be changed around a bit to leave out Darren’s speculations/questions and insert her own regarding Darren. But you would still show some of the same actions.

Hopefully, you get the idea regarding showing versus telling. You don’t want to overwrite, however. (For example, the passage above would be overwritten unless the character is of the Sherlock Holmes level of observational skill. But this was done intentionally to highlight the difference between the two methods.) Usually, showing is a matter of slipping the description in with a few lines here and there. Let’s go ahead and move on to talking about that next!

How to Show

As mentioned earlier, you don’t want to overwrite when you show. The passage I gave you earlier is definitely overwritten. Part of the problem, of course, is that it’s just straight text. There would, in a real situation, be some dialogue between these two. So let’s look at how I would write a short clip from a scene involving these two and the concept that Kendall is nervous.

Kendall crossed and uncrossed her arms for the fifth time in ten minutes. Her gaze flicked to the clock then back to the floor in front of her beanbag chair. Darren sighed. “Are you even listening to me?”

She stiffened and nodded vigorously.

He frowned and crossed his arms. “I don’t think you are.”Her eyes shifted up to his face and then away again. “I am.”

“Do you know why I’m upset?”She sneaked another peek at the clock behind him. “Have somewhere to be?”

Another shake of her head. She quit looking at the clock and moved to playing with the necklace he’d given her last year on her eighteenth birthday. Now he knew something was up.

A heavy silence fell over them. She shifted in her seat, and he just watched her fidget. Did she think he didn’t notice her reaction to him? Finally, he cleared his throat. “Seriously, don’t you understand why I’d be upset over your behavior?”

She started, her gaze flying to his face, and then she leaned back with a shaky laugh. “I’m sorry for…for showing up late for the party.”

Again, this is longer than it would be if you just used dialogue tags and told us what everyone in the scene felt. But this time, dialogue splits it up and balances out the showing you’re doing. I also removed some of the less necessary details while keeping key details such as fidgeting, playing with her necklace, shaky laughter, darting glances, and crossed arms. These all give off the impression of nervousness and a closed or wary mentality, at least for this current scene.

What if You Aren’t Showing A Person’s Emotional State?

I’m sure the question has now come to mind… What if I need to use showing for something that doesn’t involve a person’s emotional or physical state? Descriptive writing, thankfully, extends into the realm of dealing with the physical objects and settings around us as well. Let’s take a look at another show vs. tell example.

Telling:

The knife was shiny. (Notice that many times forms of the verb “was” show up in telling sentences.)

Showing:

Light glinted off the razor edge of the dagger. (Again, this is longer than the previous version, but notice that this time around, I went straight to writing something that would fit well in a scene. It isn’t overwritten, and it uses vivid verbs to get the idea across.)

You can use this concept to great effect in your writing. By making sure that most of your sentences show instead of tell, your writing will become more descriptive and more engaging. Readers will get a better picture in their minds of what you’re trying to show them in your story, and you’ll get more positive responses to your work.

A Note on When to Use Telling Instead

Sometimes, there is a good call for telling instead of showing. You don’t always have to show every detail. For example, it’s permissible to simply tell us the sky is red. If showing would lead to overwriting or a weakening of the flow, don’t do it. We want good, strong writing, not purple prose that no one wants to read. 

Another reason, in brief, for using telling is that a viewpoint character might not notice all the signs that would indicate a state of mind or emotion in another person. For instance, perhaps Darren from our prior example isn’t good with body language. Maybe he doesn’t notice anything except the way Kendall keeps looking at the clock. That doesn’t tell us she’s nervous, and maybe he doesn’t equate the other actions to anything strange because he just doesn’t notice. If that’s the case, he might not know why she strikes him as nervous. In this situation, you might have to proceed by making a statement like this: Darren couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but something about Kendall screamed nervous. 

If you have to use this technique, do your best to stay in deep POV. (If you haven’t yet, read that article here.) Notice that in the example above, I said “screamed nervous”. Phrases like these can lend to the telling sentence the voice of the viewpoint character and make it seem more like something the character might say if they were, indeed, unsure of why they thought what they did. This is a useful technique to avoid pulling readers out of the present, here-and-now with the character if you have to tell instead of show.

Conclusion

I hope this has helped to clear any uncertainty or confusion for you on the topic of show vs. tell. This is a tough topic, and there’s a lot that could be said about it. I covered the main points for those who don’t know anything about it or who struggle in this area. 

Do you have more tips on how to show instead of tell? If so, feel free to leave them in the comments below! Other writers’ perspectives can often add further levels of understanding and additional insight for beginners, so please pitch in if you have tips!

Thursday Technicalities: Writer’s Block

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

Every writer no matter their skill level has heard of writer’s block and has probably dealt with it too. We’ve all been there, bemoaning our inability to write and wondering why we just don’t seem to have the motivation. And we’ve all spent forever scrolling through blogs and even the occasional YouTube video looking for ways to beat writer’s block.

Depending on who you ask, writer’s block is either a very real problem or a non-existent problem used to excuse laziness. Truth be told, it can be either. Sometimes, you do just need to sit down and force yourself to write. If you’re writing only when the muse strikes, then you’re probably in this category. But if you’re not doing this and you genuinely can’t seem to make yourself sit down and write that next scene or chapter in your current work-in-progress, you may be wondering what to do. It isn’t laziness that’s stopping you. But what is?

The Root Causes

This problem of identifying why you don’t feel like writing or can’t seem to write anything at all is a genuine problem, but it’s a problem that has several root causes.

Root Cause #1: You’ve burned yourself out.

If this is you, it’s okay to take a break. Put the book you’re working on down for a few days and spend the usual time you have for writing on something relaxing. Watch a movie, go for a run, or just do something that helps you recharge.

Then, once you have recharged, do your best to balance things better so you don’t burn out. It’ll be more productive in the long run, and your work’s quality will be higher because writing won’t make you as stressed.

Root Cause #2: Something is wrong with the plot point.

If you aren’t burned out and in need of a break, and you aren’t just procrastinating, then a problem with the plot point is the only other cause for writer’s block. You might be wondering what I’m talking about. You’ve worked out the plot, and you didn’t think there were any problems.

I probably would’ve been with you on the confusion about six months ago. But about that point, I was reading through Rachel Aaron’s 2,000 to 10,000: How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of What You Love. Granted, the book wasn’t about writer’s block, but Rachel did discuss this point, and she made the same point I’m making. I read through her argument and thought, I don’t know if I really think that’s the cause. I mean, it’s an interesting viewpoint, but I don’t think that’s the issue.

Then I got stuck with one of my current works-in-progress. And I discovered just how right Rachel was. I didn’t want to write because I wasn’t interested in what I was writing. And once I worked through it, I came out with something much better and with steps to use for writer’s block in the future.

Simply put, if you’re not excited about writing that section, then you’ve found your problem. After all, if you were happy with or engaged in the plot at that point in the writing process, you wouldn’t be dragging your feet and feeling like it’s plain torture to write a word on the page.

 Unfortunately, this problem isn’t as simple to fix as the others. But there are a few troubleshooting steps you can go through to help fix this issue. These aren’t hard and fast steps, and you may develop your own as you deal with writer’s block. But these are the ones I developed as I worked through this root cause for writer’s block, so I’ll share them with you to get you started.

Before I go into those, however, let me say that the problem with your plot section might not be a logistical issue. By that, I mean that your plot section might fit great with where you want to go. It doesn’t create a technical “error” with the plot. But it still doesn’t grab your attention, and if it doesn’t grab yours, I guarantee it doesn’t grab the reader’s! If you can’t find the interest to write it, chances are you’ll communicate that lack of enthusiasm and boredom to your readers too.

Fixing the Problem

So now let’s look at how you can fix this.

Step #1: Identify what makes the plot point and its corresponding scenes so boring.

Why aren’t you excited to write this? What is the scene or series of scenes missing that would make it a joy to write instead of a drudgery? If you can figure this out, you’re on the right track for fixing it.

Step #2: Figure out if anything needs to change with the plot.

If you’re making changes to the plot point and its corresponding scenes, you may also need to change the way the rest of the plot flows from that point. Not all changes will be drastic enough to necessitate major changes, but it’s always best to double check that the new version of the plot point and its scenes fits fine with what you have planned. Even if it doesn’t, changing the point to make it something that actually holds interest is always the better choice.

Don’t stick with what isn’t working just because you feel locked into the plot or because you feel it’s necessary to get to your ending. If it’s really important for that thing to happen and for the book to end in that way, then find another way to get there that does hold your attention and makes you excited to write. Otherwise, just change things. Don’t be afraid to do that. Better to change it now than to force yourself to write what’s not working and end up with a weaker story in the end.

Step #3: Write.

Once you have things figured out, you should start writing right away. Don’t give procrastination a chance to set in. Chances are that if you’ve already made changes that you like, you’ll be excited to write, so put the momentum to good use. Your excitement over the new scene may mean you faster than usual, so why waste that advantage? Besides, the details you worked out will still be fresh in your mind, so writing the scene should be easier.

But most importantly, starting to write immediately helps to get you back into the schedule and to avoid any further writer’s block as a result of not sticking with your usual patterns of writing.

Conclusion

Those are the three steps you can use to help you deal with writer’s block when it isn’t a matter of laziness or burnout. But above all, remember that you are capable of working through this! Being stuck doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. Everyone gets stuck sometimes. The goal is just to get unstuck so you can continue doing what you love. And fortunately, all the root causes of writer’s block are solvable. So just keep writing and don’t give up.

Have a solution you use for writer’s block or a question about writer’s block? Feel free to leave a comment!