Bad Books

Time is running out and I keep getting myself distracted by writing up pieces not meant for today’s post. And so I will make this a brief one because I need to get back to some editing for my WIP.

“Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.”
– Paul Valery

When you read a published book only to discover it was a waste of your time and money, are you discouraged as a writer? Or, do you feel encouraged because you know deep down you could do better?

What makes a bad book?*

*amendment: what I'm asking is what is it about a book that will more than likely fail to keep your interest?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Questions to Ask While Editing

There are many questions we need to ask ourselves when we edit our fabulous first drafts. Below I’ve listed just a few:

Questions to ask first:
Does my story fit into the market?
Does it have a hook?
Does it have a satisfying ending?
Do I have enough chocolate in the house?
Do any of my scenes lack spark?
Do I have too much backstory or description?
Is the story engaging? Can I make it better?
Is the story easy to follow?

Questions to ask about character:
Are my characters believable and relatable?
Do they have a strong enough motivation?
Does the main character grow through the book?
Is the main character strong?
Does he/she have flaws?
Is their dialogue snappy enough?
Is there any unnecessary dialogue?

Questions to ask about conflict:
Does the tension build through the book?
Do I give my readers any anti-climaxes?
Has any of the conflict turned into melodrama?
Is the conflict believable?
Am I happy with the balance of inner and outer conflict?

Questions to ask about the details:
Is my style consistent?
Am I showing rather than telling?
Are there any unnecessary words?
Are my sentences active or passive?
Do I still have enough chocolate in the house?
Is my grammar correct?
Do I have any hidden typos that Word hasn’t picked up?
Is the story still easy to follow?

There are so many more questions that could be asked. What are some questions you ask while you edit your latest novel?

SPECIAL NOTE: Justine Dell is having a competition to celebrate her 250+ followers. The prizes are amazing. Check it out here

How to Make Compelling Characters

This post is part of Jen, Alex and Elana’s Great Blogging Experiment.

What makes a character compelling? What is that secret ingredient that makes us care about what happens to them? Below I’ve listed a few elements that add to a character’s charm.

Believability: characters should come across as real. Not cardboard cut outs. Compelling characters should be like onions. They should have more than one layer. They need to have depth, history, motivations, goals.

Relatability: characters should have traits we can all relate to. We like the people we connect with the most.

Flawed: characters who have flaws are more interesting and believable and in turn become more relatable. No one likes a perfect person. No one likes a perfectly bad person either.

Conflict: even the most interesting character becomes boring if they are placed in a story with no conflict. Our characters need challenges to overcome.

Envy: This might sound strange, but even a boring person becomes interesting when they have something we want. I’ll travel through a book with a bland character and hardly notice their blandness if they are living the life I want to live, overcoming the odds I want to overcome.

Uniqueness: the same ole clichéd characters we’ve all seen before won’t pique our interested. We should try to give them something new, something unexpected.

Consistency: characters need to react in a consistent way. We put our guard up when they do something totally unexpected without motivation.

Likeability: No one likes a whinger. Even a whinging villain can become a groan.

Can you think of other elements that make up a compelling character?

Beginning the Editing Process (Part 2)

Last Friday I wrote about how daunting it can be to start the editing process. Today, as promised, I will go into more detail about how to begin editing.

Editing becomes less daunting when we face it one step at a time.

Step 1: To kick start the process after a break you need to reimmerse yourself into your story. The best (and only) way to do this is to read through your entire manuscript (ms). Try to read it as if you are reading it for the first time. Resist the urge to edit. You can make brief notes, but that’s all.

There’s no point line editing at this stage. Let me repeat that: there is no point line editing at this stage. If you do, then you could spend hours looking for just the right word or phrase only to realise down the track the whole section needs to go.

Step 2: Read through your ms again, but this time write up a synopsis or a flow chart (if you haven’t already). The purpose of this is to break the story up into important events and changes in the Main Character’s (MC) external and internal development so that you can see the Big Picture. Some people require visual aids such as index cards or post it notes to shuffle around story elements.

Step 3: eat some chocolate. By this stage you’ll have earned it. You’ll likely need that gentle pick-me-up anyway.

Step 4: Take another look at what you have. Find the weaker elements in your story. Make sure you have the catchy beginning, a tight middle and a satisfying end. You’ll need to watch for character development, likeability and believability. You’ll need to keep an eye on tangents, unresolved elements and hidden discrepancies.

Step 5: eat some more chocolate because next you’ll need to take a look at the details: the superfluous words, the weak phrasing, the inconsistencies. You may have to return to step 3 a few times.

In short, editing is like building your very own croquembouche (profiterole tower). You have to start at the base and build up from a solid platform. Your solid platform is your plot. Once you are happy with the plot, how the story flows, the pace and the conflicts, then and only then is it worth spending time on more detailed editing. The spun sugar for your profiteroles is in the final detail: the right words and phrases; the appropriate sentence length; the correct grammar and formatting.

How often do you read through your ms while you edit? Do you use a different method of editing?

Note: every writer must find a way that works for them. Everyone is different. There is no absolute rule a writer must adhere to – except, “Keep writing!”

Top 10 TV Shows

I’m taking a break from my usual posts to take part in Alex J Cavanaugh’s Blogfest. Are you ready to see how geeky I truly am? 

1. Babylon 5 – In short, it’s about a group of people on a space station named Babylon 5. It was made in the 90s. I loved this series because of the awesome dialogue. Check here for cool quotes.

2. Firefly – aired in 2002, it lasted only one season as a series, but it was brilliant. It was a Space Western. I loved the characters, the dialogue and the world. 

3. Friends – Apart from some of the hairstyles and outfits, this series hasn’t aged since the 90s. The stories and characters are still relevant and amusing.

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The early seasons were the best when it didn’t take itself too seriously. It was just a bit of fun.

5. Dr Who – A British scifi that’s older than me. I think it started in the 60s but it’s still going strong. It never had a big budget and some of the monsters and sets used to be dodgy, but it proved that story drives a good show.

6. Masterchef Australia – it’s taken from a British show, but we’ve made it our own. It’s similar to Top Chef but without the backstabbing. It’s about amateur cooks vying to be titled Masterchef. It’s the only reality show I watch these days.

7. Misfits – This is also British, about a group of young offenders forced to work in a community service programme, where they become imbued with supernatural powers after a strange electrical storm. Due to its success they’ve started filming the second season in May. There are some rough language and elements in the story but I enjoyed it anyway. I think it’s labelled as a dark comedy. 

8. Stargate SG1/Universe – two great series. I enjoyed the characters and the stories. SG1 has a great re-watchability to it. 

9. Star Trek – Original – Sure, it’s dated, sure I only ever watched it as reruns, but I loved the spark between the three main characters. The stories were imaginative at the time, they didn’t take themselves too seriously and it was fun to watch.

10. Fawlty Towers – A British comedy made in the 70s and only had 12 episodes, but they were all memorable in their silliness.

So there you have it. This list shifts and changes a lot for me, depending on my mood.  And I'm sure I've forgotten a few which deserve to be on this list more. If you haven't taken part in the blogfest, I'd still love to hear which tv shows are your favourite.
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