3T Writing Tidbit - Building Desire Without Saying a Word

 When I asked Chat GPT to give my poor tired brain a break from thinking of blog topics, I asked for two common and three uncommon.

Chat GPT, in its amazing way, turned that into "two familiar (crowd-pleasers) and three uncommon (conversation-starters)".

This is one of the conversation starters. 

I have to give you the title it chose, too. It's really good. 

3. The Chemistry Equation: Writing Desire Beyond Dialogue 

Hook:
 

So sexual tension to me is all about pacing. It's like an ocean that builds. Small waves, medium waves, large waves, waves that bowl you over. But waves -- build and release, build and release. Some authors only build build build. To me, that only makes the character crank so tight they implode instead of explode.

I digress. How do you build tension without dialog?

Physical cues like glances, a drawn breath, a hesitation. If you do it right, the reader glances or breathes along with the character and experiences the emotional build that goes along with.

Internal cues, like awareness of a racing heartbeat, tingling body, a rush of heat.

Emotional cues, especially the non-standard like vulnerability, trust, surprise.

The trough between the waves is a huge deal. One of the best erotic/romantic scenes I ever read ended with the heroine on the bed in a negligee and flushed and the hero slamming out the door... and the chapter ended and I couldn't believe it, I turned the page to the hero re-opening the door with "And another thing..." Of course in the meantime the heroine has thrown off her negligee in disgust and he stands there, stunned... and then they rush to each other and the consummation was everything I was hoping for and even more powerful because it so nearly didn't happen. Sometimes, the power is what's almost said--or almost done.

Start small and build. Rest between -- those pauses whet the appetite.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.    

3T Writing Tidbit

 Writing Despite the Day Job

Selling books is hard. Selling your own books... much harder, especially if you're from the era taught not to blow your own horn (lest one be called an egotistical little b-word).

These days, you can write and publish your own books pretty much for the cost of a computer to upload them. If you want to do it right, of course, you'll hire an editor to catch those pesky mistakes that jolt the reader and a cover artist to get readers to even look at your book in the first place.

But the hardest thing I've come across yet is writing when you have a day job.

I used to do it. My first two books were written when I was a consultant. But my current employment, while I started out as junior and so not very important (and so protected from getting called into a critical!! BIG-BIG-BIG problem meeting at 5pm) has changed. Half my team has since left and I've had the misfortune to become more important at work.

 So. No writing between 7am and 5pm. Too exhausted after to do more than make dinner and collapse. Weekends spent catching up on all the home and body maintenance I don't have time to do during the week. Vacations spent visiting relatives.

What can you do?

• When you collapse...how about reading a book instead of watching TV? Not every night, but every little bit helps keep the narrative wheels greased.
• How about saving a couple days PTO for just yourself? Especially this time of year, when you're thinking about the days to you have to use or lose, but before the holiday crunch sets in?
• If you commute, the easy straights are good times to do some story planning or work out small knots. Not when conditions are hazardous, though!
• If you don't commute to work, how about when you commute to sleep? Can you lure yourself to slumberland by thinking on character, plot, or pacing?

Notice what I haven't recommended. Honestly, some posts are just trying to hand us death by guilt or annihilate us by overwork.

• Get up an hour earlier and write?? Seriously? If you like to get up early because the house is quiet, that's great! But don't alter your routine so much that it makes you sick.
• Stay up an hour later and write?? Again, if you're a night owl and up anyway, sure, take advantage as long as it doesn't burn you out.
• Dictate your book while you're on the treadmill (or other exercise)?? Hey, if it's something you can do, I applaud you! It's already hard enough for me to get on that treadmill. I need a bit of a reward to do it (I do read while walking), not babbling some stream of consciousness that then takes me half an hour to re-listen to and digest and which I could distill to a sentence in one minute if I were sitting and writing. 

What do you do for your writing despite the day job? What writing-life-hacks backfire big time? Let me know!

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - Crafting Characters Readers Will Love

 Here's another in the Chat GPT generated blog ideas, balm to a tired brain after a long day. 

 Readers don't want perfection. They want to read about people like them (but better... or worse).

Think about it. What would Sherlock Holmes be without Watson? Holmes is brilliant, but cold and analytical and in many ways normally unapproachable. Conan Doyle wrote a couple stories from Holmes's point of view and the reception was mixed to negative. Watson is like us, and gives us a way to experience Holmes that's appealing.

What makes a character "like us"?

We have flaws. We have desires -- in a story, usually one thing we want badly. We have inner thoughts, some humorous, some poignant. We have awkward moments, inviting empathy. We have anger and love and moments of beauty.

I'm sorry, but I have to use Chat GPT's takeaway line because it's too perfect. After all I said about readers not wanting perfection, lol. 

Takeaway:
A reader doesn’t want flawless—they want fascinating.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.    

 

3T Writing Tidbit - Show, Don't Tell - Without Losing Your Style

I've reached the end of a long day -- working 45 hour weeks and this is my one day off half of which I used to take the cats to the vet. In the other half, I've scheduled two years of 2T Repeat Performances and written four 3T Writing Tidbits, but I need to finish off 2026 for writing tidbits and I'm out of cards and ideas.

So I turned to Chat GPT. Bless you, AI, for giving a tired brain ideas and outlines.

Writers get told things like "show, don't tell." A good idea, but commands from on high, told so often they begin to sound like laws, become so set in stone that if you break them you're going to writerly jail and will be forced to use a 1986 word processor for the rest of your life.

Fortunately, not only is "show don't tell" not a law, sometimes telling is the shortcut your story needs. 

First, what are show and tell? 

• Show. The character experiences it, so the reader experiences it. The reader experiences it, she gets pulled into the story.
• Tell. The character or narrator relates it, so the reader hears about it instead of experiencing it.

Now, when do you use each?

• Show. This is the musical equivalent of an aria or solo. It's for the big emotional scenes. In stories it's also for action scenes where the stakes are high, or where the action resolves inner or outer goals or plot points.
• Tell. This is the dialog in a musical. Transitions, routines. You can also tell when the style of telling helps build character, for example punk rocker Nixie's inner monologue scoping sexy but uptight lawyer Julian "Hawt suit, lotsa skrilla, but daggy." (Hot establishment-guy, rich but unfashionable.)

So how do you show, don't tell, without losing your writing style?

Trick question! It's not showing or telling that's the point, it's using the best tool for keeping your reader immersed in your story. 

Also, while AI is great and getting better every day, you notice how the premise "without losing your style" (Chat GPT used "voice") isn't fulfilled except in the tell portion? 

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit

 I've written several times (too many, probably) that I'm having issues with Soul Mates, the final book in the Pull of the Moon series. While I'm overcoming them one by one, there's one I don't think I'll be able to solve.

See, while I'm working full time, the closest I get to writing and plotting is reading other authors' books. Many favorites, but I've found a ton of new authors to love, too. And you know what?

Most of them are in first person. 

I'm just not finding third person immediate enough anymore. First person is so much more intimate, more compact. "I tossed her the flashlight. She bobbled it, and I choked back a laugh." vs "She tossed her the flashlight. She bobbled it, and she choked back a laugh. (Nope. You gotta change that to "Alice tossed Betty the flashlight. She bobbled it, and Alice choked back a laugh.)

For some reason, the first person books seem to explore more ideas in a deeper way. 

Better for me to read--and easier for me to write. If I can put myself in the character's head, the words just flow, because she's telling her story. She's telling me her thoughts, her fears, her hopes.

Third person is me telling her story. Great if I need to span more than her point of view, but essentially like experiencing her life through a roll of cotton wadding.

I started the series in third person, specifically for readers who prefer it, so I'll finish it in third person -- even if I have to write it in first and switch it over to do it. 

 What about you? What point of view is your favorite? Any? All? Even second person POV?

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - lucking fuvely wordplay

April showers bring may flowers, and Mayflowers bring pilgrims.

As writers, we each have our own ways of expressing ourselves. In other words, though we all tell stories, we each have our own styles.

Still, there are some common tools in our tool kits. One is wordplay.

Wordplay is the thing that allows you to take the sentence, "I had a dog and his name was Blue," and morph it to, "I had a dog and he sang the blues," or "I had a frog and he croaked the blues," or...

Wordplay creates a phrase like "lucking fuvely" from an -ahem- less pristine saying.

It takes the stock (and therefore probably boring) idiom, "Create a dissent among the ranks," and spins it into the Sopranos bit of fun, "Create a little dysentery among the ranks."

AI enumerates several different types of wordplay, puns, double entendres, Spoonerisms, malapropisms, alliterations and portmanteaus (my social media creation, TwitFace, falls into this camp). But in the end, it's all about playing with language in order to tickle the reader. 

I write action/humor romance, so it's a tool I find easier to fit in with my style. What about you? How can you use wordplay to enliven your prose and delight your reader? 

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - Synopsis in a Snap

I have probably posted this before, but I came across it while going through the blog tours I've done (2013, if anyone's counting) and it bears repeating.

Synopsis in a Snap

You’ve just spend weeks (or months or years) writing, honing, and polishing your story. But to sell it, you need to write a full synopsis. Condense your 30-120K down to 500 words or less. Does your heart pound and your mouth? Does your whole being rebel against the thought?

Well, of course. A synopsis is like putting your story on an X-treme diet. Who likes diets, especially ones that reduce to a bare 1% of the total?

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can ease the stress and write a synopsis in a snap by flipping your thinking around.

Build the synopsis from the ground up.

You simply have to know the traditional five turning points of your story: the catalyst, the big event, the pinch, the crisis, and the climax. (This technique is for the synopsis, complete with ending, that you send an editor, publisher, or agent. The teaser synopsis or blurb is another animal.)

Let’s build a synopsis using these five points from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, you’ll still be able to follow along.

Here are the turning points. If you don’t understand the story from the raw points, that’s okay. It’ll become clearer as we go.

Catalyst: Dorothy Gale’s dog Toto is seized by her wicked neighbor. When Toto escapes, Dorothy and Toto run away from home.

Big Event: A cyclone hits, sweeping Dorothy’s house, Toto and Dorothy away.

Pinch: Dorothy and her friends reach the Wizard, only to be told she must destroy the Wicked Witch (or bring him her broomstick in the film).

Crisis: The Witch captures Dorothy and her friends, and imprisons her away from her friends.

Climax: The hot air balloon takes off without Dorothy. She must rely on herself to get back home.

Note that the book jumps right to the Big Event, but that’s a normal difference between books and movies. Authors are taught to get right into the story. Screenplays include a setup that’s usually ten percent of the finished film.

Now we write our synopsis. Add a sentence or two before the point to orient the reader, and between the points to transition smoothly between. You can also add in one or two points of color. In this case, I’ll expand “Dorothy’s friends” to include their very lively names, and add the yellow brick road. Another addition is the theme, which I’ll added at the end.

Dorothy Gale is a young girl living with her aunt and uncle on a small, old, and gray farm; only her dog Toto makes her laugh. Then Toto is seized by her wicked neighbor, so when Dorothy recovers Toto, the pair runs away from home.

Dorothy meets a carnival man who convinces her to go home. But when she gets there a cyclone hits. Before Dorothy can hide, the wind sweeps away Dorothy’s house with Toto and Dorothy in it.

The house lands in a colorful countryside—on top of a Wicked Witch, killing her.  A good witch appears and tells Dorothy only the great wizard Oz can send her home. She gives Dorothy the dead witch’s Silver Shoes (ruby slippers in the movie). Dorothy follows a road of yellow brick to Oz’s city, and along the way rescues three friends: the Scarecrow; the Tin Woodman; and the Cowardly Lion. But when Dorothy and her friends reach the Wizard, he will only help her if she destroys another witch, the Wicked Witch of the West.

But the Wicked Witch sees them coming and sends the Winged Monkeys at them. The Monkeys capture Dorothy and Toto (and the Lion in the book) and take her to the Witch, who incarcerates her (enslaves her in the book). Dorothy is alone and friendless.

But when the Witch tries to steal Dorothy’s lovely slippers, Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her in anger, which melts the Witch. Dorothy is freed. She collects her friends and returns to the Wizard to claim her reward.

The Wizard tries to get out of his promise, and when Dorothy and her friends confront him, is proven to be merely a man. But he has a hot air balloon and take Dorothy back to Kansas in it.

Then the day of the launch, the hot air balloon takes off without Dorothy. She must rely on herself to get back home. The good witch tells Dorothy the Silver Shoes (ruby slippers) will take her and Toto home. She’s had the power all along but without her adventure she wouldn’t have known that there truly is no place like home.

Easier than whittling down a hundred or so pages, right? Only items which are essential to making the plot points make sense are added, such as the slippers which trigger Dorothy’s anger (melting the Witch) and get her home. Only the main characters or those who infuse extreme color are named.

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you’ll note I haven’t included the friends’ stories. That’s why this is such a great tool. The Scarecrow’s brain, the Tin Woodsman’s heart, and the Cowardly Lion’s courage are important, but they’re not critical to the plot points, so I know I can safely exclude them.

Need more? If you’re asked for a longer synopsis, you can simply list the five plot points for any secondary stories and weave them in. This also works for romance, where you have plot points for hero and heroine each.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.    

3T Writing Tidbit - Planning the Villain

Plotting with Goal Conflict Disaster is primarily from the protagonist's point of view and keeps the hero front and center.

But let's zoom in on the conflict. What stands in the protagonist's way? It's usually the bad guy/gal (or their minions).

Now, a good baddy will have their own character arc that puts them organically in opposition to the hero. But let's zoom in another level and think about how that opposition manifests.

What's in your villain's character? Are they a ninja and do things by stealth? Gun enthusiast and will meet the hero at high noon? Maybe they're a planner like Moriarty. Or is fisticuffs or dueling more their style? Perhaps they just chuck the minions at the hero and run under cover of the brawl. (Throw in pies if you're writing a comedy :) .) There's nothing like good, old-fashioned bullying and intimidation, but the hero has to have a good reason to back down -- maybe the baddy is bullying those around the hero instead.

Each one gives us a different slant on the baddy, showing, not telling, a bit of their character.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.  

3T Writing Tidbit - An Easy Way to Create More Interesting Characters

We're told to hook the reader with the protagonist within 5 pages by showing them as likeable, or doing something heroic, or being funny, or one of a number of other things.

Which is fine, but what do we do with the character for the other 295 pages?

Here's an idea which also has some personality analysis behind it.

There's this thing called Myers-Briggs® Personality Type which authors sometimes use to give their characters a constellation of related traits.

But did you know that, when that personality feels threatened or frustrated, the Opposing Role -- the exact opposite -- can show up as a defender? Makes us more interesting as people (and a little scary) -- and it can do the same for your character!

Give them a set of related characteristics, but also give them one or two exact opposites. Now you not only have the nut on the guitar, you have the bridge and can have fun with the string between! (In other words, it gives your character depth and resonance.)

Example: Sherlock Holmes. Holmes is extremely smart and driven. Yet he's dumb about his cocaine use and suffers bouts of ennui, the exact opposite.

The cool thing about this technique is you can also use it to pep up your character's physical description. My vampire lawyer Julian is tall, dark, and handsome - and graceful. But instead of having the expected slim, artistic hands, his are square and competent (which draws the heroine Nixie in spite of his stuffy lawyerliness). The contrast can draw in the reader, too!

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.  

3T Writing Tidbit - What's your point of view?

I wrote a story a while back where the couple was a woman of 26 (25 being the average age of a woman's first marriage at the time) and an ageless (looks around 28) vampire. There were other characters in the story but most of them were about the same age, except for one retirement aged man and two older women.

Now, one of the older women had moments of quite broad humor. But most of the characters in this story were quirky. And I myself am an older woman, so I didn't see any problem.

I was surprised therefore when a reader wrote with how offended she was with how I treated older women in the story.

Here's why. We all read stories through a point-of-view character. When we really get into a story, a lot of times we'll see ourselves as that character. Think Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes literature.

What I didn't get at the time was this: not everyone's point-of-view character is the heroine (or hero if the reader's male).

Here's what I figured out. An older woman might not see herself in the main female character - she might see herself in the older female characters.

So be careful writing your characters. If you have an evil character, make sure you have a balancing character - one of the same characteristics who is good. Because you never know which character the reader will identify with.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

3T Writing Tidbit - Writing the Holidays

 If you google "Writing the Holidays" (I'm writing this the last day of 2024, so I'm assuming people are still googling, but who knows what evolution AI will have effected) you'll get everything from writing holiday stories to writing despite the holidays to writing to stay sane through the holidays.

I have a short but different take. Be aware of the holidays and use that awareness to write better stories (holiday or not).

In the northern hemisphere, days leading up to December 21 are getting darker and darker. Not only do days themselves shorten, but the daylight itself becomes thin, like nightmare lighting. The effect is more marked the farther north you go.

In the southern hemisphere, this happens in June, but they deal with it the same way northerners do.

GIVE ME MORE LIGHT

Sydney hosts the largest festival of lights. In my subdivision, December sees us rivaling small countries in use of electricity.

Here's the writer's take on it. Check out these two images (made with Stencil).

 

 The first really pops! Lots of things going on, lots of color and light.

The second is much more sedate. Only a few people, and there's only two colors of light, blue and pale yellow.

But here's the twist. Look at the text. In which picture does it stand out more?

Well, right. The second. So does that mean we should always go for the more singular, subdued light?

Sure -- if you want the text to stand out. But if you're writing a mystery, the best way to hide a clue is in plain sight -- with a whole passel of color and light and bustle going on around it.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - What's in a Name?

I recently wrote a rant post on repetition, how over-repetition drives me nuts, and techniques to avoid that. Avoid over-repetition, not driving me nuts.

Here is one place to break that rule. When first establishing a character, do repeat the character's name several times.

 Back when they had TV intros, several took advantage of this. Whatever you think of the set tensions, I can still remember "Who am I? I'm Rick Castle Castle Castle" and "Every writer needs inspiration and I've found mine Detective Kate Beckett Beckett Beckett".

Now, this doesn't have to be a straight repeat like Nixie Nixie Nixie (or Beetlejuice... nope, not saying that one 3 times). You can change up how you get your character's name in the reader's mental ear. Make it part of the title (Biting Nixie) or have established characters talking about her before or after she shows up. Make it explicit by having her introduce herself or make it implicit by weaving it into the scenery (a lawyer or banker on a billboard; a singer's song streaming in the background).

Mix these approaches up to make sure your character's name stays with the reader.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.  

3T Writing Tidbit - writing update

I haven’t been writing much lately. In 2018, my life took a sharp and unexpected turn after the loss of my older brother and a beloved uncle-in-law, along with a serious health crisis in our family. At the same time, financial realities made it necessary for me to return to the regular workforce. It was a season of change that pulled my focus elsewhere, even though writing has always mattered deeply to me.

So I went back to school and freshened up my credentials for application development or as we used to call it, computer programming. Fast forward two years, I got a day job just as COVID reached its peak and my home writing office was repurposed as a home app development office. Fast forward five more years and it's now.

And I've been mentally working on Soul Mates all along.

There's a blog or two or three out there about the troubles I've been having with the final book in the Pull of the Moon series. I didn't like the hero. The heroine was boring. The plot was disjointed. The villain had one-dimensional motivation.

One by one, over the years, I've been working these out. 

I'm still not writing, but I'm a lot closer than I've been. I'm actually getting exciting about the hero, the heroine, the plot -- even the villain. 

If you're one of my readers waiting for the finale to Pull of the Moon, don't lose heart. It's coming.

3T Writing Tidbit - A Brief Rant

 As I was sorting through my cards (I jot down ideas on writing on index cards and have, at this point, an inch and a half pile) looking for things I haven't written a tidbit on, I came across one on scene planning.

While overall it's the usual: Goal, Conflict, Disaster, there's a difference. It suggests color-coding the scene based on twists, shifts, and repetition. It's this last that I want to address.

I'm climbing up on my soapbox here. This is a pet peeve, and if you don't want to hear a diatribe, don't go any farther.

You've been warned, lol.

Repetition can be good. It's a basic tenet of musical composition. State your theme. Repeat it, to get it in your listener's ear. Then start to repeat it - but vary it just enough to make something new. Think the start of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Da-da-da-duhhhh. Da-da-da-duhhhh. Da-da-da-duh, da-da-da-duh, da-da-da-duh (and we're off!)

Repeating the scene's goal or the protagonist's goal can be good. If it's been 100 pages since it's been mentioned and she's about to face her deepest fear, by all means, give the reader a reminder.

But for the love of all that's holy please please please do not repeat it twice a page. Don't even repeat it more than twice a scene unless you're going to vary it enough to make it new.

Don't you trust your reader to remember it?

I have a favorite PNR author I had to stop buying because she repeats the heroine's goals and/or fears at least a dozen times per chapter. Without variation or adding anything to the plot, character, or even deepening those goals/fears.

Deep breath. Thanks, I feel better now.

So what can we do about this authorly tic? 

• Trust your reader to remember the goal (it's strong enough to remember, isn't it?). 
• If you must put in a reminder, vary it somehow from the last time you brought it up.
• Better yet, make it add to the plot, or character development, or deepen (or twist!) the goal somehow.
• Reread the whole scene. It'll take hours to days to write a scene, and we may be repeating the goal because we can't remember it from yesterday. Read it as the reader will experience it to catch that annoying tic. 
  

(See what I did there? I repeated the information in the paragraph 2 above this, but varied it to make it stand out differently.)

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - Body Language

 As writers, we're told constantly "show, not tell". While I'm not behind this statement more than 70% (cuz really, how boring would be having to live through all the character's moments in a day?), I do think we need to be good at it in order for the reader to become truly immersed in the story.

So here's an easy way to show not tell, one we use in real life: body language. The proof's even in the description! It's not talking language. It's the language of movement, of showing a story through intimate personal dance.

Keep an eye out for ways people in your life (or just people-watching) signal emotions. Do they lift an eyebrow in disbelief, or do they wince? Maybe when they're puzzled, they scrunch up their face or just rub their nose.

Once you have a list of ways an emotion can be shown through body language, go back and consider them against your character. Would Superman, if he was puzzled, be a face scruncher or a nost rubber? Would Sherlock Holmes, if he was disbelieving, be a wincer or eyebrow lifter? 

Pick your body language and have fun showing!

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - Sharpen your first-draft lump of clay

When I first write something, it resembles a lump of clay. It's vaguely vase-shaped, but it's thick and lumpy and has no color.

One of the things I do when editing is to sharpen up the details.

Character: Lean into their quirks. Are they a snobby lawyer? Get out your thesaurus and upgrade their dialog from talky to loquacious. Pick a word of one or two syllables in each sentence and trade it in for a spiffy new word of four or five. Lean into obfuscation!

Setting: Make all descriptions specific. Don't just say there's a rank odor - is it burnt hair or bubbling sulfur or the rasp of spores from moldy bread?

Plot: Have a bang-up scene ender? Go back to the beginning of the scene and have the protagonist expect the total opposite. Have a couple twists in the book? Figure out how to add one more -- both you and the reader will be pleasantly surprised with how much that adds. Look for scenes that add nothing to character or plot development -- and cut them.

Sequels: the bits where the protagonist ruminates over what's happened and plots their next goal usually start out all in her head. Sharpen these by adding solid resonances. Is she planning violence? Have her pick up a knife or bazooka. Is she totally fed up with work? Have her throw her computer mouse across the room or glaring at a customer considering coming in her empty check-out line at one minute after closing or shutting her eyes as her manager stomps toward her or... you get the idea.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - I hate selling, but without sales I'll starve

 The creativity to write books doesn't always exist alongside another very important talent needed by authors to be successful -- selling.

Basic fact is, if you want to be a successful author, you have to sell books.

Now, I do not like selling. Didn't like it even as a child. Frankly, most of the band candy I sold was to myself.

You may be like me and wonder how you'll be successful. Well, here's a small thought to help you.

It's not about what I need. It's about what I can contribute.

Readers are actively looking for good books. Your book is good, right? So why not just let them know about your book?

 

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.   

3T Writing Tidbit - the dreaded scenery dump

Too often when I read a book the plot comes to a crashing stop to set the scene.

Now Umberto Eco got away with exhaustive description in The Name of the Rose (although frankly, I skipped a lot of pages). And I heard Hunchback of Notre Dame starts out with an architectural treatise on Paris.

But most of us aren't Umberto Eco or Victor Hugo. So how do we give the reader a sense of the surroundings without stopping them in their tracks?

The answer's in the question - a sense of the surroundings. Your character is moving into, around, and through your scene. Let the reader experience the place through her senses! 

Compare:

The store's neon sign was bright blue.

My gaze lit on the store's neon sign, a blue which seared my retinas. I stumbled around half-blind for the next minute.

Or:

Lilac bushes lined the yard.

A scent teased her nose, drawing her toward the yard. Sweet, heady, the scent from the lilac bushes filled her with a sudden joy.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.  

3T Writing Tidbit - End on a Bang?

 I have a two-inch stack of notecards filled with bits and bytes I've learned over the years. Today in reviewing them I came across one that reads

Prologue needs to end on a bang.

So, part of that is because prologues are out of fashion. Readers want to be immersed in the story as close as possible to the moment the story engine starts. If you're going to flout that, you'd better have the hook to end all hooks at the conclusion to make sure they read on (basically they're starting over again with Chapter One, why are you doing that to your poor reader)?

Really, we're taught to end every section with a bang, aren't we? Sequel structure is: Character has a Goal and makes a Plan to get the Goal. Okay, here we go! Scene is: Character executes Plan. Plan goes off the rails, and Character does not get the Goal. Sometimes Character not only doesn't get the Goal, Something Worse Happens.

Chapters traditionally end with Something Worse, which is often Oh No What Will Happen Now!! or what my husband calls the wha-wha whaaaa moment (think of a melodrama music just before the ads break).

Example: I crept up to the sleeping man who held all the answers to my missing parents. Gently I shook his shoulder to wake him. He rolled onto his back, mouth agape.

He was dead.

Wha-wha whaaaa!

Example: Chloe walked into the bar, angrily searching out her cheating boyfriend. When she got hold of the him and whatever skank he was two-timing her with... she saw him in the back corner. Some cheap blonde was all over him. Chloe stalked toward the couple, readying her scathing words. Her boyfriend saw her, his eyes widening. The blonde must've sensed his stiffening because she turned. Chloe stopped in recognition.

It was her sister.

Wha-wha whaaaa!

As much as we as writers should strive to hook the reader and offer surprises and turns of fortune to keep them reading...

Don't go full melodrama. Don't end your scene, chapter, or even prologue with a wha-wha whaaaa.

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits. 

3T Writing Tidbit - How Predictable (aka boring) Is Your Story?

 I've been struggling with the last book in the Pull of the Moon series. At first, it was because I didn't like the hero. Fixed that, but then I didn't find the heroine compelling. But everything I thought of to make her interesting seemed even flatter.

What to do? How do I know what's boring and what isn't?

Well, how predictable is it? 

Here's where the newest type of AI may come in handy. GPT (as in ChatGPT) stands for Generative Pre-training Transformer.  Basically, the way it works is the AI has learned, after combing through a sheer sheiss-ton of data, what most likely comes next.

Example: Ask ChatGPT 'What comes next after "Five foot two, eyes of".'

Reply:

It depends on where you're going with it! If you're referencing the classic 1925 song "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue," the next words are:

"blue, but oh what those five foot could do!"

Or were you setting up something different? Maybe a fun twist for a character description? 😏

So how can that help me de-dull my heroine? Come with me on an experiment. Let's see what ChatGPT thinks.

Here's the basic starting point.

Witch princess and seer Ari Blue uses her talents to assist surly, annoyingly sexy police detective Name Tobedetermined, when suddenly a magic-world-changing prophecy puts her in the driver's seat -- a seat which gets very hot when she finds Evil Badguy Wizard has escaped from prison and is after the same thing she is -- the key to magic iteself.  

I asked ChatGPT to give me the most obvious internal and external goals.

Here's ChatGPT's reply:

Ari’s goals can be broken down like this:

External Goal (What she thinks she wants):

Ari wants to find the key to magic before Evil Badguy Wizard does, protecting it (and the world) from his clutches. She’s also navigating her reluctant partnership with the detective, using her talents to solve magical crimes while resisting (or maybe not resisting) their mutual attraction.

Internal Goal (What she actually needs):

Ari needs to step into her power—both as a seer and a princess—owning her leadership role instead of avoiding it. She must overcome self-doubt, accept responsibility for shaping the future, and realize that destiny isn’t just something that happens to her; it’s something she can take control of.

If you want to add layers, you could give her a personal stake—like a fear of becoming like her ancestors, a past prophecy gone wrong, or a deep-seated belief that she’s not fit to lead. That would make her growth even juicier! 😏

Then I asked ChatGPT to take the same premise but give me the least obvious internal and external goals. Here's the reply:

Ooh, I love this challenge! Here’s a deeper, less obvious take on Ari’s goals:

Least Obvious External Goal (What she doesn't realize she’s pursuing):

Ari isn't just after the key to magic—she's trying to break the entire system that created it. Maybe magic itself has been controlled or manipulated by an elite few (possibly even her own ancestors), and she begins to question who should have the power to wield it. At first, she thinks she’s just preventing Evil Badguy Wizard from getting it, but her real journey is about deciding what to do with it once she has it.

Least Obvious Internal Goal (The subconscious drive she doesn't recognize at first):

Ari is searching for true autonomy. As a princess and a seer, her whole life has been dictated by bloodlines and fate—who she is, what she should do, and even what she sees coming. Deep down, she craves the ability to make choices that aren’t predestined. Her real struggle isn’t just stopping the villain; it’s figuring out whether she wants to follow the prophecy or burn it all down and rewrite her own future.

This approach adds some delicious tension: Does she really want the key to magic, or does she want to destroy it? And if she does… does that make her a hero or something else entirely? 😏

So I have to admit I was thinking in terms of the first one. Now I can see that, yes, it's obvious (and therefore boring). Plus I can see there are soo many better directions!

 

IMHO using generative AI responses out of the box is akin to plagiarism (exception: like quoting an authority, when you're quoting it, as above). 

 

But to use it as a script partner, to spark new ideas?

 

Well, what do you think?