writing advice – Page 5 – Cynthia D. Griffin

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Fight Scenes Part 1: An Introduction

Posted on October 20, 2014July 9, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

I finally managed to get through my notes from Jonathan Maberrry’s (the author of the popular Rot and Ruin series) a workshop I took. There was a lot of information so I am breaking it down into a five part series. I will start with this introduction, then part 2 on physical differences, part 3 on hand to hand combat, part 4 on weapons, and lastly part 5 on psychological warfare. Oh and make sure to look for the Fun Facts at the end of each post in this series!

So let’s get started as we look at some very basics of fight scenes and fighting information in general. The very first thing to remember with ALL fight scenes is…

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Putting More Emotion Into Your Writing

Posted on September 22, 2014July 7, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Recently, a friend of mine emailed a question about how to let the reader in on what another character other than the main character is feeling. I promptly answered, and then realized it would also make a great topic for a blog post. I haven’t touched on emotional writing for awhile, so here we go. Let’s dive into how to become an emotional writer.

Ever read or written a sentence like this…..

“You can’t be serious? How could you do that? Roger replied angrily.

“Wow. Would you look at that?” Madison said. I could tell she was surprised.

On the surface there’s nothing really wrong with these sentences. But from a creative writing standpoint, well… they aren’t that spectacular either. Mostly, because these sentences are telling the reader what’s going on instead of showing it. The reader doesn’t want to be told how the characters are feeling, they want to feel it for themselves. One of the best way to accomplish this is to give emotional cues.

What’s an emotional cue?

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Stages of Writing: Freestyle Writing vs. Rewriting vs. Editing

Posted on February 10, 2014July 7, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

The first thing to learn in the writing journey is that not all writing is the same. There are several types or stages of writing, and each of them requires a certain mindset and set of skills to accomplish them. And just because you’re good at one type of writing, doesn’t make you good at the other types, and making the transitions to each can be difficult to accomplish or there might be difficulty in determining when to make the transition.

Freestyle Writing
This is the kind of writing most people assume writers do (but in reality it’s just the first step in a larger process). It’s the fun stuff. The part were you let everything just explode out of your head and onto the page. It’s an everything goes kind of thing where no idea is a bad idea and anything can happen. It can be a most uplifting experience, especially if you’ve done a lot of thinking about the story before ever placing pen to paper. If you’ve been there, you know what I mean. It’s where that thing called a writer’s high happens, and it’s a great place to be!

This writing stage doesn’t require a whole lot of special knowledge. Just an idea of what makes a good story, what makes compelling characters, and how to write a beginning, middle and end of a story. Much of this can be learned simply by being an avid reader, or taking some writing workshops on story structure and character development.

Rewriting
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Writing Filters to Use: The Finer Details Filters

Posted on January 20, 2014July 13, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

Last week, I talked about writing filers and how helpful they can be to lessen the blow of all that work needing to be done on the freshly finished first draft. After using the Big Picture Filters, now it’s time to polish it up with the Finer Details. There are also ten major topic areas to look at while sprucing up story to completion, they include: spelling/grammar/punctuation, emotion, style, fact checking, word choices, sentence construction, rhythm, time, clarity, and tone.

Note: These details should be left to later drafts. Messing around with these topics before getting the basic structure of the story done is a quick way to the biggest headache of your life, and it will make a lot of extra unnecessary work.

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Writing Filters to Use: The Bigger Picture Part 3

Posted on January 13, 2014July 13, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

The first and second part of Writing Filters to Use talked about filtering through plot, character, conflict, dialogue, scenes, and point of view. Now let’s go more into structure of a story and look at pace, setting, continuity, and balance.

Pace

Questions to ask…

Did the plot/subplots move fast enough to keep your attention?
Did it skip around too much to keep track of the characters and plot?
If nonfiction, can it be tightened?
Are there enough examples (non-fiction)? If so, where and how does the writer need to improve pacing?
Does pace vary?
Is the pace of each scene appropriate?
Does pace influence tone?
Does pace increase/decrease tension?
Are action and dialogue balanced? Characters should be somewhere doing something when they speak; actions alone will keep the reader at a distance- outside looking in. Pages of description is no better than empty space. Speech that neither defines character nor moves plot can be deleted. In general no more than four lines of dialogue should be written without a break: some action, even a gesture.

Setting

Questions to ask…

Is setting conveyed sufficiently?
Is the setting appropriate for the story?
Would a different setting work better?
Is setting used to advance plot, to create tone, to increase tension?
Are readers given a clear sense of place and time for each scene?

Things that can be done to enhance Setting…

Verify details
Make sure setting details are appropriate to story and scene
Make sure setting doesn’t overwhelm action and plot
Include props that characters can handle and use

Continuity

Questions to ask…

When you finished reading, were there loose ends that were left unresolved?
Was there anything that needed further explanation?
Were there any inconsistencies?
Do the characters plod through the story? It is not necessary to record each step the character takes. Can some details be deleted allowing the reader to take an active role through the imagination and inference?

Balance

Questions to ask…

Is there too much going on in the story?
Is the author’s hand too visible? Does it stick out?

Things that can be done to enhance Balance…

Ensure balance between elements; make sure no one element overwhelms
Balance character thoughts, dialogue, and actions with setting and description
Balance sections, scenes, chapters, and acts

I know it’s a lot to take in. Take a deep breath. Just remember to focus on a few areas at a time. Once you feel like you’ve nailed all the bigger details, don’t think you’re done yet. There’s more to do! Now it’s time to get to the smaller details. Check out the followup post Writing Filters to Use: Finer Detail Filters.