Pride and Prejudice and Lists

First, if you’re interested, here is a link to an interview with me. When you click on it, the first thing you’ll see is login information. Ignore this and just scroll down to hear the interview: http://newmoon.com/podcast/gail-carson-levine-interview/.

On February 4, 2016 Ella Hensen wrote, I really love writing fiction and whenever I start writing something I get really excited about what I’m going to do. I’ll write some the first day and then the next day I keep going but by then it’s turned into something I don’t like at all! Most of the time it’s way to similar to a book I have just finished reading that I loved. How do I stop this from happening? Has this happened to anyone else?

Christie Powell wrote back, It seems like Gail has answered similar questions about this. Here’s a good one: http://gailcarsonlevine.com/blog/2015/06/10/like-falling-in-love-and-out-and-in/.

NPennyworth commented, You’re not alone; this has happened to me too many times to count! Whenever it does I look at the story and ask “What don’t I like about this?” Sometimes I want to write a different part of the story, and then I switch to that. Sometimes a character doesn’t make sense and I take a break to do some character building. Sometimes it’s just a slow, but necessary, part of the plot, and I try to just plow through it so I can get to the more exciting parts. I usually find that if I dislike what I’m writing it’s because I’m bored, so I try to shake things up by putting in an action scene or a new character, or switching POV.

If all of the above fails, then I try to give my brain a break for a while. I can switch to writing another story, or do something else entirely. But I eventually sit down and try again. Being a writer isn’t all light bulbs and inspiration; a fair bit of writing is just forcing yourself to write.

I love NPennyworth’s suggestions. And I love her calm and practical tone. No desperation or self-condemnation. Writing is almost always a bumpy ride. We need approaches that help us keep jogging and slogging.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what loosens me up when I write, because, in my opinion, being loose is imperative. When we’re tight nothing new can squeeze out–or at the least our original ideas have a harder time getting past our rigid gate-keepers.

For me, I need a space in my work where nothing counts. In a poem, all I have to do is drop down a couple of lines. As soon as I’ve done that, I’ve disfigured the poem–really! The stanzas no longer descend in an orderly way, and all bets are off. I’ve made a mess, so I might as well play. I can feel my brain relax. I often copy over the lines that don’t satisfy me and try them different ways. Many different ways. The loosening allows me to consider the poem as a whole, too. Maybe the words are fine but the lines aren’t arriving in the right sequence. I try one way, close the poem up again, consider, and, often, start over.

In a novel-in-progress, I toggle over to my notes in order to relax. If what’s troubling me is the way I’ve expressed myself in a paragraph, for instance, I’ll copy the whole thing into my notes. Suppose I don’t think I’m being clear, well, I may rewrite the paragraph in the most basic way I can think of, even if the writing is less than charming. Then I may copy that and revise. If I’m not happy, I start again.

If the problem is bigger than the way I’ve expressed myself in a paragraph, if it’s a plot or character problem, I’ll write notes about that. And often I’ll list possibilities.

Ah, lists! The world’s greatest boon to originality. All great thinkers use them, actually down through history. When the wheel was invented, it was the product of a list scratched into dirt with a stick, like this:
Possible shapes:
diamond
square
isosceles triangle
circle
hexagon
blob

As history proves, the right solution may not be the last to appear on our list, but it’s the one we most often circle (hah!) back to.

So how can we use a list to move our story from following the course of the last novel we read and loved?

A thread in comments on the last blog concerned Pride and Prejudice and Lydia’s elopement with Mr. Wickham, which ***SPOILER ALERT*** had the eventual effect of uniting Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Suppose we’re writing a romance, too, and we adore P&P, as I do, so we make our two star-crossed lovers misunderstand each other, even though the reader knows they’re meant to be together. It’s a contemporary tale, because we’re a tad doubtful that we can be pitch-perfect regarding early nineteenth century England. Our MC Melanie’s family is wacky and can be counted on to say and do precisely the wrong thing at precisely the right moment for maximum trouble. Melanie’s sister Winette has a crush on geeky James, who is a whiz at all things tech and oh-so helpful when anyone’s computer melts down. We’re tempted to make James kidnap Winette, and have Melanie’s opposite number Stefan find her while she’s still alive. But even we realize this is just too derivative. So, how can we use James and Winette to bring Melanie and Stefan together? We make a list:

∙ Stefan discovers that James has hacked into the family’s financial information and has account numbers, passwords, and social security numbers. Stefan brings his discovery to Melanie and never suggests by so much as a sneer that her parents are careless fools who deserve to be swindled. Since we don’t want her rescued (though Austen doesn’t mind), she handles James.

∙ Melanie herself realizes what James is up to. With more courage than caution, she confronts him. He shrugs and says that he did nothing without Winette’s knowledge. If he’s prosecuted, she will be, too. He leaves her at the coffee shop where they met. On the way home, she runs into Stefan, who sees how distraught she is. She tells him what’s happened, and between the two of them, they cook up a way to foil James. In the course of their planning, they come to appreciate each other.

∙ James steals the family service dog, who is the only being who can calm down Melanie’s father when he becomes agitated. Family and friends mobilize to find the dog, and Melanie and Stefan wind up collaborating on the rescue.

∙ This one moves away from James. Despite her flirting, Winette is friendless. After being aloof at a social event, Stefan is kind to her when her schoolmates torment her. Melanie begins to appreciate him.

We can keep going. If I were writing this story, I would, to give myself even more choices. I’d think about Melanie’s family members and come up with a possibility that involves each of them. I’d also consider other characters and other aspects of Melanie’s life, and I’d invent possibilities for Stefan, too. I might even go back to other Austen books and see how she brought matters to a head in them. Then I might adapt one to these circumstances and use it.

Lists can be any length, but it can help to set a minimum number. I may say I want at least seven options. When I get to seven, I can still keep going.

Just one more thing about my process and finding the freedom to develop ideas. When I wrote the possibilities above, I got tight about my list, because I was going to put it out where others could read it, while my lists and my notes are usually private. I had to drop down on my page, away from the bullets where the final ideas would go. Then I could loosen up again. That’s what I mean about how important a safe space is.

Here are three prompts:

∙ You knew this was coming. Add three more possibilities to my list.

∙ Write a scene based on an item on your list or mine.

∙ Write a list of four other ways Jane Austen might have taken P&P. Leave it in the eighteenth century or make it modern. Write a scene from your new plot development. Or do this same thing with a different book.

Have fun, and save what you write!

84 Responses on “Pride and Prejudice and Lists”

  1. Kitty says:

    Thanks for another great post, Gail! If you don’t mind, I’d like to make an announcement about Camp NaNoWriMo here:

    Camp NaNoWriMo starts in April, but you can start signing up now. For those of you that did NaNoWriMo last November, you’re probably already familiar with the structure: write a novel in 30 days. It’s online, it’s free, it’s super fun, and you get awesome prizes at the end. (For more information visit nanowrimo.org or campnanowrimo.org) Camp NaNoWriMo is a bit different though, in 3 aspects:
    1. You get to set your own word count goal, which is really great for those that can’t quite manage 50,000 words
    2. You’re not limited to writing a novel. Anything writing related is fine for Camp, including revisions (which is what I’ll be doing), short stories, poetry, nonfiction, etc.
    3. Perhaps the best of all, “Campers” are divided into cabins of 12 people, to form their own little writing group, making it a lot more cozy and community oriented than regular NaNoWriMo.

    I’m thinking we can start our own little blog group cabin, so if you want to join, either PM me or reply to this comment (if that’s ok, Gail) with your username (my username is cattus if you want to PM me) and I’ll add you to the cabin. If we have more than 12 people than we’ll probably have to split up, but we’ll figure that out when we come to it. Last November I made a group thread in the forums, which didn’t get a ton of interaction, but I think that the cabin system with its own private message board system might work better this year. (Fingers crossed.)

    So yeah, if anyone wants to have a fun writing retreat this April, come check out Camp NaNoWriMo!

    (Just to be clear, if you want to participate, you DO NOT have to join my cabin if you don’t want to. That’s just something I thought would be a nice group bonding activity for those of us on the blog. You’re welcome to join other private cabins, get sorted into a random cabin or one based on genre, or not join one at all. I’d love for you to join me though, so it’s not just little ol’ me awkwardly sitting alone 🙂 )

    • Gail Carson Levine says:

      I’m very happy to provide the means to get this terrific thing started. I love that a writing community has sprung up around the blog!

    • Christie Powell says:

      I’d been thinking about the camp but wasn’t sure if I’d do it or not, mainly because I don’t have a goal in mind. I just finished my first presentable draft of my WIP so I’ve been taking a break while waiting for feedback. I’m not sure if my goal would be to polish that one or to extend my “break” and work on another idea waiting in the wings… I was thinking of doing a first person middle grade, so if I do that now I will definitely be rereading Ella Enchanted to help get a feel for what I’m doing.

      • Kitty says:

        Really? Maybe the accounts for regular NaNoWriMo and Camp are separate. In that case, you could make a new account on the Camp website if you want. Since Camp lets you set your own word count goal anyway, there’s really no difference between the regular and YWP. Hope this helps!

  2. Poppie says:

    Hi everyone! I have a question. Has anyone ever redeemed a bad guy? The villains in my fanfic story have once been good, then they were turned evil by dark magic, now they need to become good again.
    How can I make that happen in a convincing, non-magical way?

    • Christie Powell says:

      I did a short story where the main character is extremely angry. It grows through the story until she snaps. She set a house on fire (magically) without realizing her little brother is inside. So she has to save him, and as she does she sees the consequences of her anger tearing everything apart, and that helps her to set her anger aside and start to forgive the people who hurt her. “The Christmas Carol” is a good example of a book with this rebirth plot. Even kid movies like Frozen or the Lego movie use it.

      If this is a really bad person, I’d think it would have to be something pretty dramatic to be convincing. Shakespeare got away with “I ran into some monks and converted and now I’m going to make everything right again”, but that was a long time ago. Realizing that their actions are harming someone they care about seemed like a good one.

    • Jenalyn Barton says:

      My favorite example of a villain gone good is Zuko from Avatar: the Last Airbender. It is a TV show, so they had a bit more time to work with his character, but there is still a lot to learn from it. I’ve watched the show over a dozen times now (yes, I’m slightly obsessed), and I’ve observed that Zuko’s character arc basically went through three stages: Establishment, Fall, and Redemption. In the first season, the story focuses on establishing his character. You will notice that even though he is a villain, the creators of the show waste no time in creating sympathy for the character. In fact, they do this from the start, by explaining his motives and giving him a rival villain who is even worse than he is. His back story is established in the first season as well, helping us understand why he is so determined to capture Aang. In the second season he has a fall from grace, where he loses his status and is forced to live the life of a fugitive. He learns some lessons on humility and such because of this, then has his major fall when he betrays his uncle in his attempt to regain his status. In the third season his character goes through redemption, when he realizes that having his status back has not made him happy at all, and that true honor comes from being loyal and doing the right thing despite the opposition. He then switches sides, and spends the rest of the season earning the trust of those he once hunted. By the end of the show, his change from bad to good feels ultimately satisfying. If he had skipped any one of these three stages, his change of heart would have felt hasty and contrived.

      Hope that helps!

    • Song4myKing says:

      If they were turned evil by dark magic, perhaps they can realize what happened and consider what they really want to be like.

    • Emma says:

      Oooooh, interesting question, Poppie. I have considered doing this before on one of my villains, but have never gotten around to it. One of my favorite methods I’ve heard of goes like this:
      The bad guy is forced to help the good guy in some way (either the bad guy is captured, and is literally forced, or because of unfortunate circumstances has to help the good guy… this could go in a million different directions). While helping the good guy, the bad guy either realizes 1) There is no reason for them to remain evil, 2) They actually agree with some of the things the hero does/says/believes, 3) They actually have come to care for the hero because of their kindness (whether this is through a brother-brother relationship or a romantic one is up to you). Because of a realization, perhaps the bad guy actually saves the good guy without really realizing what they’re doing. This could be a literal rescue or an emotional “rescue”, or anything along those lines. The bad guy comes to the conclusion after the rescue that they no longer want to be a bad guy anymore, and end up the hero’s sidekick, romantic interest, mentor, or even the hero him/herself.
      Now, this does involve a relationship of some kind, and it would really work best on a quest story. But of course, hero doesn’t have to change the bad guy. The bad guy could change because of his/her new found relationship with another good character. Anyway, I just like this idea because it highly involves sympathetic/likable characters, and would work best in a quest (my personal favorite type of story). It also doesn’t have to involve magic, and can be very convincing. I hope this helps!

  3. Bookworm says:

    Poppie, here are some ideas:
    Your villains could:
    *notice something your good character(s) did that made him/her see the error of his/her ways
    *get a nightmare that snaps them out of it
    Your other characters could:
    *slap him/her (literally or figuratively) out of it

    If you want to be extra convincing, maybe a character can rant about it to the villains, giving the villains new POVs
    I can probably think up some more if these aren’t what you’re looking for. I would need some more information, though.

  4. Bookworm says:

    I need some help making fictional creatures. I have a couple, and I know their purpose, what they’re called, and some powers they have. My problem is that I just can’t seem to figure out what they look like! Everything else is figured out except their physical appearance. Please help!

    • Christie Powell says:

      A lot of magical creatures are mixes of earthly ones. The griffin is an eagle/lion cross, for instance. You could try picking a couple of animals (especially ones that come to mind when you think of their powers) and mash them together.

      Another idea: describe an animal that already exists that few people have heard of, or describe it in an unusual way. Many years ago I wrote a story with a “chitwa”, which was actually a red panda. I also mentioned a blue-tongued camel leopard (giraffe).

      • Bookworm says:

        Thank you so much for the help! My creatures are really weird though. I made them humanoid, but didn’t think up details. I’m trying really hard to make an underwater creature that doesn’t look like stuff I’ve seen on games or anything. One of my side MCs is going to run into one (or swim into one) later. Any water creature qualities that’ll be good for it? It has to be a good swimmer. I’m running out of ideas (aahh!)!

        • Christie Powell says:

          I’ve heard a fairy tale about a seal who could shed its skin and become human, then put it back on and return to the sea.

          Throwing some ideas around (maybe you should make a list like Gail’s post suggested!). you probably don’t want long, flowing hair–that would slow it way down, human swimmers where swim caps for a reason. You need some way to provide power for your forward thrust–like a tail or webbed feet. If you want them to talk underwater, it should either be telepathic or through some kind of whistle sound (very few water creatures are vocal). If it’s a predator (or common prey) it’d probably be dark colored, possibly with light underneath. If not (a vegetarian too large for most predators to eat) you can have all sorts of interesting, vibrant colors. You could even have it change color like an octopus. Actually what it eats and what might eat it is going to determine a lot about what it looks like.

        • Emma says:

          As the saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun, so you’re probably going to end up with creatures that have characteristics similar to ones already created, unless you have a vision or a dream involving something unlike anything ever been seen by man. That being said, there are plenty of ways to create original creatures while still using certain characteristics from other creatures.
          I have searched about mythological creatures on wikipedia, and have found a very helpful list. If you type in the search bar “List of legendary creatures by type” that will take you to a list of different mythological creates; some of which, I’ve never heard of before. You can also try typing in “List of fictional humanoid species in literature”, which I also found interesting.
          You might try searching about Bunyips, (which are very strange) Selkies (the seals that shed skin and become human like Christie Powell mentioned), and Icthyocentaurs.
          You could use one of these lesser known underwater creatures and combine them with a human. You could combine the powerful tail, and over-protectiveness of an Abaia (which is a giant, mythological eel), with the waist up of a human, along with the beauty and singing voices of the Naiads (you could also make them all female like Naiads, if you wished). Then, you could add characteristics like hair that changes colors depending on emotions, or horns, or skin that is pale lavender, or iridescent fins on their lower arms, or eyes that are unusually large and are vivd shades of green. These are some suggestions that have worked out for me when I’m creating new characters and species. I hope this helps, and I’m sorry if I ranted for too long. I love mythological creatures. 🙂

          • Bookworm says:

            So sorry I didn’t reply earlier. Thank you everyone who helped with my question!
            Emma: I love mythological creatures too! Especially the ones from Greek Mythology! They’re so fascinating! They’ve helped me a lot with my books. I might use some of your ideas. They’re really good. I looked up abaia, and some of their traits might be perfect. I’ve known about Ichthyocentaurs and Naiads for a while, but I never thought of using some of their traits for a creature in my book!
            Thanks again to everyone who helped!

  6. Bug says:

    Oh, my goodness, I loved the podcast! That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you actually speak, so it was pretty cool after reading your blog and your books for so long. It was really fun to listen to!

  7. Martina Preston says:

    Okay, so first thank you everyone who helped me with my last question. In a completely different WiP, I am retelling the fairy tale Manyfurs (combined with Snow White). My MC has to fall in love with the prince, obviously, and I have a side prince as well whom she does not like, but is supposed to marry. I don’t want it to be unrealistic, and sorry if this is an awkward question, but how do I make my characters fall in love slowly? Not just like a “love at first sight” sort of thing…

    • Christie V Powell says:

      If you want to be really realistic, make sure it’s awkward and full of guesswork (I think he likes me… but I don’t know, maybe it’s wishful thinking… did that count as a date? He didn’t hug me at the end, I think that’s what makes it a date…). To be convincingly romantic, I find that it helps to focus on other things first and have the romance second; for instance, have them become friends, learn to trust each other, connect over something emotional that doesn’t have to do with their relationship, have each other when they feel singled out by a different group… things like that.

  9. Chrissa Pedersen says:

    How delicious to hear your voice, Gail, it was like having you in the same room. Being terrified of public speaking myself, I was so impressed at how calm, relaxed and articulate you sounded. I fear that I would have stammered and um’ed quite a bit! In regards to the blog post, I love the listing idea. For a current WIP that I’m attempting to PLOT rather than PANTS, I’ve made a list of plot questions. Under each question I have several options which I can explore further to see where the story would take me. Some options result in dead ends which I can discard, while others lead to open ends that I can explore further. The hardest part is deciding which option to pick when there is more than one that I like. The nicest thing about this listing process is exactly what you said, I feel looser and freer since I’m not officially writing–I’m exploring.

  10. The Florid Sword says:

    So I’ve been working kind of full-time on a series for five years. I’ve been totally obsessed with it and then suddenly the other day my interest just went away. I didn’t care about it, I wasn’t interested, and I didn’t want to write the series anymore.
    I was crushed. Still am.
    What do you do when what you thought was your life’s work seems to fizzled and died off after years of laboring on it?

    • Gail Carson Levine says:

      Sorry you’re suffering! (Suffering as only writers do.) I’d suggest leaving the series for a month. Try to not even think about it. Pursue other arts. If you want to write, write in a different genre, like poetry, nonfiction, journalism.

    • Song4myKing says:

      I feel your pain! And I think you should take Gail’s advice and take a break. If you felt like it was your life work, and worked at it loyally for five years, don’t worry too much. I’m pretty sure it will come back. In the meantime, don’t sit and stew. Normally, I’m almost too busy to write, but once my writing downtime coincided with my schedule downtime. Bad news. Find something to pour your energy into.

      Even it the obsession doesn’t come back in full force right away, you can choose to believe in the story and doggedly work at it anyway. Many times, I’ve thought that probably my story was cliched and stupid and all the rest, but I keep going, because I’ve come so far, and so what if no one else likes it? I’ll probably never know for real if it’s any good (of course I’ll hear both yea and nay, but will I ever know which it really is?) so I might as well just keep going and make it the best I can. The thing about loosing the magic on a long-term project – when you return, you can determine to defy the pessimism you had toward it. You can now see the problems and fix them.

      I think I sometimes write, not because I care so much about the plot or characters anymore (I already know they’ve reached where they needed to go and they’ll be alright), but because I DID care at one point. Because I’m remembering the little girl me, who would have loved to read this story. Because of the new writer me and who so badly wanted it to not be a flop.

  11. Kitty says:

    I need help. I’m writing a short story for a contest, but I’m 238 words over 1,000 word limit, and I absolutely cannot cut any more. I’ve used most of the tricks in the book, changing everything to contractions, cutting out fluff, and even cutting out a whole scene. The story is simple enough; spurred by a radio announcement of winning a mystery prize, 16 year old Nina takes her 5 year old sister Francesca (who’s implied to be sick with an unspecified disease) to the radio station to claim the prize. The two girls have a discussion about what they would want to win, culminating with Francesca saying that she wants a pair of wings so that she can be lighter and not be a burden on her family (which a classmate has accused her of being, but Nina, taking the word literally (as a heavy object), thinks that she just needs to be lighter, hence the need for wings) and Nina’s response. I’ve kept the description down to a minimum, but I feel like if I cut anymore description I’ll lose some of the emotional poignancy. Gahh…cutting 800 words was easy, but now that I’m down to the last 200s I’m having a really hard time. Any advice?

      • Emma says:

        I have had that happen to me once, too, Kitty. A beta-reader would help for sure, like Christie Powell said. When I was writing for my short story contest, I started out with a great idea, and went with it. It was going great, and I was loving where it was heading… until I saw the word count at the bottom of the screen. The word count was 891, and I wasn’t even close to finishing (the word limit was 1,000, by the way). It made me really mad at first, because I really wanted to use the story, but I loved the story I had created too much to change it. I knew that if I took away too much, it wouldn’t be nearly as good as I wanted it to be. So I started a new story. Now, I had about five days to a week until the deadline to send it in, which was cutting it pretty close, so I suggest that if you have less than five days to work with, don’t start over on a new story. Anyway, I wrote my new short story, which I came to love just as much as the 1st one. By the time I got to the end, I was 24 words over the limit. After editing, I finished with 988 words.
        So I said all that to say that if you have time, it’s ok to start on a new short story. It may surprise you that you may even like the new story you come up with just as much. Also, since, from what it sounds like, you are very happy with your story and don’t want to strip it of all the good stuff, you may want to leave it the way it is so you can develop the story more without worrying about the word count. If starting on a completely new short story kind of scares you, don’t let it. That’s what I did, and guess what? I won 1st in the contest I entered it in. Hope all this helps, and I hope the contest goes well, whatever you decide to do!

    • Song4myKing says:

      I’ll be looking forward to that post, Gail! I have a similar problem with a novel. I’ve read that YA novels are generally 50,000 to 90,000 words and I realized that at 106,000 words, I needed to trim mine down. So I did, taking into consideration comments from my “beta readers” and cutting not-so-needed scenes, paragraphs, and words. I got it down to 98,000 words, but I don’t think I can cut much more and keep the same story. That might not be so bad, except that there’s a publisher that I’d really like to send it to. The publisher is one of the few with the right audience who accepts unsolicited manuscripts. But I see on their submissions page, that they expect YA fiction to be 30,000 to 60,000. Now I’m trying to decide if I should send it anyway, or skip it, or try splitting my novel into two (which would be difficult, after all this time trying to make it one cohesive whole!).

      Kitty, I hope you don’t mind me piggy-backing off your question. :/ Any advice or opinions from anyone will be appreciated!

      • Melissa Mead says:

        If the guidelines say 30,000-60,000, I wouldn’t send them a 98,000 word novel. Ignoring guidelines is one of the quickest ways to get cut, especially for new writers. And splitting the novel into 2 books would mean trying to sell 2 books, not just one. This may not be the right story for this market (or vice versa.)

        • Gail Carson Levine says:

          This publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts? If yes, I agree with Melissa. But if you’re going to send a query and sample chapter, then I’d say, go ahead. If there’s interest, you can say then that the manuscript exceeds length expectations and ask if they’d still like to see it. In that circumstance the answer may be yes.

  12. writingcyclist says:

    I always write a story …. and go strait to the beginning to re- write I’m never happy with my writing! How can I move on (So I can finish at least one full draft) and be semi satisfied with myself

  13. Christie V Powell says:

    I really enjoyed your interview, Gail. Thanks for posting it. I especially enjoyed your comment about your books teaching something that you needed to learn. I’m tempted to go through some of the stories I’ve written and see if there are any lessons I missed.

  14. WriterGirl4Life says:

    I’m having trouble thinking of a proper title. I’m a type of person who likes to have a title in mind from the beginning, but I can’t think of a good. one. Please helpQ
    My story’s about a girl who finds a fairy and travels to another world. While she’s trying to get home, she meets many friends and enemies, and discovers that her mother was the queen of the magical world, which makes her the heir. There’s also a tyrant which she has to overthrow.

    • Christie V Powell says:

      Something with Princess in it might help, unless discovering that she is a princess is a big plot twist.
      With my short stories, I have been choosing a specific item that comes up in the story and is somewhat symbolic of the theme, if that makes sense. I did “The Stone Hand”, which is about a girl whose hand was petrified when she was younger; “The Gold Shell”, which is a rare item that brought wealth to a main character family; and “Daylily”, the favorite flower of a younger brother, as the old brother reflects on his life. I got the idea mostly from Harry Potter, where the titles include an item or people that prove pivotal to the plot.

  15. Bookworm says:

    Any more info you could give us on the book without spoiling it? It might help with the title problem. With more info, I could help think of a good title. Here are a couple suggestions:
    *(insert your character’s name here) and the Hidden World
    *(the name of the magical world can be the title)
    *The World of Enchantment

    Without more info, this is all I can think of. I’ll keep trying though. These probably aren’t what you’re looking for, but maybe they’ll help. If I think of anything else, I’ll post it. Good luck!

    • WriterGirl4Life says:

      Thanks! Those are really great ideas. Sorry, I can’t think of any more info I can give without giving away the story.

  16. Bookworm says:

    Does anyone have any advice for writing a story in first person with a character with a different personality than the writer? I’m having a lot of trouble with that. It’s okay in third person, but first person is what I’m aiming for. Any help with this is welcome and appreciated.

  17. Bookworm says:

    Just give your character pauses, or do something like this: “I was a just small child then,” I said, fiddling with my pencil. My friend listened attentively. “I only know what they told me.” That kind of thing. My character does it all the time. Hope this helped you. In one of my WIPs (I have at least two), my MC isn’t much like me, as I mentioned in my last post. She’s really shy, and she doesn’t often say what’s on her mind. I have trouble sticking to what her personality is supposed to be, since I’m definitely not shy. Please help!

    • Emma says:

      This is interesting, because I am struggling with this a little bit too. In my WIP that I’ve mentioned several times on here that has four MCs, one of the sisters is very much like me, and one is very much not. I find myself subconsciously making the one that is most like me talk the most and ask the most questions (because I tend to be inquisitive, and talkative depending on the situation), while the character who is least like me says very little. I could use some help as well on this subject, so pretty much what Bookworm said.

    • Christie V Powell says:

      You’re not usually shy, but I bet you have felt that way sometimes– first day of school? Giving a speech in class? You could try keeping those experiences in mind. I’m doing the opposite for mine–I am not very talkative, but every once and a while I’ll be in just the right situation, with just the right people, and one of my favorite topics has come up, and then I have no trouble being talkative!

      I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but when I’m feeling shy it’s usually because I’m not sure how to act in a given situation. I have to have it figured out in my head how I’m supposed to act, what rules I need to follow, and how to respond to possible situations. Also, a lot of times there’s a fear of being judged– once when I was a teen, I was talking about writing to a trusted adult, and she said, “you must have mistaken me for someone who cares.” It took me years to be able to talk about my writing with others. I still often freeze up and think, “They aren’t interested in me. I’d better not say too much because I don’t want to torture them with something they don’t care about.”

  18. Christie V Powell says:

    I have a quick question. In my first book, I had a girl with powers over heat use “swearwords” like “Icicles” and “Ice-hearts”. In my second one, I need something that sounds like an expletive for a character with abilities over electricity and innovation. Any ideas?

    • Emma says:

      I searcher on Thesaurus.com for antonyms of electricity, but nothing came up, so here are some antonyms for electric:

      dull, uncharged, unexciting, boring, without energy

      Some antonyms for innovation are:

      tradition, habit, old, stagnation, custom

      You could use some of these words to describe the others who don’t have his/her electric powers, or to use as swearwords. Here are a few I came up with:
      *dead-batteries (for use as a swearword, like fiddlesticks, though I don’t think it’s a very good one)
      *dull-brains (to call another person)
      You could also use “rubber” and “blackout” since those two terms have to do with stopping electricity. Just some ideas. 🙂

    • Jess G says:

      “Blast” is an oldie but a goodie, or you could try something like “sparks” or “short-circuited” (used like an adjective swear).

    • Song4myKing says:

      My brother uses “typical” as a negative term, and according to my grandmother, her grandfather used “common” in much the same way. They might not be used in place of swear words, but to someone who values electricity and innovation, they could nicely express bad opinion.

  19. Leah says:

    What a wonderful post, Gail! Thank you.

    I remember when I first started writing, my book was practically just like Ella Enchanted. I was inspired. I couldn’t think of any other story or novel or anything.
    I read something somewhere, that it’s better to write what you know, and what better to write than many of your favorite novels? I think that it’s amazing when someone can subtly put a story out there that is based on a commonly known fairy tale or story: Ella Enchanted, for example. The first time I read it I was so surprised at the pumpkin and the shoe when they came up in the plot. I was so involved in the story, that I forgot about the subtle resemblances to Cinderella.
    So sometimes it isn’t bad to base something on something else. Just wanted to place my tidbit in there.

  20. writingcyclist says:

    the book theif is a good example of 1st person narration ans spoiler
    the narrator is death so that could be a narrator or you could use someone with your main character like her friend

  21. Jordan W. says:

    Make your characters suffer right? I’ve heard it every where and its absolutely true. What’s a story without opposition, things going wrong and the main character having to go through some life changing painful experience to fix things. But when is it appropriate to give your main characters a happy moment, a bliss full scene that will lighten the mood? Is a whole chapter devoted to the character doing something they actually want to do to much?
    What is a good balance between the good and bad?

    • Christie V Powell says:

      Gail has some really good tips on that in Writing Magic. Let me grab my copy…
      “You can give [her] a break occasionally, usually between two truly horrible events. But not many breaks, and don’t let them last very long… Your hero should never solve all his problems at any point in your story before the end.” You should check out the whole thing, especially this chapter called “Suffer!”.

      One thing I’d suggest is to keep some kind of conflict. It can even be fun conflict, like a friendly competition, or it can include some kind of friction between characters. Most of Harry Potter’s Quidditch matches are just for fun, but even there you have conflict between characters, and a goal that may or may not be won. I had a mud fight in mine that was mostly pure fun, but two of my characters end the scene discovering something important about their abilities.

      For chapters, personally I like to look at chapters as miniature stories. They have a beginning, a middle, an exciting climax, and sometimes a resolution (that can go in the start of the next chapter for some of them). One or two are thematic– every scene in it has to do with hiding, or being watched. Most of them though have some specific story goal they’re working on–the two main characters develop their relationship, or reach a certain goal point in the story. Here’s an outline of one chapter, copied from my notes:

      Chapter 18: Brothers
      Main focus: relationship of K&B
      Jul 18
      K&B play in water
      K’s friends C&Z show up without B’s brother, B runs off
      K&C&Z catch up, C&Z are light-hearted but K is worried about B &his brother
      K finds B treed by wild pigs, they talk about their brothers who are both missing, she helps him escape

  22. Mary E. Norton says:

    I’m having trouble with the books I am writing. I started one of them about half a year ago and have only written 160 pages. But now when I look back I don’t like how my book started and desperately want to go back and mop up the mess. But I have always been told not to edit until you finish the first draft. I started another book recently that is set two hundred years earlier in the word of my first book. I really like the story because it is more developed than my other one, which seems to be a blob. But I am worried because I have also been told by my sister and brother, who write also, that I shouldn’t work on two books at a time. Should I go ahead and clean up my first book? Because I feel like I could work on the first book better if it wasn’t so all over the place.

    • Christie Powell says:

      I see nothing wrong with setting one aside and going back to it later. I wrote my first book, then started writing the sequel, and then I realized that the whole first book was nothing but backstory and started all over again with the next one–which is the one I published.

    • Emma says:

      I agree with Christie Powell. Because I am a pantser and pantsers (typically) love rewriting, I have made myself not rewrite anything in my WIP until the first draft is complete. I am nearing the end of draft 1 right now and it is about to kill me because I want to rewrite so badly. So if you know (like me) that once you start rewriting you will never want to stop, then I’d say to trudge through that first draft until it’s finished.

      With my WIP, I have struggled with not working on multiple stories at one time as well, especially those other stories that would take place in my same world. I’ve come up with a pretty good idea of two prequels, a sequel, and a third book for my WIP, but because I really want to finish it, I’ve chosen to ignore those other shiny stories. Now, I don’t ignore them completely. I always keep them in the back of my mind, and if an idea for one of them pops into my head, I’ll open up the corresponding Word document and write the idea down. When I keep those stories I want to work on in the back of my mind, and write some ideas I have for them here and there, it usually satisfies my hunger to work on them for a while.

  23. Bookworm says:

    Sometimes it’s actually good to work on two things at once. A main WIP, and one or two (I have lots) of side WIPs. I have a main story, and then many of the characters’ backstories. Good luck!

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