#doug lewars

[doug-lewars]

A Bit of Caution

When publishing, money should go to you. If someone claiming to be an agent or publisher wants money from you, think 'scam' and run like mad. You may not be able to find an agent. You can self-publish in e-format for free on Smashwords.com (now Direct to Digital) and Amazon. In addition, the latter provides print-on-demand. There are also other platforms out there on which you can publish at no cost to yourself. You would be well advised to avoid anyone who comes looking for money from you.

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[doug-lewars]

If you're a beginning author, there's a very good chance your first attempts won't be very good. Set them aside. Someday, I think, you'll find them very useful, needing massive editing or course but useful nonetheless. Even incomplete work can become the basis for some future project. Don't throw them away.

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[doug-lewars]

Tenses

In general, it's best to maintain consistency with your tenses. There are, however, cases when a story told in past tense may have a sentence or two in the present without confusing or annoying the reader. These are generally explanatory in nature. For example,

They sat around the table in silence for a couple of minutes. They all knew what was needed. Somehow they had to find a queen snake.

Queen snakes may be found in southern Ontario but they're far from common.

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[doug-lewars]

NaNoWriMo

For all the writers participating in NaNoWriMo, I wish you the very best and hope you accomplish your objective.

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[doug-lewars]

Your Spot

If you can find a location you particularly like in which to write, it will inspire you to accomplish more.

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[doug-lewars]

Planning an Outline

Developing an outline is a bit of an iterative process. I find it helps if you start painting with a broad brush and then narrow things down. For example, '1 Meet some characters - the invitation', '2 Assembling at the manor'. '3 Conflict over dinner'. '4 victim found murdered', '5 interview suspects', '6 Attempt on protagonists life', '7 Unmasking the villain', '8 Flight and pursuit', '9 Ending and summation'. Then you take each one of these and break it down into specific scenes.

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[doug-lewars]

Chase Scene

Decide on the type - foot, car, plane, boat, motorcycle or other.

Put together a route. Drawing a map helps.

Make a list of every conceivable thing you can think of to act as a hindrance. You won't use all these things but some are needed.

Based on your hindrance list, decide on some things which will happen - vaulting a fence, tripping over a garbage can, and, for car chases, the old reliable truck coming out of an alley and someone needing to swerve around it.

Make a list of action verbs.

When writing the actual scene, use short sentences. In addition, try to engage the senses. Sentence fragments are acceptable. At the critical juncture, you can even go down to one or two word sentences. Ex. A shot. Burning pain. Into an alley. Garbage. Decay. Grayness. Suddenly a door. Open. Inside, the door slamming behind him. Great gasps of air. Relief. Be careful to use such terse prose sparingly.

At the end of the chase it's not a bad idea to slow the pace with a description of the surroundings. Then you're ready to move on.

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[doug-lewars]

Ending

Even if you have an outline, it's not necessary to follow it in an absolute manner. You may find it appropriate to add or drop a few scenes. In addition, your ending may be pretty vague. As you progress it will become increasingly clear.

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[doug-lewars]

Endings

If you're writing a single story contained in one book, it's a good idea to tie up all loose ends. It's easy to forget something noted earlier in the book but doing so will frustrate your readers. On the other hand, if you're writing a series you should tie up most things but can leave a few outstanding for future book. For example, someone comes along and rescues your protagonist from some danger, but then vanishes without being identified. Then the story proceeds to its natural conclusion but you never get back to and identify the stranger. He will presumably show up in more detail in some future book in the series. That's fine. It's also possible to write a continued story, the kind where individual volumes have a cliff-hanging ending. An example is LOTR. It would be a good idea, however, to warn your readers, either in the blurb or possibly a tiny introduction what they should expect. Springing a cliff-hanger on readers will annoy many of them if not forewarned. It is, however, to make use of a quasi cliffhanger. For example a good guy and villain are battling each other while of a space shuttle veers dangerously out of control. Eventually it drifts beyond some point of recall and vanishes into the blackness of space where both are presumed dead. The other characters are saved, the threat is nullified and for the most part you have a reasonably happy ending. The reader might wonder about the two who are not lost in space but the author MAY bring one or both back in some future story. This ending is not 100% satisfying but I think most readers will accept it.

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[doug-lewars]

Political Framing

If you're writing a political story, or one involving politics and maneuvering among politicians, it's sometimes useful to create a couple of character entirely removed from the political field and now and then include a scene in which they discuss what's going on from and outsider's perspective.

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[doug-lewars]

Editing

It's possible to edit your own work but it's wretchedly difficult to do it well. I've been re-editing a number of my earlier works and it's amazing, and a little bit frightening, how many mistakes slipped through the cracks.

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[doug-lewars]

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a valuable technique but you need to be careful not go give away too much. By using it you are guaranteed to remove some suspense. If such is your objective - and for an example of it working read anything by John Irving - that's great but if you need that element of tension to keep your reader engaged, you need to be cautious and minimize what you're giving away.

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[doug-lewars]

Lists

Lists are remarkably useful for a writer. For example your character is walking through a park. You need a bit of description to accompany the scene so you look at your list of plants, shrubs and trees, select a couple and use them as part of your setting. Likewise suppose you're writing a fantasy novel. Often in such stories, the technology equates to our middle ages. Your protagonist encounters someone in his travels. You pull out your list of occupations in the middle ages and you select the occupation for the new, probably minor character. There are various and sundry lists posted on Tumblr from time to time. When you see one save it. It might be quite useful in the future.

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[doug-lewars]

Endings

If you're trying to win a writing competition then you can have an ambiguous ending. it seems judges love them. I and a goodly number of readers don't. So if you want a more broad appeal, pay attention to have some sort of reasonable ending. It doesn't always have to be happy, but it has to exist.

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[doug-lewars]

What to Write

What was the last book you bought or borrowed from a library? What made you select that one? If you can understand, what you like in stories, you can use the information to better craft your own

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[doug-lewars]

Improvement

How does one get better at writing? The short answer is practice, practice, practice and read, read, read. When you're reading, note the things you really enjoy. Do you like lots of action? Fine, focus heavily on plot. Do you like deep and introspective characters? Okay, focus on character development and personal growth. Is your objective to make money? Use one or more best-seller lists to understand what readers are looking for. Do you wish to win literary awards and achieve literary acclaim? Read Giller and Booker winners and see what the judges are looking for. Once you've got an idea where you want to take your writing, then it's back to practice, practice, practice and edit like mad until you're totally satisfied with your work.

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