DISCLAIMER: I do not claim for these techniques to work on all writers or people, I am a young writer, and I am only trying to be helpful. If you have anything to add to my ideas, please go ahead. :-)
DO sweat the small stuff.
That's what my "lesson" is all about today. The little things in writing. For me, it's one of the most important, and the hardest things to get.
You see, I'm a very emotion-type person. I like to make lots of feeling in my writing, which you know if you read it. (hint, hint.) I'm always getting all my characters caught up in the moment and they don't always notice their surroundings. But I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. I would say if that's the kind of person they are, it's fine. But the trick is, I would say, what they do notice. Here's a workout I would recommend.
Walk around your house. Find one odd or non-important object and just focus on it. See what kind of memories it brings back. In a novel or story, when your hero remembers something from their childhood or high school days, it doesn't have to be connected or important to the story.
So that's the first side of it, memories and surroundings, but it goes even deeper then that. (And by deeper, I mean more shallow. :D)
Anything that someone owns is for a reason, right? So when someone is fiddling with something while talking to your hero, why? Even if your reader doesn't know, you should know right? I would say, you can do one of two things for this. One, you can get a writing prompt, (If you have a board on Pinterest, or you can just search the inter-web.) and write one character into it. Maybe not your MC, or your MC's best friend. Maybe it's the villain, or Your MC's brother in law. But just write, and see what this person would do in any given situation.
Number two, would be to fill out a character sheet for that person. I found one online, hanks to a writing friend a while ago. (http://dehydromon.deviantart.com/art/Blank-Character-Sheet-doc-Over-370-Questions-298561173) So you can check that out, and hopefully you'll get to know your character better.
So that's that, and my other tip would be one that is close to my heart and it's about one of the most debated things of all time.
For those of you who don't know, pantsing is a term for those who don't outline, and just jump right in. I am proud to be one of those people. Pansting means, 'flying by the seat of ones pants' or, to put it simply, NOT PLANNING. I've tried making outlines, and It never works. I mean, most of the time I know what happens and around when, but when it's an outline, I feel like I'm being forced. And the story, also, moves too fast. Because it's this and then that and then this again. And I feel like I'm tied up and can't do anything but what the outline says.
Not everyone is like this, I know, but I am. So here's what I do to fix it.
I stole this idea form my sister, Moriah. She used it before me, I just changed it a little to work better for me. so thank her if it saves your life. ;-)
I write down scene ideas, and the climax and all that, but I don't do it in the fashion of an outline. Click here to see the outline template.
Those are my tips for this week. They aren't perfect, and won't work for everything and everyone. I'm just trying to help a writer out. :-) So see you tomorrow, where I'll be posting today's and Friday's story/poem.
Thanks!
Elsie
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