Alice Kuipers | Bestselling Author and Writing Coach

Wattpad Week 9

Monday, July 23rd, 2012 - Blog, exercises, Places for writers, Thinking, Tip

WATTPAD WORKSHOP SERIES: WEEK 9!

CHARACTER: THE PULSING HEART OF A GOOD STORY

Welcome to the Wattpad Workshop Series!

Start anytime.

These are free workshops for Wattpad writers who want to be inspired and challenged. You’ll come away with new ideas, new techniques and, most importantly, you’ll generate lots of new writing. The workshops run every Monday on the Wattpad Blog.

To join in: read the post and get writing – post your writing on the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread!

Week 9 (Missed the earlier writer’s workshop? Join in with this week and go back to check out Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7 and Week 8!)

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.” – Stephen King, On Writing

So far in these workshops on character we’ve thought about our characters’ habits, gestures, deepest secrets and favourite foods. We’ve got to know them on the inside. This week, we’re thinking about what our characters’ look like and figuring out how to include this information in our stories. Stephen King in his masterful book On Writing (I haven’t recommended this to you yet, but I do recommend it highly) gives a good example. He says if you describe a character as a ‘pimply faced high school outcast’ you should trust that we’ve all met someone like that. He suggests letting THE READER fill in the rest using their imagination.

The best time to include physical description is when you introduce your character. If you don’t tell your reader until the tenth chapter that your character has a limp and woolly grey hair, they’ll be surprised (and annoyed) you didn’t give these details before. They will have an image of the character in their heads from the first moment they meet the character on the page.

Our exercise this week is to introduce a character. We’re going to write an opening of a scene, with action and dialogue, including some physical description.

Before you start, here are six tips to make your character introduction, including your physical description, stronger.

1- Think very carefully about key words that define this character, words like ‘pimply faced high-school outcast’. Cut the rest. Trust your reader.

2- Remember how important action is to character. Is there a way that the action can give hints about the character’s physical self? For example: She couldn’t lift the chair, although she tried. It was too heavy for someone so fine-boned.

3- A friend of mine, author Maria Meindl, suggests thinking with all five senses when you describe. How could you use this advice in your introduction of your character?

4- Watch for clichés. Don’t describe someone GENERAL describe someone SPECIFIC. Focus on a key detail about the character so we can see them clearly in our minds.

5- Is your character looking in the mirror? STOP RIGHT NOW! One of the ‘tricks’ writers use is to have their character look in a mirror/reflective surface to describe what their character looks like. But thousands of writers have done this before. Push yourself a little harder to find a way to introduce your character.

6- When you describe someone (or something) describe in VISUAL ORDER. Don’t start at someone’s head, then pop to their feet, then focus on their tummy. It makes it hard for a reader to follow. Work top to bottom, left to right as you visualize your character – the same way we read a page.

This week’s writing prompt:

I’m using an image prompt this week – the backs of two people, a woman and a boy, on a ship (I’m all about ships in these workshops, I guess because I was just in Vancouver!)

Find the image here.

Use this image to write a scene introducing these two characters. Write no more than 300 words. (If, instead, you’d rather use a character you’ve already been working with, that’s fine with me).

Post your writing here at the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread! I’ll read it and give feedback as often as I can.

Commit to your writing by joining in this and all the upcoming workshops:

July 2nd-July 30th: Character – The Pulsing Heart of a Good Story
August 6th-Sept 3rd: Dialogue – Hear Those Voices On The Page
Sept 10th-Oct 8th: Take It To A New Level – Fixes For Your Fiction
Oct 15th-Nov 12th: Kickstart Your Writing – Trying New Things To Fuel Your Writing

How To Handle Criticism – A Guest Post from Jon Bard

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 - Blog, Thinking, Tip

Jon Bard is Managing Editor of Children’s Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children’s and YA Writers. If you’d like to learn more about writing for kids and teens, visit http://cbiclubhouse.com and Come Join the Fightin’ Bookworms!

His guest post is THE VERY FIRST on my site – thanks Jon! I’ve recommended CBI to many emerging authors, so do take a look after reading his wise words.

How to Handle Criticism

Criticism is a topic many writers don’t like to think about. We work for weeks polishing a story and finally get to the point where we show it to someone else, only to have them tell us it’s not good enough. It hurts. But the road to becoming a published author means that other people must read what you’ve written and like it, and if not enough people like your story, you’re not going to get very far. (Let’s clarify “like”: writing is a subjective art, and some people may not like your opinion or topic. You shouldn’t change for them. But if the majority of your readers don’t like your presentation, then you’re not telling your story in the best possible way. It’s important that the person critiquing your work make this distinction.)

Before showing your work to someone else, be honest with yourself. Exactly what kind of input are you ready for? If you want praise, support, admiration, show it to your mother. There’s nothing wrong with praise – we all need it, especially when we start out as writers. But when you get to the point where you want candid, constructive criticism, you need to go to someone who knows the market. A critique group made up of fellow writers, a writing class, or a critique offered through a writing conference or service are good choices. When someone is critiquing your work, listen to what they say and take notes. Try to avoid getting angry or defensive. When you review your notes (it’s often best to wait until the next day), keep these points in mind:

Did the person not like your story because of some personal bias against your topic?
Were these comments coming from someone who truly understand the market for which you’re writing?
Are the comments based on the structure of your story, or the style of your writing? If so, could making these changes improve your story? (Be honest.)
Were the comments enclosed in a rejection letter from an editor?

Believe it or not, there are levels of rejection, with a personalized rejection letter being the highest level. Take the editor’s suggestions seriously—it means he or she thought enough of your work to give you some advice.

If three people have the same criticisms of your work, make the changes. In any case, try to frankly evaluate the critique, and make the changes with which you agree. Writers get so close to their stories that they can’t see the flaws after a while. If you’re open to someone pointing out these flaws, you will become a better writer.

Wattpad Writing Workshop

Saturday, July 7th, 2012 - Blog, exercises, Places for writers, Prompt, Thinking

Come and join in with this series of free workshops I’m teaching online: here! This week’s workshop had some excellent writing in response to the prompt.

Week 6 (Missed the earlier writer’s workshop? Check out Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, and Week 5)!

This week we start the second series of five workshops:

July 2nd-July 30th: Character: The Pulsing Heart of a Good Story

Having great character is so important to writing great fiction that I’m devoting five workshops to character alone (and, believe me, we could do lots more workshops and still have more to say about character!)

First of all, let’s define character. I’m going to use a definition taught to me by Steven Galloway. Steve said to me when I was in a workshop with him: CHARACTER IS ACTION. This definition was not one I expected him to give, and it is one that took me a while to understand.

To me, it means that what your character DOES is WHO THEY ARE.

An example: if you met me in the street and I shook your hand, smiled at you, asked a couple questions about your writing, you’d assume that I was a nice person (character), right? If I yelled at you that I hated reading stuff by other writers and then slapped you, you’d know I was a, well, a jerk. The things I do make me the person I am.

What your character does makes them the person they are.

There are two things to take away from this.

First, your character needs to do something for us to get to know them. It’s all well and good to have them sitting in a room looking out the window, but it’s hard for us to get to know them. MAKE THEM DO SOMETHING.

Secondly, remember that the actions your character makes gives clues to your reader. If your character bursts into tears when they hear about a death in the family, we know they are sad. If they clap their hands and smile, we know something else entirely, right?

Think about this as you write, think about what your character is doing to and why.

Over this workshop, we’re going to be delving further into the heads of our characters. We’re going to be asking uncomfortable questions, thinking about how CHARACTER IS ACTION, and discovering how your characters need to grow and change to make your stories work.

Getting into your character’s head is key to good writing. It means you have to dig deep into your own imagination and pull out every detail that lurks inside. You already know your characters better than you think – the art of writing them well is sharing that information on the page.

So this week, we’re going to get to know a character from your head by asking them to REACT to the following situation.

This week’s writing prompt:

Take a character, any character, perhaps one you’ve been working with for a while, perhaps someone who has only surfaced in your imagination today.

Here’s an image to get you in a watery mood.

Now, imagine that your character is on a ship that is starting to sink. What do they do? Write 300 words describing their actions so we can get to know what sort of person they are.

If you want to push yourself a little further: take another character from the same situation and describe (again up to 300 words) what they do as the ship begins to sink. How are their actions different?

What does this make you think about the statement CHARACTER IS ACTION?

Post your writing here at the Weekly Workshop Series Discussion Thread! I’ll read it and give feedback as often as I can.

Commit to your writing by joining in in this and all the upcoming workshops:

July 2nd-July 30th: Character – The Pulsing Heart of a Good Story
August 6th-Sept 3rd: Dialogue – Hear Those Voices On The Page
Sept 10th-Oct 8th: Take It To A New Level – Fixes For Your Fiction
Oct 15th-Nov 12th: Kickstart Your Writing – Trying New Things To Fuel Your Writing

Wattpad Week 9

WATTPAD WORKSHOP SERIES: WEEK 9!

How To Handle Criticism – A Guest Post from Jon Bard

Wattpad Writing Workshop

CONFESSIONS AND COFFEE

Alice’s Books

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