Making Sense of it all

When planning your stories, consider what sort of emotion you are trying to get your readers to feel. For example, in a thriller or crime story you might want to generate a foreboding mood through your writing. This might be achieved by dropping in little hints of troubles to come; or creating darker scenes through your narrative. Dialogue could include a character's worries and concerns; you might pile on the layers of difficulties to add to that overall sense of foreboding through your description, narrative and dialogue.

The same applies if you're trying to create a sense of intrigue and mystery. Let everything you write go towards that mood and atmosphere. Or perhaps you're writing about the grandeur of something, a royal palace, a sumptuous banquet, so you want to create a sense of occasion. Again, build up the atmosphere through description, using all the senses.

Maybe you're trying to write something humorous. You'll definitely be hoping your readers will have a sense of humour and will see the funny side of what your characters are saying and doing. You'll no doubt find that the characters themselves aren't deliberately trying to be funny. The humour often happens through their tragic circumstances, as things go wrong for them. 

So, think carefully about the mood and atmosphere in your scenes, know what sort of 'sense' you're trying to get across to readers. Keep that in focus as you write your stories.

Common sense

Unless you're writing about a Frank Spencer or Homer Simpson type of character, then your characters should be blessed with a bit of common sense. So that in any given situation, they would use their common sense. And this is worth remembering if you're not going to irritate your reader. For example, your character might be facing some sort of emotional or physical conflict that could be easily sorted if they just used their common sense.

Try not to let your plot become contrived – if a character's difficulties could all be overcome if they'd just used their common sense. For example, all would have been sorted if they’d spoken to Uncle George, or opened the letter, or said they were sorry etc. It’s so annoying for the reader when the character doesn’t do the obvious.

If it would ruin your plot for them not to act in the most obvious way, then be sure you have a very good reason for them not to have acted as any normal person would.  Otherwise readers and editors with be groaning with frustration. Look at your plot and make sure your characters do the obvious. It might mean you thinking a lot harder about the conflict facing them, and their situation.

Sensing when it’s right

As writers, we have to use our senses too, especially when trying to work out whether we've got a piece of writing right, or whether there's something wrong with it.  Far better to sense that it's not right and then to work on improving it, rather than thinking it's great – when it's not.

So how do you do that?  I can only say that it comes with practice and with learning. Writing is a craft that you can learn. If you don't bother learning the rules of grammar, punctuation, viewpoint, the tenses, adverbs, dialogue etc., then you won't be able to see your mistakes. Additionally, it’s so important to read. You learn by reading and seeing how other writers create their magic.

But even if you've done all that, you still need to develop a sense of knowing whether your work is finally as good as you can get it – or not. This comes with edits. You need to go over and over your work, tweaking, re-arranging, re-phrasing, reading it aloud, listening to the euphony of every sentence, listening for repetitions. Look out for bad writing habits. Know when something jars. Have a keen ear and listen to anything that doesn't sit quite right.

If you're looking to create a tear-jerking scene, it should bring tears to your eyes. If you're creating a dramatic scene, then you should feel anxious as you read it. If you're creating a humorous scene, it should at least bring a smile to your face, no matter how many times you go over it.

Be critical of your own work, but not to the extent that you're never happy with it, or you lose confidence in your abilities as a writer. Develop that sense of knowing when something isn't right, but also develop the sense to know when it's well written. Learn to trust your own senses.

Narrative in brief

• Always aim to keep the reader reading. Don’t make it easy for them to put your book down, or to put your short story aside before finishing it.

• Don’t let there be a let up from the action. When one trouble is over another one is just beginning.

• When the action isn’t so dramatic or intense, consider using a transition to move the story forward. Also, feed the reader with tasty little morsels or hints of the drama to come.

• Plot and plan your story scene-by-scene, or by chapters so action and/or emotion rises to a crescendo at the end of that scene/chapter. Stop at a point where the reader is desperate to know what’s coming next.

• Don’t be afraid to use cliff-hangers. Let your protagonist be in some sort of predicament – emotionally, physically or both.

• If you have more than one viewpoint character, make them as interesting as each other.

• If a section is feeling even slightly long winded or tedious to you, shorten it, either in content or in the sentence structure. Or consider whether it’s even necessary. Make every word count.

• When describing people and places and things, pick out the most poignant aspects. Always tell the reader something they didn’t know.  

• Create characters that the reader will be interested in.

• Use good dialogue to move the story forward. Let characters say how they are feeling.

• Hint at troubles to come though the narrative and the dialogue.

• Adjust punctuation. You can create tension through your punctuation. Add a more breathless feel to a section by deliberately shortening the sentences.

• Occasionally highlight poignant words, phrases or thoughts in italics.

• Always use the senses. Let the reader see, hear, feel, smell, touch and taste everything the character experiences.

• When you want to ‘up’ the tempo of your story, let there be a deliberate switch, something happening in the story that changes everything.

• Plan scenes to give a ‘calm before the storm’ type of feel.

• Make good use of the weather and environment to add drama and atmosphere.

• Show don’t tell: Don’t say a character is afraid/happy/excited etc, show it by how they behave and what they say, do and think.

• Read aloud. You may find that adjusting the punctuation and re-phrasing may turn something mundane into something dramatic.

  

Exercise 1

As an exercise think of an object. Now describe it using the relevant senses i.e. what you might see when looking at it; what sounds it might make; what it tastes like; what it feels like; what it smells like. Ask a friend or relative to try and guess what you have described. Repeat the exercise until you are bored (or your friend is).

Tomorrow:  Editing your work.

Thank you Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photography for the image. This was taken at the Nuneaton & Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary.

When and how to use transitions and flashbacks

In writing fiction there are a number of little ploys that you can use to move your story forwards or to explain the back story.  Sometimes you’ll need to move your story on, either from place to place, or from one time of day to a later time, or from one particular day to some time in the future. It may even be that your character needs to move emotionally forwards. If nothing important in happening in the story during these time spans, then you can use a transition.

Handling transitions

A transition might only be a few words, or it could be a number of sentences. You might need a transition to bridge a highly dramatic scene when the character needs time to think before moving on to a scene with a totally different atmosphere. Your one or two sentences can move your story on an hour, a week, a year; or from the highlands of Scotland to a beach in the Bahamas.

In time transitions, you could use simple phrases, such as:

The following morning…

That evening…

A week later…

At the end of the week…

Here are a few transitions where there is a change of scene:

Some miles away…

In the train on the way back…

Thick snow had fallen overnight…

The drive to the hospital was agonising...

A transition should be simple and swift with the objective of getting from here to there quickly and smoothly, so that you can get on with the story. And you would put that transition at the start of a new scene or a new chapter. After the transition, you get straight back into the heart of the story, writing through the protagonist or viewpoint character’s eyes and emotions.

It’s very important however that you don’t cheat the reader by using a transition to get you through a scene that might be difficult to write. And if important things are happening during that time span, then don’t use a transition and then reported speech. That’s another cop out!

If things are happening in your story, the reader needs to see and experience them. Use transitions only when nothing of importance is happening.

Flashbacks

If it is necessary to show something that happened in the character’s past, which motivates and affects the characters actions, emotions and attitude towards something currently in your story, this is called a flashback. Note that I’ve said if it’s necessary. Avoid putting in flashbacks just for the sake of them. They are there for a purpose, be selective of where and why you write in a flashback, and make sure the scene from the past that you choose, reflects why the character is behaving the way they are today.

To handle a flashback so it does not confuse the reader or bring the present action to a grinding halt, the author needs to write it with care. It does not have to come in one big scene, it can be effective to weave fragments of flashbacks into the action and dialogue of your story, so the reader glimpses bits of a tantalising past.

If your flashback needs to be a complete scene or a number of scenes, then find a way of framing this section between the present action, both before and afterwards, so there is no doubt in the reader’s mind when they are leaving the present to go into the past, and when they are leaving the past to return to the present.

A change in the tense is important. If you’re writing in the past tense, when the viewpoint character is reminded of something that sets their thought drifting back, change the past tense to the past perfect: had been. Continue to use that ‘had’ for perhaps another sentence or two, to establish that we’re now in a flashback. Then phase the ‘hads’ out and write normally. When the flashback scene is coming to an end, you could slip a ‘had’ back in again, reminding the reader it had been a flashback, and bring the story back to the present. Or putting in the word ‘now’ can establish we’re back.

Here’s an (abridged) example of a flashback scene taken from my award-winning children’s book, The Beast.

Karbel (the beast) is a ghost and he’s suddenly remembering the day he died. Killed (he believes) by one of the main characters in the story.

   It was him!

   Karbel’s yellow eyes became slits of hatred.

   In a flash, Karbel recalled that fateful day. His final day. A day which could never be erased from his memory.

    It had been a long, bitter winter, millennia ago. Snow was up to his belly and he was hungry. In the valley there had been a human settlement which normally Karbel kept well away from, but that winter hunger forced him to venture near. It would be easy picking to snatch a human’s baby offspring.

   Hunger drove him into the settlement…

(the rest of the scene is written in normal past tense up to the point of the boy saving his baby sister and killing the beast)

…the boy thrust the dagger clean into the beast’s heart. Karbel’s spirit was ejected violently from his mortal body and he witnessed his own lifeless, bleeding carcass drop into the snow.

    The face of the boy without fear was etched into his soul. And now, as Karbel looked down into the valley he saw that same face. Recognised that same fearless spirit…

And on we go with the story. The flashback scene is neatly ‘sandwiched’, and the flashback was vital as there was no other way to show that Karbel believes the boy killed him and is now back to take his soul. And that leads to the whole book’s premise of Karbel going after the boy.

So, if you need to write a flashback, be bold about it. Sandwich it neatly between the point in the story when the character is reacting to something from their past. Change the tense, use those ‘had beens’ or similar phrasing. Show what happened, and then get back to the story, neatly and confidently.

An alternative, if your flashback is a short scene, it could be revealed through dialogue. Simply have two characters talking and one telling the other about a past event.

If the flashback scene involves characters from the past in conversation, be very careful that the whole thing does not get confused.

And if you find you are writing most of your story as a flashback, then possibly you have started your story in the wrong place at the wrong time. A re-think might be necessary. In short stories however, this can work effectively, especially if you are looking for a twist in the tail ending. As when you return to the present towards the end of your story, you can reveal something surprising yet believable.

Today’s Exercises:

·         Practice writing transitions. Link them up with some impromptu ‘before’ and ‘after’ scenes. These are just ‘throwaway’ scenes to practice this exercise.

·         Practice writing a flashback. If you haven’t got anything suitable in your work, use this scenario: Your character is starting a new job, only to discover that a colleague is someone they had a massive fall out with. Begin writing by showing the character starting their job, then the shock upon seeing someone, and then the flashback showing that unhappy scene. Then back to face the present.

Tomorrow: Keep the Reader Reading.

Thank you Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photograohy, for the lead photo. This was from an article we did on the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.

Improving your narrative

Show don’t tell. You’ll have heard that phrase many times, so be sure you are acting upon it. Your story needs to engage the emotions. It’s no use simply saying that a character was feeling this way or that way; it’s no good saying they were feeling angry or feeling sad. It’s through the character’s actions, reactions, words and thoughts that you need to show them being angry or being sad – or any one of the many emotions people feel: misery, jealousy, grief, joy, sympathy, love, hate and so on.

There’s a fine line between showing and telling. You show what’s going on through the story narrative. It ends up as ‘telling’ when the narrative takes it a step too far; when the author chips in and blatantly tells the reader something they feel they need to know. It’s when you’re offering too much information.

If it’s that important, find some way of letting the characters impart this to the reader. The author should have the confidence in their characters to do so, and not feel the reader won’t understand unless they add their two-pennyworth. Words to watch out for that might indicate you’re about to tell, could include: because, for and as.

Use the senses

To bring a scene to life and allow the reader to experience the events in all their glory, write using all your senses  – taste, touch, smell, sound, sight – and not forgetting your sixth sense, that ability to just ‘know’ something.

Sight

Readers know what everyday objects look like, so pick out the unusual aspect or angle, or focus on something that has specific meaning to the character, perhaps something that brings back memories or affects their emotions in some way. To increase suspense, why not have normal everyday things suddenly appearing wrong. If you’ve seen the film ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ you’ll remember the chilling effect those neatly stacked tins and folded towels created.

Little things associated with an unpleasant character can increase tension. Perhaps your villain smoked cigarettes, so the stub of one left on the heroine’s doorstep might heighten her fear. The sight of a footprint or a large paw print in the soft earth might add tension; or the sight of something just disappearing out of sight; or the glimpse of a shadow; or the glare of car headlights. Whatever you choose to mention in your narrative, let it be there for a reason.

Sound

Bring a scene to life by allowing your reader to hear the sounds that your character can hear. Think of the background noises whether your characters are in a factory, a supermarket, on a beach, in an aircraft or wherever. If there is a sound that is out of place in that situation, be sure to let the reader hear that. Let us hear the tone of someone’s voice when they speak and the way that is modulated depending who they are talking to.

When increasing tension, emotion and atmosphere, draw attention to sounds that may not have been noticed before. A quiet room can become even quieter if you can hear the ticking of a clock, or the soft popping of a gas fire, or the sound of their own breathing. You can heighten the suspense in a story by writing in the softest sounds – a whisper, a creak. The softest sounds are often the most effective.

Smell

We have all experienced how certain smells conjure up different memories and feelings. A certain smell can whisk you back decades.  Freshly baked bread, a particular perfume or aftershave, a fish and chip shop, a sea breeze, an oily garage, bacon and eggs cooking, lilies, roses, newly mown grass, freshly ground coffee. Use your sense of smell in your writing to bring a scene to life. And when you want to emphasise the mood even more strongly, focus your character’s attention on the smell of something specific and meaningful.

Taste

Your characters may taste lots of good and bad things throughout your story, but again use the ploy cleverly when you really want to arouse the emotions. Let them taste things other than food. How about the taste of their lover’s lips against theirs? Or taste rain on their tongue; or snowflakes or fog. At the other end of the scale, let them taste fear, let it be so tangible that they can taste it. Perhaps they are so sickened that they taste the bile burning in their throats. What if they are so wracked with misery that their favourite food tastes like wood shavings and sticks in their throat? As people know what certain things taste like, be selective in what you choose to write about – pick out the more unusual things to taste, or when things taste wrong for some reason.

Touch

This sense can portray so much. People in love want to touch each other constantly, to be close, holding hands, caressing, cuddling. Parents hug their children; people stroke their pets; strangers do not touch and if they do, there is embarrassment and apologies for invading the other person’s space. Acquaintances might shake hands. We touch and feel so many things, the silky fabric of a ball gown; the smooth surface of an expensive piece of furniture or ornament; we might touch a leather coat to feel its softness and suppleness. Let your reader feel your character’s world through the sensation of touch.       

                                                                                         

The sixth sense

Sense is all about awareness, of perception and recognition. That sixth sense is our extra sensory perception, which some people have more than others. It's a feeling of knowing something when really there's no evidence to support it. I'm a big believer in allowing my character to have that sixth sense – not in a constant mystical way, but just occasionally it can work wonders, when your character just senses that something is going to happen. Something bad was coming their way… Often it works a treat if you're aiming to send a shiver down the reader's spine.

Today’s Exercise:

Take your protagonist to a setting that’s new to them, narrate and describe through their emotions and senses, and really bring the scene to life.

Tomorrow:  When and how to use transitions and flashbacks.

Thank you Rob Tysall, Tysall's Photography for the image. This is of Coventry's ancient Charterhouse.